"For the male educated youth, Chen Kai and I will be in one group, while Xiang Wenshan and He Wenyao will be in another. We will go to the county hospital to take over the care every afternoon at four o'clock. The two of us who stay behind will stay at a fellow villager's house. Is that okay?"
Xiang Wenshan and He Wenyao both expressed no objection.
"Among the female educated youth, the four of you also paired up and stayed at the homes of two fellow villagers."
This time things didn't go so smoothly. No one wanted to share a room with Jiang Yan. The other three female educated youths preferred to squeeze together rather than be with her.
Their reasoning was quite compelling: "What if she soaks our bedding again? We'll freeze to death!"
Of the remaining three families, none were willing to accept Jiang Yan.
Therefore, Jiang Yan had no choice but to stay at the brigade headquarters.
The captain then agreed to arrange for someone to organize her belongings, prepare a room for her to live in, and have someone build a simple stove and find an iron pot so she could cook for herself.
"What about the bedding?" Jiang Yan asked angrily.
She was almost buried by a landslide, yet she was still excluded from the educated youth team. Do they even have a heart?
It has to be said that if something had really happened to her, those educated youth might have been more lenient. But now she's unharmed, while they were almost buried under the main room of the educated youth compound. Who's in a worse situation?
The captain said in a low voice, "I'll go find you a set."
Of the remaining educated youth, Wu Lihong and Bei Xiao went to one family, and Ren Fei went to another.
To avoid any rumors between the female educated youth and Zhao Jianbin, which could cause conflict between them and Yang Shumei, Li Weidong suggested that the male educated youth stay at Zhao Jianbin's house. Zhao Lao Er and Wang Qiufen did not object.
If they couldn't keep Yang Shumei at home, and another female educated youth came, wouldn't their eldest son be even more heartbroken? Male educated youths are fine; they cause less trouble.
The daughters-in-law and daughters-in-law need to keep a close eye on the family. With so many male educated youths moving in, they shouldn't cause any trouble.
Wu Lihong and Bei Xiao then stayed at Secretary Liu's house.
Compared to Accountant Li, Party Secretary Liu is much wealthier.
In the end, Ren Fei went to Accountant Li's house.
In this way, the destinations of the educated youth team members were all settled.
"Wait a minute! Who's coming to my house?" Old Zhao asked hastily, seeing Li Weidong finish making arrangements as soon as he returned.
“Isn’t there still Xie, the educated youth? She accompanied the injured educated youth to the county town, and she’ll be staying at our house when she comes back.” Yang Chunhua said to her husband with a smile, but she immediately realized something was wrong.
She looked at the educated youth with suspicion, "Why didn't you arrange for Xie, the educated youth, to be included?"
The educated youth chuckled inwardly: Who asked her to be arranged by others!
Li Weidong, however, tried to find humor in the situation and deliberately said, "She's still in the county town; we'll have to wait for her to come back before we can talk about it."
"Is that so?" Yang Chunhua's expression clearly showed disbelief in what he said.
"What else can we do? The principle of mutual consent is supposed to be followed, but she wasn't present, so how can we decide?"
Yang Chunhua lowered her head and thought for a moment, "That's true!"
"Alright, since it's none of our business, let's go." Seeing his wife being "left" in circles, Zhao Laoda couldn't stand it anymore and pulled her away.
On the way, he kept saying, "Hehe...hehehe..."
Old Zhao chuckled to himself, and Yang Chunhua pinched his arm, "You old man, what are you chuckling about! What's so funny!"
Boss Zhao just wouldn't say anything, even though he knew the two of them had a fight and broken up before, but it seemed they had made up now.
But he didn't know how far things had progressed between them, or whether Honghui would be able to marry her.
I'd better not tell my wife yet, lest she get all excited for nothing.
At this moment, Xie Yuyao was pouring the spiritual spring water from the kettle into an enamel cup, felt the temperature with her hand, and then turned to hand it to Chen Kai.
Chen Kai fed Yu Wenbo the drink.
Yu Wenbo said weakly, "I still want to drink."
So Xie Yuyao poured another half cup of water and took the opportunity to say, "The water temperature in this kettle is just right, so let's save it for Yu Wenbo."
She wanted to leave a pot of diluted spiritual spring water in the afternoon so that Yu Wenbo could drink more of it.
"No problem, we'll use the kettle and cups that Comrade Hui brought," Chen Kai said with a simple smile.
Uncle Ning had no objections, but Zhao Honghui was sensitive enough to notice a slight unease, but he just couldn't grasp that fleeting inspiration.
After finishing his water, Yu Wenbo, pale-faced, said to Xie Yuyao, "Xie Zhiqing, you should go back first. They're enough here."
He hadn't expected Xie Yuyao to come with him. When they weren't around, Chen Kai and Uncle Ning had told him everything that happened after the house collapsed in order to distract him.
It's fair to say that without Xie Yuyao and Zhao Honghui, he might already be separated from them by death. But he can't repay them in any way now, so he can only tell her to go back to Qingshan Village to rest as soon as possible.
"I'll go back this afternoon, no rush." Xie Yuyao understood his feelings, but she still needed to keep an eye on the spiritual spring water.
Thinking of Qingshantun, Chen Kai was filled with worry. "Now that the educated youth compound has collapsed, we don't know where we'll stay tonight. We also don't know if our buried belongings have been dug out or if they're still usable."
"The brigade leader and Brother Li will definitely make arrangements, so you don't need to worry." The brigade headquarters will definitely take care of this.
"Why don't you go back first? Don't let anyone steal your things." Chen Kai's own things weren't worth much, so no one would take them. But Xie Zhiqing's things were different; she mainly used good things.
Xie Yuyao, with her abundant wealth, said, "If they're all gone, we'll just buy more."
This made Zhao Honghui's lips curl into a smile, and his heart, which had just been in his throat, immediately calmed down.
He was genuinely worried that Yao Yao might have something she couldn't show to others in her dorm room, like that tranquilizer gun.
Xie Yuyao recalled the supplies she had in her dormitory, and her heart tightened with anxiety. She had a bottle of spiritual spring water in her box!
What would happen if the water jug containing the spiritual spring water burst?
Thinking of this, she stood up straight abruptly, her face turning pale.
"What's wrong?" Zhao Honghui asked anxiously.
"I...I need to make a phone call."
"I'll take you to the post office." Without saying a word, Zhao Honghui gently escorted her out of the ward.
The two rushed to the post office and dialed the phone number of the Qingshantun Brigade Headquarters.
"Hello?"
As soon as the captain's voice came through, Xie Yuyao quickly gripped the telephone receiver and said, "Captain, this is Xie Yuyao. Have our educated youth team's items been dug up yet?"
"Xie Wazi! We haven't finished digging yet. Do you have any important items?"
She's in such a hurry, could she be hiding something sensitive? An antique? A small gold bar?
In an instant, the captain's mind raced with various ideas.
"Captain, have you dug up any wooden crates? I have two wooden crates stacked together, I don't know if they're damaged."
"Wait a moment, I'll go check if it's in the delivered items, and I'll call back in a bit."
After hanging up the phone, the captain went to search through the piles of miscellaneous goods that were being delivered and asked someone to call Yang Shumei over.
Finally, after confirmation by Yang Shumei, both of Xie Yuyao's boxes were found.
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