Chapter 50: The First Update of Great Joy
It is lunchtime now. Some of the commune leaders and officials are resting in the office, some are going home but only to nearby towns, and some are eating with lunch boxes in hand.
When they heard that something serious had happened, some who were dozing off fell off their chairs, some who were eating threw their lunch boxes away and ran out, and some who were at home rushed out after hearing the noise.
The "shouting" worker was indeed full of energy and his voice was so loud that not only the entire commune, but even the neighbors on both sides of the commune could hear it clearly.
It is probably the nature of the Ye people to watch the excitement. Look, several people stuck their heads out and looked into the commune. When they saw the educated youth, they reflexively wondered if these educated youth had done anything weird again.
Before we knew it, a crowd of people had gathered in the commune.
Xu Fei didn't know that there was a word in later generations that could describe his current situation - social death.
I really want to find a crack in the ground to drill into!
But it can't.
When they first went to the countryside, they were received by the vice president. He had a good memory and recognized at a glance that Ye Yu and several others were from Wangjiagou, who were the model educated youth they were preparing to publicize to the outside world. Could it be that these model educated youth had committed some serious mistake?
The vice president asked hurriedly.
"Wrong? Who made a mistake?" The loud-mouthed clerk looked confused. It took him a while to react before he explained, "It's not a mistake. It's a great thing."
Good thing?
It's a good thing, why are you howling like that? He thought some educated youth had killed someone or set fire to something!
When the vice president saw that it was the clerk Xiao He, he immediately understood what was going on. Xiao He was enthusiastic and meticulous at work, but he had a weird brain that was different from others and often made some ridiculous jokes.
I guess it is still the same now.
He looked at another clerk, who smiled awkwardly. Wasn't she too shocked and forgot that Xiao He would easily make mistakes when he got excited?
"Xiao He is right, it is indeed a big deal," he continued in one breath, "This year, two educated youths, Xu Fei and Hua Feifei, came to our commune. Their articles have been reported. President, vice president, you can see here in the Yenching Daily and the People's Daily. Here and here, it says that the contributor is Xu Fei, an educated youth from the Wangjiagou Production Team of Pingquan Commune."
"Really? Our commune reported it to the newspaper?"
"What a happy event!"
“This is a great joyous event.”
The commune president, vice president, and commune director were all smiling, their mood suddenly brightened, and they no longer cared about the fact that their congratulatory words did not convey their wishes.
The crowd watching the incident was also very surprised. In the newspaper? How many communes in the country were there? Pingquan Commune was actually in the newspaper? And Wangjiagou, which had always been the worst production team in their commune, even at the bottom, and could not compare with the top few model production teams, was also in the newspaper?
This is all related to the educated youth.
It seems that the educated youth are not useless as some people say. They cannot work in the fields, but they can write articles with a pen. They can write about the living conditions of Wangjiagou in Pingquan Society to the big leaders and the people of the country.
More importantly, I heard that publishing this article in the newspaper not only does not cost money, but can also make money.
An aunt who was watching had a relative who worked at the post office and was the most informed. Her relative said that he personally saw the educated youth with glasses taking out money from the envelope. He heard that it was several tens of thousands (?), almost equal to their annual income.
I don’t know if the educated youth in other teams can do it. Some of them have their parents’ homes in the countryside, and there are also three or four educated youth who can’t lift anything with their hands or walk.
This is totally useless! How come the educated youth from Wangjiagou are so powerful?
President Zhao read the contents of the newspaper aloud again.
Xu Fei's writing was passionate to begin with, especially the complete restoration of the "speech" scene between Han Jing and Hua Feifei at that time, and the sublimation of the theme at the end.
At that time, the people of Wangjiagou were so excited that their blood boiled and they clapped their hands for the educated youth.
Now it can.
Later on, every time President Zhao read a paragraph, people would applaud enthusiastically. More and more people came to watch, and the applause became louder and louder.
Some people even began to secretly step forward and ask Hua Feifei and Han Jing, who seemed to be the most talkative, how to sing the "Red Plum Blossom Hymn" in the title. They also successfully recommended this song to the entire Pingquan Commune.
Thanks to the content in the newspaper, Xu Fei was finally able to calm down and accept his own excellence.
In addition, although the post office did not have the Zhiqing newspaper, the president of Pingquan Commune had ordered it.
Hua Feifei finally saw her own article with her own eyes. It was printed in the lower center of the newspaper, which was considered a golden section. In addition, celebrities whom she had only heard of before wrote articles praising the educated youth from Wangjiagou.
She was very proud. She took the newspaper and read aloud by herself.
There may be some parts of Xu Fei's article that the audience may not understand, but they can understand what Hua Feifei wrote. Feeding pigs in the fields is something they have experienced, isn't it? Naturally, it makes people more sympathetic.
Those with lower emotional values wiped their tears directly and said: "The educated youth are all young people in their teens, and their backgrounds are so far away from home. I think of myself as a girl who married a girl from a faraway county. I can only visit relatives once a year, and I have to bear all the hardships by myself."
"The county is much closer to our commune than the educated youth's homes are to the commune. Life in the county is much better than in the countryside. You girls go there to enjoy life, while the educated youth go to the countryside to suffer."
"They are all good kids. Even if they have to endure hardships, they still smile so brightly. They look so beautiful when they smile."
"They are all innocent young people who just arrived in town. Two educated youths gave candy to my second child!"
"My daughter also has..."
More locals began to learn to think from the perspective of the educated youth. When they were no longer so resistant, they naturally saw the many advantages of the educated youth, such as youth, vitality, kindness, enthusiasm, etc.
The commune president also praised Xu Fei and Hua Feifei highly, calling them role models for educated youth. He did not need to wait for the annual meeting, but immediately gave them an enamel cup with a five-pointed star and a pen as rewards, encouraging them to keep up the good work.
I was not disappointed about Han Jing's failed submission and Ye Yu's failure to submit, because both Xu Fei and Hua Feifei appeared quite a few times in their articles, and they both had different abilities, the former was sunny and positive, while the latter was a hard worker.
The commune president also encouraged them a lot and gave each of them a notebook with a five-pointed red star.
Ye Yu didn't expect that he could also benefit from it. He accepted it and thanked him. Although it was a bit regrettable that it was not for eating, this notebook could at least be used to write many letters.
Hua Feifei could actually see what Ye Yu was thinking at a glance, just like Wang Laidie.
Of course, there are more benefits than these.
For example, the commune heads who were still hesitating whether to approve Wangjiagou's pig-raising quota for next year discussed it and asked Han Jing and several others to notify their team leaders to come to the town to fill out a form, which almost meant approval.
Wangjiagou has become the most famous brigade in Pingquan Brigade overnight. There must be many hidden benefits. Apart from other things, people from Wangjiagou will be envied by others.
Therefore, almost everyone who had some contact with the educated youth in the countryside was thinking about whether they should consult whether the educated youth they knew or the educated youth known by people they knew could also write articles and register them in the brigade.
It would be even better if someone could mention so-and-so Auntie like Hua Zhiqing did, and newspapers could be passed down from generation to generation.
Xu Fei and Hua Feifei were not worried or disappointed that other educated youth might submit their works. They were now full of confidence and hoped to compete with more people with lofty ideals. They were even more hopeful about building the countryside. They answered the inquiries of the local people with all their heart, especially emphasizing the importance of reading and knowledge.
The common people only heard it once and only remembered that knowledge = royalties = money.
Many people were saying that the old principal was right, the middle school in this town should not be closed down, and the children in their families should go to high school. Once they had learned the skill of writing, they could contribute articles to earn money like Xu Zhiqing and Hua Zhiqing, and easily (? ) earn a salary. Wouldn't that be much better than scraping a living in the fields?
The four of them left the commune with great difficulty. Walking around Pingquan Town was just like a certain celebrity walking around in later generations. There were people everywhere they went. They were even more like monkeys in a zoo than the first day they went to the countryside. They couldn't help but quicken their pace to the supply and marketing cooperative.
As soon as we arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, we were also warmly received.
Especially the salesperson who had clashed with them last time, who changed his attitude 360 degrees.
Unlike others, when she heard that an article written by an educated youth in the town was published in the newspaper, her heart skipped a beat. Could it be that - after further investigation, she was really in tears: "Oh, how did I offend these ancestors!"
The other salesmen were also worried. They had not directly offended the educated youth, so nothing would happen, right? Even the director of the supply and marketing cooperative heard the news and came to the rescue.
Because of this, when Ye Yu and his three companions arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, they found that they had enough to buy anything, including some expensive almond and peach kernel cakes and local snacks that did not require a ticket, and even a bottle of white wine and white pepper powder that were a magic weapon to remove fishy smells.
In addition, cotton cloth, enamel basins, nylon socks, aluminum lunch boxes, hand-made clippers, gas lamps and other popular items that had defects but did not affect their use were taken out.
However, faced with the very concerned inquiries from the supply and marketing cooperative and the salesperson, Xu Fei and Hua Feifei honestly admitted that they had already written and sent it out, but had not received a reply yet.
There is also good news. They did not specifically mention the supply and marketing cooperatives in Pingquan Town, nor did they mention any particular person. Instead, they equally targeted the current chaos in the supply and marketing cooperatives in the entire Ye country, and briefly cited some small examples that exist everywhere in life.
After hearing this, the salesperson didn't know whether to swallow it or spit it out.
The director of the supply and marketing cooperative glared at her several times, and she was sure to be scolded in return, but she could only swallow her bitterness and dared not offend these educated youth again. She had to put on an ugly stiff smile and entertain them warmly, but this smile was actually much more pleasing than her usual sidelong glance at people.
From that day on, when people in Pingquan Town went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy things, they found that their attitudes had changed drastically. In particular, there was a little girl who was particularly enthusiastic and did the weighing and calculations quickly and well.
In short, Ye Yu and his team's purchase was a great success, so they quickly retreated and left the onlookers' sight.
On the way back, we turned to the Red Flag Brigade.