We walked in silence all the way back to the brigade. Before we reached the village entrance, we saw a group of people standing there waiting eagerly.
Li Mingxi was playing games with a group of children in the yard when he heard someone shout, "The educated youth are here, go and see!"
Hearing this, a group of children ran out happily, shouting: "The educated youth are here, let's go see them!" Li Mingxi was also very curious about what the educated youth looked like at that time, so he followed them out.
When we arrived at the brigade headquarters, we saw a group of educated youth standing there, carrying their luggage, looking confused and at a loss.
"Is this the educated youth? He's really fair-skinned, a city dweller indeed."
"Those female educated youth are so pretty! I've never seen such pretty girls in this whole area."
"Why are those male educated youth so pale? You can tell they can't do any work."
"Look, there's a female educated youth wearing a green military uniform! She looks so energetic!"
When Shen Mengli, who was standing in the middle of the crowd, heard someone praising her, she immediately raised her proud head, like a peacock that couldn't wait to show off her beauty.
Li Tiezhu came out to calm the situation. "Everyone, be quiet. Before it gets dark, get to know these educated youth. They'll be living in our village from now on!"
Er Laizi laughed and said, "Captain, why don't you ask them to introduce themselves? We don't even know their names!"
Several people in the crowd started to make noises, "Yes, Captain, let them introduce themselves. They're from the city!"
Li Tiezhu looked at the laughing crowd and said, "Alright, stop talking. Now that this is the case, just speak up!"
Lin Jianwei was the first to step out of the crowd. "Hello everyone, my name is Lin Jianwei. I'm from Beijing. I graduated from junior high school. I responded to the call and volunteered to come to the countryside. I believe I can help you build a better countryside!"
Then Li Qiang said: "Hello fellow villagers, my name is Li Qiang, I am also from Beijing, I graduated from high school, I just arrived here, and I don’t know how to farm. I hope you can teach me in the future.
Shen Mengli continued: "My name is Shen Mengli, from Shanghai..."
After several educated youth introduced themselves one after another, Li Tiezhu arranged for them to stay temporarily in the brigade headquarters.
"You three girls will live together, and the remaining boys will live in another room. As for meals, do you want to cook for yourselves or go to the villagers' homes?"
Li Qiang: "Captain, how about we go to the villagers' house to eat? We don't know how to cook."
Li Qiang thought that going to the villagers' homes for dinner would help him integrate into the village more quickly and learn more about local affairs. After all, he came here to seek refuge because his family background was not good.
From what grandpa said, the wind direction is not right now, and we don’t know what to do in the future, so the best choice is to take the opportunity to get down quickly and stay away from the bloody storm in the future.
When Shen Mengli heard that they were going to the villagers’ homes for dinner, she directly objected, “I don’t want to go to the villagers’ homes for dinner.”
She looked at the villagers who were dressed in rags with a look of disgust on her face. They were not clean and their cooking was probably not very clean either. She didn't want to go to the villagers' homes for dinner. Whoever wanted to go could go.
When the villagers heard that the educated youth were going to their homes for dinner, they were unwilling to do so and looked at the group of educated youth and talked about it.
Niu Juxiang drooped her eyelids and said, "I don't want you to come to my house to eat. Why should I let you eat my food? You want to be tired and beautiful."
Li Tiezhu thought that these educated youth seemed to have no way of cooking, so he decided to let them share meals with the villagers. However, no one was willing to do so, so he and his brother would have to work hard.
"Then let's do this: four of the male educated youth will go to my house, and the remaining three will go to Tie Niu's house!"
Then he looked at the crowd and said, "The educated youth who went to the countryside received subsidies from the county, 25 kilograms a month! They don't eat our food."
When Niu Cuihua heard that the female educated youth were going to have meals at her home, she immediately became unhappy. Although the male educated youth looked weak, they were able to work. What did the women have to do? It was enough to have Liu Zhaodi at home. If there were a group of young ladies like this, she would not be able to make ends meet.
So he said, "Captain, my family doesn't want female educated youth. We want male educated youth to come to my house."
When the villagers heard about the subsidy, they immediately went into an uproar and started talking about it. Someone who was interested in getting involved started shouting, "Captain, this is unfair. Why can't you let the educated youth come to our home? We also want to host them. Don't you agree?"
Niu Juxiang agreed, "Yes, Captain, my family also wants to host the educated youth."
In order to satisfy the villagers, Li Tiezhu had to let the educated youth choose which house to go to. So Li Qiang and Lin Jianwei chose to go to Li Tiezhu's house.
Chen Mengli looked at Niu Cuihua, who was dressed neatly, and thought that her family must be very particular, so she said, "I'll go to your house."
Niu Cuihua was unhappy. She saw that this young woman was a troublemaker and objected directly, "Captain, my family doesn't want this young woman. My family won't get involved in this!"
When Shen Mengli saw Niu Cuihua refused on the spot, she felt embarrassed and was about to argue when she heard an old woman say, "My family wants it, Captain. Niu Cuihua's family is not happy about it, but my family is!"
Although Niu Juxiang's clothes were not very decent, Shen Mengli felt that this was someone else's initiative, so she agreed.
Li Tiezhu thought Niu Juxiang was not a good person and tried to persuade her several times, but she refused. Finally, he had to agree to let Shen Mengli go to Niu Juxiang's house. After all, both parties were satisfied, and it would be inappropriate for him, the captain, to interfere.
In this way, the other two female educated youth chose to go to the accountant Li Shuanzhu's house, while the remaining Zhang Guowei and Yang Qiangjun went to Lao Li's house.
Li Mingxi looked at the two male educated youth who were going to live with her. They looked okay, but she didn’t know what kind of people they were!
Niu Cuihua looked at the two young men standing in front of her and was quite satisfied. She directly told them to go to her house for dinner in a while.
After dealing with these issues, Li Tiezhu let everyone go and went home. Before leaving, he told the educated youth that they could come to him if they had any problems.
After everyone left, the educated youth returned to their rooms to make their beds. As soon as they entered the room, Shen Mengli complained, "What is this? Is this place habitable?"
Looking at the several wooden boards in the house, Zhao Xiuer didn't say anything. She picked up a board at random and started packing her things. Although the conditions were simple, it was many times better than her own home.
Zhao Xiuer is from Hebei Province. She is the third child in the family. Her two older brothers are already married, and she has two younger brothers and sisters. Her parents are ordinary workers, and her two older brothers are temporary workers who have just joined the factory. They have no chance to get a separate house. So a family of more than a dozen people are squeezed into a small house of 20 square meters. She can't even turn over in her sleeping place. The wooden board is many times bigger than the place where she sleeps every day.
Wang Hongxia listened to Shen Mengli's complaints and said, "Just bear with it. I heard they'll build us a new house soon!"
Chen Mengli: "Really? Then I must stay in the best room!"
The educated youth here were both excited and dissatisfied with the new environment they had just arrived in. Every household in the village was also discussing the new educated youth who had arrived today. The people of the Dongfeng Brigade fell asleep with curiosity that night.
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