I rushed to the office but was still late. Fortunately, everyone was chatting and knitting, so there was nothing important to do.
"Jiang Cha, come here." As soon as he put the bag on the table, the section chief called him in.
"Have you been in the office for a while? How can I go on a business trip?"
Jiang Cha nodded repeatedly, "Yes, no problem, anytime." She should go on a business trip immediately. If possible, she hoped this trip would be to the moon.
"Okay, this time I'm going to Inner Mongolia to prepare for the Spring Festival benefits and buy some sheep from there. I have plenty of time, and I also have wool blankets. I'll give you the list later."
The section chief took the purchase order, signed and stamped it, and handed it to Jiang Cha.
"It's only the end of September, why are you buying New Year's goods so early?"
Out of curiosity, Jiang Cha asked the section chief.
"Here, it doesn't freeze until November, but that's not the case over there. Some places have snow by the end of September. People there are willing to ship the sheep here early, fearing heavy snow will block the roads. They avoid the worry of a heavy snowfall. Oh, and bring warm clothes and boots; it's very cold."
Jiang Cha took the purchase order and letter of introduction and went to the finance department to exchange some national tickets. He then went straight home with his schoolbag on his back. This was the norm on business trips; he had to queue up to buy the tickets himself.
I put away my train ticket and letter of introduction, then rode my bike to the department store and bought two hot water bottles and a thermos cup. This trip was going to be incredibly cold, so I needed to be prepared with all these warming supplies.
When I got home, I entered the space and started rummaging through the supplies. I prepared the military coat, took out the leather boots I bought in Shanghai, and the cashmere scarf and cotton gloves.
Finally, I went to the cafeteria to get a piece of ginger and a bottle of pepper. I boiled a large pot of brown sugar ginger water and put it in the space. When the weather is cold, I drink it to dispel the cold and warm the stomach.
Pack everything up and get a large travel bag to put your coat, boots, hot water bottle, scarf and gloves in.
The train ticket was for tonight, so it was already late when Jiang Cha packed up, so he locked the door and took the train to the train station.
While waiting for the bus, I bought two newspapers and some magazines in the waiting room. The journey would take six days, so I bought something to pass the time.
She finally climbed up to the upper bunk with a heavy bag, sweating profusely from exhaustion. The other bunks were also carrying large and small bags. As the saying goes, "When you're full, you get dry food; when you're warm, you get clothes." Is that what they do?
"Are you also an educated youth who came back to visit relatives?"
The girl opposite her asked her curiously, the people in this carriage are not very old, and they are probably all returning to visit relatives.
"You went on a business trip to Inner Mongolia, are you all returning to visit relatives?"
"Yes, this is our second year in the countryside. We can go home this year before the snow blocks the roads."
They look about the same age as Jiang Cha. Now they have settled down in Inner Mongolia, realizing their life values and working hard to build the motherland.
"Some time ago, I read a newspaper report about an educated youth from Inner Mongolia. In a letter to his father, he wrote that he would stay in Inner Mongolia for 60 years. It's really admirable."
I saw this at my grandma's house, where they discussed this matter.
"Oh, you're talking about Wang Shizhong! He was one of the first educated youth from our No. 4 Middle School to settle down in Inner Mongolia. Many of our classmates have come here in recent years."
After chatting with them for a while, I lay down on the bed and read a book. I was a little dizzy from drinking yesterday, and I haven't been feeling well all day. The car was shaking and I fell asleep directly.
I slept straight through the night, and judging by the time, I slept for a full night. This quality of sleep is incredible, and I didn't even hear the people chatting in the corridor.
The educated youth below were taking turns washing up. Jiang Cha came down and was about to go to the toilet when he met the girl on the bed opposite him coming back with water.
"You're up now! You're amazing! You slept so soundly we were afraid we'd wake you up. You didn't even wake up when we played cards later. Amazing!"
"I didn't sleep well the day before because of a party at my grandma's house. The car started shaking and I fell asleep in an instant."
No matter what Jiang Cha said, she would never admit that she drank too much the day before and even danced outside.
After going to the toilet and washing up, we came back. It was the first day and everyone brought some delicious food on the bus.
"Try this. This is the eggplant box my mom fried. It's really delicious. I've been craving this for the past two years in Inner Mongolia."
The girl on the opposite bed gave Jiang Cha an eggplant box. She cut a long eggplant into round slices, leaving the slices uncut. She broke them apart, stuffed them with pre-mixed meat filling, and then coated them with a batter made from eggs and flour, and fried them in oil.
I also accepted food from the following people: fried dough twists made by my mother, local sausage made by my grandmother, and dry-fried meatballs made by my grandma.
Jiang Cha's lunch box was overflowing, and he used the large bag to pull out the cooked food he had bought earlier, pork elbows and pork heads. He used clean chopsticks to pick up a lot for each of them, and everyone became familiar with each other while eating and drinking.
At noon, we bought lunch boxes and ate them together. Compared with the dining car, the food was good and cheap.
After dinner, the group played the accordion and sang popular patriotic songs one by one. Later, it turned into a chorus of the entire carriage, a kind of traveling concert. Jiang Cha's voice was almost hoarse from singing, and the others were almost hoarse too.
We had dinner in the dining car, split into two groups and took turns eating. Then we went back to bed and chatted, a bunch of hoarse voices chatting in the dark, which was quite eerie.
Perhaps the atmosphere was already building, and everyone started telling some slightly scary stories. Of course, they were careful not to mention anything about gods or ghosts.
My grandmother told me that during the Japanese invasion, one winter, their chickens were stolen. They thought it was a rat or a weasel that took them away in the middle of winter.
The next day, their dog went missing again. The family searched everywhere for it, but couldn't find it anywhere. They thought a thief must have targeted their home, so they stayed up all night waiting to catch the thief.
Who would have thought that the thief didn't come? The whole family stayed up all night with their eyes wide open, but nothing was discovered. They couldn't stand it anymore and fell asleep. They didn't get up until noon, and guess what happened.
The youngest child in her family, my great-uncle, was gone. The door was locked, and there were no footprints on the wall. Even on the snow, there were only the child's own footprints.
The family searched for the child frantically again and finally found him at the end of the village. Only then did they discover that there was a tunnel next to the chicken coop leading directly to the foot of the mountain.
It was originally covered with something, and their family tied the dog nearby to keep warm by the chicken coop. This thing dug a tunnel, causing everyone to fall in, and it was also the one that dug the cover open on the other side.
The first part was a surprise, and the second part turned out to be a tunnel. This is because the times have limited the topic, otherwise "a pair of embroidered shoes" would have shocked the whole audience.
Everyone was laughing and chatting, a bit like a late-night discussion in a university dormitory. The only difference was that there were no dirty jokes, and this was a mixed dormitory.
Jiang Cha had a very comfortable ride on this train, chatting with a group of young and striving people about life, ideals, and their arrangements at the educated youth site.
A group of people brought radios, accordions, cameras, and furniture mailed from the capital. They also had a fanatic for oat noodles, who couldn't live without them for every meal.
It completely overturned what Jiang Cha knew about the environment in which the educated youth went to the countryside. These people built a comfortable and cozy educated youth center for themselves, and did not forget to enrich themselves spiritually while receiving education. It was really amazing.
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