Chapter 5 Adding Equipment
"The other educated youth's rations for this month are all here. You can start counting from tomorrow. Just pay the remaining days after the calculation. If you need more, you have to tell the cook in advance."
Let's skip today's meal. We, the former educated youth, already said beforehand that this meal was on your behalf.
Xu Jiajia and Lu Xun were both well-off. After listening to Huang Xiaomei's words, they each took out a can of meat and said they wanted to give everyone a treat.
Ning Xuan, Zhou Zhipeng, and another quiet male educated youth, Li Ping, volunteered to contribute grain.
Although they said they wanted to treat them, they couldn't be ungrateful. These days, everyone is poor, and food is barely enough to live on, so they felt embarrassed to take advantage of them.
After the grain was stored away, Liu Jun and Huang Xiaomei reminded them that they could order furniture from Uncle Shizhu in the brigade; they could buy boxes, cabinets, and tables from him.
Uncle Shizhu is the brigade's carpenter, and he is 50 years old. His eldest son is his apprentice. Since private sales are not allowed now, a portion of the money they earn from making furniture has to be handed over to the brigade. At the end of the year, it is distributed to the team members as a bonus, and the remaining portion is their salary.
However, if it's a small item, like a small stool, and the village team members exchange things privately, the brigade turns a blind eye. You can't have the brigade take one back if someone exchanges two eggs, right? Who would get it?
So if it's a barter system, the brigade basically doesn't care. But for large items like wardrobes, which involve money, the brigade needs to share the profits.
Moreover, it's almost impossible to hide such large items from the village; if someone gets jealous and reports it, it will cause trouble. So Uncle Shizhu's family has always followed the rules.
Ning Xuan thought that she definitely wouldn't need such a large item as a wardrobe, but she could make a chest and put it in the corner of the kang (a heated brick bed). It could be used to store things and also as a table.
So Ning Xuan went with the others to find Uncle Shizhu, because people from other teams would also come to order furniture. Uncle Shizhu usually didn't go to work when he had orders; his eldest son would help him after work.
Each person ordered a wooden box and a small stool, which they would use for meals or other activities such as watching movies.
Each educated youth in the settlement had their own stool, so they had to order them themselves.
Xu Jiajia also ordered a small desk and a taller chair to go with the desk.
There were only two boxes available, and the male comrades generously gave them to the two female comrades first.
There were enough small stools, just enough for one person.
Ning Xuan thought that having a table would be more convenient, but she didn't have the money, and the space in the educated youth dormitory was limited, so having too many tables would make it crowded.
Ning Xuan didn't have an enamel basin, so she ordered two wooden basins, one for washing her face and body, and the other for soaking her feet.
The men already had enamel basins, so they didn't order any more. Xu Jiajia also had an enamel basin, but she wanted to get another basin for soaking her feet, so she also ordered a wooden basin.
Except for Li Ping, who brought a straw mat, the others didn't bring one. Then Huang Xiaomei led everyone to another house and "exchanged" straw mats with an old lady.
After ordering the furniture and replacing it with straw mats, the educated youth returned to their dormitory to prepare their sleeping quarters.
Although her spot looked fairly clean, Ning Xuan still carefully wiped it again before laying down a straw mat.
After wiping the cabinet down, place it in the corner of the kang (heated brick bed) against the wall, in the middle of the kang against the wall. The old educated youth's trunk is also placed on the bed, so that it is properly separated and will not roll into other people's places when turning over.
Ning Xuan took the clothes out of the fertilizer bag and put them in the box. Since the box wasn't locked yet, she kept her money and documents close to her body.
After a flurry of activity, Huang Xiaomei started cooking; it just so happened that it was her turn to cook today.
The person who cooks every day suggested that they could leave work half an hour early, but Huang Xiaomei was called back by the team leader to handle some matters. It was a formal matter, and it had already been agreed that their work points would not be deducted, so she and Liu Jun did not go back to work.
Ning Xuan and the others took the initiative to step forward and help.
Ning Xuan suddenly realized that the other educated youths in her batch were actually quite nice. Even Xu Jiajia, whom she had previously thought was rather spoiled, knew how to take the initiative to help.
However, when she tried to help, Zhou Zhipeng, that sycophant, took the initiative to do the work, so in the end Xu Jiajia didn't get to do anything.
Ning Xuan found it quite funny, like something out of a TV drama.
Zhou Zhipeng wasn't too outrageous. He knew that in the current social climate, men and women shouldn't get too close unless they were officially dating. He was still quite measured in his flattery of the female lead, and he always kept a certain distance when talking to her.
The food was ready, and it was just time to finish work. Ning Xuan and the others at the educated youth settlement heard the sound of a gong signaling the end of the workday.
Sure enough, after a short while, the educated youth at the settlement returned one after another.
Huang Xiaomei called out, "Come and eat! These are the new educated youth."
Ning Xuan and the others took the initiative to introduce themselves to the veteran educated youth.
Liu Jun said, "There are so many people, you probably won't remember them all in a short time. Let's eat first, and you'll get to know each other gradually."
Huang Xiaomei then took the initiative to mention the dishes that the new educated youth had brought out for the extra meal, so the old educated youth had a relatively good impression of the new educated youth.
Today's meal was actually quite simple. The staple food was a mixture of rice and vegetables, and the side dishes were greens grown by the educated youth in their own plot of land, a green bean, and a loofah soup.
The green beans were mixed with canned meat from Xu Jiajia's group. Huang Xiaomei took the meat out of the can and chopped it up. The green beans were then braised together after they were almost cooked.
Huang Xiaomei said that today's meal was already quite good. Usually, it's mostly pure vegetables, and they only get to eat meat once in a long while. It's only when the busy farming season is approaching that they pool their money and ration coupons to buy some meat, eggs, or other things to have as an extra meal.
Although the allocated grain was barely enough to eat, and the addition of vegetables could actually fill one up, it lacked oil and fat, so one would get hungry quickly, especially if one had to do physical labor.
But there's nothing we can do. These days, most people are short of food, and even if you have money, you might not be able to buy it. They're already very grateful if they can have enough to eat.
Ning Xuan felt that she was lucky. So far, none of the old educated youth seemed to be particularly bad. However, they had only just met, and time would tell. She decided to settle down and stay for now.
After finishing their meal, Ning Xuan and several other educated youths went to Uncle Shizhu's place to get the wooden basin. The basin had already been made, but when they went there today, the varnish was still drying, so they couldn't get it right away.
Ning Xuan has taken everything she wanted; she'll have to wait until she gets tickets to buy more.
After such a long train ride, and with the hot weather, everyone needed to take a shower.
However, the male educated youth all went to the river to wash, while there were only 6 female educated youth. Since the male educated youth were not present, they requisitioned the male educated youth's bathing room, and with three people on each side, they could take turns quickly.
There are only two shower rooms at the educated youth settlement. Normally, one is for men and one for women, but in the summer, the men go to the river to shower. If the shower room is empty, the women can temporarily borrow the one from the men's educated youth.
The current shower rooms are only used for showering. The toilets are separate, with separate men's and women's toilets, but they are dry toilets and need to be cleaned regularly.
Ning Xuan was numb when she saw the outhouse, especially since it was summer and there were maggots crawling around inside. Ning Xuan felt like vomiting.
But she couldn't hold back from going, so she covered her nose the whole time, quickly finished, and ran out.
The thought of having to struggle with this dry toilet for the next few years filled Ning Xuan with gloom.
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