Uncle Chu's work went relatively smoothly. He led three cobblers and worked with great enthusiasm. At least the public order improved a lot, and petty theft and other illegal activities quieted down considerably.
The county also had a public security bureau, but it had been suppressed by the Revolutionary Committee and couldn't do much. After Uncle Chu took office, he used his experience in the Kyoto Public Security Bureau to unite the public security bureau and the Revolutionary Committee to do their duties, and the results were remarkable.
The opportunities that Wang Wenye and his two companions had were the envy of many educated youth. They were freed from heavy labor and had positions with a little power. How could they not attract attention? It stirred up a lot of resentment and almost led to a mass riot. It was only after the militia, the county committee, the revolutionary committee, and the public security bureau worked together to suppress them and put an end to it.
The reason they cause trouble is based on the idea that the law doesn't punish everyone; if it succeeds, they'll have a chance to escape the land and stop working hard. But from ancient times to the present, where has there ever been complete fairness and justice? Don't they know that? Of course they do, they just want to take a gamble, hoping for that one in a million chance.
Yu Yin had heard bits and pieces of this gossip from Sister Wang, but she didn't take it seriously, preferring to mind her own business. It wasn't that Yu Yin was indifferent; it's just that this era has its drawbacks, and Yu Yin, with a family to support, couldn't withstand even the slightest disturbance.
Although the Revolutionary Committee had changed its leader, it still consisted of familiar neighbors and friends, and Yu Yin had no intention of getting involved in the black market. She didn't have the protagonist's halo; if she got caught, it would be disastrous. The scene of watching the public denunciation was still vivid in her mind, and the thought of it made her feel uncomfortable.
Yu Yin's main activity now is stockpiling supplies: mushrooms, fruits, brown sugar, honey, oil... these are in-demand items, and the storage space is unlimited, plus it keeps them fresh. She plans to sell them in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing when the opportunity arises, where she can get higher prices and the risk is lower. In this small area, everyone knows each other, and it's easy to be recognized, so it's not worth the risk.
Today was her day off, and Yu Yin, unusually, didn't go up the mountain. Instead, she stayed home with Lu Shurui and dried the ripe fruit from the yard, otherwise they would have been in trouble.
By the end of August, bananas, grapes, longans, pineapples, mangoes, jackfruits... are ripening or have already ripened.
Yunnan Province has too many kinds of fruits for Yu Yin to recognize, and she only knows a limited number of them and how to make dried fruits. Many of her methods were learned from Ah Xiang and others, and some were seen in short videos from later generations. Yu Yin usually makes a few common kinds of dried bananas, dried mangoes, dried apples, and dried longans. She also makes some canned fruits.
To make canned fruit, Yu Yin traded a lot of bamboo tubes with the old man and even learned how to seal them, as jars were too difficult to handle. The only downside of bamboo tubes was that they took up a lot of space and couldn't hold much; also, shipping them would incur additional costs.
Yu Yin and her family of four were busy making dried fruit when Lu Shuxin, who hadn't visited in a long time, came to check on them.
"Shurui, I need to talk to you about something. Can you come out for a bit?"
"Let's talk about it here, there are no outsiders here."
Lu Shurui couldn't understand why Lu Shuxin always put on such an arrogant air about being from Shanghai, especially in front of Yu Yin. What did they have to boast about besides coming from that bustling metropolis?
Lu Shuxin was in a dilemma. She didn't want Yu Yin to hear anything about her, neither the good nor the bad. However, she also knew Lu Shurui; although he seemed easy to talk to, he was actually very stubborn and wouldn't compromise easily.
Yu Yin didn't care about her affairs, but she couldn't resist the urge to gossip!
"That's right, someone introduced me to a potential partner, and I don't know what to do."
Wow, someone actually has their eye on Lu Shuxin. They're attracted to her looks, otherwise she wouldn't have any other redeeming qualities.
Do you know what the man does for a living?
Although Lu Shurui was angry that she was ungrateful and got involved with Wang Mengyao for such a petty gain, they were still close relatives, and he couldn't just watch her suffer. Besides, there were still their grandparents to consider. However, he decided he wouldn't help; he couldn't afford the responsibility.
"A cadre at a Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps farm, a demobilized soldier. My hometown is in another province, not too far from here."
"He had someone propose marriage to him?"
"Not really. We met at work, and he helped me a lot. We got to know each other over time, and later he asked me if I wanted to date him and start a family. He's always wanted to find a wife who is educated."
Lu Shurui actually knew his cousin well; she was an egoist who always put her own interests first. He could understand that growing up in a family that favored sons over daughters meant it was normal for her to think more about herself, but it was wrong to harm others for her own benefit.
"What you think about yourself, what his character is like, and whether he treats you well are more important than material conditions. You need to investigate this carefully."
“He’s a good person, the only downside is that he’s not very good-looking and not very tall, not much taller than me. But he said he could help me get an easier job after we get married, or I could not work at all. You know, I’m not good at working, I don’t even earn enough to feed myself, and I really can’t keep going like this.”
Lu Shuxin was genuinely terrified. Every day was filled with endless work. Planting rice seedlings meant dealing with leeches everywhere; one wrong move and you'd be bitten. Harvesting corn left her arms so sore she could barely lift them, and her shoulders, chafed raw from carrying the corn, were too painful to touch. Harvesting sugarcane left her face streaked with the leaves, and the sweat made the sand sting so badly she questioned her existence…
Lu Shurui and Yu Yin had little experience with farm work, but they could imagine how arduous and dangerous it would be. In particular, venomous snakes and wild beasts often roamed the mountains, and one wrong move could easily cost them their lives.
On that hilltop, there is a forest of tombstones, the burial place of educated youth who died unexpectedly.
Yu Yin had seen film and television footage in her later years and thought it was all fabricated; how could there be so many tombstones? However, she witnessed firsthand that each stone tablet recorded everything, even the lives, that a generation had given to cultivate the frontier.
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