Chapter 2, Section 2: "Can't we even support a young educated youth...?"
Chapter Two: "Can't we even support a young educated youth?"
The jeep had barely driven off when a rumble of thunder rolled overhead, and dark clouds gathered as quickly as they appeared.
The accountant, sitting in the passenger seat, said, "Looks like it's going to rain heavily."
The accountant's name was Li Guoqiang. He was an educated youth from Kunming. He had married another educated youth and they had a daughter and a son.
As soon as he finished speaking, large raindrops began to fall on the glass.
The raindrops grew denser, and soon the road ahead was shrouded in mist. The wipers swept away some water, but more quickly flowed down.
Lin Su sat in the back seat, feeling quite safe but also a little tired, so she leaned back and closed her eyes.
Suddenly the vehicle slowed down, and Accountant Li exclaimed in surprise, "This is our branch farm's tractor!"
Lin Su opened her eyes, held onto the passenger seat, and looked ahead. A tractor was moving slowly forward, with several people standing in the trailer.
Although the tractor did not have a canopy, it had several bamboo poles propped up on it, and a large plastic sheet was spread out and placed over the cargo bed to make a temporary canopy for rain protection.
Zhou Yunqi asked, "Who's driving? Da Jin?"
Xu Yaodong said, "It's not Da Jin, he didn't come to the market today, it's Wu Jun."
Accountant Li shook his head and said, "His skills aren't good enough. Last time he slipped while climbing a gentle slope. Now it's raining, and this dirt road is extremely muddy. We're about to go up that steep slope again."
Zhou Yunqi frowned and said, "Dongzi, wait a minute and then drive."
Xu Yaodong: "Okay."
After saying this, Zhou Yunqi turned the steering wheel, honked the horn, overtook the tractor in the open area ahead, and then stopped.
The tractor seemed to have tacitly stopped in place, but didn't turn off the engine. Zhou Yunqi got off the vehicle briskly and walked quickly to the tractor in the rain.
Lin Su turned her head curiously and saw through the rear window that the driver had given the driver's seat to Zhou Yunqi.
In the jeep, Xu Yaodong had already gotten into the driver's seat and driven away first.
Lin Su asked, puzzled, "Is Director Zhou asking for help to drive the tractor up that slope?"
The accountant said, "Yes, that slope was a nightmare for us."
"How so?"
Accountant Li sighed, "Back in 1971, a driver who wasn't very skilled overturned his tractor while climbing a hill in the heavy rain. Three young women from the fourth team, all from Shanghai, died. They were about your age."
Lin Su: "..."
She couldn't help but worry and kept turning her head to look at the tractor behind her.
Through the thick rain, she could only vaguely make out Zhou Yunqi's blurry figure. The jeep was already climbing the hill, and due to inertia, Chen Nuo leaned back slightly, so she had to sit up straight.
The vehicle climbed up and down the slope, stopping in a wide open area. Lin Su looked back and saw the front of the tractor already at the top of the hill.
She finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The tractor eventually stopped nearby, and the rain subsided a bit. Zhou Yunqi got off the tractor and walked over to the jeep. Xu Yaodong opened the door to give him his seat, but Zhou Yunqi said, "You can keep driving."
After saying that, he opened the back door and got in.
Lin Su moved aside and saw that his face was covered in rainwater and his hair was wet. She said, "Why don't you wipe it off with a towel?"
Zhou Yunqi simply wiped his face with his hand, swept his hair back, and said with a serious expression still on his face, "No need."
Some of his hair was swept up, while some was stuck together and hung down, revealing his forehead. Lin Su vaguely felt that if he had a slicked-back hairstyle, he would have a bit of a boss vibe.
Seeing her in a daze, Zhou Yunqi chuckled: "What's wrong? Is there mud on my face?"
"No, no." Lin Su came back to her senses, her cheeks slightly flushed, and looked ahead.
Xu Yaodong continued driving. The rain lessened and the view became more open. Lin Su looked through the car window and saw a lush sugarcane field on one side, fresh and green.
To be honest, the farms in their state mainly grow sugarcane, so it's not that tough.
The educated youth in the rainforest suffered the most. They were managed according to the production and construction corps model. Initially, they lived in straw huts where snakes, insects, and rodents would appear. Food supplies were severely insufficient, the food was extremely poor, and the work was very tiring. They were basically clearing wasteland to plant rubber or reclaiming terraced fields...
*
Before long, the rain stopped and the sun shone brightly on the earth again.
The car quickly arrived at the headquarters of the Seventh Farm. Upon entering, there was a large cement area used for drying crops, and several red brick and tile houses were located nearby.
Lin Su got out of the car to move her luggage.
Two educated youths came over and greeted the farm manager. Zhou Yunqi said, "She came from the Sixth Farm. Which dormitory is more available? Let's arrange for her to stay there."
One of the former educated youth said, "Okay, come with me."
The dormitory had connected bunk beds. Some of the educated youth had left their bamboo mats after returning to the city. Lin Su settled down, packed her luggage, and then took a walk around the base camp.
The base camp housed a production team, known as Team One. In addition to several educated youth, there were also about thirty workers who had originally lived there, mostly middle-aged couples, some of whom even brought their children with them.
In the open space, everyone planted some vegetables and fruit trees wherever they could find a spot. Chickens roamed freely on the ground, and there was also a pigsty where several pigs were kept.
Outside the farm, as far as the eye can see, there are vast sugarcane fields, interspersed with rice paddies and vegetable gardens, all cultivated by the production team. Several villages can also be seen nearby.
Lin Su walked to the bottom of a large greenhouse and saw that the peanut seedlings pulled from the ground were piled up into a small mountain, and several people were sitting on small stools picking peanuts.
A middle-aged woman asked Lin Su, "Are you from our farm?"
Lin Su said, "I was just transferred here. I was previously at the Sixth Division."
The woman said, "You've come at the perfect time. Our team has already finished harvesting the rice and planting the seedlings. Now we're just picking peanuts to ease things up. How far along are you in your work at the Sixth Farm?"
Lin Su: "It's about the same."
As they were talking, the tractor came back, and everyone got off. Several people carried winter melon, pumpkin, and other vegetables that could be stored for a long time into the kitchen.
Lin Su stood at a distance and glanced at it, while being looked at curiously by several educated youths. Then she heard someone call out, "Little Lin, come here for a moment."
Looking in the direction of the sound, she saw Xu Yaodong calling her.
“Deputy Director Guo is looking for you. His office is over there.” Xu Yaodong pointed to one of the offices.
It was Deputy Director Guo who approved her transfer, and Lin Su felt that there might be some procedures to go through, so she quickly went over.
The farm manager's office and the deputy farm manager's office are right next to each other. When Lin Su passed by the farm manager's office, Zhou Yunqi was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, resting.
Lin Su glanced at him quickly and sighed inwardly that even his sleeping face was handsome. Just now in the car, she was stunned by his solemn and handsome appearance with his face covered in rain.
Upon arriving at the deputy director's office, I found a large open space divided into two rooms: an inner room for a bedroom and an outer room for office use.
Lin Su leaned against the door frame, looked at the man in his thirties, and called out, "Deputy Director Guo, I am Lin Su."
Guo Changxing sat at his desk, sizing up Lin Su, and frowned slightly.
Lin Su felt uneasy, thinking that he was disgusted by her thin appearance and thought she was not capable of doing manual labor.
"Xiaolin, right? Come in and sit down."
Lin Su didn't dare to actually sit down; instead, she went inside and stood by the desk.
Guo Changxing looked at her, smiled first, and then said, "When your farm manager told me, he only said that you didn't want to stay there anymore and wanted to transfer to another farm. I didn't think much of it at the time, since there was a production team that was short of people. Now that I know more, I realize that you are often sick and can't do much work."
Lin Su felt a surge of nervousness and straightened her posture, worried that she might be sent to a production team.
Some production teams are located in very remote mountains, unlike here, where at least transportation is convenient and the infrastructure is quite good.
Lin Su whispered, "I have a weak immune system, anemia, low blood sugar, so I often get sick, have skin allergies, and am prone to fainting."
"Wouldn't you just be causing trouble by going to the countryside?" Guo Changxing said bluntly. "Haven't you considered going back to the city?"
“I want to go back to the city, but the doctor said I was faking it and that I should do more physical labor to strengthen my body. He refused to give me a certificate.”
Guo Changxing's expression and tone were somewhat disdainful: "But you can't do any work, yet the factory still has to support you and pay you a salary, which is unfair to the others."
Lin Su felt helpless. The original owner had previously caused some complaints from other educated youth for this very reason, but this was not her intention. Who wouldn't want to have a healthy body to work?
She said softly, "I can work. I used to help in the kitchen, and when I was feeling well, I would also work in the fields. My salary was less than others."
Guo Changxing continued to shake his head and sigh: "I was thinking that the Fifth Team was short-handed, and if you were transferred here, I could go and help. But what are we going to do now? To be honest, we have a capable older sister in our kitchen who manages the meals for dozens of people. She manages everything perfectly on her own, without needing anyone to help her."
Lin Su didn't know what to say.
The important thing is that she only had less than five yuan left in total. If she had a hundred or so yuan, she would not have needed a salary. She would have just asked them to give her some food and let her survive for half a year before returning to the city.
Guo Changxing continued, "I need to call your farm manager about this."
"Are they going to deport me?" Lin Su asked.
"Sigh, please don't use the word 'repatriation,' I was misled too," he said awkwardly.
Lin Su sighed and could only remain silent.
She was destined to be a ball, kicked around and around.
In the silence, a voice suddenly came from behind: "Stop contacting them, isn't it a waste of your energy to go back and forth like this?"
Lin Su looked back and saw Zhou Yunqi standing at the door with a cigarette in his mouth. After taking the cigarette away with his fingers, he exhaled a puff of pale blue smoke.
He looked over with an indifferent expression: "It's just one more person. Even if we send him back to the Sixth Branch Farm, he'll still be an educated youth from the Red Star Farm, won't he?"
“But…” the deputy director said with difficulty, “the salary expenses are borne by each branch farm.”
Zhou Yunqi scoffed dismissively, "Just keep her on the sidelines for now. When the sugarcane harvest season comes, we'll send her to work as a registrar at the sugar factory. She's already inside my branch farm; surely I can support a young educated youth?"
The deputy director looked at Zhou Yunqi and was speechless for a moment.
This man is the branch manager and also the sugar factory manager. He has spoken, so what can anyone else say?
The deputy director nodded: "Since you've expressed your opinion, of course I have no objection."
Zhou Yunqi gave a low hum and left with a cigarette between his fingers.
Lin Su stared at his straight back, momentarily stunned.
The deputy manager urged, "What are you waiting for? Register the information."
"Oh, okay."
...
A note from the author:
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