Chapter 013
In the kitchen.
Lin Xiaohan sat at the dining table and ate.
Chaozi took a bowl and took some food from the sack and poured it to Chuxia.
Chaozi and Chuxia had no expression on their faces.
After giving out the food as prescribed, Chaozi turned around and left.
He left the kitchen and returned to the boys' dormitory, where everyone else was.
Han Ting sat on the edge of the bed, lowering his brows and looking gloomy. He was silent for a long time.
This seemed to suppress the anger in my heart a little.
He raised his head and looked at the lid of the pot, and asked him in a deep voice: "Were the steamed buns we ate last night all from early summer?"
Guo Gai lowered his head, nodded and said, "Yeah."
Han Ting gritted his teeth in anger, but after a while he asked again, "Why should I eat hers? Didn't I tell you at noon that she is at her most irritable right now, and it would be troublesome to argue with her? Did I tell you that?!"
Guo Gai shrank his head and whispered, "We didn't wash the grains thoroughly when we were grinding them, so the steamed buns were full of fine sand and gravel. We couldn't eat them at all, so we used her buns to fill our stomachs. We had planned to return them to her, but who knew she would go crazy because of this..."
Han Ting raised his foot to kick him, but he subconsciously dodged.
Li Qiao is not a disloyal person.
She didn't let Han Ting continue to scold Guo Gai, and stood up and said, "Han Ting, stop scolding Guo Gai. This idea was my own, and I was the one who asked them to keep it a secret from you. I put our steamed buns in Chu Xia's basket just to tell her that we wouldn't eat her buns for free. We had already agreed to tell her in the evening, but who knew she would come back so late last night, and we were all asleep... before we could tell her, she made such a fuss..."
Han Ting suppressed his temper again.
No matter what happens, he will never blame the girls.
He looked at Li Qiao and said, "Don't blame yourself. It's my fault. I didn't do the flour grinding properly. We all don't distinguish between you and me. It's normal to eat each other's food. No one cares about such a small matter. No one cared before the beginning of summer..."
He stopped talking here and didn't say anything further.
There was silence for a while, and Gu Yuzhu suddenly spoke up again: "Did she learn to be so selfish and stingy from Lin Xiaohan? She went out with Lin Xiaohan last night and came back so late."
Han Ting couldn't help but take a deep breath again.
He didn't want to discuss this matter in detail, so he didn't respond to Gu Yuzhu's words, and just said, "From now on, none of you are allowed to touch anything of hers, and there's no need to persuade her anymore. Just let her do whatever she wants."
Gu Yuzhu whispered: "If you get so close to Lin Xiaohan, you will suffer a great loss sooner or later..."
***
In the kitchen.
Chuxia received the food given by Chaozi, but she was still angry and uneasy. She always felt that her food, flour and steamed buns might be stolen again, so she looked around the kitchen for a while.
But there was no place to hide anything in these simple houses where the educated youth lived.
Although there were carved doors on the cupboard, they were old and broken, and there was no place to lock them. There was no other place to lock things to prevent others from touching them.
After thinking for a while, Chuxia went behind the stove and pulled out some straw.
She planned to use straw to tie up the sacks of grain into a knot, and then pass the straw through the hollow holes on the cupboard door and tie the door up with a knot.
In this case, as long as the straw breaks, it means someone has touched her things.
After tying up the sacks of grain, Chuxia did not tie up the cupboard door immediately.
Because she still had to use the coarse grain flour in the cupboard to steam buns, otherwise she would have nothing to eat for breakfast.
In early summer, I go to the stove to get a basin to prepare the dough for steaming buns.
She had just picked up the basin when she heard Lin Xiaohan say at the table, "Hey."
Chu Xia looked back at him when she heard that, and thought to herself: I wonder what gloating words he is going to say.
Finally, he gestured towards the table and said, "It's too hot. I'll lend it to you so that you don't delay your work."
Chu Xia was stunned for a moment, and watched him blink, subconsciously thinking that she was hallucinating.
In the bowl in front of him were steaming buns.
Lin Xiaohan took the initiative to lend her steamed buns?
Is this true or false?
Look at Chuxia standing there in a daze.
Lin Xiaohan stood up again and picked up the bowl and said, "If you don't want to eat it, I'll take it, but please hurry up and don't hold me back at work. There's no sign of recruiting students yet."
Chu Xia reacted and hurried over to take the bowl from his hand.
She didn't let him take the bowl away. She looked up at him and said, "I'll eat it."
She had needed to find an excuse and an opportunity to get closer to him.
He is now actively giving her a chance, so of course she has to seize it!
Lin Xiaohan let go of her hand and gave her the bowl.
Chuxia held the bowl and asked tentatively: "Can I borrow some more pickled vegetables?"
Lin Xiaohan: “…”
He sneered, "You really know how to push your luck."
Chu Xia smiled at him and said, "Forget it then."
After saying that, she sat down, lowered her head and started to eat the steamed bun.
When I took the second bite, there was suddenly another bowl on the table in front of me. At the bottom of the bowl, there was what looked like a small spoonful of pickled soybeans and a thin dried radish.
Chu Xia raised her eyes from the bowl and happened to meet Lin Xiaohan's gaze.
Lin Xiaohan looked at her and said unceremoniously, "You have to pay it back."
In early summer, there is a steamed bun in the mouth.
She smiled at him again and said vaguely, "Okay."
Lin Xiaohan didn't pay any more attention to Chu Xia. He packed up his dishes and left.
Chuxia sat at the table munching on steamed buns, trying not to waste time and not worrying about the buns being stolen. After all, work was more important.
When I was taking the last bite of steamed bun and eating the last grain of soybean paste, the door curtain was suddenly pulled up from outside. She turned around and saw Su Yun coming in.
Since there had just been a big fight, Chu Xia naturally didn't say hello to Su Yun.
She looked away and continued to eat her steamed buns and soybean sauce, intending to finish quickly and go to school, but Su Yun walked straight up to her and sat down opposite her.
Chu Xia raised her eyes and looked at Su Yun, not knowing what she was going to do.
Su Yun didn't say anything to Chu Xia, she just said directly, "Chu Xia, you misunderstood Han Ting. He didn't know about eating your steamed buns last night. It's my fault too, because I didn't stop them at that time. Don't blame Han Ting, blame me instead. After you and Lin Xiaohan left last night, Han Ting has been very worried about you. He treats you differently from us. We are not as close to him as you are to him, so he is more polite to us. You two are as close as siblings, and I really can't bear to see you and him quarreling over this matter and never talk to each other again."
"You are reluctant to give up the opportunity to be a teacher, right?"
Chuxia swallowed the last bite of steamed bun and soybean sauce, looked at Su Yun and said directly.
Su Yun suddenly choked and said in a daze: "Chu Xia, why do you think so? It has nothing to do with being a teacher or not. I just don't want to see Han Ting so sad, and I don't want you to regret hurting him now. After all, you have been in love for more than ten years."
"I won't regret it." Chu Xia's tone became harsh, "Please don't bother me anymore. You just want me to reconcile with Han Ting and listen to him and give you the opportunity to be a teacher. I'm telling you clearly now, you should completely give up on this idea. This is absolutely impossible."
Su Yun couldn't help but hold her breath, her face turning red and white.
She lowered her eyebrows and said softly, "You will see others as the same kind of people as you are. I am not as bad as you think. You should take care of yourself."
After saying that, he didn't sit down anymore, but got up and went out.
Watching Su Yun swinging the door curtain and leaving, Chu Xia suddenly understood Lin Xiaohan's happiness - the happiness of speaking harshly and without mercy to others.
She felt relieved, got up to clean up the dishes, tied the door of her cupboard with straw, thought for a while, then took her food back to the dormitory and put it under her bed.
After doing all this, I felt relieved and went to school with my backpack.
Afraid that Lin Xiaohan would find fault with her and waste her time, Chuxia ran after leaving the yard.
Of course, she also wanted to stay with Lin Xiaohan more often to absorb the magnetic field energy from him.
From the facts, it is very useful for her to stay with Lin Xiaohan.
She followed him for a whole day yesterday, and not only did her face become clearer in the mirror, but when she had a quarrel with Han Ting just now, she was able to say everything she wanted to say without any hindrance.
She thought to herself that as long as she absorbed enough magnetic field energy from Lin Xiaohan, she would be able to completely break free from the constraints of the original novel's setting.
By then, I will definitely be able to see my face clearly in the mirror.
Thinking about these things, Chuxia ran to school without stopping and didn't stop until she entered the classroom.
The first thing he did after stopping was to greet Lin Xiaohan while panting: "I'm here."
Lin Xiaohan didn't care what her condition was.
He stood up from behind his desk and said, "Let's go, take a walk around again."
Chu Xia: “…”
She hadn't even caught her breath yet.
But she didn't say anything, and just took a deep breath and went out with Lin Xiaohan.
Based on last night’s home visits, it was indeed unlikely that anyone would come to the school to register today, so they couldn’t just sit in the office and wait, they had to go out and find a solution.
In order to prevent Lin Xiaohan from accusing her of holding her back, Chu Xia quickly adjusted herself to work mode.
She followed Lin Xiaohan closely and visited various production teams with him.
There are still the same number of people in each production team who do not go to work.
They were doing the same things as yesterday, and the topics they were chatting about were also pretty much the same as yesterday.
It was nothing big, just trivial matters like the Zhang and Li families in the village.
It's really hard to talk to them about school and studying.
So Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan tried to integrate into the topics they were talking about, so as to gain a deeper understanding of each family's situation so that they could prescribe the right medicine.
Tanxi Brigade is large in area and has a large population, so there is no end to the things we can say.
Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan listened carefully while selecting useful information and memorizing it. Afraid that they would not be able to remember it later, Chuxia took out a notebook from her schoolbag and took notes.
An old lady laughed at her and said, "You're talking about family matters and taking notes?"
Chu Xia smiled and explained: "We will take root here in the future. This is our home. Of course, we need to get to know each household better so that we can get along better with everyone."
There is a lot of truth in what you said.
Seeing that Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan were willing to listen and remember, they told Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan more about the situations of each family and dug up a lot of people's past.
Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan chatted with them until almost noon.
They judged the time based on the height of the sun and felt it was getting late, so they all got up and went home. Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan also got up and went back to the educated youth point.
On the way back to the educated youth point, we passed by a small lake with shimmering waves.
A big tree had fallen down by the lake, and part of it was hanging above the water.
There were six or seven children sitting in a row on the big tree.
The girl in the lead looked older, about fifteen or sixteen years old, and she was carrying a baby who couldn't walk yet on her back.
Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan stopped when they reached the lake.
The oldest girl was telling a story to five or six other children. After listening carefully for a while, Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan realized that the story was "Meng Jiangnu Crying at the Great Wall."
After a while, the story was finished, and the oldest girl stood up and said, "Okay, today's story is over. It's almost noon. Let's go home first and tell another story tomorrow."
The children stood up one by one and jumped off the big tree. Some picked up the bundles of firewood on the ground and carried them on their backs, while others picked up wicker baskets full of wild vegetables and slung them over their shoulders.
A child carried the firewood on his back and asked, "Sister Yan Zi, what story will you tell us tomorrow?"
The oldest girl said, "Tomorrow we'll talk about the boy who cried wolf."
The child who asked the question cried out, "I've heard it a hundred times."
Another child echoed, "I've heard it a hundred times, too."
After they finished howling, another child said, "Why hasn't the production team shown any movies yet? They haven't shown any movies since the Chinese New Year, and the propaganda team from the commune hasn't come down to perform either."
The oldest girl added, "It's the spring planting season now, it's a busy time, how can we have time to show movies or put on performances? When we have some free time after a while, we should be able to have some."
As the children were talking, they happened to walk towards Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan.
Faced with city people like Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan, they felt subconsciously embarrassed and quickly moved aside, making a half circle around them.
Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan didn’t know these children, so naturally they didn’t say hello.
After the children passed, they continued to move forward.
Neither of them spoke a word.
When they walked a hundred meters, they suddenly said in unison: "I have an idea."
The two looked at each other and said in unison again: "You speak first."
“…”
Before either of them could speak again, they suddenly heard a female voice shouting, "Comrade Zhiqing."
They both turned around at the same time and saw the girl who was telling stories by the lake.
Seeing that they turned around, the girl quickly trotted over to them.
Before Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan could say anything, she asked awkwardly, "Are you...recruiting students?"
Hearing this, Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan nodded at her, "Yes, do you want to sign up?"
The girl bit her lip and hesitated for a while before saying, "My family doesn't have money for me to go to school, but I really want to study and learn to read like you. So I want to ask, I don't want textbooks or student records, I just want to listen to the class quietly, is that okay?"
Chuxia saw strong anticipation in the girl's eyes.
She could also imagine how much courage she mustered to come up and ask this question.
Chu Xia didn't say anything and turned to look at Lin Xiaohan.
Lin Xiaohan said without hesitation: "Sorry, no."
The light in the girl's eyes went out instantly.
She didn't ask anything else, but forced a smile and said, "Oh, sorry to bother you."
After saying this, she turned and walked away, but the baby on her back turned his head to look back.
Chuxia looked at the girl's back, her heart and eyes filled with pity.
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