Chapter 212: After-dinner Talk
The peaceful and harmonious days that Wen Wan thought she had were completely shattered when a new batch of educated youth arrived at the end of April.
As the weather warms up, the world outside changes dramatically day by day. Wildflowers bloom and fade quickly, while the wheat seedlings in the fields quietly grow taller. The wheat ears are about to emerge, and bees and butterflies are flying around them, creating a thriving and prosperous scene.
The primary school organized a group of senior grades to go to the team, and the third grade was among them.
This "going to the team" means that teachers and students choose a production team under the commune and go there to work. This time, we were still in the Haoping Brigade, and our destination was the Yangshuwan Production Team below. Although it was relatively close to the commune, it was still surrounded by mountains.
It is different from the usual work at home. This is collective labor. As a teacher, you must set an example for students and take the lead. You must also take good care of the children in the class, knowing how to bring them out of school and how to bring them back safely.
At this time of year, the wheat has not been harvested, the rice seedlings have not been planted, and the autumn corn has not yet reached its peak. The focus is on the spring fields, where the spring corn needs to be weeded.
There were too many people to share meals at the homes of the commune members, so we had to prepare dry food in advance.
Zhang Hongying got up before dawn in the morning, used the dough that had been fermented the night before, baked some leavened flatbreads in a pan, and boiled a few eggs. Lu Dongping found a kettle, filled it with sugar water, and gave it to her.
After she left, Zhang Hongying started complaining: "These schools are really exhausting every day. We have to work in groups. We can't even finish our own work, and we have to run to other teams to do it."
Lu Mingjiang squatted by the eaves, pulling up his shoes and preparing to go out. Upon hearing this, he turned around and added, "So, nothing is easy. It's not easy to get paid. She's at home, and who would let her go out to work in the scorching sun? She has to go because she's getting paid."
When we arrived at school, we gathered for morning exercises, and then walked out of the school in a long line facing the morning breeze.
Wen Wan hadn't worked in the fields since marrying Lu Dongping. The most she'd done was cooking and weeding the pigs on busy days. After a day of weeding in the cornfield with a group of students, even though she'd prepared well before leaving, wearing a sun hat and all, she still got burned by the sun, exhausted and unable to straighten her back.
How easy it was to go there, how depressing it was to come back.
It didn't end until the sun set. When she returned to the commune, it was already late and the sky was hazy. Most of the students and teachers along the way had left. When she arrived at the school, she was the only one left.
From a distance, I saw a person standing on the roadside below the school.
She called out, "Lu Dongping!"
Lu Dongping then strode towards her: "Why are you here so late? It's getting dark soon." He was waiting anxiously, if he was not afraid of getting lost, he would go look for her himself.
Wen Wan said, "We worked until sunset, and then students came home one after another along the way. By the time they were all gone, it would be already now. Did you go back and come back, or were you waiting here the whole time?"
"I went back to the team at noon and have been here all afternoon. Let's go. It's getting late. I guess we'll be in the dark halfway through the journey." As he said that, he reached out to pull Wen Wan's hand, but Wen Wan hissed and retracted it.
From squeezing the hoe, two big blisters appeared on the palm of his hand, and Lu Dongping happened to reach out and pinch them.
"How did this happen? It even caused blisters."
Wen Wan pursed her lips and muttered, "I'm weeding. The hoe handle is sharp. That hoe handle doesn't feel very smooth."
Lu Dongping pulled her along and rubbed her as he walked: "Didn't you say you were going to pull the weeds? Why did you use a hoe?"
"The students pulled the fruits with their hands. As a teacher, I had to hold a hoe like the other members of the production team. I also had to set an example for the students myself. I didn't dare to be lazy at all and I had to encourage them." It's really not easy.
"Fortunately, tomorrow is Sunday, so I can rest at home."
Wen Wan wanted to, but living in the mountains, it was impossible to really have a leisurely time.
After returning home, eating, washing up and going into the house, Lu Dongping handed her a bag with several skeins of wool in it, in two colors: bright red and beige.
Wen Wan was so surprised: "You went to the county town? Where did you get the woolen tickets?"
Lu Dongping said, "I went to the county town to pick up the educated youth from the commune. I asked someone to buy this for me, so I just stopped by to pick it up. You made new clothes for the family during the Chinese New Year, and you didn't even bother to take care of them. I wanted to buy you something else, but you already have two scarves and you don't need any hair ties, so I don't know what else to get you."
He never mentioned where the wool tickets came from.
Wen Wan was extremely happy and didn't care. She put the wool into the cabinet and asked him, "Do you have any money left? Have you spent it all on buying this and that?"
Lu Dongping nodded: "Well, I'm out of money, wife, you have to give me some pocket money."
Wen Wan opened the desk drawer and fished out some change and bills from under the notebook. "I don't need some of these bills either. Keep them with you so they'll be more convenient when you need them. There are also industrial coupons. My dad probably sent me all the things he saved up after I left."
Lu Dongping only took some change and put it in his pocket. He didn't take the rest. He reached out and touched her head: "Keep what Dad gave you. If you don't need it, give it all to me. If you need anything, I will ask you for it."
Having said that, Wen Wan put it away again.
After a tiring day, I fell asleep soon after going to bed.
Lu Dongping held her in his arms but couldn't fall asleep for a long time. Just now he wanted to tell Wen Wan that it was no longer possible and that she could apply for a leave during the summer vacation and go back to have a look, but after thinking about it he swallowed his words back.
He didn't know if he could take such a long leave. It would take fifteen days to go there and back, and almost twenty days if he was well prepared.
Wait, let's talk about it after it works! It will save her from giving her hope and then disappointing her.
The news that another batch of educated youth had arrived in the team spread like wildfire overnight. The reason was simple: the circumstances of the people who had arrived this time were somewhat unusual. There were four educated youth assigned to Lujiazui, a family of four.
The older one looked about the same age as Lu Donghai, wearing glasses and standing straight, but his hair was mostly white. With him was his wife, who was a little younger and so thin she looked like she would fall over in the wind. Her hair was tied up at the back of her head and she looked a little unwell.
This is a couple. The man is Zhang Yongmin, a senior intellectual, and the woman is Liu Huiying, also a school teacher.
The young man was probably in his thirties or forties, his name was Zhang Yongqing, and the child he brought with him, who was about eleven or twelve years old, was called Zhang Jianmin.
Several officers from the Ganling Commune Armed Forces Department went to the Xinxi County Railway Station to pick up the people, and then sent them to various teams. Once they arrived at the teams, they were placed in the cowshed next to the cattle farm.
If Lu Dongping doesn't go to the commune on Sundays, he will go to work in the fields.
Work was finished unusually early today. Lu Mingqing informed the members directly from the field that a meeting would be held in the wheat field this afternoon. This meeting was different from previous ones, as everyone in the production team, regardless of gender or age, was required to attend.
This was the first time Wen Wan had attended a team meeting on the wheat field in all the time she had been here. She was stunned when she arrived.
Young and old from every household will participate. The threshing floor is extremely lively. A large group of people form a big circle in the threshing floor. Four people stand in the middle. The older one has gray hair and the younger one is not even as old as Lu Donglin. The four people stand back to back with their heads down and thick wooden signs hanging around their necks.
Wen Wan couldn't see their faces clearly at all, and all she could hear was the sound of the team members pointing and talking.
Lu Mingqing, Liu Chaoxing and Zhou Minghong stood together with the four people, raised their arms and shouted, conveying the purpose of this meeting to the members.
The word "pd" made her ears hurt. Looking at the team members throwing things at those people, she quietly slipped out of the crowd.
Xu Qingming stood at the back of the crowd, watching coldly as the team members went to PD those people with a common hatred for the enemy.
Wen Wan came up to him and called out, "Seventh Brother!"
Xu Qingming withdrew his gaze and looked at her.
"Where are they from? Why are they in Lujiazui? What did they do wrong to deserve being treated like this?"
Xu Qingming paused before saying, "I don't know." His mind was in turmoil. He'd only heard about his elders being sent down to the countryside for labor reform, and he'd always assumed it was similar to his own experience of going to the countryside—devoting themselves to more difficult, more remote areas, engaging in labor construction. But now he understood that being sent down to the countryside and going to the countryside were different. They, the educated youth, had gone to the countryside, while the four people in the middle of the circle had been sent down to the countryside.
In his family, several of his elders have been sent down to the countryside!
When he saw the people in the crowd with signs hanging on their heads who didn't even dare to raise their heads, the blood in his body froze.
He couldn't imagine whether his elders would suffer the same fate and be treated like this if they were sent down to the countryside. No wonder, no wonder the family sent them to the countryside so early without getting married, no wonder Second Uncle wanted to split up the family property when everything was going well.
Wen Wan clenched her fists and could only hear the sound of her heart pounding. She wanted to do something, but it seemed like she could do nothing.
The people on the wheat field were so enthusiastic that they didn't even want to go home to cook dinner. Wen Wan didn't understand who those people were, what mistakes they had made, and how they were related to the people in Lujiazui. She had always believed that the people here might be a little selfish and have some minor flaws, but the people were still kind and good. But this scene now deeply hurt her heart.
The spit and the shouting made it almost impossible for her to breathe.
She couldn't stay in the wheat field any longer, so she walked back.
There was no one in the room and it was very quiet.
Dinner was unprecedentedly late. Everyone in the family was talking about the bad guys who came from the team. They couldn't sit still in the house during the meal and went outside with their bowls. Gao Xiulan and the others also came out with their bowls and chatted with relish at the entrance of the yard.
Originally there was nothing to do after dinner, but the arrival of these few people gave everyone something to talk about.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
