Chapter 7 Inquiry
I got off work soon after I got back.
Liu Changqing and Wang Jianmao are both back.
There was water warming on the stove, and chopped firewood behind it. Zhu Feng was sitting at the door, still chopping wood. When he saw the two of them, he said, "The water is already boiled, just waiting for you to come back. We just arrived and have no food, so we don't want to touch your things, so we didn't cook."
Liu Changqing responded, went into the house and started adding fuel to the fire.
Zhu Feng put down the hatchet in his hand and walked over to the kitchen door and asked him, "Hey, Comrade Liu Changqing, you and Comrade Wang Jianmao came early and are considered our predecessors. Can I ask you how you did it when you first arrived?"
Wang Jianmao scooped some food out of the house and said, "When we first arrived, we had nothing, not even these two houses. We lived with fellow commune members, and we had to pay for food coupons to eat. We were lucky. Although the people in Lujiazui have their own little ulterior motives, they are generally kind. I heard that the educated youth in other production teams were particularly unlucky. They had money and coupons but couldn't even eat the food."
Liu Changqing nodded. "That's right. At the time, we were two men and two women, living separately in the homes of commune members. We only built these two rooms later. We stayed in the commune members' homes for several months. At first, we paid with money and coupons, which were based on the price of grain. But these things were always limited. Who had so much money and coupons to put in? So we moved out later and went to the production team to get IOUs for grain. Then we worked hard to earn work points and paid it back at the end of the year."
"None of us had ever worked in the fields back home. When we first arrived, we felt like we were living a life worse than death. Not to mention paying for food, the few work points we earned weren't even enough to feed ourselves. The commune members were also very dissatisfied with us. Two female comrades couldn't stand it anymore and cried countless times. Then they found partners in the commune and started living with them. That left just the two of us."
After saying that, he asked Zhu Feng, "Where is Comrade Wen Wan?"
Zhu Feng said, "He said he wanted to go out for a walk and get familiar with the place."
Wang Jianmao and Liu Changqing looked at each other and sighed: "Judging from her appearance, she should come from a well-off family. I wonder how long she can last here."
Wen Wan was currently running in the mountains east of the production team.
Before work ended, the hillside was full of people clearing land, and there were people in the fields too. There were some half-grown children cutting grass for pigs. She touched the candy she had put in her pocket when she went out and walked over with the cloth bag.
"Little boy, can I pick some wild vegetables from the ground?"
Several children of varying ages, all covered in dirt and patches, glanced at her. One of the little girls spoke softly, "It's okay. This is all collective. Everyone can pick the pigweed and wild vegetables inside. Be careful not to step on the crops."
At this moment, the wheat in the field is about one or two inches tall, and the pigweed and shepherd's purse in it are much stronger than the wheat seedlings.
These children are basically around eight, nine or ten years old. They are not allowed to go to the fields to open up wasteland, but they can pick some wild vegetables from the fields to feed their families.
Wen Wan smiled and thanked him: "Thank you, what's your name?"
The little girl glanced at the boy next to her, then said, "My name is San Ya, and I'm the third child in the family."
Wen Wan touched a piece of candy and handed it over: "Thank you, Sanya, sister will treat you to some candy, okay?"
San Ya hesitated for a moment, but ultimately couldn't resist the temptation of sugar.
She had never eaten candy before, but she heard from others that candy cubes were delicious and sweeter than sugar water.
They were all children of about the same age, and when they saw San Ya get the candy, they all looked envious.
Wen Wan took in the expressions of the group of children, reached into her pocket, and took out a handful of fruit candies.
"Look, everyone is here. I'm a newly arrived educated youth. I don't know anything about the team. I want to ask you something. If you know the answer, I'll give you some candy."
An older kid brought a group of younger kids and quickly became friends with them under the temptation of a handful of fruit candy. They chattered and it was very lively.
Soon, Wen Wan found out what she wanted to know, and her pockets were filled with wild vegetables.
They were all juicy shepherd's purse and wild onions. She didn't recognize them before, but this time she recognized them and remembered that they were edible.
When she returned to the educated youth site, smoke was already rising from the houses.
Liu Changqing was cooking in the house while Wang Jianmao went to fetch water.
Zhu Feng saw him holding a shoulder pole with wooden barrels hanging on it and thought it was very interesting and wanted to give it a try. However, he couldn't even walk with two empty barrels hanging on it.
The well is above the paddy field not far from the wheat field. There is a small river there that runs through the entire Lujiazui and flows into the Xihe River.
Wang Jianmao took Zhu Feng to see the well, told him how to scoop water, and then went back.
They will live together, eat and drink together in the future, and fetching water is everyone's job; it's impossible for him to do it alone.
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