Xu Keke lifted the white curtains and looked into the yard. After confirming that only Xiaodouzi was playing there, she opened the door and came out. "Xiaodouzi, Xiaodouzi!"
Little Bean heard her call and ran over excitedly, "Aunt Bai, did you call me?"
"Here's five cents, please help me..."
Little Bean jumped back in fright, "My dad won't let me help you get food anymore. He said it's illegal. He'll arrest me and parade me through the streets."
Xu Keke rolled her eyes. This Chen Jianguo is only five years old, and she's scaring him like this. It's outrageous.
Four days ago, she moved her belongings from the educated youth compound to the old village chief's house. Although Chen Jianguo didn't seem to be bothering her on the surface, he hadn't given her a friendly look.
Chen Jianguo told her to rest at home for a few days before going back to work. This wasn't out of Chen Jianguo's kindness; it was a benefit the old village chief had secured for her. It just so happened that Bai Lu did have some health issues and needed some care. Xu Keke readily accepted.
Chen Jianguo said that if she needed to recuperate, she should act like one. She couldn't go out and wander around the village. Xu Keke understood this; although she didn't receive work points, she still received a share of grain at the end of the year. It wouldn't do for the other villagers to see her, lively and energetic, resting at home.
Xu Keke hadn't taken this seriously at first, but unexpectedly, on the very day she moved in, Chen Jianguo's second younger brother, Chen Weiguo's, father-in-law fell ill. Chen Weiguo, along with his wife, went to the town hospital with his father-in-law's family.
The old village chief's wife passed away at the end of the year before last, and his second daughter-in-law wasn't home. As for Chen Jianguo, Bai Lu didn't remember him ever having a wife. So, the cooking job fell to Chen Jianguo.
For the next few days, the old village chief's family ate cornbread and vegetable porridge for one meal, and vegetable porridge and cornbread for the next.
If it weren't for the old village chief and Xiaodouzi eating so happily every day, Xu Keke would have suspected that Chen Jianguo was deliberately targeting her.
Xu Keke had never suffered like this before; she couldn't even endure one meal in a day.
If she couldn't let her go out, she set her sights on Xiaodouzi. The little guy was a clever little devil, and Xu Keke coaxed him, giving him money to go find people in the village, occasionally exchanging it for eggs, peanuts, or something like that.
But now this despicable Chen Jianguo won't even allow that.
"Little Bean, your dad and grandpa went out!" Xu Keke pretended not to know, glancing around casually. Her priority was to gather information and see how much time she had to persuade the little guy. "Do you know where they went?"
“That educated youth was paraded through the streets and got beaten up. My grandpa and dad went to the educated youth compound. They told me to stay home. Do you want some water? I can get you some.”
Xiao Han got beaten up? Xu Keke raised an eyebrow. The parade had only been going on for two days, and he'd already been injured. It seemed the parade was indeed going to end abruptly, just as she'd suspected.
Chen Jianguo reported the incident to the commune, which questioned Xiao Han and several other educated youths. They only admitted to deliberately ruining Bai Lu's reputation while she was injured. They coordinated their stories, none of them admitting to hitting Bai Lu. They only said she had bumped into a rock.
Xu Keke had already thought of this. She only showed the old village chief her head injury and never mentioned it again because she knew that no one would examine her injury.
Three men can make a tiger, let alone five of them. Whatever they say will surely become the truth. Besides, when she went to the village committee that day, all she asked for was to prevent them from ruining Bai Lu's reputation, to stop her from insisting on marrying Chen Xichun.
Since there was no intentional injury, the commune didn't report it. Xiao Han was given a disciplinary action, which was recorded in his file. The village was instructed to assign him more work in the future, so he wouldn't have time to do anything else; this was considered on-site labor reform. He was also ordered to be paraded through the streets of the commune's villages for ten days with a placard displayed. This was meant to serve as a warning to the remaining educated youth in the commune: stop causing trouble and stay put.
This punishment is not severe compared to previous offenses committed by educated youth. It shows that the authorities have changed their attitude towards dealing with educated youth issues.
In Bai Lu's memory, by this time, any educated youth whose families had even a little bit of influence had already begun returning to the city under various pretexts. Whether from above or below, the management of the educated youth was very lenient. Mistakes by the educated youth were mostly dealt with with a blind eye. Even some cadres who were overly strict with the educated youth were punished, something that had never happened before.
Even the demands made by educated youth were generally met, as long as they weren't too unreasonable.
The educated youth thought it was their own trouble that made the higher-ups afraid of them, but they didn't realize that they had caused trouble before, so why didn't it work then, but it worked now?
Many years later, when these educated youth looked back on this period, they would realize that all the information at that time revealed one signal: the Down to the Countryside Movement, as a vibrant symbol of an era, was coming to an end. It was about to conclude and completely withdraw from the stage of history.
The educated youth only needed to quietly wait for this day to come.
Unfortunately, they weren't like the people they would be many years later. They came to the countryside right after graduating from high school. They weren't well-informed and lacked social awareness. So most of them focused all their energy on seeking fairness and figuring out how to get ahead.
I don't know about other places, but at least for the educated youth around Bailu, that's how it was.
Xu Keke guessed that since Xiao Han had been beaten, Gao Zhe and the others would definitely incite the educated youth to cause trouble. Then the matter of parading them through the streets would be dropped.
"Aunt Bai, Aunt Bai, what are you thinking about?" Little Bean looked up at her with his little face.
This child has clear eyes, speaks logically, and isn't shy around strangers. What's rare is that he also has a cheerful and lively personality. You can't find any of the bitterness one might expect from a child without a mother. He clearly grew up in a loving and supportive family environment.
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