Mushroom Village seems to be quite wealthy; even the village chief can ride a bicycle. So why is their food ration only twenty jin, and fifteen jin of it is coarse grain?
The eight people carefully inspected the educated youth settlement and couldn't help but complain inwardly. The houses were newly built and cleaned very thoroughly.
The kitchen and woodshed were spotless, but what were they using to cook? And there was no water tank either, so how were they supposed to get water?
Stepping into the rooms, I was even more stunned. Every room was built exactly the same, even in size.
It's just a room with a large kang (heated brick bed) against the wall, like a dormitory-style bed, where ten or eight people can sleep in one row. Apart from this kang, there's nothing else in the room.
Ye Chenming spoke up: "Let's divide the rooms first. Two boys will share one room, and two girls will share one room. The middle room will be shared, and we can eat and drink in this room."
Ye Chen'er and Li Ping were close, so they quickly chose the first room because it was the furthest from the outhouse.
The two women didn't mind; their parents and grandparents were all professors in Shanghai. Although conditions in Shanghai were very good, they knew why they had come to be educated youth.
Li Ping found an old towel and wiped the dust off the kang (a heated brick bed) and the walls. She then laid out her and Ye Chen'er's bedding at the head of the kang.
Ye Chen'er also took out the towels, washbasin, and thermos from her luggage. Since there was nowhere to put them, she would temporarily place them at the end of the kang (a heated brick bed).
Ye Chenming and Li Qiang shared a room. Li Qiang and Li Ping were siblings, and their parents had sent them downstairs earlier than expected.
Half an hour later, Ye Chenming led several educated youths to the village committee. They wanted to collect grain and inquire about daily necessities.
The food rations for the group had been prepared well in advance, but living a normal life is not just about having food rations.
Ye Chenming asked for a water tank, buckets, a pot, a carrying pole, as well as eggs and vegetables, and they could pay for them.
This time, my family gave me a lot of money and tickets, and there was also a lot of food in my luggage, but everyone said that we should cook together, so there was no need to take out our own things.
Accountant Ma's eyes lit up. He replaced his own water buckets and pots with new ones, as he couldn't bear to throw away the old ones, which were just gathering dust in the woodshed.
As for the water tank, the village committee has one, but no one uses it normally. The money from selling it can supplement the national treasury, or rather, the village treasury.
As for food, you can buy it from the Yan family; their family has the best conditions in the village.
Ye Chen'er and Li Ping went to the Yan family. They really wanted to meet the pretty girl that their third uncle and the accountant had mentioned.
The water vat was quite large, so four male educated youths stood on the four sides to carry it back, while the other two female educated youths went back with the accountant to get buckets and pots.
Ye Chen'er was destined to be disappointed today. Grandma Yan told her that Yan Xiaonan had gone to the mountains early in the morning.
As for when he will return, the time is uncertain. Sometimes he will return at noon, and sometimes he will not return until mid-afternoon.
Ye Chen'er was a little confused. Wasn't it dangerous in the mountains? Weren't their families worried about a little girl going up there?
However, being the professor's child, the two of them were quite clear about what to say and what not to say upon their first meeting.
They spent three yuan to buy twenty eggs, a pound of wild boar meat, and a lot of green vegetables. The two of them returned home with their bounty.
Wang Yan and Tian Fang each carried a pot and a bucket, which contained some chipped plates and bowls given to them by the accountant, costing them four yuan.
As for the large water vat, Accountant Ma only charged one yuan. They were all educated youth, leaving home at a young age to make their way in the world; they were pitiful.
With these things in hand, the educated youth settlement could resume basic life. Ye Chenming asked Li Qiang and his sister to take Ye Chen'er to the other side of the mountain to collect some firewood.
He and Zhang Dali went to the river to fetch water, meaning the two of them used a carrying pole to carry one bucket of water.
Wang Yan and Tian Fang were in charge of cooking rice and dishes, but of course, cooking rice could only be done when there was firewood.
With a clear division of labor and everyone being young and strong, a large pot of rice was finally cooked by mid-afternoon, and the vegetables were also cooked.
During the meal, everyone looked rather unwell. There was too much coarse grain and too little refined grain, and the cooking skills were poor, making the food almost inedible.
Vegetables were a little better, but wild boar meat was impossible to chew. I chewed a bite of pork for ages and it was still whole; I could only stretch my neck and swallow it.
After the meal, there was still half a pot of coarse grains left in the pot, but all the vegetables and meat were eaten.
Liu Limin tapped the bowl with his chopsticks and said, "This won't do. We only get twenty jin a month, we can't waste it."
Wang Yan was unhappy: "I've never cooked at home before. It's already good enough that I can cook it properly."
Tian Fang also said with a stern face, "It took us so long to start the fire, it was too difficult."
All eyes turned to Ye Chenming, who thought for a moment and said:
"We are educated youth sent to the countryside. We will definitely have to work here to earn work points, so we expect our future will be even more difficult."
To avoid conflict, let's take turns doing the work. Two of the four men will carry water each day to fill the water tank.
Two of the four girls cook each day, taking turns. As for washing dishes, each girl takes turns once a day.
Also, the winters here must be very cold, so firewood is very important. The eight of us have to collect firewood every day until the woodshed is full.
Everyone nodded; firewood was indeed very important, and they needed to prepare plenty.
"We can't waste the leftover food in the pot. Let's boil it again with some water tomorrow morning and have it with some pickles or sauces for breakfast," Liu Limin suggested.
Everyone was very supportive; food shouldn't be wasted, and Ye Chenming's arrangements were also very fair.
The group set off to gather firewood. Lacking experience in rural life, none of them knew they needed to bring a machete and rope when chopping wood.
They could only pick up firewood that others didn't want, or that others didn't have time to pick up.
They needed to tie up too much firewood with rope, but without rope, they kept picking up and dropping pieces, making a lot of a fuss.
The villagers of Mushroom Village were kind-hearted. Seeing the children's disheveled state, they taught the educated youth to find a type of grass that could be used to weave ropes.
Some villagers even sold their spare machetes to the educated youth, receiving two yuan in return.
With machetes and ropes, chopping firewood became very convenient. The female educated youth twisted ropes, while the male educated youth tied and chopped the firewood.
The group returned to the educated youth settlement before it got dark. They should have enough firewood for tonight and tomorrow morning.
In fact, it seemed like so much firewood wouldn't burn very well; the eight people used up more than half of the firewood they had collected that day by boiling four pots of water.
Each person can only rinse off slightly; taking a bath or washing their hair is out of the question.
Before going to bed, Ye Chenming reported the day's expenses: vegetables, meat, buckets, pots, a machete, and a water tank, totaling ten yuan. Each person contributed one yuan and twenty-five cents.
Everyone quickly started taking out their money and collecting it. After they finished, they crawled into their blankets, and soon the educated youth settlement became quiet.
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