The cave dwellings have been built and the number is there. The newly arrived educated youth have already privately discussed who will live with whom.

Jinbo and Gaoming must live together. If Jinbo has furniture, it means Gaoming has furniture as well.

Zhang Yao and Xue Xinrui's kiln had to be vacated and returned to the team headquarters, and they also had to move here.

It just so happened that Lin Zhiheng was with Xue Xinrui, and Xue Xinrui's household belongings were all complete, so Lin Zhiheng didn't have to buy anything.

Several female educated youth lived together here for a few days, and everyone got to know each other's personalities.

Zhang Yao had all the belongings, and chose Zhang Kangmei to live with her.

Qin Hanshu lives alone.

There was only one female educated youth in the first batch, and she happened to be a couple with the remaining Zhao Ru.

But, the female educated youth had previously lived with the locals and had nothing.

Seeing that everyone had divided up the wood without considering her at all, Zhao Ru couldn't help but speak up to remind them, with a timid and aggrieved expression.

Ma Chaoyang and Jin Bo didn't understand Zhao Ru's true meaning at all, and they were still giving Zhao Ru advice.

"What are you going to do? Why don't you follow Zhang Yao and Xue Xinrui's example and go to the other team members to see if they have any scrap wood?"

"But you have to hurry up. I heard it's hard to get together."

"But I'm not used to asking for help from others, especially people I don't know..." Zhao Ru looked at Qin Hanshu. She was about to ask Qin Hanshu to make less furniture and give her some wood, but when she met the other party's cold eyes that saw through everything, she didn't say it.

He turned to Ma Chaoyang and Jin Bo and asked, "I don't want much, just a table and a chair. How about you make them smaller to save some wood for me?"

Make it smaller? It was not planned to be big, how can it be smaller?

Ma Chaoyang and Jin Bo looked at each other and decided to reject Zhao Ru's request.

In order to prevent Zhao Ru from saying anything else, Jin Bo hurriedly said to Qin Hanshu: "I'll do it for you first. Let's go to your cave and measure the size! After the measurement, I'll ask the carpenter in the team to borrow tools."

Qin Hanshu: "Let's go."

Watching Jin Bo and Qin Hanshu walk away, Zhao Ru could only look at Ma Chaoyang pitifully.

Ma Chaoyang didn't know what to say to refuse. He saw Zhang Kangmei passing by and quickly followed her. "Zhang Kangmei, wait a minute. I have something to tell you..."

Seeing that everyone was so indifferent to her, Zhao Ru couldn't help but feel that her life was miserable. Her nose felt sore and tears slowly welled up in her eyes.

***

Although the furniture was not ready yet, the educated youth could not wait to clean up the new cave, lay the kang, sleep there at night, and come to the team headquarters for dinner.

The first batch of educated youth who had lived in their fellow villagers' homes also moved into the dormitories one after another.

The eight-hole cave suddenly became lively.

Qin Hanshu lived in the easternmost room, next to a small earthen slope. Above the slope was a loess hill. The terrain was relatively high and one could see most of the village clearly from there.

The small slope is full of weeds and there is a wild jujube tree. The jujube tree bears jujubes, but they are not ripe yet. It is said that they can only be eaten after the frost falls. They are very sweet.

When the cave dwelling was being built, the workers dug a drainage ditch that went around the courtyard in front of the cave dwelling. Qin Hanshu's cave dwelling was at the very edge, right next to the ditch.

She chose a location to plant the trees next to a ditch so that when they grow up they can block the view of the ditch.

The tree species chosen is Paulownia, a small tree about half a meter tall transplanted from the hillside. It is said that if it survives, it will grow to at least two meters next year.

Qin Hanshu secretly watered the tree with spring water from the space. After one night, the tree, which had been drooping, immediately stood up again.

The courtyard is public, but Qin Hanshu has already applied to the team to open up a vegetable plot in front of his cave dwelling.

The team leader gave her all the vegetable seeds and lent her a hoe.

The brigade has always been supportive of the educated youth's hard-working and positive lifestyle - the paulownia trees were transplanted with the brigade's permission and help.

So, after planting the trees, Qin Hanshu stopped working and started digging the ground again.

The soil in the yard was very hard. Although she could dig it, her movements were obviously unskilled.

When a piece of dirt accidentally flew onto Zhang Kangmei who was passing by, she started to mock him as expected.

"You've been in the production team for more than 20 days, and you can't even dig a field. Have you really put your heart into learning agricultural techniques? Tsk, looking at your delicate and fair face, I know you're definitely not working hard. You're just thinking about being lazy, right?"

More than 20 days of hard work and exposure to the sun are enough to make everyone's skin darker. Even Zhang Yao, who was born with fair skin, has a red face every day. She said that her face will not turn white again until winter.

Only Qin Hanshu, who was raised with space spring water, not only did not become black or rough, but became even whiter and tenderer than when she first went to the countryside.

"I say, Comrade Zhang Kangmei..." Qin Hanshu stopped and looked at Zhang Kangmei. Unexpectedly, as soon as she started to speak, Zhang Kangmei walked up to her and snatched the hoe from her hand.

"I'll teach you, learn it well!" As he said that, Zhang Kangmei picked up the hoe and turned over the soil, while patiently explaining to Qin Hanshu.

"You hold the hoe at the wrong angle, how can the soil not collapse? Work requires skill, not brute force like you do... This soil has no nutrition, you need to dig it deeper... When you plant the vegetables later, don't water them with water, go to the manure pond at the end of the village and bring back manure for watering."

The corners of Qin Hanshu's mouth twitched, indicating his refusal.

"The manure in the manure pit is collective property, and I can't just pick it up whenever I want."

"That's right," Zhang Kangmei paused, "Then use your own! From today on, we won't send the manure from our educated youth site to the manure pond anymore. We can make our own fertilizer for our own use."

The educated youths shared a dry toilet, and every morning a special person from the team would come to deal with it and take the excrement to the manure pit at the end of the village for composting.

Since moving here, Qin Hanshu has never used that toilet. She asked Lingqin to dig a toilet in the space. Although it was also very simple and primitive, it could purify the soil instantly, and she was the only one using it, so it was better than a flush toilet.

Zhang Kangmei was still talking about manure. "Speaking of which, I really don't know how to make manure. I have to learn it!"

Qin Hanshu: “…” Why does this girl learn everything?

"Oh, right!" Zhang Kangmei suddenly looked at Qin Hanshu with a puzzled look in her eyes, "Why have I never seen you go to the toilet?"

Qin Hanshu: "...You pay a lot of attention to me."

"You are so beautiful! Who cares about you?" Zhang Kangmei said with a tsk, "I live next door to you, we can see each other every time I look up or down."

Qin Hanshu said: "You don't necessarily watch me 24 hours a day. Do I have to report to you when I go to the toilet?"

Zhang Kangmei thought for a moment and said seriously, "Are you eating too little? So you don't poop enough? Why don't you try harder? If we want to make our own fertilizer, we don't have enough manure."

......If he continued talking, Qin Hanshu was afraid that he would lose his appetite for dinner.

"Let's talk about this later." She hurriedly changed the subject, "Accountant Niu has been targeting you recently. Do you know why?"

Zhang Kangmei asked blankly, "Is he targeting me?"

Qin Hanshu: "...Among all the educated youth, the production team leader always only assigns you the dirty and strenuous work, which is obviously abnormal. Also, when recording work points every day, Accountant Niu will interrogate you for a while and ask you if you are lazy. No one else will do this."

Zhang Kangmei suddenly realized something and exclaimed, "I just felt that the way he looked at me was a little strange. It turns out he was targeting me."

After a pause, Zhang Kangmei asked Qin Hanshu curiously: "Why is he targeting me?"

Qin Hanshu: "...We just said a few bad things about the brigade cadres, he might remember it."

Zhang Kangmei thought for a long time before saying, "It seems to be the case! But he is too narrow-minded. I am just telling the truth!"

Qin Hanshu: "...Anyway, you better be more careful."

Zhang Kangmei snorted and dug with his hoe, "I am upright and have nothing to fear. How can he eat me?"

As he spoke, Zhang Kangmei finished turning over Qin Hanshu's vegetable garden.

Qin Hanshu said a little embarrassedly: "I'll make you something delicious tonight."

Zhang Kangmei waved his hand, "No need! It's just turning the soil, no big deal! What's important is whether you have learned it or not?"

Qin Hanshu: "...I have learned it."

Having said that, when it was time for dinner, Qin Hanshu still shared half of his fried leek and egg dish with the person next door.

She used a lot of oil, and the eggs smelled delicious.

I exchanged the eggs with a fellow villager, and mixed some in from the space.

There are only dozens of eggs in the space, and they will be eaten up soon. Qin Hanshu plans to raise a few chicks later.

After dinner, before it got dark, Qin Hanshu planted the cucumber seedlings and peppers he got from the team.

There were also chive seeds, but she cleared a piece of land on the small slope and scattered the chive seeds there, without occupying the vegetable field in the yard.

Zhang Kangmei was turning the soil next to Qin Hanshu's vegetable plot, wanting to plant some vegetables as well. Seeing Qin Hanshu scattering leek seeds on the slope, she hurriedly said, "They won't survive! We have to scatter them on the ground and take good care of them."

Qin Hanshu certainly knew that the soil on the small slope was not good, but she had her own plans.

"If you can't survive, then you can't survive. Just sprinkle some and try." Qin Hanshu said.

Zhang Kangmei muttered "waste of seeds" and said nothing more.

When everyone went to bed at night, Qin Hanshu brought out a bucket of space spring water and watered the leek seeds in the vegetable field and on the slope.

Zhang Kangmei's land was not spared either. Otherwise, she would have to pour manure on it every day. On a hot day, the smell would be unbearable...

Just as Qin Hanshu was earnestly managing her own life, the letter she had sent to Qin Feiyang before leaving Beijing finally arrived.