Five technicians from the power company arrived, all strong laborers, plus Scarface and the brigade secretary Xu Qiang, so there were quite a few people to eat.
Xu Xinning had already eaten chicken soup with rice before the guests arrived. With so many guests, it wasn't appropriate for her, as a junior, to interfere.
Xu Qiang: "Auntie, it smells so good!"
Grandma Xu: "It's all home-cooked food, and you can eat as much as you want."
Scarface: "I could smell the delicious aroma from far away, it's making my mouth water."
Grandma Xu: "Then eat more later."
Grandpa Xu: "Come, come, don't be shy. Technicians, Qiangzi, Scarface, sit down. Mingyang, bring the wine, let's have a drink together."
Wang Zhaoguo: "Uncle, we have work to do this afternoon, so we won't drink this wine."
Grandpa Xu: "It's just a token gesture, it's no big deal."
Wang Zhaoguo: "This is discipline, and discipline cannot be broken. It is also for the sake of safety. Electricity is something that cannot be taken lightly."
Xu Qiang: "Uncle, Scarface and I will have a drink with you. The food is so good, we can't feel at ease if we don't have a drink, hahaha. The technicians are out of luck today, but we'll have another chance to drink together next time we're not working."
Grandpa Xu: "Yes, yes, safety is the most important thing. Eat more vegetables, eat more vegetables."
Wang Zhaoguo: "Sauerkraut stew with glass noodles? That's a Northeastern dish. Do you have any Northeasterners in your family?"
Yang Chunqin: "My sister is from that area, and she makes a lot of it every year, so my family benefits from it. She's a good cook, and it's delicious."
Wang Zhaoguo: "I haven't had this for many years, and I've been craving it."
Yang Chunqin: "Is Comrade Wang from the North?"
Wang Zhaoguo: "Yes!"
Yang Chunqin: "What a coincidence! Yingzi, Yingzi, come here quickly, I've found you a fellow villager."
Wang Ying was roasting sweet potatoes with Xu Xinning in the stove when he heard Yang Chunqin calling him and hurriedly got up.
Fellow villager?
Wang Ying lowered her eyes, walked closer to Yang Chunqin, looked up and smiled, "Where are you from, fellow townsman? It's not easy to meet someone from your hometown here."
Yang Chunqin: "Yingzi, this is Wang Zhaoguo, a technician from the power department. He is also from the north."
Wang Ying said with a smile, "That's quite a coincidence. Comrade Wang, why did you leave your hometown to come here?"
Wang Zhaoguo: "I was a sent-down youth and have been here for several years. This is my second hometown."
Yang Chunqin: "Haha, this place is a beautiful place with clear waters and lush mountains and outstanding people! Speaking of which, you two are really destined to meet, and you're even from the same clan."
Wang Ying: "It's quite a coincidence. It's really not easy to come here from so far away as an educated youth. I even had trouble adjusting to the new environment when I first arrived!"
Wang Zhaoguo: "That's right. When I first arrived, I was not used to it at all, especially the farm work. In Northeast China, we would stay at home and hibernate as soon as winter came, but here we still had to work. Moreover, the weather here is damp and cold, which is very different from where we are. My hands and feet were covered in chilblains and swollen like steamed buns. They were so itchy at night! I made quite a few jokes."
Xu Qiang: "I heard that the temperature outside in Northeast China drops to minus ten or twenty degrees Celsius in winter?"
Yang Chunqin: "I heard that water freezes into ice as soon as it drips. If you go out for a while, your eyelashes will be covered with ice beads. When I was in the army, there were also people from the north. I heard them talk about the north a lot."
Wang Zhaoguo: "It's cold outside, but it's warm inside. Every household has a kang (heated brick bed), and it's very comfortable to sit on it."
Xu Qiang: "Every place has its own way of life."
Scarface: "If you stay home all winter, is there enough food to eat?"
Wang Zhaoguo: "I'm from a city in Northeast China, so I don't know much about the situation in the countryside, but we have a lot of land and a small population in Northeast China."
The meal was a pleasant one for both host and guests, and Wang Zhaoguo and Wang Ying became acquainted.
It took five technicians three days to complete the work of laying electrical wires and installing lights in the brigade, marking a milestone for the brigade.
A few days later, the brigade had another big event: the arrival of educated youth.
These were the first group of educated youth to come to the village.
Every year, educated youth would be assigned to the commune, but none of them were assigned to Xujia Village. At first, the people in the brigade were quite disappointed. They were very curious about these city kids, but later, after hearing complaints from the brigades that were assigned to them, the members of Xujia Village brigade gave up.
I heard that those educated youth were all very delicate. They were terrified of rats and insects. If they were bitten by a leech while working in the fields, they would be on the verge of death. Not only that, they were useless at everything, but they could come up with all sorts of reasons.
Weren't they sent to the countryside to build it up?
What has been built?
Over time, the members of Xujiacun brigade had long forgotten about the existence of educated youth.
Perhaps life is getting better and better, and things are getting too peaceful, so God adds some spice to your life.
It's possible that the Xujiacun brigade has achieved such outstanding results in the past two years under Yang Chunqin's leadership that all the educated youth assigned to the Xujiacun brigade by the commune this time came from big cities.
There were seven educated youth in total, three women and four men, from Kyoto and Haishi respectively.
In recent years, there have been many educated youth from Shanghai who were assigned to communes, but this is the first time that someone from Kyoto has been assigned there, since the commune where Xujia Village is located is quite far from Kyoto.
When the commune leaders saw that there were educated youths from Kyoto, they assigned them to Xujia Village without hesitation.
They're educated youth from the capital! Born and raised in the imperial city, how can they be compared to ordinary people? Who knows, some of them might have some shady background! We have to let them see the good side of the commune. We don't ask for merit, just to avoid mistakes. Maybe it can even help us advance our political careers.
It has to be said that those who can make it in politics must be cunning; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to squeeze out a glimmer of hope from such a corrupt environment.
The brigade was busy with rice seedling cultivation and land preparation, so the task of picking up educated youth fell to Xu Xinning again. Of course, a scarred man was also there to oversee things. Xu Xinning was mainly responsible for driving the tractor, and nothing else was her business, at least that's what Xu Xinning thought.
To be honest, Xu Xinning's job as a barefoot doctor was too easy. She basically had nothing to do most of the time. The main reason was that the members of the commune were all too resilient. Except for those who were too sick to get out of bed, nothing else mattered to them. At most, they would treat themselves to a good meal, and once they were well-nourished, all their ailments would disappear.
In the eyes of rural people, seeing a doctor is an unlucky thing. Who would be so stupid as to curse themselves?
The medical point was set up in the village committee, a small room. Xu Xinning had a row of Chinese medicine cabinets installed, thinking that they would be very useful. However, things didn't go as planned. The cabinets were mostly covered in dust, and the villagers still used the all-purpose Analgin the most.
Because of this, Xu Xinning became a "brick" that was moved wherever needed, and was often sent out to do whatever she could.
Of course, it's impossible for her to work too hard. Everyone knows she's the apple of the Xu family's eye. She's truly someone who's treated like a precious gem, someone they'd hold in their mouths for fear of melting or breaking.
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