Chapter 50: A Show of Power
"It turns out to be a cat."
Seeing Yun Qiao standing still, Qin Guifen tugged at her sleeve and said, "Alright, stop being suspicious. There's no one here. Let's go."
Yun Qiao took one last look at the alley behind him, and was half-pulled, half-dragged away by Qin Guifen.
It was not until we left Shuanglindong Village that the uneasy feeling gradually disappeared.
After returning to the Fifth Company, Yun Qiao and Qin Guifen, mother and daughter, separated.
The old carpenter and his grandson pulled a cart to the educated youth compound and helped her carry the wooden box into the house before leaving.
At this time, the sun was still high in the sky. The old educated youth had not yet finished their work, and the new educated youth had not yet arrived.
Yun Qiao had nothing to do, so he packed his luggage first, sorting the thin and thick clothes according to the season, folding them and putting them into the box.
Only after everything was packed up did the educated youth come back from work one after another.
Chen Fengxia also returned. Yun Qiao glanced at the time and saw it was only half past three. He asked her, "Sister Fengxia, didn't you say you had a lot of work to do today? Why are you back so early?"
"There was a welcome party tonight, and Jiang Zemin asked us to come back, wash our faces, tidy up, change into clean clothes, and dress decently. We wanted to welcome the new educated youth with a fresh spirit, so we came back early and did the remaining work tomorrow."
Chen Fengxia noticed the wooden box on the kang and was surprised: "Yun Qiao, you went to Shuanglin Cave?"
Yun Qiao nodded and said, "Sister-in-law Qin happened to have nothing to do this afternoon, so she accompanied me to Shuanglin Cave."
Chen Fengxia asked nervously, "Is everything going well? Did you encounter any problems?"
Yun Qiao shook his head and didn't tell her that he felt like he was being spied on. He just asked her tentatively, "Sister Fengxia, Shuanglin Cave is so close to our Fifth Company. Do you know anyone from their village?"
"I don't know many of them. At most, we just met and exchanged pleasantries." Chen Fengxia said, "Why do you ask?"
Yun Qiao: "Nothing, I just felt like we were close and wanted to ask."
"Then just ask. Try not to get too involved. The people there aren't easy to get along with." Chen Fengxia sighed and said, "It's my fault for not explaining it clearly. If I had known you would go there on your own, I would have told you more."
Yun Qiao's heart tightened, and he quickly asked, "Huh? What do you mean? Is there something wrong with the people in Shuanglindong Village?"
"The people in Shuanglindong Village are actually pretty good, but the educated youth there aren't very nice. They're particularly hostile to us educated youth from the Corps."
"Why?"
"You earn our wages."
Speaking of this, Chen Fengxia felt helpless: "We were all educated youth, and we all did similar work. One of us earned a salary, but at the end of the year, there was hardly any surplus. The other earned a wage, not only receiving cash, invoices, and clothes, but also dozens of Datuanjie tickets. The difference in treatment was huge. Who wouldn't have some concerns?"
"That's true."
"They all mock us soldiers, calling us the educated youth of the corps the nobility, earning wages even after going to the countryside. But our wages are set by the state. What does it have to do with us, the little minions? If you really feel unfair, why not go to the Educated Youth Office and ask for an explanation? Why are you pointing fingers at us and scolding us? We don't deserve it, and we don't owe them anything."
Chen Fengxia said a little aggrievedly, "The Corps recruits twice a year, and it's all open registration. It's just their bad luck that they didn't catch up with the Corps recruitment."
Yun Qiao held her hand, patted the back of her hand twice, and comforted her: "We are different and cannot work together. In this case, we will not have any contact with them in the future."
"I definitely won't have any contact with them. You just arrived and you don't know, but last year a few male educated youth got scolded and got angry, so they started a fight. As a result, they were put in solitary confinement for half a month and were almost sent back to the military corps."
Chen Fengxia said with a sympathetic heart, "If you say that, who would dare to have contact with them? If they run into them at work, they would just avoid them."
"It's a good thing you went there during the day, when the educated youth were all at work. Otherwise, if anything had happened, it would have been our fault."
Yun Qiao hadn't expected the conflict between the two sides to be so deep, so she couldn't help but wonder, could it be that the feeling of being spied on that she had felt in Shuanglin Cave before was caused by the educated youth over there?
Not sure, it's just an idea.
Chen Fengxia washed her face and changed into clean clothes. She untied the messy braids on her head, combed them straight, braided two more braids, and tied two red hairbands at the ends of her hair.
After cleaning up, he did not rush to the threshing ground to dry the grain. Instead, he took out his sewing basket, sat by the window and began to sew shoe soles.
Yun Qiao asked her, "Sister Fengxia, aren't we going to the threshing ground?"
"Yunqiao, we don't need to rush to the grain drying ground. It's still a long time before the new educated youth arrive." Chen Fengxia paused, lowered her voice, and whispered to her, "At least until dark."
Yun Qiao was stunned for a moment. "What took so long? Didn't Captain Yang go out to pick up the people this morning in a tractor?"
"Yes, we drove a tractor. But we weren't driving people to the farm, we were driving supplies."
Chen Fengxia explained to her, "Our Captain Yang has a pragmatic approach and believes in education through hardship. His approach is to get the newly arrived educated youth to give up their illusions, accept reality, face challenges head-on, and overcome them. People like me and several other older educated youth who came before us never rode in a car; we all walked here from the farm headquarters."
"How long does it take to walk from the headquarters to our company?"
"It's a 30-mile journey. Barring any unexpected events, it should take about seven or eight hours." Chen Fengxia recalled her early arrival and said, "The educated youth were all taken by special vehicles at night, arriving in the morning. They would go through paperwork at the field headquarters at noon, and would depart around 10 or 11 a.m., spending seven or eight hours on the road. By the way, they would arrive at our company before dark."
Yun Qiao couldn't help but click his tongue when he heard this.
I thought this wasn't difficult education at all, it was just a warning.
The educated youth came from all over the country by train, which was already a long journey. After getting off the train, they had to walk for seven or eight hours to get to the company...
Arriving in a strange place for the first time, I was inevitably nervous and apprehensive, and coupled with hunger and fatigue...it was a double torture, both physically and mentally.
No matter how troublesome a person is, after being dealt with like this, he will probably be exhausted and become a little lamb that can be manipulated by others.
Captain Yang is indeed a man who has served in the army and fought in wars, and he is very good at tactics.
Thinking of this, Yun Qiao couldn't help but feel a little fortunate.
Fortunately, she bought her own ticket and came early, and did not follow the main group, otherwise she would be one of the sufferers today!
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