Chapter 7 Storm

Chapter 7 Storm

“Chirp! Chirp!”

"Jiugugu——Jiugugu——"

The sound of birds singing echoed through the valley and the rain stopped.

"Get up! Why are you sleeping in the office? What are you doing!" Tao Nanfeng was awakened by a scolding.

It’s Luo Xuan’s voice!

Luo Xuan was in charge of the distribution of money and grain in the office. He was always very powerful and the educated youth were a little afraid of him. Hearing his voice, the four girls were startled and quickly sat up from the makeshift "bed".

"Bang! Bang!" Someone pushed the door.

"Ka--" Several chairs used to prop up the door panels dragged on the ground, making a harsh sound.

The girl was lying down with her clothes on, so she quickly jumped off the desk and put on her shoes.

Ye Qin was the youngest daughter in the family. Her parents, brothers and sisters-in-law all loved her. She was a little spoiled. She raised her voice and said in a bad mood, "There's a lesbian in the room. Why are you pushing the door?"

The sound outside the door stopped abruptly.

Li Huilan had been caught in the rain last night and had a restless sleep. Her nose was a little stuffy. As she folded the quilt, she said in a muffled voice, "Calling for the soul, so early in the morning."

There was a rhythmic knock on the door, and a gentle voice politely asked, "How are the educated youth comrades?"

Xiao Aiyun quickly packed up the wet clothes she had changed last night and looked at everyone nervously: "It's Director Jiao."

Jiao Liang, the director of Xiufengshan Farm, is about 40 years old. He went to the provincial capital some time ago to participate in a political study organized by the Agricultural Reclamation Bureau and only returned to the farm last week. Jiao Liang was very friendly and always smiled when he saw the educated youth. Everyone generally had a good impression of him.

Li Huilan folded the quilt and checked that there was no private item exposed. Then she walked to the door, pulled out a chair and opened the door.

Jiao Liang stood with his hands behind his back and glanced around the office with a smile. The unique warm fragrance of a girl spread, making him a little dazed. A strange light flashed in his eyes, and he greeted her warmly: "The storm came suddenly last night, and the field office was caught off guard, causing the educated youth comrades to suffer."

Thinking about how she had knocked on Director Luo's door for a long time last night, Li Huilan was furious and glared at Luo Xuan who was following Jiao Liang. "Director Jiao, you are right. The educated youth really suffered. We walked from the educated youth point to the site in such a strong wind and rain last night. We were wet, cold and sleepy. But Director Luo was sleeping soundly and I couldn't open the door even if I knocked on it."

Luo Xuan laughed: "Alas! I have trouble sleeping because of my age. I took two sleeping pills last night and finally fell asleep. The drug was so strong that I didn't hear the knock on the door. I'm really sorry."

Jiao Liang also quickly calmed the educated youths: "In this matter, Director Luo was indeed wrong. I will criticize him seriously later!"

"Captain! Captain! Something bad has happened—" Huang Xingwu ran over in a panic and whispered something into Jiao Liang's ear.

Tao Nanfeng had sharp ears and eyes, and heard it clearly.

"Director, the house at the educated youth camp No. 6 is destroyed! The walls and roof were all blown off, one of the beams was broken, half of the roof frame collapsed, and the bunks were all smashed. Fortunately, I notified the educated youth to evacuate here overnight, so there were no casualties..."

Tao Nanfeng stood up suddenly and walked to Li Huilan. He stared at Huang Xingwu with his clear eyes, and his voice trembled: "What did you say?"

What happened in the dream actually happened!

Huang Xingwu was stared at by this pair of clear and pure eyes. He couldn't say anything to compete with Xiangbei for the credit. He swallowed quietly and spoke with a stutter: "What, what did you say?"

Tao Nanfeng pursed his lips, trying to calm his anger: "The house collapsed?"

Although her voice was not loud, it was very clear. Li Huilan screamed: "What? The house collapsed!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Qin and Xiao Aiyun rushed to the door in fear, holding onto Tao Nanfeng's arms, and shouted, "Our house collapsed?"

Ye Qin and Xiao Aiyun both had loud voices, and their shouting alarmed the office next door. A dozen male educated youths ran out of the room and asked, "What! The educated youth point collapsed?"

Huang Xingwu was a little nervous and looked at Jiao Liang.

Jiao Liang kept smiling: "As long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood. As long as the people are fine, we can just rebuild the house if it collapses."

Li Huilan grabbed Tao Nanfeng and said to Ye Qin and Xiao Aiyun, "You stay and look after the things. Tao Nanfeng and I will go over and take a look."

Qiao Yadong also began to call out names: "Wei Min, Chen Zhilu, you come with me. The rest of you stay here. Don't lose anything."

Huang Xingwu tried to stop them: "Hey, the scene is too chaotic. You stay here first, and wait for our comrades from the infrastructure department to come to work and then go over to clean it up."

Wei Min is the son of a worker. He has many brothers and sisters in his family, and their conditions are not good. They live a simple life and are very frugal with every stitch. The incident happened suddenly last night, and Wei Min only brought two sets of clean clothes and some important items. He didn't have time to take out big items such as cotton-padded clothes, cotton-padded jacket, and quilt from home.

Hearing that the house had collapsed, Wei Min was extremely worried. How could he stay here any longer? He pushed Huang Xingwu away and said, "Get out of here! Do you still want to control me when I go back to my own house?"

Qiao Yadong frowned and looked at Jiao Liang: "Director, after the storm, the office building of the field was safe and sound, but the thatched house of our educated youth camp was completely destroyed.

If this matter is reported... to put it mildly, it is because the site office lacks safety awareness. To put it more seriously, the quality of the project was not up to standard, and they did not value us, the educated youth from Jiangcheng, which violated the central government's line, principles and policies on sending educated youth to the countryside! ”

Huang Xingwu had not expected these 17 or 18-year-old high school students to be so amazing. Beads of sweat oozed from his forehead and he spoke stutteringly.

"You, don't make a big deal out of it! We in the Infrastructure Department have worked diligently to build houses for you so that you can live and work in peace and contentment on the farm. Even if we have no credit, we have worked hard. This rainstorm is really rare. What can we do when a natural disaster comes?"

Qiao Yadong was so angry that he didn't want to remain silent any longer. He sneered, "Natural disaster? Why didn't you have any problems with natural disasters? You leaders and cadres had a peaceful night, but the twenty of us educated youth were displaced and could only settle down in the office temporarily.

The Chairman said that we should go among the masses, learn from them, solve their problems, and bring liberation and happiness to them. Is this how you, the party cadres, serve the people? ! ”

Every word was powerful and drew warm applause from the educated youth.

"Yes! If you don't serve the people, you might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes."

"You eat well, drink well and sleep well, but you let us educated youth live in thatched houses and eat in big pots. This is a bureaucratic style and must be criticized."

"We signed up to go to the countryside to build farms, not to work like slaves for you leaders."

The smell of gunpowder was getting stronger and stronger, and the atmosphere on the scene was on the verge of breaking out. It seems that these young people will be ignited with just a spark.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Jiao Liang hurriedly smiled and tried to comfort him.

"Everyone, everyone, listen to me. The most urgent thing now is to go to the educated youth site to check the situation, and then we will discuss the follow-up arrangements together. Please rest assured, I promise that I will definitely make up for your property losses this time and instruct the Infrastructure Department to speed up the repair of the houses."

All the educated youth looked at Qiao Yadong.

Qiao Yadong's eyes were deep: "Director Jiao, we will wait and see."

After saying that, he shook his head, motioning Li Huilan and Tao Nanfeng to follow, and the five of them hurried to the educated youth site. The remaining fifteen educated youth guarded the office, as if it was everyone's rear base for retreat.

Tao Nanfeng's heart was beating like a drum as he ran all the way.

If Xiangbei had not appeared in time yesterday, the educated youth would probably still be huddled in the thatched huts and suffering. Once the beams collapse, the roof frame will collapse and the entire main structure will not be able to support itself, and the consequences will be worrying.

Not only will you get wet in the rain and cold, but what if the beam falls on your head? What to do if a leg is broken?

Li Huilan ran so fast that she was a little out of breath. "Huh...Huh! I only carried out a nylon bag. The sheets, mattress, books, pens, shoes, washbasin, etc. were all in the room. There was also a pot of orchid I raised. I don't know what happened to it."

Because her name contains the word "Lan", Li Huilan prefers orchids. She dug up a bag of spring orchids in the mountains and regarded them as treasures, keeping them in her house.

Qiao Yadong comforted her, "Don't worry, except for the paper which is afraid of water, everything else is fine. We can still use it after drying it in the sun. Let's clean it up quickly and try to minimize the loss."

I rushed to the scene and saw it was devastated.

The wet thatch was scattered everywhere, on the ground, in the ditch, on the hillside, on the treetops...

The east roof of the girls' dormitory collapsed completely, and the bunk beds where the girls slept were almost completely crushed by broken wood.

The muddy ground was littered with dry branches, cracked door panels, broken basins, broken glass, clothes, shoes...

"Gurgle--" A flowerpot rolled to Li Huilan's feet, and the orchid that was swaying gracefully yesterday was left with only a broken leaf.

Li Huilan slowly squatted down, picked up the flowerpot with trembling hands, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had always been strong and never gave up, but at this moment her heart was broken and she cried silently.

Wei Min was furious and kicked open the half-broken door at his feet. "You bastard! This house is of such poor quality that it will collapse if the wind blows."

Qiao Yadong sighed and said, "Let's pick up our personal belongings first, and then we'll go back and ask other educated youth to come over and pack their own things."

Tao Nanfeng secretly felt fortunate that he had taken out the wicker box last night.

In that wicker box, besides his two favorite books, there were also personal belongings such as money, food coupons, clothes, and cotton-padded jackets. Fortunately, I am strong enough to carry the entire rattan box to the site, otherwise...

In addition to the rattan box, there are some daily necessities that were not brought out. Tao Nanfeng searched among the ruins for his towel, shoes, and spare clothes, and placed all these scattered items in an enamel basin with a white background and red flowers.

Although the thatched houses at the educated youth site were dilapidated, they served as a shelter for everyone. After living there for more than ten days, I gradually got used to it. But seeing it collapse before my eyes and the ground in a mess, I felt very sad.

After the educated youth finished sorting out the ruins in the mud and returned to the site, Luo Xuan gave a speech on behalf of the site leaders.

"Not only you, the other five youth camps have also suffered varying degrees of damage. The camp has held a meeting and will vacate two offices for you to rest and move back after the infrastructure department has repaired the houses. The mountain road has collapsed, cement and bricks cannot be transported up, and there is a shortage of manpower, so we can only do simple repairs at the moment. Please understand.

The mountain was covered with thatch and trees were cut down at random. All the educated youth participated in the construction and obeyed the command of Section Chief Huang. During this period, everyone will eat in the canteen of the site. As for the expenses... we will calculate them together next month. ”

Hearing this, everyone was furious. Wei Min was the first to jump up. "It's because you didn't repair the house. Not only did we have no place to live, but our quilts, clothes, and luggage were all soaked in water. And you still have the nerve to charge us for meals in the cafeteria? Ugh!"

The educated youths all started to make a scene. Luo Xuan had not expected that this batch of educated youths would be so fierce. He had always bullied the weak and feared the strong, so he had to give in: "Okay, okay, I'll give you ten days, and the food and lodging will be free for these ten days, okay?"

Qiao Yadong stood up and said, "Everyone's bedding is wet. What should we do?"

Luo Xuan's head was throbbing with pain, and he just hoped that these twenty educated youth would not cause trouble: "Give each of them a military blanket and three yuan in material subsidies, is that ok?"

The educated youth finally calmed down.

When Luo Xuan left, everyone had a hint of excitement on their faces. Everyone worked together in the face of the disaster, and the educated youth felt the power of unity for the first time.

"It's great to have a quilt so I can sleep warmly."

"Although three dollars isn't a lot, it can at least make up for the loss."

"We were too honest in the past, and we must remain so in the future, united against all odds and fighting for our legitimate rights and interests."

Tao Nanfeng said nothing, but looked down at the gray concrete floor and thought to himself.

The mountains are covered with thatch and trees are cut down at random? Winter is coming soon. Xiufeng Mountain Villa, which is 1,500 meters above sea level, will definitely be very cold. How can we withstand the cold winter by building thatched houses like the ones we used to build?

The author has something to say:

To explain, the leaders of Xiufengshan Farm currently include the farm manager Jiao Liang, office director Luo Xuan, and infrastructure section chief Huang Xingwu. Because it is located high in the mountains, with inconvenient transportation and no telephone access, coupled with strong leadership, the management of this farm is somewhat chaotic, which makes people very unhappy.

The three leaders who have appeared so far are all villains, and the educated youth will work together to defeat them one by one. But because the educated youth from Jiangcheng were only high school graduates, they had little social experience and were new to the country, they could only familiarize themselves with the environment and work hard to improve their living conditions.

All struggles don’t go away overnight, trust me, everything will be alright!

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