The chain on the old bicycle was practically sparking from Song Jingzhou's kicking.
This made Su Qingci clearly feel his fear of losing his life.
After driving quite a distance from the town, Song Jingzhou gradually slowed down.
"Today, the town is in complete chaos because they say they're arresting spies. They even raided the black market."
Su Qingci was startled, "You didn't buy any meat???"
Song Jingzhou choked, "Hey you little brat, don't you have even a shred of conscience?"
"It's so dangerous, and all you care about is your own flesh? Don't you care about me at all?"
"You're alright, aren't you? So you managed to buy some meat??"
"Did you manage to buy the meat?"
"I got it! I got it!"
The bicycle sped along the mountain road and soon arrived at the entrance of Gaotang Village.
This time, Song Jingzhou didn't even have a chance to speak.
As soon as the bicycle slowed down, she jumped off on her own.
"Okay, that's enough for now."
"How much meat did you buy for me?"
Song Jingzhou removed the basket lid and took out a piece of meat.
"Wow, this is delicious meat! I love this kind of seven-layered pork the most."
She was a meat lover, and even in her later life, as a middle-class person with considerable wealth, she still enjoyed eating braised pork belly.
She always finds lean meat dry and chewy, so she doesn't like it.
"There are seven jin in total."
"How much money do you have left?" Su Qingci held out one hand.
Song Jingzhou glanced at her sideways, giving her an air of "I'm not someone to mess with."
"Well, um, I don't want the rest. Consider it a treat for your water, thank you." Su Qingci touched her nose, picked up the meat, and ran off quickly.
"Do you have no conscience at all? Seven pounds of meat from the black market, and you still have money left over after ten yuan?"
Song Jingzhou grumbled irritably, "You should be asking me how much money I put in there?"
Su Qingci threw the meat into the farm, and as soon as she entered the educated youth settlement, she sensed that something was wrong.
After putting down the basket, he pulled Li Li, who was washing vegetables, aside and asked, "What's wrong? Why is she crying?"
The educated youth settlement was quiet at this moment, with only Zhou Huijuan's sobs audible.
Even Chen Haiying, who usually loves to jump around, sat on the bed in a daze without saying a word.
Li Li pulled Su Qingci aside and whispered, "She's feeling unwell."
“Chen Chuntao was doing housework when she was heavily pregnant and fell, resulting in a difficult childbirth. However, her in-laws refused to take her to the hospital and even scolded her for being a useless educated youth from the city who couldn’t even lay an egg.”
"After a near-death experience, I gave birth to a daughter, but my in-laws don't treat me well."
"She's not even out of confinement yet, and she's already carrying things to wash in the well."
"I heard he bled a lot last time, his face was as white as a ghost, and he was as thin as a stick."
"Liu Fang, the educated youth who married into the next village, came back crying today, her whole body covered in bruises."
"Not only were the local villagers unwilling to speak up for them, but they also said that they must have done something wrong."
"Otherwise, why would we get beaten up?"
"Everyone felt bad when they thought about their situation."
"Qingci, I'm also afraid. What if we can never go back? Do we just have to marry anyone here like they did?"
"They were bullied just like them, with no family to stand up for them."
Li Li's voice trembled slightly as she spoke.
Su Qingci comforted Li Li, "No, we're still young, we have time."
"We will definitely be able to go back."
Hearing Su Qingci comforting Li Li, Zhou Huijuan cried even harder.
She's already 24 this year, how many more years can she drag this out?
Chen Haiying was even more devastated, as she was the oldest person there, already a 25-year-old spinster.
Returning to the city is still a long way off, but they are getting too old to wait.
Not only the female educated youth, but even the male educated youth were in low spirits.
Luo Song and Lu Linping are fine; they haven't been here long.
Meng Changxiu and Meng Changhua have been here for almost three years, while Liu Qunfu has been here for more than four years.
The hardships of rural life had long since worn away the passion and pride they had when they arrived.
Every one of the educated youth here has a junior high school education, and they have all seen the prosperity of the outside world.
No one would willingly spend their entire life stuck farming in Gaotang Brigade.
After a simple dinner, everyone sat in the courtyard chatting and enjoying the cool air, as always.
"No matter how we get along in our daily lives, we should be even more united when we're out in public."
"Everyone saw the injuries on Liu Fang's body today."
Why did she cry when she returned to the educated youth settlement?
"Because she had nowhere to go, because her family home was in faraway Shanxi."
"Let's not talk about Liu Fang. Among the female educated youth who married out of our educated youth settlement, apart from a few who are doing alright."
“Most of the others suffered mistreatment in their husbands’ families, and a major reason for this was that these educated youths had no family to support them.”
"Therefore, I think we educated youth should unite as one even more."
"We must unite not only our unmarried comrades, but also our married comrades."
"Huijuan, if you have any good ideas, just say them," Chen Haiying said eagerly, fanning herself with a palm leaf fan.
Zhou Huijuan took a sip of water and continued.
"This is what I think: we can't just stand by and do nothing about people like Liu Fang and Shen Chuntao who are being bullied."
“Since their in-laws are bullying them because they have no family to rely on, then we, the educated youth, must stand up for ourselves.”
“From now on, our educated youth settlement will be their home.”
“If the girls who came from our educated youth settlement were bullied terribly, then we educated youths from our mothers’ hometowns would stand up for them and stand up for them.”
"Whether it's useful or not, at least we have to make our stance clear so that everyone understands that we, the educated youth from outside, are not so easy to bully."
"If they want to bully us married women, they'll have to see if we, their families, agree."
“Okay, Huijuan, I support your idea.”
"But what should we do?"
"Here's what I'm thinking: putting everything else aside, the most important thing right now is that we need to go to Liu Fang's place and Shen Chuntao's place together."
"Let's make our stance clear and put some pressure on these two companies."
"When we have nothing to do, we can get these sisters together to chat and have a heart-to-heart talk."
"We encourage and support each other, and we work together to find solutions to any difficulties we encounter."
"It's better than being trampled on like a fallen flower."
“Okay, Huijuan, that’s a good suggestion.”
“I support you. Now we are shielding the sisters in front from the wind and rain, so that in the future there will be someone to shelter us from the wind and rain.”
Chen Xiuxiang and Chen Haiying raised their hands in approval, and Li Li also clapped along.
Even the male educated youth thought it was a good idea.
Everyone was excitedly discussing how to outwit and outmaneuver the local villagers the next day.
The somber atmosphere was instantly dispelled.
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