Chapter 67 First Arrival
The personnel in the camp consist of three parts.
Some were long-time employees in Xinjiang Province, some were young people mobilized from Shanghai this year to support the border regions, and some were high school graduates like Song Lubai who signed up for the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps' Commercial Department.
The older employees generally looked older, their faces etched with the marks of time.
The young people from Shanghai arrived more than four months earlier than Song Lubai and her group.
Over the past four months, they have endured the scorching sun of the Northwest and the grueling farm work that nearly kills them. Their spirits and energy have noticeably declined compared to the new batch of arrivals.
If they hadn't truly been unable to bear it, they wouldn't have resorted to running away.
Almost everyone in Song Lubai's new batch brought a lunchbox, and even those who didn't had a lunchbox brought a bowl specifically for eating.
But at lunchtime, they saw many people eating with metal sheets.
The so-called "iron sheet" is a shovel used for digging soil here. After removing the long, round wooden handle, the iron sheet is rinsed with water and can be used to hold rice.
Song Lubai and her group had their eyes opened again.
Last night, each of them had their own boxed lunch, but today at noon, a group of them were eating brown rice around a bowl of vegetables.
Those who had bowls or lunchboxes used them to hold rice, while those who didn't eat used metal plates.
Everyone sat on the ground, with an average of a dozen people sharing a single pot of food. The food in the pot disappeared incredibly quickly.
The dish in the rice bowl was stir-fried green beans with pork. The pork skin still had hair on it, but no one complained that it was unclean.
Since it's considered good to be able to eat meat once a month, after this meal, who knows when we'll be able to eat meat again? Everyone is picking at their food incredibly fast.
Song Lubai and her group of twenty women shared most of the dish. Compared to other groups, their dish disappeared relatively slowly.
There were still quite a few vegetables left in the pot. Noticing the stares from other groups looking at their pot of vegetables, everyone silently sped up their work.
Noticing someone carrying a bowl coming this way, Wu Zhaodi quickly shoveled a mouthful of rice into her mouth, then got up, picked up the basin, and distributed the food to everyone's bowls.
Seeing that the bowl of vegetables was empty, the girls in the circle all breathed a sigh of relief.
What they were sharing was not just any food, but meat and vegetables that they might not get to eat even once a month.
They all heard when they were getting their meals that the company hadn't had meat for a month and a half.
Their dish was already nearly a quarter less than the others, so they couldn't let others take advantage of it.
The men who rushed over, hoping to take advantage of the situation, could only stare helplessly.
They thought they could get more food by being shameless, but they ended up dividing it up themselves without giving them a chance to ask.
These city girls are really "shrewd"!
Only after everyone had finished eating all the food did they have time to greet the newcomers.
The "older" residents were curious about the newcomers, and the newcomers were also curious about the daily lives of the "older" residents.
While washing her lunchbox, Song Lubai asked the woman next to her, "Comrade, can I ask you something? Is it really true that we only get five yuan a month?"
The woman, whose skin was dark red, looked at Song Lubai, whose face was fair, with pity. She didn't answer Song Lubai's question, but said, "Go ask someone to buy you a headscarf and a straw hat. Once you start working in the fields, your face will be as dark as mine in less than a week. The headscarves here aren't stuffy, and they're comfortable to wear in the summer."
Song Lubai glanced at her face subconsciously, "Then why didn't you buy it?"
The woman pursed her lips and shook her head: "I can't bear to spend five yuan a month on such a small amount."
A one-way ticket home costs more than fifty yuan. The money I receive throughout the year isn't even enough for a round-trip ticket, so why would I buy a headscarf?
Saving money isn't easy, so it shouldn't be wasted on headscarves. This girl is much fairer-skinned than her; she'd feel bad for her if she got tanned.
Song Lubai: "..."
They really only gave me five yuan.
"That's not what they said when I signed up."
Song Lubai calculated her savings and realized that she would have to work for more than a year and not buy anything to save more than seventy yuan.
Her vision went black, and she felt like the sky was falling.
The woman lowered her voice: "When we came here, we were all full of enthusiasm, but after working here for four months, look at the calluses on my palms. They started as blisters and have now grown into thick calluses. My shoulders are deformed and I have a back problem. Before I came here, I had never put in so much effort."
Just as Song Lubai was about to speak, she saw the girl start wiping away tears as she spoke.
"I miss home, I want to go home, sob sob..."
The woman sniffled and wiped away her tears, quickly returning to normal.
Song Lubai didn't know how to comfort her, so she could only silently wash the lunchbox.
The midday sun was scorching, and it was impossible to go down to the fields to dig ditches before 5:30 pm.
After lunch, the elderly people went to their dugouts for a midday nap, which was the most comfortable time of their day besides sleeping at night.
With nothing to do and having been on the road for so many days, Song Lubai was covered in sour water. So she drew water from the well and brought it into her dugout, intending to wash herself with a towel.
"You guys keep watch at the door for me, and I'll watch over the door for you while you shower."
A door with only a curtain is really unsafe, but fortunately the light underneath is dim, which gives her some psychological comfort.
When the girls living with her saw her washing, they all felt itchy and took turns carrying buckets of water to wash themselves.
After wiping it clean, I washed the military uniform that I had worn for many days and hung it to dry on a rope tied to a pole not far from the camp.
By the time the main force started work, the uniforms, which had been exposed to the scorching sun for an hour, were completely dry.
Song Lubai's hair was dry and yellow, and she hadn't washed it for so many days. It was impossible to comb it properly. She couldn't stand it anymore, so she lit a fire and filled the pot with water.
While she was tending the fire, the female cooks returned.
Why are you boiling water?
The other party looked unfriendly and spoke with dissatisfaction.
Song Lubai poked at the stove with a fire poker, glancing at the other person: "I'll replenish the firewood after I use it to boil water for washing my hair. You don't need to look at me like that, as if I've done something heinous."
The woman choked, paused, and said, "Fishing for firewood here is not easy. You can run three miles and not find a single piece. Do you think it's so easy to find firewood?"
"Everyone usually washes their hair with water heated in the buckets by the well, but you're so delicate, do you think you're in the city? You don't know how to conserve water at all."
Being scolded for washing her hair made Song Lubai a little angry, but she also knew how to be reasonable.
"Don't worry, I've calculated how much firewood was used. If we can't find it today, we'll make up for it tomorrow."
The woman snorted, "You'd better hurry up and boil the water. The communal meal needs to be prepared in advance; we'll be starting to cook soon."
After the person left, Song Lubai looked around and indeed did not see any firewood nearby.
But no matter what, she would always make sure to replenish the firewood, no matter how far she had to go.
This large pot of water wasn't boiled just for her; she couldn't use it all herself, and there was also a share for the other female comrades living with who needed to wash their hair.
After the water was almost boiled, I added some cold water, lathered it with soap, rinsed it off, and only then did I feel alive again.
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