After traveling for more than an hour against the wind and snow, the two finally returned to Hongqi Brigade. As soon as they stepped into the village, Shen Hongmei noticed that the courtyard in front of the brigade headquarters was unusually noisy.
Thinking that the brigade must have slaughtered a pig, Shen Hongmei was so happy that she stopped taking the car and ran quickly into the brigade headquarters. Sure enough, they were slaughtering a pig for the New Year!
She inquired with a male educated youth who, despite the unfavorable rumors circulating about her in the educated youth settlement, still treated her very well.
Sure enough, it was the brigade slaughtering a pig for the New Year, and they said that each of the educated youth would get two and a half ounces of pork.
This news instantly dampened Shen Hongmei's initial excitement. While the educated youth in Qingshan Brigade received two jin of pork each, their share was only two and a half liang, a mere one-tenth of what the others received.
Both were sent-down youth, yet the difference in treatment between two production brigades located less than ten kilometers apart was far too great, making people feel resentful.
However, as the saying goes, even muntjac meat is meat, so despite some disappointment, Shen Hongmei joined the other educated youth and lined up in an orderly fashion at the brigade headquarters to wait for her share of meat.
Xu Lu, on the other hand, stood comfortably by Shen Hongmei's side, waiting with her. Despite the constant pointing and whispering around him, Xu Lu didn't care at all. He simply stood quietly beside Shen Hongmei, silently asserting his dominance.
While waiting in line, Chen Hongmei, with nothing to do, wandered around with her eyes, which eventually settled on the three lonely little pigs on the cutting board.
This scene intensified her desire to go to Qingshan Brigade.
It's worth noting that the Red Flag Brigade and the Green Mountain Brigade, to which they belong, are actually about the same size, so why is there such a big difference between the two places?
This year, Qingshan Brigade slaughtered a full seven fat pigs! And each one was so plump and strong; look at the three piglets in our brigade, they are seriously malnourished compared to them!
Besides, whenever Shen Hongmei recalled the days she spent at the Qingshan Brigade educated youth settlement, her heart was filled with resentment and jealousy.
First, let's talk about the living environment. Over there, not only are there such nice single rooms to live in, but even the dormitories are much better than ours.
Another issue is the treatment of educated youth and team members. The two brigades treated the educated youth in completely different ways.
As fellow educated youth, those in Qingshan Brigade clearly enjoyed far better treatment than them.
Take the distribution of pork as an example; these educated youths could only receive half the share of ordinary team members.
In other words, each team member could receive half a pound of pork, but when it came to the educated youth, the amount was drastically reduced to a mere two and a half ounces.
However, in Qingshan Brigade, there was no difference in treatment between educated youth and team members. Everyone worked for the same pay and there was no so-called hierarchy.
After such a stark contrast, Shen Hongmei felt a deep longing and anticipation for Qingshan Brigade.
Shen Hongmei silently looked down at the two and a half ounces of pork she had received after a long queue, and suddenly lost all interest.
She returned to the educated youth settlement with a dejected expression, and all she could see were ruins—the wall was so dilapidated that only half of it remained.
Inside the walls, the dilapidated mud and thatched houses were on the verge of collapse. In the summer, when it rained heavily outside, it drizzled inside. On days with strong winds and rain, they seemed as if they could collapse at any moment in a strong gust of wind.
The arrival of winter has been a nightmare for them.
Whenever the snowflakes fall a little more heavily, they have to climb onto the roof to shovel the snow.
Otherwise, the fragile, rickety thatched roof would very likely collapse under the weight of the heavy snow.
Winter has only just begun! She has already been woken up several times in the middle of the night to clear the snow, each time standing in this yard, where even the walls are not intact, with the north wind blowing, exhausted and weary.
Although the female educated youths weren't required to climb up and down, who would dare stay in a house where snow was being cleared? What if the house collapsed and people were trapped inside? It was better to be a little cold than to be crushed and have their heads smashed.
It was precisely because of this that when Yang Wanqiu mentioned that she lived alone in a single room in Qingshan Brigade, she, who had always looked down on Yang Wanqiu, disregarded her pride and humbly begged to go with Yang Wanqiu to stay there for a while.
This stark contrast intensified Shen Hongmei's desire to switch teams.
She gestured for Xu Lu to wait for her at the door, then went inside alone and carefully carried the remaining grain out of the house bit by bit.
Since that incident, everyone has doubted her character, since no one likes to be around someone who is a liar.
With the added fuel of the fire by several female educated youths who didn't get along with her, the relationship between her and her roommates plummeted to a freezing point, and the atmosphere became extremely tense.
So even though there were still quite a few people in the house, when they saw her come back alone to carry the grain, the educated youth who were originally sitting on the kang chatting were all unmoved, and not one of them had any intention of getting up to help.
However, there were many people making sarcastic remarks. A female educated youth with two braids and a handful of melon seeds was looking at Shen Hongmei, who had almost emptied the cabinet, with a strange look.
With a sarcastic tone, he said, "Oh, Hongmei, it seems you've climbed to a higher position, looking down on this wretched place of ours! Have you already found a new place and are you planning to move away? Judging from your appearance, it seems you're determined not to come back."
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