Although there was a well in the educated youth compound, Chen Shuning was not strong enough, so Dong Weibing always helped her with the task of drawing water.
Of course, Chen Shuning's space is not short of water, so she doesn't use much water in a day, but she still has to do the superficial work.
As soon as Chen Shuning said this, Liu Shumei's face turned bright red. She stomped her feet and cursed angrily, "What nonsense are you talking about, you brat? Who said you and he are a couple?"
She and Dong Weibing had just started dating. They had been working in the countryside for four or five years and, seeing no hope of returning to the city, and having always had good feelings for each other, they decided to start a relationship and planned to get married after the autumn harvest.
Because Chen Shuning really couldn't carry water, and Liu Shumei liked this sensible girl Chen Shuning, she asked her boyfriend to help Chen Shuning carry two buckets of water every day.
Chen Shuning knew that people were very reserved about their feelings at this time, so he stopped teasing Liu Shumei. He handed the oil paper package to Liu Shumei and said with a smile, "Okay, Sister Shumei, I won't tease you anymore. I really bought a lot. Please be kind and help me eat some."
Liu Shumei's face was still burning hot. She glared at the mischievous little girl in front of her and said, "Wait here, I'll get you some mugwort," before running quickly toward the old house.
After burning mugwort to fumigate the house, Chen Shuning didn't light any lamps. Instead, he sat by the window, cracking sunflower seeds in the afterglow of the setting sun, listening to the old and new educated youth chatting about gossip they had heard in the front yard.
This program was arguably the most lively show before bedtime in the educated youth compound, and Chen Shuning always listened with great interest.
When it got completely dark, everyone washed up and went to bed. Only then did Chen Shuning light an oil lamp and go to the kitchen to fetch water to wash up. Usually at this time, she would close the doors and windows, go into her space, take a nice bath, watch a movie or TV series she had downloaded before, eat some snacks, and then go to sleep.
But today was different. After a quick wash, Chen Shuning saw that there was no one in the courtyard, so she quickly hid at the door and quietly slipped into the space.
She had been holding it in for quite a while and really didn't want to go to that horrible toilet at the educated youth settlement. So these past few days, apart from going to the toilet in the northeast corner of the courtyard every morning when there were many people, Chen Shuning had been taking care of all her needs in the bathroom in the space.
She didn't know the workings of her space. It was just that there was a garbage dump in the backyard of the villa, and the garbage in that dump would decompose at regular intervals. As for where it decomposed to, Chen Shuning didn't know. She only knew that she didn't need to worry about the garbage generated in her space.
The night in the cabin wasn't as bad as Chen Shuning had imagined. The night breeze blowing in through the window relieved the daytime heat, and Chen Shuning even woke up from the cold at night. She got up, found a thicker blanket, and changed into it before finally getting a good night's sleep.
The next day, Chen Shuning's team changed their task from weeding to irrigating the rice paddies.
Because the nighttime temperature in Heilongjiang Province can drop below zero in mid-September, people have to start preparing for the autumn harvest as soon as September begins.
Moreover, the autumn harvest is a very urgent task. Before the weather gets cold, everyone is thinking about making the grains in the grain-filling stage ripen a little more so that the harvest can be greater.
The weather, which gets cold earlier than in other places, only gives farmers about twenty days at most. To harvest a large area of crops entirely by hand in these twenty days, the intensity of the labor is unimaginable.
So when the team leader was assigning tasks this morning, he said that we would have a day off tomorrow so that everyone could rest at home and take good care of their health in preparation for the autumn harvest the day after tomorrow.
Chen Shuning was in a very good mood all day because of this good news. The end of the autumn harvest meant that a year's hard work was about to end. This news made everyone very happy, and their steps after work were much more cheerful. Along the way, whether they were villagers or educated youth, they were all chatting and laughing.
When they passed by the brigade headquarters, the village accountant delivered another stack of letters to the educated youth settlement, two of which were from Chen Shuning, which made her already good mood even better.
Along with the letter came two parcel slips. Chen Shuning assumed they were for warm clothes or something her mother had sent, so she didn't look at the slips carefully. She figured she'd find out what it was when she picked it up tomorrow, so she wasn't curious.
Another thing is that she had wanted to go to town to look for the black market for a long time. You see, although she has a lot of things in her space, she doesn't have much money. If possible, she still wants to save as much money as possible so that she can buy the courtyard house she has been longing for when the time is right.
After returning to her room with the letter, Chen Shuning first changed out of her dirty work clothes and soaked them in water, planning to throw them into the washing machine in her space after everyone had fallen asleep that night.
After washing his hands and face, he didn't rush to cook. Instead, he sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and started opening the letters. There were two letters, one from his family in Beijing and the other from the Southern Military Region.
The letter from home was written by Chen's mother. The letter first said that everything was fine at home and that she didn't need to worry about home. It also mentioned that Chen's father had made a meritorious contribution in a criminal arrest operation and might be promoted soon.
She was also told to take good care of herself and to call home if she got into trouble. Chen's mother also said that she had already called her older brother and told him her address.
She also asked her older brother to find a way to get her a military overcoat, since the winters here are really cold, and Chen Ma was genuinely worried that she would get cold here.
She also said she sent her some things and told her to remember to pick them up. In short, she was full of maternal concern and worried that her daughter wouldn't be able to take good care of herself here alone.
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