"Alright, stop dawdling."
I don't want to be separated from the group for too long. If there are really wolves or tigers, we'd both be wolf food.
Jiang Tiecheng patted his shoulder.
Chen Ruixue hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and hooked her arm around Jiang Tiecheng's neck.
Jiang Tiecheng hooked his large hands around her knees and easily lifted her onto his back.
This girl is so thin, she seems to float on my back as if I'm not carrying her at all.
Just like a feather.
Jiang Tiecheng strode forward quickly and soon returned to the two-person luggage carriage.
Huang Youqing was sitting on the side of the car in front, blowing smoke rings, when he glanced sideways and saw two familiar faces.
I grinned. These young men and women are so charming; they're obviously a couple.
This guy is an honest man; he's stayed by his partner's side despite all that.
After walking for about 5 more hours, the group finally saw the village ahead.
The village is nestled at the foot of a mountain.
Smoke curled from the chimneys, and everyone was drenched in sweat as they walked.
The houses here are not brick houses, but adobe houses.
The houses, built of mud bricks, often had thatched roofs.
They knew the countryside was poor, but they didn't expect it to be this poor.
There wasn't even a brick house in sight.
For a moment, everyone felt a little discouraged; they didn't know what awaited them.
The carriage quickly passed through the village, and many villagers stood at their doorsteps, watching them with their hands tucked into their sleeves.
Everyone looked pale and thin.
Some people didn't know what to say. They had all heard that this was the Northwest, and that there was a lot of wind and sand, little water, and a large temperature difference.
It can be scorching hot in summer and freezing cold in winter.
But I've never heard of a food shortage here.
We went straight out of the village and arrived at an open space at the foot of the mountain at the very back of the village.
Everyone was stunned, because what they saw in front of them was not a house at all.
Huang Youqing jumped out of the car and pointed to the things in front of him that looked a bit like small mounds of earth.
"Don't look anymore, this is a dugout, our village doesn't have the ability to build houses for you."
These were the dugouts where the workers in the forest farm used to live.
The forest farm has moved up the mountain, so this place is temporarily unoccupied. You can choose and allocate yourselves.
"If you need anything or want any help, just come to the village committee office to find me."
And you should solve your own food problem. You should know that our village has also been affected by the disaster.
Hundreds of villages around us have been affected by the disaster, and no family is well-off.
The county hasn't issued our grain rations, so you have no grain.
“If you need to fetch water, there’s a river right at the entrance of our village. You all saw it when we came over. We can fetch water from there.”
"Go up the mountain to chop firewood."
"The one thing we have no shortage of here is firewood."
After saying this, Huang Youqing told them to take their luggage and then led his men back to the village in horse-drawn carriages and oxcarts, completely abandoning them.
Everyone stood there, somewhat stunned, in front of the dugout.
Many young people in later generations don't know what a dugout is.
A dugout is simply a pit dug in the ground, and this pit is never very high.
The tallest is 1.8 meters, and the shortest is only 1.5 meters.
Several large wooden beams were placed on top of the pit, and then woven straw mats were laid on top of the beams to serve as the roof of the earthen house.
Yellow mud is then pasted onto this kind of straw mat.
Where possible, a pane of glass would be placed on the roof, which would be the only source of light in the dugout.
The entrance is made of excavated steps.
Ordinary people would have to stoop to stand up in these dugouts; it's simply impossible.
Therefore, living in a dugout is a very painful and stifling experience.
These young people from the city had never seen anything like this before. Even if their families were poor, at least they had a house to live in.
While these people were still in a daze, they saw a young man carrying his luggage striding towards the dugout in front.
Of course, he already knew this before Jiang Tiecheng came to the countryside, after all, Jiang Jincheng had told him a lot about how hard it was for him when he went to the countryside in his previous life.
We're here to endure hardship, what's there to be afraid of?
The others immediately started making sarcastic remarks.
"Oh, the great hero isn't afraid of hardship or fatigue at all."
"We're still too narrow-minded."
"I never imagined that being sent to the countryside as an educated youth would result in this kind of treatment."
"At least we should be given a place to live, even a mud-brick house would be better than this."
"Is this a place for humans to live? It's worse than a pigsty."
"I won't stay, I absolutely won't stay."
"If that Captain Huang is so capable, then he should leave us alone. If anything happens to any of us tonight, let's see how he explains himself to the county."
Someone is sulking.
Chen Ruixue hesitated for a moment when she saw Jiang Tiecheng walking towards the dugout.
He quickly realized that Jiang Tiecheng had been a shrewd and calculating person all along, and following such a person would definitely not be a mistake.
What's there to be afraid of in a house where someone can defuse bombs?
He limped towards his luggage, but Jiang Tiecheng simply waved him away.
“You stand there and wait for me for a while.”
In a short while, Jiang Tiecheng came out empty-handed.
He picked up Chen Ruixue's luggage and helped her walk directly to a dugout.
"I've already checked. I live in that dugout next door, and it's fairly clean."
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