Xu Ning carried 40 kilograms of sorghum flour on her back, intending to go to the village to grind it into flour. This was the food she had distributed, and she was going to mix it with other flour to eat. There was still snow on the ground, so she didn't let the two little ones follow her.
There were quite a lot of people grinding flour today. A few aunties who were waiting by the millstone saw Xu Ning coming over with a backpack on his back.
"Xu Zhiqing, come and grind the flour," said the fourth aunt who used to work with Xu Ning.
"Aunt Si, we are out of flour. I will carry some sorghum to grind some flour."
Fourth Aunt came up to her again and whispered, "Xu Zhiqing, do you know? Lin Zhiqing, who just came to your courtyard this year, has moved in with Dayong's family and is paid ten yuan a month. How many things can you buy with ten yuan? Even though Dayong's house is made of bricks and tiles, it still doesn't cost ten yuan! Xu Zhiqing is really rich."
The family of Dayong mentioned by Fourth Aunt has three brick and tile houses. The eldest son works in a machinery factory in the county after graduating from high school. The wife he found also works in the machinery factory. One daughter is in junior high school in the countryside, and the youngest son is in the second grade. The conditions are among the best. Dayong's wife is also a neat and tidy person. The family the heroine found is a good one.
Xu Ning smiled and didn't respond to Fourth Aunt's words. Seeing that Xu Ning didn't say anything, Fourth Aunt asked again, "Xu Zhiqing, how much did you buy the bicycle for? Did you need a bicycle ticket?"
Xu Ning said, "Aunt Four, that bicycle was not bought by me, but by my sister-in-law. She has been taking care of the kids at home and not going to work, so she lent it to me for a while."
"I saw you riding back the other day and it looked like new,"
"Fourth Aunt, that bicycle looks like new. She bought it half a year ago. Doesn't she take good care of it? Nowadays, who wouldn't treat a bicycle like a treasure? It's only because I have a good relationship with my sister-in-law that she lent it to me for a while," Xu Ning had just finished speaking when someone in front of him called out Fourth Aunt. "Sister Wang, it's your turn."
As soon as Fourth Aunt left, a girl standing nearby asked Xu Ning, "Are you the educated youth who lives in the small house behind the educated youth compound?" Xu Ning nodded.
The girl immediately introduced herself, "My name is Wei Lanlan, I'm 17 years old, I'm from Ontario, and I just came here to work in the countryside a while ago."
Xu Ning glanced at Wei Lanlan. She remembered that in the book Little Wife in the Seventies, this Wei Lanlan was not mentioned much. She looked down on the heroine who was wavering between two men and didn't deal with her much. If the heroine annoyed her, she would often make a few sarcastic remarks and never let the heroine get the upper hand. After the college entrance examination was resumed, she was admitted to a normal university in a certain province.
Xu Ning looked at her and said, "I'm Xu Ning, from Beijing, and I've been working in the countryside for almost a year."
Wei Lanlan asked, "Then why did you move out? Why don't you live in the Youth House? You spend your own money to repair the house, what will you do when you return to the city in the future?"
Xu Ning told Li Fengjiao and Lin Qiuhua about how they bullied her and Xu An and withheld their food rations. The original owner had lost her life, so she would not cover up for those two people.
"I knew those two were not good people. They asked me to share the pastries I brought when I first arrived with everyone, but they ate them secretly," Wei Lanlan said angrily.
Wei Lanlan talked about the quarrel in the Youth League Courtyard yesterday. Li Miao said that a female educated youth used her expensive facial cleanser. The other female educated youth said it was useless and mocked Lin Miao for applying it all day long to look seductive and seduce men. In the end, the two people even fought.
When Xu Ning finished grinding the flour and left, Wei Lanlan asked her if she could go and play with her.
Xu Ning agreed. It was impossible for her to not interact with anyone. She could still interact with anyone with a normal mind.
Xu Ning returned home and put the ground flour on the kitchen shelf, planning to make lunch. She steamed some buns she made yesterday, made some corn paste, and mixed some pickles. The two little ones liked the buns she made yesterday very much. Xu An could eat four fist-sized buns in one meal, and Xiao Mo would also eat two. Xu Ning planned to use the nine pig heads in the space to make buns.
Now that the weather is cold, the three of them are sitting on the kang to eat. Xu An has already put the kang table on the kang. While eating, Xu An and Xu Ning said, "Sister, Jianmin told me that the old people in the village said that the snow fell early this year, and I'm afraid it will be colder than previous years. Aunt Dashuan asked us to chop more firewood. The weather has been good these two days, so let's go up the mountain to chop some firewood!"
It is said that the weather forecasts of the elderly farmers are more accurate than those of the weather forecasters. Xu Ning believes this very much. Although they already have enough firewood to burn in the winter, they think that they have nothing to do at home now, so they might as well go up the mountain a few more times. So they plan to go up the mountain in the afternoon.
She wants to go to the county town tomorrow. There are more than 500 bed sheets in the space and she plans to sell some of them. Now supplies are tight and she dare not take out so many at one time. She might as well sell some every year!
In the afternoon, the siblings sent Xu Mo to Grandpa Qi's place and went up the mountain. There were many people chopping wood today, and some whole families went out. Xu Ning thought about it and asked Xu An to go to the Youth House to tell Sun Hao and the others to prepare more wood.
Sun Hao, Chen Xiangdong, and Ge Hongbin had already moved into the house they had built before the snow started, and they ate separately from the educated youth.
There were seven or eight educated youths who went up the mountain with Xu An, including Sun Hao, Chen Xiangdong, Ge Hongbin, Wei Lanlan, Gu Wenping, and another man who was with the male and female protagonists that Xu Ning met on the mountain that day, who should be the supporting actor Yang Wenli. The other two, a man and a woman, were unknown to each other. When they got to the mountain, they didn't say hello much and just started chopping wood.
Everyone knows the winter here. What would happen without firewood? Originally, the educated youth's settlement didn't have much firewood, and with so many people living together, they didn't know how to use collective things economically, so they were all anxious.
Xu An told Xu Ning that when he went to the Youth Hostel to talk to Chen Xiangdong and the others, Chen Xiangdong told him that the three of them had actually prepared a lot of firewood, and they were afraid that the Youth Hostel would run out of firewood, and if they didn't lend it to them, there would definitely be a conflict.
So Chen Xiangdong went to tell the people at the Youth League Home that the old people in the village said that this winter was very cold and that all the adults and children in the village had gone up the mountain to chop firewood. He asked them if they wanted to go up the mountain with them.
Xu Ning didn't care. It was not that she was meddling in other people's business. She was afraid that by that time the mountain would be blocked by heavy snow and their firewood would be burned out. She and Xu An had stored so much firewood here, and it would be annoying if they had to borrow it all day long.
Xu Ning asked Xu An to chop the trees on the mountain while she carried them down the mountain. The brother and sister chopped a large pile of trees in the afternoon.
When I went to Grandpa Qi's house to pick up Xiao Mo in the evening, I saw a lot of firewood piled up in the backyard. It should have been chopped by his father and Uncle Lu in the mountains these days.
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