Chapter 68 Chapter 68 Chapter 68...
Chapter 68
Kedong City is very close to Lianbai Town. Weisheng and his friends arrived at the Lianbai Town Bus Station at around noon.
They took down the bicycles fixed on the roof of the bus and put their luggage on the bicycles. Weisheng and the other two thanked the driver and then followed the crowd out of the bus station.
From Lianbai Town to Hujia Village, there were still over thirty miles to go. Walking would take four or five hours. Long distances are not easy to carry, and although they didn't have much luggage, the more they hurried, the more tired they became.
Since you have to take out your bicycle sooner or later, you might as well take it out earlier and use it earlier.
Knowing that at this time, all units except the state-owned canteen were on lunch break, Weisheng and the other two did not hesitate. They picked up their luggage and went straight to the state-owned canteen for lunch.
The three of them, desperate for home-cooked meals, had no choice but to settle for another meal in the state-owned cafeteria. Afterward, they didn't stop at the cafeteria, but headed to the street where the town government was located.
It was the end of August, the most pleasant time of year in the north. Perhaps that would be an exaggeration elsewhere, but here, to say it was crisp and clear was no exaggeration.
The three of them were standing only two hundred meters away from the town government. A slightly cool breeze brushed across their cheeks, as if opening all their pores. So Weisheng and the other two closed their eyes in enjoyment, and felt the gift of nature.
I don’t want to talk at this moment, I just want to stay here quietly for a while.
It was not until after three in the afternoon that Weisheng and the other two completed the procedures for going to the countryside as educated youth.
It was almost four o'clock when they left the town government's Youth Reception Office. If they went directly to the village at that time, they would not arrive until around nine o'clock in the evening.
In the end, the three of them spent the night in the town guesthouse.
At 5:30 the next day, Weisheng and the other two had breakfast in town and headed for the village. Since there were few people on the road, Weisheng took out another bicycle from home and let Ning Chaoyun ride it with her.
After 7:30 in the morning, pedestrians began to appear on the road, so Weisheng put the bicycle back into the space, and the three of them used another bicycle to continue their journey.
Sometimes Weisheng and Ning Chaoyun walked arm in arm in front, while Ming Yichen pushed his bicycle behind. Sometimes Weisheng walked alone at the back, while Ming Yichen pushed his bicycle and walked in front with Ning Chaoyun.
The couple always had endless things to talk about, and Weisheng was happy to listen to them talk about daily life, knowledge and academic topics.
They met several black celery plants on the road.
Black nightshade, also known as Solanum nigrum, is rich in vitamin C and B vitamins, which can boost immunity and promote iron absorption. Black nightshade is also a traditional Chinese medicine. It can clear away heat and toxins, reduce swelling and resolve lumps, and act as a diuretic and urinary tract infection. Eating it regularly can help alleviate constipation.
So Weisheng picked a lot of ripe black angelica along the way, used water to wash them, gave half to Ning Chaoyun and others, and ate the other half himself.
As time went by, Weisheng and his companions would occasionally run into villagers and educated youth heading to the town. When they saw someone, they would take the initiative to ask if Hujia Village was in this direction and how far it was from Hujia Village.
We walked and asked for directions along the way, and finally arrived at Hujia Village at nine o'clock in the morning.
At this time, all the villages and teams in the town have started the autumn harvest, and Hujia Village is also preparing to harvest corn next Monday.
As early as half a month ago, Hujia Village received a notice from the town, informing them that several educated youth were assigned to the village this year.
Among this group of educated youth there were both men and women, and some even had families.
When the village chief heard about this, his back teeth were swollen.
Most of the educated youth who had just come from the city were pampered and had a lot of things to do. In the first two years in the village, not to mention earning work points, they could even burn the house down while cooking.
He really didn't want to accept educated youth, but could he refuse?
Alas, Old Hu is so worried.
After returning from the town, Village Chief Lao Hu became even more angry.
They had seen single educated youth, but this was the first time they had heard of a couple of educated youth with a family.
It's easy for singles, the men can be assigned to the male educated youth dormitory and the women to the female educated youth dormitory, and that's it. But if a family of three goes to the countryside, they can't be separated too.
Another thing is, I don't know how old the child they brought is. If he's too young...
The next day, the village cadres held a meeting, and the village chief mentioned the situation of this year's educated youth to other village cadres.
In Hujia Village, food rations were distributed based on a 60% share of labor for every 60 people. This meant that regardless of whether or not the educated youth worked, the village had to give them 60% of their food rations each year. If one more person was given food, less food would be sold, and when wages were distributed at the end of the year, everyone would receive less.
I just want to ask, at this time, can village cadres and villagers welcome educated youth who have a bad reputation?
The villagers looked down on the educated youth from the city. Of course, the educated youth didn't look down on the villagers either. When they heard that some of them had come to the countryside with their families, they immediately became even more dissatisfied.
This way of taking advantage of others is so ugly!
Let’s not talk about those trivial things for now. When people come, you have to arrange accommodation for them.
But how to arrange accommodation is another difficult problem.
In the end, the village committee decided to give the family of three three choices.
First, they would be assigned to separate dormitories for male and female educated youth, and second, they would see if anyone in the village had a vacant house and let them buy or rent it. Third, there was a thatched hut at the back of the village, next to the mountain wall. If they didn't mind the draft and the rain, they could live there.
It is worth mentioning that although the thatched house next to the mountain wall is apparently unowned, people in the village will go there when they have an affair.
One of them would light a lamp there, and the other one would sneak over when he saw it, yell at him, "Damn it, old lady!" and then leave in the dark.
If Weisheng and the others chose that place... I'm afraid it would ruin a lot of people's good things.
←_←
On the fifth day after the educated youth from other provinces and cities arrived in Hujia Village, Weisheng and his two companions finally entered the village. At the entrance of the village, they asked for directions to the village chief's house, and unexpectedly, they were led there by a warm and welcoming woman.
After sending them to the village chief's house, the old lady showed no intention of leaving. She sat down on the kang, picked up the tobacco box under the kang cabinet, and rolled herself a cigarette while listening to the village chief and Ming Yichen talking.
Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun thought that this lady was an elder from the village chief's family, but Weisheng, who had been to the countryside before, knew that this was just a villager who had come to watch the fun.
I'm afraid that after this lady leaves the village chief's house, everyone in the village who has a say will know what's going on in their family.
The village chief also knew that people who went to the countryside now applied on their own initiative, so after reading the files of Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun, the village chief was puzzled.
Why would you give up your job in the city and run to their countryside?
Weisheng, Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun had rehearsed their conversation long before coming here. When the village chief asked him, Ming Yichen told him the reason for going to the countryside, mixing the truth with lies.
"My husband and I used to work in the university cafeteria. Now that the university has stopped recruiting students, the school cafeteria doesn't need so many employees. My family is originally from Kedong, but my father was too young to escape the famine and was sold to a landlord as a servant before he could even remember.
...Before he died, my father's biggest wish was to find his roots. Now that we're both in our late forties, we too, like him, want to find our roots."
The enthusiastic lady's eyes widened. Before the village chief could say anything, she couldn't wait to ask Ming Yichen, "What's your last name?"
Ming Yichen glanced at Weisheng, who was selling official salt as private salt, and said, "The surname is Ming now, the Ming of tomorrow. What was your last surname before? I was too young when my father was carried away and sold, so I don't remember it."
After hearing this, the village chief's wife He Shufang also asked Ming Yichen, "Then how did he know that his hometown was here?"
"I learned it from the housekeeper who bought the man after liberation."
"After so many years, if there are still relatives alive, there is no way to recognize them."
Ming Yichen nodded. "I'm not afraid of that. My father has a birthmark. When we recognize our relatives, we must check the words. If we don't even know these, then we are definitely not real relatives."
So that's how it is.
Seeing that he had asked almost all the questions, the village chief then brought up the issue of housing.
When the enthusiastic old lady heard that the family of three could buy or rent an empty room in the villager's house, she fell silent for a moment. Knowing that her family happened to have two empty rooms, the village head and his wife pretended not to see it and waited for Ming Yichen to make a choice.
Ming Yichen didn't choose, but turned to look at Ning Chaoyun and Weisheng. Weisheng thought of Ning Chaoyun's mysophobia and just wanted to see what she would choose.
Then Ning Chaoyun hesitated for a long time before deciding to take a look at the thatched house at the foot of the mountain. If it was habitable, they would stay there temporarily.
However, Ning Chaoyun would not say that he did not want the family to separate, nor did he want to live with someone else. Instead, he said with an embarrassed look that the money was not enough.
Enthusiastic lady: Humph, I knew it would be like this.
…
The thatched house is indeed quite shabby, but its walls are made of adobe like the houses in the village, and it has doors and windows. However, if you really want to settle down here, you have to repair it before you can live in it.
The village chief said: "This house originally belonged to an old hunter in the village. One year he went hunting in the mountains and never came down again. This house is close to the mountain, but a bit far from the village well. In addition, the house is small, so it has been empty ever since."
It's quite small indeed.
Weisheng entered the house and estimated its area. It was five meters long and a little over three meters wide, so it was only about fifteen or sixteen square meters in total.
After seeing it, Weisheng thought to himself: The original owner’s small bedroom in Xiangcheng was probably about this size.
And from the outside, it looked like the house only needed some repairs to the doors and windows and some re-thatching on the roof, but after going inside, it was discovered that there were quite a few problems inside as well.
The kang in the room collapsed, and the stove at the door also collapsed.
The most important thing is that the wall inside the house is not made of adobe, but a mountain wall.
Seeing this, even Ning Chaoyun had to change his mind.
Otherwise, you can rent a house from a villager first, and then slowly look for a suitable house to buy, or ask for a piece of land from the village to build a house yourself.
Ming Yichen had never seen a house more dilapidated than this one, and Ning Chaoyun couldn't imagine how they would live here. The couple looked at each other and asked the village chief: Is there anyone in the village who would sell them the whole house right now?
The village chief shook his head. Even though he hadn't asked any villagers, he knew that the possibility was almost zero.
Seeing the village chief's attitude, the couple were a little disappointed. Just as they were about to suggest renting a place to stay, they saw Weisheng had already taken out a tape measure and was measuring the inside and outside of the house.
Ming Yichen swallowed hard, glanced at Ning Chaoyun, whose face was not looking good and who was already in a state of anxiety. Then he called out to Weisheng, "Ajin, what are you doing?"
It just so happened that Weisheng had already measured the land nearby. Seeing Ming Yichen asking, she smiled and walked towards where he and the village chief were.
"I have an idea."
"What idea?" In fact, Ming Yichen wanted to ask: Did Weisheng have this idea himself, or did he relay it to her grandmother?
Weisheng ignored Ming Yichen's hesitation and smiled adorably, "I want to ask the village chief, if I demolish this thatched house and rebuild it, will this be considered the residential land allocated to us by the village? I don't want to spend so much time building a house and then have the village chief give it away to someone else."
"That's impossible." The village chief shook his head upon hearing Weisheng say this. "We can't do such a wicked thing. If your family is determined to build a house here, then this piece of land will be considered your homestead."
Weisheng glanced at Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun, then decided, "Okay, my family will take this piece of land."
Ming Yichen/Ning Chaoyun: At this moment, they didn't know what else to say except silence.
When the village chief saw Weisheng's decision and Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun did not object, he felt a little curious about the way this family got along with each other, but he still asked Ming Yichen and Ning Chaoyun for their opinions as usual.
Well, what he was mainly asking here was Ming Yichen’s opinion.
What could Ming Yichen say? He would fully cooperate with Weisheng and take over the homestead.
The old lady who had come along to watch the fun looked at Ning Chaoyun, then at Weisheng, and then at Ming Yichen who was talking to the village chief about the homestead, and couldn't help but ask, "Building a house is more expensive than renting one."
Weisheng: "No matter how much money we save by renting, it's not as good as building a house. Our family will be taking root in this village from now on, and having our own house is the way to live."
"That's true, but it's not something you can just build. The autumn harvest is almost here, and the weather is getting colder. I'm afraid there won't be time to build a house."
Yes, even if they want to build a house, it won't be done overnight. Do they have to rent a house for a few months before the house is built?
Weisheng saw that Ning Chaoyun was thinking the same thing, so he immediately shook his head at her and said, "No need to rent a house. This house can be built in five days at most."
Enthusiastic lady: How is that possible!
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