People who eat melon are in 70 - Chapter 5

This is the first stop of the train. All the passengers are educated youth. They sit sparsely in the seats of the carriage. No one wants to chat. They are all immersed in the mood of parting.

Jiang Youtao’s seat was empty. While no one was paying attention, Jiang Youtao took out two quilts and two sets of clothes from the space.

The winter in the south is not that cold. Li Xiuqin thought that if she got married, the woman’s family would also have to prepare quilts, so she didn’t make them so thick, just for easy access.

She glanced at the bag that Hao Juxiang gave her. It was full of food. Long-lasting cornmeal and white flour buns, fried pickles, and some snacks for the road, such as dried sweet potatoes.

In addition, there was a small handkerchief. She opened it and saw a stack of money inside, with both small and whole coins, neatly stored. She counted and found ten yuan.

The work was cheap these days. A farmer only earned 20 cents for working a full centimeter a day. If it was a bad year, the work price would be even cheaper.

The Ying family of four is old, sick, and disabled. Hao Juxiang and Ying Dexing need to take medicine every month. The only income for the family is the side job that Ying Dexing and Ying Chaorong earn as carpenters.

How long will it take them to save ten yuan?

Look at the small bag Ying Chaorong handed to her before getting off the car. There are two exquisite small wooden sculptures in it. The carvings are dogs and cats. They are not only exquisite but also cute. There is not a single burr on them. The wood is smooth to the touch after being brushed with tung oil.

In addition, there is a change of one dollar and five cents, including several one-cent coins. This should be all the private money Ying Chaorong has.

Together with the ten yuan that Ying Caixia put away, what she got after returning to her grandmother’s house, was equivalent to a temporary worker’s monthly salary.

It’s not much, but it feels heavy in her hands. Jiang Youtao thought that she would probably never use this money, and she would treasure it.

This is the first time that an elder has given her money except the dean.

Her heart is swollen, warm and sour.

The train was shaking. Jiang Youtao leaned against the window with a dull look in her eyes. She fell asleep unknowingly. When she woke up again, the train was still running. It was already daybreak outside the window. The sun shyly showed half of its face from the clouds.

In this era, taking a train is undoubtedly a torture. From Shanghai to Harbin Province, from the east to the northeast of the motherland, it spans half of the motherland, a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers. In this era when the train speed is only 120KM per hour, it takes more than ten hours to calculate the straight-line distance, not to mention the stops along the way.

Just as she was thinking about it, the train whistled and entered the station. After it stopped, the conductor walked out of the carriage, and passengers carrying luggage rushed in like sardines. The seat next to Jiang Youtao was also full of people. She looked up and saw that the people who came were three teenagers wearing white shirts and polyester pants, two girls and one boy. They never stopped talking after they sat down.

Jiang Youtao listened for a while and learned a little about their situation. These three grew up in the same compound and were educated youth like Jiang Youtao.

After they chatted for a while, they remembered Jiang Youtao.

“Hello, comrade, we are educated youth from Ontario. My name is Zhang Huihui, and this is my classmate Zhao Yonglan and Liu Yingjun. What is your name?” This is a special train for educated youth supporting Harbin Province.

Eighty percent of the people on this bus were educated youth.

The girl who was talking to Jiang Youtao was a girl with a short haircut and a pair of almond-shaped eyes. Liu Yingjun was a boy with a bowl-cut haircut and glasses. When Jiang Youtao looked at him, he happened to look at her. Jiang Youtao smiled at him politely and said, “My name is Jiang Youtao, from Shencheng.”

Zhao Yonglan, who was sitting next to Liu Yingjun, looked at Jiang Youtao after hearing this. She was wearing a brand new green military uniform. After carefully looking at Jiang Youtao, her eyes had a sense of superiority. She nodded to Jiang Youtao lightly, with a proud look on her face.

Shencheng was an international metropolis second only to the capital in this era. There was no one in the country who didn’t know its name.

Zhang Huihui had longed for Shencheng for a long time. Knowing that Jiang Youtao was from Shencheng and seeing that she was well dressed, she instantly became more enthusiastic. She also shared the cakes she brought from home with Jiang Youtao, Jiang Youtao couldn’t refuse them.

Jiang Youtao knew how precious food was in this era. After she took the cake, she opened the bag that Hao Juxiang prepared for her and took out a can from it: “This is the pickled vegetables that my grandmother made for me. If you don’t mind, we can eat it together.”

Hao Juxiang’s skill in making pickled vegetables was first-class. She washed the dried pickled mustard greens to remove the mud and sand, soaked them to soften them, and cut them into small pieces. She fried them with minced meat that was 30% fat and 70% lean. She added a lot of salt and chili peppers, and she was not stingy with the oil. The oil soaked the pickled mustard greens. As soon as the lid was opened, the aroma of meat mixed with salty and spicy flavors came to the nose, and everyone, including Jiang Youtao, swallowed their saliva.

Hao Juxiang didn’t keep any of the meat that Ying Chaorong bought yesterday, and gave it all to her. That sincere and caring heart softened Jiang Youtao’s heart.

Liu Yingjun felt embarrassed to only eat other people’s food, so he also took out the food prepared by his family. Their family conditions were good, Liu Yingjun took out four two-cow steamed buns to share. Seeing him like this, Zhao Yonglan also took out two eggs, peeled them, broke them in half and shared with them.

They carefully dug a spoonful of pickles from the can, carefully spread it on the broken buns, and then bit off most of it in one bite. The combination of oily fragrance and fine grains made people particularly satisfied. Zhang Huihui even closed her eyes while eating.

“It’s delicious, Youtao, your grandmother’s cooking is really good.” After sharing the food, Zhang Huihui felt that she had consciously shortened the distance between her and Jiang Youtao.

Jiang Youtao nodded. Hao Juxiang’s cooking skills were indeed great.

Zhang Huihui and Liu Yingjun were both well-educated. After eating a spoonful of pickles, they never reached out again. This was meat and oil, so expensive. It was enough to satisfy their cravings. Why do they keep eating shamelessly?

Zhao Yonglan ate a spoonful and thought it tasted good, so she scooped several more spoonfuls: “I think it’s just average, I’ve eaten better food in state-owned restaurants before.”

Jiang Youtao was very unhappy when she saw this, so she closed the lid when Zhao Yonglan reached out again, and returned the uneaten half egg to her.

They were not familiar with each other, and Jiang Youtao didn’t want to spoil her.

Zhao Yonglan pouted and said something petty, Zhang Huihui and Liu Yingjun looked embarrassed.

Liu Yingjun took out his mother’s steamed dried meat and shared it with Jiang Youtao, and Zhang Huihui also took out some fruits. The two looked at Jiang Youtao’s eyes ,and were apologetic.

Jiang Youtao had to take it, but seeing them like this, she grabbed a handful of dried sweet potatoes made by Hao Juxiang from her pocket and shared it with them. The dried sweet potatoes were made after several steaming and drying processes. They were soft, sticky, sweet, and covered with a layer of crystal clear syrup on the skin. They were very different from the dried sweet potatoes that are hard to bite on the market now. Zhang Huihui and Liu Yingjun’s eyes lit up as they ate.

Jiang Youtao didn’t share it with Zhao Yonglan, and Zhao Yonglan didn’t want it either. She just took out a piece of chocolate from her bag, broke it into three pieces and shared them with Zhang Huihui and Liu Yingjun, and deliberately praised the deliciousness of the chocolate.

Jiang Youtao was not greedy. She didn’t like chocolate. She thought it tasted bitter and greasy. So they talked more. After some understanding, Jiang Youtao knew that they were all going to Zaoxiang Commune, Guangming County, Harbin Province.

It is a coincidence: “I’m also going to Zao Township.”

Zhang Huihui continued to confirm: “Which brigade are you from?”

“Liushugou.”

Zhang Huihui and Liu Yingjun looked at each other and said with a smile: “We are also going to Liushugou Brigade, what a fate!!”

Zhao Yonglan was also a little surprised.

There were so many educated youth going to Harbin Province, and there were so many places in Harbin Province that needed people. They never thought that they would meet people who will go to the countryside in the same brigade just by sitting down.

“That’s right, it’s fate.” Jiang Youtao also sighed. With Zhao Yonglan’s current state, I’m afraid her life in the countryside will not be dull.

Because they were going to the same place to join the team, Zhao Yonglan restrained her temper in the following journey. The four of them helped each other, and even went to the toilet together. They were never alone, and they got along well. There were many people on the bus and few toilets. Every time they went to the toilet, they sweat like going to war.

In this case, Jiang Youtao and others tacitly reduced the number of times they drank water.

After taking turns sleeping for two naps, they finally arrived at the Harbin Railway Station. It was just past 3:30, but the sky was already light.

The railway station was very crowded, and people from various counties who came to pick up the educated youth were already waiting in the open space in the waiting room. The four people carried large and small bags of luggage and stood behind the person holding the Guangming County sign.

Many more people came one after another.

Twenty minutes later, the sun came out, dyeing the morning glow in the sky into a gorgeous orange-red.

Bathed in the first ray of sunshine today, they followed the people holding the sign and got on the military green Liberation bus to Guangming County.

They were already very tired and all of them were listless. They fell asleep leaning against the car after getting on the bus.

The bus shook for four hours and finally arrived at Guangming County. Then there was another round of looking for people. An hour and a half later, a total of 20 educated youth got on the tractor to Zao Township. At three o’clock in the afternoon, they finally arrived in Zao Township. At four fifty, Jiang Youtao and others got on the ox cart to Liushugou Brigade.

They were hungry and tired, and didn’t want to say a word.

The driver introduced himself as Lao Wangtou, who was in charge of raising livestock and daily transportation in Liushugou Brigade.

Lao Wangtou, like most people in the village, had a bad impression of these educated youth who went to the countryside.

These educated youth were spoiled in the city, never touched the water, and were not good at anything. They were the first to get into trouble even when eating.

In recent years, every year, There are educated youths who come to their area to work in the production line. Two came last year, and four came this year!

The land of their brigade is limited, and the yield is about the same every year. If there is a bad year, the harvest will be even less.

These educated youths from the city don’t do much work, but they still have to share grain every year. It’s annoying to think about it.

Today, four more educated youths came. Together with the previous ones, there are almost ten. Old Wang’s face is very bad because so much grain has been shared out for nothing.

Jiang Youtao and Zhang Huihui didn’t talk. After sitting in the car for several days in a row, they didn’t have the energy to get close to Old Wang. All they could hear along the way was the sound of the cow’s nose and the sound of the bell on the cow’s neck. It took half an hour to take a bull cart from Zaoxiang to Liushugou Brigade. The road became more and more desolate. There were corn fields as high as a person on both sides of the muddy road, and the wormwood on the roadside was also growing very tall.

With the expectation of Jiang Youtao and others, the bull cart finally arrived at Liushugou.

This is a small village located in a valley. There is a row of willow trees at the entrance of the village. Under the largest willow tree, there are several elderly ladies sitting. A group of half-grown children are playing around them. When some children run too fast, they scold them. The children calm down for a while, and then start to make noise again.

“Old Wang, why did you bring so many educated youth?” A woman wearing a blue headscarf with flowers looked at Jiang Youtao and others again and again, her face was so gloomy that it seemed like water was about to drip out. The woman sitting next to her wearing a gray headscarf also said, “There are four of them, and three of them are women. What’s the use of them? They don’t even work.”

The Northeast dialect is not much different from Mandarin, and Jiang Youtao and others understood what the two said. Zhang Huihui pursed her lips and wanted to say something, but was stopped by Zhao Yonglan.

Old Wang looked at them and said, “This is what the higher-ups said. Do you have any opinions to tell me? If you have the guts, go to the commune and tell the leaders.”

Old Wang was impatient to deal with these old women who only knew how to gossip, so he whipped the ox with a whip, and the ox walked faster.

The ox cart passed through the small village and reached the deepest part of the valley, where there was a row of houses. There were three main rooms with a large courtyard. In the southwest corner of the courtyard was a small vegetable garden, and next to the vegetable garden was a pressurized well.

Old Wang stopped the car and said to Jiang Youtao and the other three, “This is the educated youth point in the village. You can get off the car.” Jiang Youtao jumped off the car first, and four young people came out of the educated youth point, both men and women.

Old Wang said to the leader, “Wang Shanxi, the team leader and the secretary went to the township for a meeting today. He asked you to arrange for these educated youth.”

Without waiting for Wang Shanxi to speak, he said to Jiang Youtao and the other three, “You just arrived. Settle down for tomorrow and go back to work the day after tomorrow.”

“Okay, that’s it. It’s getting late. I’m leaving first.” Old Wang said nothing more and drove away.

Standing next to Wang Shanxi was a girl in her twenties with two pigtails. She looked up and down at Jiang Youtao, Zhang Guihua and Zhao Yonglan and said, “I’m Li Yunying, an educated youth born in 1968, just like Wang Shanxi. It’s getting dark and we just got back from work. Let’s settle down first and get to know each other when we have dinner. Come with me.”

Jiang Youtao and the other two followed her into one of the rooms, while Liu Yingjun was taken to another room by Wang Shanxi and two other young men.

“Our youth cadre site is not big, with only three rooms in total. The room with two stoves just now when we entered the door is the kitchen, we eat and do everything there. There are one room for each of the female and male youth cadres.”

“Before you came, there were three girls in our youth cadre site. One of them got married last year, and the other came here at the beginning of the year. She has relatives here, and she went out to visit them today, so she will be back later.”

“The Northeast is cold in the winter, and people live on big kangs. We have already reserved a place for you in advance, and you can choose how to sleep. ”

This room is really not big. The kang takes up two-thirds of the room. There are very few furniture in the room. There is only a wooden table on the left side of the door, aligned with the kang, on which are placed two washbasins and some toiletries.

It’s barely tidy.

In the middle of the kang, there is an earthen wall that almost reaches the top, and under the fire wall is a stove eye. This wall divides the kang into two parts, the inner kang is smaller, and the outer kang is larger. The two places against the earthen wall have been occupied. There are two wooden boxes at the base of the wall, with bedding on the boxes.

Li Yunying saw that they were standing still, and said, “The winter here is very cold. We can’t live on the kang alone. When winter comes, with this fire wall, our lives will be much better.”

The few people looked at each other, and Zhao Yonglan took the lead in choosing the big kang outside and occupied the position at the corner of the kang. She said to Zhang Huihui and Jiang Youtao, “I’ll sleep here.”

Zhang Huihui put the luggage next to her: “Yonglan and I will be together. “

Since both sides had chosen, Jiang Youtao put the things on the empty space on the small kang in the inner room.

Just after putting the things down, a male voice was heard from outside. Li Yunying responded and called them: “Let’s go, take the lunch boxes and go out for dinner.” 

They opened the door and walked around to the room between the male and female educated youth dormitories. The food was already on the table. Just as they sat down, they heard footsteps. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a girl wearing a white shirt and blue khaki pants.

She had an oval face and almond-shaped eyes, and his voice was very clear: “ I finally caught up after rushing. I got some chicken offal from my aunt’s house to add some dishes to everyone, which can be regarded as a welcome for the new comrades. “

Almost at the same time, the melon-eating system, which had not popped up for a long time, also popped up: [Ding~~ The melon-eating system is at your service. The heroine Gu Nianwei of “The Stepmother with Millions of Supplies in the 1970s” has been detected. The plot is now loading for you.]

The progress bar is stuck at 81 and will not move. At this moment, Jiang Youtao looked at Gu Nianwei with eyes that were almost shining.

The name of this novel has a story at first glance. The fun melon-eating person Jiang Youtao sat upright and prepared to accept the baptism of dog blood.

[The plot is loading, the progress is 30%…50%…80%…81%…81%…]

Jiang Youtao was puzzled, Jiang Youtao was shocked!