Traveling through time and space, wanting to lie down, but being forced to move forward

We followed the oxcart for more than an hour and asked the team leader several times how far we were. The answer we got was always "It's just ahead, just around the corner."

Later, everyone simply stopped asking and just kept walking forward.

Suddenly, Zhang Dabiao pointed ahead and said, "We are almost there."

Several people thought he was lying to them again and kept silent.

"We are really getting there this time. Isn't there the outline of a village ahead?

You can see it if you look up." Captain Zhang defended himself.

Several people looked up and saw the outline of a house vaguely appearing in front of them.

“It’s finally time, my legs don’t even belong to me anymore.

I have never walked for such a long time." Zhang Yingchun complained while beating her legs.

Chen Guoqing joked, "You'll probably get used to it in the future. There are no buses in the countryside, so you'll have to walk to town in the future.

Unless you don’t plan to go to town to buy things or go to state-owned restaurants to improve your life in the future.”

Captain Zhang answered, "Except during the autumn harvest season, every five days the village's oxcarts will carry people to the town. The oxcarts will wait for people at the entrance of the village early in the morning. You just need to get up early and ride the oxcarts."

"This is great, is it free?" Zhang Yingchun asked hurriedly.

Captain Zhang replied, "How can it be free? It's two cents for a round trip."

"It's only two cents for a round trip, which is not expensive," Zhang Yingchun muttered.

Feng Chunyan complained in her heart, "How can it not be expensive? Taking a bus in the city only costs two cents."

But since the captain was here, she didn't dare say this.

Seeing that they were about to arrive at the destination, everyone couldn't help but quicken their pace, wanting to get to the place to rest quickly.

Captain Zhang led them into the village, but the village was very quiet and no one was seen along the way.

All you can see are low adobe houses.

Seeing such a modern house, Liu Jingxue no longer had high expectations for her future life.

Fortunately, she has space, and space will be her main place of activity in the future.

Zhang Pingan didn't know what he was thinking about, and said with some fear, "Captain, why is there no one in the village? Has anything happened?"

Captain Zhang said calmly, "It's the autumn harvest season, the busiest time. Everyone is working in the fields. How could there be anyone in the village?"

"Do children have to work too?" Zhang Yingchun asked curiously.

"Except for the babies in their arms, basically everyone who can walk or run is at the edge of the field."

"What can such a young child do?"

"Picking up the food that fell on the ground.

Children have good eyesight and are small, so they can pick up the trash without bending down, but they are not as good as adults.

Otherwise, go to the sun-drying dam and drive away the birds that come to eat the food." Captain Zhang said calmly.

Liu Jingxue looked at her watch. It was already past eleven o'clock. It was time for lunch, but there seemed to be few houses with smoke rising from chimneys in the village.

She asked curiously, "Captain, it's almost lunch time, don't each family need to send someone home to cook?"

Captain Zhang replied, "Most families bring dry food with them when they go to work in the morning, and have lunch in the fields.

Some families have elderly people who are too old to work, so they will prepare lunch at home and send it over when the time comes."

After looking at a few people, Captain Zhang reminded them, "You will have to go to work in the fields early the day after tomorrow. Remember to bring your lunch with you when you go in the morning."

The ox cart drove for a few more minutes before stopping in front of a large yard.

Team leader Zhang introduced, "This is the educated youth center in the village."

Liu Jingxue just noticed that the yard was surrounded by open space and there were no other houses around.

I think the purpose of building the educated youth point here is to separate the educated youth from the villagers, so as not to allow the villagers to have too much contact with the educated youth.

"Zheng Jianmin," Captain Zhang shouted into the yard.

I saw a young man in his twenties walking out of the house on the left.

He is of medium height, with dark skin, a typical square face, and a hint of literary air.

Captain Zhang introduced, "This is Zheng Jianmin, the educated youth and the person in charge of the educated youth office. If you have any problems in the future, you can look for him."

"Zheng Jianmin, these five are the new educated youth, please arrange accommodation for them.

Introduce all those who should be introduced to them." Captain Zhang ordered.

Looking at the five new educated youth, three women and two men, Zheng Jianmin felt a little embarrassed.

"Captain, we can still accommodate these two male educated youths, but for the three female educated youths, the female educated youths' room can only accommodate two at most, and there is no place for the other one."

Zhang Yingchun was surprised after hearing this and said, "Zheng Zhiqing, from what you said, we live in a large bunk bed, not a room for each person."

Zheng Jianmin glanced at her and said calmly, "The male and female educated youth each have a room with a large bunk bed. Seven or eight people can live in one room."

Liu Jingxue had anticipated this, and the others all frowned when they heard his words.

Although they knew that conditions in the countryside were difficult, they had not expected it to be like this, living in a large dormitory.

Zhang Pingan further asked, "So how do you usually eat?"

“Everyone contributes his own rations and eats from the same pot.

Cooking and fetching water are all done in turns." Zheng Jianmin explained.

After hearing this, several people became even more silent.

"Why is there no place to live? Didn't two female educated youth get married? Their beds are now vacant, right?" Captain Zhang asked in confusion.

Zheng Jianmin explained, "The room was already full, and when those two people got married, two berths were vacated, which was just enough for two people.

But there is still one left and there is really no place to put it.”

"Captain, do you think we should expand the educated youth base?

Two batches of educated youth have arrived this year, and we don’t know how many will come in the future. If we don’t build more houses quickly, we will have no way to accommodate the rest of the educated youth.

If that doesn't work, we can only arrange for them to live in the villagers' homes." Zheng Jianmin suggested.

Captain Zhang sneered, "You are dreaming of living in a villager's house.

We arranged for you to stay in the villagers' homes before, and the trouble that happened was quite ugly.

Just ask any villager now who is willing to let the educated youth live in his or her home.

You have blocked the road with your own actions, and yet you blame others."

Zheng Jianmin laughed awkwardly, "If we can't arrange for them to stay in the villagers' homes, then we can only expand the educated youth camp.

But even if we expand the facility, you have to make a decision on how to deal with this extra female educated youth during this period of time."

Captain Zhang couldn't help but glance at Liu Jingxue, thinking about how to arrange her to go to that room so as not to arouse other people's suspicion.