Quick Wear: Men Farming and Women Weaving

He carried his luggage with difficulty and sat on the train seat. He was sweating all over. He saw that both rows of seats were full of educated youth who went to the countryside. He took out his ticket and checked it. He pointed to the middle seat that was given up and said it was his seat. The young man was unwilling to give up and said he would change seats. The men and women in other seats also persuaded him.

After finally getting here, he was unwilling to look for a seat anymore and said he would call the flight attendant if the seat was not given up.

The young man stood up reluctantly, carried his luggage back to his original seat, and walked through the back carriage with difficulty. When he sat down and put away his luggage, someone next to him said he was unkind.

A little girl by the window whispered softly, "It's someone else's seat, so you can't force them to change it." She also asked everyone to introduce each other and ask where they were going. If they were in the same place, they should take good care of each other.

"My name is Li Wenwen, and I'm from Hongqi Commune, a rural area in Shanghai." said a girl with a gentle appearance.

"My name is Liu Hongyu, and I'm from Shanghai too," Liu Hongyu said proudly with a fair and delicate face.

"My name is Zhang Guoqing..."

"My name is Xia Dahai..."

"My name is Duan Hongjun..."

Lu Qinghai also followed the crowd and introduced that they were all going to the same place, Hongqi Commune, and hoped not to be assigned together with these people.

Along the way, these people were talking and chatting without avoiding others. At lunch, everyone took out different foods. Liu Hongyu took out white flour steamed bread and a lunch box of braised pork. The whole carriage smelled of braised pork. Many people tried their best to control their saliva and wanted to eat it. It can be seen that she comes from a relatively wealthy family and is spoiled. It is not known whether she can survive in the countryside.

Others took out black-faced steamed bread or dry biscuits, which were all made of coarse grains.

Li Wenwen took steamed buns made of corn flour and a small jar of barbecue sauce.

Liu Hongyu generously took out the braised pork, and everyone could have a piece. They all took the braised pork with chopsticks, stirring it in their mouths for fear that they would not be able to taste it if they swallowed it all at once. Li Wenwen followed the crowd and took a piece of meat without caring. Xia Dahai and Duan Hongjun were showing off their wealth at this time, and they had all kinds of thoughts in their minds. They were not favored at home, and they didn't have much money. Even half of their subsidies for educated youth were deducted.

Liu Hongyu on the other side looked at Lu Qinghai with squinted eyes and rolled her eyes. She pointed out that some people have never eaten braised pork in their entire lives, but just smelling the taste is enough for them to savor it for the rest of their lives.

The boys around her all agreed with her, as if saying a few more words would give them a few more pieces of meat.

Lu Qinghai ignored them, took out the sesame cake and warm water and started eating.

It takes three days by train to get to Heilongjiang Province, and there are many people coming and going.

When we arrived at the destination, we got off the train and carried the packages outside. There was a bullock cart and a tractor parked there, both of which were there to pick up people.

The old man was smoking a pipe and leaning against the side. When he saw people coming, he shouted loudly, "Anyone going to the Red Flag Commune should come here."

When all the people were called, there were fifteen educated youth, three men and two women, and they were asked to put their luggage on the ox cart.

Along the way, we followed the old man's ox cart, crying miserably. The female educated youths behind us kept supporting each other, saying that their legs hurt and they couldn't walk. The male educated youths insisted on walking and didn't cry out.

The old man didn't care about these educated youth. Even so many city kids were sent here to compete with the farmers for food. Who could like them?

The ox cart just dropped the cart in front of the gate of the Youth League Home and left.

It was the team leader who brought me in to arrange the room.

"There are only two courtyards here. The male educated youth live in the front courtyard, and the female educated youth live in the back courtyard." The team leader is old and has been in the countryside for ten years. He is relatively peaceful and fair, and usually handles conflicts in the educated youth courtyard.

There were two large bunk beds in the front and back yards, one for 2 people, and only one for 1 people. The girls' room was spacious and not crowded. Lu Qinghai found a corner to arrange his bedding and put away his parcels. Soon the village chief asked someone to deliver food for the five people, and said that the food was loaned to them and they had to pay it back with their work points. It was up to them to decide how to distribute it.

Lu Qinghai was ready to follow the crowd and not ask for special treatment. If he cooked by himself, he would have to go to work and come back to chop wood, fetch water and cook. It would take at least two hours to eat. It would be better to eat together. Even if the food was a little worse, it didn't matter. When no one was around, he could eat the food in the space to satisfy his craving.

I had to wait seven years for the college entrance examination to be resumed. I would then have the opportunity to leave the Youth House and live alone outside. I could be freer away from the eyes of the Youth Householders.

It was the busy farming season and people were rushing to harvest everywhere. The next day, I went to the fields with the educated youth and followed the arrangements of the village chief and others.

Having never done farm work before, he stood by the field holding a sickle, looking at the acre of land allocated to him, and suddenly he didn't want to do it anymore. Lu Qinghai saw the female educated youth complaining about picking corn, one hand was scratched, and the other hand was blistered. Suddenly he wanted to swap with them to see if they would still complain? This was already considered taking care of them.

It was the middle of summer and after working for a whole morning, Lu Qinghai's waist was almost broken. He felt so uncomfortable that he couldn't say it out loud.

When the bell rang, he immediately put down the sickle in his hand and lay on the ground to rest for a long time before he came to his senses.

When we returned to the Youth League Home, everyone started to eat. The old youth were not surprised at all, as they had all been through that time before and would get used to it after a while.

After the afternoon was over, the timekeeper wrote down five work points, and the old educated youth could get six or seven work points. The female educated youth were even worse off, only getting three work points on the first day.

I had to get out of bed and go to the fields with my eyes open while lying on the big bunk bed. Tomorrow I would go to the village chief privately and find a lighter job.

Time passed quickly and it was dawn. Everyone got up, cleaned up and prepared to eat.

While everyone was still cleaning up and making breakfast, Lu Qinghai slipped out to the village chief's house.

Under the big locust tree, next to where the village chief lives, the villagers would gather there in the evening to enjoy the cool air and chat.

After knocking on the door with a bag of brown sugar, I went in to find the village chief and gave the gift to the village chief's wife, explaining my purpose and asking if she could arrange some light work for me.

The village chief's wife winked at him and took the brown sugar into her arms. It happened that the women in the family could drink brown sugar to nourish their bodies. The village chief nodded helplessly and agreed. He also knew that he couldn't do heavy work with his body. He also said frankly that the work was easy, but the work points were few, and there was also little food at the end of the year. That's why few educated youth chose to work with few work points. Most of them took care of the elderly, the weak, the young, and cut grass for pigs and cleaned the pigsty.

After Lu Qinghai left, Zhang Jiajia, who was having breakfast, suddenly had her eyes brightened when she saw him. Most people in rural areas have very dark and yellow skin, and there are very few people with fair and moist skin. Even the educated youth will become like them after working for a few months.

Unfortunately, he was so busy talking to her father that he didn't even look at her. If she had known he would come, she would have changed her clothes and packed up.