Eating melons

Wei Wei: "Uncle Zhang, I'm leaving now. I'll go back and ask who else wants to build a house."

Zhang Xinwang: "Why are you walking? Let's finish our meal first."

Wei Wei: "Come back for dinner tonight, we're leaving first!"

After saying that, she took Jiang Qi and left. After all, Aunt Zhang had already prepared the meal when they arrived. These days, food is scarce in everyone's home and people can't even get enough to eat. Who would cook more?

After leaving Zhang's house, the two smiled at each other.

Jiang Qi: "Weiwei, thank you for today. Don't worry, when we go to the captain's house for dinner, I'll eat whatever they cook. I'm sure there'll be enough food, and I won't make things difficult for you."

Wei Wei: “Yeah.”

Liu Aiying came out as soon as the two people left.

Liu Aiying: "Are they all gone? That educated young man Jiang even brought half a pound of brown sugar here!"

Zhang Xinwang looked at the things and sighed, "Take them! Oh, by the way, Wei Yatou and Jiang Zhiqing will be living with our family for the time being, and they will send us food later."

Liu Aiying: "Why did you suddenly come to my house to eat?"

Zhang Xinwang: "The educated youth Jiang wants to build a single room for himself to live in. When he returns to the city, he will leave the house with the team. Wei Yatou also heard about it and wants to build a house. When the house is built, they will start their own fire. They will only stay in our house for more than ten days."

When Liu Aiying heard that there were only more than ten days left, she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

"That's good."

She heard today that this group of new educated youth had bought a lot of food, so they seemed to be well-off.

They can earn a little money by living with him at home, because his old man is a team leader and his youngest son is serving in the army.

Everyone in the brigade thought their family was very wealthy, but in fact, they were not that rich at all. They were just slightly better off than most families in the brigade, and they still had so many mouths to feed at home!

The little money a family saves in a year is less than a worker's salary in the city for half a year. This is why everyone is trying so hard to move to the city.

When it came to exchanging or selling things with the educated youth, it was usually not their turn. Whenever they did, all sorts of gossip would circulate.

There was no way around it. The educated youth only wanted to buy so much, so naturally they became the object of competition among various families.

His old man is not a person who seeks personal gain. He would never plan such benefits for his own family. If Wei girl had not been there this time, he would not have agreed.

But this time, with Wei girl here, the people in the team couldn't say anything.

Alas! Actually, it’s all because of poverty.

When the two of them returned to the educated youth site, all five of them were there. They also fetched water and collected firewood. Wu Mei also cooked, but it was just steamed sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Wu Mei: "You're back, come and eat! I steamed some sweet potatoes and potatoes. I wasn't sure how much you wanted, so I steamed two sweet potatoes and two potatoes for each of you. If you've already eaten, that's fine, I can save them for dinner."

Jiang Qi: "Eat, eat, eat! I'm starving. Thank you! I'll return the food to you later."

Wei Wei also took a sweet potato and started eating, "Thank you."

Liu Jiaojiao: "Where have you two been? You disappeared after taking the food."

Wei Wei glanced at the old educated youth, but thinking of the captain's instructions, there was nothing wrong with saying it, so she did not hide it.

Wei Wei: "We want to build a single room to live in. We've asked the team leader, and he says a small room would cost only fifty or sixty yuan, but we have to pay for the materials and labor ourselves. Also, if we return to the city, the house will be left to the team. Do you want to build it?"

Yu Xi: "The captain agreed?"

Wei Wei: "He agreed. He asked me to come and ask you if there's anything else you'd like to build. If so, we can build it together before the autumn harvest."

Li Zhibin: "Wei Zhiqing, how big is this single room?"

Wei Wei: "It shouldn't be big. A 50-square-meter apartment would cost around 70 yuan."

It was obvious that the old educated youth also heard what Wei Wei said.

Shenyang: "Wei Zhiqing, if we return to the city, will the house be given to the brigade?"

Wei Wei: "Well, because we were educated youth, we didn't have any land."

After hearing this, many of the old educated youth gave up the idea.

After all, the current educated youth centers are free of charge. Moreover, if you live alone, you not only have to cook for yourself, but firewood for the winter is also a big problem.

If we live together, we can just collect firewood together. If we live alone, collecting firewood for these several months of hibernation is a big project, and we also have to harvest in autumn. The temperature will drop soon after the harvest, so we won’t have that much time to collect firewood.

Although Liu Hong didn't want to bother with these new educated youth, she was still the person in charge of the female students in the educated youth center, so she had to say some things.

"Wei Zhiqing, it's not safe for a female comrade like you to live alone."

Wei Wei: "It's okay. We're staying near the Youth League Institute and won't go anywhere else."

Shen Yang: "What about firewood for the winter? You're from the south, you don't know how cold it is here in the winter. The mountains are covered in snow, and the temperature drops to minus ten or twenty degrees Celsius for a long time. If you don't have enough firewood, you might freeze to death. This is no joke."

Wei Wei: "Don't worry, I've thought about this issue. I can find someone to replace him when the time comes."

Thinking of her relationship with the captain's family, he didn't say much.

Shenyang: "As long as you have a plan for success, that's all."

The educated youth from other places were full of ridicule at their stubbornness.

He is really a newborn calf that is not afraid of a tiger. Once he experiences the cold winter here, he will be obedient. If he has to buy all the firewood, he doesn't know how much it will cost. If he has to rely on one person, it will be a huge sum.

If all the educated youth lived together, it would be acceptable if everyone shared the cost of buying firewood.

Wei Wei didn't say much. They just had to convey the captain's words.

As a result, all the new educated youth had to build houses, but there were only four old educated youth.

What surprised Wei Wei was that Wu Mei also wanted to cover it. After all, fifty or sixty yuan is not a small amount of money.

Not only Wei Wei was surprised, all the new educated youth were surprised, and some even wondered if Wu Mei was a pig pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger!

In fact, Wu Mei was not really pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger. Her family was indeed quite poor.

Although her father and mother are both workers, her mother has been in poor health since giving birth to her younger brother and needs to take medicine all year round, so the family's conditions are still relatively difficult.

This time she went to the countryside because she was the eldest child. Jobs were so popular now, but she had no money and no connections, so she couldn't find a job at all. Her younger brothers and sisters were still young, so she took the initiative to sign up to go to the countryside.

The little money I had was partly the 50 yuan resettlement fee I received when I signed up to go to the countryside, partly the 78 yuan a month's salary my parents had saved from their teeth, and partly the little money I had saved over the years.

As for building a house, she was not blindly following the trend. Given her family's situation, it would be a long time before she could return to the city. Her relationship with the old educated youth had become a bit strained, but she didn't want to fit in.

But she felt that these new educated youth were pretty good, so she might as well move out and live with them.

At least when the time comes, she'll have a place to hide her money if she tries to make some.

After Wei Wei explained the captain's instructions, she didn't say anything else. She just told them that if they wanted to build a house, they could tell the captain after work.

After they had finished their meal and rested for a while, and all the old educated youth left, Jiang Qi started to discuss their dining problem. After all, he was the one who had the conflict with the old educated youth in the first place.

Jiang Qi: "It'll take a while for the house to be built. Have you figured out how to feed yourself during this time?"

Yu Xi: "Jiang Zhiqing, do you have any ideas?"

Jiang Qi: “No.”

Liu Jiaojiao: "Wei Zhiqing, do you have any ideas?"

Wei Wei: "You can find a reliable fellow villager to share your life with for a few days, but you'll definitely need to give him something."

Hearing this, Xiao Xuemu glanced at Wei Wei and Jiang Qi and asked, "Did Wei Zhiqing find a place?"

Wei Wei: "Jiang Zhiqing and I went to the team leader's house for dinner recently."

Liu Jiaojiao: "Wei Zhiqing, can you please ask the team leader if Brother Yu and I can join us? Don't worry, we have everything we need. We can exchange things or pay for our work."

Wei Wei was a little stunned. She didn't dare to agree. She didn't want to cause trouble for herself. "Ah! This~"

Xiao Xuemu: "Me too."

Li Zhibin: “Me too.”

Wu Mei: "Me too. Although I don't have anything, I can contribute money."

Wei Wei: "Oh, I don't know if it's possible. I don't think the captain would agree."

Xiao Xuemu: "Wei Zhiqing, how about this? There are seven of us here, and we've all bought a lot of food. We can divide out fifteen days' worth of food according to our appetite and put it together.

Let the team leader's family help us cook it. Each of us will pay 10 cents a day for the processing fee. As for the vegetables, we can buy them from the team leader's family. We can also buy the oil, salt, etc. ourselves. You can ask the team leader if this is okay.

Of course, no one can tell anyone about this, and I think everyone knows why."

Wei Wei thought about it. At that time, a young and strong man could only earn ten work points a day, or one dollar at most, while an ordinary woman could be considered very capable if she could earn seven or eight work points a day.

Cooking three meals a day for seven of them is a small task for a farm woman, but it is enough to cover their wages for a day working in the fields.

And they have to buy vegetables every day. Although the vegetables are cheap, a small amount is still meat!

Anyway, if it were her turn, she would be willing to do it, but she didn't know whether the captain's family would agree.

Wei Wei: "I can go ask for you tonight, but I don't know if the captain agrees."

Xiao Xuemu: "Okay, thank you Wei Zhiqing."

Wei Wei: "I'm just helping to pass on the message, but I don't know if the captain agrees or not."

Xiao Xuemu: "If the captain disagrees, we can find other solutions."