Daily life of female supporting actresses in the 1970s

When Lin Shaoyang saw him coming back, he asked, "What are you looking for? Did you drop something?"

Chu Tingnan just said: "I just happened to have time to get some firewood for Sister Yanqiu."

As they were talking, Tian Mi and Qi Bing came back from get off work, so Lin Shaoyang didn't ask any more questions.

Qi Bing was also carrying a paper bag. Lin Shaoyang smiled and said, "I agreed to treat you to a meal, but you all brought something here."

Qi Bing explained, "I just happened to come across a place selling braised pig's head meat. It tastes really good, so I just brought some over."

As soon as Tian Mi entered the yard, she said with a smile: "We are so destined to be together that we can even rent a house together. If someone didn't know, they would think you introduced us specially.

I heard people in the yard say that there were two educated youth living here who were as big as black bears and could even split bricks with their bare hands. I didn't expect it to be you two. Let's see who dares to mess with us in this yard from now on."

Chu Tingnan and Qi Bing were so shocked that their jaws almost dropped, and they looked at Lin Shaoyang and Liu Yuanda.

Liu Yuanda does look a bit like a big black bear, but he doesn't look like Lin Shaoyang at all. Instead, he looks a bit like a pretty boy.

But being able to split bricks with bare hands really shows that you can’t judge a person by his appearance.

Lin Shaoyang explained, "The bricks were rotten from the rain. We just wanted to scare them. They're looking for trouble before we even move in. We'll be in big trouble in the future, so we need to put down their prestige."

Qi Bing laughed and said, "I thought I had met a folk master."

Only Jiang Yanqiu believed that Lin Shaoyang and the others had that ability.

After turning around, Tian Mi complained sourly, "When we were in the countryside, you lived in brick and tile houses, separated by a wall, while we lived in adobe houses. Now you live in the main house, while I can only live in the side room of the wing. It's really infuriating to compare yourself with others."

Jiang Yanqiu said with a smile: "I invited you to live in the blue brick and tile house at the beginning, but you didn't want to live there."

When Tian Mi heard this, she immediately said, "I'm so glad I didn't live there. Your bunk bed is more expensive than renting in the city. 150 yuan for more than two years is not worth it."

Qi Bing said enviously, "You have your own rooms at the educated youth camp, but we have more than a dozen people crammed into a large bunk bed."

Liu Yuanda explained: "There are only a few people in our educated youth camp, and we were in dire straits before. People like Jiang Yanqiu who were wealthy applied to build their own houses and moved out."

Qi Bing said enviously, "Your brigade cadres are really good-tempered. We have at least fifty or sixty educated youth here. Those who don't want to live in the dormitory and cause trouble are sent straight back to the educated youth office without even a chance to mend their ways."

Lin Shaoyang joked, "You guys send the unwanted troublemakers down to the lower levels, and when they get to our team, they're picked over and over again, and in the end, no one wants them."

Then he explained why the Dashanshui Brigade agreed to allow the educated youth to build their own houses.

Liu Yuanda added jokingly, "It hadn't been half a month since Shaoyang and his brother finished building their house and moved out when the new educated youth arrived. The male educated youth dormitory was full, so they arranged for two more to stay with them."

Qi Bing sighed, "The brigade cadres there are so inactive. We went there in 1972, and when we first arrived we lived in mud houses, but when winter came we moved into red brick and tile houses."

Liu Yuanda also lamented, "All our resettlement fees were embezzled, leaving the brigade with only 90 yuan. The brigade was poor and needed money everywhere, so how could they afford to build new houses for the educated youth?"

“It’s so dark!”

Liu Yuanda told Village Chief Zhao everything about how he embezzled funds for resettlement of educated youth, and sold jobs and university places.

Qi Bing sighed, "The more remote the place, the darker it is. We were strictly controlled there, and we were never treated unfairly. In the first year, each of us received 45 kilograms of food rations per month, including 6 kilograms of fine grains and 4 ounces of soybean oil. The brigade also subsidized us with some soybeans for oil extraction.

We were given a canteen and every month we would go to collect our food rations and get meal tickets. If we didn't have enough food, we could buy it with money. If we couldn't finish it, we could get extra money. We educated youth also had a special pig farm. We would hand in some of the food and occasionally slaughter a pig to improve our lives."

Jiang Yanqiu smiled and said, "You have a large number of people. Our educated youth camp only had four veteran educated youth before we arrived, so it's impossible to arrange a canteen."

Liu Yuanda said: "There were quite a few educated youth in our area at the beginning, but they either left too quickly or got married too quickly."

At this time, Chen Tao shouted: "Dinner is ready."

Everyone gathered around. Apart from Jiang Yanqiu's smoked chicken, Chu Tingnan's braised beef and Qi Bing's pork head, the rest were seafood, including swimming crabs, prawns and various shellfish, all of which were brought in frozen.

Jiang Yanqiu smiled and said, "Comrade Lin is really generous. We are grateful to you for having a seafood feast."

Lin Shaoyang said, "These are rare goods in the imperial capital, but not very valuable in the port city. I picked up these swimming crabs and shellfish when I went to the sea. People looked down on them, so I brought them back."

The swimming crabs, prawns and fish were originally intended to be given away, but Jiang Yanqiu and the others came across them, so let's give them to them first!

Jiang Yanqiu asked curiously, "Is your hometown in Hong Kong?"

Lin Shaoyang grinned: "No. My grandparents are in the sanatorium over there, and I went there to spend the New Year with them. The sanatorium is not far from the sea, and I go there every day when I have nothing to do."

When Tian Mi heard this, she immediately became excited: "Hong Kong City is not far away. We can go to the beach when we have time."

Jiang Yanqiu smiled and joked, "There's no place you don't want to go. Last time you told me you wanted to go to Shanghai."

Tian Mi couldn't help but sigh: "Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. I should go out more often when I have nothing to do. But Shanghai is too far away. The journey alone takes three or four days. I was thinking of going after the Chinese New Year, but it's hard to get time off at work."

When he heard the word "Modu", Lin Shaoyang laughed and said to Jiang Yanqiu, "Wang Haiyang said he wrote you a letter, but you replied with only nine words, which made him embarrassed to write to you again."

Jiang Yanqiu was delighted when she heard this: "He wrote to me and asked if I had any difficulties and needed help, and if I had encountered any ginseng, thinking that ginseng was a big radish. I didn't know what to say to him, so I just said, 'Everything is fine, I haven't encountered any ginseng.' I was speechless."

Tian Mi also echoed: "Wang Haiyang usually looks very gentle and easy to get along with, but in fact he doesn't pay much attention to others. When we were at the educated youth camp, we had nothing to say to each other, and we had even less to say after we separated. He even wrote letters, which is a waste of stamps. Besides, if we need to find ginseng, wouldn't Gu Qingqing be more suitable?"

Liu Yuanda asked in surprise: "Did she encounter ginseng again?"

Tian Mi explained, "That's about right. She didn't know how she provoked the bees, but they chased her all over the mountain. The bees flew past us and ignored us, so we just chased them. Then we went looking for a beehive, and Jiang Yanqiu found a ginseng nest near it."