Time Travel: Volume 1! Starting from a Small Mountain Village

The tractor set off from the county town, and after a bumpy two-hour ride, the group finally arrived at Hongxing Commune!

"Get off the bus! Get off the bus!"

The commune cadre shouted loudly, directing everyone to get off the bus!

"It's getting late. You can rest here for the night. The captains of each brigade will come to pick you up tomorrow!" He pointed to the state-owned store behind him, gave a light hum, and left.

Everyone held their rural assignment notices, which meant they could rest here for a free night! After a long journey, they were finally able to rest, so everyone tacitly took their belongings and began checking in!

Long Lifan randomly chose a room; it wasn't big, but it had five beds! She then began washing up; after so many days on the train, she could finally get a proper clean-up!

After a good night's rest, Long Lifan felt like she had finally come back to life! Today was the day the teams were being assigned, so everyone got up early to wait!

Even Hu Lili, who has a bit of a spoiled princess temper, didn't hesitate. It seems that the commune cadre's show of force yesterday was quite effective!

Soon, the commune cadre reappeared, looked at the crowd, nodded with satisfaction, and then shouted for everyone to follow him!

The communes of today are like small towns in later times, only with far fewer people. After all, business wasn't allowed; everything was state-owned! There were supply and marketing cooperatives, post offices, and restaurants!

Along the way, the commune cadres were also busy, introducing information about the commune one after another!

There are 12 communes in Pingwu County, and Hongxing Commune is just one of them. Moreover, it is the poorest commune in the entire county!

The Red Star Commune had eight production brigades, and this group of educated youth would be assigned to one of these eight brigades. The commune cadres only briefly mentioned the information about each brigade.

After walking for about 10 minutes, dozens of people gathered in a large open space ahead. Some were villagers who came to pick up people, while others were educated youth.

It seems that more than 20 people were assigned to the Red Star Commune. Long Lifan glanced over and realized that there were probably about 30 people there the day before yesterday!

With over 50 people being assigned to Hongxing Commune at once, no wonder the commune cadres looked grumpy yesterday!

"Now, when I call your names, each of you should go and assemble at your assigned brigade!" Seeing that almost everyone had arrived, the commune cadre took out a piece of paper and began reading.

"Zhouzhuang Brigade: Chen Wei, Liu Xiao..."

"Qiliba Brigade:..."

…………

"Qingmiao Brigade: Xia Aiguo..."

"Dongwan Brigade: Long Lifan, Hu Lili, Jiang Nian'an, Liu Pandi, Lin Yue, Yang Lijuan, Yang Qianqian"

"Alright, assignments are complete. Go find your assigned squads and assemble there!"

“Leader, this isn’t right! Why do other brigades have five or six people, but our brigade has seven!” At this moment, a middle-aged man with a square face stepped forward and said.

Let's talk about Lin Guodong, the brigade leader of Dongwan Brigade! Dongwan Brigade was already the poorest brigade in Hongxing Commune. If seven more educated youths were assigned there, wouldn't he be cursed to death by the villagers when he returned as the brigade leader?

“Old Lin, don’t complain. I understand your predicament, but you have to think about me too! In the past, when it came to allocating personnel, your Dongwan Brigade always had the fewest.”

"If I remember correctly, there are fewer than 10 educated youth in your village now, while other brigades have at least 10, and some have as many as 20!"

“I know the actual situation of your Dongwan Brigade. That’s why I selected a few families with good conditions. Isn’t this a way of taking care of your Dongwan Brigade?”

Of course, the last sentence was whispered in Lin Guodong's ear!

Upon hearing this, Lin Guodong could only shake his head helplessly, wondering how he would explain this to the other village officials when he got back!

"Hey Lao Lin, this time your Dongwan brigade got seven girls. Aren't all the boys in your village going to be ecstatic? Maybe they'll have more energy to work from now on!"

You should be secretly happy about this good thing!

"Go away, you're all just talking without understanding the situation!"

"Hey, Lao Lin, you need to learn to be content! Everyone knows your Dongwan Brigade is poor; even matchmakers don't want to go there! Now you've suddenly received seven girls; maybe your Dongwan Brigade's fate will be turned around from this day forward! Haha!"

No one knew that the captain's words would come true! Under the leadership of these seven young girls, the Dongwan Brigade truly underwent a dramatic transformation!

"You..." Lin Guodong was so angry that he couldn't speak when he heard the other brigade leaders teasing him. He wanted to refute them, but he was powerless to do so. What they said was true. After all, their Dongwan Brigade was a well-known poor village in the surrounding area.

After the assignments were completed, some were happy while others were sad! Xia Aiguo was the most frustrated; he hadn't even had a chance to show his abilities before being separated from his group!

"Educated youth Hu, educated youth Jiang, and the rest of you! It's a pity we weren't assigned together!" Xia Aiguo walked up to them and said with a hint of regret:

"I originally planned to take care of you in the countryside, but it seems unlikely now. But don't worry, I've inquired and found that my brigade, Qingmiao, isn't far from your Dongwan brigade. If you encounter any difficulties, you can still come and find me!"

Long Lifan felt nauseous listening to Xia Aiguo's greasy words. Although he was speaking to the other passengers in the same carriage, it was obvious to everyone that his target was Hu Lili and Jiang Nian'an.

There's nothing he can do about it; these two are good-looking, and more importantly, they're rich. As for Long Lifan, she's not even 16 yet, and she's rather thin, so his family background is probably just so-so, which is what he's thinking!

"unnecessary!"

You should take care of yourself!

…………

Hu Lili and the others refused outright! Only Liu Pandi smiled and replied, "Really? Xia Zhiqing, you're so kind!"

"Uh, yes, I guess so!" Xia Aiguo didn't get the answer he wanted. Hearing Liu Pandi's words, he could only nod awkwardly and then leave.

"Put your things away, get ready to go!" Each team began roll call!

The group placed their packages one after another on the oxcart next to Lin Guodong; there wasn't much room left on it!

"Captain, are we going to walk back?" Hu Lili looked at the other brigades who had already picked up their people and left. Some brigades even prepared two oxcarts! One to carry luggage and the other to carry people.

"Uh, yes!" Lin Guodong scratched his head awkwardly and said, "Our Dongwan Brigade is not as good as other brigades. We only have one oxcart, which is very precious to us. So you will have to walk back with me."

"How long will it take to walk?" Hu Lili asked, her voice trembling with tears.

"About an hour!"

"what!"

"Old Chen, let's go!" The driver was an old man surnamed Chen, and everyone called him Old Chen. Long Lifan silently made a note of it, knowing that she would inevitably have to come to the commune market in the future, so she definitely needed to build a good relationship with him.

Since they were all girls, Old Chen took special care of them and didn't walk very fast. The others could barely keep up, but Hu Lili fell behind again!

"I really can't walk anymore!"

Hu Lili groaned and collapsed to the ground. What could she do? She was wearing leather shoes; on this bumpy road, wearing leather shoes was pure torture!

Long Lifan glanced at it casually and noticed that her heels were obviously red and swollen! As expected of a rich young lady, she had never suffered like this before.

To her surprise, Jiang Nian'an did not complain. She could tell that although the latter was also very tired, she still persevered, which surprised her somewhat!

"Captain, I think there are still one or two people left on the oxcart. Why don't we let Hu Zhiqing sit down? If we keep going like this, we might not be able to get back this afternoon!"

"this…"

Lin Guodong paused for a moment. How could he not want to? But he was afraid that these educated youths would jump out and accuse him of not treating everyone equally! Now that some of the educated youths have brought it up, it's much better!

"How about this, let Hu Zhiqing take the bus back. I think there's room for one more person. You can take turns."

"no problem!"

"I agree!"

The others readily agreed, and Long Lifan and the others helped Hu Lili into the car first. Then, regarding who would take turns sitting, Long Lifan suggested that Jiang Nian'an sit first, since her condition was the worst among them!

And so, the group slowly and leisurely arrived at their destination—Dongwan Brigade!