Chapter 38: Countryside Life Begins with a Lunch

The educated youth compound in Guihua Village ate communal meals.

Everyone worked together. The male educated youths were responsible for chopping wood and fetching water, while the female educated youths cooked, washed dishes, and then boiled water to fill everyone’s thermoses after meals.

Two boys and two girls were assigned to work each week, taking turns so that everyone could have a little easier time.

Yu Qingqiu and the others had only been here for two days and hadn’t had their turn yet, and Iron Orchid and the others hadn’t either.

This time, during lunch, the person in charge, Hu Hao, told everyone about this.

“You can form your own teams, or I can arrange it.”

As soon as he finished speaking, He Ailing immediately said:

“Sister Zhang just told me about this, I’ll team up with her!”

Sister Zhang was an old educated youth, she had always worked alone or with others.

Iron Orchid raised her eyebrows, He Ailing was quite clever, she knew to cling to someone powerful right away.

Hu Hao nodded: “Okay, what about the rest of you?”

Zhang San and Li Si looked at each other: “We’ll work together.”

Iron Orchid: She finally understood why these two had such strange names.

It was probably just the author writing randomly, they were just tools to fill the numbers.

Han Ke’er frowned: “I don’t know how to cook.”

She was a transmigrated destined daughter, she came to this era to make a big splash, not to work and cook for others.

She hated washing dishes even more.

In her previous life, she didn’t get into college, she went to work after graduating from high school.

She ended up washing dishes in a hotel, her hands were all chapped and wrinkled, they were ugly.

Bai Yanran patted her hand and said gently:

“It’s okay, I can cook, we’ll team up, I won’t let you get tired.”

Her family was average, and when she came to the countryside, her family only gave her 10 yuan, nothing else.

Life in the countryside was so hard, she heard that they didn’t even have enough to eat, she had to find a sucker.

Originally, she had her sights set on her good friend, Yu Qingqiu.

But for some reason, after coming to the countryside, Yu Qingqiu’s personality suddenly changed, she was cold and sarcastic to her, and she often looked at her with a disgusted expression.

Bai Yanran couldn’t swallow this, so she turned to Han Ke’er and formed an alliance.

After all, Han Ke’er’s family was also well-off, although she was a bit arrogant, she was very generous.

In just two days, she had already eaten a lot of good things from her.

There were sweet Great White Rabbit candies and exquisite pastries, all of which she had been coveting for a long time.

This Han Ke’er was also very easy to coax, she would be flattered and forget herself, she was stupid.

Such a sucker was hard to come by, she had to hold on to her tightly.

Hearing Bai Yanran say this, Han Ke’er immediately beamed:

“Oh, okay, then I’ll trouble you.”

Seeing this, Iron Orchid twitched her mouth.

They say that transmigrators defeat the reborn, and the reborn defeat the locals.

Why did it feel like it was the other way around?

With Han Ke’er’s intelligence, she was being sold and still helping count the money, she couldn’t even beat Yu Qingqiu, how could she beat the white lotus, Bai Yanran?

It seemed that in the novel’s plot, Han Ke’er was indeed tricked badly by Bai Yanran.

But it had been so long, she had almost forgotten the specific details.

The key was that the ending was abandoned, she wasn’t sure what the ending of these supporting characters was.

Never mind, she wouldn’t get involved anyway.

As long as it didn’t involve her bottom line, she would just be a transparent gossip eater.

On the male educated youth side.

Chen Huaijin and Wang Juanjuan teamed up, Wen Lang found another male educated youth who was working alone.

Only Iron Orchid and the reborn female protagonist, Yu Qingqiu, were left.

Yu Qingqiu looked at Iron Orchid.

She remembered that there was no Iron Orchid when she went to the countryside in her previous life.

She didn’t know where she came from.

But since she was reborn, maybe it would trigger other effects.

Forget it, she was just an insignificant person.

This person seems honest, so I’ll keep them close and observe them first.

So she took the initiative to say: “Comrade Iron Orchid, shall we team up?”

Iron Orchid didn’t know that Yu Qingqiu had so many thoughts in her mind.

If she had a choice, she wouldn’t choose any of Yu Qingqiu, Bai Yanran, or Han Ke’er.

But the current situation didn’t allow for that.

She could only nod and say: “Okay.”

……

After everyone formed teams, lunch was served.

Iron Orchid was stunned when she saw the food.

There were only two dishes: napa cabbage and shredded potatoes.

There was no oil or grease, it was like boiled water.

The dishes weren’t served on plates, but in large aluminum basins.

After all, there were 20 people, so there had to be more food.

The rice wasn’t pure white rice, it was mixed with some sweet potato chunks, and there was a lot of water, making it into sweet potato porridge.

Everyone took a bowl, and the bottom of the pot was visible.

It was clear how hard life was in the countryside.

Iron Orchid was fine, she had experienced the hardships of the apocalypse, so this was considered good food.

But the other new educated youths couldn’t stand it.

He Ailing looked disgusted: “Is this all we’re having for lunch?”

She had been on the road all morning and was starving.

But seeing the bland food in front of her, she had no appetite.

Zhang San and Li Si didn’t say anything, they probably felt the same way.

The six main characters had arrived earlier and had already experienced similar things, so they didn’t say anything either.

Hu Hao, the head of the educated youth compound, explained:

“This is already considered good for today, usually, we only have one dish, we just make do.”

It was like this for everyone when they first arrived in the countryside, they complained about this and that, they weren’t used to the environment, and they weren’t used to the food.

They would get used to it after a while.

He Ailing pouted, but she didn’t say anything else.

After all, Hu Hao was the person in charge, if she offended him, her life wouldn’t be easy.

Iron Orchid saw her look of grievance and found it a little funny.

She didn’t have any impression of He Ailing, she was probably a little better than Zhang San and Li Si, she was just a background character in the novel.

The main characters didn’t say anything, but she was the first to jump out.

Bai Yanran stood up, scooped a bowl of sweet potato porridge from the clay pot, and handed it to He Ailing:

“Comrade He Ailing, this porridge has bacon in it, it tastes good, you can try it.”

Not only He Ailing, but most of the other people’s eyes lit up.

Bacon! This was a delicacy that they couldn’t eat a few times a year, they didn’t expect to be able to eat it today!

“Thank you, Comrade Bai Yanran, we’re all lucky today!”

He Ailing took the opportunity to thank her profusely.

The other educated youths also thanked her.

Bai Yanran was beaming, she smiled and responded to everyone, not mentioning that the bacon was contributed by Han Ke’er.

Han Ke’er’s mind was not on this at the moment.

She was racking her brains to find a way to strike up a conversation with Wen Lang, the male educated youth.

Yes, after transmigrating, she fell in love with Wen Lang at first sight and decided to pursue him.

Well, this was another romance-obsessed person.

But this situation was also quite funny.

In her previous life, the original body competed with the female protagonist for the scumbag, and in this life, the transmigrator competed with the female protagonist for the male protagonist.

It seemed that she was always against the female protagonist.

Iron Orchid ate the sweet potato and bacon porridge with gusto, and chatted with the old educated youths beside her, she couldn’t have been more satisfied.

Whether it was in the modern world or the apocalypse, she was always alone, she was so lonely.

Now it was so good, so lively.

Iron Orchid’s life in the countryside began with a delicious lunch…