Xu Ning carried 40 jin of sorghum flour on her back, planning to grind it into powder in the village mill. This was part of the grain they had been allotted. She intended to mix it with other types of flour for cooking. Since the ground was still covered in snow, she didn’t let the two little ones follow her.

There were quite a few people grinding flour today. Several women were waiting near the stone mill, and when they saw Xu Ning approaching with her basket, one of them called out.

“Xu Zhiqing, here to grind flour?” It was the Aunt Si who used to work in the fields with Xu Ning.

“Aunt Si, we’ve run out of flour at home, so I brought some sorghum to grind,” Xu Ning replied.

Aunt Si leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Xu Zhiqing, did you hear? That new educated youth from your camp, Lin, joined Da Yong’s family for meals. She’s paying ten yuan a month! Can you believe it? Ten yuan could buy a lot of things! Sure, Da Yong’s family lives in a brick-tiled house, but it can’t be worth ten yuan just for food. Lin Zhiqing must have some money.”

Da Yong’s family lived in a three-room brick house. His eldest son had graduated from high school and worked at a machinery factory in the county. His wife was also employed at the same factory. Their daughter was in middle school, and their youngest son was in second grade. They were one of the better-off families in the village, and Da Yong’s wife was known for being neat and efficient. Xu Ning thought Lin had chosen a good family to stay with.

Xu Ning smiled but didn’t respond to Aunt Si’s comments. Seeing that she wasn’t saying anything, Aunt Si asked again, “Xu Zhiqing, how much did your bicycle cost? Did you need a bicycle ticket to buy it?”

Xu Ning explained, “Aunt Si, that bicycle isn’t mine. It belongs to my sister-in-law. She’s been staying home taking care of the baby and hasn’t been working, so she lent it to me for a while.”

“I thought it looked brand new when I saw you riding it the other day,” Aunt Si remarked.

Xu Ning replied, “Aunt Si, it only looks new because she’s taken such good care of it. She bought it six months ago, and you know how everyone treats their bicycles like treasures these days. It’s only because I’m close with my sister-in-law that she lent it to me for a while.”

Just as Xu Ning finished speaking, someone ahead called out, “Aunt Si, Wang Damei, it’s your turn!”

Aunt Si hurried off, and a young girl standing nearby turned to Xu Ning and asked, “Are you the educated youth living in that small house behind the Youth Camp?”

Xu Ning nodded.

The girl quickly introduced herself, “I’m Wei Lanlan, 17 years old, from Anhui Province. I just came here to the countryside not long ago.”

Xu Ning glanced at Wei Lanlan. She remembered this name from the novel The Delicate Wife from the 70s, though Wei Lanlan’s role wasn’t a major one. In the book, Wei Lanlan disapproved of the heroine’s indecisiveness between two men and didn’t interact much with her. Whenever the heroine provoked her, Wei Lanlan would often make sarcastic remarks, never allowing the heroine to gain the upper hand. After the college entrance exams were restored, Wei Lanlan went on to attend a teacher’s college in her province.

Looking at her now, Xu Ning said, “I’m Xu Ning, from Beijing. I’ve been here for almost a year.”

Wei Lanlan asked, “Why did you move out? Why aren’t you living in the Educated Youth Courtyard? You spent your own money to fix up a house—what’ll you do when it’s time to go back to the city?”

Xu Ning explained how Li Fengjiao and Lin Qiuhua had bullied her and Xu An, even withholding their rations. Since the original Xu Ning had lost her life over it, she saw no reason to cover up for those two.

“I knew those two weren’t good people!” Wei Lanlan huffed angrily. “When I first got here, they made me share the pastries I brought with everyone, but whenever they had something, they’d sneak it off to eat by themselves.”

Wei Lanlan then brought up the argument that had happened yesterday at the youth camp. Li Miao accused another female educated youth of using her expensive face cream. The other girl denied it and sarcastically mocked Li Miao, saying she was always trying to seduce men with her overdone looks. Eventually, the two of them got into a physical fight.

As Xu Ning finished grinding the flour and was about to leave, Wei Lanlan asked, “Can I come visit you sometime?”

Xu Ning agreed. It wasn’t realistic to cut ties with everyone, and she didn’t mind interacting with people who seemed reasonable.

When Xu Ning returned home, she placed the ground flour on the kitchen shelf and began preparing lunch. She planned to steam some buns she had made the day before, make a simple corn porridge, and mix up some pickled vegetables. The two little ones loved the buns she had made—each one was as big as a fist. Xu An could eat four in one sitting, and even Xiao Mo could eat two. Xu Ning thought that she should stew one of the nine pig heads she had in her hidden storage and use it to make more buns in the future.

Since it was cold now, the three of them sat on the heated kang to eat. Xu An had already set the small table in place. While they were eating, Xu An spoke to Xu Ning. “Sis, Jianmin told me that the village elders are saying the early snow this year means it’s going to be colder than usual. Aunt Dashuan said we should chop more firewood. The weather’s good these days, so maybe we should go up the mountain and cut some more.”

The elders who farmed often predicted the weather better than the meteorologists, and Xu Ning believed them. Even though they already had enough firewood to get through winter, she figured they didn’t have much else to do at the moment. It wouldn’t hurt to make a few more trips up the mountain. She decided they would head out in the afternoon.

Xu Ning was also planning to go to the county town tomorrow. She still had over 500 sheets stored in her space and intended to sell some. With the shortage of supplies, she couldn’t take too many out at once, but selling a small amount each year would be manageable.

In the afternoon, the siblings took Xiao Mo to Grandpa Qi’s house before heading up the mountain. There were a lot of people chopping firewood today, some with their entire families. After thinking it over, Xu Ning had Xu An run over to the Youth Camp to tell Sun Hao and the others to prepare more firewood as well.

Sun Hao, Chen Xiangdong, and Ge Hongbin had already moved into the house they built before the snowfall, separating themselves from the communal meals at the camp.

When Xu An went up the mountain, there were about seven or eight other educated youths with him, including Sun Hao, Chen Xiangdong, Ge Hongbin, Wei Lanlan, Gu Wenping, and a man Xu Ning recognized from the other day—a male supporting character named Yang Wenli, who was often with the story’s protagonists. There were also two others, a man and a woman, whom Xu Ning didn’t know. Once they reached the mountain, there wasn’t much conversation. Everyone just focused on chopping firewood.

Everyone knew what the winters were like in this area—without enough firewood, things could get rough. The amount stored at the camp was already insufficient, and with so many people living there, the communal supplies were never used sparingly. That was why everyone seemed anxious now.

Xu An told Xu Ning that when he went to the camp to talk to Chen Xiangdong and the others, Chen mentioned that the three of them had already prepared quite a bit of firewood. Their main concern was that, when the youth camp ran out of wood, they might face conflict if they refused to share their own stockpile.

To avoid this, Chen Xiangdong had already gone to inform the other educated youths, letting them know that the village elders were predicting a particularly cold winter this year. Nearly everyone in the village—adults and children—were heading up the mountain to chop wood, and he asked if they wanted to join in.

Xu Ning didn’t get involved in the matter. She wasn’t one to meddle, but she was worried that if a heavy snowstorm hit and the Courtyard ran out of firewood, they’d come knocking on her door constantly, and that would be exhausting. She and Xu An had stockpiled a significant amount of wood, and she didn’t want to spend the winter dealing with endless requests for help.

She instructed Xu An to stay on the mountain and continue chopping while she carried the wood down. By the end of the afternoon, the siblings had managed to gather a sizable pile.

That evening, when they went to pick up Xiao Mo from Grandpa Qi’s house, Xu Ning noticed that the back courtyard was also stacked with firewood. It looked like Grandpa Qi and Uncle Lu had been busy chopping wood over the past few days.