Chapter 35: Room Assignment in the Educated Youth Compound

Iron Orchid ignored her and carried her luggage into the house.

The earthen house where the educated youths lived was left behind by a widowed elderly villager. It looked quite dilapidated from the outside, but it was quite spacious inside, with several rooms.

The other educated youths hadn’t finished work yet. Iron Orchid didn’t want to barge into a room, so she temporarily placed her net bag and luggage in the main room and wandered around.

After taking a look around, she found that the environment was quite good. The earthen house was backed by a mountain, and there was a small river in front, making it convenient to fetch water from the wild. The staff member at the street office was quite good at choosing places, the mountains and rivers were beautiful, they wouldn’t starve no matter what.

After a while, a villager came over and spoke.

“You’re the new educated youths who just arrived today, right? The village chief asked me to tell you to go to the village warehouse to get grain.”

Iron Orchid knew about this. After reading many period dramas, she had figured out the process of going to the countryside.

On the first day, they would rest and borrow grain from the village. This grain wasn’t free, they could deduct it with work points or exchange it for money when the grain was distributed at the end of the year.

The educated youths’ ration was 40 jin of rice per month, it was the end of August, and there were five months left until the end of the year, which was 200 jin of rice.

But generally, the villages couldn’t afford to give that much grain, they only had so much harvest, they had to hand over a portion to the commune, and they also had to distribute grain to the villagers, everyone didn’t have enough to eat.

So when Iron Orchid and the others went to the warehouse, they only received 150 jin of grain. 100 jin of brown rice, and 50 jin of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, two large sacks full.

He Ailing couldn’t carry such heavy sacks, so she had to ask Zhang San and Li Si for help.

“Can you help me? My arms are about to break, I can’t carry it at all.”

He Ailing put on a pitiful look.

Zhang San and Li Si were about to soften their hearts, but they remembered the joke Iron Orchid had made earlier.

“No, no, you should ask someone else for help!”

They didn’t want to be used as pawns again.

Women’s hearts are like the bottom of the sea, they were scared!

Zhang San and Li Si each carried two sacks and quickly slipped away.

He Ailing stomped her foot in anger.

“What kind of people are they, so stingy, they’re not at all considerate of women!”

Iron Orchid laughed and chimed in.

“You have the capital to be considered, with your shoe-shaped face.”

He Ailing glared: “Iron Orchid, you’re enough! I haven’t done anything to you!”

“I was just joking, you love to joke, don’t you?”

As she spoke, Iron Orchid easily carried the two sacks and walked away.

He Ailing was both angry and anxious, she couldn’t do anything.

In the end, she ran out and asked a villager for help, and he helped her.

When they returned to the educated youth compound, there was an older male comrade standing in the courtyard.

His name was Hu Hao, he was one of the first educated youths to come to Guihua Village, and he was also the head of the educated youth compound.

The village chief asked him to come back first and tell the new educated youths about the current situation of the educated youth compound.

“Currently, there are 10 old educated youths in the compound, two days ago, a group of six new educated youths came from the south, plus the four of you from Beijing, a total of 20 educated youths.”

He Ailing exclaimed in surprise: “So many people? Will there be enough room?”

Hu Hao nodded: “There are five rooms in total, three for male educated youths and two for female educated youths, we can squeeze in.”

He Ailing looked depressed: “I can’t sleep well in a room with others, I’m not used to it.”

He Ailing came from Beijing, she had a sense of superiority.

But she forgot that her family in Beijing was also an ordinary worker’s family, even a little poor. There were many children in her family, she was the third child, and she had always shared a room with her two older sisters. It was only after her two sisters got married that she could have a room to herself.

Originally, she had passed the exam for a temporary nurse job, but her mother, who favored sons over daughters, gave the job to her brother and asked her to go to the countryside in his place.

So all the way here, He Ailing had been holding back her anger. Zhang San and Li Si, the two male comrades, were tall and strong, she didn’t dare to provoke them, so she naturally set her sights on Iron Orchid.

But she didn’t expect to encounter such a tough nut.

“You have to get used to it, we’re here to build a new countryside, not to enjoy ourselves.”

Hu Hao’s tone was gentle, but his words were sharp.

He Ailing’s face flushed with shame.

Iron Orchid quickly said: “Comrade Hu Hao, don’t worry, I’ll follow the organization’s arrangements, I’ll do whatever you ask!”

When you’re away from home, you have to be sweet-tongued, it makes things easier.

Hu Hao looked at Iron Orchid approvingly: “Well, you have a good sense of awareness.”

Zhang San and Li Si also quickly expressed their agreement.

He Ailing glared at Iron Orchid again in anger.

Iron Orchid glanced coldly at her, and she immediately cowered and looked away.

Next, Hu Hao assigned rooms to everyone.

“There are two old educated youths living in one room in the male educated youth house, Zhang San and Li Si, you can move in there.”

“As for the female educated youth side, there are already three female educated youths living in each of the two rooms, Iron Orchid, you and Comrade He Ailing will have to share a room.”

He Ailing immediately went to the female educated youth house near the front door, “I choose this one!”

This room was next to the courtyard, making it convenient to go to the kitchen or the toilet.

Hu Hao: “Why don’t you live in the one at the back? The one at the back is where the female educated youths who just arrived two days ago are living, you’re all new, it’ll be more lively if you live together.”

He Ailing insisted: “No, I’ll live in this one.”

As if she didn’t understand, what did she mean by “more lively if you live together”, it was clearly a way to fool her.

New educated youths were no match for the old ones, they were all clueless and didn’t know how to do anything.

She didn’t want to live with them.

If she lived with the old educated youths, maybe they could help her.

This Iron Orchid was quite good at winning people over.

She said one sentence and Hu Hao spoke up for her.

Humph, what a brown-noser!

Seeing He Ailing’s insistence, Hu Hao didn’t say anything.

He turned to Iron Orchid: “Then you live in the one at the back, it might… it might be a little noisy.”

It wasn’t just noisy, it was deafening, they fought every night.

This group had only been here for two days, and he had already called the village chief over twice to mediate, he was really overwhelmed.

Of this group who came to the countryside today, except for He Ailing who was a bit prickly, the other three seemed normal.

Especially Iron Orchid, the little girl was quiet and well-behaved, she looked very obedient.

Well, hopefully, they won’t fight anymore, otherwise, he would go bald from managing them.

Iron Orchid smiled and replied: “It’s okay, I’ll follow your arrangements, I’ll live anywhere.”

She had just arrived in the countryside, she would get familiar with the environment first, and lay low for a while. When the time was right, she would move out and live alone.

Hearing this, Hu Hao felt much more at ease.

Look, this little girl is so good, she’s much better than the previous few who were jumping around.

(Iron Orchid nodded: Yes, yes, I’m a good girl, I only gossip and don’t cause trouble.)