The Delicate Beauty of the Seventies Is an Educated Youth [Transmigrated into a Book]
The Delicate Beauty of the Seventies Is an Educated Youth [Transmigrated into a Book] Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The sky gradually brightened. Light streamed through the old wooden window, bringing a trace of illumination into the pitch-dark room.

He Xianqiu was awakened by the light. She opened her eyes, took out the small flashlight she’d bought and turned it on under the quilt, checking her watch. It was 6:45 in the morning.

Since she’d gone to bed early the night before, she’d woken up early today, and it wasn’t long before it was time to do farm work. She simply got up and dressed.

Tiptoeing to the door, she quietly opened it, walked to the water vat, and scooped out water to wash up. By the time she finished, the others were also awake.

The air in the countryside was fresh in the morning. After she applied snow cream on her face, she carefully took out the meat buns she’d hidden. She moved slowly, afraid of disturbing the others still asleep, and then quietly slipped out the door.

Worried that the remaining meat buns wouldn’t keep long, she fetched some water, put it in her new pot, and placed the buns inside.

Then, munching on a bun, she happily left the educated youth station. Mmm…so delicious.

Although they weren’t as good as the ones Aunt Lin made, they had a unique flavor.

Aunt Lin was the chef in her family. As far back as He Xianqiu could remember, Aunt Lin had always been there. When she was little, she often sat to the side watching Aunt Lin prepare sweets for her.

That little white dumpling of a child sat on the chair, her round body motionless, big eyes fixed intently on Aunt Lin making desserts.

Yes, when she was small, He Xianqiu had been a little chubby girl. Whenever she smelled something tasty, she’d go running to the kitchen on her short little legs.

Thinking about her chubby childhood self, He Xianqiu’s face burned with embarrassment. Luckily, hardly anyone knew—this was her black history.

As she ate her meat bun, she ambled toward the work site. The young men she passed on the road would all sneak glances at her, their ears flushing bright red.

When she reached the site, she put down the things she’d prepared and sat down to wait for the others to arrive.

Soon, everyone had gathered. He Xianqiu listened as Brigade Leader Lin Jianshe assigned tasks. She was given a small plot of land.

Once the assignments were finished, she walked over to her area to continue planting sweet potatoes. In the south, there was plenty of rain, which was suitable for growing rice, but the yields were low. So most of the Qinggang Brigade planted high-yield crops that could fill stomachs.

Sweet potatoes were easy to grow and produced a lot, so the brigade mostly planted those.

She’d learned this from Zhang Zhijuan. Even though she’d only been eating corn porridge for a few days, she was already sick of it.

He Xianqiu was now looking forward to the sweet potatoes. You could roast them—sweet and fragrant.

It wasn’t that she disliked corn porridge, but the corn wasn’t ground finely enough, and it scratched her throat when she ate it.

Already, her mind was full of all the sweet potato dishes she would eventually make: deep-fried sweet potato cakes, caramelized sweet potato chips, candied sweet potatoes, steamed sweet potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, even sweet potato pastries.

As she daydreamed about all those delicacies, a loud roar suddenly snapped her back to reality.

“Work points are limited each day! Don’t be lazy—get to work!”

He Xianqiu felt guilty, certain the brigade leader was scolding her.

She quickly picked up her hoe and started digging. But since she didn’t rely on work points to survive, she didn’t exert herself too much. Slowly, she dug each hole, placed in the sweet potatoes, and covered them with dirt.

Though she moved slowly, she didn’t feel as exhausted.

All morning, He Xianqiu repeated this leisurely cycle of digging, planting, and covering. When she got tired, she rested a while before continuing.

Soon, the break time arrived. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with a handkerchief and found a shady spot to sit down, taking out the meat bun she’d brought.

Ever since the brigade’s young men had learned that such a beautiful woman had come to their brigade, they’d been discussing how to get close to her.

And sure enough, thinking this was his chance, one of them had smoothed his hair and come over to talk.

“Comrade He.”

He Xianqiu looked up. The young man had regular features. His clothes weren’t new or old, but compared to the patched clothes of most people, they were decent.

She wondered what he wanted and asked in puzzlement, “What is it?”

He scratched his head and gave a sheepish smile. “Comrade He, my name is Wu Zhiqiang. You look exhausted from all this work. I can help you—my plot is almost done.”

He Xianqiu was about to politely decline when someone cut her off.

“Strong boy, your own field is done, so go help your mother! What are you doing here?”

“What good is a woman who can’t lift or carry anything? Bring her home to be worshipped like an ancestor?”

“Her backside’s so small—probably can’t even bear a son.”

“So pretty—she’s obviously a fox spirit. No good, no good.”

Nearby aunties began to gossip in their shrill voices, their eyes full of contempt, as if she were some scourge.

Hearing all these nasty remarks, He Xianqiu was so angry she jumped up and retorted.

“Aunties, why so many words? Do you all aspire to be gossipy old hags? I’m so good-looking, of course I’d be brought home to be worshipped—why would I marry to be abused? And whether I can have sons or not, what does that have to do with you? Besides, what’s so great about having a son? You have to save up to build him a house, save up to get him a wife, help raise his kids. Before you know it, most of your life is gone. Sons and daughters are the same. Your way of thinking is feudal—it’ll get you reported.”

“And by the way, I never insult people—because the ones I scold aren’t people.”①

As she spoke, He Xianqiu gave an innocent grin, showing her little canine tooth.

The aunties she scolded turned bright red with anger. Who’d have thought this teenage girl would be such a tough one?

“You’re so young, yet such a shrew—who’d dare marry you? No matter what, we’re your elders.”

“Well then, Aunties, act like elders, will you? Your mouths are so foul, always gossiping about everyone.” He Xianqiu sneered.

“You…you…”

The auntie she’d retorted to was so furious her hand trembled as she pointed at He Xianqiu.

Wu Zhiqiang’s mother, seeing the scene, rushed over to drag her son away.

Wu Zhiqiang didn’t want to go, but she hauled him off anyway, scolding him fiercely: “Are you trying to die? Hurry up and leave!”

He Xianqiu felt incredibly disgusted. Those busybodies were looking for trouble.

She sat back down and resumed eating her bun. Seeing how she looked like someone who wasn’t to be trifled with, the others quietly dispersed.

Once she’d eaten her fill, she used her hat to shield her face and leaned against a tree for a nap.

She always believed in this principle: if people don’t offend me, I won’t offend them; if they do, then I’ll strike back hard.

The break didn’t last long. Since she’d wasted time arguing, she’d only just drifted off when the whistle blew to signal work.

He Xianqiu opened her eyes, stretched, stood up, and patted the wood dust off her trousers.

She adjusted her clothes and headed back to the field. As she passed the auntie she’d scolded, the woman glared at her venomously.

But this didn’t faze He Xianqiu in the slightest. She didn’t even glance back and went straight to her plot, picked up the hoe, and started working.

She dug a row of holes, carefully placed sweet potatoes inside, then covered them with soil.

That afternoon, the sun blazed overhead. The June weather was sweltering. She was wrapped up so tightly that only her eyes showed, even wearing gloves.

Wearing gloves while hoeing spared her hands the worst of the pain.

It was stifling to be so covered up in the heat, but He Xianqiu was determined not to get sunburned.

Focused on her cycle of digging—planting—covering, she hardly noticed time passing. When the whistle blew again for the next rest, she was stunned at how quickly the hours had flown.

Overall, she’d spent the entire afternoon working. Though she paused now and then to rest, she’d always resumed once she’d recovered.

She’d only finished a small patch, but it was her day’s labor, and she was satisfied.

Sitting on the ground, she listened as the record keeper announced the work points. As before, she got two points, enough to receive some sweet potatoes.

Good enough, she thought contentedly.

When the brigade leader finally dismissed them, she stood, rubbed her sore neck—so much time bent over had left it aching—and was about to leave when Zhang Zhijuan called her from behind.

“Xianqiu, the weather’s good, and the wild greens are growing nicely. Everyone from the youth station wants to go up the mountain to pick some. Want to come?”

He Xianqiu nodded. “Sure! Should I bring a basket or anything?”

“No need. We’ll tie them together with long grass.”

“All right.”

It was a group activity. She felt she should go along.

She couldn’t very well let everyone else go gather vegetables while she stayed behind, only to eat what they’d brought back.

Including herself, there were twelve people at the educated youth station—six men and six women, with four veteran youths: two women and two men.

But the male lead, Chen Changping, still had his injured foot and was lying in bed, so only eleven of them were going.

The group of eleven set off for the mountain, the experienced youth, Song Wenzhong, leading the way.

When they reached halfway up the slope, Song Wenzhong stopped everyone.

“Halfway up is good enough. Down below, the kids have picked most of the greens already, so we came further up. But don’t go too deep—there are wild animals. Last time, someone even ran into a tiger.”

Everyone nodded to show they understood. Song Wenzhong pointed out several kinds of common edible greens, then let them split up to forage.

“All right, those are about all the wild greens I know. Any more, and I’d have no idea how to cook them.” He spread his hands helplessly.

Everyone laughed, and He Xianqiu smiled too.

“Knowing this many is plenty. Even if you knew more, we wouldn’t know what to do with them.”

“All right, let’s hurry. It’ll be dark soon.”

Hearing this, everyone began searching in earnest.

He Xianqiu picked a spot near the group and began gathering greens.

Carefully distinguishing the edible kinds, she awkwardly snapped the stems.

When she’d finished one area, she moved to another where there were more greens.

She bent low, snapping one stem after another, when suddenly, something in the patch of weeds rustled, the noise loud enough to startle her.

He Xianqiu didn’t know what was in there. The thought that it might be a snake made her shriek in terror.

“Ah! There’s something in the grass!”

Miumi[Translator]

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