Chapter 15 – Separating Meals from the Senior Educated Youths

Lin Ting, adopting a “make the best of the situation” mindset, began tidying up the bed. The sooner it was ready, the sooner she could rest.

Yu Mo helped her, and the two quickly finished cleaning up the heated kang bed.

Zhong Shuhe looked confused and came over.
“You two seriously plan to stay here long-term?”

Lin Ting asked in return,
“What else would we do?”
“Do we even have any other choice?”

Zhong Shuhe blurted without thinking:
“I just saw two red-brick houses in the brigade. If the youth dormitory isn’t livable, we could ask to stay with local families.”

Standing by the door, senior educated youth Wen Chunlan replied coolly:
“Those are the homes of the brigade leader and secretary. They barely have space for themselves—you should stop dreaming.”

“And by the way, the vegetables from the private garden were grown by us, and that big iron pot was bought using money we chipped in. If you want to use them, you’ll have to cook for everyone.”

Zhong Shuhe’s eyes widened.
“So we’d be cooking for nine people?”

“This is outrageous!”

Wen Chunlan wasn’t fazed:
“You’re free to not eat our private garden vegetables and not use our pot either.”

Zhong Shuhe was at a loss.
Who brings a giant iron pot when relocating to the countryside?

Plus, without ration coupons, even with money, you couldn’t buy one!

Zhong Shuhe frowned deeply.
“We came from all over the country. We should be united, but your actions are clearly divisive and undermining solidarity!”

The senior educated youths paled.

Undermining unity? Sowing internal division?
Those accusations were serious—potentially fatal in a political sense.

Zhong Shuhe doubled down:
“Tell me I’m wrong. What you’re doing is divisive. You’re breaking up our unity!”

“If you’re not convinced, we can go talk to the brigade leader and the secretary!”

Seeing things escalate, another female youth, Jiang Yanmei, stepped in to smooth things over:
“Come on, we’re all educated youths here. Let’s talk things out.”

Male youth Zhao Weidong agreed:
“Exactly. Don’t go running to the brigade leader and secretary over every little thing. That’ll just make us a joke.”

Zhong Shuhe sneered:
“So you do know this behavior would make you a joke?”

Lin Ting couldn’t help but look at her differently.

Say what you will about her attitude, but her ability to argue was first-rate.

And honestly, these senior educated youths deserved to be argued with!

Jiang Yanmei awkwardly smiled:
“How about this? We girls rotate cooking duty, two people per day. The guys handle hauling water and gathering firewood. Sound fair?”

Wen Chunlan replied,
“Fine. But if they want to eat from our private garden, they’ll have to trade something for it.”

Lin Ting had seen through it now—these older educated youths were no saints.

She didn’t want to cook with people like this.

So she said coldly:
“I brought my own pot, so I’ll cook separately from you.”

Jiang Yanmei gave her a meaningful look before replying:
“Anyone who wants to cook with us will have to follow our rules.”

“Think it over and come talk to me later.”

With that, she turned and left, and the other educated youths followed.

Yu Mo hesitated. She didn’t feel comfortable asking Lin Ting to team up, but she didn’t want to cook with the senior youths either.

Zhong Shuhe, not one to hold back, said directly:
“Can I cook with you? I can share the sausages I brought from home.”

Lin Ting rejected her flatly:
“No. You don’t know how to cook.”

I’d end up cooking for her every day—why should I?

It’s not like I’m short on meat anyway!

Zhong Shuhe’s throat felt blocked, like she had a rock stuck in it. She couldn’t argue—Lin Ting was right.
She couldn’t cook.

Yu Mo spoke up timidly:
“I can cook. Can I team up with you?”

Lin Ting asked suspiciously:
“Are your meals even edible?”

Yu Mo hesitated, then said:
“My mom passed away, so I’ve been cooking at home ever since.”

“They’re not amazing, but probably not terrible either.”

Lin Ting thought for a moment. She wasn’t good at cooking herself—barely knew how to make tomato-egg noodles.
As for cooking rice? She had no clue.

If someone else could cook, it might work.

But she wanted to make things clear up front, to avoid conflict later.

“I’ll allow it for now. I provide the pot, Xiao Mo cooks, and Comrade Zhong gathers firewood. As for fetching water, Zhong and I will take turns.”

“If things don’t work out between us, we’ll end the partnership.”

Zhong Shuhe agreed readily:
“Deal!”

As long as she didn’t have to cook, she didn’t care.
She didn’t even want to imagine how awful her own cooking would taste!

Yu Mo sighed in relief.

Thank goodness I don’t have to team up with those old-timers!

She could cook, yes—but not for nine people! Just thinking about it made her anxious.

Lin Ting wrote up the agreement in black and white, and all three signed and thumbprinted it.
They made four copies—one of which would be handed to the brigade leader for safekeeping.

Lin Ting looked at the sky and said:
“It’s getting late. Let’s go borrow some firewood and vegetables from the brigade leader’s house—and drop off this agreement too.”

She’d rather borrow from the villagers than deal with those senior educated youths again.

Everyone sprang into action. Before they left, Zhong Shuhe took out an iron lock and locked their dormitory door.

“Good thing my mom packed this. Otherwise, it’d be a pain to leave the room unattended.”

Lin Ting had also brought a lock, but she’d used it on her trunk, so she didn’t have a spare for the door.

The senior educated youths next door didn’t look happy seeing them lock up.

“They think we’re thieves now?” Wen Chunlan muttered.

Zhao Weidong chimed in, “Tell me about it.”

But Lin Ting’s group was too busy borrowing supplies to pay them any mind.

The brigade leader’s house was easy to find. The only two red-brick houses in the entire village belonged to the brigade leader and the secretary.

Interestingly, the secretary’s family was among the few in the village who weren’t surnamed Chen—they were Li. Everyone else was Chen.

When the three explained their purpose, the brigade leader’s wife, Qian Sulan, was stunned.

“You three want to cook separately from the senior educated youths?”

Splitting up on day one?

These new educated youths are going to be hard to manage…

But Lin Ting said meaningfully:
“Yes. If we joined them, we’d be cooking for nine people every day. We don’t think we can manage that, so we’d rather cook on our own.”

Qian Sulan’s expression shifted.

The older educated youths gave them a hard time the moment they arrived?

That’s just bullying!

She’d misunderstood the new ones earlier.

Quickly, she smiled warmly:
“This area is all from our family’s private garden. Pick whatever vegetables you want. In the future, just help yourselves—don’t be shy.”

Then she went into the woodshed and brought out two bundles of firewood:
“Will this be enough?”