Chapter 9

Mingshu looked in the direction where the old man drove away, and saw a long loess road stretching out in front of her, as if there was no end.

She lifted her foot and stepped onto the long loess road.

Seeing this, Yi Lu and Chen Li followed suit.

Zhou Wenfu and the others looked at each other, frowned, and followed helplessly.

The girl saw that everyone else was walking and quickly quickened her pace to catch up.

For Mingshu, walking this distance was a piece of cake.

Not long after, she left Yi Lu, Chen Li and the others behind and caught up with the old man.

Seeing Mingshu in such good physical condition, the old man couldn’t help but admire: “Kid, you are in really good health! In our countryside, we need kids like you who have good physical strength and can work.” The old man was very happy to see that Mingshu had walked for so long without a drop of sweat.

I didn’t expect the city kids to be so capable. It seems the team leader was overly concerned, saying the city kids couldn’t work and were afraid they’d cause trouble. Isn’t this great?

The old man immediately took a liking to these ten children.

“Uncle, please forgive me. I have been energetic and have a good appetite since I was a child.” Mingshu’s mouth corners rose slightly.

“That’s good. In our village, if we can work hard, we can have enough to eat.”

“Kid, it’s almost autumn harvest time now, so it might be hard for you since you just arrived,” the old man kindly reminded.

“I’m not afraid,” Mingshu always stood side by side with the old man.

Although Mingshu doesn’t like to talk and is even indifferent.

But she still knew that when she was on someone else’s turf, she had to bend down slightly. Of course, a 90-degree bend wouldn’t work. Fifteen degrees was just about right.

“Good Comrade”

“Um”

Mingshu kept listening to the old man and occasionally responded.

She learned that the rural area where she was going to work in the countryside was a large village with many people, divided into ten production groups.

The old man was the one in charge of the cattle in the village. His name was Zhang, so Mingshu called him Uncle Zhang.

“Uncle Zhang, how far is this place from the village?”

“It’s not far, just over two hills.”

Mingshu followed Uncle Zhang’s whip and looked over to see two tall hills in the distance.

Besides, they were all walking, so they probably had to spend the night outside.

After hearing what Grandpa Zhang said, Ming Shu secretly thanked herself for her good physical strength. She turned around and saw only Yi Lu and Chen Li behind her. The others were nowhere to be seen and were probably even further away.

Uncle Zhang looked back at the people behind him and saw that there were only two male educated youths, and seven people had not caught up.

He parked the ox cart under a big tree, and the old man got out and took out a winnowing basket from the front and put it under the ox’s butt.

“Let’s take a break and wait for them.”

Mingshu remained calm upon seeing this and sat on a rock nearby to rest.

After a few minutes, Yi Lu and Chen Li finally caught up.

“Mingshu, you walk so fast!” Chen Li said breathlessly.

“It’s okay. Find a rock to sit down and rest. We probably still have a long way to go,” Ming Shu looked up at them and reminded them.

“Thank you,” Yilu nodded in thanks.

“No need,” Mingshu said.

Mingshu heard what happened and told them about it.

After all, they will probably need to spend a long time together in the future, and maintaining a good relationship will help them live a peaceful life.

Three people sat on the rocks to rest.

After a long time, the sun gradually set and the sky gradually darkened.

Uncle Zhang turned around and saw that those people had not arrived yet. He felt a little anxious. When he was about to go look for them, seven people slowly walked towards him from behind.

When Uncle Zhang saw them coming, he prepared to continue on his way.

“Uncle, wait for us.” The three educated youths behind him quickly ran over to stop Uncle Zhang.

“What are you doing?” Uncle Zhang stopped the car and looked at them with a frown.

“Uncle, we really can’t walk anymore. We want to take a car,” Zhou Wenfu asked while wiping the sweat from his head and panting.

“Yes, sir, we want to take a car. We are here to help you build a new countryside. You are deliberately ignoring and abusing us.”

“Yes, sir, since we female educated youth can’t walk, let them be the carts!”

Uncle Zhang looked back and saw that the back of the cart was full of packages. He looked at Zhou Wenfu and the others and said, “My cart is already full of your packages. There is no room for you all.”

“Uncle, girls can sit more comfortably if they are light.” Li Xiaoming said with a smile.

When several female educated youth saw the ox cart stop, they also ran over quickly.

Wang Danli panted, supported her knees with her hands, and looked at Uncle Zhang.

“Uncle, please let us take the car. We can’t walk!”

“Uncle, we really can’t walk anymore. We still feel dizzy. Uncle, please be kind to us!” The girl was staggering as if she was going to faint at any time.

Seeing them like this, Uncle Zhang’s good impression of them just rose to the ground. Fearing that something might happen, he impatiently waved the bullwhip and said, “Come up, come up!”

Wang Danli and the girl quickly climbed into the car, no longer looking as exhausted as before.

Uncle Zhang also saw it and snorted. He muttered softly, “You’ll see later.”

When Li Xiaoming saw that the old man agreed to the girl doing it, he immediately stepped forward and said, “Now women also take the top for half a day, we should treat them equally. We will take turns sitting later.”

He Yun, Wang Meiying and Wang Danli looked at Li Xiaoming angrily.

But I didn’t dare to disagree and agreed to take turns sitting

The girls all rode on the bullock carts, which were indeed a bit tiring.

Mingshu didn’t sit down. She saw several young women educated in education huddled beside the oxcart, their buttocks pressed against the edge. Their feet dragged on the ground, looking exhausted.

Uncle Zhang didn’t see any female educated youth, and he felt sorry for the old man who was exhausted. He hurriedly said, “You male educated youth, each take a package. Otherwise, don’t take the bus.”

Zhou Wenfu saw that Uncle Zhang had a dark face, and they reluctantly took their own luggage. Chen Li and Yi Lu also carried one.

On the way, Li Xiaoming called out for a turn and squeezed into the car.

It was said that they would take turns, but the other male educated youth were embarrassed to do it, so in the end he and several girls arrived at the village on a bullock cart.

“We’re here,” Uncle Zhang looked at his home and finally smiled on his dark face.

Mingshu and the others saw that in the village not far ahead, in the dark night, only sporadic candles were emitting faint light.

Uncle Zhang sent ten educated youth to the village head’s house.

He Yun and the others had not yet gotten off the ox cart.

Mingshu looked inside from outside the door through the low wall and saw that the candle in the east wing was still on.

“Ningsheng, I finally brought the person back,” Uncle Zhang knocked on the door and said loudly.

“My God, how many people are you picking up? Why are you taking so long?” A loud voice came from the room. The voice was heard before the person arrived.

A burly man in a coat and a cigarette in his mouth opened the door and came out.

“Uncle, what happened to you on the way? Why did you come back so late?”

“Those kids were too slow! I could only wait in front, and later I had to come back by ox cart.” Grandpa Zhang complained.

The village chief looked at the educated youth still sitting on the oxcart and shouted, “Why don’t you get off? Do you still want to ride the oxcart to the cowshed?”

He was worried about the team leader in his heart, and now he could understand it. It was simply a fantasy to rely on this group of people to help them build the countryside.

He Yun and the others were awakened by the village chief’s roar, and they slowly came down while muttering to themselves.

Everyone carried their luggage.

“Let’s go, I’ll take you to where you’ll live.”

“Village chief, we haven’t eaten yet,” Li Xiaoming said, holding his stomach.

“Who would leave food for you so late?” the village chief said unhappily.

“Hurry up!” The village chief took the lead and walked towards the resettlement site for educated youth.

Seeing that the village chief was angry, Li Xiaoming didn’t dare to say anything.

With my head down, I followed the village chief and came to a house.

“This is where you’ll live from now on, so take good care of it. I repaired it not long ago, so if it breaks down again, you’ll have to pay for it yourself.

One room for women, one room for men. You can discuss it among yourselves. We can talk about other things tomorrow.” The village chief said a few words briefly, then said haye and went home to sleep.

Mingshu looked at the house she was going to live in. It had three rooms, bedrooms on both sides and a kitchen in the middle.

Entering the bedroom, both sides were the same size, with the same length of kang (kang), a darker color than the earthen walls. I guess they had built new kangs specifically to accommodate more educated youth.

Mingshu and her group of ten were split equally between men and women. It didn’t matter which side they chose.

Mingshu carried two packages into the room on the left. She tidied up the bed slightly, put some old newspapers underneath, and since there was no kang mat, she could only spread a thin quilt on top. Then she took out a thin blanket and went to sleep without washing.

Seeing that Mingshu had already gone to bed, the others quickly tidied up, put newspapers under the covers, and then spread out the quilts. Those who didn’t have newspapers just put them on top.

The right thing to do is to go to bed and rest quickly.