Chapter 23

“Ah… Is this a rat?”

“Oh my god, this place is all dirt, how can I live here? I don’t want to live here.”

“Help! There are bugs!”

“There’s a foul smell here. How can people live here? It smells so bad.”

Shao Wenwen was so scared that she jumped around. She hadn’t even made up the kang in half an hour. This made Yang Wenjun very tired, as he kept nitpicking.

Hu Lai Di walked up to Shao Wenwen and whispered, “I can clean it for you, but you have to give me one dollar and I guarantee there will be no bugs in the room.”

Shao Wenwen moved away from her in disdain. She didn’t even use the clothes as rags at home. “Okay, I’ll give you two dollars and you make the bed for me.”

Qin Zhaodi glanced at them, but didn’t take them seriously. Then she smiled and said, “Come and have dinner. Why are there three people missing? Where are the three new educated youths?”

Shao Wenwen twisted her body and sat on the stool with disgust: “They have found a place to live. They probably don’t like the environment here. Let’s eat first. I’m starving.”

Then she looked at the table full of green vegetables, without any minced meat, and even the staple food was steamed corn bread. Is this soup? It’s almost the same as the swill in her house.

“You guys are eating this, is this what humans eat? What my nanny eats is better than this.”

Qin Zhaodi’s face changed slightly, and she remembered to maintain her status as the eldest sister: “Comrade Shao, life in the countryside is not that easy. We don’t have meat coupons, and it takes a long time to eat meat. The last time we ate meat was during the Dragon Boat Festival.”

Shao Wenwen completely collapsed. What kind of life was she living? She sat on the stool and cried, “Wuwuwu… I want to go home. I don’t want to stay here. I want to eat meat.”

Zhang Wenyan has always had a bad temper, and she looks down on the eldest daughter of the family, but she will not spoil her: “If you want to eat meat, go buy it. If you buy it, we will cook it for you. Don’t we want to eat it?”

“This is a rural area, not Kyoto. Don’t think about the life of a young lady. You should be prepared to endure hardships before coming here.”

Just as he finished speaking, a beautiful girl walked in from outside, wearing a military green dress, which made her exude an air of knowledge and manners.

But we should not judge a person by his appearance; it is his inner self that reveals his ugliness.

“Oh, our capitalist lady is here. She’s doing laundry again. She doesn’t feel tired even though she changes clothes three times a day. These clothes are really beautiful. She is worthy of being a capitalist lady.”

Jiang Qingyan must have gotten used to it. She glared at Zhang Wenyan and squeezed out of her way: “If you can’t speak, just shut up. My family is rich, but I’m also an educated person. How can I be like a capitalist lady?

Could it be that if you change your clothes you are a capitalist lady? If you twist your butt around to seduce men everywhere, are you a prostitute?”

Zhang Wenyan’s biggest wish is to find a man to marry and she no longer wants to farm here.

Ever since Jiang Qingyan came, all the men’s eyes were looking in her direction. Who would remember her as a simple dish?

How could she not be nervous? The clothes she wore were always very exquisite, but she was also very low-key and didn’t show off her wealth.

Zhang Wenyan couldn’t help but guess that she was a capitalist lady, the kind whose entire family had been sent down to the countryside. After all, she had been in the countryside for so long and no one sent her anything. This was such an obvious thing.

She couldn’t stand it, so she stood up and rushed over, baring her teeth and claws: “You bitch, how dare you slander me, I have a good figure, you can’t envy it.”

“Even if you stick your butt out, no one will look at you. Aren’t you extremely envious?”

Jiang Qingyan was not to be outdone, and the two began to quarrel with each other. Shao Wenwen stood there and watched the show. These female educated youth each had their own strengths.

If you move a little further away and look closely, you will notice that there is contempt in her eyes. She looks down on women like this, they are too lowly.

She actually wants to marry a local peasant. How can a city person think like this? It’s ridiculous.

Thinking of the person in my heart, I started to feel melancholy again.

As the leader of the educated youth camp, Li Yao put down his chopsticks and shouted: “That’s enough. If you don’t want to eat, don’t eat. Otherwise, you will all go out and do it on your own.

We are educated youth who went to the countryside to build the countryside, not to engage in intrigue. What does one’s identity have to do with each other?

The food here is like this. If you are not used to it, you can cook it yourself. If you are not capable, just bear with it. No one will pamper you here.”

He finished the soup in two gulps, took the steamed bun and went straight into the room to read. He didn’t want to care about the reactions of the others, nor could he do so.

Qin Zhaodi started to act like a good person again, speaking softly and gently, with her voice pinched: “Wen Yan, you too, why do you always find fault? Qingyan is just dressed better, that’s her ability, you are wrong to find fault, apologize quickly.”

“Qingyan, don’t be angry. Wenyan just envies you. She has no bad intentions.”

Zhang Wenyan pulled Jiang Qingyan’s hand away and looked at Qin Zhaodi sarcastically. She was envious and jealous of Jiang Qingyan, but she felt disgusted and a little bit of hatred towards Qin Zhaodi.

“Sister Zhaodi, you are really good at talking. You can say everything. You are such a good person. I want to see how long you can keep pretending.”

She took her rations back to her room, she would not eat them nor would she give them to others.

Hu Laidi came out with a basin of water and poured it onto the grass, her forehead covered in sweat and her clothes soaked.

“Comrade Shao, your room has been tidied. I suggest you buy some furniture so that it will look nice. Thank you for the two dollars and fifty cents.”

Shao Wenwen walked into the room and took a look. It was indeed good. Even the clothes were folded. She felt much happier: “Here is three dollars. No need to change. It’s a reward for you.”

Hu Lai Di was not angry either. As long as she could make money, she would do anything.

He sat down at the table and started eating as if it was something delicious: “You guys aren’t going to eat it? What a waste.”

She put the remaining steamed buns in her pocket and picked up the dirty dishes to clean up. She was used to such busyness and it seemed that she would be sorry for her younger brother at home if she stopped.

After eating and drinking their fill, Feng Moyan and the other two immediately returned to the yard to clean it. People came to help, and the yard immediately became lively.

Feng Moyan also asked Aunt Xiu to boil a few buckets of brown sugar water, because one cannot survive without drinking water in this weather.

“Nizi, Brother Xuan, there aren’t many pieces of furniture in here, and the cushions on the kang need to be replaced. You stay here and watch while Nizi and I go buy them. We’ll settle the bill when the time comes.”

Jiang Yuxuan had no objection, after all, they were necessities.

The two of them walked in the village. Si Yinni smiled and greeted everyone she saw enthusiastically, while Feng Moyan remained silent, like a bodyguard.

Looking at Fat Tiger playing in the village, Feng Moyan took out a handful of candy from his arms and said, “Little friend, can you take your sister to the carpenter’s place and ask if anyone can make a straw mat for the kang? Your sister needs that.”

Fat Tiger took Niu Niu’s hand, took a candy from her hand, bit half of it, put it into his sister’s mouth, and then ate it himself.

“I only need to eat one, otherwise I’ll have a toothache.”

“Grandpa Chen’s family is the best at carpentry. His son is doing it now. Shitou is his child. I’ll take you to meet him someday.”

Feng Moyan touched his head. This child was so sensible, and he didn’t know whose child he was.

“Whose child are you from? I’m Feng Moyan, a newly arrived educated youth, and this is Si Yinni, an educated youth.”

Niu Niu said in a baby voice: “I am from my daddy’s family. My daddy said I am his little baby.”

Fat Tiger sternly lectured his sister: “Dad has a name, it’s Zhang Jiacheng, and he picked you up today, you must know him.”

No wonder, he stuffed a handful of candy into their pockets, “Eat it, this won’t hurt your teeth.”

Fat Tiger took a look at it and pretended not to see it. He thought that these were given to him by others and it should be okay if he ate one a day.