Chapter 33

The moon is like a shining pearl, inlaid in the sky.

The night is clear.

The sky is dotted with stars, and occasionally dark clouds cover the moon.

The evening breeze is blowing gently, and the sound of frogs croaking in the fields can be heard one after another.

This is the night in the countryside, quiet and peaceful.

However, this peaceful and quiet atmosphere was soon broken by the shouting and cursing coming from the grove on the south side of the village.

Some people took small porcelain basins and banged them around the village, going from house to house asking everyone to get up quickly and go to the commune, saying that something big had happened.

Although the villagers were bleary-eyed, they dragged their tired bodies out of bed one after another.

Every household lit a kerosene lamp, and soon the village was brightly lit.

Zheng Yunsheng and Gu Qijiao also climbed out of bed.

Both of them looked a little solemn.

Although the person who knocked the porcelain basin did not say what happened in the commune.

But Zheng Yunsheng and Gu Qijiao already had some guesses in their minds.

It was so long ago that both of them had forgotten the sensational event that had happened on this day in their previous life.

However, when the people outside beat drums and gongs at night reminded them, they all remembered it all at once.

The couple both got up from bed and, like everyone else in the village, started getting dressed, thinking of going out to the commune to find out what was going on.

Generally, only when something big happens will someone wake up all the villagers from their sleep with such fanfare.

When Zheng Yunsheng and Gu Qijiao put on their clothes and were about to go out, someone knocked on the door outside the yard.

Hearing the knock on the door, Zheng Yunsheng immediately stepped forward and opened it.

Standing outside the door was Xu Jianan.

“Come in quickly. There’s such a big noise. Do you know what happened?” Although Zheng Yunsheng had already guessed what it was, he still asked Xu Jianan.

Xu Jianan carefully looked around and made sure that there was no one around before entering the yard. He whispered mysteriously to Zheng Yunsheng:

“It is said that there was a man from the Corps who was having a tryst with the educated youth from our team in the woods. They were caught by their company commander and have now been taken to the commune.”

Gu Qijiao was standing behind Zheng Yunsheng. She also heard what Xu Jianan said. Thinking that it was indeed that thing, she couldn’t help but sigh in her heart.

There are two types of educated youth: one is the educated youth who went to the countryside to work, and the other is the educated youth who went to the military corps.

Both types of educated youth were intellectuals who went to work in the countryside, but their natures were different, and their treatment and discipline were also different.

The educated youth who went to the countryside to work were generally students from the same city or even the same school, with similar cultural backgrounds and living habits.

The educated youth in the Corps came from all over the country. They were assigned to companies like in the military and were managed by the company commander.

The lives of the educated youth who went to the countryside to work were relatively difficult. Sometimes they could not even get enough food and drink, and it was common for them to suffer from hunger and cold. However, their lives were relatively relaxed and free.

Although the educated youth in the Corps also worked on the farm, they lived a life under quasi-military management. Because they worked within the system, their food and accommodation were basically guaranteed.

However, although their lives were guaranteed, there were more disciplines to abide by. The lives of the educated youth in the Corps were several times more difficult than those in the countryside.

It can be said that he gets up earlier than the chicken and goes to bed later than the dog.

Moreover, the educated youth in the Corps were not allowed to fall in love or have relationships, as this was a serious violation of discipline.

The educated youth in the Corps had the hardest life. There was a widely circulated saying at that time: Serving in the army is a glorious flower, working in a factory is a happy flower, working in the countryside is a sunflower, and being a soldier in the Corps is a bitter vegetable flower.

From this jingle, it is enough to see how hard the lives of the educated youth in the Corps were.

The female educated youth mentioned by Xu Jianan was only about 19 years old and came from Shanghai.

Gu Qijiao remembered her name, Tong Dixin.

Tong Dixin had a childhood sweetheart, an educated youth from an independent regiment ten miles away, named Shen Guidong.

The two of them went to the countryside at the same time. When they left home, their parents arranged a marriage for them and confirmed their relationship.

But the Corps has strict rules, and one of them is “No romance.”

After the two arrived at the place, they still kept in touch privately.

Shen Guidong often waited until his comrades in the Corps fell asleep, then secretly ran out, walked ten miles in the middle of the night to visit Tong Dixin in the commune.

The next morning, they crossed mountains and rivers and rushed back to the Corps before the roosters crowed.

They met frequently, and thought they were doing it secretly.

Unexpectedly, when the two of them were having a tryst in the grove last night, they were caught by Company Commander Su Shaoyun, who had followed Shen Guidong for ten miles.

Su Shaoyun brought some people with him, and he asked them to take the two young men to the playground.

Then Xu Shaoyun asked people to notify the villagers door to door and go to the commune to participate in the education of Shen Donggui and Tong Dixin.

This education lasted for a full hour.

Gu Qijiao remembered that in her previous life, Shen Guidong and Tong Dixin, a couple whose self-esteem was crushed, quietly escaped on the night of the trial and disappeared into the dark forest.

It was not until half a month later that the Corps found them, deep in the dense forest in the distance. By then they had become two corpses hugging each other tightly.

This incident caused quite a stir at the time, mainly because Tong Dixin’s parents were both prominent figures.

They arrived at Yueya Village on the third day after Tong Dixin’s death and understood the whole story.

Xu Shaoyun, who tied up Tong Dixin, was arrested because he was from the Corps and it was against procedure for him to interfere in the affairs of ordinary educated youth who had been sent to the countryside to work.

Moreover, Tong Dixin was half naked when she was found, and her parents thought that Su Shaoyun had impure motives.

I heard that Tong Dixin’s parents both have red* backgrounds. After Xu Shaoyun is arrested, he will face more than ten years in prison.

In the end, the matter ended with Xu Shaoyun hanging himself in prison.

It happened so long ago that Gu Qijiao still remembered many things, but she could no longer remember the specific dates when they happened.

She felt a little annoyed.

If she had remembered it earlier, maybe she could have done something for the poor couple, even if it was just to secretly remind them!

Gu Qijiao is also a person who made mistakes. She made a mistake, but in the end she successfully married Zheng Yunsheng because of this mistake.

But Tong Dixin, a girl who was also only nineteen years old, had her life forever frozen at the age of nineteen in that ancient forest because of that mistake.

Thinking about the follow-up of the incident, Gu Qijiao felt a little sad.

Xu Jianan came to ask Zheng Yunsheng and Gu Qijiao to go to the commune to watch. Not long after he arrived at the yard, Gu Qijiao and Zheng Yunsheng followed him out.

Torches made of trees were floating around the village in groups of two or three, and villagers were walking towards the commune in groups of two or three.

In the playground of the commune, the flickering lights made Xu Shaoyun’s dark face look ashen. He shouted with a ferocious look: