◎Beginning◎

“Sister! Sister!” Qi Yulian rushed toward her older sister and threw herself into her arms.

Qi Yuzhen was wiping the door frame. Seeing her younger sister rushing over, she had no choice but to stop what she was doing. “You’re already a big kid now. What’s got you so excited?”

“I saw the educated youths who came to our production team. There are five of them. One of the male educated youths is tall and handsome. Many people in the production team are talking about him. I heard Erya say that he’s like a phoenix that landed among a bunch of pheasants.”

She repeated Erya’s comment about the phoenix and pheasant to her sister.

That kind of talk did not sound pleasant to the “pheasant.”

Unpleasant, harsh to the ears.

“Let Erya say whatever she wants. We must never say things like that in front of the educated youths. Not just the educated youths, but in front of any outsiders. We must not let others look down on us.”

Qi Yulian agreed with her sister’s words and nodded repeatedly as she listened. “I know. I felt really uncomfortable hearing what Erya said. This is already an era where the people are the masters. Even a pheasant can become a phoenix!”

Yuan Xiucai did not bother with the pheasant and phoenix talk. Seeing her younger daughter clinging to her elder daughter again, she said, “Yulian, stop pestering your sister. Come and give me a hand. Help Mom take the farming tools over to the educated youths’ dormitory.”

This year, five educated youths came to the brigade. The educated youths did not stay in the commune members’ homes. The team arranged a separate dormitory for them. The educated youths’ dormitory used to be a rundown courtyard that no one lived in. It was simply renovated for the educated youths.

The educated youths had to go down to the fields to work. The farming tools were provided by the production team, but the educated youths had to take care of them themselves.

Not all kinds of tools were given to the educated youths. The ones provided were hoes, shovels, and bamboo baskets. None of them were new, but as long as they were usable, that was enough.

“Mom, should we bring the straw hats too?” Qi Yulian asked her mother.

Yuan Xiucai said, “Bring them. Since we prepared them for them, we have to hand them over.”

Qi Yulian brought out the straw hats. These hats were specially woven for the educated youths by her and her sister.

The three of them, mother and daughters, went together to the educated youths’ dormitory. In front of the dormitory gate, a few commune members had gathered to watch the commotion. Qi Erya was among them.

“These are straw hats that my sister and I made. We’re giving them to you. If they get damaged, don’t come asking us for replacements. Go to the market and buy new ones yourself.” Qi Yulian prepared to hand out the straw hats to the five educated youths.

She spoke in dialect. Her speech wasn’t very fast, so the five educated youths could more or less understand what she was saying.

Three males and two females, five educated youths in total. One of them, a female educated youth named An Lin, directly asked Qi Yuzhen, “Are you her sister?”

Qi Yuzhen could speak a few words of standard Mandarin, but she couldn’t manage long sentences. Afraid of embarrassing herself, she simply nodded.

An Lin said, “I want the straw hat made by you, not the one your younger sister made.”

Qi Yulian couldn’t speak standard Mandarin, but she could understand it. The moment she heard that, she instantly became furious. “What’s wrong with you? Do you even know how to speak? So rude!”

Qi Yuzhen did not want her younger sister to get into a conflict with the educated youths. “All of them were woven by both me and my younger sister. Not a single hat was made entirely by me alone.”

“Oh, I see. Then it’s fine.” Not letting Qi Yulian distribute the hats, An Lin took the one that looked like it was of the best quality first.

Yuan Xiucai saw that her younger daughter was fuming with anger and changed the subject. “You three young men will stay in the big room. But one of you will have to sleep on the small bed, and two of you on the big bed. You should have already seen the bed sizes. So who’s sleeping on the small bed and who’s sleeping on the big bed? Decide early. Don’t argue over such a small matter on your first day.”

“I’ll sleep on the small bed.” Song Xunzhou, who had not spoken until now, finally opened his mouth.

He was the one standing farthest from the three women among the five educated youths.

Qi Yuzhen did not look at any of the male educated youths. Her gaze fell elsewhere, and she showed no reaction to what Song Xunzhou said.

Her younger sister Qi Yulian opened her mouth but quickly closed it again without making a sound.

She said no more.

She wanted to ask if the small bed would feel too cramped for someone his height.

She was worried that if she said it out loud, Educated Youth An would snap back at her, telling her to give up the big bed at home for Educated Youth Song to sleep on.

Educated Youth An seemed like someone who would say that kind of thing.

Seeing that they had sorted out the sleeping arrangement, Yuan Xiucai brought up the topic of meals. They could cook for themselves in the dormitory or use money and food coupons to eat at a commune member’s home, depending on which household was willing to make an extra portion.

After the mother finished speaking, Qi Yulian quickly added, “In any case, you cannot eat at our house. My dad is the team leader now. You cannot get too close to our family. Otherwise, people might accuse our family of taking your coupons and accepting your bribes in exchange for giving you easier work assignments.”

After saying this, she quietly observed Educated Youth An’s reaction.

Educated Youth An had no reaction.

She was really afraid Educated Youth An would say something sharp and rude again.

Among the onlooking commune members outside the dormitory gate, someone spoke up and said that Educated Youth Song could come to her house to buy meals. It was a woman’s voice. Once she spoke, a bunch of other women joined in to echo her.

They were not picky. Any educated youth was fine with them.

Song Xunzhou’s own expression did not change. An Lin, facing away from the crowd, rolled her eyes dramatically.

Yuan Xiucai said to the onlookers, “Every one of you has too much free time. Hurry back home. Once the autumn harvest starts in a few days, there won’t be any time for you to rest.”

The onlookers did not leave. Qi Yuzhen was ready to go. “Mom, I’m going home first. Yulian, stay and keep Mom company.”

Yuan Xiucai said, “Then go on back.”

Qi Yuzhen left. As soon as she walked out of the courtyard gate, she was stopped by Qi Erya. “Sister Yuzhen, do you really not want to be the scorekeeper? If you wanted to, we would all definitely vote for you.”

As soon as the word “scorekeeper” came up, the commune members’ attention shifted to Qi Yuzhen, and they all tried to persuade her to take the role.

Qi Yuzhen refused. “Let Sister Jiali do it. Sister Jiali is serious and responsible in her work. I can’t do the job as thoroughly as she does.”

Besides the accountant and the women’s team leader, positions like the team leader, deputy team leader, and scorekeeper were re-elected every three years, one term every three years, decided by a vote from the commune members.

This year, only the team leader had changed. The other cadres were all re-elected. Qi Jiali had already served two terms as scorekeeper. If she made it through another three years smoothly, that would be her third term.

Qi Jiali was impartial and did not play favorites. However, she was too strict and emotionless. Qi Yuzhen had once substituted for her and, although she also did not play favorites and followed the rules, the two of them gave off very different impressions to the commune members.

One older woman said, “Jiali only sounds good when she’s giving her campaign speech. Yuzhen, you’re already eighteen years old. Don’t you want to consider it?”

Among those who had signed up to be scorekeeper, only Qi Jiali seemed reliable. Now that Qi Yuzhen was of age, she was fully qualified to take the position.

“I won’t consider it. Sister Jiali does an excellent job. I’m sincerely convinced by her ability.” Qi Yuzhen was not swayed.

Qi Erya let out a heavy sigh.

There was nothing else, so Qi Yuzhen went home.

…

Before this year, the Fengdeng Production Team had never received any educated youths. Now that the educated youths had arrived, it really gave the commune members a few days of novelty.

Once the autumn harvest officially began, everyone dropped the novelty and threw themselves into the labor.

The Fengdeng Production Team was divided into six small teams. The five educated youths were assigned to Teams Two through Six.

Qi Yuzhen’s family was in Team One, which had the largest number of members and did not need any more additions.

Each team had its own designated area of fields to take care of. During the autumn harvest period, the primary and middle schools in the commune gave students autumn harvest leave so they could help their families with the work.

Qi Yuzhen and Qi Yulian, the sisters, shared a room. In the past, before bed, Qi Yulian would chat with her sister about girlish topics. During the autumn harvest, they were so tired they did not even feel like talking. They barely had the strength to eat and would fall asleep as soon as they lay down, with no energy left to talk about girlish things.

Her younger sister would fall asleep as soon as she lay down. Qi Yuzhen was not much better.

After waking up, it was a new day again.

The early morning sun made people feel warm, but once the labor began, it was no longer a warm feeling.

Their father was the team leader. Qi Yulian could only complain a few words beside her sister. She could not say those things in front of their mother.

“If you feel it’s hard work, then you don’t need to work so hard. I see the other sixth-grade kids aren’t pushing themselves as much as you.”

Her younger sister had grown taller than half the women in the production team. In Qi Yuzhen’s eyes, she still wasn’t much different from a child.

“No way. Now that Dad has become the team leader, we have to perform well so he can get re-elected.”

Their father used to be the deputy team leader. Now he was officially promoted to be the “top official.”

After their father became the team leader, their mother told the children not to bully others just because their father held the position.

These words were mainly directed at the two sons and the youngest daughter. Among the four children, only the eldest daughter had a good temperament and would not get into conflicts with others. The other three were hard to say. They all seemed like good kids, but who knew if they might make bad friends and cause serious trouble for their parents?

°.✩┈┈∘*┈˃̶୨୧˂̶┈*∘┈┈✩.°

Author’s Note:

The story does not begin with the college entrance exam. The earlier part needs to cover some plot development. In some places, the passage of time will be accelerated using a “time-skip” method.

The school system in the 1970s was generally “5-2-2,” meaning five years of primary school, two years of middle school, and two years of high school. The education system varied slightly in different places. Six years of primary school only became common in the 1980s and 1990s. This novel is set in a fictional world, using the “6-3-3” system: six years of primary school, three years each for middle and high school.