◎ Educated Youth Song ◎

Educated Youth Cen becoming a middle school teacher had far less impact on Qi Yuzhen than on Qi Yulian and Educated Youth An.

Qi Yulian would be starting middle school next year, and in her spare time, she couldn’t help but think about it.

She worried that Educated Youth Cen would lead students astray, and also felt conflicted. If Educated Youth Cen tried to curry favor with her, how should she respond?

Qi Yuzhen knew her sister was overthinking, but she still offered her advice and acted as her sister’s strategist.

As for Educated Youth An, after learning that Educated Youth Cen had become a middle school teacher, she was in a bad mood for several days, full of regret—regret that she hadn’t acted faster than Educated Youth Cen.

As winter arrived, the temperature dropped significantly. The families of the educated youths sent quilts and cotton-padded clothes, and also wired money and ration tickets.

The quilts and clothes were delivered to the brigade, but the money and ration tickets had to be collected in town. The educated youths took advantage of their rest time to make a trip into town.

It took two hours to walk into town. Even someone as lazy as An Lin went into town with Tang Sui. Actually, her parents hadn’t sent her any money this time. She had brought enough money and ration tickets before she came to the countryside, and had barely spent any. She used this opportunity to eat a good meal in town, and buy some snacks and daily necessities.

Snacks and daily necessities could also be bought at the commune’s supply and marketing cooperative. The main reason she went to town was to eat a good meal. She wanted meat, lots of meat!

Qi Yulian spent a whole week envying the educated youths for being able to go to town. She didn’t even want meat; she just hinted to her sister that she wanted to eat candy.

Her sister didn’t respond to hints, so she said it directly.

Qi Yuzhen had no choice but to use her own money to buy a few pieces of candy for the family. These candies didn’t require ration tickets and didn’t taste as good as those that did. The main thing was just to sweeten their mouths.

Once her mouth was sweetened, her sister stopped talking about wanting candy.

In the late afternoon, Qi Yuzhen had finished heating water. She let down her hair, preparing to wash it, when she heard a knock at the door. The courtyard gate was being knocked on.

It was Educated Youth Song returning the ladder.

Hearing that he was returning the ladder, she hurriedly gathered her loose hair, ran her fingers through it a few times, tied it back, and went out to open the door for Educated Youth Song.

The ladder that Educated Youth Song was returning was a long bamboo ladder, used for climbing to high places or going down wells to retrieve water buckets. Only a few families in the brigade had long ladders. When educated youths needed to borrow one, of course, the team leader’s house was their first choice.

It was inconvenient to bring a long ladder inside. Seeing Qi Yuzhen try to bring it in herself, Song Xunzhou spoke, “I’ll just bring it in directly. Can you open the door a bit wider?”

“I can.” Qi Yuzhen didn’t dawdle. She quickly opened the door wider and stood to the side.

It was Song Xunzhou who had come to borrow the ladder that morning. He knew where the ladder had originally been placed, so he returned it to its original spot.

Qi Yuzhen felt it would be impolite not to say anything, but she also couldn’t very well invite him to stay and drink a bowl of water. So she made small talk and asked Song Xunzhou, “Educated Youth Song, the bucket wasn’t broken, right?”

She meant to ask whether the bucket had been retrieved.

It felt like a pointless question, so she rephrased it.

“It’s not broken. Still usable. It’s just that the bucket rope came loose.” Song Xunzhou had no intention of lingering. As he answered, he walked toward the gate.

Qi Yuzhen walked him to the door. “That’s good. Be careful on the road.”

“I will. I won’t disturb you further.”

Song Xunzhou left. Qi Yuzhen locked the courtyard gate again and went back to washing her hair. But just as she let her hair down again, the gate was knocked on once more.

From the sound of the knock, Qi Yuzhen recognized that it was her sister coming back.

Since her sister was back, she didn’t bother tying her hair back again and went to open the door for her.

“You always forget to bring your key,” Qi Yuzhen commented.

The lock on the courtyard gate was a chain lock. There was a gap in the gate, so as long as you had the key, you could reach in and open the lock whether it was locked from inside or outside.

Qi Yulian wasn’t at all bothered by her sister’s soft reproach. “I was just afraid of losing the key while playing outside.”

She had her own little girlfriends. If they were free, they would arrange to go out and play. Only when they weren’t free would she choose to stick close to her sister.

Qi Yuzhen said, “You always use that excuse. I think you’re just too lazy to carry it.”

“Sister, you’re going to wash your hair?”

“Yeah, you came back at just the right time. Now that you’re back before I start, if anyone comes knocking later, you can go answer.”

This was Qi Yuzhen’s third attempt at washing her hair. Now that her sister was home, she didn’t need to lock the door again.

This time, no one came to disturb her. She managed to get her hair wet and finally let out a sigh of relief.

Qi Yulian pulled over a chair and sat nearby, watching her sister wash her hair.

After thinking it over, she couldn’t hold back from asking her sister, “Sister, did Educated Youth Song come to return the ladder just now?”

She also knew about Educated Youth Song borrowing the ladder.

“You ran into him?” Qi Yuzhen didn’t stop her hair-washing motion, applying shampoo to her hair, not surprised at all that her younger sister would run into Educated Youth Song.

The two of them happened to come one after the other; it was perfectly normal to run into each other.

Qi Yulian: “I saw him, but didn’t get a chance to talk. Sister, did Educated Youth Song not bring anything else?”

“What else could he bring besides the ladder? Do you think he should have brought a token of thanks to show gratitude for us lending him the ladder? The bucket he fetched wasn’t even his own, it was the educated youth dormitory’s bucket, a shared one.” She had to emphasize this point.

After Qi Yulian learned that Educated Youth Song had sent fruit preserves and fruit candies to the accountant’s family, she felt uneasy for several days.

Not daring to speak about it in front of their parents, she could only talk about it with her older sister, saying that they shouldn’t have gone out of their way to avoid suspicion back then. If it had been their family who conveniently helped Educated Youth Song cook, the fruit preserves and candies would’ve belonged to them.

Just because Dad became the team leader didn’t mean the family’s living conditions improved much. Their family only ate candy during the New Year; usually, when Qi Yulian wanted to eat candy, she could only nag her older sister. Even if she didn’t understand many things, she knew that her older sister didn’t have much money and couldn’t possibly buy candy for her often.

The candies they bought were the cheapest kind, not fruit candies.

Qi Yulian was almost as tall as Qi Yuzhen now. In Qi Yuzhen’s eyes, her younger sister was still a child, so having these thoughts was normal: “Even if he gave it to me, I couldn’t accept it. We have no ties, and I haven’t done anything for him. Don’t think about things that were never ours to begin with. Don’t blame the innocent Educated Youth Song. If he gave our family candy, it would only bring trouble to the three adults. Not giving is the right thing.”

The younger siblings were all under eighteen. The three adults in the family naturally referred to her and their parents.

Hearing her sister say that they couldn’t accept the candy made Qi Yulian feel a lot more at ease. She stopped thinking about the fruit preserves and fruit candies.

…

Even if Educated Youth Song didn’t give candy, someone else came to deliver it.

While Qi Yuzhen was drying her hair after washing it, the bold and forthright Educated Youth An came to give out candy.

She was indeed straightforward—so straightforward that Qi Yuzhen couldn’t even find a good excuse to refuse.

An Lin gave each person in their family one piece of candy. There were six people in the family. Since she didn’t see the others, An Lin let Qi Yulian pick a flavor first, and then handed the remaining five pieces to Qi Yuzhen.

Her actions could be said to have given Qi Yulian plenty of “face.” Qi Yulian beamed with joy after picking a candy and thanked Educated Youth An.

Before this, Qi Yulian didn’t realize how happy one piece of fruit candy could make her. Now she knew.

Qi Yuzhen could only feel helpless in her heart. Everything she had said as a sister still couldn’t compare to one piece of candy.

One piece of candy per person—it was hard to reject that.

After delivering the candy, An Lin left.

Qi Yulian, already sucking on her fruit candy: “No fruit preserves, but even one piece of fruit candy is good. Educated Youth An really knows how to handle things. I truly misjudged Educated Youth Song. I even considered him one of my future brother-in-laws, but not anymore—unless he also gives our family six pieces of candy.”

Qi Yuzhen put the candies away: “Eating candy still can’t shut your mouth. Educated Youth An didn’t just give candy to our family; Erya’s family surely got some too. Maybe she gave it to several families. Don’t go around calling people brother-in-law all the time. If others hear, they’ll laugh at your sister.”

“I won’t talk about Educated Youth Song anymore. From now on, I’ll talk about Educated Youth An. Educated Youth An really is a great person.”

Wasn’t this the same person who had just said a bunch of bad things about Educated Youth An not long ago? Now Educated Youth An has become the best person in the world, huh.

Qi Yuzhen: “There’s no such thing as free candy in this world. Hopefully, Educated Youth An won’t keep using candy as leverage in the future.”

Qi Yulian suddenly felt that the candy in her mouth wasn’t so sweet anymore: “Then what should I do? I don’t want to end up working like a horse or cow for Educated Youth An just because of one piece of candy.”

Making people work in return for one piece of candy—it did sound like something Educated Youth An would do.

“What kind of work could Educated Youth An make you do? Ask you to wash her clothes? Then you just say one wash is worth one piece of candy. After washing once, it’s all settled.”

“Yeah, washing clothes in the middle of winter is tiring. If Educated Youth An asks me to wash her clothes, I’ll do it once. Just once. At most, I’ll do it again. If she dares ask me a third time, I’ll go complain to Dad.”

Qi Yuzhen was amused by her sister’s talk of tattling.

She really was still a child.