“Thank you, Auntie.”

“No problem.”

Zhang Yunxi felt quite embarrassed. She only had a little over thirty yuan left in her hand, and there was simply nothing she could give to Zhao Mo.

Zhao Mo, fearing that her stepmother would beat her, hurried back to work. Before leaving, she found a leaf, spat out the candy, wrapped it up, hid it, and then went to the river to rinse her mouth.

It pained her deeply; the sweet taste in her mouth was gone. It was her first time eating candy.

When she returned home, Yuan Guixiang was shelling peanuts in the yard and called Zhao Mo over.

Zhao Mo trotted over.

When she got close to Yuan Guixiang, the woman grabbed her and asked, “Did your aunt give you anything?”

Zhao Mo shook her head.

Yuan Guixiang patted her clothes and then pried open her mouth. “Useless, you little money-loser. Even your aunt doesn’t like you. That aunt of yours doesn’t look like a decent girl, all flirty and seductive. She’ll probably end up seducing men, just like your dead mother, both of you are cheap!”

“I need to go gather firewood and dig for wild vegetables,” Zhao Mo reminded her.

Yuan Guixiang snorted, her slanted eyes narrowing as she glared at her. “You better know your place. You have no mother; I raised you. Who treats you the best? It’s me!”

Zhao Mo remained silent.

“Always such a stubborn mute, not a peep even if you were beaten. Go and get to work,” Yuan Guixiang said, shelling the peanuts and tossing the kernels into a winnowing basket, preparing to press oil later.

The Zhao brigade was the best in the surrounding ten miles, equipped with a threshing machine, an oil press, and a tractor! They even had a primary school.

Yuan Guixiang had no intention of letting Zhao Mo study. Educating girls was a waste of money.

But the child she had with her previous husband was now nine years old and should be going to school! She needed to find a way to convince Zhao Mo’s father.

After leaving the house, Zhao Mo made a detour to the stone pier by the river, retrieved her leaf, opened it, and continued to eat the candy.

So sweet.

Carrying a basket up the mountain, Zhao Mo had never been so happy before.

Her aunt was so kind.

Zhao Mo thought for a moment, then changed direction and headed another way.

In the educated youth dormitory, Zhang Yunxi finished putting on the quilt cover and tidied up other things.

There were five beds in the dormitory.

But there were only two cabinets, both placed by the beds of two educated youths, indicating they were for their personal use.

The most valuable things the original owner had were a thermos and a flashlight.

These were items that required industrial coupons to purchase.

Apart from these, there was one winter coat, one sweater, two long-sleeved shirts, two pairs of cotton pants, three sets of summer clothes, a floral blouse, and a military satchel.

The military satchel was a reward from her teacher, who hoped that after graduation, she could pass the exams and work in a large factory.

But the teacher probably never expected that the child she had high hopes for would be driven to a dead end by her relatives.

Looking back at the original owner’s eighteen years, she was disliked by her weak parents for not being a boy. As a result, she had always been helping her uncle’s family with work, and even after reaching high school, she was constantly criticized. Zhang Yunxi felt sorry for this young girl and hoped that she and her sister could go to a better world and become happy, carefree children.

Sigh.

Zhang Yunxi sighed.

The two sisters had it so hard.

“Oh, you must be the new educated youth.”

A clear voice rang out.

Zhang Yunxi turned her head and saw a girl with two thick braids, wearing homespun clothes and rolled-up pants, smiling at her.

“Yes, hello, comrade.”

“Hello, I’m Deng Damei. From now on, we’ll be roommates. You can call me Damei.” Deng Damei smiled, revealing two cute dimples on her cheeks. Her hair was pulled back tightly, making her forehead appear a bit large, but she looked very sunny.

“Alright, I’m Zhang Yunxi. You can call me Xiaoxi.”

“Okay, since you’re new, I’ll show you our kitchen.” Deng Damei led her out.

Zhang Yunxi followed closely behind.

Deng Damei stood close to her, examining her face, and exclaimed, “You’re really beautiful.”

“What’s the use of that? It doesn’t fill your stomach.” Zhang Yunxi thought that with some modern packaging, this face could easily make her an internet celebrity.

But nowadays, people were more concerned with basic sustenance.

It didn’t make much of a difference.

“How can you say that? We find it very pleasing to look at,” Deng Damei said.

Zhang Yunxi was amused by her.

Deng Damei continued, “What’s your educational background?”

“High school.”

“Oh my, why didn’t you join the cultural troupe? Your looks and figure are perfect for it.”

“I can’t sing or dance.”

“That’s a real shame.” Deng Damei shook her head and arrived at the kitchen. “Did you bring your own bowls and chopsticks when you came to the countryside?”

“Yes, I did.”

Of course, I brought my eating utensils.

How could I not?

“There’s a cupboard here. You can put your bowls and chopsticks here, together with mine and He Xiaoxiao’s. The upper shelf is for soup bowls and plates, left by previous educated youths. They were good comrades.” Deng Damei closed the wooden cupboard and then introduced the stove. “We only have one iron pot here, given by the educated youth office when the village built the dormitory. We use it for cooking and boiling water. As for firewood, we get one bundle a week. After cooking, the three of us take turns. Supplies are also rationed. We’ll treat you to lunch today, but this afternoon you’ll need to go to the accountant and ask him to allocate some grain for you.”

As an educated youth, she couldn’t afford to be overly generous; she had her own pressures.

“Okay, thank you.”

“No problem, don’t be so polite. We educated youths aren’t well-liked in the village, so we need to stick together.” Deng Damei scooped water from the jar into the pot and asked Zhang Yunxi, “Do you know how to light a fire?”

“…No.”

She was indeed an orphan.

But after being supported by Zhao Mo in her previous life, she had actually lived quite well.

“Come, I’ll teach you.” Deng Damei sat on a small stool, took a match, lit it, reached back, and grabbed a handful of twigs. “First, you need to get the fire started. Once it’s lit, slowly add twigs or small firewood. When the fire is strong, you can add some larger pieces of wood. Don’t add too much at once, or it will smother the fire and create smoke. If you’re boiling water, we usually add some slow-burning wood so you don’t have to keep adding firewood. Got it?”

“Got it.”

This was quite easy to handle.

Zhang Yunxi directly started adding firewood, while also spreading out the twigs inside.

“Good, good.” Deng Damei scooped rice and added water to the pot to steam. “As for vegetables, we have a small plot of land behind the dormitory. Later, I’ll teach you how to grow vegetables. The vegetables you eat in advance will need to be converted into grain and reimbursed to me and He Xiaoxiao. In the future, you can buy whatever you like to eat.”

“Okay.” Zhang Yunxi fiddled with the small firewood and asked curiously, “What about He Xiaoxiao?”

“Her?”

Deng Damei pursed her lips. “She’s got money and went to exchange eggs with the villagers.”

“Oh, I see.”

Zhang Yunxi could tell from their beds that the two of them weren’t on good terms, and now hearing Deng Damei’s tone confirmed it.

“I’ll boil some eggs.” He Xiaoxiao came in and put two eggs into the pot.

Zhang Yunxi’s eyes widened.

Isn’t her name He Xiaoxiao?
With that short hair, sharp profile, and long legs, she looked incredibly handsome!

Her name really didn’t match her appearance.

He Xiaoxiao looked at her, her cool eyes devoid of any extra emotion. “Hello, comrade. I’m He Xiaoxiao. You can call me Sister He.”