Even after the location of the youth center was determined, the educated youth could not be sent to the countryside immediately because the youth center of the hydrolysis plant was located at a distance extending from the original red pine forest in Beicha, which were all uninhabited areas. They first had to build houses in the selected youth center before they could send the educated youth to go there.
The hydrolysis plant is a large state-owned plant that occupies most of the towns in Beicha. It has abundant funding. Not only did they build a small train to connect to each youth center, they also used tractors to bring a lot of bricks and cement to each youth center so that they could build houses.
Originally Mingbei thought that he could enjoy a few days of vacation after getting his diploma before going to the youth center. Unexpectedly, all the boys his age were pulled into building houses in advance. So Mingbei could only set out before dawn every day and come back after dark. Within a week, his round face became thinner due to exhaustion.
Mingbei has done much less work than other children of the same age since he was a child. Before he was ten years old, his family only let him dig wild vegetables, drag firewood, and help pick some ears of corn when harvesting crops from the mountains. All the farming work was done by Li Muwu and his wife.
After Zhenzhen was born, she began to use her supernatural powers to grow crops. Every year when it was time to plant the crops, Old Lady Li and Wang Sufen would ask her to stay at home to cook, clean the house and look after the children in order to prevent Guihua from noticing something was wrong. When it was time to harvest the crops, Zhenzhen would wave her hands and the potatoes and cabbages would turn out of the ground by themselves, and the wheat, sorghum, and rice would all fall to the ground. Only then would Old Lady Li ask the family to help carry the food down from the mountain.
Every year during the harvest season, although there is a lot of work to do, in order to make sure her family is well fed and have energy, Grandma Li steams large white buns for every meal and cooks pheasant, rabbit, and river fish in different ways. Usually, after the harvest, the family not only does not lose weight but may even gain two kilograms.
In this era, not to mention eating big white steamed buns, even those who couldn't get enough to eat had them. Many families only ate pure cornmeal pancakes during festivals. On ordinary days, they would mix a lot of sweet potato flour into it. The steamed buns were dry and solid. Although they were a bit irritating to the throat, they were very good at resisting hunger. After all, the little grains supplied every month were only for children or the elderly at home. Generally, young men like Mingbei could only taste the taste of white flour during the Chinese New Year.
Old Li's family has good food. The boys are all tall and have big appetites. Mingbei has been studying in Beicha for many years. He usually eats at home in the morning and evening, and brings a large aluminum lunch box for lunch. He has rarely eaten outside. This time, he worked hard in the youth center to build houses. He worked in the cold wind from morning to night. At noon, he gathered around a big pot with other young people who were building houses, facing the cold wind, shivering and stuffing a piece of dry sweet potato flour into his mouth.
Mingbei had only eaten this kind of dry food in the first two years of the natural disaster. Now, seven or eight years have passed, and when he tasted this kind of dry food again, he was choked and couldn't swallow it. The house was not yet completed, so there was naturally no place to boil water. Now the cooking place was a temporary stove with an iron pot on top. Mingbei could only grab a handful of clean snow and stuff it into his mouth, and swallow the sweet potato flour dry food with his neck stiff.
Every night when he got home, Mingbei would wolf down half a pot of pancakes. If there were a few pieces of meat in the dish, he would want to drink all the soup. Wang Sufen felt a little uncomfortable when she saw her youngest son was so hungry and heard him say that he didn't eat well at noon. When the whole family went to bed at night, Wang Sufen secretly went to Old Lady Li's room to discuss with her whether she could bring some food or something.
Old Lady Li rejected Wang Sufen outright. The two of them sat on the small kang in the east room. Old Lady Li lowered her voice and said, "Don't you know why our family lives a good life? Now, let alone other families, don't you know what Musen's family eats? Our family has had a good life in recent years, so we have been particularly pampering our children. But look at Mingbei, an 18-year-old boy. Does he look a little grown up?"
Seeing that Wang Sufen had stopped crying, Old Lady Li picked up her pipe and took a deep puff: "Actually, I think this time going to the countryside is a good thing. It's not too far from home, and I can see her once every month or half a month. Mingbei can also go there to hone his skills and know what life is like outside. Now our family has no worries about food and drink thanks to Zhenzhen, but can we rely on her forever? Zhenzhen's ability cannot be known to the brothers."
Li picked up the teacup on the kang, drank a sip of water and continued, "Seeing that Mingnan and Mingbei have reached the age of marriage, the work of farming in the mountains will have to be handed over to them. By then, Zhenzhen can at most help them harvest more grain, but they will have to do the real work of tilling the land and farming. If he doesn't learn to endure hardships now, how will he live in the future? Even Mingnan, when it's time to farm next year, let him till the land in his own yard and plant it, and then none of us are allowed to help."
Wang Sufen nodded and stuffed some more tobacco leaves into Old Lady Li's mouth. "What mom said is true. I have spoiled them too much over the years."
Old Lady Li sighed and shook her head slowly: "It's not your fault. I spoiled them, didn't I? It was mainly because the natural disasters made the years so hard. I couldn't bear to see the children suffer when life got better. But I really didn't expect Mingbei to be so ignorant. Look, he actually dared to exchange a new pen for a broken seat. That pen was bought for him by Mingdong with his first month's salary. He really pissed me off." Old Lady Li became angrier and angrier: "If he hadn't been so tired these past two days, I would have spanked him three times a day."
Wang Sufen also got angry when she thought of this: "That's right, Mingbei is too unreasonable sometimes. You see, Mingnan is only two years older than him, but he is much more sensible than him."
"Although he is two years older, Mingnan is already like a big brother." Old Lady Li smiled as she talked about Mingnan: "He won't have to worry about anything when he gets married next year. As for Mingbei..." Old Lady Li frowned slightly: "I've been thinking these days that it's not a bad thing to let him get married two years later. He will know what life is like after he has experienced more hardships and training. I think he has been spoiled and become a little too lazy. Look at Zhang Defu's family in front, they are so lazy. We can't spoil our children like that."
When Wang Sufen thought of Zhang Defu's rogue look, she was immediately frightened and nodded quickly: "Mother is right, I will listen to her."
***
There were special masons for the youth center to build houses, but young men like Mingbei could also help a lot. They carried baskets of bricks and sifted sand when they rested. After a full month of hard work, the houses of the 12 youth centers were finally built with the hard work of this group of educated youth.
There were a total of seven large rooms in the youth center. The two connected rooms in the middle were the kitchens, the three rooms on the east were for the male educated youth, and the two rooms on the west were for the female educated youth. All of them had long kangs running from north to south, and each room had a dedicated door, and none of them were connected to each other.
After the house was built, the hydrolysis plant prepared a large cart to take the educated youth to the youth center. Wang Sufen gritted her teeth and didn't bring any food for Mingbei. She only prepared a thick quilt and daily necessities such as a water jar, a lunch box, and an enamel washbasin for him.
When Mingbei and his friends were building the house, they dragged a lot of firewood. Now it was convenient for the educated youth. They quickly chopped the firewood and lit the kang and stove. Most of these children were children of the hydrolysis plant. They went to high school together for three years and were very familiar with each other. Before the room was assigned, they grabbed the beds according to their usual preferences and spread out the bedding. Ten people slept on a large kang, and a room with a north-south kang could accommodate twenty people. These educated youth had never slept on such a large kang before, and they were all very excited.
The manager in charge of this youth center was Li Mengwei, an employee of the hydrolysis plant office. He checked every room one by one and saw that although these educated youth had fought for the positions themselves, they all seemed happy. He did not notice any conflicts or disputes, so he just let them be.
When it came to the girls, Li Mengwei called the forty girls together and asked, "Who of you is better at cooking?" Girls of this generation, in addition to going to school, often help with cooking, cleaning the house, and taking care of their younger siblings at home, so most of them raised their hands, and only seven or eight looked a little squeamish and lowered their heads without saying a word.
Li Mengwei picked out eight neat-looking girls, asked their names, and ticked their names on the list he brought with him: "From now on, you guys will be responsible for the meals of this youth center. This week's food and vegetables are in the kitchen. Go cook now. After dinner, we have to have a meeting together."
Several female educated youths were secretly delighted when they heard this. It was hard to walk in the howling north wind, not to mention working outside. It would be great if they could stay here and not go out. Although cooking in the kitchen requires touching cold water, at least there is no wind or snow, which makes this job much more comfortable.
There were dozens of sacks of potatoes, cabbage, radish, kelp and more than a dozen bags of coarse cornmeal in the kitchen, but no oil, onion, ginger or garlic. A female educated youth came over with a bag of potatoes and said, "Let's stew potatoes with kelp for lunch today. This is quick and tasty." Since there were only a few things, the others had no objections. They immediately divided the work. Some started kneading dough and making pancakes, while others squatted on the ground to peel potatoes.
The eight girls were busy for more than an hour to prepare lunch for about a hundred people. Although there was only one dish, they used up half a sack of potatoes alone, and their fingers ached from exhaustion.
Mingbei was given a pot of vegetables and four large pancakes. He took them back to the house, sat on the edge of the kang and took a bite of the vegetable. There was not a single drop of oil in the dish and not enough salt. The kelp was not washed clean or something, but it gave off a strong earthy smell that almost made Mingbei vomit.
Mingbei looked around with a bitter face, holding a piece of kelp in his mouth, only to find that the other educated youth were basically slurping their food, as if they didn't find it bad. Mingbei swallowed the kelp in his mouth, nudged the classmate next to him with his elbow, and asked in a low voice: "Zhou Qiang, don't you think the food tastes bad? Look, there's not a bit of oil or water."
Zhou Qiang looked at him blankly: "But not all dishes at home are cooked with oil."
Mingbei was stunned for a moment, remembering that his family always put a lot of oil in cooking or making dumplings, not to mention that Zhenzhen sometimes eats spicy shrimps and boiled fish, which basically requires half a basin of oil. Could it be that this stuff is also in short supply
Mingbei put a piece of potato in his mouth and asked Zhou Qiang in confusion: "What if your family's oil supply is not enough? Don't you grow soybeans and squeeze oil yourself?"
Zhou Qiang took a bite of the pancake and said vaguely, "We have such a small piece of land, and the soybeans we grow are not enough to do anything. When my mother cooks, she only pours a drop of oil the size of a soybean." He took another bite of the food and turned to ask Mingbei, "Why, do you have enough oil at home?"
Although Mingbei was silly, he was taught by Old Lady Li not to tell anyone about family matters, let alone reveal the family's financial situation. Therefore, he immediately shook his head and said, "It's not enough to eat. I thought we could eat better here than at home."
Zhou Qiang sneered at him and said, "You are dreaming." He looked around and said in a low voice, "We are here to work, not to enjoy ourselves."
Mingbei didn't say anything. Seeing that those who ate fast were almost done with their meal, he stopped talking and ate all the dishes with a big pancake with his eyes closed. He took the jar outside to wash it, then came back and sat on the kang in a daze.
Li Mengwei did not let the educated youth rest for long. Seeing that everyone had finished their meal, he gathered all the educated youth together. Because there were too many people, no room could accommodate them. The male educated youth had to take off their shoes and sit cross-legged on the kang, while the female educated youth sat next to each other. Li Mengwei almost retreated to the door before he could stand firmly.
"Let me tell you about the rules of our youth center." Li Mengwei opened a notebook and read aloud: "Today is everyone's first day here. The factory is letting everyone adapt to the situation and no work will be arranged for the time being. Starting tomorrow, our youth center will implement a work point system, with different work points for different jobs. For jobs like hauling wood up the mountain, you will get eight work points a day, which is 20 cents in total. For jobs like cooking at home, you will get six and a half work points, which is 7 cents. The rest are seven work points and seven and a half work points, which are recorded according to the amount of work you do. You can choose what kind of work you do, but for meals in the future, you will have to use meal tickets from tomorrow on, and you will buy the meal tickets from me with the money you earn. Of course, you can do jobs that earn less or just lie in the house, but if you go hungry, don't blame me for not giving you food."
The room was completely silent. The educated youth all lowered their heads silently, thinking about their own things. Li Mengwei glanced at them and turned a page in the notebook in his hand: "Last month, some of our educated youth came to the youth center to build houses in advance. After discussion with the factory, we decided to settle the accounts based on eight work points per day. Those whose names I have called will come to me to get their money. Those who cooked today will also be credited with six and a half work points. Starting tomorrow, you can choose your own division of labor."
After all the educated youth had dispersed, Mingbei was a little dazed when he received six yuan and twenty cents from Li Mengwei. He went out before dawn and returned home after dark. He carried bricks in the howling north wind all day long. He felt that his work was much harder than his father's carrying sacks in the granary. How come his father could earn more than forty yuan a month, but he only earned six yuan
Just when Mingbei was feeling a little confused, Wang Zehai, who was sleeping on the kang opposite him, took out a notebook and a beautiful pen from his bag and started writing something.
Mingbei's eyes turned red as he looked at the Hero brand fountain pen. Mingdong earned 52 yuan in his first month at work, and he bought things for the whole family. Mingxi, Mingnan, and Mingbei each bought a Hero brand fountain pen worth 8 yuan. Mingxi's fountain pen was taken to the army, but Mingnan still uses it and writes his diary with it every night. Only his own...
The money he earned from carrying bricks for a month was not enough to buy a pen, but he used the pen to exchange for a seat. Mingbei felt regretful and annoyed, and wanted to slap himself twice. He now felt that what he did not only wasted Mingdong's kindness, but also that he didn't know how to live. No wonder his family was so angry. Mingbei put the money he earned into his pocket with his head down, and for the first time he felt a little confused.
Because of the six dollars, Mingbei tossed and turned for a long time at night before he fell into a drowsy sleep. Early the next morning, Li Mengwei knocked on every door to wake everyone up.
Breakfast was a bowl of corn porridge and two large pancakes for each person. They would be recorded first and deducted directly after the work points were settled at the end of the month. Mingbei finished his breakfast in a daze, and just as he woke up, Li Mengwei had already urged the educated youth to go up the mountain.
Because the educated youths had to open up wasteland and cultivate the land in the spring of next year, a flat place was chosen when the educated youth site was built, which was slightly away from the red pine forest. Li Mengwei gave each person an axe and led the way up the mountain. Now it was almost the twelfth lunar month, the coldest time of the year. The road leading to the red pine forest was covered with thick snow, which reached up to the thighs when stepped on. It took the educated youths nearly two hours to reach the mountain for a distance of ten miles.
Li Mengwei waved his hand, called everyone to his side, and shouted at the top of his voice: "We need to find small trees that are as thick as a bowl, about 15 centimeters in diameter. After cutting them down, carry them back to the youth center, and each person will be awarded work points according to the number of trees cut."
As soon as the words fell, everyone's face turned bitter. Not to mention anything else, it would take almost two hours to walk back, and they had to carry the wood. No matter how they thought about it, they felt that this task was impossible. Mingbei had been dragging firewood from the mountains since he was a child, so he had some experience in carrying wood. He patted the birch tree next to him and couldn't help asking, "Why do you need such a small trunk? It's not enough to make furniture, and it's a waste to burn it as firewood."
Li Mengwei glanced at him and patiently explained: "When we use the tractor to pull the wood out, we need to use small poles to fix the wood around to prevent it from rolling off the vehicle, so everyone's task is very important."
"Do we have to cut trees here all year round?" Seeing that Mingbei's question was not answered, Wang Qiang also asked a question.
Li Mengwei glanced at him and patiently explained, "There is no other work to do this winter, so we let you cut wood. When spring comes, you will have to plant pine trees and dig the land. There will be a lot of work waiting for you. Now hurry up and work. If you fail to complete the task, your work points will be deducted."
When they heard that work points were going to be deducted, these educated youth became anxious. They didn’t know if the monthly salary was enough to eat with such low salary. If work points were deducted again, they would really starve.
Mingbei was busy chopping trees in the mountains. Wang Sufen was somewhat worried about him at home. She walked around the kitchen a few times and couldn't help asking Mrs. Li again: "Mom, if we don't bring food for Mingbei, can we bring some pickled cabbage or something so that the food can taste better?"
Old Mrs. Li nodded helplessly: "It's okay to bring some pickled cabbage, but we have a deal, if he wants steamed buns or baked cakes or something, you are not allowed to give it to him. Aren't they all educated youth earning wages? Let him buy it himself if he has money. If you don't make money, you don't know how hard it is to make money. Humph, he gave away his pen just for a crappy position..." Old Mrs. Li felt a pain in her heart when she thought of the pen. She knocked on the edge of the kang with her pipe in anger, feeling that this matter was particularly annoying.
When Wang Sufen heard the pen, she immediately threw away her idea of frying some pork paste for Mingbei and immediately agreed, "That's right, let him buy it himself. When we get home, I won't make him any delicious food, but just let him eat dregs porridge."
Old Lady Li's anger subsided a little after hearing this. She smiled and threw her pipe on the kang. Then she realized that the room was quiet. She rubbed her head with a headache and asked, "When did Zhenzhen run away again?"
Wang Sufen tried to recall: "He left after breakfast, saying that he was going to look for cloth for Mingnan's wedding."
"Oh, my little girl is such a worrywart." Old Mrs. Li shook her head: "She has to get involved in everything, she is so young."
Zhenzhen was queuing at the Renmin Road Shopping Mall in the imperial capital at this time. In this era, people are very busy all year round, and it is only during the Chinese New Year that things get a little quieter, and all kinds of supplies are more abundant. After a year of hard work, every household has some spare money, so there are quite a lot of people coming to the mall to buy things.
Zhenzhen touched the money and various notes in her pocket, looked around at the things on the shelves, and thought about what to buy. In recent years, famous people in the mountains occasionally asked Zhenzhen to help buy some meat or food, and they paid money and notes according to the price. Zhenzhen has saved a lot of things over the years.
When they arrived at the cloth store, Zhenzhen stopped. She came to the capital mainly to buy fabrics for Meng Xiaoxi's wedding dress and bed sheets, pillowcases and other things for Mingnan's wedding. These things were also available in the supply and marketing cooperative in Beicha, but the colors were not bright and she could never get them.
There were all kinds of woolen fabrics in Zhenzhen's space, so she was looking at summer clothes and fabrics. It just so happened that not many people bought this kind of clothes at this time. When it was Zhenzhen's turn, there were still a lot of summer clothes on the counter. At this time, the movement had just started a few years ago and was still in full swing. Clothes were mainly blue, blue, and gray, with few bright colors.
Zhen Zhen scanned the clothes with her mind, and the appearance of all the fabrics came into her mind. She pointed at the counter and said to the waiter, "I just saw a piece of red fabric with a dark pattern underneath. Can you take it out and show it to me?"
"Red with a dark pattern?" The waiter looked down for a long time, pulled out a piece and threw it on the counter: "Is this it?"
Zhenzhen shook it off, stretched it out and looked at it. This piece of material was specially made for newlyweds. Although the hidden pattern on it was a double happiness character, which did not quite suit Zhenzhen's aesthetic taste, it was much better looking than the plain ones above. Zhenzhen put the fabric down and said crisply, "Please give me three feet, and two each of the red towel blanket, red bed sheet, and red pillowcase over there."
The waiter looked up at her and asked as he issued the ticket, "Do you have money and cloth coupons? Does your family know you are out buying cloth?"
"I know!" Zhenzhen smiled sweetly: "My mother is at home helping my brother make a quilt and can't go out."
The waiter handed the ticket to Zhenzhen and couldn't help but mutter, "It's such a big deal for a child to do this. Parents are really generous." Seeing that Zhenzhen didn't react, she couldn't help but say, "It's popular to wear military uniforms at weddings now. The material for this red dress hasn't been sold for three years. Are you sure you want to buy it?"
Zhenzhen looked at the other colors and nodded firmly.
After paying the money, Zhenzhen walked out with a big paper bag in her arms. When she turned into a small alley, she took advantage of the fact that there was no one on either side and quickly entered the space with her things in her arms, putting them together with the woolen material she had chosen earlier. Seeing that it was still early, she did not rush home, but appeared at the foot of the mountain in the suburbs.
After passing through the narrow and secluded path, Zhen Zhen came to the place where everyone was hiding. It was the best time of the day when the sun was shining brightly. Although the temperature was a little low, everyone came out of the western-style building, one to bask in the sun, and the other to stretch their waists. Peking Opera master Xie Shurang and his sister Yan Baozhu stood next to the western-style building and sang "Dream in the Garden".
Seeing Zhenzhen coming, everyone gathered around and said with a smile: "You are here. We haven't seen you for more than half a month."
Zhenzhen rubbed her face and said with a smile, "My third brother is getting married next year, and everyone at home is busy with his affairs, so I have to keep busy sometimes."
At this dull time, everyone's eyes lit up when they heard about a happy event like a wedding: "This is a big happy event, and we should give gifts, but we don't have anything worth giving out right now."
Zhenzhen smiled and said, "Just saying 'May you have a long-lasting marriage' is the best gift. It would be vulgar if you gave me something as a present."
The calligraphy and painting master Su Weiran said half jokingly and half seriously: "I originally wanted to give you a painting as a gift, but you said it was vulgar to give gifts, so I just hid it and didn't give it to you."
Zhen Zhen got anxious when she heard this. Su Weiran was a national treasure-level painting master. In later generations, his works were sold at auctions for hundreds of millions of yuan. Such a gift must be accepted. She immediately stood over and put her hands together in a gesture of begging: "The most vulgar is the most elegant, so sometimes it's better for us to be a little vulgar. Teacher Su, which painting do you think is more suitable for me?"
Su Weiran was amused by Zhenzhen's flattering look. He took Zhenzhen to the house and said, "Recently I painted a picture of 'Elegant Residence in the Mountains', which depicts the scene here. It's just right for you to give it to me."
Zhen Zhen nodded impatiently and followed: "Then I have to see if I am there."
The study room on the second floor has always been shared by several people, but because Wangwo stayed here the longest, his books and papers were placed the most. Su Weiran put the half-read book on the bookshelf and couldn't help asking, "Did the newspaper say that Wangwo won the Nobel Prize?"
Zhen Zhen shook her head: "I have been paying attention to this news recently, but no major newspapers have mentioned this matter."
Su Weiran sat in a chair, thinking: "I guess the higher-ups haven't come to a conclusion on whether to make this public yet."
The author has something to say: There are a lot of words today, haha. I will try to update twice a day tomorrow, although I don’t know if I can succeed. If I still only update one chapter, you can just pretend you didn’t see what I said.
It's already late, I'll give out 80 red envelopes for this chapter, the longer the better to be selected, good night muah