Since Wang Ying had nothing to do, she followed the old ladies to watch the excitement. Speaking of which, she had been in the village for quite some time and had become familiar with the villagers, but she hadn’t interacted much with the new educated youth.
The elderly women had much to say about this.
“Hey, earlier on, people volunteered to come to the countryside, and we had three or four of them. When they first arrived, they said they would lead our village to a better life.”
Wang Ying asked, “Then what happened?”
“What do you mean ‘what happened’? A bunch of young people, they hadn’t even farmed before. What could they do when they came here? They spoke like they knew everything, but none of them could actually do anything. After a few days, they started talking about returning to the city.”
Of course, returning to the city was not an option. Even the earliest batch of educated youth had stayed.
“The educated youth that came in the last two years hardly interact with us. They hardly leave their designated spots.”
After the previous batches of educated youth had accepted reality, the newer ones who had been assigned here (rather than volunteered) were much more “understanding” and no longer talked about leading the village.
“I wonder how many we will get this time.”
“How many can they assign? At most two, I guess.”
Their village wasn’t a great place. They had only had about a dozen educated youth before, and a few of them had married local villagers and moved out of the designated spots. Now there were only nine left in the educated youth spot.
For the local villagers of Kaoshan village, the arrival of educated youth didn’t mean much. They just had a few extra mouths to feed, and it gave them something to talk about.
The villagers now realized the physical limitations of the educated youth. These intellectuals weren’t capable of doing farm work.
“Male educated youth are completely useless. They are even worse than female educated youth.”
The elderly women were quite clear about this. When male educated youth came, they couldn’t work, but they still had to be allocated food. Useless! However, female educated youth, if they were willing to stay in the village, could be married off to local men.
They didn’t need dowries, and they had some education.
In these times, although people still saw intellectuals as “stinky old ninths,” there was still a deep respect for educated people ingrained in society.
Wang Ying listened to the elderly women chatting as they walked to the threshing field.
There were already a group of women gathered at the threshing field. Nearly everyone who wasn’t working in the fields had come here.
“I heard that this time, there are more people being assigned. I’m guessing there are more than two.”
“Why send so many? They can’t even carry a load. They just eat our food.”
“Be content, alright? At least the ones coming this year are from this time, unlike last year when the educated youth came in the autumn. They didn’t do any work and still got a lot of food.”
…
The villagers spoke loudly, not realizing that the educated youth team leader, Yang Hong, who was waiting to meet the new arrivals, was getting embarrassed. She was part of the batch that came the previous year.
However, Yang Hong didn’t say anything but was very upset. What did these villagers mean? Were they complaining about the food they had received when they first arrived? But the time they arrived wasn’t up to them to decide.
Moreover, the village was near the mountains, and in winter, the roads and mountains were closed. Were they supposed to starve and freeze if they weren’t given food?
Yang Hong was frustrated. She and the other educated youth hadn’t come here willingly either, so why should they be despised by a bunch of uneducated people?
When Wang Ying arrived, she saw that Xu Laotai was there too, so she stood next to her.
Recently, Xu Laotai had become the center of attention among the elderly women. She had used the embroidery skills she learned to make spring clothes for Wang Ying. The clothes weren’t flashy but had small flowers embroidered on the cuffs of the pants and wave patterns on the shirt collar.
Although simple, they looked really nice!
When Wang Ying wore them, many young women asked about them. After finding out they were made by Xu Laotai, many of them went to ask her for tips.
Xu Laotai felt that the old saying was true: “When a daughter-in-law enters the home, the family prospers.”
It hadn’t been long, but she already felt that life was much better than before.
Not only did she have someone to talk to, but she could also pursue her favorite hobby again.
Xu Shuang, no matter how filial he was, was still a young man. He didn’t understand that his mother, besides the daily work, also needed some spiritual fulfillment.
Wang Ying was different. Even though Wang Ying wasn’t outstanding in housework, Xu Laotai thought it was fine. If Wang Ying were perfect in everything, what would be left for her youngest son to marry?
Xu Laotai stood on tiptoe to look outside. “I wonder when they will come. I should have brought a small stool with me.”
Then, she could sit down and embroider when she got tired.
Wang Ying said, “It’s fine. Besides, you always have your head down doing embroidery. Standing for a bit is good for you. It’s good to move around.”
The two of them were enjoying each other’s company, and the people around them were envious.
The elderly women all thought Wang Ying was a great daughter-in-law, and they sighed, wishing they had been quicker in their actions when they were younger.
The younger women thought Wang Ying was lucky to have such a good mother-in-law. Xu Laotai made her clothes and even embroidered flowers. They heard Wang Ying didn’t have to do much housework except for treating people’s ailments. Looking at their own situations, they couldn’t help but feel envious.
Soon, Uncle Tian Er returned with his donkey cart. Tian Youfu was walking beside the cart, followed by a group of young men and women.
The donkey cart was filled with luggage, but no one was allowed to sit. The donkey was part of the village’s assets and was usually used to haul things or grind grain, so they couldn’t let it get too tired.
The donkey wasn’t walking too fast, and the people could easily keep up with it.
“Wow, this time, quite a few have come.”
“Looks like there are at least seven. Why are there so many?”
“Seriously, are they treating our village like a dumping ground, sending people here like that?”
Everyone was unhappy. The more people who came, the more food they would need, and since the educated youth couldn’t do any work, the villagers had to share their food with them.
Tian Youfu also didn’t look happy. He walked on with a long face.
As for the new educated youth…
Even more unhappy!
“This is such a crappy place! The mountain road twists and turns all the way.”
The one saying this was a young man with acne, his face full of resentment.
“Stop complaining. We came here to work in the countryside, not to enjoy ourselves.”
This was said by a young man with a well-proportioned face, the best-dressed among the group of young intellectuals.
“Woo woo woo, I want to go home…”
This was the youngest girl in the group, with a baby face, and she had already started to get discouraged by the journey.
“We still have to stick together, Pengcheng is right, we can’t complain.”
The last voice was from a delicate-looking girl with a fair face.
Tian Youfu was nearly fed up; he had heard complaints and cries all the way during the journey of picking up the intellectual youths. Even now that they had arrived, they still couldn’t stop.
Tian Ershu drove the donkey cart to the threshing ground, and when the new intellectual youths saw a group of women gathered there, they were too embarrassed to say anything. The ones who had been crying and complaining earlier fell silent.
Tian Youfu said irritably, “Unload your luggage.”
Just standing there without moving, what were they doing? Did they expect him to unload their luggage for them?
The acne-faced young man, Jiang Lei, was full of dissatisfaction. He felt that Tian Youfu didn’t understand them.
They were intellectual youths sent to the countryside! They were here to help the villagers. They should at least be welcomed with songs and dances, or at the very least, someone should help them with their luggage.
On the other hand, the well-dressed young man didn’t complain. He helped several of the female intellectuals unload their luggage.
Tian Ershu yelled at the donkey to keep walking, feeling distressed. The journey had been hard, and he was eager to get back to feed the donkey some good food to replenish it.
The intellectual youths lined up, seven in total: four girls and three boys. Aside from the soft-spoken girl who had only one big bag, the others each had two or three bags.
Tian Youfu felt a headache coming on; it was really troublesome.
“You will stay at the intellectuals’ dorm over there. Seven rooms; figure it out among yourselves. Yang Hong, you are the oldest here, take them back and teach them a bit. Tomorrow, go to work as usual.”
Tian Youfu added, “You’ll come get your food rations later. Our team distributes grain twice a year: after the autumn harvest and before winter. The grain this time will be deducted from your work points. Each person gets 40 pounds of coarse grain. You all figure out how to distribute it.”
