Bai Fumei in the 70’s

Zhou Jiazhen said, "Don't just stare, go and get your things. Have you looked for them?"

Zhao Lanxiang had bought good noodles and meat but didn't have time to enjoy it, so instead, she anxiously focused on rescuing her luggage.

Li Dali, the captain of the brigade, soon came when he heard of the news. He looked at the old collapsed house with bitter hatred. Because last year's harvest was not good, the brigade was too poor to pay for relief. Now was the time when the green and yellow have not yet met, where would they have the money to build a new house for these educated youths?

[T/N: "Time when the green and yellow have not met" means the previous harvest has been eaten, and the new crop was just planted.

The educated youths gathered around him and asked him what to do. Li Dali wiped his face firmly and said, "We'll make arrangements for each of you. Tonight, you will temporarily stay at the home of the villagers... As for how to allocate people, I will go back and think about it. You are now--"

Li Dali was about to say, let people go out and play, but after seeing Zhao Lanxiang's fair skin, he swallowed back this sentence.

It's not good to leave these beautiful girls without supervision. What if something went wrong?

Li Dali said, "You come with me, the house where the brigade stores farm tools is still empty, it is still possible for you to rest during the day."

Zhao Lanxiang and others temporarily put their luggage in the house where the brigade stored public assets, and several people looked at each other in a state of embarrassment.

The male educated youths have the most challenging time, their faces were full of ashes, and their big palms were as black as Justice Bao, making the female educated youths who had sad faces smiled. Jiang Li returned happily in the afternoon to find that all the things she had in her box were smashed. Her face was unhappy, and she did not look good. After the captain left, she sneered, "What a broken place."

[T/N: Justice Bao is a legendary judge who is famous for his ability to help peasants to overcome corruption. He is also renowned for his dark skin and supposedly ugly face.]

Zhao Lanxiang rolled her eyes silently in her heart. Knowing that this was a broken place, yet she still came, Zhao Lanxiang couldn't understand.

However, she was so hungry that she felt as if the front of her chest could meet her back, and she had no time to speculate on what in Missy's mind. She borrowed a kitchen from the people around her and made meat buns and vegetarian noodles with Zhou Jiazhen. Zhao Lanxiang was particularly willing to use her piece of pork and drain the oil from the fat. Her buns were steamed in an hour. The buns, which were made from the most refined flour and semi-fatty pork, were moist and juicy. While everyone was hungry and stayed in the brigade's house, she and Zhou Jiazhen sucked noodles in the house next door.

The scent spread throughout the room, which attracted other educated youths to look around. When they saw Zhou Jiazhen's happy expression, they became even hungrier. Zhao Lanxiang saw it and did not hide her food. She invited everyone to eat together. She took out some of the noodles and gave it to the educated youths who had hollow bellies. Although it is not much, eating hot soup can cushion their stomach.

Zhao Lanxiang's act made the educated youths, who had no house to settle down, felt better, and their opinion for this indifferent girl rose to a new level. Although Zhao Lanxiang didn't invite them to eat the buns, the noodles mixed with bean paste were so beautiful. After all, the flour was refined, and pork was also a rare thing for them. Freeloading a fine meal, they already got a considerable advantage.

Jiang Li returned to the dormitory after her stomach was full. But after the hard work of collecting her luggage, the things in her stomach had been mostly digested. When Zhao Lanxiang made the buns, she could smell the fragrance, which was very tempting. The smell was even more delicious than that of the buns which were sold in the state-run restaurant that she had previously eaten. However, Zhao Lanxiang did not invite her, and Jiang Li did not have the face to ask her.

She watched Zhao Lanxiang swallowed the last bun into her belly, without ever having mentioned a word about asking Jiang Li to try the buns, her eyes were full of anger.5

Zhao Lanxiang's enthusiasm for her brother was so sticky, like a piece of brown sugar, and he couldn't get rid of her. Some time ago, her brother was hospitalized. She had told her at random, and Zhao Lanxiang hurriedly bought a bunch of nutrients without even blinking her eyes. Her brother couldn't even finish it until now. So why, after they came to the country, was Zhao Lanxiang unwilling to give her a meat bun?

As she passed by Zhao Lanxiang, she said coldly, "I will write to my family this weekend, don't think I will say good things about you."

After she finished, she stepped out of the farmhouse.

Zhao Lanxiang comfortably touched her full stomach and did not care about Jiang Li. Zhou Jiazhen turned to her and whispered, "Do you know her?"

Zhao Lanxiang said vaguely, "We came from the same place, but she and I are not very familiar."

Zhou Jiazhen said angrily, "She really is something. She still showing the captain that scornful face. The captain usually does not say much; he is a very dedicated person. Several brigades beside us often starve to death. But although our brigade does not have enough food, it distributes food evenly every year. If she really thinks we are poor, why did she come to the countryside?"1

Zhao Lanxiang smiled without a word and bowed her head to sew some clothes that had torn. The needle and thread passed through her snow-white shirt. She used a plain blue silk thread to embroider a flower on the cuff. The place that was torn by a branch had now become more delicate and beautiful.

Zhou Jiazhen's attention was quickly attracted to this flower, which was unusual.

She gave Zhou Jiazhen the clothes. Looking at the blue sky while holding her chin, she was in a good mood.

The collective dormitories of the educated youth collapsed, and they did not know how the captain allocated their residence. She... didn't want to go anywhere except for her old man's place.

......

While Zhao Lanxiang was playing with the idea of ​​living in her old man's house, Li Dali had been scratching his head, trying to distribute these educated youths.

He had specially called the villagers to discuss, and his mouth had already become dry from all the talking. Although the name of educated youths sounded good, they came under the banner of building a new socialist countryside. In the end, all they did was the construction, but they made the villages even poorer. To be honest, no family was willing to keep these intelligent young people.

Li Dali patiently said, "You don't have to manage their meals. Just let them stay for a while. When the new educated youths' dormitory is built, they won't trouble you anymore. If you disagree, then everyone will take turns. It's only a dozen educated youths, so each family would be receiving one every month, so that it is fair for everyone and it simply saves us money to build a house."

The villagers could not sit still.

"Hey, Captain, aren't you pitting us?" This guy was a straightforward activist.