Time Travel: My Comfortable Life After Going to the Countryside

The houses at the educated youth settlement were built by the former educated youth themselves, and there are only three rooms in total.

In the middle is a large courtyard with a well for domestic water use. The kitchen is a simple structure built with stones and mud blocks in the courtyard, which can hold two pots, one for cooking rice and one for preparing side dishes.

There are still some vegetables planted by the former educated youth in the surrounding open spaces.

"Xie Zhiyong, Luo Lan, come out here for a moment."

Just as Village Chief Zhang Tiejun was about to leave the courtyard, a man and a woman ran out of the room.

"Village Chief Zhang, the new educated youth have arrived! A warm welcome, a warm welcome!" Xie Zhiyong said.

"Yes, they are the male and female group leaders of the educated youth team. The male is called Xie Zhiyong, and the female is called Luo Lan."

"Xie Zhiyong and Luo Lan, you two should explain the situation here to the new educated youth and arrange their rooms. Be careful not to waste food. Come to the branch tomorrow to get an advance on food."

"The new educated youth should just follow the instructions of the two group leaders."

"Hurry up and unload the cart, Old Wang still needs to drive the cart back."

"Okay, village chief, we'll make the arrangements right away."

"Come on, male educated youth, lend a hand and carry forward the revolutionary spirit to help the female educated youth unload their luggage first," Xie Zhiyong instructed people to unload the truck.

"We female educated youth can't lose to the male educated youth. Let's go and clean the empty rooms first." Roland instructed the female educated youth to go and clean.

After unloading their luggage, the girls had also finished packing up, and Zhang Tiejun led Old Wang away from the educated youth settlement.

Several people were standing in the courtyard; you could tell at a glance they were former educated youth, their faces showing a numbness.

Xie Zhiyong: "Welcome everyone to the Dongsheng Village production team. This is the male educated youth team leader, and this is Luo Lan, the female educated youth team leader. We currently have 5 educated youth in this group, 3 male comrades and 2 female comrades. Please introduce yourselves to each other."

"Hello everyone, I'm Zhao Wen..."

"Hello everyone, I'm Jiang Long, from..."

"Hello everyone, I'm Zhu Mengmeng, from..."

After everyone finished their introductions, Xie Zhiyong said, "I know everyone is very tired, but there's one more thing I need to make clear to you."

"After you've been assigned your lodgings, I'll take you to the village chief to get some grain in advance. This is related to your future food supply. The grain you get in advance will have to be repaid, and you'll have to use your work points after the autumn harvest."

"It's mid-June now. If you work for two or three months, you can accumulate work points to exchange for food."

"When I first arrived, there was no such policy. At that time, the village was short of food, but we still had to calculate work points for the educated youth, which made the villagers a little dissatisfied."

"It was Village Chief Zhang who came up with a solution: the educated youth could use their work points to exchange for grain. It was like we educated youth were using money to buy grain from the village. Everyone knows this, but let's not talk about it."

This is good news for Liu Xiangyang, as problems that can be solved with money are the simplest problems. However, it is not good news for educated youth from impoverished families.

Liu Xiangyang carried his things into the male educated youth's room. Inside, there was a large open kang (a heated brick bed) and a passageway against the wall, where many of the educated youth's belongings were piled up.

Liu Xiangyang chose an empty spot and laid out his bedding. There were already three people living there, and now five more were moving in. Liu Xiangyang didn't dare to think about what the future held.

Eight grown men, after a day's work, the smell of their feet and sweat, the stench—just thinking about it makes Liu Xiangyang sweat profusely.

There were also things sent from his home, so he couldn't even cook a small meal for himself.

If you live in the same house, and there's food, why don't you share it with everyone? What will others say about you? You'll be isolated.

If we divide the money, who gets it and who doesn't? We can't divide it every time, it's always a problem. Besides, it's all money that my parents have saved up through hard work, so I won't feel comfortable about it.

We still need to think of a way to see if we can move out and live alone, or we can rent a house from the villagers.

While the others were still tidying up their bedding, Liu Xiangyang pulled Xie Zhiyong out of the room, handed him a Daqianmen cigarette, and said, "Team Leader Xie, I have a question for you. If a sent-down youth doesn't want to stay at the sent-down youth settlement, is there any way to resolve this?"

Xie Zhiyong took out a match, lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled the smoke, saying, "Heh, Daqianmen, there must be a way." He glanced at the cigarette in Liu Xiangyang's hand.

Liu Xiangyang slapped the whole pack of cigarettes into Xie Zhiyong's hand: "Team Leader Xie, I don't smoke much, you can have this."

"That's too kind of you. There are two options. First, you can stay with a villager and pay them a living allowance each month. The villagers can also cook for you."

"However, the lid of a cup will inevitably bump against the rim. Even biological parents can argue, let alone strangers. This method has many side effects."

"The second method is to build a house with your own money. However, there are also problems. As long as you are in the village, the house is yours. But if you leave and don't come back, the house will belong to the village collective. And the cost is not small."

"Maybe everyone can go back tomorrow," Xie Zhiyong said, taking another deep drag on his cigarette.

When Xie Zhiyong mentioned that he could build his own house, Liu Xiangyang was intrigued. He planned to ask the village chief later how much it would cost to build a house.

Moreover, Xie Zhiyong's promise to return to the city soon means at least three years to go. Are I supposed to live in that eight-person room every day for the next 1,200 days and nights? Even if I can endure it, the readers can't.

Therefore, men need to treat themselves better!

Just then, a commotion came from the girls' side. The rooms were all about the same size, and with five girls sharing, it was even more spacious. But that's just how women are.

They insist on arguing even when they're wrong, and since they have a lot of stuff, there's not enough space.

The older educated youth had been here for three or four years, and they already harbored resentment, so they started arguing.

Roland, standing nearby, loudly urged, "It's just a small matter. Everyone should give way. The veteran educated youth should carry forward their spirit, and the new educated youth should also carry forward their spirit."

"If we keep arguing, we'll delay everyone from getting their food. We all need to eat later," Xie Zhiyong shouted.

The male educated youths all came to the courtyard to watch the excitement, while the female educated youths waited for a long time before coming out. Led by Xie Zhiyong and Luo Lan, they walked towards the village brigade headquarters.

The eyes of the two sisters, Leqi and Leyao, were red, clearly from crying, and Xue Bingbing was comforting them from the side.

Liu Xiangyang saw this, came over and asked a couple of questions. He learned that the two sisters had accidentally stepped on the old educated youth's shoes, and the two sides started arguing. The old educated youth used some very offensive language.

Liu Xiangyang then told the three women the information he had obtained from Xie Zhiyong, and the three of them silently processed the news.

"Village Chief Zhang, Captain Wang, and Li Huiji are all here. They've brought the new educated youth over to get an advance on some grain."

Liu Xiangyang checked the other two people sitting there against what he had learned. The one smoking a pipe with a blank expression was probably Wang Lixin, the production team leader, while the one writing and drawing on a piece of paper was Li Jianjun, the accountant.