Back to my 1980s

83 was actually a year of mental confusion.

The land had just been allocated, and many young and strong laborers threw themselves into the fields, full of fighting spirit all day long. There were also many people who were used to working together, keeping work points, and living together in a group.

Regardless of their background, everyone clearly understands the importance of making money, so everyone is racking their brains to make money.

With continuous rain over the past few days, the river has overflowed into the riverside forest. Despite this, the villagers remain enthusiastic, with even the elderly and children mobilizing to chase and catch fish that have mistakenly wandered into the forest.

Zhao Hua and Zhao Ru brought their small boat ashore. Zhao Hua got off and waded into the water, pulling the boat into the woods. Every time the boat docked, it was surrounded by layers of people. He and Zhao Ru were used to it. After tying the boat to a tree trunk, the two began unloading fish onto the shore.

Zhao's mother had been waiting on the shore with a cart. When the two unloaded the fish onto the shore, Zhao's mother came up and said with a smile, "Your grandfather brought the land use permit this afternoon."

"Oh! Where is it?" Before Zhao Hua could speak, Zhao Ru couldn't help but ask first. More than ten days had passed since she last told her mother about this, and Zhao Ru had already heard about it.

The night he returned from his grandfather's house last time, his grandfather came to ask him which piece of land he wanted. Most of the good land in the village that could be used to build a house had been taken. He had gotten married in his own east wing room in his previous life and had never moved. He really couldn't think of a place to build a house for the time being, so he simply let his grandfather make the decision.

So he was also a little curious and looked at his mother with Zhao Ru.

Mother Zhao glanced at the two fish baskets, quite satisfied with today's catch. She nodded and smiled, "They've allocated the land from the old educated youth settlement. Originally, they said they'd allocate it to the west end of the village, saying it was bigger and closer to the river. I didn't agree. When the river rises there, snakes and insects swarm into the houses. How can anyone live there?"

Zhao Hua's mouth was slightly agape as she glanced at Zhao Ru and asked, "The educated youth settlement? The one that was vacated after the educated youth left?"

Zhao's mother nodded and helped carry the fish onto the cart. She smiled and said, "Well, when the educated youth settlement was established, that area was at the edge of the village and there weren't many people there. Later, as more people built houses, the back of the village was all farmland and couldn't be built on, so they built in front of the village, which is how the educated youth settlement ended up in the center of the village."

"If you don't go to the educated youth settlement now, you'll either have to go to the village entrance or the west side. There are many graves at the village entrance, many snakes and insects in the west side, and the graves at the east side have been built all the way to the main road. You have to go down to the river every day, and two or three round trips will take up half an hour. Why go so far?"

As Zhao Hua pulled his cart home, listening to his mother's series of analyses, he suddenly felt that the educated youth settlement really seemed to have become a blessed place.

Who wants snakes to keep getting into their house or a bunch of graves right outside the door? It's weird to think about seeing a bunch of graves through the window at night.

With the rainy season almost over, he's been working non-stop these past few days since he decided to build his house. He's been out in the wind and rain all day, and even when he had a cold, he didn't stop fishing and selling fish. He's saved up over four thousand yuan, which is a real fortune these days.

Although freshwater fish hold a similar status to ducks among chicken, duck, and fish meat, he doesn't need to spend time raising them. He glanced back at the Qinghe River and smiled slightly. Thanks to this river, it saved him a lot of time.

He had already read the land application form. The applicant was Zhao Hua, the approved location was the original site of the educated youth settlement, the area was 2.5 fen, and it also specified the east and west boundaries, as well as the north and south boundaries, and what kind of drainage ditch and stones would be used as the boundaries.

He found it quite novel. He had never been to a sent-down youth settlement before. For the villagers of Shuanghuai Village, that was considered outsider territory. There were so many places to play in the village, so he had no interest in going there. He couldn't really match the stones and trees listed on the note to any of them.

After finishing dinner, he called Zhao Ru and planned to take a look at what would become their future home. After reading the note, he had been itching to go, unable to suppress his curiosity.

Zhao Ru was even more curious than him. He wasn't familiar with the educated youth settlement, but Zhao Ru was, and she really wanted to go and see it. She was even more enthusiastic than Zhao Hua, and had been looking forward to it for a long time. The two hit it off immediately and headed straight for the educated youth settlement.

The two of them held the slips of paper, looking at them and searching for the trees and stones written on them. They searched several places, but one or two things didn't match. The educated youth settlement was almost empty, and there was nowhere to ask. Zhao Ru simply ran over and called Meng Qinghe out, since she was more familiar with the educated youth settlement.

Meng Qinghe went outside and looked at the brother and sister, her surprise barely concealed. She glanced at Zhao Hua and whispered to Zhao Ru, "Don't you know where the land allocated to your family is?"

Zhao Ru shook her head, chuckled, and said, "My brother and I went down to the river this afternoon and weren't home. We only found out the permit had been approved when we got back. After dinner, we thought we'd come over and look for it, but we couldn't find it, so we asked you to take a look."

Meng Qinghe smiled slightly, pointed to the side, and said, "This is it. Look at that tree branch. Your grandfather came with the village officials this afternoon to measure it."

The two looked in the direction she was pointing and sure enough, there was a small twig stuck in the ground. Zhao Hua looked around and saw that there was more than one; there was a small twig stuck in the ground every few meters.

Among the branches stood a mud-brick house, but it was now empty. He glanced to both sides; to the right was a row of empty houses, and to the left, across a narrow alley, was Meng Qinghe's house. He asked in surprise, "Ah? This is my land? So your family is my neighbor?"

Meng Qinghe nodded. He took another careful look. This place was different from the Zhao family's courtyard. The Zhao family's courtyard had a large alleyway on the left, which made it convenient for carts to transport grain back and forth. The surrounding villagers all used that route to pull their carts.

To the right is Zhao Xiaoran's house. They wanted a son, but unfortunately, they had several daughters. So they raised their daughters while preparing to have another one. They finally had a son after a lot of hard work. They didn't even have the means to build a wall. Their small mud house was far behind, and it was easy to miss when passing by. It had no presence at all.

So Zhao Hua didn't really have a concept of neighbors. Now that there was suddenly a neighbor in his new house, he couldn't help but think about it for a moment before looking at Meng Qinghe and asking, "So you're my neighbor now?"

Meng Qinghe looked at Zhao Hua with a puzzled expression, then nodded.

"Hiss... So we're neighbors now?"

"Brother, are you out of your mind? You've asked three times already!" Zhao Ru couldn't help but exclaim, turning her gaze away from examining the twig.

Zhao Hua took a breath and said, "Little sister? Don't you feel like we've never had any neighbors before?" Seeing Zhao Ru looking at him like he was an idiot, he quickly added, "I mean, neighbors who live very close by." He gestured with his hand to indicate the distance from the tree branch to the Meng family's house.

After Zhao Hua said that, she licked her lips, a smile just appearing on her face, but it vanished in the blink of an eye. She snorted and said, "What does it have to do with me? This is your house, not mine. I don't have a new neighbor that close by."

As she spoke, she looked at Zhao Hua with pleading eyes. She had heard that her brother was going to build a red brick house that would be clean, bright, and leak-proof. She was so small, any empty room would be enough for her. Thinking of this, she squeezed right in front of Zhao Hua and blinked her big, bright eyes, hoping to hear something she wanted to hear from her brother.

Zhao Hua didn't take the bait. The house wasn't even finished being built yet; he needed to find someone to plan it out first. He pushed Zhao Ru's head aside, looked at the branches, and asked Meng Qinghe, "Did my grandfather mark all of these out this afternoon? Are all the areas marked out by the branches my property?" In fact, he already knew, but he just wanted to confirm it again.

Meng Qinghe walked to Zhao Ru's side and said with a smile, "That's what my father told me, so it should be true."

What the hell!

She looks so beautiful when she smiles.

Beautiful, serene, and elegant.

She must be about 1.7 meters tall. Standing next to Zhao Ru, she was half a shoulder taller than Zhao Ru. The key point is that her skin was also very fair, almost on par with Jiang Yue's.

He was stunned for a few seconds before quickly coming to his senses. Fortunately, Zhao Ru and Meng Qinghe did not notice his strange behavior. He coughed twice and said, "If you want to build a house, you have to tear down this house first."

As he spoke, he walked into the house first. The main reason was that her contrast was too great, which made him momentarily stunned. When he first saw her, he could clearly feel a faint worry on her face.

Come to think of it, there are only two people in the family. When the village distributes land, it is divided according to the number of people, regardless of whether they are adults or children. His father can easily finish the work on the land for two people. Other families have land for several people, so the children can't eat much of the grain they grow, so there is a surplus.

Their family consisted of two adults sharing land meant for two people. In addition, they were essentially sent-down youth, so they couldn't get good land and barely had enough to eat.

Now, following Zhao Ru, she earns five cents a day. Zhao Ru also frequently delivers fish to her, so she can eat her fill and occasionally even have some meat. Naturally, the worry on her face has disappeared. With such a small plot of land, she doesn't have to do any farm work, and she looks much rounder and healthier than before.

"Brother, this house looks alright?"

Zhao Hua glanced back at the two people who had followed him in, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Well, at least people could live here before. How could anyone live in such a dilapidated place?" Mainly because Meng Qinghe's house was similar to this one, he couldn't very well complain to her face.

"Tsk, I just think it's a bit of a shame to tear it down, but it definitely can't compare to a red brick house. If I had to choose, I'd definitely choose a red brick house!"

Zhao Hua chuckled to himself, thinking to himself, "What are you lamenting? What are you choosing? This dilapidated house is barely a house on sunny days. On rainy days, the rain inside is heavier than outside. What kind of decent houses can a youth settlement have? There isn't even a proper roof beam. They're clearly still not giving up and are coming here to give me a blatant hint."

Hearing their conversation, Meng Qinghe exclaimed in surprise, "You're going to build a red brick house?"

Zhao Hua glanced at her. In the 1990s, being able to build a red brick house was considered a very prestigious and impressive thing, let alone now. He laughed and said, "Yes, I'll have to talk to your dad about building the house later."

Meng Qinghe was taken aback and asked in confusion, "Discuss it with my father?"

Zhao Hua nodded and said, "I'll have to demolish this house first, and the dust might end up in your house, so I need to let you know in advance."

Thinking of this, he acted immediately, saying, "Let's go to your house and talk about this first. I'm going to build a house as soon as the rainy season is over, and it should be demolished in the next couple of days."

When Meng Qinghe heard that it was a serious matter, she nodded quickly. She was very happy that he had thought to inform her father. She felt respected, which was really rare for an outsider like her. She smiled and said, "Okay, my dad is home right now. Most of the people here have left in the last two years, and he doesn't usually go out."

Zhao Hua paused, then asked, "Your father rarely goes out?"

"Yes, we used to go out for walks when there were more people here, but now we rarely go out except to work."

Zhao Hua nodded without saying much and followed her into the house. The layout was similar to the neighbor's, both being rural earthen houses with no difference or anything particularly interesting. He only glanced at it twice before looking away.

Meng Qinghe went inside and called her father out. Zhao Hua got straight to the point, saying, "Uncle Meng, I'm going to demolish the house next door and build a new one in the next couple of days. It might be a bit noisy, so I wanted to let you know in advance."

Mr. Meng was clearly prepared. These past few days, the village had been buzzing about how many fish he had caught, and his daughter had been going to sell fish with his sister every day. So he said with a warm smile, "Okay, I understand. Go ahead and do your thing. If you need anything, just let me know. We'll be neighbors from now on, no need to be polite."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hua's heart stirred. He knew he definitely wouldn't have time to demolish the house. The rain had been falling on and off for the past two days, and his father was going out to help build a boat. He still needed to earn the money he needed to earn. His older brothers were busy with farm work in the fields, so they didn't have time either.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hua smiled and said, "There's something I really need to trouble Uncle Meng with."

Mr. Meng was as enthusiastic as ever, even more so than before. Perhaps he knew that this young man had helped the family a lot and wanted to give back in return. He smiled and said, "Oh? Just tell me what it is. Don't worry about whether it's troublesome or not. As the saying goes, a close neighbor is better than a distant relative."

Zhao Hua thought for a moment and then smiled and said, "Uncle, my family hasn't had much time these past few days, and we haven't had time to tidy up the next room either. If you see anything inside that you might need, just take it home. I don't want any of the stuff inside; it would be a waste to throw it away."

Theoretically, this should be enough, he thought. Actually, he wanted Meng's father to help demolish the house. The things inside were real. Once the educated youth left, those houses should have been thoroughly ransacked by the villagers.

The most valuable things were just a few broken pieces of wood lying across the roof as beams. He would take them home and use them as firewood, otherwise he couldn't think of any use for those thin and rotten pieces of wood.

Those earthen walls weren't very high. The educated youth settlement was basically as simple as possible. The wooden roofs could be removed and kicked down in a few kicks. There was no need to haul away the broken soil; it was good for breaking up and compacting the foundation. Meng's father could finish it in two days at most.

He was just worried that if he directly offered money to Meng's father to help demolish the house, Meng's father would lose face, after all, he used to be a city dweller. After Meng's father agreed, he chatted with him for a few more minutes before taking his leave.

After Meng's father and Meng Qinghe saw them off, he worried that Meng's father wouldn't understand his meaning. In addition, he hadn't given them the money yet, so he decided to just give Meng Qinghe five yuan the next morning and have her pass on the message. He thought that by doing so, he wouldn't feel embarrassed.