Chapter 469: The first meal in Baiya Mountain Village
The more than 60-mile mountain road is far more difficult than everyone imagines.
I left the county seat at around three o'clock and hurriedly drove slowly. It took me more than four hours. After the sun set, which was almost eight o'clock in the evening, I finally arrived at Baiya Mountain Village.
(Mulan County has a higher longitude and latitude than Yanjing. It gets bright after three o'clock in the morning and gets dark after seven o'clock.)
"Get off the car. Our primary school in Baiyashan Village is just ahead. You will live here for the time being."
With a few words from the old village chief, the few people who were about to fall asleep or were already asleep woke up immediately.
"Huh? Sun Penghai, why are you sleeping in the back?"
Wang Quan got motion sick while riding in the truck in the morning, and was the first to fall asleep while riding in the carriage in the afternoon.
When he woke up and saw Sun Penghai lying next to him, he felt a little strange.
Wang Yafang, who was next to her, suppressed her anger and answered for Sun Penghai:
"He, not long after entering the mountain road, his back ached and his legs hurt, which are all illnesses. He also wanted to act like a gangster and rest on the girl. There was no other way, so Su Mingzhe changed places with him."
Sun Penghai's face turned red after being told by Wang Yafang, and he had no way to refute. After all, what Wang Yafang said was true.
He sat on the front frame and sat on the mountain road for several miles before feeling uncomfortable all over. He couldn't sit still no matter how hard he sat, and kept leaning back.
Yu Hong was right behind him. When she saw Sun Penghai leaning towards her, she thought he was going to be a hooligan, so she was so frightened that she quickly hid in Xu Kai's arms.
Xu Kai roared angrily, and both Su Mingzhe and the old village chief began to glare at Sun Penghai.
Sun Penghai suddenly woke up and realized that he had almost made a big mistake.
Sun Penghai quickly explained that he just fell asleep from sitting tired and had no idea what happened just now.
None of the three women agreed with Sun Penghai's excuse.
The old village chief thought that this was everyone's first day in Bai Yashan Village and was embarrassed to throw him out of the car alone, so he suppressed his anger.
However, the old village chief also asked him to change places with Su Mingzhe, and he was not allowed to get close to the three girls anymore.
Su Mingzhe, sitting in front, imitated the old village chief's posture and put his legs on the frame. No matter how rugged the mountain road was, he could straighten his back.
After such a comparison, the three women's impression of Sun Penghai became even worse.
Sun Penghai also felt that he was humiliated, and he did not say a word for more than fifty miles of mountain road.
Wang Quan had missed these things on the road.
The old village chief parked the carriage and took the six people into the school.
It is said to be a school, but several warehouses were built on the basis of the original air raid shelter.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the villagers of Baiyashan Village also built a farm nearby, and some of the crop tools needed for the farm were placed in these houses.
The ginseng grown later had low yields and poor quality.
Technicians from the farm came to visit several times and said that the location of Bai Ya Mountain is not suitable for growing ginseng due to heavy fog and frequent cold waves.
The ginseng planting field here gradually became desolate and turned into a classroom for children.
"The educated youth used to live in this air-raid shelter. You should live here too in the future. The men live in the west room, and the women live in the east room. The outside room is the kitchen..."
The old village chief took six people into the air raid shelter and took a look.
This air-raid shelter is not big, with only four rooms and a hall.
The hall, which is the outer room, has two stoves for cooking pots.
There are two small rooms in the hall, which don't even have windows. They can't be occupied at all and can only be used as storage rooms.
Although there is a door to the west room, it is not locked.
When I go to bed at night, I can only use something to block the door.
The east room has a door and a lock, but the door doesn't look very strong. It's best to use something to block it when sleeping.
The old village chief took everyone to see it and introduced it around.
Wang Yafang, who has a more lively personality, asked:
"Village chief, you said educated youths lived here before. Where are they now?"
"That was ten years ago, and they returned to the city long ago."
The old village chief was still a little resentful when he talked about this.
In 1957, when educated youths went to the countryside, they left after only a few years.
This time six more students were sent down, and I couldn't let them escape under any circumstances.
Thinking of this, the old village chief spoke again:
"Students, I know that you city kids have never done any physical work. Our village is currently short of two teachers. Therefore, the elders in the village discussed it and decided to arrange two teacher positions for you, only for the children in the village.
Go to class, teach them to recognize a few words, and give you work points, what do you think?"
After hearing the old village chief's words, several people's eyes immediately lit up.
Although everyone goes to the mountains and countryside to receive re-education, being a teacher in the countryside is definitely better than being a farmer.
Only Su Mingzhe frowned:
"This old man seems quite honest and honest, but I didn't expect that he would be so thoughtful and know how to say 'two peaches kill three men'. Doesn't this make the six of us have conflicts and fight among ourselves?"
Thinking of this, Su Mingzhe didn't wait for others to react, smiled lightly, and put forward his own opinion:
"Village Chief, we have three boys and three girls. Let me make a statement first. The positions of these two teachers will be given to girls. However, can you think of a way to find a more relaxed position and place them there?
Another girl? After all, you don’t worry about scarcity but about inequality.”
When the other five heard what Su Mingzhe said, Wang Quan didn't mind. He also believed that girls should be taken care of.
The three girls were also grateful to Su Mingzhe for helping them speak.
Only Sun Penghai secretly scolded Su Mingzhe for being cunning, for actually being one step ahead of him and speaking out the beautiful words.
"Looking for a more relaxed position?"
The old village chief sighed, with a troubled look on his face:
"Our small village of Bai Yashan has only 75 households and more than 400 people in total. Being able to provide two teacher positions is already the limit of what we can do... Well, our village will discuss it tomorrow."
The old village chief did not refuse everyone at once, and asked everyone to rest early, then pulled the carriage and went home.
Nowadays, the sun has set long ago, and the power supply in Baiya Mountain Village has not yet been connected. After nightfall, every house is pitch black.
Fortunately, the moon and stars are sparse tonight.
After the village chief left, under the moonlight, Su Mingzhe took out the kerosene lamp he had prepared long ago from his luggage and lit it.
No one expected that Su Mingzhe would be so prepared, including kerosene lamps.
With the lights on, everyone came to the west room.
The west room is very large. Apart from a table that is considered furniture, there is also a fire bed covered with a thick layer of hay.
If nothing unexpected happens, everyone will sleep on this fire kang for several years.
While several people were stunned, Su Mingzhe had already taken out a sheet from his backpack and luggage and spread it on the innermost part of the hot bed. Su Mingzhe also put a change of clothes and sheets on it.
Seeing that everyone was still in a daze, Su Mingzhe reminded a few people:
"It's eight o'clock now. Does any of you want to take a shower? If not, I'll go take a shower first. I have to get up early tomorrow."
The other five people had just arrived in such a remote place and were somewhat nervous and uncomfortable, so they left Su Mingzhe to fend for himself.
Su Mingzhe took a change of clothes and went to take a bath in the ravine outside the school.
There is actually a well in this school, but there is no room for everyone to take a bath.
Su Mingzhe took advantage of his good health, so he went to the ravine and washed himself with stream water.
In less than ten minutes, he came back.
Wang Quan and Sun Penghai also made their beds.
The three girls hadn't returned to the east room yet. When they saw Su Mingzhe coming back, they looked at him eagerly.
It was Wang Yafang who said, "Su Mingzhe, can you lend us your oil lamp for one night?"
In this era, kerosene lamps were also valuable items.
The villagers in Bai Yashan don't have much, so they naturally don't think of preparing two oil lamps for a few educated youths.
"no problem."
For Su Mingzhe, as long as a thin layer of moonlight shines through the window, his eyes are no different from those in the daytime. Whether it is a kerosene lamp or not, it is of no use to him.
"Thank you, Su Mingzhe, I knew you were the best!"
After Wang Yafang got Su Mingzhe's consent, she happily held the kerosene lamp and walked towards the east room with Xu Kai and Yu Hong.
The stove in the east room is connected to the kitchen stove outside. As long as you cook every day, the stove will be warm.
The hot kang is not spread with hay, but with straw mats made of hay.
The temperature difference in Xiaoxinganling is large, more than 20 degrees Celsius during the day, but only about 10 degrees Celsius at night.
With this layer of straw mat, the three women can put a layer of sheets on top to keep them warm at night.
Just as the girls were spreading the sheets, there was a sudden strange cooing sound, which made the three of them stunned at the same time.
"I went out...without bringing anything to eat."
Yu Hong's face turned red when the two girls looked at her, because the strange noise just now was coming from her stomach.
The other two girls thought about the dry food they had prepared and hesitated for a moment. Xu Kai said first:
"When I went out, my mother prepared three pieces of cake for me. I had already eaten two pieces on the way. There is another piece of cake here. You can put it on the table first."
Xu Kai was actually a little hungry, but the education she received since childhood prevented her from watching others suffer.
Wang Yafang didn't expect that Xu Kai, a girl who was a bit taciturn along the way, would be so generous. She couldn't help but take out her last piece of cake:
"When I went out, my mother only gave me three pieces of cake, saying it would go bad if left out for a day in the hot weather. Now there are two pieces of cake here, let's share them among the three of us."
"Thank you."
Yu Hong was touched by the generosity of her two partners. At this moment, she felt that her tear ducts were particularly developed and she wanted to hug them and cry.
Wang Yafang comforted Yu Hong when she saw this, and used the self-defense weapon she brought with her, a small dagger, to divide the two cakes into three equal parts, and then handed one to each of Yu Hong and Xu Kai.
The three women had their first meal in White Teeth Mountain.
Compared with the scene of three women loving each other, the scene of three men in West House is more funny.
Wang Quan, who was sleeping in the middle at first, heard Sun Penghai moving next to him and seemed to be eating secretly.
After hesitating for a while, Wang Quan also took food from the package and ate quietly.
Only Su Mingzhe never responded.
It wasn't until about nine o'clock.
Whether it was the east room or the west room, several educated youths began to fall asleep.
Su Mingzhe, who had been lying in bed, got out of bed quietly and came to the school yard. He found a few pieces of hay that could be seen everywhere, twisted them into a four- to five-meter rope, and walked towards the deep mountains and old forests.