Chapter 35 – Old Educated Youths
With Su Man around, Lu Xia didn’t speak proactively. She only spoke after she left, asking, “Is there anything I can help with?”
Sun Shengnan thought for a moment and said, “Go to the vegetable garden and pick a few cucumbers. We’ll make a cucumber salad for dinner.”
“Okay!”
Lu Xia took a vegetable basket and went outside. In the courtyard, Gu Xiangnan was helping Su Man with water pressure, and they were chatting and laughing while washing vegetables.
Jiang Junmo sat outside the door, gazing at the distant mountains, while Li Yi went somewhere unknown.
Lu Xia didn’t disturb the couple and nodded at Jiang Junmo before heading to the vegetable garden. She found the cucumber vines, picked a few large ones, and then came back to wash them.
Once inside the house, seeing that both of them were busy, she directly took a kitchen knife and started cutting. After cutting them, she looked at the seasonings in the house and added some to make a simple dressing.
Sun Shengnan could tell from her actions that she knew how to cook, so she felt at ease letting her handle it.
The group of them quickly prepared dinner.
By the time everyone brought the prepared meal outside, most of the educated youth from the village had already returned.
Even Li Yi, who had been absent earlier, appeared at some point. Su Man and Gu Xiangnan were warmly chatting with everyone. It wasn’t until the whole group was ready to eat that they remembered Zhang Hongmei, who was still sleeping.
Su Man took the initiative to call her, and soon the two of them came out together.
Although Zhang Hongmei had a somewhat unpleasant personality, she knew that she needed to make a good impression on everyone for their first meeting.
So she awkwardly explained that she had been too tired from the car ride earlier and had unexpectedly slept for so long.
Everyone understood and didn’t mention why no one else had any issues.
After the food was ready, they had to arrange two tables because there were too many educated youths. Luckily, the old educated youth spot had two tables available.
Since the weather was nice outside, they set up the tables in the courtyard.
The old educated youth had worked hard all day and were tired and hungry. In order to welcome the new educated youth, they had pooled their money to buy four liang of meat and stewed it with potatoes. So, once the food was on the table, everyone was eager to start eating.
Lu Xia also tasted the food. Sun Shengnan and the others did a decent job of cooking. Although it lacked flavor, at least it was edible.
She didn’t get to eat any meat and even doubted if there was any meat flavor at all. However, seeing how deliciously the old educated youth were eating, she knew that it would be difficult to have a chance to eat meat here.
Her heart sank, and she worried about the future.
Dinner was eaten quickly.
After dinner, everyone helped wash the dishes, and then they finally had a chance to sit together in the courtyard and talk.
At this point, they also had time to introduce themselves to each other.
Currently, Sun Shengnan and Zhao Hua were the ones who had been in the village the longest at the educated youth spot. There was also a male educated youth named Liu Jun who had been there for four years. Those who had been in the countryside longer than them were either married or had returned to the city.
In addition, Yu Fang had been in the countryside for three years. Along with her were male educated youth Wang Wen, Feng Xuegong, and Zhu Jianjun.
The rest had been in the countryside for two years.
They were three female educated youths: Zhou Lai’er, Chen Xue, and Shen Qingqing, and two male educated youths: Li Mingda and Qian Jidong.
From what they said, it seemed that no educated youth had come to Daying Mountain Village last year, so the old educated youth who had been there for the shortest time had already been in the countryside for two years.
Lu Xia and the old educated youths got to know each other one by one.
Mainly the girls.
Apart from Sun Shengnan and Yu Fang, whom she had already met and briefly got to know, the other three were obviously different.
Zhou Lai’er seemed a bit snobbish. During their self-introductions, she secretly looked them up and down and clearly showed interest in Gu Xiangnan. In the evening, she took the initiative to strike up a conversation with him several times.
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Chapter 36 – Cooking Arrangements
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Among the female educated youths, Chen Xue was the most beautiful. Although she couldn’t compare to Su Man, she was still a graceful beauty, and several male educated youths seemed particularly interested in her.
However, she appeared somewhat shy and didn’t say much throughout the evening.
As for Shen Qingqing, she was like a child. It was said that she was only 14 years old when she came to the countryside. In order for her to replace her older brother and come to the countryside, her family had artificially increased her age by two years. In reality, she was only 16 this year, but she looked even younger.
But it was evident that the old educated youths took good care of her.
Overall, the educated youth spot seemed harmonious for now, and Lu Xia was quite satisfied.
She didn’t plan to match every person to their respective roles in the book, after all, this was a real world.
Besides, when she read the book, she only focused on the main characters, and she briefly skimmed through the supporting characters. She had mostly forgotten the descriptions of the people and events at the educated youth spot, so she didn’t need to worry about it.
As long as she avoided matching the main male and female leads, it would be fine.
They chatted until it was dark, discussing various things about their hometowns, and then went back to their rooms to sleep.
Lu Xia and the others weren’t actually tired, but there was no electricity in the countryside, so they generally went to bed early. Also, they would start working the next day, so they needed to rest early.
However, it was inconvenient for several people to sleep together at night. They couldn’t even turn over freely.
Lu Xia thought that this situation wasn’t ideal. It was even inconvenient for meals. They couldn’t secretly make something delicious to eat because they were all eating together. She had no privacy at all, which was truly inconvenient.
But she wasn’t in a rush. She knew that the female lead wouldn’t continue like this forever. When the female lead came up with a solution, she would just follow along.
She just needed to think carefully about accommodation. It wasn’t convenient to go to the villagers’ houses either. It was better to stay at the educated youth spot. At least everyone there was an educated youth, and it was more reliable.
Ah, it would be great if she had her own house. She wondered if the village allowed building houses. She could secretly ask about it in a few days.
Since she had taken a nap in the afternoon, Lu Xia wasn’t really sleepy. After lying down, her mind drifted off.
She first organized the things she had brought and realized that she didn’t lack anything for the time being.
As for the land in the current space, she had already replanted crops, and she started watering it with the spirit spring water. Due to the large area, she only watered one-third of it that night, planning to water the rest later.
After working for a while, she felt tired and quickly fell asleep after coming out.
In the morning, when Yu Fang woke up, Lu Xia and the others were already awake.
Today, it was Zhou Lai’er and Chen Xue’s turn to cook. By the time the educated youths woke up, the two of them had already prepared breakfast. They also informed the new educated youths that the village chief had sent the grains they borrowed, with each person receiving 50 jin of coarse grains.
This amount wouldn’t be enough until the end of the year, but there was no other choice. They would have to find their own solutions if it wasn’t sufficient.
The group put the grains together with everyone else’s and continued to eat meals together following their previous arrangement.
They took turns cooking thereafter because there were a lot of people to feed. Each time, two people would cook together, including the male educated youths. The old educated youths who had been in the countryside for several years had learned how to cook.
If the new educated youths didn’t know how to cook, they could ask the female educated youths for help. They could also help them with some work so that they could return early and cook.
Of course, because the male educated youths ate more than the female educated youths, in order to be fair, they received more grains each month.
Lu Xia and her group didn’t mind these details and followed the previous arrangements. After all, they were currently benefiting from them. Not to mention, the vegetables in the vegetable garden were all planted by the old educated youths, and they were also eating from it.
Thank you for updating! It’s a really nice novel.
Thanks for the chapter (-ㅂ-)/ ♥ ♥ ♥