Siheyuan: Yan Jiekuang's carefree life

The entire educated youth settlement was divided into two parts, front and back. The kitchen and dining area was in the middle of the front yard. The house on the left was for male educated youth, and the house on the right was for female educated youth. There was a row of cupboards at the entrance of each room. Although each cupboard was not big, it was enough for twenty people. Opposite the cupboards were two rows of large bunk beds. Each bunk bed could sleep ten people, so one room could sleep about twenty people. There was a well opposite the kitchen, and there was a private plot of about two mu on each side in front of the well. There was also a toilet on each side. The left side belonged to male educated youth, and the right side belonged to female educated youth. For the convenience of female educated youth, a bathing area was built behind the toilet on the right.

There are more than a dozen single rooms on each side of the backyard. Each single room is rectangular and about 20 square meters. There is a double-door window next to each single room door. The stove is at the entrance, and the kang is behind the stove. Then there is the back door. The back door leads to the private plot. The village was very considerate and built a wall around each single room. Although there are more than a dozen people living in the entire educated youth site, most of them choose to sleep in a large dormitory. Only two single doors at the back door are locked. In order to facilitate fetching water, a well was dug for them on each side. But it is not very convenient to go to the toilet. You have to run to the front.

Yan Jiekuang chose a single room near the outer wall. I don't know what Su Zihui was thinking, she chose the one next to Yan Jiekuang. Except for Wang Jianqiang and Wang Sibao, everyone else in Yan Jiekuang's group chose a single room. But Wang Liqing and Xu Yun chose to share a room.

After the house was chosen, Yan Jiekuang and others put their luggage into their respective rooms or beds, and then followed Wu Haiwang to the village brigade. Yan Jiekuang and others first completed the procedures for renting the house and paid the rent. Wu Haiwang collected the money, and then took Yan Jiekuang and others to the village grain depot. According to regulations, in the first year of the educated youth going to the countryside, the grain was subsidized by the upper level, 35 kilograms per person per month. Although Qingshan Village did not deduct, only 30% of the 35 kilograms was fine grain, and the remaining 70% was coarse grain. In front of Yan Jiekuang and others, Wu Haiwang asked someone to weigh the grain distributed to them again. After confirming that there was no problem, he asked them to sign behind their names. Then he asked the villagers to help them deliver the grain to the educated youth site.

At six o'clock in the evening, Yan Jiekuang and others returned to the educated youth camp. The male educated youths carried their own food back to the dormitory, while the male educated youths helped with the food for the female educated youths.

While moving the grain, Gong Zhiqing informed Yan Jiekuang and others to come to the front for dinner. Today's meal was a welcoming banquet hosted by the old Zhiqing for them. Yan Jiekuang was not a person who liked to take advantage of others. After moving the grain back to his own place, he took out two cans of steamed meat from his bag and went out.

Walking into the kitchen, Yan Jiekuang saw Yao Zhiqing and said, "I'm new here and I'm not familiar with you. This is a little gift from me. I'll add a dish for everyone."

When Yao Zhiqing saw the two cans in Yan Jiekuang's hand, he was stunned and said, "This is too embarrassing!" Although he said this, Yao Zhiqing still took the cans from Yan Jiekuang very honestly. When the old educated youths sitting around the table waiting for dinner saw the cans, and they were canned meat, their eyes lit up. They all wanted to take the two cans of meat for themselves.

Yao Zhiqing took the can to the cutting table and swiftly opened the can with a kitchen knife. He cut the meat in the can into chunks of similar size and poured the soup from the steamed meat into the wild vegetable soup in the evening, which was considered as adding some oil and water.

When the meat was served, Gong Zhiqing looked very excited. He waved his hand and shouted, "Let's eat!"

Following Gong Zhiqing's order, the old educated youths who had been impatient for a long time grabbed their chopsticks and reached for the meat on the table. Yan Jiekuang and other new educated youths were shocked by the old educated youths' actions. Yao Zhiqing, who was sitting next to Su Zihui, saw that Su Zihui was not moving and asked, "What's wrong? Why don't you eat?!"

"Nothing?!" Su Zihui came back to his senses, picked up the steamed bread in front of him, picked up a piece of remaining meat, and began to eat slowly.

When they were almost done eating, Yao Zhiqing said, "Don't think that we are near the mountains. There are game on the mountains. But we don't have the ability to do that. If we want to eat meat, we have to trade with the hunters in the village, or go to the town to buy it. Or we can wait until the New Year when the village slaughters the New Year pig and distribute the pork."

Gong Zhiqing glanced around and saw that the educated youth had almost finished eating, so he said, "Comrades!"

When the educated youth heard Gong Zhiqing's voice, they all looked at Gong Zhiqing at the same time.

Gong Zhiqing went on to say, "Comrades! We are gathered here by fate. We will live together for a long time in the future. Since we are living together, it is inevitable that there will be bumps and bruises. If you have conflicts that cannot be resolved in the future, you can find me or Yao Zhiqing. If the two of us cannot resolve it, you can find the team leader. Let me introduce myself first. My last name is Gong, which means palace. My given name is Liang. I am from Fengtian and I am 22 years old this year. I came to Qingshan Village as an educated youth half a year ago. Now I am the leader of our educated youth team, in charge of male comrades."

Yao Zhiqing continued, "My last name is Yao, Yao Yueting, I'm from Chengde, I'm also 22 years old this year, and I came here in the same batch as Gong Zhiqing. I'm now the deputy head of our Zhiqing site, in charge of the female comrades."

"My name is He Lingyun, I'm 20 years old, from Shanghai, and I came here four months ago as an educated youth."

"My name is Ma Yi, I'm 20 years old, from Tai'an, and I came here as an educated youth four months ago."

As the old educated youth introduced themselves one by one, the new educated youth also introduced themselves. Anyway, in the entire educated youth center, in addition to Yan Jiekuang and Su Zihui, there are four other men and three women from the city. They account for one-third of the number of people in the educated youth center. The rest are from Shanghai. In addition to Tang Jianjun and Wang Jianqiang, there are two men and three women. A total of seven people. The rest are from all over the country. Among these twenty people, the oldest are Gong Liang and Yao Yueting.

After everyone had introduced themselves, Gong Liang continued, "Everyone has introduced themselves. Next, I will talk about some of the regulations of our station. The educated youth station is everyone's home, so the hygiene of the educated youth station is related to everyone. The collective dormitory is generally cleaned once every two weeks depending on the weather conditions. The educated youth living in the collective dormitory are responsible for it together. Comrades living in the single rooms at the back are responsible for their own rooms. In addition, everyone in the public places of the station should keep clean by themselves. We will not make any rigid requirements. The same goes for eating. Those who are willing to eat together should put the food for the next day into their own lunch boxes the night before and send them to the kitchen. The female comrades are responsible for cooking, and the men are responsible for chopping wood and making fire."

Yao Yueting added: "Our station is different from other educated youth stations. We adhere to the principle of voluntariness here. Two people form a group and are free to form a team. If you don't want to eat together, you can cook on your own. It is more convenient for those comrades living in the single rooms at the back. If you live in the dormitory and want to cook on your own, you can either wait until everyone's meal is ready before you cook. Or, you can find a place to set up a stove by yourself."

Yan Jiekuang said, "Captain, I will fire alone. I will not get involved with the others."

Su Zihui looked at Yan Jiekuang with tears in her eyes and asked in a low voice: "Can I partner with you?!"