readsfreenovel Chapter 22: Educated Youth of the Era (Part 4)
Chapter 22: Educated Youth of the Era (Part 4)
How to describe the trains of the 60s? You can't imagine the experience unless you ride one yourself. Liu Yuxi was not sad for long before she was overwhelmed by the smell inside the train.
These days, not only people travel by train, but poultry and livestock are also allowed on board. And indeed, very few people take baths in winter. It's not that people aren't clean these days, but rather that city dwellers need bath tickets, and bathing at home makes it easier to get sick.
In rural areas, it's even more troublesome. People can only wash at home, and to avoid getting sick, they can only wash less often. Some people change their clothes frequently, which is fine, but some families only have one set of thick clothes all winter. Once they wash it, they have nothing else to change into, and the smell is really unbearable.
Liu Yuxi quickly moved closer to the window, pretending to take an orange out of her bag, peel it, and after eating it, she held the peel in her hand under her nose, afraid that she would vomit before the car had gone very far.
The person sitting next to her was also a sent-down youth, dressed in their best clothes. No one brought any poultry or livestock, but when boarding the train, they didn't all go through their own carriage doors; many boarded first and then found their own carriage, so the smells in the whole carriage were mixed.
After the car had been driving for a while, the wind blowing in through the windows accelerated the air circulation in the carriage. After a while, the smell in the carriage became less noticeable, and everyone began to recover and start introducing themselves. The entire carriage was full of educated youth, and since they were still young, they still had some passion.
Liu Yuxi was sitting in a hard seat. There were three people in a row. Next to her was a male educated youth, and next to her in the aisle was a female educated youth. Across from her were two male educated youth and one female educated youth.
Seeing the awkwardness between the female educated youth opposite them and the male educated youth in their row, Liu Yuxi smiled and said to them, "You two can switch seats, that way it will be more convenient for everyone, and it will be easier for the three of us girls to talk when we sit together!"
The female educated youth opposite her gave her a grateful look, and the male educated youth next to her immediately stood up and said, "I'll go over and have a chat with them."
After changing seats, everyone chatted together. This train originated from Shanghai, and everyone was a sent-down youth from Shanghai. Through chatting, we learned that most of the sent-down youth on this train were going to the Northeast to work in the countryside.
However, the specific cities, counties, and production brigades they arrived at were definitely different. Coincidentally, the six people in Liu Yuxi's two rows were all sent to the same production brigade, Guojia Brigade, Hongqi Commune, Daqing County, Harbin City.
The group grew closer, and among the six were three male educated youths: Ma Aiguo, Liu Dayong, and Wang Haijun. Ma Aiguo and Liu Dayong were neighbors, both living in the textile factory compound, and had been classmates since childhood, so they were quite close.
Wang Haijun was the male educated youth who later sat down. His father was a naval officer and his mother was a staff member of the street office. Because his father was stationed on an island near Shanghai, where life was extremely inconvenient, his mother did not go to join him. Instead, she lived with them in Shanghai. His father would come home whenever he had time. He was the eldest of five siblings. Now, it was required that someone in the family had to go to the countryside, so he came to the countryside.
The three female educated youths were Wang Ailing, Li Chunni, and Liu Yuxi. Wang Ailing was the one who was later transferred to the educated youth. Her mother was a saleswoman at the supply and marketing cooperative, and her father was a ticket seller at the train station.
Li Chunni's parents both work at a match factory and are permanent employees, while Liu Yuxi's father is the workshop director at an auto parts factory.
After chatting like this, we realized that everyone's family conditions were neither too good nor too bad. This meant that we didn't have to worry about any family being particularly poor and being taken advantage of by others. It was more harmonious for families with similar financial situations to get along.
Along the way, everyone helped each other watch their luggage, eat, and go to the toilet. They also took turns sleeping at night. After three days and two nights, they arrived in Northeast China on the evening of the third day.
When getting off the bus, they helped each other out. The female educated youth got off first, and the male educated youth passed their luggage out the window. Only after they had taken all the luggage did the male educated youth get off the bus.
Everyone helped each other carry their luggage. When they got off the train, they found that the people from the Youth Affairs Office were already waiting there. They arranged for everyone to stay at the guesthouse and told them that they would take them to the bus station the next morning to catch a bus to the county they were supposed to go to.
Upon arriving in the county town, people from various communes would come to pick them up, and then the assigned production brigade would come to take them back. In those days, traveling a long distance was truly difficult, requiring all sorts of transportation and was both time-consuming and laborious.
After traveling for several days, everyone was exhausted. After finishing their meals and washing up, they went back to their rooms to rest.
The next day, led by staff from the Youth Affairs Office, we arrived at the bus station. They bought us tickets and we boarded the bus. Our luggage was tied to the roof of the bus. This time, we had all kinds of passengers, with poultry and livestock right beside us.
Liu Yuxi shared some dried oranges with the others in the group, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to sit in the car for even a minute longer. After a bumpy four-hour ride, they finally arrived in Daqing County, where staff from the county's educated youth office and representatives from various communes were already waiting at the station.
Secretary Wang of the Hongqi Commune found them, the group of educated youth assigned to the commune, and said to them, "It's lunchtime now. You can go eat first, or you can wait on those tractors over there."
Those who need to write or send letters should hurry up, and those who need to buy things should buy them as soon as possible. We're going back to the commune at 3 PM. It's not easy to come to the county town, so try to prepare everything you need all at once!
The six men discussed it together and decided that Ma Aiguo would stay on the tractor to watch over the luggage, while Liu Dayong would go to eat first and bring it back to Ma Aiguo after he finished eating. Since the two of them didn't need to buy anything, they just needed to send a letter home and pick up the things their families had mailed to them.
Since the others were all traveling alone and couldn't carry too much stuff, they had many things to buy locally in addition to what was sent over, so they went off to do their own things.
But everyone agreed to finish their own business as soon as possible and return here. If Ma Aiguo and Liu Dayong need anything, they can make another trip.
After agreeing on the plan, everyone went their separate ways. Liu Yuxi went to the state-run restaurant first and ordered a plate of twice-cooked pork, a plate of braised pork, and two liang of rice.
Before coming, her family and she exchanged a lot of national grain coupons and meat coupons, so that they could have more treats when they went to the countryside. After eating and drinking their fill, they packed up the leftovers in a lunchbox, went to the supply and marketing cooperative, got a general understanding of the supplies there, and bought two bars of soap.
Then she went straight to the post office, wrote to her family to let them know she was safe, picked up the three large packages her family had mailed to her, and hurried toward the tractor. She didn't notice at all the people behind her who were shocked to see her, a thin little girl, carrying those three huge packages.
After all, the original owner was a person who didn't compete or fight, so he was somewhat overlooked. He hadn't grown tall enough; at 15 years old (by Chinese reckoning), he was only about 1.5 meters tall. With three packages on his back, all you could see were his two little legs moving around underneath. You couldn't tell there was anyone underneath him at all. It felt like the three big packages were moving on their own, as if they had come to life.