Chapter 470 The First Meal in Baiyashan Village
The mountain road of more than 60 miles is much more difficult to walk than everyone imagines.

We left the county town at around three o'clock and hurried back and forth, spending more than four hours. After the sun set, which was almost eight o'clock in the evening, we finally arrived at Baiyashan Village.

(Mulan County is higher in longitude and latitude than Yanjing. It is bright at around 3 a.m. and dark at around 7 a.m.)
"Get off the bus. The primary school of our Baiyashan Village is just ahead. You will stay here for the time being."

The old village chief's words immediately woke up several people who were about to fall asleep or had already fallen asleep.

"Huh? Sun Penghai, why are you sleeping in the back?"

Wang Quan felt carsick while riding in a truck in the morning, and was the first to fall asleep while riding in a horse-drawn carriage in the afternoon.

At this moment he woke up and saw Sun Penghai lying next to him, and he felt a little strange.

Wang Yafang, who was standing beside him, was trying to be naughty, so she answered for Sun Penghai:
"He had just entered the mountain road for a short time when his waist and legs started to ache. Those were all illnesses, and he even wanted to act like a hooligan and lean on a girl to rest. There was no other way, so Su Mingzhe switched places with him."

Sun Penghai's face turned red after hearing what Wang Yafang said, but he had no way to refute it. After all, what Wang Yafang said was true.

He sat on the front frame and drove for a few miles on the mountain road. He felt uncomfortable all over. He couldn't sit steadily no matter how hard he tried, and his body 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 and was so scared that she quickly hid in Xu Kai's arms.

Xu Kai roared again, and Su Mingzhe and the old village chief began to glare at Sun Penghai.

Sun Penghai suddenly woke up and realized that he almost made a big mistake.

Sun Penghai quickly explained that he fell asleep due to sitting fatigue and had no idea what had just happened.

The three women did not agree with Sun Penghai's excuse.

The old village chief thought that this was everyone's first day in Baiyashan Village and he felt embarrassed to leave him alone in the car, so he suppressed his anger.

However, the old village chief also asked him to switch seats with Su Mingzhe and forbade him to get close to the three girls again.

After Su Mingzhe sat in the front, he imitated the old village chief and put his legs on the frame. No matter how rugged and bumpy the mountain road was, he could keep his back straight.

After this comparison, the three women had an even worse impression of Sun Penghai.

Sun Penghai also felt embarrassed, and did not say another word for the next fifty miles of mountain road.

Wang Quan missed all these things that happened on the road.

The old village chief parked the carriage and took the six people into the school.

It is called a school, but it is just a few warehouses built on the basis of the original air-raid shelter.

At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the villagers of Baiyashan Village also built a ginseng field nearby, and some farming tools needed for the ginseng field were placed in these houses.

The ginseng grown later had low yield and poor quality.

Technicians from the farm came to check it out several times and said that Baiya Mountain is in a bad location with heavy fog and frequent cold waves, making it unsuitable for growing ginseng.

The ginseng plantation here gradually became deserted and turned into a classroom for children.

"The educated youth used to live in this air-raid shelter. You should live here too. Men live in the west room, women live in the east room, and the outer room is the kitchen..."

The old village chief took six people into the air-raid shelter to take a look.

The air-raid shelter is not big, with only four rooms and a hall.

The hall, which is also the outer room, has two stoves where you can cook.

There are two small rooms in the hall, without even a window, so they are completely uninhabitable and can only be used as storage rooms.

Although the west room had a door, it was not locked.

When I sleep at night, I can only use something to prop the door shut.

The east room has a door and a lock, but the door doesn't look sturdy, so it's best to prop it up with something when you sleep.

The old village chief took everyone to have a look and gave them an introduction.

Wang Yafang was more lively and asked:

"Village head, you said that educated youth lived here before, where are they now?"

"That was ten years ago. They have returned to the city since then."

The old village chief still felt a little resentful when talking about this.

Back in 57, the educated youth who went to the countryside only stayed there for a few years before leaving.

This time six more students were sent down, and I couldn't let them run away again.

Thinking of this, the old village chief spoke again:

"Students, I know that you city kids haven't done any physical work. Our village is currently short of two teachers, so the village elders have discussed and decided to arrange two teacher positions for you. You only need to teach the children in the village and teach them to recognize a few words. We will also give you work points. What do you think?"

After hearing what the old village chief said, several people's eyes immediately lit up.

Although everyone went to the 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 looks quite honest, but I didn't expect him to be so cunning. He even knows how to 'kill three warriors with two peaches'. Isn't this going to cause conflicts among the six of us, and lead to infighting?"

Thinking of this, Su Mingzhe didn't wait for others to react, smiled faintly, and put forward his own opinion:
"Village chief, we have three boys and three girls. I'd like to make it clear that the two teacher positions will be given to the girls. However, can you think of a way to find a lighter position for another girl? After all, what's worrying is not the lack of people, but the inequality of the population."

When the other five people 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 speaking up for them.

Only Sun Penghai secretly cursed Su Mingzhe for being cunning, for actually saying the nice words before him.

"Find a more relaxed position?" The old village chief sighed, looking embarrassed.

"Our Baiyashan Village is small, with only 75 households and more than 400 people. Being able to offer two teacher positions is already the limit of what we can do... Let's discuss it tomorrow."

The old village chief did not refuse everyone at once. Instead, he asked everyone to rest early and went home in the carriage.

Nowadays, the sun has already set, but Baiyashan Village has not yet been connected to electricity. After nightfall, every household is shrouded in darkness.

Fortunately, the moon is bright tonight.

After the village chief left, Su Mingzhe took out the kerosene lamp he had prepared long ago from his luggage and lit it under the moonlight.

No one expected that Su Mingzhe was so fully prepared, even with a kerosene lamp.

With the lights on, everyone came to the west room.

The west room is very large. Apart from a table which serves as furniture, there is a kang covered with a thick layer of hay.

If nothing unexpected happens, everyone will sleep on this kang for several years.

While several people were stunned, Su Mingzhe had already taken out a bed sheet from his backpack and luggage and spread it on the innermost part of the kang. Su Mingzhe also put some spare clothes and sheets on it.

Seeing that everyone was still in a daze, Su Mingzhe reminded a few people:
"It's already eight o'clock. Does anyone 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 let Su Mingzhe do as he pleased.

Su Mingzhe took his spare 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.

Relying on his good physical condition, Su Mingzhe went to the ravine and washed himself with the stream water.

In less than ten minutes, he came back.

Wang Quan and Sun Penghai also made their beds.

The three girls had not returned to the east room yet. When they saw Su Mingzhe coming back, they looked at him eagerly.

It was Wang Yafang who spoke up again: "Su Mingzhe, can you lend us your oil lamp for one night?"

In this era, kerosene lamps are also valuable items.

There weren't many people in Baiyashan Village, so naturally they wouldn't think of preparing two oil lamps for the educated youth.

"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. It is of no use to him whether there is a kerosene lamp or not.

"Thank you, Su Mingzhe, I knew you were the best!"

After getting Su Mingzhe's consent, Wang Yafang happily picked up the kerosene lamp and walked towards the east room with Xu Kai and Yu Hong.

The kang in the east room is connected to the kitchen stove outside, so as long as you cook every day, the kang will be warm.

The kang was not covered with hay, but with a straw mat woven from hay.

The temperature in Xiaoxing'anling varies greatly, with temperatures exceeding 20 degrees during the day but only around 10 degrees at night.

With this layer of straw mat, the three women put a layer of sheets on top to keep warm at night.

Just as the girls were spreading the sheets, a strange gurgling sound suddenly occurred, and all three of them were stunned.

"I went out...I didn't bring any food."

Yu Hong's face turned red when she was stared at by the two girls, because the strange sound just now came from her stomach.

The other two girls thought of the dry food they had prepared and hesitated for a moment. It was Xu Kai who spoke first:
"When I left the house, my mother prepared three cakes for me. I ate two on the way. Here is another cake. You can eat it first."

Xu Kai was actually a little hungry, but the education she received since childhood prevented her from standing by and 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 cake:

"When I went out, my mother only gave me three cakes, saying that they would go bad if left out for a day in the hot weather. Now there are two cakes here, let's share them among the three of us."

"thank you all."

Yu Hong was moved by the generosity of her two friends. At this moment, she felt that her tear glands were particularly developed and she wanted to hug them and cry.

Wang Yafang comforted Yu Hong and used her own self-defense weapon, a small dagger, to divide the two pancakes into three equal-angle portions, and then gave one to Yu Hong and one to Xu Kai.

This is how the three women ate their first meal at White Fang Mountain.

Compared to the scene of three women loving each other, the three men in the west room are quite funny.

At first, Wang Quan, who was sleeping in the middle, heard some noise from Sun Penghai next to him, as if he was eating secretly.

After hesitating for a while, Wang Quan also took food from the package and ate it quietly.

Only Su Mingzhe didn't respond.

It was past nine o'clock.

Whether in the east room or the west room, several educated youth began to fall asleep.

Su Mingzhe, who had been lying in bed, got out of bed quietly, came to the school yard, found some hay that was everywhere, twisted it into a rope of four or five meters, and walked towards the deep mountains and forests.

(End of this chapter)