For dinner, each female educated youth got one corn bun, while the male educated youth got two, and everyone received a bowl of cabbage soup with no oil.
As she ate the corn bun at the educated youth settlement, Xiao Mandong felt as though she had returned to her past life, when she was unemployed and raising two children alone through hardships. Back then, she gave all the fine grain to those two ungrateful wretches, Lu Ming and Lu Na, while she herself ate these hard-to-swallow corn buns every day, forcing them down with hot water just to avoid choking.
Now, it was the same. She drank a sip of hot water, craning her neck to swallow. After just two bites, she gave up torturing herself. In this second chance at life, she didn’t want to deprive herself anymore, especially since she still had steamed buns in her hidden space.
Xiao Manxue’s lips hurt whenever she ate, so she only managed a few bites. She put the leftover corn buns from both of them into her lunch box, planning to soak them in water if she got hungry in the middle of the night.
In the past, if Hu Guizhen saw Xiao Manxue eating so little, she would inevitably make sarcastic remarks, accusing her of being a bourgeois snob who didn’t cherish food. But today, Hu Guizhen just pursed her lips, not daring to say a word.
During the day, the windows of the educated youth dormitory were kept open, so it wasn’t too bad. But in the evening, when everyone came back from work, drenched in sweat, some of the clean ones washed up, while others just flopped straight onto the sleeping platform. The smell was absolutely unbearable.
Xiao Mandong didn’t want to stay in that room any longer. She pulled Xiao Manxue to go for a walk around the village and carried her bamboo basket on her back.
The two of them walked hand in hand toward the westernmost part of the village, which was close to the back mountain. Xiao Mandong wanted to find out which path led to the cow shed behind the mountain, and also see if she could rent a suitable house.
Ideally, the house would be near the back mountain to make it easier for her to go up the mountain later.
As they walked, Xiao Mandong spotted a row of stone houses at the foot of the mountain. Though the roofs had collapsed, the walls looked sturdy, built solidly of stone with a layout similar to the educated youth dormitory. About two or three meters from the three eastern rooms, there was a well. Xiao Mandong liked the location of these houses. There were few neighbors around. If they were properly repaired, it would make a decent shelter.
She took out six steamed buns from her small bamboo basket.
Xiao Manxue’s eyes widened. No wonder her sister had brought a bamboo basket when they went out. She had thought her sister wanted to gather some herbs. The girls in their family all knew a bit about herbs, but her sister knew more because she used to enjoy going up the mountain with their grandfather to collect them.
Actually, Xiao Mandong liked going up the mountain not because she enjoyed herb gathering, but because while their grandfather collected herbs, he also hunted, and she loved joining the hunt.
Having no money or ration tickets anymore, Xiao Manxue hadn’t eaten such delicious steamed buns in a long time.
At that moment, even the pain in her lips didn’t bother her as she took big, hearty bites, savoring every mouthful.
Xiao Mandong watched her younger sister’s eating manner and tapped her forehead:
“Mom sends you money and ration tickets every month. Why don’t you spend them? What are you saving them for?”
Xiao Manxue chewed and answered vaguely through her mouthful:
“Don’t even mention money or ration tickets. I haven’t even seen a single letter. None of the letters I sent back have ever received any reply.”
“What did you say? For this whole year, you haven’t received any money from Mom? How is that possible? Was your mail stolen? Or was someone impersonating you to claim it?”
She clearly remembered that before her parents divorced, her father had given her mother a sum of money.
Her father had said it was hard for girls sent to the countryside, and since her sister was young, having too much money on hand might cause trouble. That’s why he arranged for their mother to mail a little money and ration tickets each month. If the family showed they cared, the villagers wouldn’t bully her.
This was also why Xiao Mandong had never paid much attention to her sister in her past life. She assumed that with money and tickets, her sister’s life wouldn’t be too bad.
But she never expected that her sister hadn’t received any money from home for an entire year. How could that be? Before her sister was sent down, their mother had doted on her to the bone.
Xiao Manxue gave a bitter smile:
“I wrote countless letters home. I also suspected someone might have stolen my mail. I went to the Brigade Leader and even asked Mom to write back using the Brigade Leader’s name, but still there was no response. The letters I wrote to our brother got no reply either.”
“When I came here, Dad gave me a hundred yuan. I bought daily necessities, thermos flasks, and such. After half a year, I still had over eighty yuan left. Then Wang Yuanyuan came. At first, I was really happy—since we’re relatives, I thought I’d have company. She borrowed money from me, and I couldn’t refuse. But after borrowing it, she never paid me back.”
“I asked her several times. At first, she said she’d return it in a few days. But later, she just flat-out denied it. I had no way to prove it. When she borrowed the money, she did it alone, and I had no witness. Then she turned around and blamed me instead. Finally, two months ago, I used my last money to buy stamps. I wrote to Mom, telling her I had no money left, that Wang Yuanyuan had borrowed it all, and I begged her to help me. But…”
As she spoke, Xiao Manxue couldn’t hold back her tears. Her heart was full of grievance. Almost everyone at the educated youth settlement received letters from home every month, but she alone was never inquired about.
For the first time, Xiao Mandong felt resentment toward her mother. She could forgive her mother for not coming to her wedding, she could even forget how her mother ignored her pleas for help in her past life. But her sister was only seventeen—a little girl sent alone to the countryside. As a mother, to neither care nor inquire, and even to withhold the living expenses that rightfully belonged to her sister—how could she not hate that?
Xiao Mandong pulled out twenty yuan from her pocket and pressed it into her sister’s hand.
“Take this money. Buy whatever you want to eat. I have money.”
“Sis, I don’t have anywhere to spend it,” Xiao Manxue said, trying to give the money back.
Xiao Mandong held her sister’s hand firmly:
“If I give it to you, you keep it. We’re sisters. Since we were little, we’ve always shared everything half and half. Don’t argue with me over this.”
Xiao Manxue’s eyes grew red again.
“Stop that. If your face gets infected, won’t that just cause me trouble?”
Xiao Manxue hugged her sister’s arm and tightly clutched the money her sister had given her. She really didn’t have a single cent left. Her work points were also low. If her sister hadn’t come, she probably wouldn’t even have enough grain rations by the end of the year.
The two of them chatted as they walked back. Just as they reached the entrance of the educated youth settlement, they heard arguing inside.
As soon as they stepped inside, they saw luggage scattered messily on the floor. Two female educated youths were pulling each other’s hair on the sleeping platform.
It turned out that one of them slept restlessly and often flung her leg over the other person. They argued, and the argument escalated into a fight. Xiao Manxue gave a wry smile:
“That person used to sleep next to me. Several times in the middle of the night, she woke me up by flopping onto me. Now that I’ve moved away, her neighbor is Jian Qiuyue. And Jian Qiuyue isn’t someone to mess with.”
Xiao Mandong gripped her sister’s hand tightly. She had to move out as soon as possible.
Some of the educated youths tried to separate them twice, but the two kept lunging at each other. Eventually, everyone gave up, figuring they would stop when they were tired.
Everyone felt that the settlement was indeed too cramped. The village should find a solution soon. Each person only had half a meter of sleeping space; turning over in sleep woke up the person next to them. In summer it was bad enough—in winter, when they had thick quilts, there wouldn’t even be room for anyone.
Dong Huimin felt that since the fight had broken out, she might as well take the opportunity to go find the Brigade Leader and get them to come up with a solution. Just as she turned around, she spotted Xiao Mandong, who had just returned.
"Mandong, could you please go and call the Brigade Leader for me? Tell them there's a fight at the educated youth settlement and they need to come and sort it out. I can't leave now."
Xiao Mandong shouldered her basket, grabbed her sister’s hand, and headed straight for the Brigade Leader’s home. There was no way she was going to miss this golden opportunity.
