Chapter 1473: Selflessness

"Brother Yan, this group of women is getting a bit unreasonable." In the darkness, Yu Ming sipped his hot tea and couldn't help but complain.

Li Kuiyong said irritably, "You're the one being unreasonable. Didn't they make themselves clear? Splitting the kitchen to cook separately means they know what they're doing and can save more. If we really let them eat their fill, no amount of grain would be enough. The three of us eat more than all seven of those female comrades combined! Besides, they also said that if we run out of grain, they'll help us out. Isn't that great?"

Yu Ming didn't argue at all: "Yes, yes, Brother Yong is right. It's me who was being ignorant."

"You kid, you don't remember people's kindness, only their faults."

Li Kuiyong was more direct and merciless: "You need to change this habit. A man from Beijing acting so petty is really shameful. Right, Brother Yan?"

Wang Yan was busy washing film in the dark with some chemicals. He said, "Yu Ming is just a bit short-sighted, it's no big deal. As long as you're with us, you won't starve to death."

"Brother Yan, I was really wrong." Yu Ming was on the verge of tears: "I was just saying that, I really didn't think about eating more or taking more."

"It doesn't matter if you thought about eating more or taking more." Wang Yan didn't stop his movements, shaking the box: "As the saying goes, time reveals a person's heart. After a long time, you'll know how others treat you based on how you treat them. Just don't blame others when that time comes."

"I will definitely change."

Yu Ming stopped arguing; he knew he had to keep it hidden even if he had to.

It was just that following Wang Yan was too comfortable—he could fight, he provided a sense of security, he had money, and he was incredibly generous. Just take the sweet, date-scented canned tea he was drinking now; he couldn't even get a few mouthfuls of sugar back in Beijing. Yet Wang Yan had bought a whole bag of rock sugar and a bag of dried dates...

Neither Wang Yan nor Li Kuiyong paid any more attention to Yu Ming. Whatever Yu Ming was thinking, he remained perfectly obedient on the surface, not saying a word of nonsense, quietly drinking his canned tea.

After tinkering for over two hours, they finally finished washing all the photos taken during the trip today.

Watching Wang Yan spread out the film and examine it frame by frame under the candlelight, Li Kuiyong said, "I say, Brother Yan, the film is all reversed. Can you even tell anything from that?"

"I can see if the exposure is accurate and if the composition is appropriate."

Wang Yan was a patient man, though under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be willing to say much. But at this very moment, they were in northern Shaanxi, and the thing they had to fight most was emptiness. So, Wang Yan patiently gave the two of them a rough overview of some basic photography knowledge so they could have some understanding.

After putting away the film, the three of them went to sleep, ending a day that hadn't been very good...

The next day, Wang Yan woke up early as usual. Starting today, they would be cooking separately.

Wang Yan didn't want Yu Ming and Li Kuiyong to waste grain, and wanting to eat as well as possible, he had no choice but to do it himself. So, after getting up early to practice his boxing outside and washing up, he got busy in the room.

Guokui is a beloved food of the people in Guanzhong, rumored to have been popularized during the Shang Dynasty, with a long history. Wang Yan had also once ruled Guanzhong and was quite familiar with the traditional food here. He mixed flour with cornmeal and started making Guokui.

Yu Ming and Li Kuiyong were reluctant to get out of bed because yesterday's traveling and carrying water had been too high-intensity. Their whole bodies were sore, and they kept groaning. Wang Yan started the fire to cook, and the kang, which had been cooling down, became warm again, making them even less willing to get up.

It wasn't until Wang Yan finished making the Guokui and the canned tea on his small red clay stove started bubbling that Li Kuiyong and Yu Ming finally got up.

Chewing on the dry Guokui without any side dishes, they just kept refilling the canned tea. As the three of them drank the tea to wash down the Guokui, it could be considered flavorful. When Wang Yan mixed the dough, he had added salt to the Guokui, and the water they carried back from twenty li away was full of trace elements. Except for the lack of meat, nothing was missing.

After the three of them finished eating, they didn't go out; there really wasn't much to see.

Li Kuiyong and Yu Ming flipped through books, while Wang Yan sat on the ground, tinkering with the remaining wood to make two small stools. This thing wasn't difficult; if there was no leather belt for a seat, he could just weave it with rope.

Just then, it got lively outside; the female educated youth had also finished cooking.

The door was knocked twice, and following a "I'm coming in," it was pushed open. Qin Ling and Tian Fang walked in, each holding a bowl.

"You've all finished eating?" Qin Ling looked at the three of them in their relaxed state, astonished. "What good food did you make?"

"Guokui." Yu Ming responded proactively.

"I've heard of it. It's obviously made by Wang Yan, right?" Tian Fang had a good eye.

"We wouldn't know how, just cooking it until it's done is good enough." Li Kuiyong groaned as he stretched his limbs. "This tired me out; I don't have a single good spot on my whole body right now."

He complained a bit, then continued, "Guokui isn't anything special either; isn't it just corn cake? It's all the same, just a different name. You guys even have side dishes; the three of us just swallowed it dry with water. I heard it was bitter here, but I didn't expect it to be this bitter."

"Having something to eat is good enough." Qin Ling couldn't help but sigh. "Let's just be content."

Seeing Wang Yan still tinkering with the wood, Qin Ling said, "It's really good to have a craft."

"Just barely enough to make a living." Wang Yan responded with a smile.

Tian Fang asked, "What are you guys doing today?"

"Where else can we go? Just staying in the room." Li Kuiyong said, "When the sun is high, we'll go sit in the courtyard to save some firewood. Oh, I just remembered, Zhong Yuemin and the others are right next door. When the sun is high, I'll go to the back mountain to chat and hang out with them."

"Let's all go, let's all go. We'll go see them too; after all, we're all from the same place." Qin Ling was also interested.

Tian Fang didn't say much more, and the other female educated youth also said they would go take a look; they were idle anyway.

So, by ten o'clock in the morning, Li Kuiyong and the others had all gone to the back mountain. Within ten minutes, Wang Yan could hear that group of people on the mountain singing folk songs from below.

However, they didn't know the local repertoire yet, so they were all singing revolutionary songs. After all, this was an old revolutionary base area, and folk songs and revolution blended quite well.

Wang Yan didn't go. He took all his tools to the courtyard outside and brought out the small stove. While basking in the sun and drinking canned tea, he worked on his carpentry.

As the folk songs from the back mountain rang out, Wang Yan saw the village's young women and young men walking past him one by one, all heading toward the back mountain to join the fun.

Entertainment activities were too scarce in this place, and it wasn't easy to find some excitement. The rural youth, trapped in body and mind, couldn't help but have the heart to break free from their cage and leave this impoverished land.

However, facts also proved that it was precisely these generations of people who couldn't get what they wanted who built and developed this endless Loess Plateau. They measured the earth with their footsteps and forged the future with their sweat...

The young people had all gone up the mountain, and the adults weren't idle either. Carrying wood, kang tables, and the like, they came to Wang Yan's place.

Old Liu laughed heartily: "Wang Yan, I've been carrying this kang table from house to house all morning. The villagers have all taken a liking to your craft and want to exchange for a kang table. Besides, there are those getting married who are waiting for spring to get hitched; they want you to make all the furniture in their homes. We don't dare dream of bicycles or sewing machines, but we still want the 'thirty-six legs' (a set of traditional furniture)."

Wang Yan also greeted the people of the Baidian Brigade with a smile, getting to know them one by one under Old Liu's introduction. His mouth was incredibly sweet, calling them eldest brother, second brother, third brother, second sister-in-law, third sister-in-law, sixth aunt, and even picking up the local accent—a large-scale family reunion scene.

He was also generous, going back into the room to get two packs of Daqian Sect cigarettes, handing them out one by one. For a while, smoke filled the air, and it was incredibly lively.

Old Old Liu didn't smoke cigarettes, still puffing on his long pipe: "Young man, you said you were willing to teach the kids in our brigade to be carpenters, is that for real?"

"It couldn't be more real." Wang Yan tilted his head toward the crowd with a smile and said, "Not to mention anything else, just in our brigade, there are so many people who want furniture made; how could I finish it all by myself? I'll teach the young people in our brigade to work together. When the time comes, I'll divide them into groups: one group makes table legs, one group makes tabletops, one group polishes, and one group carves. Our brigade will have assembly-line production."

"Oh, so this is called an assembly line. The educated youth from the city really know a lot. Look, he explains it so clearly."

The onlookers on the side started to praise him, one word after another, and it was incredibly lively.

Wang Yan looked at the kang tables everyone had brought, took a few to examine them, and said, "These kang tables can still be used. I'll just refurbish them. However, we'll still need some wood; repairs are inevitable."

"It just so happens that this work can be handed over to the young people in our brigade to let them try. But Old Liu, uncle, we have to find a way to get carpentry tools. Saws, planes, files, and chisels are all necessary, and for carving, we need carving knives. You'll have to think of a way for this."

"I'll get it sorted out in these few days."

Old Old Liu nodded, and that settled the matter.

The surrounding villagers were all very happy, as if the Baidian Brigade had already become a famous carpentry brigade, as if the brigade's sideline business was doing well and the money earned had fed everyone. Seeing hope, they couldn't help but have infinite beautiful fantasies...

However, they were thinking too beautifully. Not to mention anything else, just the forty-plus li of mountain road from Baidian Village to the county seat was a huge obstacle.

But how could Wang Yan dampen their enthusiasm? So, he didn't say anything negative, turning instead to communicate with the young man who was getting married about what style of cabinet he wanted.

Not just talking about it, Wang Yan even got paper and pen and drew sketches on the spot. Not furniture design blueprints, but realistic sketches of the finished product, very clear.

This skill of his made the people who hadn't left even more convinced. Before he had even done much, they had already started praising Wang Yan's good craftsmanship.

After communicating, Wang Yan continued with the final steps of making the stools. He also asked the villagers for rope, and after it dried in the shade, he tied it onto the stools, then started processing the wood they had brought over.

Everyone wasn't in a hurry about the kang tables, planning to take them back to use for a few days and wait until the tool problem for the young people was solved.

In fact, this matter wasn't decided that simply; the brigade still had to hold a meeting to decide which family's children would learn from Wang Yan. It was impossible for the whole village to come.

It just so happened that everyone was here, and they didn't treat Wang Yan as an outsider, so they held the meeting on the spot. Everyone started scrambling. There were those scolding and exposing shortcomings, those who had old grudges and couldn't stand each other, dragging each other down, arguing and making a fuss endlessly. The folk songs could no longer be heard.

Wang Yan just listened to the excitement with a smile, processing the wood there, and everyone was happy to watch...

Old Old Liu had prestige and also had rich mediation skills, grasping the key word "balance" very well.

Those with difficult family conditions and lack of labor ability had to be taken care of first, such as the situation of old ladies dragging grandsons and granddaughters. There were two such families in the brigade, both bitter people.

In addition, there were the troublemakers with many sons and strong labor force who also had to be appeased. Of course, the family with the largest population in the village was the Liu family; more than half of the people in this village were surnamed Liu...

So Old Old Liu balanced his own clan with people of other surnames in the village.

Synthesizing all this, six initial spots were decided: two from the Liu clan, two from other surnames, and two from the most destitute families. Old Old Liu made the final decision on the spot: the carpentry tools would be brought back tomorrow night, and the day after tomorrow, the brigade's children would start following Wang Yan to learn.

Then a group of people gathered here, some sewing shoe soles, some knitting sweaters, some pasting matchboxes, watching Wang Yan tidy up the wood...

When Li Kuiyong and the other educated youth, as well as the young people in the village, came down the mountain, this was the scene they saw.

"Whoa, so lively." Li Kuiyong nodded generously to everyone. "Oh my, Brother Yan, you've opened for business."

"Making a set of 'thirty-six legs'." Wang Yan said with a smile.

At this time, Old Liu also greeted the selected young people, all fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen years old, and sent them to Wang Yan's side to watch him work.

Wang Yan's craftsmanship was impeccable. By noon, a pile of wood had already been broken down by Wang Yan and moved into the empty cave dwelling. He started more detailed planing on the spot, building cabinets right there.

Throughout the day, the villagers of the Baidian Brigade watched as Wang Yan processed a pile of wood into the shape of a cabinet, even using chisels and axes to quickly carve exquisite patterns of mandarin ducks playing in the water onto the wooden boards...

So everyone felt even more at ease.

In the evening, after dinner, Qin Ling, Tian Fang, and others gathered at the boys' cave dwelling again.

"Wang Yan, are you really going to teach them carpentry?"

Wang Yan was still working hard: "Of course, could this be fake? If they can learn an extra craft and the villagers can earn a little more, they can eat a few more mouthfuls of grain. Isn't that great?"

"Your awareness is really high. It would be so good to keep this craft for yourself to make a living..."

"Don't look down on carpentry; the technique isn't that easy to learn, and not everyone is suitable to learn it."

Wang Yan didn't say much more and continued working.

"Hey, Brother Yan, I see there are quite a few scraps left that can't be made into large items. Could you go to the trouble of making a set of Chinese chess? We two brothers can use it to pass the time."

"Sure, I'll make it tomorrow." Wang Yan agreed with a smile.

Qin Ling and the others stayed there for over an hour before laughing and going back to rest.

Wang Yan stopped working, sat at the table, and started writing with paper and pen by the candlelight.

"Brother Yan, what are you still writing? Sister-in-law hasn't written back to you yet." Li Kuiyong and Yu Ming were tinkering with the wood scraps, trying to whittle a circle themselves...

"What did we come here for?"

Yu Ming said: "To suffer and endure hardship."

Li Kuiyong looked disdainful; he grasped his good brother's pulse very well: "That's obviously to accept re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants."

Yu Ming looked at Li Kuiyong in surprise, and the latter raised his eyebrows at him: You kid, learn from this...

Wang Yan nodded with a smile: "Since it's re-education, there must be learning outcomes. We've been here for three days; I'm writing an initial impression of coming here, as well as a personal summary, and what we're going to do next. Besides, didn't I take quite a few photos? I'll send them to the People's Daily together when the time comes."

Li Kuiyong's eyes widened: "Brother Yan is awesome!"

Yu Ming...

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who tipped, voted for monthly tickets, recommended tickets, and silently read the book for their strong support! ===== CHAPTER 1474 =====