Chapter 125

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Protagonist:

Lin Hao

After a full five days and four nights of long travel, during which they changed vehicles four times, it was truly a journey of dust and toil, and Lin Hao and Zhou Rong finally stepped off the train onto the soil of Guizhou.

Lin Hao dragged his exhausted body, his steps somewhat unsteady, and as he walked he couldn't help muttering, "This journey has really been exhausting; although my body is a bit tougher than an ordinary person's, I can't stand being tossed about like this."

Although Zhou Rong's face was full of weariness, her eyes revealed an excitement that was hard to suppress, and she said, "Lin Hao, hold on a little longer, we'll see Huacheng soon; I can't wait."

Lin Hao had originally thought that once they got off the train they wouldn't be far from their destination, but who would have thought that what awaited them next was an even more difficult mountain road.

The mountain path wound and twisted, full of potholes, and walking on it was one step deep and one step shallow, extremely tiring.

Lin Hao frowned, looking at the mountain road ahead that seemed to have no end, and said helplessly, "Sister Zhou Rong, why does this road never end? I thought we'd be there soon after getting off the train."

Zhou Rong replied, "I didn't expect it to be so far either, but it doesn't matter; as long as I can see Huacheng, I'm not afraid of any distance."

They just kept walking along the mountain road, walking for a whole day like this, yet still hadn't reached their destination.

After all, Lin Hao and Zhou Rong were newcomers to this place and knew nothing about the road conditions here; they simply didn't know the way at all.

During the journey they took several wrong turns and went around many unnecessary bends; every time they went wrong, they had to find the way again, truly wearing the two of them out.

Lin Hao was panting for breath, plopped down on a stone by the roadside, and complained, "What should we do now? We keep taking the wrong road, and I don't know how far Xinji Village actually is."

Zhou Rong also became anxious, looking around, and said, "It should be soon, let's keep walking and see; don't lose heart."

The village they were going to this time for their rural assignment was called Xinji Village; the village was small in scale, and this time only the two of them, educated youths, were assigned here, so there was no one along the way to give them directions, and they had to find their way on their own.

They walked until about midnight, and in the pitch darkness Lin Hao and Zhou Rong finally found the place. Both were tired and hungry, in a sorry state.

Lin Hao said weakly, "We've finally arrived; if we hadn't arrived, I would have collapsed from exhaustion."

Fortunately, the Village Party Secretary was fairly enthusiastic and temporarily arranged a place for them to stay, saying other matters would be arranged after dawn, so the two of them breathed a sigh of relief and hurried into the house to rest.

The next day, Lin Hao was woken up by a strong sense of hunger.

He opened his eyes in a daze, took a while to regain his senses, and then began to survey the surroundings.

It was a thatched cottage, looking quite simple, and outside there was another room where several male educated youths lived together.

Lin Hao rubbed his sleepy eyes and saw that it was drizzling outside the window; the fine rain struck the window panes, making a slight dripping sound. At this

moment, he heard a noisy sound coming from the outer room, and couldn't help but feel curious, so he hurriedly put on his clothes, got up, and went out to see what was happening.

It turned out that because of the rain, the educated youths hadn't gone to the fields to work today, but had gathered together. At this moment they were sitting in a circle, listening to Feng Huacheng recite poetry.

Feng Huacheng stood in the middle of the room, holding a collection of poems in his hand, reciting while shaking his head and body, and from time to time closing his eyes, immersed in the poetic atmosphere he created.

As soon as Zhou Rong saw that Lin Hao was up, she immediately stood up smiling and enthusiastically introduced him to everyone.

Besides Lin Hao, Zhou Rong, and Feng Huacheng, there were three other educated youths.

Two of them were male educated youths: one was Liu Qiang from Shandong, exactly eighteen years old this year, tall and sturdy, looking quite honest and simple.

The other was Song Jie from Zhejiang, nineteen years old, looking quite clever. There was also a female educated youth, also from Zhejiang, named Zhang Xueqin, likewise eighteen years old, with a fresh and pretty appearance.

Zhou Rong was also eighteen this year, while Feng Huacheng was already thirty, so the age gap was quite large.

Several people were sitting around the table chatting at this moment; seeing Lin Hao come over, Zhou Rong took a bowl of corn porridge from the side and handed it to Lin Hao, smiling and saying, "Lin Hao, eat something quickly; you must be starving."

Lin Hao took the corn porridge, said thank you, then sat down on the side and listened to their chatting.

Lin Hao sat there, listening to their chatting for a while, and vaguely discovered that the relationships among these people were rather subtle.

Take Liu Qiang, for example; he belonged to the type of person with a relatively simple mind, and had no interest at all in those sour poems Feng Huacheng recited.

Every time Feng Huacheng recited, he would sit there with a blank expression, feeling as if he were listening to heavenly scriptures.

Liu Qiang frowned and muttered softly, "What is he reciting? It's all so refined; I can't understand a single word."

But he was inarticulate; although he had ideas in his heart, every time he wanted to say something to refute, he always couldn't outargue the others, and could only listen on the side.

Occasionally, when he really couldn't stand it anymore, he would bite the bullet and say a couple of sentences, but would immediately be refuted by others in just a few words, making him quite depressed.

Now look at Song Jie and Zhang Xueqin; they probably knew each other before.

Song Jie obviously had some feelings for Zhang Xueqin, always intentionally or unintentionally edging closer to Zhang Xueqin, and his eyes were always fixed on her.

Song Jie secretly looked at Zhang Xueqin and said softly to her, "Xueqin, look at this rain; when it stops, let's go out for a walk."

Zhang Xueqin didn't pay much attention to him, just faintly replied, "Let's talk about it later."

Zhang Xueqin was like Zhou Rong; she had only Feng Huacheng in her eyes and completely didn't take Song Jie's feelings to heart.

So Song Jie had some objections to Feng Huacheng in his heart; every time he saw Feng Huacheng showing off his literary talent and reciting poems, he couldn't help but frown.

Song Jie curled his lips and said softly to the person beside him, "Hmph, all he knows is showing off; what's so great about it."

Moreover, Song Jie's family background might be better, which made him look down on others a bit.

He felt Liu Qiang was simple-minded and uncultured, so his usual relationship with Liu Qiang wasn't very good, and when he spoke he often carried a tone of disdain.

Song Jie looked at Liu Qiang and said with a hint of contempt, "You, you only know how to do stupid work and don't know how to appreciate refined things."

Liu Qiang heard this and felt unconvinced, but didn't know how to refute, so he could only hum and turn his head away.

As for Zhou Rong, she was truly like a lovesick fool, with Feng Huacheng filling her eyes; whatever Feng Huacheng said, she thought was good, and little stars almost sparkled in her eyes.

Zhou Rong propped her chin with both hands, staring at Feng Huacheng without blinking, her face full of infatuation as she said, "Huacheng, the poems you recite are so beautiful; I like them so much."

Her heart was completely immersed in her feelings for Feng Huacheng; even the hostile glances Zhang Xueqin occasionally cast at her, she completely failed to notice.

Lin Hao watched these scenes from the side and couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "Truly shallow waters have many turtles; just five educated youths and so much trouble."

Lin Hao quite naturally excluded himself from it; he was not a turtle.