Chapter 45: The '60s Farm System (11)

Under the gaze of those two commune members whose jaws had dropped, Xie Yang carried her large bundle and followed the Brigade Leader to the Youth Hostel along with the other Educated Youth.

On the way, the Brigade Leader walked with his hands behind his back and said unhurriedly, "You are the second batch of Educated Youth to come to our Yuewan Brigade. The rooms in the Youth Hostel are limited, so you will need to share quarters with the previous batch. No objections, right?"

Even if they had objections, there was nothing to be done; it had already been said that rooms were limited. Unless they wanted to find a way to rent a house from the commune members of this brigade themselves.

But in this day and age, housing was not spacious for any household; which family could spare a separate room for an Educated Youth to live in?

Since they had to share quarters anyway, it was better to just stay at the Youth Hostel; at the very least, this was the base camp for the Educated Youth.

Seeing that the newly arrived Educated Youth had no objections, the Brigade Leader nodded with satisfaction and continued:

"Regarding your settlement funds, after deducting expenses for accommodation, farm tools, and the three months of rations the brigade has advanced to you, each of you will have 75 yuan remaining. Do you want the money, or would you like the brigade to keep a record and convert it into work points for you, or have it converted into actual grain when the rations are distributed?"

Xie Yang did not hesitate and was the first to state, "I will have it converted into work points."

"Then I will also have it converted into work points."

"Brother Chen Gang, I'll listen to you."

The two male Educated Youth from Haicheng, Chen Gang and Lin Boyu, presumably were not short on money either, and they followed Xie Yang's lead in making their choice.

Lu Jieqiong seemed somewhat conflicted, while Wang Pandi asked for the money directly.

"Then I'll take the money too," Lu Jieqiong said with a sweet smile at the Brigade Leader, "I want to buy some common furniture."

"That's fine!" The Brigade Leader had the Scorekeeper on the side record their choices. Those who chose money could go to the brigade headquarters to collect it in a while, and those who chose work points would have it noted down first and registered in the Scorebook later.

After finishing these two matters, they arrived at the Youth Hostel.

The Brigade Leader called out the veteran Educated Youth who were present and told them to discuss the accommodation arrangements themselves, emphasizing a few points: they were all Educated Youth and should get along without causing conflict; they must be punctual for work every day and try their best not to be late, ask for leave, or skip work; and they should not do anything that would smear the reputation of the Educated Youth team...

He left after finishing.

This left the new and old Educated Youth staring at each other.

Li Chengguo, the team leader elected by the veteran Educated Youth, gave a light cough: "Alright, I believe everyone has taken the Brigade Leader's words to heart. Let's arrange the dormitories for the new Educated Youth first, then hurry to make dinner. We will redistribute the duty roster when we eat dinner."

The Youth Hostel had five rooms in total: one kitchen and four bedrooms. The bedrooms all had large communal sleeping platforms; the bed bases were built from adobe bricks, and a row of wooden boards laid on top served as the bed.

Each communal bed could sleep at most six people. The male Educated Youth side was easy to arrange; each room originally slept four people, and after the two new arrivals, it became five people per room, with one empty spot left for luggage.

The female Educated Youth side, however, started arguing.

Before the new Educated Youth arrived, the two rooms had three people sleeping in one and four in the other. Logically, it should have been easy to arrange the three new arrivals so that both rooms had five people.

Unexpectedly, the four-person room formed a clique and excluded the others: "We have always had one more person than Zhao Wanqing and the others before. They have enjoyed the comfort of a three-person room for so long, so this time it should be their turn to have more people."

Zhao Wanqing worked in the fields during the day and farmed at night; she was so tired she didn't even want to talk, but she wasn't happy about three people suddenly entering her dormitory either. Why should the room next door only have four people while her dormitory had to be full?

Yang Qingqing, who was standing to the side, spoke her mind bluntly: "This isn't fair! Before, you had one more person than us because seven people were hard to divide evenly. Now that it can clearly be divided evenly, why should our dormitory be the one that's full!"

"Why? Isn't it just because you've been enjoying the treatment of a three-person room all this time!"

"Enjoying my foot! Zhaodi snores so loudly, it's more like torture!"

Zhaodi, who was hit by a stray bullet while lying down: "..."

"We don't care about that! Anyway, you three occupied a room before! We demand fairness!"

"You!"

Xie Yang was simply speechless. Were they all elementary schoolers? Fighting like this over a bed spot?

Right in front of the three newcomers, they started passing the buck to each other.

If they were this unwelcome from the start, could they be comfortable after moving in?

If she weren't afraid of being too high-profile, she would really want to take out money to build a room and live by herself.

As both sides were still arguing, Xie Yang looked around listlessly. She saw a small, low thatched shed in front of the courtyard and interrupted the arguing parties: "Everyone, does that thatched shed belong to our Youth Hostel? Can I apply to live there? That way you won't have to argue anymore."

"!!!"

"!!!"

This thatched shed was used by the Youth Hostel to stack firewood.

Although there wasn't much firewood gathered, only a small pile less than half a person's height.

This couldn't be blamed on them; the female Educated Youth had little strength and could barely drag firewood, so the male Educated Youth were responsible for gathering it, with two people taking turns going up the mountain every day.

But the firewood brought back was mostly used up just for three meals a day, not to mention needing to boil water for baths. Therefore, this woodshed had never been filled with firewood.

After Zhao Wanqing bound the Super Farm System, she had also thought about moving out to live alone so she wouldn't have to wait for her roommates to fall asleep before entering the Farm Space, which would save a lot of time.

It was just that she couldn't find a single family in the entire brigade with a spare room for her to rent, and in the end, she had even considered whether to move into the woodshed.

But she had been in the countryside for over half a year and had witnessed the bleak scene of the woodshed having "heavy rain outside and light rain inside," which was simply not suitable for long-term living, so she had dismissed the idea.

She hadn't expected Xie Yang to set her sights on this woodshed as soon as she arrived.

The look Zhao Wanqing gave Xie Yang was inscrutable.

The other Educated Youth also looked at Xie Yang.

Xie Yang shrugged: "I'm actually fine with anything, as long as it can be settled quickly so I can rest. I'm tired."

"..."

Who isn't tired!

They had also worked all day, or sat on a train for four and a half days, okay!

Li Chengguo frowned and rejected Xie Yang's application: "No! Everyone is here to support rural construction; how can we have differential treatment! If the Brigade Leader finds out, he will criticize us Educated Youth for not being settled again. Stop arguing, you all. There are twenty people in total, new and old, so five people per room is just right. No one is allowed to cause trouble anymore!"

"..."

Xie Yang felt a bit of regret; she had originally wanted to use this opportunity to move out and live alone.

The woodshed was just a transition; the ultimate goal was to live there for a while and then find a way to build a house that was entirely her own.

Unfortunately, the team leader didn't agree.

Then there was no help for it.

Xie Yang carried her large bundle and moved into the female dormitory next to Zhao Wanqing, becoming roommates with the clique of Feng Xuemei, Zhou Xiaochen, Hu Yue, and Wen Ning.

Lu Jieqiong and Wang Pandi already had a good relationship, so they moved into Zhao Wanqing's room together.

Although it was called a six-person bunk, in reality, the per-person bed space was less than one meter.

Over the past half year, Feng Xuemei and the other three had turned the six-person bunk into a four-person bunk, with each person occupying a space of 1.3 or 1.4 meters.

Two-thirds was the bed for sleeping, and the remaining one-third held everyone's miscellaneous items.

One more person meant their private space would have to decrease.

No wonder they were so unwelcoming to a newcomer moving in! Xie Yang expressed her understanding.

But understanding did not mean agreeing.

This was public property, and inside it was a portion of the resettlement funds that she, Xie Yang, had paid out.