Chapter 13: First Meeting

　　Jiang Youtao also turned around to look, but she really couldn't tell that the woman was an educated youth.

　　Li Yunying took a deep breath and said, "Let's go."

　　After walking a few more steps, Li Yunying could no longer hold back and said, "She was from the same class of educated youth as me. Her name was Wang Yuan. In 1968, we went to Liushugou to work in the countryside together. At that time, we were the only two female educated youths and we had a very good relationship."

　　"After the autumn harvest in 1969, the brigade invited a film crew to show movies, and people from all over the village came. It was at this time that Wang Yuan met her current man, Zhang Zhihui."

　　"Zhang Zhihui is good-looking. He is the third of five brothers. He is very capable and treats Wang Yuan very well. Our production team and theirs have fields close together, so Zhang Zhihui would come to help her with the work whenever he had time."

　　"At that time, we had just gone to the countryside and were very slow at farm work. We were often scolded by the production team leader. The appearance of Zhang Zhihui was like a god sent down from heaven to Wang Yuan. It wasn't long before they were dating."

　　"They said they wanted to get married after only two months of dating, saying that Zhang Zhihui's family was pressing for it and that she had already decided to spend the rest of her life with Zhang Zhihui. I thought it was too hasty and advised her to wait and see, but she didn't listen. We often quarreled because of this."

　　"When they got married, Zhang Zhihui said he couldn't afford the betrothal gift, but she didn't care. She married Zhang Zhihui with the money she got from the countryside and the things she got from her parents."

　　"She had a good life for a while after getting married, but when she got pregnant, her life suddenly became difficult. She had to do all the chores at home and outside. If she didn't do it, she would be scolded by her mother-in-law. The man who had obeyed her before marriage also became cold to her."

　　"After giving birth to three daughters in a row, her in-laws no longer treated her as a human being. Look at her, she is the same age as me. We went to the countryside when we were 17, and she was not even 27 yet."

　　When they had a serious argument and offended each other, they were in a cold war until the eve of Wang Yuan's marriage.

　　She was reluctant to part with the first friend she made after coming to the countryside, so she gave all the money she had to Wang Yuan as a gift.

　　After Wang Yuan got married, she often visited her.

　　But as Wang Yuan became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Wang Yuan's face became colder and colder when she went to see her. After this happened many times, she stopped going.

　　Gradually, they stopped communicating. When she found out that Wang Yuan was not doing well, she went to see her again, but she was no longer willing to see her.

　　Every time it rained, Wang Yuan would take the things she grew to the bridge of the commune to sell. Sometimes it was eggplants and cucumbers, and sometimes it was wild fruits and mushrooms that she found in the mountains. Li Yunying also developed the habit of visiting the commune every time it rained.

　　But Li Yunying still didn't dare to face her, and she was afraid that she would irritate Wang Yuan, so every time she would just leave the money, pick up her things and leave.

　　Li Yunying smiled bitterly and said to Jiang Youtao: "You may not believe this, but Wang Yuan was very beautiful at the beginning, and there were countless young men who were interested in her. Unfortunately, they all lost in the end because of their lack of consideration."

　　Li Yunying told Jiang Youtao and herself, "Youtao, in this life, never just want a man to be nice to you, because apart from being nice to you, he has nothing else. When one day he suddenly stops being nice to you, you will become the one who has nothing."

　　Li Yunying said that this sentence was often said on the Internet in the previous life, and Jiang Youtao, as a surfing expert, had seen it many times. But for Li Yunying having this awareness, she was very surprised.

　　Seeing the sadness in Li Yunying's eyes, Jiang Youtao nodded: "I'll remember it."

　　Li Yunying had been holding back Wang Yuan's story for a long time, and now she felt much better after she spoke it out. Many educated youths came and went in the Liushugou production team, and few of them remembered Wang Yuan.

　　Wang Shanxi was in the same class as her, and they would often talk about Wang Yuan, but every time they started talking, they would became silent. There were many people who liked Wang Yuan at the time, and Wang Shanxi was one of them.

　　It's just that he was too hesitant. He always thought that they were still young and love was too far away. He wanted to wait until Wang Yuan was older, but before Wang Yuan grew up, she got married.

　　So every time Wang Yuan was mentioned, Wang Shanxi would feel sad, and Li Yunying was no less sad than Wang Shanxi.

　　"Let's go back quickly, it might rain again soon."

　　"Okay." Jiang Youtao did not continue the topic.

　　The dark clouds in the sky were one after another, rendering the entire sky a dark color. Li Yunying and Jiang Youtao quickened their pace.

　　The summer rain came quickly and urgently. They walked and walked and then they jogged back to the educated youth point. As soon as they entered the dormitory, raindrops as big as beans fell on their feet.

　　The two stood at the door of the dormitory, looking thankful: "Fortunately we ran fast, otherwise we would have been drenched."

　　Jiang Youtao was from the south in both her past and present lives, but after working in the production team in Liushugou for half a month, her accent changed: "That's right."

　　Li Yunying listened to Jiang Youtao speaking Northeastern dialect in a soft and sticky tone, as if her funny bone was tickled, and she couldn't stop laughing.

　　Jiang Youtao looked at her and smiled with a confused look on her face.

　　Li Yunying wiped the tears from her eyes and said, "I found that no matter where you come from to work in the Northeast, after a while you start to speak with a Northeastern accent."

　　Just like her and Wang Yuan, when they first came to the countryside to work, they spoke with accents from their hometowns, but after a long time, they all spoke Northeastern dialect.

　　Thinking of Wang Yuan, the smile on Li Yunying's face froze for a moment.

　　With a "crackling" sound, thunder and lightning rang out from the sky, blowing away the melancholy in Li Yunying's heart.

　　She herself is not living a happy life, so what right does she have to feel sad for others?

　　As thunder roared, Jiang Youtao said, "Before I came here to join the team, I heard people say that the Northeastern accent can mislead people from any province. I didn't believe it at the time, but now I think it makes sense."

　　"Yes." Li Yunying answered casually.

　　The rain outside was getting heavier, and Li Yunying began to worry. She turned on the flashlight and shone it on the roof. Jiang Youtao looked at her curiously.

　　Li Yunying said: "It's raining hard this time, I'll check if there's any leak."

　　Having lived in the Northeast for so many years, Li Yunying is no longer surprised by this.

　　Jiang Youtao was stunned.

　　She lived in an orphanage, but the orphanage was also a building and the roof had never leaked when it rained. When she saw it raining, she never thought about this problem at all.

　　Li Yunying had already looked around the dormitory. She breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, our house was just overhauled two months ago, so it's still pretty solid."

　　The youth cadre site where they lived was a blue brick and tile house. It was the best house in the village except for the team headquarters, but no matter how good the house was, it would leak when it rained.

　　Because they did not carry out maintenance in advance at the beginning of spring this year, the house started leaking when it rained in May.

　　After the rain stopped, they spent most of the day repairing the house.

　　Jiang Youtao didn't understand this. She felt that her knowledge was not deep enough, and she couldn't handle things like the house leaking when it rained. She felt that she needed to read more and learn more.

　　After all, as a single woman since birth, she has no plans to find a partner for the time being.

　　Ten minutes later, the rain stopped and a little blue appeared in the cloudy sky. Li Yunying went to the garden to pick a piece of ginger and walked to the kitchen: "Let's make ginger soup. Don't catch a cold."

　　In this age of lack of medical care and medicine, drinking ginger soup is generally considered the most effective way to prevent colds.

　　The ginger soup was ready and Jiang Youtao drank a whole bowl of it. Zhao Yonglan, Zhang Huihui and the other two also came back. Their clothes were wet and they changed as soon as they entered the house.

　　Li Yunying asked them to drink ginger soup. She boiled a whole pot, enough for all the educated youth to drink.

　　After drinking the ginger soup, Jiang Youtao felt warm and fell asleep on the kang. Before going to bed, she was still thinking that the people at the post office said that the recipient would receive the telegram within two to six hours after sending it, and she didn't know whether Ying Chaorong and Ying Caixia had received it.

　　When Jiang Youtao fell asleep, Gu Nianwei was experiencing an escape in the county town 20 kilometers away.

　　Gu Nianwei brought a lot of supplies in her space, but she didn't have the money of this era.

　　In her previous life, she relied on her house to live comfortably, but in this life, she became an educated youth who was not loved by her parents. Gu Nianwei's biggest obsession was to buy a house. But this time, she did not plan to buy a house in her hometown in her previous life. She set her sights on the more prosperous capital, Shencheng.

　　But these two places are not cheap, one is the national capital and the other is an international metropolis. If she wants to make a fortune in real estate, she must save enough money before the reform and opening up.

　　Reselling materials in the space has become her only way to obtain funds now.

　　She had a lot of cosmetics and wigs in her space, and she would always disguise herself before reselling the supplies. During the year she traveled through time, her business had been very successful, and she had more and more money in her hands, but it was still not enough.

　　After finally traveling through time, she wanted to own more than one of the royal palaces in the capital and the small Western-style houses in Shanghai.

　　This time she came to the county town to meet a well-known black market manager in Harbin. He wanted half a ton of refined rice, which she happened to have.

　　They had agreed on the price half a month ago, and this time she came to deliver the goods.

　　The transaction was going well, but at the moment of payment and delivery, something strange happened. A group of people broke in with weapons in their hands, wanting to rob them.

　　In this era, when doing such things, Gu Nianwei was always very alert. When she found something unusual, she hid herself and entered the space during the chaos. But the space would not move. She waited for an hour until the noise outside became smaller. She took off her disguise and waited until the noise outside died down before leaving the space.

　　The rain, which had stopped a long time ago, started again without knowing when. It was the first time she encountered such a thing, and even though she appeared calm on the surface, she was still a little scared in her heart. She turned several times in the alleys of the county town before turning into the main street. Because she was in too much of a hurry, she bumped into a tall man head-on.

　　"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Gu Nianwei apologized immediately after she stood firm.

　　"It's okay." The voice was unexpectedly nice.

　　Gu Nianwei raised her head and was stunned for a moment.

　　The man was wearing an olive green military uniform, with an upright posture. His appearance was not outstanding but very elegant, and his eyes were clear and upright.

　　This was the first time Gu Nianwei had seen a soldier of this era. She couldn't help but look at him a few more times. The soldier nodded to her and walked away.

　　Gu Nianwei touched her hair and left.

　　After she left, the man she had bumped into stopped walking, and a man wearing a red armband appeared beside him: "Director Lin, we didn't catch the supplier."

　　The man called Director Lin nodded with a sullen face, "Keep investigating. He can't get far in such a short time."

　　"Yes."