Volume One, Chapter Eight: A Show of Force?

Jiang Yingli stepped off the train, suitcase in hand, following the crowd. At once, she spotted a man on the platform holding up a wooden sign. He wore a white undershirt beneath a deep blue cadre’s tunic, faded from countless washes. His raised arm was corded with veins, hands gripping the wooden handle tightly. The sign read, “Guo’an County.”

Her godfather had mentioned it; she would be stationed in Guo’an County. Originally, she was supposed to go to Beidahuang, but somehow the destination had changed.

Dragging her suitcase toward him, the man noticed her and lowered the sign, stepping forward. “Comrade, are you here to join the Guo’an County team?”

His Mandarin was impeccable, and Jiang Yingli’s guard went up. The people she encountered on the train spoke Mandarin, but always with some accent. This man was not so simple.

“Yes. And you are?”

“Alright, I’m Zhou Mo, captain of the Fifth Production Team of Huangguo Brigade in the Dajiang Commune. You’ll be joining our team.”

He bent down to take her luggage, half-shielding her as they pushed through the crowd and headed out of the station. From an outsider’s perspective, he almost seemed to be embracing her, a closeness that felt unusual. Jiang Yingli subtly kept a little distance between them.

All the way, she tried probing him quietly, but aside from his accent and bearing, she found no flaws. Eventually, she gave up.

They took a bus, then switched to a tractor, and finally rode an ox cart to reach the production team.

It was April; the fields lay barren, with only the occasional figure weeding. The man jumped down from the cart and brought over a middle-aged man smoking a dry tobacco pipe, who was sitting on the field bank.

“Uncle Wang! Come, take the new educated youth to their quarters and get them settled. I need to rest a bit—this journey was far too comfortable for me.”

He turned to Jiang Yingli, “This is our team’s deputy captain. He’ll take you to the educated youth quarters. Just follow his arrangements.”

With the introduction done, Zhou Mo left without a backward glance.

Deputy Captain Wang climbed onto the cart, waving his whip to urge the ox toward the educated youth quarters. He glanced at her, exhaling smoke, speaking Mandarin with a clumsy accent.

“I hear you’re from Shanghai. How could you bear to leave that golden nest?”

Jiang Yingli withdrew her gaze from Zhou Mo’s departing figure. Now was the time to wave the flag: “Responding to the call of the nation, I’ve come to help build the countryside.”

“A delicate city girl like you, what farm work can you do? Just here to make trouble!”

“The village children weren’t born knowing how to farm either.”

Hearing this, Deputy Captain Wang grew even less inclined to talk. His whip cracked loudly, and in less than five minutes, the ox cart stopped.

“Alright, off you go. That place with the little blackboard is where you need to be.”

He pointed with his pipe at a small earth house near the bamboo grove, where a woman with twin ponytails was carrying a wooden basin to splash water outside.

Jiang Yingli jumped down with her suitcase. Twin Ponytails called from a distance, “Captain Wang! Who is this?”

“A new educated youth!”

Jiang Yingli headed toward the earth house, but before she could speak, the woman with twin ponytails grabbed a wooden box and ducked inside, slamming the door shut.

Stunned, Jiang Yingli turned to look back, only to find Deputy Captain Wang already gone, ox cart rolling away.

What did this mean? Were they joining forces to give her a rough welcome?

After hours on the road, she was too tired to care. She tipped her suitcase over, sat on it, leaned against the wall, and dozed off.

They would have to relieve themselves and eat sooner or later; they couldn’t keep the door shut forever.

Behind the door, Twin Ponytails withdrew her gaze from the crack, grumbling discontentedly, “Just as expected—a capitalist’s pampered daughter!”

Beside her, a short-haired woman snorted, “The educated youth office is really unselective these days, sending all sorts to the countryside! Someone like her ought to be living in the cowshed, not with us!”

“Class monitor, what do you say?” they asked, turning to the woman at the vanity.

It was called a vanity, but really just a wooden frame holding a fragment of mirror.

She turned and approached the window. Her skin was darker and shinier than the other two, hands made rough by years of labor. Looking at the woman by the wall, jealousy flashed in her eyes.

“She only deserves the cowshed!”

With her verdict, Twin Ponytails yanked the door open. The three strode toward Jiang Yingli, brimming with anger.

Jiang Yingli squinted at them, assessing.

“You’re a capitalist’s daughter, aren’t you?” Twin Ponytails demanded.

“Where did you hear that?”

“Never mind where—I’m asking if it’s true!”

Jiang Yingli frowned slowly and stood up, taller than them by half a head. She lowered her gaze to the obvious leader, “My family had money, but it was all donated to the nation.”

Twin Ponytails scoffed, “Please, as if I don’t know—you only donated it to save your skin!”

With no hope of convincing those who refused to listen, Jiang Yingli held her tongue.

Seeing her silence, the three took it as assent and pressed on:

“Capitalists should live as capitalists do. You belong in the cowshed!”

Oh? A pillow for someone ready to nap?

Jiang Yingli was delighted. She had no wish to live with this group anyway. If they hadn’t suggested it, she would have moved out sooner or later.

She picked up her suitcase briskly. “Very well, where is the cowshed?”

The three educated youth hadn’t expected this reaction and eyed her suspiciously.

“You’re not thinking of complaining to the captain, are you? I’ll tell you now, he won’t back you up!”

Jiang Yingli shrugged, “Just tell me where you heard it, and I won’t complain.”

The leader scrutinized her, saw no sign of deceit, and replied, “We heard it from a girl in the neighboring team when we went shopping at the commune. She said it came in a letter from her family, who live in Shanghai.”

Jiang Yingli frowned. Apart from the educated youth office and the individual, no one else should know the assignment details. Let alone a distant fellow townsman.

Could it have been Jiang Jinguo? His reach wasn’t that far.

Gu Man? Possible, but how would she know where Jiang Yingli was stationed?

The educated youth saw her lost in thought and prompted, “Hey, you can go to the cowshed now!”

Pulling herself back, Jiang Yingli nodded, “Show me the way.”

If necessary, she could ask that girl herself.

The three led her to the other end of the educated youth quarters. Fifteen minutes later, they stopped in front of a low shed, from which the sounds of mooing could be heard.

“There. Go on in.”

Jiang Yingli carried her suitcase inside. The cowshed was about a meter and thirty centimeters high; you had to stoop to enter.

In the right stall, the yellow ox that had brought her was raising its head to watch her. The left stall was piled with hay, presumably its feed.

The wooden walls only rose halfway, letting the wind whistle through; the thatched roof was thick with cobwebs.

She set down her luggage, rolled up her sleeves, and began tidying up—moving hay into the passage between the stalls, sweeping away the cobwebs overhead.

The other educated youth hadn’t expected her to start cleaning without argument. Not even a word of protest.

“Class monitor, is she really a capitalist’s daughter?” Twin Ponytails asked, impressed by her efficiency.

The leader pursed her lips and said nothing, turning away. The two followers exchanged glances and quickly left with her.

When they were gone, Jiang Yingli flashed a sly smile.

She wouldn’t go complain—but if someone else asked, then it wouldn’t be her doing the complaining.

Half an hour later, she had finished cleaning. As she picked up the last bundle of hay, a furious male voice sounded from outside the shed:

“I have to live here? Why should I!”