A Guilty Conscience

After the villagers finished cleaning Hua Jinyin's house, she asked them to tidy up the adjacent storage room. This room was slightly larger than Hua Jinyin's, but it lacked a kang bed. Everything had to be built from scratch, including the chimney, making the task more troublesome and requiring more bricks and straw.

The villagers busied themselves, moving in and out of the educated youth settlement. As noon passed, tradition dictated that those who received help should provide a meal. As if by magic, Xia Yu produced a small iron pot, two cans of meat, and several bundles of noodles from his luggage. He set up a simple stove in the yard, using dry firewood gathered there to cook a large, steaming pot of noodles, and borrowed bowls and chopsticks from the neighbors.

Whether it was canned meat or noodles, these were luxuries that ordinary villagers could rarely obtain during this era. When Xia Yu called everyone to eat, the villagers who had helped felt a bit bashful. It wasn't until Xia Yu asked Chu Laifu to call them that they finally came forward to take a bowl, gulping down the food without even caring that the broth was still scalding hot.

One pot of noodles was certainly not enough for everyone, so Xia Yu took a bag of sponge cakes from his luggage. Eating them with the noodles made for an unusually delicious meal.

Xia Yu also scooped a bowl for Hua Jinyin. Hua Jinyin hadn't intended to eat; she hadn't paid the villagers for their work nor offered them a meal, so how could she have the face to eat for free when someone else was hosting? But looking at the bowl placed before her and smelling the rich aroma, she thought about how they would be living in the same yard for a while. Xia Yu didn't seem like a bad person; at worst, she could just treat him back later.

As soon as a mouthful of noodles entered her mouth, Hua Jinyin's eyes widened in surprise. She hadn't expected this lad to be a culinary genius. He didn't seem to use any advanced techniques, so how could the noodles taste this good? They were almost on par with her best friend's cooking. No, even her close friend, using the same ingredients, might not have made them this tasty! Alas, before she knew it, she had finished the entire bowl.

Seeing Hua Jinyin eating with such relish, Xia Yu scooped another spoonful for her and handed her a piece of cake. Hua Jinyin had eaten this kind of old-fashioned sponge cake when she was a child. Later, in the orphanage, she didn't have many chances to eat it, and once she grew up and left, there were so many other choices that she hadn't touched this kind of cake for over a decade. Biting into the fragrant, sweet, and soft cake while sipping the salty noodle soup created a unique and wonderful flavor.

The aroma of the noodles made the other educated youths salivate. Those who had brought food discussed pooling their resources to cook together. One young man took the initiative to borrow Xia Yu's pot, combining the grains everyone had brought into one pot to cook. There was rice, millet, sorghum, and crushed corn. While it looked plentiful, it tasted bland and tasteless. After smelling Xia Yu's noodles, this food was hard to swallow. In the end, it was Cheng Yan who contributed a sausage, cutting it into small pieces for everyone to share a bit, which finally allowed them to finish the meal.

After eating, the educated youths began cleaning their own rooms. Hua Jinyin had also finished tidying her small room, and the kang, which was halfway dried, no longer emitted smoke. However, compared to the bright, sunlit windows of the room opposite hers, her dimly lit little room felt much darker. Still, thinking about Xia Yu's storage room which didn't even have a window, her room wasn't so bad.

Around two in the afternoon, Xia Yu's room was also finished. The kang was newly built, the stove was new, and even the chimney was new. As soon as the fire was lit, thick smoke billowed out. Xia Yu ran out of the room coughing, his eyes streaming with tears. Seeing this, Chu Laifu laughed and waved his hand. "It's fine, it's fine. Once the kang is dried out, it'll be okay. Just keep the fire going for a bit; you should be able to sleep on it tonight."

Xia Yu gave Chu Laifu a total of ten yuan for labor and materials as previously agreed. After receiving the money, Chu Laifu immediately divided it among the villagers who had helped bring materials. Each person received two yuan, and they all grinned from ear to ear. "Educated Youth Xia, if you need anything in the future, just give us a shout!"

Xia Yu nodded in response. "I'll definitely be bothering you all in the future. We're all acquaintances now, so I won't be standing on ceremony."

Hua Jinyin was quite surprised, remembering that Xia Yu hadn't seemed so affable when they were on the truck. However, since he was an educated youth who actually paid, she couldn't pretend not to notice. She took ten yuan from her person, but Chu Laifu pushed it back. "What is this? Taking labor fees for helping my own niece? Are you trying to make me lose face?"

The others who helped also said they couldn't take Hua Jinyin's money. Hua Jinyin regretted not contributing earlier when Xia Yu was cooking. So, she hurried back to her room, pretending to take a bag of hard candies from her luggage, and gave a handful to each person. "Take some sweets back for your younger siblings."

This time, Chu Laifu told them to take it, so they didn't refuse. They took the candy and left with Chu Laifu.

The kang in Hua Jinyin's room was almost dry. She was planning to go to the production brigade office to see if there were any newspapers to paste on the kang when Chu Laiying arrived carrying a mat. Entering the room, Chu Laiying looked around, and seeing nothing unsatisfactory, she felt relieved. She didn't blame Hua Jinyin for wanting to stay here; the current situation at the Chu house was indeed frustrating.

Hua Jinyin asked how her eldest uncle was, and Chu Laiying's face immediately turned angry. "Those educated youths are truly too arrogant. They found someone to mediate, wanting to use ten yuan to shut us up. What could we do? In the end, we demanded twenty yuan from them."

The Hua family didn't lack twenty yuan, so even though they took the money, Chu Laiying was still upset. However, the person who spoke for those youths was someone of high standing, so no matter how angry she was, she had to show respect and couldn't kick up too much of a fuss.

Hua Jinyin was also enraged upon hearing this. It seemed those youths hadn't suffered enough that day; she would have to give them another lesson later. Chu Laiying's tone then shifted as she said with a smile, "You haven't been in the village these past few days, so you might not have heard. Didn't those youths fall into the river that day? The water was so shallow, yet somehow they nearly drowned. I suspect they've done too many bad things, and even Heaven won't tolerate them. I heard that when they got back that night, they had high fevers. The next day they were taken to the city hospital, and they're still screaming about ghosts. I say it's just a guilty conscience from all their misdeeds!"

Hua Jinyin nodded in agreement. She naturally wouldn't admit that she was the 'ghost' who had nearly taken their lives. Chu Laiying mentioned that she would return to Chu County with Hua Jianshe tomorrow, stayed for a bit longer, and then left. Before leaving, she told Hua Jinyin to come to the Chu house for dinner tonight.

Hua Jinyin naturally wouldn't refuse. Relatives needed to visit each other, or they would grow distant. She would bring some things over tonight so her eldest aunt wouldn't have any complaints. After seeing Chu Laiying off, she saw Xia Yu returning with a mat. Xia Yu stuffed a set of keys into Hua Jinyin's hand. Hua Jinyin accepted his kindness.

Although they had only known each other for half a day, she felt an indescribable sense of familiarity with this educated youth from the Capital. Accepting his kindness didn't feel like a burden. Especially after their joint effort to trick Cheng Yan earlier, Hua Jinyin already considered him half a family member. Thinking about the five yuan she had swindled from Cheng Yan, Hua Jinyin felt she should share some with Xia Yu and perhaps suggest they cook their meals together.