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Yezhi was originally curious why Xiaobinzi was not a lisping person, yet spoke unclearly in their village. Now she understood! Yezhi also wondered why she easily assumed Lin Haitao was a good person. Their first meeting was unpleasant, and the second time was purely a teasing mindset. How did she end up befriending someone from a different background? Was it because of his looks?
The meal lasted only half an hour from when the dishes were served until they finished eating. Zhang Dou and Lin Haitao were in a hurry to get to work, while Yezhi and Zhang Ling rushed to class.
Yezhi took the house key that Lin Haitao handed her. "I have a night shift today and will be back late. Zhang Ling will take you to my place." Yezhi nodded. With her accommodation sorted, she felt incredibly relaxed and went with Zhang Ling to the Department Store, where they picked out a white notebook printed with Red Plum and a black ink Hero Pen!
Classes ended at five in the afternoon. As they walked out of the classroom, a cold wind swept up some fallen leaves. Yezhi huddled together to fend off the chill. "Leaf!" Zhang Dou rode in on his bicycle against the wind.
"Zhang Dou, why are you here?"
"I just got off work, came to help!" Zhang Dou's nonchalant demeanor made Yezhi feel appreciated. Zhang Ling affectionately linked arms with Yezhi, and the three of them strode forward.
They first headed to the Guesthouse to check out, grabbed their luggage, and against the backdrop of the purplish-red sunset, crossed two streets and turned three corners. "Sister Yezi, we’ve arrived!"
Opening the old-fashioned brass lock on the red-painted wooden door revealed a square courtyard with sparse flowers and trees, elegantly charming.
Yezhi felt an overwhelming excitement; she had truly found a good place to live! "Leaf, don’t celebrate too early!" Zhang Dou pushed open the intricately carved wooden door on the left side of the courtyard, revealing an empty room. Besides a heated kang bed in the back room, there was nothing else!
"Yezhi, it's not too late to back out now!" Zhang Dou had a look that suggested he could swap places with her.
"Sister Yezi, come to my house!" Zhang Ling chuckled. The dormitory was already cramped, and Sister Yezi had told Teacher He earlier that she wouldn’t be staying there. Besides going to her house, she had no other options!
"No, I think it's quite nice!" Yezhi really liked this small courtyard with its traditional siheyuan style—green bricks and paper-covered windows. She had seen such places on television before, but living here and experiencing the essence of time felt truly delightful!
Zhang Dou couldn't understand! Living in a broken-down house, what was there to be happy about? The three of them finished tidying up the house, and Zhang Ling and Zhang Dou went home to fetch bedding for Yezhi, while Zhang Dou helped to heat the kang.
Yezhi entered the kitchen, turned on the light bulb, and the orange light was bright and warm. She seemed to have forgotten what life with electricity and running water was like, standing in the kitchen in a daze, curiously observing everything.
“Sister Yezi, just turn the faucet and the water will come out!” Zhang Ling saw Yezhi staring at the faucet and thought she didn’t know how to turn on the water, so he enthusiastically pointed it out. Yezhi smiled but didn’t explain. She opened the wooden cabinet to check what was in the kitchen. After rummaging for a long time, she found only three eggs. The stove was cold, there were no bowls or plates, just a tin lunchbox and two tin cups. A clever woman finds it hard to cook without rice. Originally planning to make something simple, Yezhi shrugged her shoulders and said, “Let’s go eat out!”
“Sister Yezi, no need! Let’s go eat at my house; my mom has already prepared a lot!”
The three of them arrived at Zhang Dou's House, where Auntie had prepared a table full of dishes waiting for them. “Wow, so many delicious dishes!” Zhang Ling exclaimed excitedly.
Zhang Dou had a good idea and shouted that he wanted Yezhi to come over for dinner every day. “You little rascal, all you think about is eating!” Uncle Zhang scolded him with a stern face, and Zhang Dou became obedient, actively serving rice for Everyone.
“Hey! Why is this rice green?” The Zhang Family exclaimed upon seeing it. “It really is green!”
“Uncle Zhang, this is our unique ‘Bilo’ rice from Zhoujiatun, it’s really delicious and fragrant!”
“Mm! Mm!” Zhang Dou ate the rice in big mouthfuls, wholeheartedly agreeing with what Yezhi said.
The delicious ‘Bilo’ rice paired with Auntie’s carefully cooked fish belly with eggplant, pine nuts stir-fried corn, braised tofu, water celery stir-fried with Cured Meat, and garlic stir-fried cabbage made Everyone’s appetites soar. Zhang Dou ate four bowls of rice in one go, while Zhang Ling, Auntie, and Uncle all had two bowls each. Yezhi, who had eaten too much at noon, delicately had just one bowl of rice.
After finishing the meal, Yezhi proactively helped clean up but was pulled aside by Uncle Zhang. “Yezhi, can the ‘Bilo’ grown in your village be promoted?” He truly was someone who cared for the people as a dedicated County Party Secretary. The gap between Yezhi's ideals and his was quite large.
To be honest, if asked to contribute ‘Bilo’ to help everyone in the county achieve common prosperity, she would really be reluctant. After all, she had already planned out a blueprint for ‘Bilo: turning it into ‘the best rice in Northeast China’ unique to Zhoujiatun.
"Uncle Zhang, you should know very well how poor our village is. Bilo is now the hope of the entire village! I..." Yezhi felt embarrassed to continue.
Uncle Zhang's disappointed expression made Yezhi feel suffocated in the room, and she awkwardly stood up and rushed outside, taking deep, greedy breaths of the cold air.
"Sigh! Being a person is really hard!" Yezhi stomped her foot and returned to the room. Uncle Zhang smiled kindly at her. "Yezhi, Bilo can be grown in other places too, but I can't guarantee the quality. Also, actually, if the county wants to grow rice on a large scale, it doesn't necessarily have to be Bilo. The Korean ethnic group has been planting rice for a long time; there should be many aspects we can learn from them. Our village is also working on a new technique, which is raising fish in rice paddies. If we succeed in farming next year, the county can promote it vigorously." Anyway, Xiao Cheng also mentioned discussing this with agricultural experts from the county and Commune. With the attention of the County Party Secretary, this matter would surely yield results.
"Growing rice and raising fish, great! Haha! Yezhi, if we succeed in growing rice in our county, I'll credit you for it! If we succeed in raising fish, I'll credit you again!" Who cares about that credit? She just didn't want to feel so blocked inside!
"What’s going on? Why are you so happy?" Auntie came in holding a basket of Asian Pears and insisted that Yezhi eat another pear. Zhang Dou returned to the room after feeding the piglets. Seeing that it was getting late, Yezhi stood up to say goodbye.
Zhang Dou volunteered to ride her back to the Lin family. Yezhi sat sideways on the back of the bicycle, facing the cold wind as they returned to Lin's house. After waving goodbye to Zhang Dou, she walked alone into the dark and quiet courtyard. A wave of sadness suddenly surged within her as she thought of Aunt Zhou, Black Treasure, Wolf Child, One Egg, Village Uncle, Aunt Li, Meizi... and all the mountains and rivers of Zhoujiatun. Without everything familiar around her, Yezhi felt so lonely! There were still 61 days until she could go home...
"Xiao Fang, come out!"
"Master!" The big tabby cat-like Xiao Fang bounced out.
"What happened to you?" Xiao Fang climbed onto the kang and complained, "Master, our Earth's Rarity has been closed for two months. We've received a lot of complaints from customers and fans; I need to explain things." Yezhi chuckled; Xiao Fang was truly dedicated to Earth's Rarity.
"Also, Master, regarding the oil extraction equipment you asked me to check on, it's so outdated that it can't even operate. I've contacted several manufacturers to see if there's a solution, but there hasn't been any response yet."
"We need to hurry with the oil extraction equipment!" Listening to Xiao Fang's incessant chatter, Yezhi gradually drifted into a dream.
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