Iron Egg jumped in too. "Right. You just got here. It's rough. Whatever help we can give, we'll give." He chuckled. "Never mind a grown guy like you. Even the girl sent-down youths who came before, we never once let them go hungry. It's just, we're all a bunch of rough dudes, kind of thin-skinned, and there's a lot of loose tongues in the village, so it's tricky handing stuff straight to the ladies. Don't want gossip getting around and putting them in a bad spot."
"Chunzhu, buddy, come on. Let's get up the mountain." Donkey waved me on.
Rock grinned in agreement. "If we bag a pheasant or a rabbit today, I'll go grab a pound of baijiu after, and we'll find a spot out of the wind and have ourselves a couple of rounds."
Back and forth they went, and that little bit of awkwardness from before just melted clean away.
I couldn't help marveling at it inside. Only two days in the Northeast, and here I'd been fretting about a sent-down kid getting along with the locals. Turns out I'd worried for nothing. These northeastern guys and their openness, not a drop of fakeness in it. Warm enough to thaw a person right out.
I ducked back inside, grabbed my hunting rifle, tucked a few rounds away, and hurried out after them.
Walking through the village, Donkey sidled up next to me, a big goofy grin on his face. "Chunzhu, buddy, way I see it, you're planning to settle in our village for the long haul. Come spring when it warms up, if you want to build a place of your own, just say the word to your big brother here." His voice picked up. "Us guys don't got much, but we got muscle. Lumber's free for the taking in the mountains. And furniture, my grandpa and my dad are both famous carpenters in the village. Leave that to me. You don't got to pay a cent of wages. Just feed us a hot meal, pour us some liquor, and we're square."
My heart warmed and I clasped my hands in thanks. "I won't forget it."
"What's there to be all polite about?" Donkey burst out laughing and clapped me on the back. "From here on, we're all one village. You're a sent-down kid from the city, educated, got some worldliness. Hell, you might even help our village pull off something big."
Chatting and laughing, we made it to the edge of the village, where an old man in his sixties was just coming out from under the big scholar tree. His hair was gray but combed neat, his face all wrinkles, but he had plenty of spark in him.
Donkey and the others hurried over, all respectful. "Grandpa, you heading to the production team?"
"Yep. Got to sort out the spring farm work." The old man's eyes landed on me, with a little extra sizing up in them.
Donkey quickly introduced me. "Grandpa, this here's the sent-down youth who just came from the county town. Li Chunzhu."
The old man looked me over up and down, nodding again and again. "Good, good, good. Can tell right off he's an honest, hardworking boy who gets things done."
Then his tone shifted and his face went serious, a note of guilt creeping in. "You know, we had a girl sent-down youth come to our village before. Little Xiuhua. That child was raised soft. Couldn't do a thing when she first got here. And us rough old guys didn't know how to look after a female comrade, couldn't really ask about a lot of things. She had it real hard in our village. Thinking back on it, it still doesn't sit right with me."
He sighed, then firmed up again. "Now that you're here, and two more girl youths are coming soon, we've got to pay closer attention. Can't have you all come out here for nothing, and sure can't have you going back saying our village was no good, ruining the folks' good name."
I could hear it. The old man genuinely wanted to look after the sent-down kids. That plain, simple goodwill, it's the kind of thing that really gets to you.
But then the old man waved his hand, worried. "Trouble is, our land here sits right by an old volcano crater. The soil's poor, can't grow much grain. The commune members work the fields every day for work points, and it's barely enough to feed themselves. You city youths got delicate frames, earn fewer work points, get less grain. Life's bound to be hard for you."
I mulled it over for a moment, then suddenly spoke up. "Grandpa, don't feel too bad about it. Actually, I might have an idea. Could solve the youths' troubles and help out the village at the same time."
The old man's eyes lit right up and half the worry cleared off his face. He leaned in eagerly. "Oh? Let's hear it. What's the idea? Long as it'll work, we'll get right on it."
I smiled and laid it out slow. "I've been taking a look these past couple of days. The way our production team's manpower and resources are right now, we can fit two more girl youths at most. Once those two girl youths get here," I went on, "you set them up teaching the village kids reading and arithmetic, and have them do some literacy classes for the grown members on the side. That way they don't have to do heavy labor and can still earn work points. And once the folks can read, keeping track of work points, selling grain, running errands in town, it all gets easier."
"Good. Great idea." The old man nodded away.
"As for me," I smiled, "I know how to drive and repair walk-behind tractors and four-wheelers. Come spring when the farm work gets heavy, I'll help the village haul seed, haul fertilizer, haul grain." I paused and pointed at the back slope. "And here's the more important one. Most of our village land is hillside, doesn't hold water, so when it rains all the nutrients wash right off. That's why the crop yields are low. If we build a little reservoir on the slope and terrace some fields, we can hold the water and keep the nutrients. Yields will go up for sure. We can raise rice paddy fish in the reservoir, put ducks in the terraces, cure the duck eggs into salted duck eggs, stock them up, and take them into town to trade for cash and supplies."
Private business was off limits in this era, but collective enterprise, that you could do. So what I was saying didn't break any rules, and it'd help boost the village's income.
The old man was stunned for a second, then smack, slapped his own thigh. "Terraces. How'd I never think of that?" He was frustrated and thrilled all at once. "We had terraces here way back, but nobody's tended them for years. All gone to waste. Over in the Snow City area, a bunch of villages built terraces up on their hills, and their yields are way higher than ours. You educated folks really do think quick."
The old man made the call right then and there. No arguing about it. "All right, we'll do it your way. This can't wait. Soon as the girl youths get here, classes start. And come spring, you'll be running tractor transport. That's a technical post. I won't shortchange you on work points."
Then something else came to him. "Oh, right. I heard you graduated high school, real learned. How about you teach classes too?"
I quickly waved him off. "Grandpa, I'm too short-tempered. No good with kids. Better to let me drive the tractor and do the heavy labor. That suits me fine."
The old man didn't push it, just nodded. "Everybody's got their own calling. Long as you're helping the village get real things done, you're a good one."