novelraw Chapter 38 We Are All Educated Youth
Chapter 38 We Are All Educated Youth
Each of the four eldest daughters carried a large green canvas tote bag filled with various items. They also wore canvas backpacks containing everyday necessities, and crossbody bags with cups, spoons, towels, lunchboxes, and money.
These backpacks were made by Tong Jiahui using the same design drawn by Tong Yuheng, with fabric and zippers bought from the black market.
The same canvas tote bags were marked with numbers one through five, and their names were sewn on the back of their backpacks with black thread.
Tong Yuheng's hair was noticeably larger than the other younger sisters', but Tong Jiahui still sewed the character "Heng" onto it. Given the family's relocation and the time allotted for advance planning, how could she not prepare with utmost care?
When boarding the bus, Tong Jiahui and Xiao Qi led the way, followed by Xiao Liu and Xiao Wu, then Linglong, and Yu Yao and Yu Heng brought up the rear. As they boarded, the crowd pushed the girls so much that their feet almost left the ground!
Tong Yuheng immediately pushed Linglong to squeeze into the car first, so that they could help their mother take care of Xiaoqi. She and Yuyao freed one hand, grabbed Xiaowu and Xiaoliu, and pushed and shoved them into the car!
Once on the train, Tong Jiahui found her seat, only to discover that others who had boarded earlier were already sitting there. She took out her ticket and asked to sit in her assigned seat, at which point the other passengers stood up and made way for her.
All eight people bought tickets. Xiao Liu and Xiao Qi got half-price tickets, while the others got full-price tickets. Xiao Wu is over 1.4 meters tall, so he can't buy a half-price ticket.
The six seats for one family member were facing each other, which was quite convenient since they were all family members. The other two seats were across the aisle, so Yuheng and Yuyao sat there.
Mom sat at the very end of the aisle, with Xiao Wu and Xiao Qi inside, and Linglong sitting opposite them, with Xiao Liu inside. The older children were all strong and quickly put everyone's luggage on the luggage racks, without Mom lifting a finger.
After they had made all the arrangements and checked their luggage one last time, the train departed.
Tong Yuheng took out two pieces of felt and found them very practical; they could be used to cover the kang (a heated brick bed) or other surfaces. She folded the large piece of felt in half and laid it under the two rows of back-to-back seats, letting Xiao Liu and Xiao Qi lie down underneath. They could sleep when they were tired, and she would wake them up at dawn.
Xiao Wu lay on his mother's lap and dozed off, falling asleep in no time. Linglong also took turns lying down and sitting up, agreeing to switch every one or two hours.
Tong Yuheng was used to working in the space during the first half of the night, so she let Yuyao and her mother sleep for a while, and she would stay up until dawn before going to sleep herself. So when the lights were turned off in the middle of the night, everyone in the family except Tong Yuheng fell asleep.
Tong Yuheng used her consciousness to enter the space and began harvesting ripe vegetables and fruits. Since she had planted some medicinal herb seeds provided by the space, and some were ready to be harvested, she processed them according to the planting and harvesting instructions.
These medicinal herbs are all annual herbaceous plants; after one harvest, a second harvest can be made in just a few days. Since she first contributed mature vegetables to charge the space's energy, she has used medicinal herbs for the next two harvests.
She discovered that offering medicinal herbs would make the space expand more quickly, so she used at least half of the expanded land to grow medicinal herbs, and all the medicinal herbs she grew were contributed to the space.
After nearly a month, the space has more than doubled in size and has undergone some changes: the space seems to be able to read her thoughts, and a half-acre pond has appeared 100 meters south of the farmhouse.
A stream, its origin unknown, meandered across the land, passed through a small pond, and then flowed into the white mist.
The soil temperature and humidity in the space are suitable, so after planting, only a little water is needed. It will grow and mature without much watering later.
Tong Yuheng was reluctant to use too much spiritual spring water for irrigation, so he often carried tap water from his home to irrigate the land, which caused their water bill to skyrocket that month.
Tong Jiahui was puzzled as to why so much water had been used, but with one more important thing after another coming up, she stopped paying attention to it.
Tong Yuheng tasted it. Although the stream water was clear and drinkable, and tasted sweet and refreshing, it did not have the miraculous effects of the spiritual spring in the farmhouse.
Perfect, it can be used to irrigate the fields. So she started digging irrigation ditches and drawing water from the stream for irrigation. When she got tired, she would drink from the spring water; when she got hungry, she would pick fruits and vegetables to eat. She was busy until 3 a.m.
Yuyao woke up once during this time, and we told her to sleep for a while while we looked after the family and luggage. But Tong Jiahui woke up and told the two sisters to sleep, saying she had slept enough and that she would just watch over them.
Tong Yuheng closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the space, and went to the bedroom in the farmhouse to rest. Sleeping for an hour was equivalent to ten hours outside, which was enough.
As dawn broke, a time when most people are sleepy, she woke up refreshed and told everyone to continue resting. A little while later, Xiao Liu and Xiao Qi woke up and were dragged out from under their seats by Linglong. They went to the toilet, then came back to sleep, since they didn't need to go for their morning run today.
Sleeping while sitting up wasn't a pleasant experience. After waking up, Linglong and Xiaowu Yuhan got up to move around and took out towels and water cups from their bags to wash up.
Tong Jiahui and Yu Yao took the opportunity to lie down on the two three-seater chairs and doze off for a while.
After they returned, Linglong and Xiaowu squeezed into the two-seater next to Tong Yuheng and the others, while Tong Yuheng went to wash up.
A couple sat opposite me. Seeing that this family had so many daughters, each one beautiful and adorable, I really wanted to strike up a conversation. But when I saw that they closed their eyes to rest after finishing their work, and didn't seem to want to talk to anyone, I didn't disturb them.
Now Linglong and Xiaowu are sitting opposite them, and they start talking to a few girls:
"Are you a family? Where are you going?"
"We're family, we're both educated youth going to the countryside!" Yuling replied politely, without revealing where she was getting off the bus. Ever since that time their kindness was taken advantage of and they were kidnapped, they had become very wary of others.
"Oh? Your whole family are educated youth sent to the countryside? How old are you? Sixteen or sixteen? Working in the countryside is not easy!" said the woman in her thirties.
The three girls opposite me clearly looked very young. What family would be willing to send such young daughters to the countryside?
"Are those two your older sisters? They don't look very old!" The man sat with his back ramrod straight, clearly a former soldier.
"Yes, we were all sent-down youths, just graduated from high school!" Yu Long chimed in, sounding very proud of being a sent-down youth.
The woman felt a pang of sympathy for the children. She took out her lunchbox, which contained boiled eggs, and said, "You must be hungry this morning. Here's one for each of you. I boiled a lot." There were indeed more than a dozen eggs in the lunchbox.
"Thank you, Auntie. You and Uncle can eat. We also brought some boiled eggs." She said, taking out her lunchbox from her bag, which contained two boiled eggs.
Tong Jiahui cooked these in advance, two for each person, and put them in the lunchboxes in each person's shoulder bag.