Chapter 17: The Lazy Educated Youth (17)

Chapter 17: The Lazy Educated Youth (17)

Winter in the countryside was very cold. By the end of October, besides working in the fields, the men of Shanbao Village each began pushing wheelbarrows into the mountains to haul back coal for the stoves and the heated brick bed. The women weren't idle either; they carried baskets on their backs to gather firewood and haul it home.

They stayed busy right up until November.

He Yubin experienced a rural winter for the first time. When he got up in the morning, he was shivering with cold. Previously, when he got up at night, he'd insisted on dragging Luo Chengxing out to the outhouse, but now when he opened the door in the middle of the night, he couldn't bring himself to step outside.

Winter was a rare time when the people of Shanbao Village could rest for a while.

During the day, the sun wasn't as harsh, and it felt pleasantly warm on the skin.

Luo Fang and He Yubin sat at the square table in the courtyard, with textbooks spread out on the table that Luo Chengxing had borrowed from a teacher at the commune school.

In Shanbao Village, the villagers would generally greet anyone who worked as a teacher at the commune politely.

That teacher was named Liu Jianzhe—tall and thin, with a scar behind his ear, in his forties. He had been in Shanbao Village for many years. When he first came to the village, he was assigned to be an elementary school teacher, and within a few years, the brigade leader appointed him as a middle school teacher.

Luo Chengxing was worried about not being able to borrow books, but he bumped into Liu Jianzhe as soon as he arrived at the commune school.

Teacher Liu had taught Luo Fang before. Knowing that Luo Fang wanted to study at home, he didn't hesitate to gather textbooks, pencils, and notebooks. However, when he handed them to Luo Chengxing, he warned him repeatedly not to lose them. The pencils and notebooks were easy to replace, but the textbooks had to be returned.

They had textbooks, notebooks, and pencils.

Luo Fang gripped the pencil, her face screwed up as she muttered, "He Yubin, did you talk my brother into this to mess with me?"

He Yubin looked innocent: "It wasn't me. Your brother saw you loafing around at home doing nothing, so maybe you should go beg him to let you stop studying?"

He wasn't exactly thrilled to be teaching either. He was still a student himself. When had he ever taught anyone?

Luo Fang anxiously scratched her head with the pencil eraser, and after a long pause said, "You're just trying to cause trouble, aren't you? Do you think I'm dumb?"

Luo Chengxing and Luo Dasheng were moving coal in the yard. Noticing that Luo Fang and He Yubin in the middle of the courtyard didn't look like they were studying, he put down his coal basket and walked over: "What are you two doing?"

He Yubin turned his head to look at him. His hands were blackened from the coal, and there were a few smudges on his face too. He let out a quick laugh, then immediately got serious and said, "Brother Luo, I'm teaching Luo Fang the tangent-secant theorem."

Luo Fang nodded along: "Yeah, yeah, that theorem, whatever it is."

He Yubin had stopped calling him Brother Luo a long time ago. When something came up, he'd call him Luo Datou or Luo Chengxing, whatever came to mind.

But today, hearing it suddenly, all Luo Chengxing heard was those three words, and everything else faded away.

He grunted "Mm," said "Study hard," then turned and walked back to continue working.

"My brother's so easy to trick," Luo Fang whispered.

He Yubin cleared his throat and asked her, "Do you still remember what you learned in school?"

"Let me think." By now, Luo Fang had scratched the pencil eraser until it was all frayed. "The Pythagorean theorem? Does that count as something?"

He Yubin thought to himself, how simple was that?

But then he reconsidered. In the countryside, everyone was busy working to earn work points. Someone like Luo Fang, who'd even managed to attend junior high, was already better off than most. She was lucky to have her parents and her brother who spoiled her.

Besides, it wasn't much use now anyway. Might as well learn a little bit by bit.

With that in mind, he asked Luo Fang, "What do you want to learn?"

"Learn what? It has to be something that lets my brother see at a glance that I've been studying hard!" Luo Fang said without hesitation.

He Yubin said, "Your brother's a total illiterate. Getting him to see that is going to be tough."

He pulled out the Chinese textbook and handed it to Luo Fang: "Then memorize the texts in here. Ask me if you don't know a word."

Luo Fang nodded, took it, flipped to the first passage, and started reading quietly.

That left He Yubin with time to spare. He didn't want to look at these things anymore, but sitting there with nothing else to do, he absentmindedly picked up a book and started reading.

Liu Jianzhe had found quite a few textbooks, piled high on the square table, including a math textbook Liu Jianzhe had brought with him.

He Yubin took out that math textbook. "You wouldn't understand this anyway."

Luo Fang looked up and shot him a glare: "I can't understand it now, but I'll definitely know more than you later."

He Yubin ignored her and leafed through the math textbook. Though it hadn't been many years, some of the content was already getting hazy for him.

That... was a good thing.

At noon, Wang Fengxia had finished cooking. She had Luo Fang put away the books on the table and go to the back to call her husband and son for lunch.

When Luo Chengxing came around from the back of the yard, He Yubin was squatting by the ditch washing his hands—pouring water with one hand and scrubbing with the other.

He walked over, squatted down, and grabbed He Yubin's hand. Sure enough, it was cold as ice.

He said, "Washing a few less times won't hurt. No need to be so fussy in winter."

"I just washed them clean!" He Yubin yanked his hand away. "Get away from me... Look how dirty you are. Don't touch me. Go wash over there."

Luo Chengxing didn't move. He put both hands under He Yubin's hands and washed them with the water he was pouring, then added, "Then I'll boil some water and put it in the room. Next time you wash your hands, use a basin of water."

"That basin of yours is used to wash your underwear and your hair—why would I want to use it?" He Yubin said.

Luo Chengxing was taken by surprise. "Wasn't that washing yours? You're disgusted by your own stuff?"

The rural man had no such concept—he thought a basin could be used for anything.

He Yubin thrust the gourd ladle into his hand, stood up, and walked off.

Luo Chengxing rubbed the coal dust off his hands for a while before it came off. By the time he walked over, the wooden table was already set.

He Yubin took a wooden ladle from the kitchen and ladled out sweet potato porridge, first serving Wang Fengxia and Luo Fang, then giving the thickest at the bottom to Luo Dasheng and Luo Chengxing.

"Fang, what are you sitting there doing? Letting Xiao He do everything?" Luo Dasheng said.

Luo Fang had just taken her sweet potato porridge and, upon hearing this, got annoyed: "Dad, you're always taking sides with He Yubin. I'm the one who brought the corn buns."

"Alright, alright, what's the difference who brought them?" Wang Fengxia pressed a corn bun into Luo Fang's hand.

Luo Chengxing came over and sat down on the low stool next to He Yubin.

The moment he sat down, Luo Fang said, "Brother, just now you two were squatting by the ditch talking—what were you saying? Did He Yubin tell on me?"

To prove she'd studied hard that morning, Luo Fang recited a long passage, though who knew if she'd gotten it right.

Luo Dasheng said to Wang Fengxia, "You know what, your daughter recites it pretty well."

Luo Chengxing was pleased too. Whether or not she could ever get into a school in the future, the fact that Luo Fang was willing to learn was a good thing.

After Luo Dasheng finished speaking, he looked at He Yubin, who was holding his bowl and drinking porridge: "Xiao He, today I bumped into Old Liu, and he was asking me about you."

He Yubin put down his bowl. "Uncle Luo, what did he ask me about?"

Luo Dasheng wiped his mouth. "Isn't the commune school short of teachers? Old Liu was thinking of picking someone from among the educated youth. He hasn't brought it up with them yet. Do you want to go to the commune school? If so, I'll put in a word for you."

Luo Chengxing looked at his father. In his memory, everyone in the educated youth compound already knew they were looking for a teacher, and it was only then that He Yubin sweet-talked and tricked Luo Fang into begging her father for the spot...

Luo Chengxing suddenly froze, struck by a thought. In his memory, Luo Dasheng had been reluctant, but in the end he still gave the spot to He Yubin. Because the whole thing dragged on for half a day, the entire educated youth compound knew He Yubin had gotten the spot through the back door via Luo Dasheng, the village chief, and Luo Dasheng got an earful from the brigade leader over it.

Why did his father do that?

Luo Chengxing glanced at Luo Fang. His father loved Luo Fang more than anyone in his heart. He thought that way He Yubin would cherish his Fang, but he never imagined what an ungrateful bastard He Yubin really was...

But now everything was different.

Still... Luo Chengxing looked at He Yubin, figuring He Yubin would definitely still say yes—not just because of that memory, but because he knew this man was the laziest and greediest.

Going to the commune school as a teacher meant fewer work points, but it was clean work and not tiring.

"Thanks, Uncle, but I'll pass on it," He Yubin said. "I've never taught students before, and I can't just go just because we're close. There must be someone more suitable in the educated youth compound. Wouldn't they hold it against me if they found out?"

Luo Dasheng waved his hand. "What does that matter? If you want to go, then go!"

He could tell—this kid was worried about him, a village chief, getting gossiped about by the villagers!

He Yubin still refused.

He glanced at Luo Fang and said half-jokingly, "Uncle, don't make it hard for me. Teaching Luo Fang alone is already plenty for me."

Luo Dasheng laughed heartily a few times. "Alright, then I'll tell Old Liu to go find someone from the educated youth compound."

Everyone at the table laughed, except Luo Fang, who poked at her corn bun, thinking to herself that she'd study hard and beat He Yubin—see if he'd still laugh at her then.

That night, Luo Chengxing rested He Yubin's legs on his knees and wiped his feet with a cloth.

"Why... didn't you want to go to the commune school?"

He Yubin leaned lazily against the table. "If I work in the fields with you, you can still take care of me. If I go to the commune school, how would you follow me there?"

Luo Chengxing looked away from his feet. "Is that so?"

He Yubin stretched his foot out and pressed it on his hand, stopping him from wiping.

Luo Chengxing said, "Being a teacher in Shanbao Village isn't like being one elsewhere. The folks here are all pretty good."

"Oh, I know." He Yubin knelt up halfway and grabbed two pillows from the cabinet.

"Then why don't you want to?"

"Just don't have the heart for it."

The kang was heated in the room, but when the fire died out in the middle of the night, it got cold. He Yubin had woken up frozen a few times these past nights, and every time, without realizing it, he'd crawled into Luo Chengxing's blanket.

Luo Chengxing was like a hot stove in winter.

He Yubin said, "Hurry up and finish washing up and go to sleep, will you?"

Luo Chengxing hummed in response. "If you don't want to go, then don't. Just come work the fields with me."

Ever since he'd started living with He Yubin, Luo Chengxing had paid more attention to hygiene. He washed his face carefully, rinsed his feet, and then dumped the water from the basin.

He'd just taken off his clothes and pulled up the blanket when someone slipped into it—He Yubin, still wrapped in another layer of bedding.

The two pressed tightly together, Luo Chengxing's warmth radiating steadily over to He Yubin. But He Yubin even reached out and patted Luo Chengxing's chest a few times. "How'd you get built like this?"

Luo Chengxing grabbed his hand, closed his eyes, and said in a low voice, "Stop moving. Go to sleep."