Transmigration: On the Gossip Front
Chapter 245 True or False First Love 45_1

Chapter 245: Chapter 245 True or False First Love 45_1

Zheng Weijian turned his head and saw that Zhou Juan knew the man must be filled with regret by now.

"I regret it," Zhou Juan said in a low voice.

"If we hadn’t schemed against Zhou Lina, we might have been able to take the recruitment exam for the steel plant."

"If we had passed the exam, we would have become official workers."

All sorts of calculations were just for the sake of finding work, only to realize later that she also had a chance, so close to legitimately obtaining a quota.

But even if they had known, they had no way to register or the time to stay in the city any longer.

Zheng Weijian didn’t make a sound; the day before departure, when he had learned of this, he truly felt a pang in his heart.

If he could have passed the exam, he really would have effortlessly become an official worker at the steel plant.

Zheng Weijian had great confidence in himself, even though he didn’t know which department he would end up in, he was certain he’d be working in an office.

But now everything was ruined, and looking at the environment before him and thinking about the factory’s, it really was like heaven and earth.

The former held prospects to look forward to, the latter, there was no hope at all.

He remembered the night his mother had said that if he insisted on being with Zhou Juan, his life would not be easy.

At first, he thought it was just an intimidation, but now, thinking about it, those were all true words.

Watching Zheng Weijian, who was silent, Zhou Juan also felt uneasy, knowing that he was greatly dissatisfied with her.

Zhou Juan was upset as well; the entire journey, she had been fawning and doing all the errands.

As for Zheng Weijian, he had been looked after too well at home, absolutely ignorant and incompetent.

If possible, Zhou Juan really didn’t want to deal with him; back in their hometown, no matter how she looked at Zheng Weijian, she thought he was all kinds of good.

But once they had left home, the flaws of Zheng Weijian became apparent, and Zhou Juan began to doubt if he could take good care of her or not?

She glanced at Zheng Weijian’s empty bag and felt that his family hadn’t prepared much for him.

She didn’t know whether they would send anything over when winter came; otherwise, if Zheng Weijian could manage himself well, it would already be good, let alone look after her at all.

Impossible, she could not expect her family to remember and mail things to her.

But Zheng Weijian was the darling of the Zheng Family; even if the elderly couple disliked her, they would still send things for Zheng Weijian.

The more Zhou Juan thought about it, the more she felt that this was a test given to her by the Zheng Family, trying to drive her away.

Zhou Juan believed she had seen through the intentions of Zheng Weijian’s parents and became even more determined to perform well no matter how hard it was.

Otherwise, when Zheng Weijian returned to the city, he would not take her with him.

Within a short while, Zhou Juan had reinforced her resolve to continue on with Zheng Weijian.

At this moment, everyone was too exhausted to curse; after sitting on the train for days and nights, then on trucks and ox carts, the journey had been nothing but constant rushing.

This had also caused many of the sent-down youth to have no expectations for their future life. Those with connections at home planned to discuss their situation so they could return home sooner if possible.

As for those without connections, they didn’t expect their parents to think of their sent-down youth; all they had in their eyes was a lost and bleak outlook.

The veteran sent-down youth inside the room didn’t hear anyone outside cursing before opening the door and pointing to the rooms for the male and female sent-down youth, "Find a spot for yourselves."

Here in the Great Northwest, building houses was not an easy task, but there were plenty of caves.

Finding an abandoned, usable cave was no problem, and it was just right for the new sent-down youth to live in.

Indeed, just as Zhou Juan and her peers looked down on the earlier sent-down youth, the veterans looked down on these newcomers.

They were children who had not yet been toughened by society. After staying here for a year or so, they would learn their lesson, and those with connections would return to the city.

If it’s not a problem, just find a local to marry, or take a local woman as a wife.

Life here is really tough; without the help of the locals, it’s truly unbearable.

The educated youths all knew the villagers looked down on them, thinking they were incapable of anything and instead had to compete with them for the scarce food supply.

The older educated youths disliked the new arrivals, seeing them as a drag.

The older educated youth briefly described the situation, and as they looked at the empty cave dwelling, "Where’s the bathroom?"

"At the very back."

"Right, you’ll have to arrange for hygiene within the cave dwelling yourself."

After the older educated youth gave some pointers, "We eat separately. If you’re going to cook, make sure to arrange the times among yourselves."

What? No way, they actually had to cook for themselves? It was okay for the girls; they’d at least learned to cook a bit at home, but few of the boys knew how.

Especially once they found out they had to cook with firewood here, everyone was in despair, not to mention bathing was also a problem.

"For water, you need to go fetch it from a river five kilometers away."

"But I saw there was a stream, wasn’t there?" Although they had arrived at night, they knew there was a stream, and where there was a stream, there was water, so why couldn’t they use that instead?

The older educated youth glanced at them, "That’s for irrigation, not for daily use."

When everyone heard this, they realized they couldn’t use the nearby water and had to fetch from such a distant place.

They had known from textbooks that it was tough to get water on the Loess Plateau, but they’d never imagined it would be this difficult.

"How do you get there to fetch water?" Zheng Weijian knew he was bound to suffer this time, but he hadn’t expected it to far exceed his expectations.

Even the water for drinking and everyday use had to be fetched from such a far-off place.

"Of course, you have to go fetch the water yourself. Oh, and when the time comes, go find a carpenter in the village to make you a bucket."

"We don’t have running water here." The older educated youth looked at each young face and couldn’t help but reminisce about his own arrival years ago.

He couldn’t help but give a few more tips, "Rest well these next few days, get familiar with the surroundings, because things will get very busy."

The harvest wasn’t great, but the tasks were indeed plentiful.

After the older educated youth left, everyone looked at the filthy cave dwelling, and someone burst into tears.

Some began to complain, "Knowing we were coming, how could nobody help clean up?"

"Who’s going to clean up for you? Here, even water has to be fetched from a far-off place." Someone snapped back, "Forget it, I plan on negotiating with the older educated youth about staying with them temporarily for today."

"Otherwise, it’s really impossible to move in."

Of course, that idea was unanimously approved by everyone, but there was a key issue: it wasn’t as simple as what they wanted.

"Will they agree to it?" someone timidly said.

"Then give them money," a seemingly well-off individual said outright that they could pay.

While it was unclear what this person’s family situation was like, and from her attire, she didn’t seem very wealthy, her proposal to offer money certainly took many by surprise.

And just as she had suggested, the older educated youth didn’t want money but was open to exchanges with gifts. Those who couldn’t part with their things ended up sleeping on the filthy kang bed in their dirty clothes.

Even though the Zheng Family Couple had said they didn’t want to meddle, they also knew the saying ’money is the most reliable in times of poverty’ and had prepared some money for him.

Zheng Weijian thus easily integrated into the older educated youth’s cave dwelling to rest, and as for Zhou Juan, he didn’t care about her fate.

Watching Zheng Weijian’s retreating figure, Zhou Juan’s eyes were as sharp as knives.