Han Dongmei ran back to her room, buried her face in the bed, and started sobbing.

In the small room, she was the only one there. The other female Educated Youths heard her crying, exchanged a glance, but didn’t come to comfort her.

It’s not that they lacked "comrade feelings," but Han Dongmei was just too antisocial.

Not to mention anything else, just this accommodation—Han Dongmei didn’t live with the other female Educated Youths; instead, she managed to get a "single room" by any means.

The Educated Youth Corps where they stayed was the only red-brick house with a large tile roof in Liujiaao, also the only property of the landlord in Liujiaao.

Back then, when the landlord was overthrown, land and houses were all confiscated and nationalized.

The village used this big tile house as a warehouse and the place for the village chief to work.

Later, when Liujiaao and Qingshan Village merged to form the Qingliu Team, the village chief became the vice captain and would daily go to the group office in Qingshan Village for work. The team also had a unified warehouse.

This small courtyard was left idle.

Some quick-witted, shrewd villagers set their sights on the big tile-roofed house.

However, yet before they could make their moves, the first batch of Educated Youths was sent down.

A few were settled in Qingshan Village, and a few more were assigned to Liujiaao.

The vice captain discussed with the elders of the village and decided to use that small courtyard as the Educated Youth Corps.

Over the past decade or so, every year there were Educated Youths sent to Liujiaao.

However, some old Educated Youths married local villagers, and some found ways to return to the city.

With these comings and goings, by this year, there were still thirteen Educated Youths at the site, five females and eight males.

This small courtyard was a typical northern rural architecture, a three-sided courtyard facing south.

In the center were three main rooms, with two wing rooms on each side.

As the number of Educated Youths grew, the vice captain found someone to renovate the house.

Every room was partitioned into single rooms, leaving only the central room as the communal activity area for the Educated Youths, while all the other small rooms were used for accommodation.

Basically, it was two people sharing a room; the area east of the main room was for women, and the west was for men.

Two years ago, when Heh Yuntian, Han Dongmei, and Zhuoya came as a new batch of Educated Youths, the number at the Educated Youth Corps peaked.

Even having two people share a room was becoming difficult to manage.

The vice captain said, if necessary, three people could squeeze in together.

All rooms had a large communal bed; with two or three people, even four or five could sleep comfortably.

The only issue was the lack of convenience for daily life.

It’s not about rural conditions being poor; even in the city, these Educated Youths might not live as comfortably as they did at the Educated Youth Corps.

The vice captain had heard that in the city, a room of less than ten to twenty square meters had to accommodate several family members.

Here, they arranged two or three Educated Youths in a room, and it was a genuine brick-and-tile house, which could hardly be considered mistreatment.

Everyone else had no objections, except for Han Dongmei. Coming from a well-off family, she had been pampered from a young age and was really unwilling to squeeze into a single room with others.

She wandered around in the courtyard of the Educated Youth Corps and found an old small house.

It probably wasn’t part of the original courtyard but was a randomly built shed with mud bricks and straw for storing firewood and farm tools.

After the courtyard became the Educated Youth Corps, no repairs were made; the little straw hut became a bit rundown with a large hole in the roof.

Han Dongmei, however, was quite satisfied with this place.

She found the vice captain and generously stated: "I’ll pay to have this little house properly repaired. However, I want to live here alone, and even if more Educated Youths come, they can’t be arranged here!"

When the vice captain saw Han Dongmei, he felt that this female Educated Youth was going to be troublesome.

So fair and delicate, somewhat naive and wilful, she was clearly not an easy person to deal with.

Over the past decade or so, the Qingliu Team had received batch after batch of Educated Youths, encountering all sorts of people.

Some liked shouting slogans, some liked being lazy and cheating, and some took advantage of their looks to hook up with local young boys and girls...

After causing trouble year after year, the vice captain was very vexed by the Educated Youths.

This time, receiving another spoiled city girl, the vice captain felt a stir of anxiety.

Hearing Han Dongmei’s request, though he thought "as expected, she’s not easy," since she was willing to spend her own money, the vice captain didn’t argue too much.

Fine, since it wasn’t a big deal, if she wanted to live alone, let her be.

In the future, even if someone thought it was unfair and accused the vice captain of showing favoritism, he could argue back: "Educated Youth Han spent her own money to repair the house; if you’re willing to pay, you can have a single room too!"