The Scorching Bowl of Chili-Oil Noodles That Made My Sweet Little Educated Youth Cry

> Shanghai youth Chen Mo misses the special train taking educated youths back to the city. > While saving the production-team leader who called him a “capitalist softie,” he is half-buried by a landslide. > The last thing he sees before losing consciousness is the village girl He He, her eyes rimmed red. > When he wakes, the village Party secretary puffs on his pipe. “The He family's girl kept you warm with her body for three nights. You have to marry her.” > He knocks over the wedding wine. “I'm going back to Shanghai sooner or later!” > Then, one rainy night after work, he lifts the coarse porcelain bowl from the stove... > Wide noodles coated in chili oil, steam rising as her scalded fingers curl slightly. > As he sweats over his meal, he hears her ask softly, “How does mine... compare to Shanghai's yangchun noodles?” > Later, on the night the commune delivers his notice to return to the city, a torrential rainstorm collapses the granary. > Chen Mo races against the fleeing crowds back home and finds He He standing on tiptoe, using a pickle crock to hold down the leaking roof's tarpaulin. > She turns and smiles. “What's the panic? The noodles are keeping warm in the pot.”