I Taught Her How to Read and She Taught Me How to Read Clouds

Chen Zhijin was the last educated youth to leave the educated youth point. People in the village said she was stupid for giving up returning to the city for a rural girl. They didn't know that it was her who lit the kerosene lamp when she was most desperate and said that she wanted to learn how to read from her, which made her feel that she was still useful. I don't know, but she secretly stuffed the only egg into my old cotton-padded jacket. What's more, when I had a fever late at night, I would only hold her hand and whisper: "Don't leave…" On the day when the notice to return to the city came, Chen Zhijin gave up her spot to someone who needed it more. The captain knocked on the cigarette rod and sighed: "Is it worth it for Xiuhe?" Chen Zhijin didn't answer, just looked at the figure in the wheat field. She straightened up and smiled at me through the golden wheat waves. --- In the autumn of 1974, the wind in Tielingtun had already brought knives, causing people's faces to hurt. Chen Zhijin squatted under the earth wall outside the educated youth point, holding the last letter from home in his hand, the corners of the letter were frayed. The letter said that her family had entrusted her with a job recruitment quota for a machinery factory. On the way back to the city, she was about to see a glimmer of light. But that light could not warm her frozen fingertips, nor could it melt the heavy mud called "powerlessness" in her heart. The Educated Youth Point was empty, and the clanking of luggage, broken wooden boxes, and enamel jars, as well as those excited or sad farewells, were all wrapped up in the dust of the hustle and bustle of the previous few days and dispersed far away. Now, she is the only one left. The stove is cold, the kang is cold, and the north wind comes in through the cracks in the window, whining, as if wailing for someone. "Idiot." Shuanzi's mother, who was passing by, was carrying a basket and glanced at her.