Struggle Life in the 1970s

To be honest, she was still a little confused when she decided to step out of the house tonight.

She didn't want to interfere in the fate of others. She had a miserable life in her previous life and no one ever offered her a helping hand.

In this life, although she could avoid many detours by going back to the time before the blind date, she knew her family situation clearly. Even if she tried her best to avoid this blind date, there would be another blind date waiting for her soon.

Even if there was no Zhao Xuesong, there would be Li Xuesong and Wang Xuesong.

She couldn't even control her own fate, so how could she dare to interfere with the fate of others. Besides, to be selfish, the two people in their village who were killed in the flood were fine, and she had never even seen the educated youth who died, so what obligation did she have to save his life?

But, but.

Chu Ye, who stayed in the house at night, thought that in her previous life, when she heard that the family of this educated youth came to the village every year to pay tribute to him, the first thing that came to her mind was envy.

She envied this person who was loved even in death.

In this life, just assume that she wants to continue watching a happy person live!
It was with this emotion that she walked out of the house and reached out to create the first change since her rebirth.

Back at the river, Chu Ye asked Zhang Bo to relax for a while, then turned around and walked back, intending to find something handy. Just now, she glanced into the river and saw that the educated youth was still two arms' distance from the river, so it was not safe to reach out and pull him directly.

Uncle Zhang didn't understand what was going on, so he quickly shouted, "Chu Si Ya, we still have to save people, where are you going?"

"I know, Uncle Zhang, I'll go find a tool." Chu Ye didn't even turn his head, and his words floated into the ears of the two people with the wind.

Uncle Zhang turned his head to look at the distance to the shore, and said that he was careless. But he also felt that Chu Ye was worthy of being an educated man, not reckless, and his mind was quick.

So he quickly comforted his savior, "Comrade Xiaomu, hold on a little longer, we will come to rescue you soon."

The educated youth was now in a small whirlpool. The river water was flowing and swirling here. He was still holding the willow branch. His body was somewhat out of control, but his eyes passed over Zhang Bo and looked vaguely into the depths. He said "hmm" and said no more.

Soon, Chu Ye came back, holding a branch as thick as his wrist.

Then he stood with his feet apart, his legs in a horse stance, holding the middle of the branch with both hands and stretching the other end in front of the educated youth. Uncle Zhang got up from the ground and reached out to grab the back half of the branch. The two of them looked at the educated youth expectantly.

The educated youth tentatively moved his body closer to the branch, grasped the distance, and then quickly grabbed the end of the branch with one hand. The two people on the shore did not notice that the branch moved forward at the moment when the educated youth grabbed it. Seeing that the educated youth was holding the branch with one hand and the willow branch with the other, the two people quickly exerted their strength and brought the branch to the shore.

The educated youth held on to both ends tightly and did not dare to let go. After a while, his arms were bent into a bow shape. In the moonlight, his bulging bones under the skin could be seen. The whole person looked extremely awkward. If he did not go ashore, his arms would not be able to hold on.

Chu Ye tilted his head and said, "Uncle Zhang, try harder. I'm going to pull him up."

"okay."

In an instant, the branches extended a lot closer to the shore. Seeing that the educated youth in the water was only an arm's length away from reaching the shore, Chu Ye squatted down and stretched out his hand to the educated youth, "Come, give me your hand."

At the moment of life and death, the human brain is not enough to think, and people will instinctively listen to others. As soon as Chu Ye finished speaking, the educated youth let go of the hand holding the willow branch without hesitation and reached out to Chu Ye.

In a flash, Chu Ye grabbed his hand tightly, exerted force with his legs, and dived to pull the man out of the water.

The branch fell to the ground with a "snap". Uncle Zhang ran to the front and dragged the educated youth back to the shore.

When the three of them recovered from their shock, they heard voices shouting in the distance. They could vaguely hear the sound floating into their ears intermittently.

"Lao Zhang, where are you!"

"Chu Siya, Chu Siya~"

"Is there anyone around here? Respond!"

······
The voices became clearer and clearer. Chu Ye recognized the voices of the village chief and Uncle Li. He stood up first and responded, "Village chief! Uncle Li! We are here!" he shouted and waved.

Behind her, the educated youth who had recovered was staring at her blankly, not knowing what he was thinking.

Hearing the sound, they knew the direction, and the village chief and his men came quickly. Before leaving, the village chief took out the flashlight from his home. The white light shone over, and he could see the three people clearly.

Chu Ye was in a slightly better condition. His trouser legs were dusty and stained with a few grass leaves, and his handmade cloth shoes were half wet. His face was pale, but his eyes were bright and he looked quite energetic.

Lao Zhang and the educated youth did not look so good. Water was still dripping from their bodies, and their clothes were covered with dirt and grass debris. On such a night, they shivered when the wind blew.

The educated youth looked even more miserable. The village chief shone his flashlight over there and saw that one of his hands was covered in blood.

Due to the tight time, Uncle Li was the first to run to the village chief's house which was nearest, and then woke up several households next to the village chief's house, a total of five people. Except for the village chief, the remaining four people came over, helped Uncle Zhang and the educated youth to stand, and then simply treated the educated youth's wounds.

At the same time, the village chief asked in confusion, "Why is there such a big flood out of nowhere?" Without waiting for the others to answer, he asked again, "Chu girl, why are you here in the middle of the night?"

"I, I was reading a book nearby during the day, and when I came back I found that a book was missing, so I came out to look for it in a hurry." This was the excuse Chu Ye had thought of at home.

"When I was looking for a book, I heard something strange about the sound of water flowing in the river. I saw the light on in the room next door, and thought there might be someone inside, so I quickly called out." Chu Ye told the whole story.

Uncle Li was in the crowd, his expression was excited, "Yes! Thanks to Chu Si Ya for knocking on the door and calling me, otherwise my bones might have been washed away!" Uncle Li's eyes were shining, and he couldn't stop praising her. The village chief and others couldn't understand why she ran out in the middle of the night to look for books, but thinking that Chu Ye was really hardworking and her grades were among the best since she was a child, maybe people who love learning value books, so she had her reasons for looking for books.

"Okay, have you found it? Do you need your uncles to help you look for it?" The village chief said casually, and Chu Ye naturally heard it.

“No, no.” Chu Ye waved his hand. “I’ll look for it when I’m free. If I can’t find it, forget it. It’s not important anyway. Don’t bother the uncles.”

The village chief nodded and looked at Lao Zhang and the educated youth. "It's late at night. Let's send you two back to the village to rest. We can talk about it tomorrow if there is anything else."

After thinking for a while, he said, "Mr. Mu, you can stay at my house tonight. As for the things that were washed away, we will help you find them tomorrow. What do you think?"

Mu Zhiqing naturally had no objection. Things had been going on tonight, and he had finally moved the mattress and quilt over and laid it out. It was really unlucky that he encountered such a thing before he went to bed. But fortunately, he was fine. After thinking about it, he looked at Chu Ye with bright eyes. This was his savior!

But before he could say thank you, he saw his savior walking towards the village without even turning his head, leaving him with only a cold back.

-

The next day, just after the Chu family had finished their meal, the village chief and his men came to the door with gongs and drums.

At this time, everyone was preparing to go out to work. The village chief's behavior attracted a crowd of onlookers. When they arrived at the Chu family's door, there were already three layers of people surrounding it.

The one walking in front was the village chief, holding a gong and a mallet in his hands, and with a "crack" sound, he attracted everyone's attention.

Surrounded by the crowd was Mu Zhiqing, who had a red flower on his chest and a bandage on his right hand. His face was red and he was at a loss, clinging to the village chief like a chicken. With him were Uncle Zhang and Uncle Li, who looked beaming as if they had won a battle.

"Old Chu, open the door quickly, I'm here to bring you good news." The village chief hit the gong with a hammer and shouted at the top of his voice.

Some people around couldn't help asking, "What big event has the village chief come here so early in the morning?"

"Good thing! It's a good thing that saved a life!" the village chief shouted.

"Oh my god, someone saved a life! Who saved it?" Someone was curious, and someone else answered, "I don't know, and the village chief didn't explain it clearly."

There was discussion everywhere. When Lao Chu opened the door, he saw a group of people standing outside the yard, looking at him one by one. His heart was instantly in a mess. Although he didn't know what was going on, he still ran over in two steps and opened the door.

The neighbors and fellow villagers rushed in like a swarm of fish after a dam was opened. The vanguard was the village chief. He rushed in with his head held high, walked eagerly to the door of the house, pulled Chu Ye to the middle of the yard, took out the same red flower as Mu Zhiqing from his pocket, and pinned it on his collar.

Then he stuffed the gong into the confused Chu's father's hands without saying anything, and then pulled the wrists of the two men. Chu Ye looked over, but was a little surprised.

Last night, it was dark, and although she saved the man, she didn't see his appearance clearly, she just thought he was tall. Today, she found that the educated youth was a head taller than her, with short dark brown hair, and vaguely saw his gray-blue eyes, but when she looked closely, she found that he still had Chinese characteristics, and it turned out that he was a "mixed-race".

The "mixed-race" seemed to have noticed something. He tilted his head slightly, and when he saw it was Chu Ye, his eyes lit up and then he smiled as brightly as a big dog.

Chu Ye turned his face away silently.

"Fellow villagers! Be quiet and listen to me!" The village chief shouted at the top of his voice. As he watched the crowd gradually quiet down, he glanced at the crowd and his lips curled up into a big arc.

"I know what you are curious about, so I won't waste any more time to keep you in suspense!" Seeing the expectant eyes around him, the village chief continued, "I'm sure many people don't know that the riverbank in our village broke last night! The water rushed straight down! It destroyed the old house of the Zhang family and the Li family. They were in that house last night and were almost washed away by the water."

There was an uproar in an instant, and people were in disbelief, and began to exchange information with each other. However, few people noticed the horrified expressions on the faces of Chu's father and mother standing in the crowd.

"During last night's flood, Comrade Mu Jiajun rescued Lao Zhang in time, but he himself was trapped in the water and in a very dangerous situation. It was Chu Ye who saw it and rescued Comrade Mu."

"These two are good comrades in our village! So today, I came here specially to praise them." The village chief paused and took out two food coupons from his pocket, "So I decided to give each of them a three-jin white flour food coupon! It's a reward for these two people, and it also lets you know what advanced young people our village has produced!"

The village chief's face was red as he said this, and he put the food coupons in the hands of the two people. The crowd immediately applauded, and others cheered. This made the two of them lower their heads in embarrassment. Mu Jiajun quickly glanced at Chu Ye and saw the bright red flower on her collar and the blush on her face.

The people below were in an uproar, with all kinds of words surrounding them.

"I said this girl from the Chu family is capable. Look, she just recovered from her illness two days ago, and now she has done something big again." Neighbor Aunt Wang couldn't contain her excitement. She watched Chu Ye grow up, and she always felt that this girl was extremely capable.

"That's right. Hey, Lao Zhang, Lao Zhang, tell us what happened last night." Some people surrounded Lao Zhang and Lao Li, wanting to get more details from them.

Of course, not everyone was looking forward to good things. "That's a ticket for white flour! I haven't eaten white flour for a long time. If I had known there would be a flood last night, I would have gone there by myself." Such words were not dared to be said loudly and soon disappeared in the crowd.

Others were concerned about other things, "Village Chief, why did the flood happen last night?"

As these words came out of nowhere, everyone pricked up their ears and became curious.

"Hey, someone asked the point. I took someone to check it out early this morning. The problem was that a section of the riverbank that we built previously had been eaten away by termites, and it happened to be washed away by the heavy flood last night."

After the village chief finished explaining, he began to propose a solution. "The amount of water flowing down this morning was much smaller, so I don't think there will be any big problems. A few people will come with me to repair the river bank later, and the work points will be calculated based on the work points you usually get from working in the fields!"

(End of this chapter)