Courtyard House: Drunk and tipsy, the whole courtyard exposed at the start.

Mu Wanqing blushed and nodded. She would graduate in four months, and after graduation, she would get married!

We've finally made it through!

The train whistled and pulled away. Zhang Dabiao looked out the window at the receding platform and Mu Wanqing, and silently waved.

Among the group was Lao Liu, a man in his forties, a senior traditional Chinese painter at a publishing house, who had participated in a field trip to Tibet in the 1950s and was very experienced. He was the leader of this field trip team.

Xiao Wang, in his early twenties, is a newly hired young photographer responsible for photographic documentation. He has a lively personality and, like Zhang Dabiao, is an assistant.

The three of them, carrying large and small bags, first took a train along the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Railway to Taiyuan, then from Taiyuan to Linfen, and finally took a long-distance bus from Linfen to Xiangning.

Two days and one night, and I was completely exhausted from sitting.

Finally, we arrived at Xiangning County. Looking around—

The county town is nestled in a valley at the southern foot of the Lüliang Mountains, surrounded by mountains on all sides, forming a natural ingot shape. The ruins of the city wall are clearly visible, the rammed earth walls bearing the mottled marks of time, highlighting the weight of history.

The E River flows through the city from east to west, with a main street running east to west and numerous alleys running north to south, outlining the framework of this mountain city. Stone bridges connecting the two banks (such as the Dongmen Bridge from the Republican era) are important passages, with the E River flowing quietly beneath them.

To be honest, they felt it was tough and they were poor, but Zhang Dabiao thought—damn, this is the place for sketching and painting!

It smells good!

When Nima went to Hongcun and Xidi for sketching in his later university years, it was completely different from Xiangning County in 1965.

It's a pity his camera and phone couldn't capture the "little nest" in the photos, otherwise he would have really taken some good pictures.

Xiao Wang is a photographer on business trips, but he only has a monthly quota of 3 rolls of film—equivalent to 36 negatives per month. It's not expensive, only 1.8 yuan per roll, but it's a business purchase with strict accounting procedures.

Zhang Dabiao was given a Seagull camera by the company for temporary use, but his film quota was only two rolls, which was the maximum quota that Editor-in-Chief Li had secured for him, since his main job was painting.

He does have Leica, Nikon, and Canon cameras purchased from Hong Kong in his "little nest," but he doesn't dare to take them out.

What time is it now? If it attracts attention, it will be hard to explain.

In addition, the mainstream film used in China is 120 film, but Zhang Dabiao purchases 135 film from Hong Kong. Buying film in China requires a letter of introduction from the company and purchase coupons or industrial coupons.

He had them, but he couldn't easily show them. He could only secretly change the film rolls and take more shots—if the number of shots didn't match up, his colleagues Lao Liu and Xiao Wang would become suspicious.

Because Zhang Dabiao takes photos randomly, snapping away without caring how many negatives are on the film.

They were all assigned to stay at the county cultural center or the commune compound under its jurisdiction. After staying there for two or three days and finishing their fieldwork in the county town, they were assigned to nearby villages.

Their main task was to eat, live, and work alongside the local commune members. They ate "provided meals" daily, taking turns eating at commune members' homes, and were required to pay one jin of grain coupons and a few cents for food each day. The three of them had to work in the fields with the villagers, recording everything they saw in their sketchbooks.

They would also "visit" the surrounding villages and towns, like visiting neighbors, to find the most touching material. Accompanied by the guide or local cultural station staff, they would travel to several communes and production brigades in the area.

Anyway, everything in the team is decided by Lao Liu, with Zhang Dabiao and Xiao Wang assisting.

It was tough and tiring, and Zhang Dabiao was truly starving. He would occasionally sneak into his "little nest" for a big meal, and then take advantage of his monthly trips to the county town to buy supplies and make letters and phone calls to bring back a lot of things to nourish Lao Liu and the others. He didn't want the team leader to be exhausted, otherwise the creative task would be impossible to complete.

Anyway, Zhang Dabiao was rich, and everyone knew about it, so no one paid much attention. They just said they would make it up to him when they got back to Beijing.

Suffering?

Our Da Biao will never suffer. Why should we suffer when we have money and resources?

During this time, Zhang Dabiao and Mu Wanqing also communicated several times, mostly about everyday matters. Mu Wanqing reported to Zhang Dabiao about what happened at the courtyard house, which was nothing more than Sha Zhu playing a prank on Xu Damao, burning his underwear, which almost caused Xu Damao and Lou Xiao'e to divorce.

Everything is within the original plan (original plot). Do whatever you want, it has nothing to do with me.

Ultimately, through everyone's joint efforts, Lao Liu completed the series of oil paintings "Canal Water Flows Around Terraced Fields," Zhang Dabiao completed the series of sketches "The Faces of the Eight Counties of the West," and Xiao Wang also captured many wonderful scenes.

Finally, at the end of June, the three of them rushed back to Beijing.

We went to the publishing house to submit our assignments as soon as possible, and then everyone went home to their own families.

Zhang Dabiao also got a letter of introduction, planning to get married in a few days. His first stop after leaving the commune was a small courtyard house in Sesame Alley, intending to stage an unexpected reunion with Mu Wanqing.

But when they knocked on the courtyard gate, it was Aunt Mu who opened it.

But as soon as Aunt Mu saw Zhang Dabiao, she burst into tears—

"Da Biao, Wan Qing, she..."

Zhang Dabiao had a bad feeling.

"What happened to Wanqing?"

"she……"

"She's been sent to the countryside!"

Zhang Dabiao was stunned—[What the heck?]

Why would a college graduate like her go to a rural area?

Where is my eldest daughter-in-law?

------------

The story goes back to two weeks ago. The day after Zhang Dabiao and Mu Wanqing finished their phone call, the field research team went directly to a remote village.

Meanwhile, at the Beijing Art Academy, it was also the time when the students were about to graduate and be assigned jobs.

In fact, the past six months have been turbulent at school due to the "Four Cleanups" movement, and not only at school, but also at students' homes.

Yang Yibai's father is a high-ranking official in the General Staff Department, but her mother is the daughter of a capitalist in Shanghai. Therefore, Yang's father is currently under investigation for alleged corruption during the "Four Cleanups" campaign. This resulted in Yang Yibai's overall assessment during her post-graduation job placement review being: "A child who can be educated." Recommended assignment: grassroots training; not suitable for staying in Beijing.

Because of Aunt Mu's "complex historical issues," Mu Wanqing was deemed unqualified, unsuitable to stay in Beijing, and unsuitable to join a professional arts troupe.

There are also Zhao Weiguo, Liu Yuanchao, Zhu Hongqi, and others, who all have some problems to varying degrees.

Those with good family backgrounds were directly assigned formal jobs and had cadre status. They were assigned to border areas or grassroots cultural troupes. Although transfers were difficult, there was still a chance to return to the city because they were assigned to cadre positions.

People like Yang Yibai and others participated in "rural cultural work teams" or "educated youth art troupes," which were short-term missions lasting from several months to a year. After the mission ended, they would return to their schools and be reassigned.

It's like a temporary adjustment; I'll go down to the grassroots level for some training and then we'll make arrangements again when I get back.

Even worse are those with problems during the political vetting process, who are directly demoted, but this has nothing to do with the students.

Mu Wanqing originally didn't want to get involved. Whether she got a job or not was irrelevant; if she didn't have a job, she didn't have one, Zhang Dabiao would arrange one for her.

But these days—you have to obey orders.