The poor girl from the 1970s was forced to kiss by the damp educated youth.

After taking a shower and drinking a bowl of thin porridge with barely any grains of rice, Chen Zhi went back to her room to sleep in the dark.

She slept in one bed with her mother and sister, which was 1.5 meters wide. Outside the curtain was her brother Chen Mu's bed, which was even smaller, only 1 meter wide.

The four members of their family were crammed into this tiny room.

My uncle's side has more people. My eldest cousin is already married, so their situation is slightly better than theirs; they have two rooms. One room is for my uncle, aunt, and cousin Chen Fu, and the other room is for my second cousin's family of four. My grandparents and second cousin Chen Gui live in one room. There's also a small room, only two or three square meters, where they store grain and farm tools and other valuables.

My second cousin, Chen Gui, is twenty years old this year. His family plans to build a house this winter and find him a wife next year.

Chen Zhi was squeezed into a corner by her sister and mother, clutching the corner of the blanket tightly with one hand, as if afraid that someone would roll over and snatch the blanket away.

She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep shortly after.

Not long after falling asleep, Chen Zhi had a dream. The dream took place on the hill behind their village, and she dreamt of a small tree that had become a spirit. In the dream, the tree absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, drank from dew and mist, and a hundred years passed. The tree didn't grow taller or stronger; it simply became even greener and more translucent...

As the sun and moon changed, the sapling was about to complete its cultivation, becoming able to move its body and gain freedom, when a great fire broke out.

The sapling hid in the ground, but the soil was burned, and its trunk was charred, leaving only a small piece of its heartwood. Dehydrated and desperate to survive, the sapling slowly made its way out of the mountain after the fire died down.

The dream ended the moment I met Chen Zhi.

Chen Zhi opened her eyes, and a faint green light flashed across them. She checked her hands and feet, and they were all fine.

She is still alive and is not feeling unwell.

Perhaps that little tree hasn't fully become a spirit yet, and isn't powerful enough to harm her.

Chen Zhi quickly put the matter out of her mind. In the days that followed, she went up the mountain to collect firewood every day until her grandmother said they had enough, and then they stopped going up the mountain.

On the first day without having to go up the mountain, the women in the family started boiling water to wash their hair and cut their hair early in the morning.

In winter, the weather is cold, and hair doesn't dry easily after washing, which can lead to illness. Many people cut their hair shorter at this time to make it easier to manage.

Chen Zhi's hair was just shoulder-length, not very long, but she was planning to get it cut because she had lice.

Many people in the village had lice on their heads, and Chen Zhi didn't know who had infected her, but she suspected it was her older sister, Chen Ye. Because Chen Ye had many friends and spent a lot of time with them, the probability of her getting infected was high.

Chen Zhi's mother was skilled with her hands, and she was in charge of cutting the hair of everyone in the family. First, she cut Grandma Chen's hair, then her aunt, and later Grandpa, Uncle, and cousin saw that their hair had grown long and decided to get it cut as well.

By the time it was Chen Zhi's turn, it was already getting dark.

"I'm going to cook." Mom put down the scissors.

Chen Zhi, who had been waiting all day, was stunned and pleaded, "Mom, just cut a few times for me, it won't take much time."

Her mother glanced at her sideways and said, "Your hair isn't long, so this is just right."

"I have lice in my head." The lice are so itchy, it's really uncomfortable.

The mother remained unmoved, saying, "Then you should wash your hair properly."

Chen Zhi insisted on getting a haircut, saying, "Then please cut my hair tomorrow."

"I'm going to dig lotus roots tomorrow, I don't have time." After saying this, the mother ignored Chen Zhi and turned to go to the kitchen.

As Chen Zhi watched her retreating figure, her heart sank, and her nose felt a little sore.

What's there to be sad about?

She was used to it long ago.

Chen Zhi sniffed, picked up the scissors beside her, and without looking in the mirror, began cutting her hair, scissors slicing away. Not just cutting short sections, but cutting it as short as possible, close to the scalp.

A dozen minutes later, Chen Zhi put down the scissors, touched her bald head, and felt her whole head was light and airy. She was very satisfied.

"Chen Zhi, did a rat gnaw on your hair?" Chen Ye, the older sister, had just come out of the shower and was drying her hair as she walked towards Chen Zhi, her face full of shock.

"I cut it myself," Chen Zhi said calmly.

Chen Ye's hair was cut by her mother; the length just covered her ears, and it looked very pretty with Chen Ye's delicate face. Chen Zhi only glanced at it before looking away.

She's not envious at all.

Chen Zhi swept her hair up from the floor and then went to take a shower. As she went to the kitchen to get hot water, her mother looked at her head, her face darkening. In a tone of extreme disappointment, she said, "Chen Zhi, why can't you be more obedient?"

Chen Zhi turned to look at her, staring straight into her eyes. "I just want to get a haircut. If you won't help me, I'll do it myself."

She didn't understand why her mother had cut everyone's hair that day, including her one-and-a-half-year-old niece, but not her.

The mother and daughter looked at each other, and Chen's mother looked away first, saying, "Forget it, I'm not going to care about you anymore, anyway, I can't control you."

Chen Zhi pursed her lips, thinking to herself, "You always say that. It's not that you can't manage it, it's that you don't want to."

"Zhizhi, you're sixteen years old already. People will laugh at you if you cut your hair this short," your aunt said earnestly.

"Let them laugh if they want." Chen Zhi wasn't afraid; the itching was much more terrifying.

With hair this short, not even a louse could stay on her head and suck her blood!

After showering, I just wiped my hair with a towel and it was dry.

Apart from feeling a bit cold on her forehead when the wind blows, Chen Zhi hasn't noticed anything else wrong so far.

During dinner, the family members' eyes kept falling on Chen Zhi's head, their faces showing disapproval. Grandma even declared, "You can't cut your hair like that next time, it's awful."

Chen Zhi nodded. "Would you like to cut my hair next time?"

Grandma glared at her but didn't agree.

Chen Zhi twitched the corners of her mouth; she wasn't surprised at all by this result.

There is a river in front of Sandong Village. In summer, the river is full of lotus flowers. In late autumn, some sections of the river dry up, and people go to the river to dig lotus roots.

The lotus is wild, and the lotus roots are small, only two or three fingers in size, and they grow deep, making them difficult to dig up. The production team doesn't organize anyone to dig for lotus roots; it's assumed that anyone can dig for the lotus roots in the river.

Every year, Chen Zhi's family can dig up several hundred kilograms of fish. They keep some fresh ones to stir-fry and eat, while most of the rest are boiled, dried, and eaten by themselves during the Spring Festival, or given as gifts to relatives.

After breakfast, Chen Zhi was given a small shovel and went to the river with her family.

Before leaving, her mother placed a straw hat on Chen Zhi's bumpy head.

"There's no sun today," Chen Zhi said.

Her mother didn't even glance at her, "To cover up her shame."

Chen Zhi: "......."

Compared to her older sister Chen Ye and older brother Chen Mu, Chen Zhi, who was as thin as a stick and as black as coal, was indeed "ugly".

Today, Chen Zhi was allowed to wear long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, made of a drab gray material with more than a dozen patches. The Chen family members in front of her were dressed the same way; her eldest uncle and three older brothers' trousers even had holes in them, and they couldn't find any scraps of cloth to patch them up.

Chen Zhi is sixteen years old. She wore ripped pants last year, but she's too embarrassed to wear them this year because people will laugh at her.

However, despite Grandma and Mom's best efforts to mend Chen Zhi's clothes and pants, they still couldn't prevent Chen Zhi from being ridiculed.

A gust of wind blew, and Chen Zhi's straw hat flew away, revealing her head, which looked as if it had been gnawed by a rat. Chen Zhi ran after the hat, and the people around her burst into laughter.

"Chen Zhi, did you not wash your hands after sneaking some oil last night?" Chen Peng laughed so hard he couldn't stand up straight.

There's a saying in Sandong Village that if a child steals oil and doesn't wash their hands before touching their hair, rats will come looking for them in the middle of the night.

Chen Zhi glanced at the other person but didn't say anything.

Chen Peng, however, had no intention of letting her off the hook. He strode up and reached out to touch Chen Zhi's head, but Chen Zhi dodged him. He wasn't angry; he just smiled and said, "Your head is quite round, like a braised egg."

In this day and age, people prefer to sleep with their heads flat, so a round head like Chen Zhi's is quite rare.

Chen Zhi likes her head; it's round and feels nice to the touch.

She ignored Chen Peng, put on her hat, and tied the drawstring securely.

Before Chen Peng could say anything more, the person who came with him shouted, "Chen Peng, what are you doing getting close to her? Be careful, or your luck will turn sour today, and you won't be able to dig up a single lotus root."

Chen Peng's face stiffened, he touched his nose, and a hint of awkwardness flashed across his face. "Good girl, Zhizhi, I'll dig up some loaches for you in a bit."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Chen Zhi didn't take his words seriously. Loaches were rare in the Sandong River, and it wouldn't be easy to find them. It would be more practical to look for river clams. The riverbed was dry, and they could find river clams by lifting up the hardened clods of soil.

With so many people looking for river clams, I wonder how many times the soil in the river has been turned over? Are there still any river clams left?

"Go there," her mother pointed to a place.

Chen Zhi had no objections and went with her small shovel.

The soil was a bit hard, so Chen Zhi first used a small shovel to pry up the clods of soil, and then used his hands to move them apart. Once the top clods were removed, the soil underneath was softer and easier to dig. Digging down another ten or twenty centimeters, he could see the lotus sprouts. Following the sprouts downwards, the lotus root was underneath.

Chen Zhi didn't see any lotus sprouts, but first dug up a river clam. Her eyes lit up, and she secretly turned her head to look at her mother and sister. Seeing that they weren't paying attention to her, she immediately hid the river clam under a clod of mud.

Just as Chen Zhi hid the clam, a man approached her. He was also wearing a straw hat, the brim pulled low, revealing only a sharply defined chin. Chen Zhi recognized him; his name was Xi Lang, a sent-down youth who had been in Sandong Village for a year.

This Xi Lang was just as thin as a stick, but she was dark-skinned while Xi Lang was fair-skinned.

She and Xilang had one thing in common—neither of them were popular in the village.

She was known for causing her father's death, while Xi Lang was known for being a loner, having a gloomy appearance, dark eyes, and an air of evil that made people afraid to approach him.

"Hello!"

Chen Zhichao greeted Xi Lang.

Xi Lang paused, looked up at her, and silently asked: Is something the matter?

Chen Zhi drew a line on the ground with a shovel. "This side is my territory, and that side is yours. Don't cross the line, understand?"

Xi Lang nodded and continued shoveling soil. He carried an iron shovel, which could scoop up a large amount of soil each time, and soon dug a small pit, making Chen Zhi envious.

She also wanted to own a shovel.

But she only thought about it.

Chen Zhi used her small shovel, digging diligently, and soon discovered lotus sprouts. Following the sprouts, she continued digging until she found the lotus root. The lotus root had several sections, and Chen Zhi continued digging along the sections, unknowingly crossing the boundary—

"Half for each of us," Xi Lang said, holding the other half of the lotus root.

Chen Zhi shook her head, "I only want what's on my side."

Her side is the head of the lotus root, and most of the middle part of the lotus root is on her side, where it grows large. Xi Lang's side is already the tail, which grows thin and small.

Xi Lang had no objection and used a shovel to cut the lotus root in half.