Three Outstanding Educated Youths Sent Down to the Countryside · Chat

The train came to a wheezing halt at a desolate small station. Carrying their luggage, three young men jumped down from the boxcar, kicking up a cloud of yellow dust. On the platform stood only a middle-aged man wrapped in an old padded coat, puffing on a long dry-tobacco pipe and narrowing his eyes to size them up. "Are you three the educated youths assigned to Team 7?" The man tapped his pipe bowl and spoke in a flat voice. "Name's Zhao Dazhu. The captain sent me to pick you up." Gu Beichen nodded without a word. Xie Yunqi bowed slightly and said, "Thank you for the trouble." Lu Yuanming grinned, pulled out half a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and handed it over: "Brother Zhao, have a smoke." Zhao Dazhu took the cigarette, tucked it behind his ear, and turned toward an ox cart. "Let's go. It's a long way, and we need to get there before dark." The ox cart creaked along the dirt road. The setting sun cast long shadows of the three young men across this unfamiliar yellow earth.