Looking for the educated youth novel "Time Wasted", but it was not written by Ye Xin, and the protagonist was Ke Bizhou's.

I found it in Ye Xin, too. The story takes place between 1970 and 1976. During this period, the political situation in China is changeable, and everyone's fate is like a boat drifting in a storm, ups and downs, and I don't know where to go. Under this historical background, Ke Bizhou, an educated youth from a poor family, despite the hard life and heavy political pressure, remained firm and persistent, and overcame adversity to explore resources for the people and build small hydropower stations in the mountainous areas where he cut in line. Feeling his character and situation, Du Jianchun, a female educated youth from the family of military cadres, felt sympathy and pity for him. The reactionary bloodline theory laid a gap in Du Jianchun's heart and made her shy before Ke Bizhou's pursuit of pure love. Soon, Du Jianchun's father was branded as a "capitalist roader", and Du Jianchun's soul underwent a severe baptism in the face of the rapid change of political status. After her father was rehabilitated, she fell in love with Ke Bizhou. Through the main line of this story, the novel fully shows the love and attitude towards life of young people of different types and backgrounds, thus depicting the different ideals and pursuits of these young people and vividly drawing a vivid political genre painting of that era.

See if it's what you want. If not, maybe you don't want to waste your time.