Struggle Life in the 1970s

The campus in the town is not big. A three-story red brick building is where teachers and students take classes. The first floor is the teachers' office, and the two floors above are classrooms for students.

Behind this small building, there is a two-story mud building, which is the student dormitory.

There is a row of poplar trees on the left side of the road, which is considered a playground for students' daily activities. On the right side is a single-story bungalow, where students eat. The school is surrounded by a brick wall, painted white, with inspirational slogans written in red.

Chu Ye stood there and looked around. At this time, students were still in class and there was no one on campus. Only the occasional sound of reading could be heard from the classroom, accompanied by the spring breeze, and carried into Chu Ye's ears.

She followed the route she remembered and walked to the first floor of the teaching building. There were four rooms on the first floor, only one of which was an office. There were not many teachers in the school, so for the sake of convenience everyone was in one place, so it was very easy to find.

There is a large window on the outer wall of the office, with a narrow wooden edge inlaid with greenish glass. The glass is foggy and cannot be seen clearly.

Chu Ye walked over and stood at the door. In front of him was a wooden door painted green. Perhaps due to the passage of time, the paint had peeled off a little.

Through the door, she could vaguely hear voices from inside. She took a deep breath, thought about what she was going to say again in her mind, then raised her hand and knocked lightly.

"Bang, bang, bang." "Report!"

"Please come in."

Chu Ye pushed the door open and the talking inside stopped. Three or four teachers looked up and stared at her with surprised expressions.

She stood at the door, her fists clenched at her sides. Although her heart was filled with anxiety, she walked inside with firm steps.

"Chu Ye? Why did you come to school suddenly? Didn't you stop studying?" A female teacher called her name and then patted the arm of the person next to her.

The person being photographed was originally writing something with her head down. When she heard this, she was stunned for a moment, then looked up in surprise and looked at Chu Ye.

This person is Chu Ye’s homeroom teacher and also the purpose of her visit to the school this time.

"Hello, Teacher Chu, and hello, all the teachers." Chu Ye walked up to her, bent down and bowed, looked up at this familiar yet unfamiliar face, and suddenly felt so wronged that he wanted to cry.

The person in front of me also had the surname Chu, and looked to be in her thirties. She was wearing a blue work suit and had a ponytail, and looked clean and energetic.

Teacher Chu's home is in the town. She has been working as a Chinese teacher in this school since graduating from high school. Over the decades, she has educated many students, and Chu Ye is one of them.

After she stopped going to school in her previous life, Teacher Chu had always been thinking about her. When she registered for the exam to enter high school, she specifically asked Chu Guangyao to bring the news home.

Unfortunately, she had already met Zhao Xuesong at that time, and the idea of ​​studying faded a lot in her mind.

She didn't take this matter to heart at first, but she didn't expect that Teacher Chu would come to her house in July just to see her when giving her the graduation certificate. At that time, Teacher Chu still earnestly advised her not to give up studying even if she didn't go to school.

She was touched for a moment, and then she fell into the sweetness and tenderness of Zhao Xuesong. She felt that she should get married after studying, and she did nothing wrong.

It was just that she was too stupid at the time and couldn’t listen to all this, thus letting her teacher down.

Teacher Chu was also surprised to see Chu Ye again. She put down the pen in her hand and stood up. "Chu Ye, why did you come here suddenly? Did you come to see me?"

Teacher Chu reached out and placed her hand on Chu Ye's shoulder. She looked at the little girl who was half a head shorter than her and understood her nervousness.

"You've been traveling for so long. Are you tired? Take a rest first."

She pulled over a stool for Chu Ye to sit on, poured a cup of hot water from the thermos, then opened the drawer of the desk, took out some biscuits and handed them to Chu Ye.

"Drink some water, eat something, and talk slowly." Teacher Chu spoke in a gentle tone. Other teachers in the office also asked her gently about her recent situation, what she was doing at home, whether she wanted to come back to study, etc.

It’s no wonder that the teachers asked this. Chu Ye has always been the top student in the grade since she entered school. The little girl is gentle and fragile, and she always greets the teacher respectfully when she sees her. It’s really hard not to like her.

Chu Ye took a sip of water and responded one by one. When it came to the last question, she looked at Teacher Chu and told him her decision.

"Teacher Chu, I still have to work at home and cannot come to school. But I want to sign up for the technical secondary school entrance exam, and I will come to take the exam when the time comes."

With just one word, the office became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

The bell rang outside, and the get out of class was over.

The other teachers went to the cafeteria to eat one after another, leaving Teacher Chu standing there alone, waiting for Chu Ye's next words.

Footsteps were heard on the rooftop, and then groups of students came downstairs and walked out. The atmosphere was filled with laughter and joy, making it very lively.

In the office, the air seemed to be stagnant. In the previous life, Chu Ye, who chose to get married, with rough palms, full of grievances, and endless regrets, traveled through time and space and said softly.

"Teacher, I want to go to a technical secondary school and continue my studies."

-

Jianwen ran around the market for a long time and finally bought everything he needed.

Now he had twenty chicks on his cart, all in bamboo baskets, warm yellow fur, chirping with red beaks. He also bought three bottles of milk, a can of malted milk, and a Dacron shirt.

This is a pure white shirt. It is hung on a hanger in the department store, hanging in the air against the wall. No matter who comes to buy something, they will see it at first sight.

Before Jianwen bought this dress, many people had begged the salesperson to take it down and take a look, but they were put off by its price and ended up just touching the fabric and leaving.

Jianwen also thought it was expensive. The ticket for a Dacron shirt could be exchanged for two or three pieces of cloth.

But he also thought it looked good, as white as snow and smooth to the touch, and he thought that Nianci would definitely look good in it. Nianci was originally a city girl, and she didn't have a good life after marrying him. It was just a nice piece of clothing, so he simply gritted his teeth and bought it.

When Chu Ye came over, he saw him sitting on an ox cart and eating steamed buns.

Seeing Chu Ye coming over, Jianwen took out another yellow flour steamed bun from the cloth bag and motioned for her to eat.

Chu Ye took it, but he was not hungry.

She was thinking about what she had just said to Teacher Chu. After she told him that she wanted to take the exam, Teacher Chu agreed to register her for the exam and earnestly told her to study hard at home.

As per the practice in previous years, registration would be in mid-March. Chu Ye had already left her information, and Teacher Chu would help her fill it out. She also left 40 cents for the registration fee, which would be paid by Teacher Chu later.

Teacher Chu explained the exam subjects to her in detail, and said that the difficulty of taking a technical secondary school entrance exam was no less than that of taking a high school entrance exam. Even though she had always been the top student in her grade, it was like a single-plank bridge with thousands of people trying to cross it, and there were many students who performed better than her, so she had to work hard.

She successfully took the first step to change her destiny, and her heart was as happy as a singing bird.

Besides, she was not hungry after eating the food given by Teacher Chu in the office, but Brother Jianwen next to her was not full. He stared at the steamed bun in her hand, as if wondering why she didn't eat it.

Chu Ye simply handed the steamed bun over and took out a few biscuits from her pocket, which were given to her by Teacher Chu before she left.

She gave the biscuits to Jianwen as well, then looked at the things in the car, and then she asked, "Brother Jianwen, everything you bought was for Sister Nianci, didn't you bring anything for Aunt Wang?"

"Ah?" Jianwen was chewing on a steamed bun, his brain went into a state of panic, and an unexpected problem arose.

Chu Ye had no choice but to say, "Think about it, when you came out, Aunt Wang and Sister Nianci were both thinking about you. But when you went back and only gave something to one of them, the remaining one would feel bad."

Yes, even if that person is your mother. This is also the experience she gained from getting along with her mother-in-law in her previous life.

There are no major conflicts between people, but rather layers of disappointment accumulated from trivial matters. The conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is just a matter of whether the man in the middle can balance the scale.

Jianwen didn't understand the twists and turns, but he could roughly understand what Chu Ye wanted to express. He thought about it and realized that it was indeed the truth. Besides, he had never bought anything for his mother in his life.

"What you said makes sense, but I don't know what my mother likes. Xiaoye, come with me to the department store later, and let's go pick something out."

"Row."

-

When they came out of the department store, Jianwen had a pair of blue trousers in his hand, and Chu Ye was sitting on an ox cart with chirping chicks around him.

The ox cart bumped along, heading towards home.

The sun was shining brightly along the way, and the breeze was blowing, bringing the fragrance of flowers and plants.

She just felt happy and full of energy for her future hard study.

After these days, she picked up her textbooks again and found that she still had big problems in foreign languages, physics and chemistry.

Especially foreign languages, which were taught in junior high school at that time, and the teacher started with the most basic pronunciation. Chu Ye had not learned them well and had not used them for many years. Although he could still remember the 26 English letters such as "ABCD", it became increasingly difficult to learn them later on.

When she was working in the fields in her previous life, she was still confused. She had never gone abroad, let alone left the county, so learning this foreign stuff was really useless.

But now, she just felt slapped in the face. If she wanted to get into school, she not only had to learn foreign languages, but also had to learn them well.

Not to mention physics and chemistry, I haven't touched them for a long time and it's very difficult to learn them.

The ox cart moved slowly, and after passing through many mountains, a familiar village gradually appeared before our eyes.

As the distant scenery came closer, the two figures at the entrance of the village gradually grew larger, and Chu Ye could see their faces clearly.

The matchmaker and Zhao Xuesong that day.

Unfortunately, Zhao Xuesong also saw Chu Ye early on.

He stood up straight, stretched out his hand and pulled at his collar, turning out the collar of his white shirt, which was also a piece of "Dacron."

Then he ran a hand through his hair to make sure it was done perfectly, and then a smile that he thought was very charming appeared on his face.

He took a bunch of flowers from the matchmaker, which he had picked from the field in the afternoon.

Because of this, his leather shoes were covered with a lot of mud, but it was worth it to be able to give it to Chu Ye.

When the ox cart got closer, Jianwen stopped and turned to look at Chu Ye.

He also heard a few days ago that a matchmaker went to the Chu family, and thought it was this person. He looked at the flowers in the man's hand and thought about giving Nianci one in a few days. It looked pretty.

What he didn't see was that the smile on Chu Ye's face completely disappeared the moment he saw the person clearly.

Her porcelain-white face was completely bloodless, and resentment and anger flashed in her eyes, but she finally lowered her eyes and became calm.

In her previous life, why didn’t she realize that Zhao Xuesong was so greasy!
He is indeed blind!
(End of this chapter)