After the frail beauty went to the countryside, she went crazy with scientific research.

Chapter 126, Episode 0130: Why Bother?

Take Li Laosi's family in the north of the village as an example; they are typical of the village.

Upon learning of this, Li Dayou immediately went to Li Laosi's house to persuade them. He argued that if they succeeded, not only would the entire Hongxing Brigade lose face, but Li Laosi's family would also be breaking the law, and they might even be punished severely.

The new president arrived and immediately made his mark.

He tried everything to persuade him, but Li Laosi's family just thought he was being nosy, or even crazy. They felt that they were marrying off their own daughter, which was their family matter and not the country's business.

After several unsuccessful attempts, he resorted to threatening them that if they married off their daughter before she turned eighteen, they would be in big trouble. Only then did the Li family give up on the idea.

As for studying, most people in the brigade still think that studying is useless. No, to be precise, since the educated youth started going to the countryside, very few people in the brigade have thought that studying is useful.

Despite the pressure, he and Lao Chen managed to allocate some funds from the brigade's general account every year for the children's education. The children didn't have to pay for school; they just needed to take care of their own food and drink. This is how all the children in the brigade were able to go to school.

It's a fool not to take advantage of a good deal. The tuition is 1.2 yuan per semester. Your child paid for it but mine didn't, so my family lost 1.2 yuan.

The money came from the brigade's public funds. This path hadn't been easy over the years, but at least he and Old Man Chen had managed to keep things under control. But what if…?

Chen Congjun's children were among the first batch of high school students to graduate from their village primary school, giving them a special status and making them a unique group.

There were only five in total, but four of them went back to farming. How could the villagers not have any doubts?

If Chen Congjun and the other three don't get their jobs sorted out and aren't given decent accommodations, it won't be easy to get money from the brigade's public funds to send the children to school next year.

Because of this, Li Dayou couldn't sleep for several nights, and his hair was falling out in clumps. Old Party Secretary Chen had visibly lost weight.

At this time, Lin Yuexi was willing to teach them how to repair electrical appliances. After only a little over a month, each of the four children was able to independently repair some simple appliances. How could the two of them not be moved?!
I'm so touched.

Lin Yuexi wanted to join in the fun of the start of work by going out for a walk, but she almost had to transfer back home immediately when she bumped into Old Secretary Chen, who was walking towards her with tears in his eyes.

At first, I thought this old man was the kind of rigid and difficult person to get along with. But as I got to know him better, I realized that he wasn't difficult to get along with at all. This old man was not only a chatterbox, but also a particularly sentimental chatterbox.

"Lin Zhiqing, out for a stroll? Where are you headed? Want this old man to take you?"

He asked her if she wanted some, but after walking to her side, he turned around and faced the direction they had come from, ready to walk together.

Lin Yuexi: "...Okay, so the old Party Secretary is also going to the fields?"

Old Party Secretary Chen was best at lying through his teeth. Without pausing for a moment, he immediately continued, "The team is breaking ground today. Saying it's related to the year's harvest is a bit of an exaggeration, but we still value this day very much."

Some things can't be said outright; you know, I know, everyone knows. It's all about bringing good luck; saying it aloud would be considered feudal superstition.

Their tradition, which has been passed down for thousands of years, is to choose an auspicious day for the first day of construction each year, and the whole village will act in unison. On this day, even the laziest man in the village will be busy in the fields from morning till night, hoping to fill the granary with grain when the harvest comes.

Simply put, the more diligent you are today, the better your harvest will be at harvest time.

Lin Yuexi was unaware of this tradition, but after understanding what Old Secretary Chen meant, she felt even more eager to go and see the fields.

Lin Yuexi was insightful, and Old Secretary Chen was also someone who knew how to strike a balance. The two, one old and one young, didn't feel awkward at all during the journey. They chatted casually and even felt like they had known each other for a long time [mainly because of Old Secretary Lin].

After leaving the village, the conversation smoothly drifted to several high school graduates. Old Party Secretary Lin looked at them as if they were his own capable descendants, feeling grateful, but even more so proud and gratified.

"If it weren't for you, there might not even be ten children in our brigade who would still be sent to school this year."

Lin Yuexi was taken aback. "How could that be?"

Whether it was what she saw or heard, the people in Hero Village were even more progressive in their thinking than people in many big cities. They would take the initiative to send their children to school. She had also personally heard elders promise their children things like, "Even if there is no food at home, we will still send the children to school." How could Grandpa Chen say such a thing?

Lin Yuexi didn't suspect that Old Secretary Chen was exaggerating to curry favor or play the victim; she probably just didn't know the villagers well enough.

Old Party Secretary Chen walked slightly ahead of her, not turning around and not noticing Lin Yuexi's reaction, and continued to sigh with heartache:

“I studied for several years before I was able to become the village party secretary. I know the importance of knowledge.”

“But it’s no use thinking like that. They all think that they’re just going to make a living from the fields anyway, and they’re not going far. What does it matter if they can’t read or not? It’s just a waste of money.”

It wasn't easy to study in the past. Although the educated and the illiterate were like people on different levels, it was extremely difficult for a family to support a student. Education was expensive, paper was expensive, pens were expensive, and everything would empty the pockets of ordinary people.

Leaving aside the past, even now it's not easy to go out. Many people have never been to the county in their entire lives. Their lives are confined to the small plot of land in front of them, and their eyes are only on that small plot of land.

"The older generation has little hope. Not to mention the older generation, we don't even dare to have any hope for the younger generation. Da You and I just hope that after the children go to school, learn to read and write and understand principles, they can leave this poor place."

We hope that if one of them succeeds, he or she will come back and help the village.

Old Party Secretary Chen gave a bitter laugh, “We’ve been suppressing them for years, as if they were enemies of the whole village. But after the educated youth started going to the countryside, we couldn’t keep up anymore. If these four graduates can only come back to work instead of working, Da You and I will have our clothes torn to shreds.”

Lin Yuexi was saddened by their current helpless situation. It is not difficult to change one person's thoughts, but when a group of people have the same thoughts, trying to change them is like trying to move a mountain.

She admires him and Li Dayou, grassroots cadres. As someone who has no conscience, she finds it hard to imagine the pressure that village cadres like Secretary Chen and Li Dayou face in insisting on the children in the village going to school, and she also finds it hard to understand why they persist.
If they think education is important, they should just send their own children there. Why do something so thankless and even make enemies of the villagers?