Back to 1979: Sending the Educated Youth’s Wife Back to the City

Chapter 1 Rebirth 79
Fang Mingche woke up, feeling a little confused.

Didn’t he just pass away? His family should be preparing for his funeral.

He is a retired teacher, and the government will give him 30 months of basic salary as funeral expenses, which will not add burden to his daughter.

I should be somewhat wealthy after that.

In addition, his retirement salary was decent, and he had several hundred thousand in savings, which was a great help to his unemployed middle-aged daughter.

I wanted to give it to her before, but she didn't take it.

He looked up and saw a linen mosquito net. Then he saw his own hands, which had no age spots.

Fang Mingche, who was somewhat speculative, quickly threw off the quilt and got out of bed, then felt a bone-chilling chill. He quickly put on the military coat beside him.

He stood in front of a round mirror with a red plastic shell, which was slightly larger than a palm and hung on the earthen wall, and took a look.

Yes, he has indeed returned to his youthful appearance! Just now, he got out of bed, dressed, and walked around quite agilely.

Besides, isn’t this the dormitory where he and A Yan lived in the village primary school?

Now it was his turn to look at the desk. The calendar on it showed January 1979, 1.

It turns out today is New Year’s Day!
That means there are only four days left before the educated youth from the previous life return to the city in droves.

Only four days left!
His wife Lin Yan was an educated youth from BJ.

The two got married four years ago, and their daughter Fang Shuyan is already over two years old.

In the past year of 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee was held from December 12 to 8.

After the meeting, the relevant departments adjusted the policy on educated youth: except for a few married youth who were allowed to stay in the local area, most of them were allowed to return to their original cities and find new jobs.

This means that all unmarried educated youth can return to the city unconditionally.

In recent days, many married educated youth have divorced in order to return to the city, and their children are left to the husband or wife in the countryside. If both parties are educated youth, the children are given to the locals.

In her previous life, Lin Yan gave up this opportunity to return to the city unconditionally and become a BJ person again.

They stayed and lived as a family of three.

This was once something that made Fang Mingche extremely fortunate and proud.

Lin Yan is tall and slender. She is a well-known flower among the educated youth!
Soon after going to the countryside, some scoundrels had bad intentions. While doing farm work, when no one was around, they covered Lin Yan's mouth and dragged her into the cornfield.

Fang Mingche was a math teacher at the village primary school. He passed by and rescued the man in time.

He was only one year older than Lin Yan. At that time, he was 18 years old, had just graduated from a normal school and started working.

After that, the two of them fell in love with each other and got along well. No one dared to bully Lin Yan, a foreigner, anymore.

Fangke is a famous family in the village.

Fang Mingche tried every means to build a relationship with Principal Wu and got Lin Yan, who had gone to the countryside shortly after graduating from junior high school, to teach in the village primary school.

A junior high school education is considered a high level of education in the village.

As for him, a secondary normal school student, he is the ceiling of academic qualifications in the entire village.

In those days, being a teacher was the best way to get a job in the countryside, besides attending the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University, being recruited to work in the city, or joining the army. You had to first be recommended by Murakami, and then take the assessment before you could go to the Normal School. In order not to waste the recommendation quota, Murakami would definitely select the best recommendations.

During the class period, I could get a full ten work points a day, and the work was much easier than working in the fields.

This was the motivation behind Fang Mingche’s hard work in studying since he was young: he didn’t want to work hard all day long.

But in his previous life, he could only see this far.

Who would have imagined that teachers' salaries would become relatively meager throughout the 80s and the first few years of the 90s.

Their dual-income family became a poor couple with many worries. And those educated youth who returned to BJ at least got a hukou, so their children could get a few fewer points in the college entrance examination.

Those who have managed to get a house are even more different from them, and the gap is getting bigger and bigger.

At the end of 97, A Yan died in a car accident.

If we just wait another half a year, Premier Zhu will give teachers a substantial salary increase!
From that time on, teachers could finally have a good life, especially compared to the laid-off workers at that time.

Unfortunately, A Yan didn’t wait.

Such a tragedy can never be repeated again in this life.

Just as I was thinking about this, someone opened the curtain and came in, saying with a smile: "Mingche, you're awake. What do you want to eat tonight? I'll make it for you."

After 27 years, Fang Mingche saw his beloved wife Lin Yan again. Lin Yan was young and bright with two thick and long braids.

He rushed forward and hugged Lin Yan tightly in his arms. He choked and said, "Ah Yan——"

Lin Yan reached out and hugged him back, saying with some amusement: "I said I wouldn't leave."

Fang Mingche loosened his grip a little, "No, Ayan, you have to go! Let's have a fake divorce, and you go back to BJ."

Lin Yan was shocked and asked, "What did you say?"

Although Ming Che did not stop her from taking the college entrance examination twice before, he was persuaded to take the exam with her.

But she knew that he actually felt that there was nothing wrong with his current life and had no intention of changing it.

Just go along with her and wait for her to give up if she fails the exam.

毕竟如今高考的录取比例低得惊人。（1977年有570万人走进考场，1978年有590万。两次共录取了40.1万大学生。录取比例3.4%）

What's more, she wants to get back into BJ, how easy is that?
He has always been reluctant to separate, and would never talk about divorce.

Fang Mingche hugged Lin Yan and said, "Ayan, I saw the letter from my father-in-law. What he said makes sense: if you miss this opportunity, you will never get it again. This opportunity is so rare! You have been in the countryside for eight or nine years, and he and my mother-in-law miss you. And my mother-in-law is sick! If you can go to BJ, it will be better for Yanyan's future. You should go back to the city first to get a BJ hukou, and then continue to prepare for the college entrance examination. I will bring the children to BJ to find you!
The educated youth who did not take the opportunity to return to the city this time will basically be cut off from the household registration of big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai for the rest of their lives.

A household registration in Beijing or Shanghai was very valuable. Later, it was sold for 30 or 50 yuan on the black market.

"But the college entrance examination admission rate is so low. What if..."

What if I fail the exam?
People could not move freely between urban and rural areas. Without a letter of introduction, it was impossible to travel far.

You can't stay for long once you go there, you must come back on the specified day.

Otherwise, you will become a blind migrant.

(Blind migrants specifically refer to the surplus agricultural labor force or other people who escaped the household registration system at the time and spontaneously migrated to cities to make a living during the 1953 years from 1989 to 30)
If migrant workers are discovered, they will be driven back to their hometowns by the police.

China has an agricultural population of more than 800 million. In the era of planned economy, if they moved around freely, it would cause a huge burden and even chaos to the social supply system.

"I'm a secondary normal school student, so my education is actually higher than yours. If you really want to take the exam, your chances are pretty good."

BJ has two very famous normal colleges, BJ Normal University and Capital Normal University.

The former is the leader among normal universities across the country.

Fang Mingche knew his own limitations and knew that he would fail the exam even if he tried on tiptoe.

But Capital Normal University can try harder.

No, not just trying hard. He will definitely try his best to get into college in this life.

"Ayan, I trust you and you won't change your mind. Don't you trust that I will definitely come to you?"

(End of this chapter)