Chapter 12

Xu Man came out of the house and saw a lesbian about her age pushing a bicycle and waiting at the door, panting

She had short, sharp hair, her skin was a little dark, and her whole person looked particularly competent

It was a stranger, and Xu Wen was certain she didn’t recognize her “I’m Xu Man, and you are?”

The lesbian wiped her sweat and revealed a mouthful of white teeth with a smile, “I’m Wen Yiming’s cousin He temporarily had a bit of a problem and couldn’t go to school with you, so he asked me to bring his bike ,” the lesbian patted the bike handles, “over to you”

Xu Man was stunned and shook his head in rejection, “No need to be so troublesome! I can just take the bus”

“But the buses from our place to the county town are especially scarce, and there will be no buses at three o’clock”

Otherwise, she couldn’t risk being late for work to run errands for Wen Yiming

Xu Wen turned back to look at the wall clock in the house, two forty

She hurriedly waved her hand and entered the house, “It’s fine, it’s still not too late I’ll just walk faster I’ll just walk faster I’d rather ask you to ride your bicycle back! Besides, doesn’t Wen Yiming have to ride to school himself?”

Xu Wen’s clothes for school were all packed and ready to go on his back

The lesbian was uneasy: “But what if you don’t make it to the bus?”

It was three kilometers from here to the commune station!

Three kilometers and twenty minutes wasn’t too hard for her, but could Xu Man run as fast as she looked so petite?

Xu Wen waved her hand as she ran out the door, “Thank you! I should be able to catch up Besides, I don’t know how to ride a bicycle, so it’s useless for you to leave it to me”

Hearing this, the lesbian got on her bike and chased after her, “Then come up and I’ll take you to the commune station”

This time Xu Wen did not excuse herself, really miss the last bus, she will have to walk until tomorrow morning

To the bus, she looked through the window and hurriedly left the lesbian finally had time to think: Wen Yiming this is to release their pigeons?

County No 1 Middle School in the center of the county east of the location

There is only one building in the school, the rest are cottages

The only building was the teaching building and teachers’ offices

These bungalows are divided in two by an aisle in the center

On the left is the teachers’ residential family area Not only current teachers but also former teachers or retired old teachers

The front row of houses in the residential area also had a small printing press

On the right is the dormitory area, the front row is the boys’ dormitory, the back row is the girls’ dormitory There are six rows in total, with ten dormitories in each row

Xu Wen in the first class, dormitory in the last row of the first room on the left hand side, next to the central road

The dormitory was not much more than a room, the door and window were integrated, a single door plus a small window was basically the width of the room

Once you enter the door is the bed, to be precise, is a large bunk bed

Five bunk beds iron frame bed from south to north together, can sleep twelve people

In addition to these beds, the small room is left with an aisle that is about eighty centimeters wide and a three-tiered, open, simple wooden cabinet in the corner

On the wooden cabinet, aluminum lunch boxes and toiletries were arranged in layers

Xu Wen’s level was special There were fewer students, and even fewer girls There were only four girls in their class, so there was still room for other items on the bunks, such as clothes that they couldn’t wear or books that they couldn’t use

When Xu Man arrived at the dormitory with his large bag, two female students had already arrived early

They were the good old Li Yun and the straight-talking Shao Yueyue

As soon as Li Yun saw Xu Man, she let out a wow: “Ask, just more than half a month no see, how did you become beautiful again?”

Li Yun is considered the biggest one in their dormitory, 21 years old this year, with a head of self-curly hair

Her parents work in the county authorities Her family conditions are very good, and she is kind and very good at taking care of people, so she is indeed the eldest sister in the dormitory

Xu Wen smiled, “You look better too”

Shao Yueyue just finished washing her hair, heard the two of them praising each other, and joked: “You both look good, but I’m ugly?”

Shao Yueyue is one year younger than Xu Wen, her family is from a commune near the county town, her parents are both regular factory workers, and her family’s condition is not bad

It should be said that in addition to Xu Man, the other girls in the class are quite good

Nowadays, the trend of emphasizing sons over daughters is still relatively serious Families that could afford to send girls to high school were basically not in bad shape, and at the very least had to be working families

Farmer students like Xu Man are rare

Xu Wen is very competitive, all the exams, big and small, is the first place in the school

Compared to that, there were more male students from poorer families

“Which is?” Xu Wen knew that Shao Yue was just joking, smiled and shook his head, “Yue Yue is the best looking!”

Shao Yue was wiping her hair with a towel and sniffed lightly, “How dare I say good looking in front of you? Not to mention me, no one in our county probably dares to say that”

“You are exaggerating There are so many people in the entire county, how can I get a turn?” Xu Wen lost his smile and shook his head, placing the things he brought one by one in the right places

“Why did you bring so many pickles on a hot day?” Shao Yue asked curiously, “We don’t even have a fan here, won’t it break on such a hot day?”

Xu Man shook his head, “I hope not! It’s quite salty”

The next week would depend on them

Compared to Shao Yue, Li Yun knew a little bit more about rural life, and also knew that Xu Man’s family was not in good condition

She glanced at the salted vegetables and the jar of flour that was a bit strange in color, and asked Xu, “Ask, going to eat? I haven’t had dinner yet! Will you accompany me?”

Having been classmates for a year and a half, Xu Wen certainly understood Li Yun’s character

This was for fear of her starving, inviting her to dinner under the banner that she was going to eat, shaking her head and saying thank you, “Thank you, Sister Yun Yun, I’ve just come with a full stomach”

Li Yun didn’t say more, only saying, “Tell me if you’re short of money”

Xu Man thanked again

By the time Xu Man had finished arranging the things he brought from home, Shao Yue’s hair was almost dry, and the three of them walked to the classroom together as companions

Girls, no matter how old they were, always liked to travel in pairs, and the three of them were always together when they went to class and drank water and ate

Xu Man is actually more independent and prefers to be alone At first together is to feel a dormitory is not good too out of the group, and then slowly also get used to this

“Liu Rulan hasn’t come yet?” Xu Wen saw that the bed of the last roommate hadn’t been moved yet

When Shao Yue heard Liu Rulan’s name, she rolled her eyes so much that she couldn’t see her black eyeballs, and looked disgusted: “How can that big lady come so early? Probably waiting for her father to send her in a limousine tomorrow morning, right? It can still show off at the door again”

Liu Rulan was the same age as Shao Yue, both eighteen Her parents are both cadres, especially Liu Rulan’s dad has a car in his unit and will occasionally pick her up and drop her off

Every time the car comes, Liu Rulan will always deliberately dawdle for a while in front of the school so that her classmates can see

Sedans are rare these days

Like Xu asked the family such conditions, even the bicycle can not afford to buy the family abounds, some people see have not seen the car

It is normal for Liu Rulan to be proud

But she is a little too proud to come to school, but also always put themselves as a big lady to classmates also bossy, rude attitude, quite annoying

No wonder Shao Yue is so disgusted

In this world, there are always some people who love the rich and the poor and like to rush to be the servant for the big lady

Using the term “licking dog” after forty or fifty years

In their class, those who spoiled Liu Rulan were basically male students In the dormitory, Xu Wen definitely wouldn’t spoil her, but she wasn’t as blunt as Shao Yue

Although Li Yun doesn’t like Liu Rulan either, she has a soft character and keeps her anger in her heart, so she’s not very good at rejecting people

Xu Wen’s classroom is on the second floor, the top floor

With forty or fifty years after the high school not only teaching environment is very different, even the banner in the classroom is not the same

In high schools decades later, the classrooms were filled with words of encouragement for the college entrance examination

For example, “Three years of hard work, this is the moment” “Study hard for more than ten years, and then fight for the last half a year!”

Now the classrooms are plastered with slogans like, “Study for the world revolution, train the successors of the revolution in red and brick” “Education must be combined with productive labor” And so on and so forth

The Sunday evening study hall was the most interesting, divided into two factions

The dynamic faction refers to the army of homework catching up

This part of the students at home on weekends, busy earning credits do not have time to write homework, take advantage of the Sunday night study hall wild homework Because on Monday, the first class will have to hand in the homework

The quiet faction refers to the students who sleep

Some students may be tired from their work during the day and stay up late at night to do their homework

There are also many students within ten kilometers of the school even buses are not willing to sit, are walking

So that to the evening study hall, a quiet down completely open eyes, lying on the desk fell asleep

Xu Wen counted good, after all, goat herding is not tired, but also in the field on the homework

At most, every time before writing to the grave bowed and said, “Sorry, I have to borrow your house door plate use”

After all, they had expropriated the monument

Their homeroom teacher was Chen Jinhua

He was an exceptionally sensible young teacher who entered the classroom, shook his head, sighed softly, and walked to the podium, tapping the desktop with the blackboard eraser

Only when the sleeping students were woken up did he speak, “The body is the capital of the revolution! You guys have to labor on weekends and walk to school, you’re already working so hard that you don’t have the energy to study even if you’re sitting here hard, so go back to sleep first! Nourish your spirit and learn well tomorrow Go back!”

The students thanked the teacher in unison, and went home, back to the dormitory to go back to the dormitory

Like Liu Rulan’s family in the neighborhood do not live in the school, she wants the dormitory is to rest at noon Because she didn’t want to ride her bike home in the sun for fear of getting a tan

According to the school is not allowed to do so But their level of special, fewer girls, idle so many beds

She wanted to live in the classroom teacher did not say much

Xu asked can not go home, also do not want to go back to the dormitory

She is afraid of the heat, the dormitory has no fan

There is a ceiling fan in the classroom, but it is not cool enough to turn half a day But it was better than nothing Besides, there was nothing to do in the dormitory

Not only Xu Wen, not sleepy and dormitory students all tacitly agreed to stay in the classroom

There are those who study and those who chat

Shao Yue pulled Li Yun over to sit in front of Xu Man and face her in the back She asked them in a low voice, “Have you heard? We’re going to start this semester by studying for the army”

In County No 1 Middle School, in addition to daily studies, there were two other things that had to be learned

One was the same as studying, scheduled to learn politics and labor before the daily evening study hall

The other is called Learning to Work and Learning to Farm and Learn to Soldier

These three kinds of study are not to take out after-school time, but every semester must take out at least one week for comprehensive study, to ensure that the penetration and implementation of the education policy

The study of labor, as the name implies, means learning from the working class

Over the past three semesters, Xu Man and his classmates have gone to different factories to study together

For example, machine factories, fertilizer factories

Learning by doing is not a joke in this day and age

In the machine factories, you have to apply your physics knowledge in a practical way

To follow the master workers to learn to assemble rice beaters, planters and other machinery

Last year’s fall harvest, Taoyuan production team’s rice beater only played half of the grain on the bad

According to the usual situation is to wait for manufacturers to repair master to repair, because the village people do not know this

But the fall harvest of each commune are in the threshing rice, maybe which production team’s rice machine breaks down It took a long time to wait in line for repairs

If you don’t work, you don’t get work credits Xu Wen wanted to take advantage of the vacation to earn more work credits, so she tried to fix it, but she didn’t expect it to be fixed

The production brigade gave her a certificate of appreciation and rewarded her with ten dollars

For this reason, the brigade also encourages students of school age to study more, and gives them lighter work on weekends, so as not to affect their studies

In the fertilizer factory, of course, to understand the process of making fertilizer, which uses the knowledge of chemistry

In fact, these are pediatrics for Xu Man, a little look to understand

However, she did not dare to make fertilizer privately

The production team is unified order fertilizer, there is no room for her to play

They have also been to the cement factory, which is the actual learning of the spirit of hard work

As for learning agriculture, the school has also taken great pains to do so

First of all, the school’s own farm

The farm is not in the school, in the outskirts of the county in the middle of nowhere, even the highway is not connected

Living materials and all kinds of agricultural tools were transported by the students on foot or carried or lifted or carried

Don’t look at Xu Man is a farmer’s child, but her body is a thousand gold body, very delicate After a day of walking and carrying things, her shoulders were red and swollen, and her feet were covered with blisters

The school farm is a piece of wasteland

Xu asked their level and is the first batch of high school students after the resumption of enrollment, the first task is to open up the land

Their two classes, each class of fifty people take turns stationed on the ground, a class stayed ten days to open up the land

One hundred high school students, twenty days to reclaim twenty acres of cultivable land

Forty or fifty years from now, that’s a pipe dream

How could any teenager be willing to endure this hardship?

Xu Man had never suffered this kind of pain in her past life, and her palms and feet were full of blisters

Luckily, her classmates helped her, and even the teachers took care of her

In addition, the school also has vegetable plots, direct responsibility to the class, the class is responsible for different vegetable plots, watering and fertilizing When the vegetables grow up and are uniformly picked and sent to the cafeteria

The last thing is to learn from the army, that is, to learn from the People’s Liberation Army comrades of excellent skills and strong will

Last year to learn the army is to visit a local base to learn

Of course, the premise is not involved in people’s confidential content

In fact, it is to borrow people’s venues and playgrounds to carry out a military training, practicing formation, playing backpacks, but also went to the field to practice a round

Of these three studies, Xu Man likes to study labor the most, because it is relatively easy Upon hearing that this semester would start with military training, Xu Man dropped his head on the spot

“This really isn’t good news!” Xu Man sighed lightly

Li Yun please patted her, “Don’t talk nonsense! You belong to the category of having a bad attitude”

Shao Yue nodded, “That’s right! But this time, learning to be a soldier should be easier than last year”

“How so?”

“I heard that this year, we got active duty soldiers to teach us in school”

Xu Man huffed, that would really be military training

It was unthinkable that the seventies would be able to experience military training life again in high school

“Also, there’s another piece of good news” Shao Yue mysteriously lowered her voice

Xu Man wasn’t too interested, as long as it wasn’t the resumption of the college entrance exam, she didn’t think there was anything else that could be considered a surprise in her high school career

In her two lifetimes, there was nothing she hadn’t experienced in terms of learning

Compared to Xu Wen, Li Yun was much more enthusiastic and asked Shao Yue, “What’s the good news?”

“We’re building a new school!”

“Wow!” Li Yun’s eyes also brightened, “Where will it be built? When will the new school building be completed?”

This school is a little too dilapidated, the main enrollment school will not be able to put

Xu asked not in a hurry to be happy, asked a question: “Determined to build a new school? I heard that our school local is not to give financial support Have money to build?”

This is a time when learning is not appetizing, a high school that can’t go to college and can’t be assigned a job is not valued by the local community at all

Nonetheless, one had to tremble and risk violating that if one was not careful

“It seems like there is none” Shao Yue shook her head, “I heard that it’s something we have to build ourselves”

Xu asked, “”

This high school is not in vain

Will farming will enter the workshop dragged out can also be half a soldier, this is just, now even want to build their own school?

“I hope this news of yours isn’t reliable!” Xu Wen muttered

Li Yun shook her head, “I’m afraid it’s true Because I’ve heard about it as well”

Xu Man: “”

A head planted on his desk

It was so tempting to drop out of school!

After the evening study hall, Xu Wen, the three of them, returned to their dormitory together before going to get hot water together

To the north of their dormitory was the public restroom There is a curved archway on the left hand side of the public restroom, and through the archway are the water room and the cafeteria in turn

Water tickets were required to turn on the water, but these were issued by the school itself

One penny for a jug of water

You would fetch the hot water back to your dormitory, and then take your wash basin to the communal faucet next to the front row of dormitories to fetch the cool water

There was no communal washroom on campus, only an outdoor communal sink at the south end of the road that divided the dormitories from the family buildings

The pool was pressed into the wall of the printing plant on campus, and hundreds of people lined up in front of the eight faucets every night to drink water and wash themselves

In the summer, it was fine, but in the winter, when it froze, there was no water at all

Xu Wen just put the basin under the faucet, heard someone shouting at her

Turning back to the sound, there was a man leaning on the double bar by the playground in front of the dormitory, who seemed to be waiting for her

He was standing under the streetlight, so Xu could not see what he looked like