Xia Qingqing's mention of Zhang Hongyan's studies was just a pretext; she simply wanted to persuade Liang Shuang to start studying as soon as possible.

She couldn't control the others, but she wanted to remind Liang Shuang and Song Ze privately, which was her best effort. Whether they were willing to listen or not was beyond her control.

"Shuangshuang, I've been reviewing my junior and senior high school knowledge lately. I feel like I've forgotten most of the knowledge points since I left school. I want to pick it up again."

After hearing this, Liang Shuang was clearly confused: "But it seems like learning all this is useless, since we can't take the college entrance exam now."

Studying is useless; this is probably the thought of most people nowadays. If Xia Qingqing hadn't traveled from the future, she probably wouldn't believe that the college entrance examination would suddenly be reinstated.

Xia Qingqing said seriously, "I don't think our country can continue like this forever. If the country wants to develop, it must cultivate new talents, and universities are the cradle of talent cultivation."

Liang Shuang agreed with this, but it seemed to have nothing to do with them anymore.

It must be admitted that the two years in the countryside have really worn down Liang Shuang's fighting spirit. She is 21 years old this year, and girls of that age in the countryside would have been married and had children long ago.

Fortunately, Liang Shuang has loving parents. When she went home to visit her family this time, her mother told her that she had been looking for a job for her and would buy her a suitable one if she found one.

In fact, Liang's mother is already very anxious. Even though Liang Shuang herself said that she was doing very well in the countryside, seeing her daughter's skin, which was much darker than before, and her increasingly rough hands, she couldn't wait to give her daughter her job.

That was Liang's mother's original plan, but Liang Shuang was unwilling to take over her mother's job. Liang Shuang knew that her mother loved her work and she didn't want her mother to be idle at home in her forties, with nothing to do but revolve around men and children.

However, finding a suitable job these days is not easy. Mr. and Mrs. Liang have been inquiring but have not found a suitable one yet.

"If, I mean if, the college entrance examination is reinstated one day, Shuangshuang, would you still want to go to university?" Xia Qingqing asked casually, as if she were just chatting.

Going to university? The three words flashed through Liang Shuang's mind. She smiled and said, "Of course I want to, but it's pointless. Who knows when the college entrance examination will be reinstated? Maybe we'll be old by then. In that case, maybe our children will be able to go to university in the future."

Xia Qingqing retorted with dissatisfaction: "Why can't we go to university when we're old? It's never too late to learn. Look at my mom, she couldn't read a single word before, but she's only just started learning now and she's not afraid of it being too late."

As she spoke, she took Liang Shuang's hand and said earnestly, "Shuangshuang, let's study together from now on. We should learn until we die, and when we're old, we'll be a pair of wise sisters."

"Haha~, Qingqing, you're so funny! You're such a smart sister, aren't you?" Liang Shuang burst into laughter at Xia Qingqing's words.

——

Liu Xiaoying frowned subconsciously as she looked at Liang Shuang sitting on the bed reading a book.

She had never seen Liang Shuang touch a book since they had lived together for so long, but after spending the New Year at home, Liang Shuang actually started reading books?

She didn't even need to guess; there was definitely something wrong with this. Liang Shuang must know some inside information and was making preparations now.

After Qin Jiajia left, only Liu Xiaoying and Liang Shuang remained at the educated youth settlement. There were no conflicts between them, so they got along quite well.

Using her boredom as an excuse, Liu Xiaoying borrowed a book from Liang Shuang and started reading it.

With someone to study with and Xia Qingqing's occasional reminders, Liang Shuang, who originally just wanted to read to pass the time, became more and more serious.

The more seriously she studied, the harder Liu Xiaoying worked. Although she didn't know what Liang Shuang was studying for, she couldn't stand Liang Shuang pushing her too hard.

There were only a few people at the educated youth settlement to begin with, and the two female educated youths were studying harder than each other, which made the male educated youths panic.

No need to say anything more, they've all learned it, we can't fall behind.

The learning atmosphere at the entire educated youth settlement was very strong for a time.

Xia Qingqing never expected that her simple intention to help Liang Shuang would actually involve so many people, but she was quite happy to see it happen.

This was also a good excuse to get Song Ze to study with us.

As luck would have it, not long after, a major piece of news suddenly spread throughout the brigade: their brigade had been allocated a worker-peasant-soldier student quota this year.

The news caused an uproar throughout the entire production brigade.

It's important to know that at that time, worker-peasant-soldier students didn't need to take exams to enter university. Instead, they were directly recommended from poor and lower-class workers, peasants, workers, People's Liberation Army soldiers, and young cadres. As long as they met these criteria, were around twenty years old, and had at least a junior high school education, they could participate in the recruitment of worker-peasant-soldier students.

In other words, academic performance was not considered; as long as one's family background met the basic requirements, they had a chance to go to university.

The number of worker-peasant-soldier students each year was allocated from above, but the number of students was very small. A county had many communes, and a commune had many production teams. Many production teams might not get a single student for several years.

This year, the commune's quota happened to go to the Shihe Production Brigade.

The moment Liu Xiaoying heard the news, the way she looked at Liang Shuang changed. She felt that Liang Shuang must have known about this all along, which was why she had been studying so hard.

However, this made Liu Xiaoying even more wary of Liang Shuang, as she worried that Liang Shuang would use connections to get the spot.

Liang Shuang had no idea what Liu Xiaoying was thinking. If she did know, she would definitely think that Liu Xiaoying really thought highly of her.

Did Liang Shuang not want this spot? Of course she did, but she knew the chances of it falling into the hands of the educated youth were extremely low.

Not to mention that many members of the brigade have children who meet the enrollment requirements, several brigade cadres also have several children who meet the requirements. Wouldn't they want to reserve such a precious spot for their own family members?

After listening to Liang Shuang's analysis, Xia Qingqing couldn't help but sigh that this girl was truly insightful.

She had been thinking about how to persuade Liang Shuang if she wanted to compete for the spot, but she didn't expect that Liang Shuang had already figured it out herself.

Late at night, Zhang Hongyan and Xia Heping were also discussing the issue of this quota.

Zhang Hongyan lay on the bed and nudged her husband with her elbow: "Tomorrow, go ask the brigade leader how this spot is selected. Our Qingqing is still a high school student, so we should fight for what we can."

Xia Heping's expression was somewhat solemn, and he sighed softly, "This matter is probably in jeopardy."

“What’s so uncertain? This spot must be elected fairly! If anyone dares to show favoritism, I’ll report them to the commune,” Zhang Hongyan said indignantly.