Chapter 23 Selection

"What, did I hear that correctly?"

"Meng Wanqiu, that's Secretary Meng's daughter. She's not..."

"Shh, keep your voice down, the Party Secretary is upstairs?"

Meng Wanqiu ignored the whispers beside her, said something to Pei Xingzhi, and stood up.

"I'm going up."

"Well, don't be nervous, just keep calm. It doesn't matter if you are not selected." Pei Xingzhi held Meng Wanqiu's hand tightly and whispered to comfort her.

"That's right, Xiaowan, don't worry." Meng Yanchun stood up and patted Meng Wanqiu on the back, but in his heart he was thinking that if he couldn't be selected, he would go to help his sister feed the pigs, and then he would see who dared to bully his sister.

"Don't worry, your brother and I are still here." Dong Hanyun touched Meng Wanqiu's head, and a dark light flashed in her eyes. If it really didn't work, she would go and criticize the daughters-in-law of the Zhou family. She remembered that they had been dissatisfied with Mrs. Zhou for a long time.

"Come on, auntie!" Zhuangzhuang didn't understand the twists and turns here. He just thought that his auntie was going to the battlefield just like his grandfather said, and he wanted to cheer her up.

"Don't worry." Meng Wanqiu smiled brightly. She didn't have much desire to win, but since her family wanted her to get the scorer job, she decided to take it seriously.

Pei Xingzhi: ...

It feels like he, as a husband, has no sense of existence.

As the last Meng Wanqiu came up, the discussion in the crowd became louder.

"If it's really her, Secretary Meng wouldn't use any backdoors for his daughter, would he?"

"What nonsense! There's the captain's daughter up there. How can the captain just watch for nothing?"

"Don't you think this little Wan from the Meng family is here to join in the fun?"

"Oh, she's a fool for so many years, she hasn't even been to school, can she read? And she comes to choose a scorekeeper, isn't this ridiculous?"

"That's not the way to say it. Judging from how she's doing now, she should be fine. As for whether she can read or not, it's hard to say."

"Oh, why? I've never heard that Meng Wanqiu went to school."

"You youngsters, you're just talking nonsense. How could Secretary Meng let his daughter do something as serious as selecting a scorekeeper? Since she dared to sign up, she must be confident."

"That's right. Just because she didn't go to school doesn't mean she can't read. You have to know that the old lady of the Meng family was the most educated person in our Hongshan Commune back then. How could she let her granddaughter be illiterate?"

"Is that so?"

"I've never heard of it. No wonder the girl from the Meng family dared to sign up."

At the same time, the other registered people on the stage began to whisper after seeing Meng Wanqiu.

Jiang Xiuxiu's heart skipped a beat. Meng Wanqiu had actually signed up. It seemed that the Meng family didn't want her to feed pigs, so they asked Meng Wanqiu to choose the scorer.

However, Jiang Xiuxiu raised one corner of her mouth. She would not let Meng Wanqiu get her wish. The scorer position must be hers.

Just because Meng Wanqiu has been stupid for so many years, how could she possibly compare to Jiang Xiuxiu? It was all in vain and a waste of effort.

Zhang Xiuqing walked over to Meng Wanqiu and whispered, "I didn't expect Comrade Meng to be here too. Can you read? You didn't think Xingzhi taught you a few words, giving you the illusion that you could win us over."

Anyone who registered had at least a junior high school education and had been in school for eight or nine years. How could they compare to a fool like Meng Wanqiu?

Meng Wanqiu was half a head taller than Zhang Xiuqing, about 1.68 meters tall. She stood up straight and glanced at Zhang Xiuqing sideways. There was no emotion in her eyes, but Zhang Xiuqing felt that he was being ridiculed.

"For Xingzhi's sake, I'm kindly advising you to get off quickly. Don't bring shame upon yourself and bring disgrace upon Xingzhi."

Ding Heng was close by, so he naturally heard what Zhang Xiuqing said. He looked at her in surprise. He didn't expect that Zhang Xiuqing could be so mean sometimes. She was completely different from her usual self.

It seems that this woman is not simple either. She says one thing in front of you and another behind your back.

He glanced at the silent Meng Wanqiu again. There was pink at the corners of her eyes and her pink lips were tightly pursed. She looked like a pitiful little girl. Ding Heng's heart softened. She must have been scared by Zhang Xiuqing.

But it was not easy for him to come forward to defend her. After all, he and Zhang Xiuqing were both educated youth and were in the same group. Besides, Meng Wanqiu was Pei Xingzhi's wife. If it were anyone else, they would not have to endure Zhang Xiuqing's anger.

Pei Xingzhi, who was in the audience, noticed that Zhang Xiuqing walked up to Meng Wanqiu and said something to her, and then Meng Wanqiu lowered her head.

Thinking of what Pi Jingxuan had told him before, that when Meng Wanqiu went to the Youth League Institute to find her, Zhang Xiuqing said some unpleasant things to her, and now she actually came to find Meng Wanqiu again, Pei Xingzhi's eyes suddenly turned cold.

"Okay, everyone is here. Next, I will announce the process of our scorekeeper selection."

"There are three in total: one is culture, two is ability, and three is recognizing people."

"Accountant Wu, we understand the first two, but what does the third one, identifying a person, mean?"

Old Wu put his hands behind his back, frowned, and said with a serious expression, "Scorer, you don't just record work points, you also have to record people."

"There are so many people in the village. You have to know what each person does and not mix up the tasks. You also have to know who is supposed to be at work every day. You can't miss someone or have someone else come in and not know about it."

"Okay, that makes sense."

"As expected of Accountant Wu, who has been working for so many years, he knows a lot."

"I see. I thought a scorekeeper's job was just to record work points, but it turns out there are so many tricks involved."

After listening to the accountant, Old Wu's explanation, Meng Yanchun was filled with emotion. He immediately hugged his wife and exclaimed, "What about Xiao Wan? She's rarely been out. Does she know the people in our village?"

Dong Hanyun was also a little at a loss, "I don't know either."

Meng Wanqiu and Pei Xingzhi on the stage looked at each other with admiration in their eyes. Unexpectedly, Pei Xingzhi really guessed it. Accountant Wu actually took the test on recognizing people.

Pei Xingzhi curled his lips slightly. He had not expected that, according to the rules, when selecting scorekeepers for the Qinghe Production Team, the people selected must be locals, so this test would naturally not be difficult.

But Pei Xingzhi was thoughtful. He knew that Meng Wanqiu didn't know many people in the village, so he naturally wanted to make up for her weakness. Unexpectedly, he helped Meng Wanqiu by accident.

There were a total of ten people who registered. Except for Jiang Xiuxiu, Meng Wanqiu, Ding Heng and Zhang Xiuqing, the other six were locals, so the last competition was not difficult for them.

Zhang Xiuqing maintained a good image outside. Although she didn't know everyone, she knew most of them. Ding Heng was similar to her. Although he didn't interact much with the locals, he had been in Qinghe Village for so long that he knew most of them.

The only one with a problem here was Jiang Xiuxiu. As soon as she heard what Accountant Wu said, her heart began to uneasy. She had been back for so long that she almost didn't remember anyone except the people living near her home.

"Okay, that's it." After Accountant Wu finished speaking, several people brought in ten tables with paper, pencils and abacus on them.

Ten people sat down at the table on their own accord.

"The first and second competitions are combined and are both on this test paper. Everyone here, please keep quiet and supervise the ten of them. No whispering or gossip. Do you understand?"

“I heard it!!!”

"I didn't expect that at such an old age, I could still be an examiner, hahahaha."

"Xu Cheng, did you hear that? No whispering. We will supervise you."

"Screw you, I'm not cheating."

"Hahaha."

"Okay, let's start. We only have an hour and a half, so pay attention!" Accountant Wu gave an order, and the audience suddenly fell silent.

Everyone is still a little afraid of Accountant Wu, who usually records their work points.

Meng Wanqiu looked at the simple test paper in her hand. It was all hand-copied, with neat and clear handwriting. It seemed that the person who wrote it had put a lot of effort into it.

Meng Wanqiu wrote her name first. After a few days of training, her handwriting was finally not as terrible as before, but it was still different from Pei Xingzhi's smooth, neat, clear, and vigorous regular script.

Her handwriting was round and had no strokes, which she thought was not very pretty, but Pei Xingzhi said it was very cute and told her not to force it.

In another forty or fifty years, Meng Wanqiu will know what her handwriting looks like. It is the cute font often mentioned on the Internet, chubby and round, and very childlike.

Looking down, Meng Wanqiu raised her eyebrows when she saw the question on the paper.

1+1= 2+8= 18+19=

27+34+45= 174+347=

…

The subsequent calculations include multiplication and division. There are a lot of questions, but the manuscript paper is limited and cannot be calculated on paper. Moreover, the time is only one and a half hours, so people have to use an abacus to save time, otherwise they will not be able to finish the questions.

Because the candidates are being selected as scorers, calculations need to be made every day. There are so many people and paper is precious. But there is no time or paper for you to calculate slowly, so you have to use an abacus.

Sure enough, not long after I finished the simple questions at the beginning, the sounds of abacus could be heard one after another.

After Meng Wanqiu finished reading all the questions, she felt that she didn't even need to use an abacus and could get the answer by doing mental calculations.

But I think it’s better to be low-key. Being too high-profile will easily make people hate you.

So she slowly started to use the abacus. The beads made a slight sound, and the surrounding environment influenced Meng Wanqiu. She subconsciously returned to her previous life when she was in the organization, studying day and night.

Her hand speed unconsciously increased. She used the abacus with her left hand and wrote with her right hand. Her movements became faster and faster, and she could no longer even see her fingers clearly.

The "crackling" sound successfully attracted the attention of two people next to them. The two people sitting next to Meng Wanqiu were named Xu Cheng and Jiang Xiuxiu.

Xu Ben originally didn't want to look to the side, but Meng Wanqiu's movements were so loud that he became a little curious and couldn't help but secretly glance at her.

But this sight also scared Xu Cheng a lot. He opened his mouth wide and watched Meng Wanqiu actually use an abacus with her left hand, and her movements were so fast that he could only see the afterimage.

Meng Wanqiu was still typing blindly, she didn't even look at the abacus. For a moment, Xu Cheng was so surprised that he forgot that he was still taking an exam.

It was not until Accountant Wu came over and knocked him on the forehead that Xu Cheng shrank back in fear.

However, he lost confidence afterwards because Secretary Meng's daughter was so powerful.

Meng Wanqiu's big move naturally attracted a lot of people's attention, and Accountant Wu was no exception.

He looked behind Meng Wanqiu, watched her movements, then looked at the promise written on the paper, and couldn't help but nodded, with satisfaction in his eyes.