Chapter 226 Extra 04: Past Events

Lin was in third grade. One day, he brought home an assignment, saying that his Chinese teacher had asked them to write an essay titled "The Most Unforgettable Thing".

Guan Yuehe and Lin Yiku watched her scratch her head for a long time, but she hadn't even started writing a single word of content on her notebook, only writing the title.

Lin Ting couldn't think of anything, so she leaned against her mother's back and whimpered, asking her parents how they wrote their compositions when they were in elementary school.

She and her parents all attended the Wuxing Automobile Factory Affiliated Primary School. Their former teachers are still teaching at the school. Last time her parents went to the school to receive criticism, those teachers recognized her father and even praised her for looking exactly like him.

"Did we ever teach essay writing before?" Guan Yuehe didn't quite remember, and even Lin Yiku was a little confused. The two of them frowned and tried to recall.

When they were in school, especially when Guan Yuehe was in elementary school, the country was reforming its Chinese language curriculum. They studied "Chinese Language" and "Hanyu" using nationally compiled textbooks, and learning to recognize characters started with pinyin. After less than two years, the textbooks were changed, and they went back to the old ones.

Then, in the 1960s, the content of textbooks was heavily influenced by politics, and many language teachers were labeled as monsters and demons, so teachers gradually became afraid to teach.

Chinese language classes were often turned into labor classes.

In the years around the 1960s, very few people could get enough to eat; being able to eat half full each day was considered a feat.

She was always hungry, yet she still had to attend labor classes. Therefore, she hated Chinese class the most and hoped every day that it wouldn't be changed to labor class.

So, she couldn't quite recall whether writing compositions was taught in her Chinese class back then.

Her memories are filled with endless labor classes.

Lin Ting listened quietly. She couldn't quite imagine what it felt like to "only be able to eat half full at most every day." At school, she only attended half of her classes in the morning before her stomach started rumbling incessantly. As soon as get out of class ended, she had to take out the snacks from her schoolbag to fill her stomach.

Even missing half a class period is torture for her.

Lin Ting touched her mother's face with heartache, "Mom can eat so much, she must have been starving back then."

Guan Yuehe: "......"

For a moment, I didn't know if my daughter was feeling sorry for her when she didn't have enough to eat as a child, or if she was subtly implying that my daughter was a glutton.

Gu Yu often called Lin Ting a little glutton, but Lin Ting wasn't ashamed and even proudly replied, "My mom is a big glutton, so of course I'm a little glutton!"

But then again, that's how most families lived back then.

Oh no, the Lin family next door is much better off than them.

Although both parents work, she has two more children. Her younger brother, Guan Aiguo, was born not long after she started elementary school. The family also had to squeeze out some supplies to send back to their uncle and aunt's hometown.

At that time, rural areas underwent reforms, and all land became collectively owned. Fengshou Village was transformed into Fengshou Production Team. Although there was land to cultivate and grain could be produced in my hometown, the amount of grain that could be distributed to individuals was not much.

During the years she was in elementary school, the whole family had to be very frugal.

She looks forward to the New Year the most, so she can have a really big meal.

Despite her dislike for labor classes, she was very enthusiastic when running around with Ding Xuewen and the other two.

Going to the auditorium to watch performances, watching others go on blind dates at social gatherings, fishing in ice caves dug by others in winter, playing on the ice with friends...

This period of hardship mixed with a touch of joy lasted for several years until the year my eldest brother, Guan Jianguo, finished junior high school. The country had weathered the three years of hardship, and the food supply gradually increased. My eldest brother was also recruited to work in a car factory. With three workers in the family, life suddenly improved.

—

Jiang Guiying, who lives in Courtyard No. 3, is also chatting with her old neighbors about the housing dispute from back then.

"Right then, Jianguo started working in the factory, and we had three full-time workers in our family. Jianguo was almost nineteen and old enough to date and get married, but we couldn't even free up half a room in our house. The housing management department refused to give us a new house. On the other hand, the deputy head of the housing management department had three rooms and even gave one to his son. How could I not make a scene? Did they think we were easy targets?"

As soon as Jiang Guiying mentioned it, someone quickly remembered it, slapped their thigh, and said, "That's right! I remember now! I was working in the finance department at that time, and for half a month I saw you and Fang Qin blocking the entrance of the housing management department demanding an explanation."

Jiang Guiying said proudly, "Back then, so many people laughed at us for being shameless. Hey, we got the house through our 'trouble,' and then a lot of people came to cause trouble after us."

It's a good thing they were able to swallow their pride and make a scene back then, otherwise, how would they have gotten the houses they have now?

After that incident, the housing management department approved their application to change houses. Six months later, Fang Qin's family moved to the side room of No. 3 Courtyard, while her family was allocated three main rooms.

Afterwards, she and Guan Canghai built walls to divide the three main rooms into several smaller rooms, and this was not changed for many years afterward.

At this moment, several junior high school students came home from school and greeted the elderly people one by one.

The old folks watched the children with kind eyes as they walked into the alley, their ponytails swaying, and remarked with a touch of nostalgia that today's kids are lucky to be born in such a good era.

"Kids these days are like precious gems; they never go hungry or cold. Unlike when we were kids."

Jiang Guiying rolled her eyes. "Compared to us, what's there to compare? When we were ten years old, the country hadn't even been founded yet."

“That’s true.” Aunt Bai added, “Not to mention our generation, we were much better off than Xiang Hong and her generation.”

Aunt Bai chuckled and said, "When Yuejin was in junior high, he really worried me a lot, and my hair started turning white. He didn't pass the factory's recruitment exam, and other companies only hired their own employees' children. The educated youth office and the neighborhood committee came to our door every few days to persuade him... I only had one job. If I took over his job, what would happen to Xianghong when he graduated the following year? If I didn't take over his job, I was afraid he would suffer in the countryside..."

Even now, when Aunt Bai thinks back on it, she feels bitter.

When Bai Yuejin returned from outside and heard this, he smiled.

A widow raised three children alone, and at the most difficult time, the whole family almost couldn't survive. In other families, children are divided between their own children, but in his mother's heart, all three siblings were precious. He and Xiang Hong were close in age, so no matter who got to whom, his mother would suffer the most.

When it comes to the educated youth going to the countryside, there's a lot to say.

Which family doesn't have a former educated youth who went to the countryside?

Everyone started reminiscing about the past, except for Aunt Zhao, who kept quiet. No one in her family had gone to the countryside, which was unusual in Ginkgo Alley.

When talking about going to the countryside, the topic of succession inevitably comes up. These older folks, whenever they talk about succession, start mentioning Guan Yuehe and Lin Yiku.

One got a job as a temporary worker at the Zhuoyue Garment Factory on his own, while the other directly signed up for the army, thus avoiding being sent to the countryside.

Someone said to Jiang Guiying, "I think Yuehe is the smartest. She knew to make plans early on. The year Yuehe entered the factory, the forced educated youth to go to the countryside hadn't started yet. It's a good thing she didn't have to wait until she graduated from high school."

Jiang Guiying nodded in agreement, saying that if Yuehe had waited until high school graduation, things might have turned out very differently.

In 1968, unemployed educated youth in the city were required to respond to the national call to go to the countryside. That year, the places where the educated youth were assigned were all far away.

Someone in the crowd complained, "What a pity for my daughter. I thought she could take the college entrance exam, but she's only in her first year of high school and the exam has been canceled."

Jiang Guiying sighed and said, "What a pity! Could it be more regrettable than my eldest daughter?"

I graduated from high school in 1966, the same year the college entrance examination was abolished.

When the news of the cancellation of the college entrance examination reached the school, Guan Yuehua cried all the way home, frightened because she thought her daughter had been bullied outside.

I missed it that year, and waited for ten years.

But there's no way to reason with this.

"By the way, there's something I've never understood: how did Xu Xiaomei break up with her boyfriend from when she went to the countryside?"

Those in the know clicked their tongues and pointed at Jiang Guiying, but Jiang Guiying knew nothing about it!

"Oh dear! I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about your Yuehua. That guy is shameless. He's hooking up with Xu Xiaomei, and even after he went to the countryside, he still wrote to Yuehua. Yuehua just turned around and gave the letters to Xu Xiaomei. Without Xu Xiaomei sending him food and supplies, that guy went crazy in the countryside. Oh, my second son went to the same place as him, otherwise I wouldn't have known."

The elderly men and women exclaimed in surprise, they really didn't know there was such a story!

Back then, Yuehua and Xu Xiaomei lived in the same courtyard. The two didn't get along at all, but unexpectedly, they were able to help each other when trouble came.

Jiang Guiying said, "What's wrong with that? They may not like each other, but they are still neighbors in the same courtyard. When Yuehua was laughed at by her classmates at school, Xu Xiaomei even helped her fight back."

"Oh my! Now that you mention it, I remember. Yuehua got a terrible haircut from Old Chen at the hair salon, right?" Aunt Bai laughed loudly. "When I came home from get off work, I saw her running back crying all the way. I thought she had been bullied, but when I listened, it was all about cursing Master Chen!"

"Master Chen from the barbershop? Tsk tsk tsk! I just don't understand, who transferred him from the veterinary station to the barbershop?"

"This is a long story..."

—

"Grandpa and grandma, what are you chatting about?" Jin Junwei asked.

As soon as people see him, they instinctively want to hide. This pretty boy is getting more and more shameless, grabbing anyone he can and recommending that they buy a house.

“Hey Junwei, your engineer Zhou’s monthly salary isn’t bad either.”

Jin Junwei wasn't annoyed and laughed, "Who would complain about not having enough money?"

He also wants to buy a small courtyard house to live in!

The elderly folks were about to continue talking when they looked up and saw Zhou Hongqi returning from get off work, and they all immediately shut up.

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That concludes the prequel; the next chapter will begin the story of Sister Red Flag.