"I do treat Sister Cuifen like my own sister. She's doing this for my own good, so how could it be meddling?"

Hearing what Grandma Wu said, Gou Cuifen felt relieved.

After the registration was completed, the village secretary counted the participants and found that, in addition to the educated youth, there were more than a dozen other people in the village who had registered.

Gou Cuifen looked at the names on the list and asked in confusion, "Can they all read? Are there still people in this village I don't know?"

The village party secretary frowned, "This is utter chaos."

There were many onlookers at the time. When he saw that these people didn't even want to register their names, he was surprised to find that some people were jeering him for looking down on the people in his own village and favoring those from outside.

I had no choice but to register the names one by one.

"So what are you going to do?"

The village party secretary glanced outside and said, "Then let's start with a written test. We'll give them some simple questions to test them."

"Great, this saves us trouble. It filters out those who are trying to take advantage of the situation and profit from the chaos."

The couple discussed it and decided to test it after work that evening.

The night passed in the blink of an eye. During the day, the village secretary had just told the people who had signed up about the news when the faces of those who were trying to take advantage of the situation changed.

written examination?

They didn't even know how to hold a pen. When someone objected, the village secretary raised a sign in protest, but it was ineffective.

In the evening, Grandma Wu and her family moved stools and sat in the crowd early, looking at the blackboard set up by the village secretary, which was full of words and pinyin, or words with missing pinyin above them, or pinyin without words below them.

Grandma Wu immediately understood what the village party secretary meant.

It seems they're planning to kick out those who are just trying to profit from the chaos first.

"Quiet down, everyone be quiet!"

The village party secretary's voice traveled across the empty threshing ground to everyone's ears.

Seeing that people had quieted down, the village party secretary nodded in satisfaction. "A total of twenty-three people signed up this time, and the exams will be conducted in two rounds."

Two wheels? So many?

The village party secretary's temple throbbed with a vein. "Shut up! Are you the one talking or me?"

Seeing that things had quieted down, he took a breath and continued, "The first round is this blackboard in front of you. It has pinyin and characters on it, some pinyin for characters that are missing, and characters that don't have pinyin for characters."

"Each person can only write one. If they can't write one, they will be eliminated and will not be eligible to participate in the second round of trial teaching."

As soon as he finished speaking, ignoring the noisy chatter below, the village secretary picked up the list and began reading out the names.

"Wang Tie."

The village secretary looked up and saw a snotty nose that was two feet long. When it reached the mouth, it quickly disappeared. Old Mrs. Wu felt a discomfort in her throat.

Wang Tie pulled up his pants, glanced around, and looked troubled.

Urged repeatedly by the village secretary, he stood in front of the blackboard, scratching here and there. Just as he was about to reach out and scratch his crotch, the village secretary shouted to stop him.

"Are you crazy? Where are you putting your hands?"

"With all the old and young women and female educated youth in the village here, don't you have any shame?"

After being called out by the village secretary, Wang Tie stared at the flying arm and kicking leg strokes in the blackboard for three to five minutes.

"If you don't know how, then go down."

Wang Tie wanted to dawdle a bit longer, but was shouted down by his fellow villagers.

"If you can't, come down quickly."

"Exactly, Wang Tie, are you even literate? Why are you going upstairs?"

Wang Tie slurped up the thick, yellow snot again, then reached out the back of his hand to wipe his nose. Unexpectedly, a large clump of snot came out with it. The more he wiped, the more snot appeared, and it felt like his brain was being pulled out.

Looking at the snotty nose, Wang Tie pulled up his shirt, pinched his nose hard, and washed it out, successfully putting on a show in front of everyone where he almost fainted from washing his nose.

The villagers below leaned back, their faces showing disgust, as if afraid that the snot falling in mid-air would hit them.

Wang Tie smiled sheepishly, casually wiped his hands, and as soon as he returned to his seat, the area within two meters of him suddenly became empty.

The village party secretary gave Wang Tie a disdainful and slightly speechless look.

They called out the next person to come up on stage, "Li Wu."

Li Wu stood up with a smile, tucked the hem of his shirt into his pants, and said, "Coming."

Upon seeing the first character, Li Wu felt a surge of joy. He recognized the character; wasn't it the character '大' (da)?

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Li Wu raised his hand and skillfully wrote the pinyin on it.

Even after he left, the village secretary stared incredulously at his back for a while.

Can Li Wu even write?

It’s true that you can’t judge a book by its cover.

Next, he and Gou Cuifen called on a few more people who they felt were just taking advantage of the situation, and they all came up on stage to either write or spell words.

Without exception, only the second Li Wu wrote it down; the rest were completely wiped out.

With just the simple act of writing characters in pinyin, nearly half of them were eliminated.

The rest consisted of Old Lady Wu, five educated youths, and three villagers.

"Alright, next, Gu Qing."

Gu Qing's gaze was resolute as she looked ahead, though her slightly flushed cheeks betrayed her turbulent emotions.

Under the kind gaze of the village party secretary, he took the pen and, stroke by stroke, wrote a delicate character, "顾" (Gu).

"Wow, Gu Zhiqing's handwriting is really beautiful."

"Yes, I think it's much better looking than the village secretary's handwriting."

The village secretary glanced at the words on his notebook, then slightly moved his finger, blocking Gu Qing's view.

"Very good, very beautiful."

Having received the village secretary's approval, Gu Qing walked down, clutching her palms.

The remaining four male educated youths, full of vigor and high spirits, wrote down what they thought were the best characters they could write, stroke by stroke.

The last male educated youth, in order to show how capable he was, wrote down everything that was left, including those that hadn't been written down by others.

After finishing the writing in one go, he looked smugly at the village secretary and said, "How about that? I'm pretty good, aren't I? Not only are my characters good, but I also recognize a lot of characters. What's the point of choosing? Just appoint me."

The village secretary's lips twitched as he looked at the somewhat confused 'child' in front of him.

Before he could speak, someone pulled him down, saying, "Zhang Jian, you should know when to show off."

"There's another round to go. Why should you be chosen? So many people can write and read, and you think you're so great just because you wrote 'fart'? Why don't you just fly to the moon then?"

"Luo Chao, shut up. What does this have to do with you? Do you think you can make decisions about this? You just spout nonsense as soon as you open your mouth."

The two argued more and more fiercely, and it seemed like they were about to fight. The village secretary waved his hand to Tie Niu below.

Tie Niu immediately led several young men from the village to pull the two educated youths, along with them, apart.

Seeing that the commotion didn't stop, the village secretary, his face dark, roared, "If you keep causing trouble, you'll be disqualified from the next round!"

The group immediately fell silent.

Tie Niu and several young men separated the people and stood guard to the side.

Once the throbbing in the village secretary's temples subsided, he said, "What's the use of just being able to write? If you can't teach, it's all for nothing."