"Go further up? Our dad is already the bureau chief, how much higher can he go?" Zhou Qinglan laughed when she heard this.

"Our dad is already 55 years old this year, not many years away from retirement, why would he want a promotion?"

Zhou Mingyuan and Sheng Liancheng are the same age, both born in 1930, and are 55 years old this year (by Chinese reckoning).

Sheng Liancheng does heavy physical labor and can retire at the age of 55, while Zhou Mingyuan is a cadre and will retire five or six years later.

"That's not necessarily true. Who knows when Dad might be transferred to the provincial capital," Sheng Xiping said with great certainty.

"Take Secretary Xu, for example. Wasn't he transferred to the provincial level as a deputy director-general before retiring?"

"You're always dreaming. It would be great if Dad could retire from his position as bureau chief smoothly. Don't think about it so much."

Zhou Qinglan shook her head and chuckled, feeling that her husband's ambition was a bit too great.

"You don't believe me? Then just wait and see." Sheng Xiping was convinced that his guess was correct.

"How about we make a bet?" Sheng Xiping raised an eyebrow at his wife, saying with a half-smile.

"Forget it, I'm not betting with you."

"You tidy up the bed, tell your son a story to lull them to sleep, and I'll take advantage of the time before Lao Liu comes back to read a book."

Zhou Qinglan didn't have evening classes tonight, so she peeked outside the classroom around 7 o'clock, and when she found nothing amiss, she came back.

Sheng Xitai is about to take the college entrance examination, and he is in the final sprint stage, so he still gets out of school at around 9 pm.

With Sheng Xiping in the east room keeping the children company, Zhou Qinglan could only take advantage of Sheng Xitai's absence to quickly go to the west room to read.

"Hey? How about we rebuild the house?"

"Since I'm home, and our factory has all the materials, I discussed it with Lin Jian and arranged for a construction team to come over. It was built pretty quickly."

Sheng Xiping suddenly remembered this matter and discussed it with Zhou Qinglan.

"Huh? Building houses? Why build so many houses?"

The sixth son is about to take the college entrance exam. Once he gets accepted and goes to university, Aunt Li and the children can sleep in the west room, and we two can sleep in the east room. Isn't that enough space?"

Zhou Qinglan was taken aback and asked, puzzled.

“Look at you, Xinhua and Xinyu are getting older, shouldn’t you get them their own rooms?”

Yueyue and Qiqi are the same; girls need their own rooms as they grow up, right?

And what about our parents? They're getting older and older. Can we really let them live in this ditch forever?

When we bought this house, we were drawn to its spaciousness, thinking we could build more rooms. With a large family, how could we possibly have enough room if we didn't have enough space?

Zhou Qinglan thought about it and agreed. "Then you can arrange it as you see fit, but it's best to wait until Lao Liu finishes his exams. There are only a few days left, so don't let it affect him."

Nothing is more important than Sheng Xitai's college entrance exam right now; everything must be prioritized for his sake.

"Okay, I got it. I'll take care of it." Sheng Xiping nodded, turned off the TV, and took out bedding from the closet with his two sons.

The three of them, father and son, laughed and chuckled as they spread out the blankets. The two rascals washed their feet, brushed their teeth, and then crawled into bed. Sheng Xiping found a book and led them in reading it.

After reading the story, the two children went to sleep peacefully. Sheng Xiping came out of the inner room and began to think about building a house.

At 9:30, Sheng Xitai rode his bicycle home. When Aunt Li heard the noise, she quickly brought out the food.

A teenager can eat his father out of house and home. Sheng Xitai was at the age where he could eat a lot, and with his heavy schoolwork, he got hungry quickly.

So every night, Aunt Li would cook something special for Sheng Xitai to ensure he got the nutrition he needed.

As soon as Sheng Xitai entered, he saw his brother sitting on a stool with a small table in front of him, drawing something with a pen and paper.

"Big brother, what are you doing?" Sheng Xitai asked curiously.

“Oh, I’m thinking of rebuilding our house, adding more rooms, and installing a boiler and heating system. It’ll be cleaner and safer to use central heating.”

Sheng Xiping examined the paper in his hand, on which was a rough sketch.

Sheng Xitai nodded. "Oh, then take your time figuring it out. I'm going to eat."

He didn't understand this stuff, so he didn't offer any opinions. He quickly ate his meal and went to study.

"By the way, Lao Liu, the college entrance exam is coming up soon. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Just relax and stay in good shape."

Sheng Xiping has been busy lately and hasn't had time to take care of his younger brother. It's rare that he came back early today, so he can give his brother a few words of advice.

Sheng Xitai was taken aback for a moment, then twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "Oh, I see, big brother."

How could there be no pressure?

His four older siblings all got into pretty good universities. He's the youngest. If he doesn't do well on the exam, wouldn't he be embarrassing his parents and his older siblings?

Besides, he studied hard for three years just to get into a good school, didn't he?

We've persevered for three years, and we're just one step away from the finish line. How can we let up now?

Sheng Xitai knew his older brother meant well, so he didn't say anything else, just said "oh" and went to eat.

The National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) will be held on July 7th, 8th, and 9th. Songlin High School itself has an examination center, so there is no need to go to the county to take the exam.

The senior high school students were given a holiday on the 5th, and they rested and adjusted at home on the 6th. In the afternoon, they went to check out the examination venue.

From the 6th to the 9th, first and second year high school students will have a holiday to clear the exam venue.

According to regulations from higher authorities, teachers from the same school are not allowed to proctor exams for students from the same school. Therefore, high school teachers from the same county must exchange schools to proctor exams.

Those from the Forestry Bureau were transferred to the county, and those from the county's No. 1 Middle School and Donggang High School were transferred to the three Forestry Bureau high schools to invigilate exams.

Zhou Qinglan was lucky; she wasn't chosen to invigilate the exam, so she can rest at home for the next three days.

During the three days of the college entrance examination, Sheng Xiping did nothing but pick up and drop off Sheng Xitai to ensure that no accidents would happen.

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