As Ling Huanwu finished finishing the last piece of spring clothing, on her way home to her family compound, she encountered Zhou Jiuzhen and Political Commissar Hao leading a group of people, going from house to house persuading the villagers to move away.

The man stood there in his military uniform, the setting sun casting its light on his handsome profile, making his broad shoulders and narrow waist even more alluring to a married village girl like her.

She just stared at him without blinking.

Zhou Jiuzhen seemed to sense something and turned his head to meet her teasing gaze.

The look in her eyes was exactly the same as when she flirted with him at the cooperative.

Ling Huanwu leaned against the banyan tree, brushed a stray hair from her temple, and gave him a flirtatious wink.

It would have been better if she hadn't thrown it at all. As soon as she did, the group of people who had just been trying to persuade the villagers suddenly turned to look at her and caught her flirtatious glance.

Ling Huanwu froze instantly, staring at the group of people's ambiguous smiles, wishing she could climb a tree on the spot.

Only Su Haiting stood in the middle of the crowd, seemingly blinded by her seductive glances, constantly rolling her eyes.

Zhou Jiuzhen coughed lightly and laughed, "My wife's eyes have been acting up lately, comrades, please don't mind."

As he spoke, he glanced at the time, exchanged a few pleasantries with the others, and then walked impatiently toward her.

Ling Huanwu glanced at Su Haiting, who was standing behind him with a resentful look, and lowered her voice, saying, "Shouldn't you have used your beauty to your advantage, publicly ignoring me to please her? That's not a good idea..."

Zhou Jiuzhen gently flicked her forehead and said helplessly, "We're a proper married couple. Do you really want me to be nice to other people? Also, who were you giving that flirtatious look to just now? What if people misunderstand?"

Ling Huanwu was rubbing her forehead, about to punch her, when she heard a woman's exclamation behind her. Su Haiting, who was standing perfectly fine, suddenly fell flat on her face and started crying and calling out Zhou Jiuzhen's name.

"Brother Zhou, my foot hurts, can you take me to the clinic?"

The woman's sweet, coquettish voice sent chills down Ling Huanwu's spine.

After giving Zhou Jiuzhen a thumbs-up, she ran off, leaving Zhou Jiuzhen to endure the merciless ridicule from Commissar Hao and his group.

As soon as Ling Huanwu arrived home, she found the house full of people.

The noise in the narrow stone house almost lifted the roof off.

A group of well-dressed men and women surrounded the old, peeling square table.

A group of people chatted and laughed, each boasting about how capable their children were.

Ling Huanwu hesitated before stepping into her home.

Only then did I realize that almost every one of them was wearing a Shanghai brand watch on their wrist and a crisp Dacron shirt, all exuding the superiority complex of "cultured people".

Chu Mei was surrounded by them, grinning from ear to ear.

"Is this Er Gou's wife?"

The first to speak was a woman wearing a blue cloth shirt and gold-rimmed glasses. Her gaze swept over Ling Huanwu's coarse cloth jacket, and her tone was deliberately gentle, "She seems diligent, but I wonder if she's been to school? My Amin graduated from Beijing Normal University and now teaches Chinese in middle school. Dozens of students listen attentively in her class."

The man in the gray wool coat next to him immediately chimed in, toying with his pen, "That's right. These days, knowledge changes destiny; you can't get by without education. Er Gou is a battalion commander, so his family members accompanying him need to be educated too. They can't just be good at laundry and cooking, can they?"

“She’s not very educated, don’t tease her,” Chu Mei waved her hand, pretending to defend her, but she ordered in the tone of instructing a servant, “Quickly, go to the kitchen and kill that chicken, then cook a few dishes so they can taste your cooking and accept you.”

Ling Huanwu didn't move. Instead, she walked to the table and lightly brushed her fingertips over a copy of "Three Hundred Tang Poems" that someone had brought, as if she were using the book to humiliate him.

When she looked up, her eyes were clear. "What my relatives say is true, education is indeed important. But I don't know if you mean 'educated' from primary school or secondary school?"

The woman in the blue cotton shirt scoffed, "At least a high school graduate, right? My Amin, for example, graduated from a proper university, can recite the entire 'Li Sao,' and can even write articles in English."

“English, huh?” Ling Huanfuyun nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly turned to the woman who was boasting about her daughter’s English and asked in fluent London accent, “Excuse me, do you know the difference between British English and American English in pronunciation? For example, the word ‘schedule,’ how do you usually pronounce it?”

The room fell silent instantly upon hearing this. The woman opened her mouth, her face flushing red—she had only heard her daughter occasionally speak a few words of English, how could she possibly understand British or American pronunciation?

The man in the gray wool coat quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "Let's just speak Chinese, why bring up English? Besides, knowing a few words of English isn't a big deal, the key is to have a proper education."

"Education, huh?" Ling Huanwu took out two small notebooks wrapped in a handkerchief from her canvas bag and gently placed them on the table.

The red cover is printed with the words "Gangcheng Zhenguang Girls' Middle School" in gold lettering. The first page contains a clear graduation photo. In the photo, Ling Huanwu is wearing a white school uniform skirt and standing among a group of girls who are also wearing school uniforms. Next to her are the principal's signature and the school seal.

“I did not attend a university in China,” Ling Huanwu said calmly but firmly. “But I studied at Hong Kong True Light Girls’ School for six years, from junior high to senior high, majoring in English, mathematics and biology. I also learned piano and French. Our school motto is ‘You are the light of the world.’ It teaches us not only knowledge, but also respect for others and not to use our academic qualifications to ridicule other people’s lives.”

The woman in the blue cotton shirt stared at the graduation certificate, her fingers unconsciously clenching the hem of her shirt: "Can schools in Hong Kong... compare to universities on the mainland?"

“At least,” Ling Huanwu picked up the pen on the table and quickly wrote a string of English formulas on a piece of scrap paper, “I can understand the original version of ‘The Theory of Evolution,’ I can calculate the crop yield accounting table on the farm, and I can help the children in the family compound correct their homework. Unlike some ‘cultured people’ who only use their academic qualifications as a pretext but don’t even understand basic respect.”

At this moment, an elderly woman who had been silent suddenly spoke up, pointing at the English formula written by Ling Huanwu, "This... isn't this the formula my son used when he was doing research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences? How do you know how to write it?"

Ling Huanfu smiled and said, "My biology teacher in high school was a graduate of Cambridge University. She taught us to use this formula to calculate the population growth rate. Later, when I returned to China, I learned mechanical repair from the engineers in my factory, and I often used similar logic to analyze problems."

The atmosphere inside the room completely changed.

Those "highly educated relatives" who were just moments ago were now either looking down and fiddling with their fingers or pretending to look out the window; no one dared to mention "education" or "culture" anymore.

Chu Mei was also stunned, and it took her a while to react. She pulled Ling Huanwu, who was about to come in, and whispered, "Huanwu, you...you are actually one of the top middle school students in Hong Kong? You are so cultured, how come I have never heard you say that?"