After Su Qin and He Ya left, Ye Xiaohua collapsed to the ground in despair the moment she closed the door. To be honest, she had only managed to stay upright by sheer willpower.
How can I survive with my child in this unfamiliar era? If the He family doesn't give me this money, can I really bring my child to their door to make a scene? I'm afraid I simply can't.
In the end, all they could do was gamble on He Yan's conscience.
After changing the baby's diaper, she washed her and the baby's faces briefly, ate a few bites of dry food, wrapped the baby up, and prepared to go out and explore this relatively unfamiliar world. She needed to find some work to support herself and the baby.
The reform and opening up has been going on for more than ten years, and there are more and more individual businesses outside the city, especially in Shanghai, which is a pioneering city of reform and opening up, where individual private businesses are developing very well.
Ye Xiaohua carried her child and walked around the main city. She wondered what she could do. Sell breakfast? But she didn't know how to make breakfast. The key was that she liked to sleep in and couldn't possibly get up at one or two in the morning to make bread and buns. Forget about that.
Passing by a small clothing workshop that advertised for female workers, Ye Xiaohua glanced at it but ultimately decided not to go in. Not only did she not know how to sew or do needlework, but she also couldn't do it while taking care of her child.
Forget it, she suddenly realized that she had overestimated herself. Before she transmigrated, apart from being able to read, take exams and write code, she was no different from a useless person.
Other people who time-travel have a whole host of skills, but why don't I have any cheat codes? I'm completely clueless and know nothing.
Finally, I passed by a large blackboard covered with all sorts of job postings and saw a job advertisement for a junior high school English teacher.
Ye Xiaohua thought to herself, "I can do this. I'm not good at anything else, but I'm good at studying. I got the ninth best score in the city in the college entrance examination. I was good at Chinese, math, English, physics, chemistry and biology. I was admitted to Fudan University in Shanghai and eventually studied computer science."
Xiaohua took out paper and pen and wrote down the address. She looked at the big blackboard again and finally saw a job posting for a high school math teacher. She wrote down the address there as well.
Back at the guesthouse, Ye Xiaohua bought herself a bowl of wontons for lunch. After eating, she drank some water, then fed her baby, changed diapers, and put the baby to sleep. Afterward, she washed the clothes and diapers that she and her baby had changed out of.
These past two days, she's been struggling to eat and sleep well taking care of the child alone. Looking in the mirror, her face looks noticeably thinner, and her once puffy face is now trending towards an oval shape.
In the afternoon, she planned to take her child to these two tutoring jobs first, and then look for a place to live, as staying in the guesthouse all the time was not a good idea.
The first family she visited was looking for a middle school English teacher. They lived in a two-story house with a small yard, and it was clear that the family was well-off. Xiaohua thought that if she could get a job with them, they probably wouldn't be too stingy with the hourly rate.
She was greeted by the mother of the child.
The child was a girl who had just started junior high school. The child's mother looked at Xiaohua carrying the child with a surprised expression.
He asked very politely, "Sir, have you come to the wrong place?"
Xiaohua explained shyly, "Hello comrade, I haven't come to the wrong place. I'm here to apply for an English tutor position."
The lady of the house is named Li Ling.
Li Ling pointed to the child in Xiao Hua's arms: "What about you?"
Xiao Hua quickly said, "The child is very well-behaved and doesn't make a fuss. There's really no one else to help me look after her, so I have to bring her with me to work."
Li Ling then asked, "Where are the child's father, grandparents, and great-grandparents?"
Xiaohua looked sad and heartbroken: "Now that we have the family planning policy, we can't have more children. The father and grandparents of my child are sexist and they think that my daughter will take up their household registration and affect their ability to have a grandson. So they kicked us out and don't want us anymore."
Li Ling is a very kind person. She only has one daughter, and her husband's family is sexist and doesn't like her and her daughter. Fortunately, her husband has always protected her and her daughter.
She could empathize with Xiaohua, feeling that it was not easy for Xiaohua to come out and find work while raising her child alone.
"Which school did you graduate from? Forgive me for being blunt, but you don't look like you went to university."
Xiaohua's current attire and demeanor are definitely those of a rural woman; she hasn't had a chance to buy herself a few fashionable and nice clothes yet.
Xiaohua thought she was a graduate of Fudan University, but what if someone asked her for her graduation certificate? She didn't have one.
She could only lie and say, "My family is from a rural area in Northwest China. I got into Fudan University through the college entrance exam. My in-laws paid my tuition for the first two years, but now they've kicked me out. I'm currently a dropout, but I have excellent grades, especially in English. If you don't believe me, I can teach your daughter a few lessons for free. You can then decide whether to hire me. How about that?"
From Xiao Hua's speech, it was clear that Li Ling was not an illiterate village woman.
Thinking that it was indeed pitiful for her to come out with her child to find work, I gave her a chance.
In this era, without the internet, with underdeveloped transportation and information, people still got along very well. Decades later, if someone saw Xiaohua coming with a child and unable to provide a university degree, they would just kick her out.
It's true that poor children mature early. Xiao Hua's daughter, Xiao Kang'an, is only a little over a month old, but she is already so sensible that it breaks your heart. Xiao Hua puts the baby in a small bamboo basket, covers her with a blanket, pats her gently, and says softly, "Baby, be good, sleep well and don't cry. Mommy will go earn money for your milk powder."
Xiao Hua was taken to Li Ling's daughter's room. Her daughter's name was Song Shiyu, and she was 12 years old and had just started junior high school.
Although it was the late 1980s, when the economy was still underdeveloped and resources were relatively scarce, Song Shiyu's room was decorated in pink and tender colors by her mother, just like a princess's castle.
Xiaohua couldn't help but feel a little envious. To have such a room showed how much her parents cared about and loved her.
She secretly vowed to herself that she would work even harder so that her daughter could also live a happy life like a little princess.
After Xiaohua gave Song Shiyu a lesson, Song Shiyu told her mother that Xiaohua's lesson was better than their teacher's in class, and her pronunciation was very standard, just like the American pronunciation played on the tape.
Li Ling also listened in and thought Xiao Hua was doing a very good job. Without waiting for a few more lessons, she signed a tutoring contract with Xiao Hua.
Xiaohua is to come over at 6 pm on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday and attend classes until 8 pm, which is three times a week, two classes each time, and each class costs eight yuan.
Xiao Hua roughly calculated that if she just taught Song Shiyu, she could earn about two hundred yuan a month, which is equivalent to a person's monthly income in a formal workplace. That would be enough to rent a place and support the child.
Xiaohua couldn't help but exclaim, "Knowledge is money... ah, no, it's power!"
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