Chapter 080
Jiang Jianping and Jiang Guanjie's faces were already darkened by Jiang Shan's words.
After Xu Lihua finished yelling, Jiang Guanjie suddenly threw down the chopsticks in his hand, got up and went back to his room.
Jiang Jianping also slapped down the chopsticks in his hand, looked at Jiang Shan's dark face and said angrily: "You still think it's not embarrassing enough, right? Why don't you just go to the alley and shout so that everyone in the alley can hear it!"
Under the pressure of such an atmosphere, Jiang Shan pursed her lips and said nothing more.
Naturally, she couldn't eat anymore, so she put down her chopsticks silently, put her hands on the edge of the table and lowered her head.
This matter concerns everyone in the Jiang family.
Jiang Guanjie failed to get into university, which brought shame to everyone in his family of four.
The more their family showed off Jiang Guanjie before, the more embarrassed they will be when they go out in the future.
In the Jiang family's house, there was shouting, banging on the table and throwing chopsticks.
The noise was so loud that the curtain on the door could not cover it, and it spread across the yard to the other two families' houses.
Wu Xuemei and Chu Xia, Wang Cuiying and Li Lan, heard the noise in their kitchen and looked towards the west room unconsciously for a while.
I didn't hear exactly what was shouted.
Wu Xuemei was a little surprised and asked, "What are you doing? Are you arguing?"
It is rare for the Jiang family to quarrel.
Jiang Jianping and Xu Lihua are intellectuals and rarely quarrel over trivial matters.
His two children have been well taken care of since childhood. They are obedient, sensible and do not cause trouble. They rarely make Jiang Jianping and Xu Lihua angry.
Chu Xia didn't hear clearly either, and shook her head and said, "I don't know."
When they listened again, there was no sound, so they stopped being curious.
After Tang Haikuan, Han Qingtian and Han Lei came back from get off work, the two families sat down to eat one after another.
There was naturally laughter and joy at the Tang family's dinner table, while the Han family was no different from usual.
Chatting while eating.
Wang Cuiying said: "You are all surprised that Chuxia got into a good university, but I am not surprised at all. Among the children of similar age in our alley, I am most optimistic about Chuxia. This child has been down-to-earth and righteous since she was a child, and you can't find any fault with her."
Han Lei said: "He looked a bit stupid before, following San'er all day long."
Wang Cuiying: "What do you mean by stupid? She is a quiet girl. She follows San'er because she has good vision. She knows that our San'er will not be an ordinary person in the future."
Han Lei added: "I don't know how he did in the college entrance examination yet."
Wang Cuiying: "Don't worry, he is in the countryside, so he will definitely receive the notice later than in the city. Hasn't the West Room received the notice yet?"
Speaking of the west room, I thought of the noisy and banging sounds coming from there just now.
Li Lan suddenly whispered again, "It seems that there was a commotion in the west room just now. His family has never been noisy for many years. The only thing that could cause such a big commotion at this time is Guanjie's matter. So I guess it is possible that Guanjie did not get into any of them. After all, those two schools are similar to Peking University. If he did not get into Peking University, then he would not get into those two either. Isn't that normal?"
Wang Cuiying thought this made a lot of sense.
She nodded and said, "I was suspicious just now, but I didn't think much about it. What you said is very likely. If it is true, his family will become a joke in the alley in the future."
Li Lan: "Who can be blamed for that? Didn't they show off all over the place? When they were filling out their applications, they said they didn't even look at ordinary schools and that they were so proud of not considering Guanjie."
Wang Cuiying: "That's exactly what I said. I went to borrow some revision materials from him to copy, but he refused to lend them to me. If Guanjie from his family really fails the exam, I will be the first one to laugh at him."
Han Lei then said, "We are all from the same courtyard, so let's not make trouble."
Han Qingtian glanced at Han Lei and said, "What kind of trouble have we caused to his family? Are we holding back our laughter at the joke that his family made?"
Han Lei: “…”
Well, he said nothing.
***
Each of the three houses in the yard has its own atmosphere.
Whether quiet or noisy, everything returns to tranquility after the stained glass windows are closed late at night.
On winter mornings, everyone gets up before the first ray of light in the east.
After getting up, wash up, light a fire, and start a new day in the steaming heat.
People in the yard went out to work one after another.
Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei left a little later than the others, and when they went out they happened to meet Xu Lihua and Jiang Guanjie coming out of the west room.
Seeing that Xu Lihua and Jiang Guanjie were both wearing scarves, Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei smiled and greeted them and asked, "Teacher Xu, don't you have to go to work? Why are you going out so early?"
Xu Lihua smiled and said, "I'm going out to do something."
However, after exchanging a few pleasantries, Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei naturally did not ask any more questions.
When they arrived at the front yard, Xu Lihua rode a bicycle with Jiang Guanjie and left first, while Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei followed on foot.
Xu Lihua rode her bike and took Jiang Guanjie out of the alley. Both mother and son had cold faces and didn't say a word.
He said he was going out to do something, but in fact he went to the district to look at the publicly posted admission list.
Last night was a sleepless night for his family.
After staying up all night, Xu Lihua and Jiang Guanjie still couldn't accept the fact that they didn't get into university, so they went to see the admission list in person.
After looking at the admission list, the result was naturally as Jiang Jianping said.
Xu Lihua still felt that it was impossible and did not give up, so she went straight to Jiang Jianping and asked him to find out how many points Jiang Guanjie had scored in the college entrance examination and how many points Chuxia had scored.
Jiang Jianping said in embarrassment: "The scores and rankings are confidential."
Xu Lihua insisted, "Don't you know someone in the admissions office? Don't you care about your son's future? What if it's a mistake? There's still a chance to find out now!"
Jiang Jianping said helplessly: "Okay, I'll go and ask around."
It was already noon when Xu Lihua and Jiang Guanjie came back from their work outside.
Jiang Shan knew that life at home would be difficult in the future, so she prepared lunch at home in advance so that Xu Lihua and Jiang Guanjie could have a hot meal when they came back.
But even so, the icy look on their faces did not melt at all.
In such an atmosphere, Jiang Shan was naturally cautious.
After lunch, she took the initiative to wash the dishes. Then she didn't dare to run out to play with her classmates and friends. She stayed at home obediently, reading and doing homework.
This went on for the entire afternoon, and Xu Lihua finally spoke in the evening when Jiang Jianping came home from get off work.
Seeing Jiang Jianping lift the door curtain and enter the room, she went straight to him and asked, "How is it?"
Jiang Jianping didn't say anything and just handed her a piece of paper.
Xu Lihua then unfolded the paper and looked at the results. Her brows knitted together and she kept saying, "How is this possible?"
Jiang Jianping said impatiently, "Don't say such things anymore. If you can't accept it anymore, the facts are the facts. The test scores cannot be faked. Compared with Tang Chuxia's scores, Guanjie's scores should only be enough to go to an ordinary university. In fact, ordinary universities are also very good. Nowadays, college students are gold. I should have applied for a backup at that time."
Xu Lihua exhausted all her strength.
With weak legs, he took two steps to the table, then sat down on the chair while holding onto the edge of the table.
Then she crumpled the report card into her palms and covered her face with it, feeling a tight pain in her chest.
***
Good news doesn’t travel far, but bad news travels far and wide.
But within just one day, the news that Jiang Guanjie failed to get into university spread throughout the alley.
Chuxia didn't know this before she went to work. But when she came back from get off work in the evening and greeted her neighbors in the alley, she was asked, "I heard that Guanjie didn't get into any of the three universities he applied to. Is that true?"
Chuxia is not quite sure about this.
So he just smiled and said, "I don't know. I'll go back and take a look."
I went home and asked Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei.
Wu Xuemei whispered, "Well, Wang Cuiying ran into Shanshan in the yard today. I don't know how she thought of it, so she asked a question and Shanshan nodded."
Hearing this, Chu Xia felt a little surprised but not so surprised.
Because in the novel, Jiang Guanjie did not go to good schools like Tsinghua University, Peking University and Nankai University, but he did go to college.
I was busy with my own things before, and Chuxia didn’t think much about this matter.
Now she concentrated and thought carefully, and after a while she figured out what was going on.
In the novel, she and Han Ting returned to the city at the end of 1977 or 1978, when Jiang Guanjie was already a college student.
The novel does not elaborate much on Jiang Guanjie's college entrance examination. Anyway, he was the only college student in the alley and was still the object of everyone's praise.
Now Chuxia thought hard for a while and filled in some small details, and naturally discovered that Jiang Guanjie in the novel was actually a college student from the class of 1978, not 1977.
In other words, he probably took the college entrance exam twice in the novel.
However, in the novel, she did not come back for comparison. He was the only college student in the alley, so this incident did not have much impact on him, and no one mentioned it later.
That makes sense then.
Jiang Guanjie did fail the exam this time.
After this time, he should have a more objective understanding of himself.
However, I’m afraid his family will have a very sad New Year this year.
***
After the incident of the admission letter, the year came to an end.
Starting from the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, every family begins to prepare for the New Year.
Food, drinks and clothes are prepared on New Year’s Eve, which officially marks the beginning of the most lively and festive day of the year.
On New Year's Eve, Chuxia, Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei were busy pasting Spring Festival couplets and window decorations.
After noon, the family of three started preparing the New Year's Eve dinner at home. In addition to preparing fish and meat that they didn't usually eat, they also made dumplings with several kinds of fillings.
The whole city was bustling with joy and happiness on this day.
Every household in the alley is busy celebrating the New Year with a smile on their face.
Only the Jiang family not only had no New Year atmosphere at home, but also did not want to go out and see people.
Jiang Jianping and Jiang Shan came out to put up Spring Festival couplets, and then went back to the house and never came out again.
The Han family was missing Han Ting, and Han Qingtian and Wang Cuiying were worried about him, but it did not affect the New Year atmosphere in his family, after all, there were so many people in the family.
The happiest family, the one that couldn't stop smiling, was naturally the Chuxia family.
There have been so many good things happening to them this year that it’s hard not to be happy.
Although there are few people in their family, eating the New Year's Eve dinner and staying up all night are just as happy and lively.
On the day of reunion, as long as the closest people are around us, it is the greatest happiness.
I spent last year’s Chinese New Year in early summer at Tanxi Brigade.
At that time, she and Lin Xiaohan were keeping their distance.
At that time, Liang Youtian was afraid that it would be too lonely for the two of them to celebrate the New Year in the teachers' dormitory, so he invited them to his home to celebrate the New Year, which was actually quite lively.
But I still miss home when I see other families reunited.
And this year she finally spent the New Year at home.
On such a lively day when families are reunited, there is no need to miss home in the dark night anymore.
I talked about all the happy things with Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei until midnight.
Chuxia received a big red envelope wrapped in red paper. She happily put it away and went out to the alley with Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei to set off fireworks.
Naturally, people from other courtyards also came out.
The alley was bustling with people. Every family was setting off firecrackers and fireworks they had just bought. There was a burst of crackling sounds, and a cluster of gorgeous flowers exploded in the sky.
The laughter and joy are all around my ears.
Tang Haikuan lit firecrackers and fireworks. When the firecrackers exploded, Chuxia and Wu Xuemei laughed and covered their ears. When the fireworks rose into the sky, they looked up at the fireworks.
The sky was lit up by the colorful lights of the fireworks, as were the eyes and faces.
After watching the fireworks in early summer, I looked down with a smile. Inadvertently, my eyes passed through the joyful hustle and bustle and met a gaze from not far away.
After looking at each other for a few seconds, Chuxia came back to her senses.
She turned around and told Wu Xuemei that she was going to the toilet, then turned and walked towards the entrance of the alley.
I ran to the entrance of the alley, turned around, and saw Lin Xiaohan standing in the night.
Because of the occasional fireworks, the night in the alley was not too dark.
In early summer, the whole person is still in the atmosphere of the New Year, with a smile on his face and bright eyes.
She looked at Lin Xiaohan and asked with a smile: "Why are you here?"
Of course she thought of it herself after asking.
Given the situation he was in at home, he certainly didn't want to stay at home to celebrate the New Year, so he came out for a walk.
Lin Xiaohan said, "I have nothing to do after dinner, so I came out for a walk."
After saying that, he looked Chu Xia up and down, smiled and said, "You are dressed like a fairy boy."
Chuxia was wearing the new dress that Wu Xuemei had made especially for her for the New Year's greetings, and she also had two velvet flowers on her head.
Hearing Lin Xiaohan say this, she opened her arms and said, "Isn't it pretty?"
Lin Xiaohan hummed and said, "It looks good."
It's good enough. Chu Xia suddenly thought of something and said, "Wait for me for a moment."
After saying that, without waiting for Lin Xiaohan to respond, she turned around and ran back into the alley.
When she came back a little while later, she had two more fireworks in her hands.
She held the firework tube and said to Lin Xiaohan, "Let's go and find a place where there's no one around to set it off."
While looking for a place, she continued, "I guess you definitely don't set off firecrackers or fireworks at home. You have to set off these during the New Year to blow away all the bad luck from the past year."
He didn't even have a proper New Year's Eve dinner, so naturally he didn't have this.
He looked at Chuxia without saying anything, and found a place with her away from people.
Chuxia wanted to light the fireworks herself just now but didn’t dare.
This time, in order to let Lin Xiaohan watch the fireworks, he volunteered to pluck up his courage.
She placed the firework tube on flat ground and used a match to create a flame.
Then she held the match in her hand, and because she was afraid of the explosion, she subconsciously moved her body backwards and stretched her hand forward desperately.
Seeing her like this, Lin Xiaohan asked her: "How about I come?"
Chu Xia said calmly and persistently: "It's okay, I'll do it, just watch."
After saying that, she took a deep breath, suppressed her heartbeat and touched the flame to the fire line.
The moment the fire was lit, she stood up and ran away.
Originally, she wanted to run to Lin Xiaohan and watch the fireworks with him, but because she ran too hurriedly, she tripped over something and suddenly fell sideways into Lin Xiaohan's arms.
“…”
Then, before she and Lin Xiaohan had time to react, they suddenly heard a loud bang.
Chu Xia was startled and subconsciously lowered her face into Lin Xiaohan's arms.
The colorful lights of fireworks exploded above my head.
Chuxia reacted and quickly grabbed his arm to gain leverage and put some distance between themselves and him.
Of course she remembered that Lin Xiaohan couldn't stand her touching him, not even shaking his hand.
So she felt embarrassed and annoyed, and quickly lowered her head and said, "I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't mean it... I..."
As she said this, she pushed the match in front of him and said, "You should have some."
Lin Xiaohan looked at her without taking the match or saying anything.
Chuxia waited for a while, then raised her eyes to look at him hesitantly, wondering if he was going to have another attack.
So she looked at him and said, "I really didn't mean it. I've already apologized. It's not good to be angry on the first day of the new year. It's very unlucky. Just bear with it."
Lin Xiaohan: “…”
Forget it, just bear with it for a while.
He took the match from Chu Xia and said, "Okay, let me light it."
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