Chapter 13
This class is an English class, and the teacher leads the students to read an English poem.
Although she did not get into university, Chen Lanjun continued to attend night school and TV university after she started working. Later, because the factory's business involved foreign trade, she focused on practicing English, and her English level is quite good.
After listening for a while, she discerned the content of the sentence from the southern English accent:
"Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number --"
" Shake your chains to earth like dew "
" Which in sleep had fallen on you -- "
" You are many -- they are few. "
This is a poem by Shelley, the theme of which is that people are expected to fight tyrants bravely like lions. The teacher reads a line, and the students read a line. The students read aloud, with rising voices and full of emotion.
Chen Lanjun raised her eyebrows slightly. She had to admit that the textbooks used in the school now were of a fairly good standard. They were much better than the ones compiled by the Revolutionary Committee that she had studied, and they were both literary and politically correct.
After reciting "Rise like lions" twice, the bell rang and the teacher announced the end of get out of class. The originally quiet classroom suddenly exploded as if water was spilled into a frying pan, and it was filled with the sound of students talking.
There was an impatient classmate who grabbed his schoolbag and slipped out of the front door, running headfirst into Teacher Qin.
"Hey, wait a minute." Teacher Qin called him, "Our new classmate is here, go back to your seat."
The boy responded and looked around curiously.
Chen Lanjun curled her lips towards him in a friendly manner, but the boy blushed and turned back to his seat in a hurry.
As Teacher Qin appeared in the classroom, the students' buzzing voices suddenly became quieter.
As a key middle school, the classrooms of the county's No. 1 Middle School are good. Incandescent light bulbs hang from the beams, and the walls are painted white with a light green waist guard. A colorful poster is posted on the side wall, showing boys and girls in blue clothes, full of energy and vigor. Below the poster are red words that read "Study for the rise of China."
Teacher Qin walked straight to the podium, stood in front of the blackboard, cleared his throat, and said, "Everyone, wait a moment. Today we have a new student, Chen Lanjun. She had some family matters, so she didn't come for the past two weeks. From today on, she officially becomes a member of our Grade 12 Class 1. Everyone, applaud and welcome her."
The students were all experienced and well-trained, and they immediately burst into applause.
When the applause died down, Teacher Qin gave up the podium and stood aside.
"Lan Jun, come on, introduce yourself to everyone."
Chen Lanjun followed instructions, picked up a piece of chalk from the wooden desk, and wrote her name on the blackboard. Her strokes were sharp, crisp and elegant, with a bit of the style of Liu style running script.
She patted the chalk dust off her palms and introduced herself confidently: "Hello everyone, I am Chen Lanjun, my hometown is Chenjiawan, and I am a repeater. I am very happy to be your classmate. Please give me your guidance in the future."
There are young faces one after another, some look curious, while others are busy memorizing their textbooks.
These people will be her classmates for the next year.
Chen Lanjun maintained a faint smile and looked at Teacher Qin.
Teacher Qin saw that she had finished introducing herself, pointed to a girl sitting in the front row and said, "Lanjun, this is our class monitor, Cao Hongyao. If you have any questions in the future, just talk to her."
A girl wearing glasses stood up. She had two pigtails and although the shirt she was wearing was old, she looked very energetic.
Cao Hongyao nodded to Chen Lanjun and said, "No problem. Leave it to me. I will help the new students integrate into the group as soon as possible."
A short-haired girl raised her hand. She was wearing a popular floral shirt and said in a cheerful voice, "Hello, classmate Lanjun. I am Liu Li, the deputy monitor and cultural and arts committee member. Welcome to join our big family of Class 1, Grade 2."
Teacher Qin nodded and said, "Liu Li is also very enthusiastic. With their help, you will be able to integrate into the class quickly."
She looked around the classroom and finally settled on a desk in the last row, near the door.
"That's the only empty seat now. You can sit there for now. We change seats once a month," Teacher Qin explained.
Chen Lanjun sat down in front of the short desk. The stool and desk were made of pure wood and painted with varnish. On the wood grain, I don't know which class of students had carved the word "early" in imitation of Lu Xun. Looking at the seats on the left and right, the desks were all bare. Although it was a graduating class, there were not many serious textbooks, let alone teaching materials. Everyone's desk was quite relaxed, and there was nothing on the desk. Perhaps to prevent students from being distracted, each desk was placed separately, and there was no situation of sitting at the same table.
Seeing that Chen Lanjun had sat down and everything had been explained, Teacher Qin let everyone go.
This time, school was really over. The setting sun and the shadows of people were intertwined in the classroom, and the words "patriotism, hard work and modesty" on the blackboard were illuminated by the setting sun, making them shine golden.
The students who lived in the county town pulled out their schoolbags from their desks, some in army green and some in black, and slung them across their bodies like messenger bags, going out in groups of two or three, going home. Liu Li's schoolbag was quite special, a brown leather shoulder bag, she carried it on her back, came over to say hello to Chen Lanjun, and left.
Those who left late were mostly students from the countryside. Since they would stay in the dormitory after school, they were not in a hurry to finish school.
Cao Hongyao came over with a smile on her face. She spoke to Chen Lanjun in a friendly manner: "Have you been to the dormitory? You live in our dormitory, right?"
"Yes. Teacher Qin took me there."
Cao Hongyao nodded: "Okay, then you can go to dinner with us later. There are a few roommates here, let's go together."
This monitor had some charisma. She stood in front of Chen Lanjun's seat for a while, and several girls came over one after another. Cao Hongyao led the group to the cafeteria.
Across the dusty dirt playground, next to the boiler room, there is a narrow bungalow, which is the canteen. There are also several school fields next to it. When we were studying industry and agriculture a few years ago, the school also had a small school factory! In addition to criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius and participating in various movements, students worked in the school fields and factories.
After the college entrance examination was restarted, the school factory was converted to other uses, and the school fields were taken over by the school logistics staff. They planted some green vegetables and the like as a source of food for the canteen.
At this time, the canteen was very busy, and the line for food was very long, stretching all the way to the door. Unlike the aluminum kitchen utensils that are common now, the canteen of the county No. 1 Middle School now uses traditional steamers for hot rice. Two chefs who looked very strong took out several large bamboo steamers one by one, stacked one on top of the other, and opened the steamer lids to reveal various lunch boxes. Most of them were aluminum lunch boxes, and they looked similar. In order to make it easier to identify, many students marked the lunch boxes with various colors of wool. The red, green and yellow ones were gathered in the large steamer, which was very interesting to watch.
Cao Hongyao finished by saying, "We usually put our lunch boxes in the canteen in advance, put our meal tickets in the lunch boxes, and then the canteen chef puts rice in them to steam the rice. You didn't have time to put your lunch box in? If you don't mind, I'll give you half of my rice."
"How can this be so embarrassing."
"It's okay. I can't finish it anyway."
After getting the food, some students from poor families just had a bowl of soup and ate pickled vegetables with the food. The soup was provided free of charge by the school. There were a few drops of oil floating on the water, and the aroma of bones and meat was better. Most of the pickled vegetables were brought by students from home, so they could save money on vegetables. Chen Lanjun was once one of the students who brought pickled vegetables. At that time, she was really about to vomit after eating so much pickled vegetables.
But now, when she has no pressure to buy stir-fried dishes for school, she misses the taste of pickles at home, so she brought a bottle with her, thinking of using it as a condiment.
She bought two more dishes. The dishes cooked in the school cafeteria were simple, mostly carrots, cabbages, etc. A vegetable dish with some oil residue or minced meat in the middle was considered a meat dish.
There were many people in the cafeteria, and it was hard to grab a seat. The people in this dormitory were scattered and took their seats. Cao Hongyao was sitting next to Chen Lanjun and gave her half of the rice: "You eat it, I really can't finish it."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome, we're all classmates." Cao Hongyao said with a smile.
Chen Lanjun put a few pieces of oil residue into her bowl: "It's a courtesy to return the favor. The oil residue in the cafeteria is very fragrant."
Cao Hongyao looked a little surprised: "Eh... OK."
Chen Lanjun took a piece of rice with chopsticks and put it in her mouth, raising her eyebrows. Hmm, it tastes like old rice. Even though most students brought new rice, the rice she ate was always old rice. This was very familiar and had not changed.
The two chatted casually while eating. Cao Hongyao briefly introduced the situation of the class: "Our class is in a relatively good situation. In the previous college entrance examination simulation test, our class's average score was the first. Ah——"
She put down her chopsticks and said, "But speaking of which, the monthly exam is next week. You're going to take it too, right?"
"Is the exam next week?"
"Yes, next week. We have exams for every subject."
Chen Lanjun nodded when she heard that. It seemed that she still had to look through the textbooks carefully this week to familiarize herself with them. She didn't take the monthly exam too seriously. After all, it had been a long time since she had been to school, and the exam was a distant memory. She was not a genius girl who could get full marks in an exam and shock the whole campus.
Just take it as a test to get a rough idea.
Seeing that she was silent, Cao Hongyao thought she was worried about the exam, so she said, "If you have any questions about your studies, you can ask me."
A female classmate next to her added: "Hongyao is the number one in our class."
Chen Lanjun nodded: "That's amazing."
"No, everyone is excellent." Cao Hongyao said modestly.
The female classmate laughed and said, "That one is not as good as you, haha."
After eating, the students took their lunch boxes and went to the ditches on both sides to wash them. Because the food was not oily or watery at that time, it was very convenient to wash them. They just needed to rinse them with water.
During the evening self-study time, Chen Lanjun took out her textbook and started reading from the table of contents. This was a method that a teacher taught her when she was in night school. To understand the content of a book, reading the table of contents and understanding its structure is the most basic approach.
I was halfway through reading the table of contents in a math textbook when the incandescent light above my head made two hissing sounds and went out.
"The power is out again."
The students complained a few words. Some of them took out candles, lit them and continued reading, while others walked back to the dormitory.
Chen Lanjun glanced at the brightness of the candle and decided to give up. Reading in such a dim environment would make her nearsighted.
She simply got up and left the classroom, wandering around the campus in the moonlight. Since the school is surrounded by walls and there are security guards on duty, it is very safe.
I walked slowly to the cafeteria and suddenly heard a very familiar voice.
Chen Lanjun tiptoed closer and saw Chen Zhisheng through the cafeteria window.
He sat on a stool with a mat next to him, chatting with a master, and said proudly, "My second sister is very smart. She was just unlucky last time, but she will definitely be admitted to university this time. She is also filial and told me to go to the guesthouse. It would be better to save this money to buy her two books!"
In the end, he did not stay in the guesthouse, but chose to spend the night in the cafeteria as he usually did when he sent her to school.
Chen Lanjun listened quietly, feeling mixed emotions.
In the end, just as Chen Zhisheng chose to spend the night quietly in the cafeteria, she chose to leave quietly to fulfill Chen Zhisheng's intention.
But next time, she would have to hand over the money directly to the guesthouse.
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