Chapter 203: Transfer
"I do this and that. Anyway, there is always work to do. I'm learning needlework. Mom said you are very good at it. If you have time, can you teach me?"
Wen Wan readily agreed: "Sure, I'll be at home this afternoon and on Sundays, come and see me when you're free!"
Wen Wan still likes her daughter-in-law Lu Mingqing very much. She always smiles at everyone she sees, as if she has no temper. She works honestly and doesn't talk much.
She didn't have many friends here. This young wife was nice, but it was hard to say whether they could be friends. After all, Wang Mingfang's relationship with her family wasn't very good, just a face-saving one. And Lu Mingqing, with his sullen face all the time, looked unapproachable.
Liu Liumei said she wanted to learn needlework from her, and she thought it was just talk.
As soon as she agreed, Liu Liumei was delighted. She became completely lively. She would secretly glance at her from time to time while pulling at the pig grass, and deliberately move closer to her: "Actually, in fact, I not only want to learn needlework from you, I also want to learn to recognize a few words."
He stammered, and it was obvious that he was very nervous when he said this.
Wen Wan smiled and said, "Sure, it's no big deal. As long as you have time, come over and I will teach you."
Liu Liumei looked at San Ya, who was pulling pig grass with her butt sticking out not far away, and said, "How about learning a few words first?"
"Okay! Wait a minute, I'll put the pig grass on the edge of the field, find a stick, and write it for you on the way!"
As he spoke, he gathered the small bundles of pig grass together, filled half a basket with them, carried them out of the wheat field and poured them into the bamboo basket placed on the edge of the field.
Liu Liumei also went to the edge of the field with pig feed and moved the backpack forward.
Wen Wan broke off a branch of the Rhizoma Lucidum from the roadside, found a slightly flatter spot on the road, and turned back to ask her, "Which characters do you want to learn first? Your name?"
Liu Liumei shook her head: "Lu Mingqing, please write the three words Lu Mingqing for me so that I can see how it is written."
Wen Wan was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at her and smiled, "Lu Mingqing! Okay, I'll write it, and you watch it!"
The stick was used to write the big characters "Lu Mingqing" neatly on the muddy ground. He wrote very slowly, enough for Liu Liumei to see the strokes clearly.
"Try to follow along and see."
Liu Sanmei took the stick and started drawing on it.
Lu Mingqing had joined the team's literacy class and could now recognize and write quite a few words. Liu Liumei was envious and wanted to go to the literacy class too. She wanted to learn to read, but she didn't dare to say it. Lu Mingqing had asked her that time, but she hadn't dared to say it and had hastily denied it.
She had just arrived in this family. Although her mother-in-law was a nagging person and her husband had a bad temper, overall it was much better than her previous life. She didn't dare to think too much, let alone make any requests to others, for fear of being disliked.
Lu Mingqing knew her little tricks, so after learning to write, the first thing he did was to get a notebook and write the two words "Sixth Sister" on it for her to see.
The words looked like they were put together with matches and had no aesthetic appeal. However, Liu Liumei still folded the paper with her name on it and put it under her pillow as if it were a precious treasure. She would take it out and look at it whenever she had nothing to do.
Occasionally, when Lu Mingqing was free and happy, he would teach her the few characters he had learned, but she wanted to learn a few more, at least learn how to write a few characters of Lu Mingqing's, and then write them down and give them to him.
Wen Wan didn't know about the interest between the couple, but seeing her seriously describing it, she had an idea in her mind. Maybe the couple is still getting along very well now. Lu Mingqing looked gloomy, so he must be good to his wife, otherwise why would Liu Liumei want to learn his name!
Wen Wan mentioned these two people on the way home. Lu Chun'e said, "They are not that bad. Although Sixth Sister can't read a single word, she has a good temper, is smart, and looks pretty. I heard from the people in the team that Lu Mingqing treats Sixth Sister well. As for Wang Mingfang, she just nags all the time. She doesn't dare to do anything to Sixth Sister. One is Lu Mingqing. You know, she doesn't dare to control Lu Mingqing at all. He has a bad temper. If you provoke him, he will go crazy no matter who you are. Then there is the matter of Lu Changgui's family. It hasn't been long since then. If you want to be a mother-in-law who will torture her daughter-in-law, Jian Zhaodi is a living example. I don't know how high the weeds on her grave are now. What can she do to the one who was cut on the ridge?"
As he was speaking, Lu Dongping arrived at the front of the yard. Perhaps because he walked too fast, his breathing was a little heavy.
Wen Wan was squatting there washing her hands. She was stunned when she saw him: "Why are you back at this time?"
"Something."
Lu Dongping went to the yard, climbed onto the eaves, pulled a bench and sat down.
Wen Wan poured some water over him and asked, "What's the matter? Why are you so anxious? Do you want some water? I'll go and dry some for you."
"No, I'm not thirsty. Come here, I want to ask you something." As he said that, he reached out and pulled her into the house.
Lu Chun'e heard two people talking in the kitchen, but when she came out, they were gone.
"Minister Lin told me this morning that the people from the art troupe took a liking to you and wanted to go to the city with you?"
Wen Wan blinked and nodded: "Yes, but I refused at that time."
Lu Dongping pursed his lips and looked at her: "Joining the art troupe is like returning to the city. You can sing, dance, play the piano, and do whatever you like and want to do."
Wen Wan lowered her eyes and smiled: "Who told you that these are the things I like to do?"
Lu Dongping didn't say anything, but he could tell whether he wanted to say it or not.
Wen Wan said, "That's what I've been doing since I was a child. I don't like it anymore. If I liked it, I wouldn't come here. I like teaching now. I like being a teacher. I don't want to do anything else."
Lu Dongping sighed. "Okay, then I'll be a teacher. I won't do anything else. Minister Lin told me this morning that there's a vacancy at the primary school over at the commune. I'd like to know if you'd like to go there. The salary is two yuan higher a month, and everything else is the same as here at the brigade. However, the space is bigger over there, so the teachers don't work together. They each have their own room."
Wen Wan was a little tempted: "But the official registration starts the day after tomorrow, and I have to go to school for a meeting tomorrow. It's too late, right?"
Lu Dongping reached out and pulled her over to him, pressing her into his arms. "Just tell me if you want to go. If you do, I'll come down for you in the next two days. Go ask over there first, and once we're confirmed, we'll have to quickly inform the school here so they can find a teacher to fill your spot."
Wen Wan nodded: "Okay, then what if I can't find a teacher here to take my place?"
Lu Dongping said, "We can find them. There won't be any problem. There are three brigades in Xihe. In Lujiazui alone, there are so many educated youth. They are all educated people. Besides, there will be no shortage of substitute teachers in other production teams. It's a bit too urgent, but there's nothing we can do."
"Okay, let's try it then."
Lu Dongping smiled and said, "Just wait, you can go to and from get off work with me from now on." After saying that, he let go of her and ran away in a hurry.
He knew that Wen Wan didn't go to the art troupe because of him, and he would definitely seize every opportunity to make her life better here.
This wasn't a difficult matter. The county leaders had the idea, the commune agreed, and the school had a vacancy, so the brigade wouldn't refuse to let someone go. As for which production team would receive the substitute teacher position, that wasn't his concern.
He only cares about his own family affairs and has nothing to do with others.
Anyway, the matter had not been finalized yet, so Wen Wan didn't tell anyone. At seventeen, she had breakfast and went to school for a meeting.
After the meeting, Wen Wan was about to go to the office next door when Wang Xiannian called her: "Teacher Wen, please stay for a moment. I have something to tell you."
Wen Wan gave him a puzzled look, and guessed what he was about to say. After Wang Xueyi and the others left the office, Wang Xiannian said, "Congratulations, Teacher Wen."
Wen Wan smiled and said, "Principal, what are you doing?"
Wang Xiannian laughed: "You're pretending to be ignorant even though you know the truth. Aren't you going to the commune?"
Wen Wan nodded gently and then shook her head: "Not necessarily, I haven't received any definite news yet!"
"I'm here to give you the exact news. You'll be transferring to the commune to substitute teach this semester! However, this decision is really too sudden, and I'm overwhelmed. You may have to wait two days until you finish registering the children in your class before you can go. This is also my reply to the commune."
Wen Wan had no objection to this matter and absolutely obeyed the arrangements.
In the afternoon, Lu Dongping came back and told her, "It's done, but the team said they'll let you go after you finish registering. You're a little bit tired, so we have to find a new teacher."
I feel a little embarrassed when talking about Wen Wan. It was too sudden. I had never thought about it before. It caught me off guard.
The family still didn't know about the job transfer. The two of them were talking by the fire, and Zhang Hongying was confused: "What do you mean? Why are you looking for a new teacher? Wanwan, you're not going to substitute for the class anymore?"
Wen Wan explained, "It's not that I won't be teaching, it's that I'm not here at the brigade anymore. I'm going to the commune."
Zhang Hongying was pleasantly surprised: "Oh! Doesn't that mean I've been promoted?"
"No, I didn't get promoted. There's also a primary school in the commune, just like here. But the primary school there might be a little bigger, and the conditions are a little better."
Zhang Hongying didn't understand this and said with a smile: "It's still a promotion. Even if they are both primary schools, how can the commune and the team compare?" Just like those cadres, the commune has a secretary and the team also has a secretary. The titles are the same, but the secretary of the commune has more power.
Wen Wan didn't know that this was how she calculated it. When she found out, she was both amused and helpless. The cadres were different from the teachers!
Lu Mingjiang sat at the foot of the wall, poking the fire with fire snips. He looked up at the blackened bacon and asked Wen Wan, "The meat is smoked thoroughly. It's getting warmer these past two days, so we won't have to keep the fire burning for many more days. Are you going to send bacon home this year? If you are, you should send it sooner rather than later while we're not busy."
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