Chapter 84: I owe you in my previous life
He leaned against the door with his arms folded and glanced towards the kitchen. After hesitating for several days, he finally made up his mind. He went to the kitchen and called Wen Wan, "Wan Wan, come here. I want to tell you something."
Wen Wan was helping Zhang Hongying light the fire in the kitchen. She glanced at him suspiciously, then stood up, clapped her hands, and dusted herself off before leaving the kitchen. "What's going on?"
Lu Dongping took her out of the yard, found a secluded place, looked at her and said, "I, I found something for you to do."
As he spoke, he stopped and sat down on a stone beside a clump of banana trees.
Wen Wan also sat beside him and looked at him without saying a word.
Lu Dongping has been acting a little strange these past few days. That's just how it is. He speaks hesitantly and keeps looking at her, as if he has a hard time explaining what he is saying.
Wen Wan was more patient than anyone else when she was patient, so she tilted her head and looked at him to see if he could still speak directly like before.
Lu Dongping sighed, "It's going to be really busy soon. I don't think you can handle it. I went to the principal of the brigade primary school. The teachers there generally don't have a high level of education. Since you're a high school student, you should be able to become a teacher."
"Primary school teachers don't get high salaries, but they do receive work-point subsidies. Although the school has two busy seasons and I have to go back to the team to help with the harvest and planting, the time is not long, and it's much better than spending every day in the fields."
He had already settled this matter a few days ago. All he needed to do was take Wen Wan there, take a test, and see her specific level.
Wen Wan nodded: "Good, what should I do?"
Lu Dongping said, "While the wheat is still green and the rice seedlings have just been planted, I'll take you there tomorrow. You can get familiar with the route and take a test. You can then find out which grade you'll be assigned to teach and schedule your trip."
Wen Wan opened her mouth for a long time before she said, "Lu Dongping, have you ever thought that if you help me so wholeheartedly and I don't marry you in the end, you'll be at a huge loss."
I had thought about it, of course I had. Otherwise, I wouldn't have kept it in my mind for several days and only told her now.
Lu Dongping glanced at her, reached out and gently tugged at her braid, saying, "Then, consider it as a debt I owed you in my previous life, and I'm here to pay it back in this life."
Wen Wan reached out and grabbed his hand. Her large, bony hand was covered in calluses. Lu Dongping was stunned by her sudden action for a moment, and then he heard her say, "Did you owe me in your previous life? Then continue to owe me in this life. I would rather others owe me than owe others."
Lu Dongping chuckled, and his wavering heart suddenly returned to its original place after hearing her words.
He is just so useless, he just needs a little coaxing.
"Come with me tomorrow, and from now on you'll be Teacher Wen."
Wen Wan nodded, stood up, and gently patted him on the shoulder: "Student Lu Dongping, you must listen to Teacher Wen from now on, okay?"
Lu Dongping tried to shake her hand, but she was on guard and ran away.
Wen Wan thought she would be calm, but after going to bed, she tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. Apart from the people in her family, Lu Dongping was the first person to treat her like this, so wholeheartedly. Even if they were just dating, she could feel his sincerity.
She felt that she should do something to respond to his kindness, but after thinking about it, she couldn't figure out how to do it.
The next day after breakfast she went to Xihe Primary School with Lu Dongping.
Xihe Brigade was not far from the commune. There was a courtyard with mud-walled and tiled houses on the side of the main road. The brigade headquarters, clinic and classrooms were all in this courtyard.
There is one classroom for each grade from one to five, and two of the rooms are teachers' offices.
The largest one is the principal's office, the academic affairs office and the conference room. In addition to the desk next to the window, there are several long benches and two wooden shelves, on which are scattered some newspapers, lesson plans, chalk, a worn abacus with peeling paint, and a wooden ruler.
The principal's surname is Wang, and his name is Wang Xiannian. He is in his fifties. It is said that he had attended junior high school earlier. He is considered one of the earliest and most knowledgeable people in the team.
In the past, people with knowledge and culture all had family backgrounds and assets, so they had a hard time in recent years. He was different. There was a martyr in his family, so he was able to stay safe and sound in school without any impact.
He is a little thin, but very energetic. His hair is gray, but his back is straight. He wears a pair of glasses and looks bookish. He doesn't look like someone who has only attended junior high school.
When Lu Dongping and Wen Wan arrived, the students had just finished class. Although Wang Xiannian was the principal, he was also the head teacher of this fourth grade class.
Lu Dongping walked to the door of his office with familiarity and called out, "Principal Wang!"
Wang Xiannian turned around with a smile on his face. "Hey, Secretary Lu! I haven't heard from you these past few days. I thought you weren't coming!"
Lu Dongping walked into the office and said, "How could I not come? This is such a rare opportunity, how could I not come? I was delayed by something." As he said that, he took out a cigarette from his pocket, took out one and handed it over.
Wang Xiannian didn't bother to be polite with him. He took it with his hand, asked him to sit down, and then looked at Wen Wan.
Wen Wan finally had a chance and called out, "Principal Wang."
Wang Xiannian nodded: "Wen Wan, eighteen years old, graduated from high school?"
Wenwan nodded.
Wang Xiannian said, "With Secretary Lu's recommendation and such a high degree, I could teach in the commune's junior high school, not to mention elementary school. But connections are connections, and diplomas are diplomas. We have to go through all the necessary procedures."
After that, he handed her a notebook and said, "Here are some questions. You have to do them and show them to me."
After saying that, as if to reassure her, he added: "The questions are not difficult, it's just a formality." After all, he was only teaching in elementary school.
Wen Wan took the notebook and the pen he handed her, pulled a stool over, lay down on it and started doing the questions.
Wang Xiannian pulled out two cigarette boxes and placed them next to her: "You can do your drafts on these."
It was the ten-minute break between classes, and it was extremely lively outside. Little girls were playing kickball in groups of three or five, boys and girls were jumping and hitting sandbags together, and boys were fighting cocks with their legs hugged, as if they had endless energy.
Lu Donglin hugged his leg and jumped on one leg to chase after the students in the class. He bumped into them all of a sudden. The student couldn't stand on one leg and the other leg was forced to fall to the ground. He shouted loudly: "You are dead, dead!" He didn't notice Wen Wan and Lu Dongping coming into the school at all.
Wen Wan is going to take over the current second grade. The second grade teacher is a female comrade who graduated from elementary school and has only been in junior high school for two days. She is pregnant and gave birth the day before yesterday. The second grade classes these days are taught by teachers in the school in rotation.
Originally, I discussed with Wang Xiannian that I would take some leave and come back after I finished my confinement.
Wang Xiannian held back and refused to agree.
There were five grades, and children from three production teams attended school here. With 20 to 30 children per grade and only five teachers, classes were held from morning till night. A delay of a day or two was fine, but a month or two was unacceptable. No one had the energy to teach two classes simultaneously.
Just then, Lu Dongping came to him and said that he wanted to find something for his girlfriend to do at school and asked if he needed anyone.
We are short of substitute teachers.
Educated youth? What does it matter? As long as your background is good, nothing else matters.
Wen Wan was not fast at doing the questions, but not slow either. The place where Wang Xiannian asked her to draft was clean and she didn't write a single word.
She was originally assigned to teach the second grade, so how could the questions she was given be difficult? She finished quickly, put the cap back on her pen, and handed the blanket to Wang Xiannian with both hands: "Principal, I'm done."
Wang Xiannian adjusted his glasses, glanced at the notebook, then at her: "Young comrade, your handwriting is very good." He looked at the questions again and it seemed that there was nothing wrong. He looked at it again to confirm that there was nothing wrong.
He nodded and said, "Okay, let's do this. Today is Thursday. Please stay for a while. I'll give you the second-grade textbook and then take you to the classroom to familiarize you with the situation."
Wen Wan was stunned for a moment: "It starts in the afternoon?" She hadn't prepared anything yet, so being a teacher was a little easier because of the rush.
Wang Xiannian nodded. "Yes, the second-grade teacher couldn't come due to something. We've already had two days of self-study. Studying is a big deal, and we can't keep putting it off."
"Oh!" Wen Wan nodded, glanced at Lu Dongping and said, "Then you should go to the commune. Don't be late."
It was too late, and he would definitely get scolded if he went over, but Lu Dongping didn't take it to heart at all. Wen Wan had made all the arrangements, so he would just take the scolding.
"Then you can go hand over to Principal Wang first. If you need anything, I'll bring it to you from the commune. After school this afternoon, you can go back with Lu Donglin so you'll have company."
Wen Wan agreed and watched him leave the office.
"Comrade Wen Wan, oh, no, I should call you Teacher Wen! Wait a moment, the first-grade teacher helped with the last class. I'll go get the book from him and then take you to the second-grade classroom."
There are only two subjects in elementary school, Chinese and arithmetic. Other subjects like music and art are useless. Ideology and morality do exist, but they are also elective subjects. The teacher will teach them when he remembers to, and continue with Chinese and math if he doesn’t remember, or let students do homework during self-study.
The teachers in the brigade are substitute teachers of the commune, and their subsidies are uniformly distributed by the commune. The substitute teachers in the primary school earn 15 yuan a month and the same work point subsidy. Their treatment is no worse than Lu Dongping's in the commune.
However, there are not many people who can teach because of the restrictions of the rules and regulations, and there are very few truly educated people in the team.
Good treatment is good, but you have to be able to get it.
By the time Wang Xiannian finished his temporary instructions, the ten-minute break had already passed.
Knowing that there was a new teacher in the school, the other teachers were busy with their own things, and the second grade was completely left unattended. It was so noisy that the noise could be heard from far away.
Wen Wan walked into the classroom with a textbook. The classroom was silent for a moment, and everyone was leaning on the table looking at her.
Is this the new teacher? She looks so young and pretty!
At this moment, Wen Wan only knew where she had learned arithmetic and Chinese in the second grade, and she knew nothing else.
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