The first thing they looked at was the sewing machine. Feng Mingshu wanted an affordable one, but Yu Jingqiu immediately took a liking to the most expensive Butterfly brand, which cost two hundred yuan and also required a sewing machine ticket.
Feng Mingshu was about to object, but Yu Jingqiu held her hand and said gently, "Zhuzhu, this is your dowry that your mother prepared. It should be presented in a respectable manner."
Feng Mingshu's eyes welled up with tears: "Mom, when are you leaving? I'll take you there."
She had already learned that Uncle Li's hometown was not far from the northern agricultural reclamation area where she originally wanted to go to work. That place was winter for half the year, with cold weather and harsh conditions. She couldn't feel at ease unless she went to see it for herself.
Yu Jingqiu patted her hand: "With your Uncle Li around, what are you worried about? Besides, what will happen to Xiao Zhou if you leave?"
"Mom, you don't think I'm trying to stay there and not come back, do you?"
"You really haven't thought about it?" Yu Jingqiu asked with a smile.
"No," Feng Mingshu replied immediately, but her voice lacked confidence.
Faced with her mother and younger siblings on one side, and a man she barely knew on the other, Feng Mingshu naturally chose the former. But now that this man had become her husband, she had to hesitate.
This is also why her mother insisted on marrying Uncle Li and transferring her household registration only after she married Zhou Jinshan, to prevent her from clinging to him.
Although she knew her mother had her own reasons and was doing it for her own good, Feng Mingshu still felt a pang of sadness.
Zhou Jinshan, who was in the middle of a cultural class, suddenly had a bad feeling. Fortunately, the feeling came and went quickly, but he still felt a sense of urgency and planned to go to his wife as soon as the afternoon class ended.
"Old Zhou, what are you thinking about?" Lu Xiangqian, who sat next to him, nudged his elbow.
"What could he be thinking about? His wife, of course," the student at the table in front of him turned around and teased with a smile.
"Hey, you guys are having a lively chat. Come on up here and continue the conversation." The teacher on the stage precisely slammed a piece of chalk onto the desk between the three students, making a loud thud.
The three trainees stood up abruptly and admitted their mistakes in unison, including Zhou Jinshan, who was implicated.
"Your attitude of admitting your mistakes is very good, but I am different from your Political Commissar Lin. I will not directly punish you by making you write a three-thousand-word self-criticism. We will follow the procedure."
The teacher paused, picked up the textbook, and said kindly, "The three of you come up here for a dictation. If you get all the dictation right, I won't care if you talk in class anymore. But if you misspell a word in the dictation, you'll have to write a 1,000-word self-criticism; if you misspell two words, you'll have to write a 2,000-word self-criticism, and so on."
The students who were watching the show immediately felt a chill run down their spines. They didn't even dare to twirl their pens and sat up straight.
Since nine out of ten of them are uneducated and only slightly better than illiterate, we can't let the teacher find fault with them and drag them onto the stage for dictation.
Only Zhai Qingping looked relaxed, leaning back in his chair with a slight smile on his lips, glancing at Zhou Jinshan.
The two stood across the aisle. Zhou Jinshan calmly glanced back at him before stepping onto the podium with steady steps.
But the other two had almost given up, and finally forced themselves to go up on stage, pick up the chalk, and then listened to the teacher read a long passage with a blank mind. They wrote a few words and then stopped.
Just as they were sweating profusely, they suddenly heard the smooth and pleasant sound of chalk. The two of them turned their heads at the same time and looked in astonishment at Zhou Jinshan writing quickly on the blackboard, almost keeping up with the speed at which the teacher was reading.
Lu Xiangqian reacted quickly and immediately copied it, without considering why his brother, who was at a similar level to him, had suddenly become so skilled.
The student at the table in front of him quickly realized what was happening and started copying. Now was the time to test their eyesight, and they couldn't afford to be careless.
The teacher didn't pay any attention to Zhou Jinshan, but kept an eye on him until he finished reading a rather profound passage. Seeing that Zhou Jinshan still hadn't misread a single word, the teacher closed the textbook and said with a smile, "Zhou, tell everyone how you managed to not only keep up with your studies during your recovery period, but also make significant progress."
After Zhou Jinshan finished the dictation, he immediately made eye contact with Zhai Qingping in the audience. Suddenly, he heard the teacher's question and paused for a moment before Lu Xiangqian answered first.
"Teacher, I know Old Zhou's secret. He went to great lengths to marry a highly educated wife. He read books every night with a flashlight, and he didn't miss his wedding night either."
These words were met with laughter from the entire audience.
Zhou Jinshan gave Lu Xiangqian a cool look, but Lu was still grinning foolishly, completely unaware of the danger.
At this point, the teacher joked, "It seems it's not that my class is bad, it's that I didn't introduce you to a well-educated wife."
“Yes, teacher, what I lack is a wife with high education. If I have a wife, I’ll definitely study as well as Lao Zhou.”
"Teacher, you're too late. I'm already married and have two children."
The students burst into laughter and cheers, almost attracting the attention of people from the next class.
Zhou Jinshan, however, remained calm and nodded, saying, "My improved academic performance is indeed thanks to my wife. She is my teacher, and I have been learning from her during my recovery period."
Below, Zhai Qingping, who was leaning back in his chair, slowly sat up straight, looking at Zhou Jinshan on stage praising his wife with a complicated expression.
At this moment, Feng Mingshu was unaware that Zhou Jinshan had made a name for her at the military academy. She was temporarily separated from her mother and went to the stationery counter to choose a fountain pen, where she unexpectedly bumped into an acquaintance.
Of course, they might not be "acquaintances".
"Feng Mingshu, I have something to tell you. Let's go talk over there."
The swelling on Chu Xuanxuan's face had not completely subsided after a night, and the scar on her chin was still noticeable, but she exuded confidence and a unique temperament, and spoke casually.
Feng Mingshu glanced at her indifferently, then looked away, pointed to two pens on the counter, took out a wad of cash and said to the sales clerk, "I want these two, please wrap them up for me."
"Two pens for twenty-four yuan?" Chu Xuanxuan's voice became shrill when she saw how much Feng Mingshu had paid.
Although she remains confident about the future, last night she asked Yu Xiuchun and Chu Hongjun for money, but didn't get a single penny and even got a lecture. Only then did Chu Xuanxuan realize just how valuable money really is in this era.
One cent and two dimes can buy a pound of rice, and twenty-four yuan can buy two hundred pounds of rice, which is Yu Xiuchun's entire month's salary!
The sales clerk took the money and glanced disdainfully at the astonished Chu Xuanxuan: "This is a Huafu Hero fountain pen, made according to the Parker fountain pen of the United States. It costs twelve yuan apiece. Do you think you can buy an ordinary fountain pen for one or two yuan?"
Despite being given the cold shoulder, Chu Xuanxuan wasn't angry. Instead, she looked happy and stared at Feng Mingshu with bright eyes. As soon as Feng Mingshu put away her pen, Chu Xuanxuan immediately stepped forward and affectionately took her arm.
"Cousin, I really have something important to tell you. Let's go over there. You definitely won't regret it after you hear it."
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