Fang Ru rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on, but tried her best to control her anger.
"Yan Yan, I promised Zhi Yun I would marry you when you were eight years old. Do you still take that kind of talk seriously now?"
Fang Ru clearly remembered that when Zhao Yanyan was eight years old, a group of children in the compound of the capital were playing house. Zhao Yanyan cried and made a fuss about wanting to play Gu Zhiyun's wife. Gu Zhiyun refused, so she cried all afternoon. When Fang Ru and Gu Huaiqian got home from get off work that evening, Zhao Yanyan ran to the couple and cried again.
Fang Ru was so annoyed by her antics that she coaxed her by saying that when she grew up, she would let Zhiyun marry her.
Zhao Yanyan remembered this one sentence, which she used to coax her child, for twelve years!
It was just a joke back then, with no written agreement or written consent, and neither set of parents took it seriously. But Zhao Yanyan used it as evidence and brought it up every few days.
For a moment, Fang Ru and Gu Huaiqian didn't know whether to blame themselves for speaking too casually back then, or to blame Zhao Yanyan for speaking and acting without considering the consequences.
Zhao Yanyan wiped away her tears, glared at Fang Ru and Gu Huaiqian, and said imperiously:
"Take me back to the forest farm. I want to find Brother Gu. I won't leave until he explains himself!"
Fang Ru said helplessly, "Yan Yan, your parents are very worried about you. They entrusted your uncle and me to make sure you get back safely. We took leave to come here, and we have to go back to work the day after tomorrow. The train back to the capital takes a whole day, and we can't afford to waste any more time!"
Zhao Yanyan paid no attention to Fang Ru and Gu Huaiqian's difficulties, picked up her suitcase and headed towards the forest farm.
Fang Ru rushed to pull him away, but Gu Huaiqian pulled her back and gave her a wink.
He said to Zhao Yanyan's retreating figure, "Yanyan, you don't know yet, do you? The notice from the educated youth office will be coming down soon. Eligible educated youth will return to the city in batches! Go back and ask your father if Zhiyun is on the first batch of returnees."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yanyan stopped and turned back without a second thought.
"Okay, Uncle, Aunt, let's hurry back to the capital!"
Zhao Yanyan was calculating in her mind. Gu Zhiyun was a city person, so it was only natural for him to return to the capital. No matter how much he liked Shen Jingyan, he would never bring a country girl into the city!
Once Gu Zhiyun enters the city, she will have the opportunity to spend time alone with him.
She refused to believe that a girl as good as her, with such a good family background, was inferior to a country bumpkin like Shen Jingyan!
Just like that, Gu Huaiqian's words pulled Zhao Yanyan back onto the train back to the capital.
The train journey back to the capital takes ten hours. Zhao Yanyan disliked the crowded and chaotic carriage, so Fang Ru bought her a sleeper berth.
After finally getting the young lady to sleep, Fang Ru slumped into the booth, utterly exhausted, and sighed:
"Luckily, our son doesn't like her. Otherwise, if he married such a good-for-nothing, how would we manage to live our lives?"
Gu Huaiqian massaged Fang Ru's back and shoulders and laughed, "Your worries are unnecessary. Professor Zhao and Dean Zhu have extremely high standards. They would never look at a family like ours. The couple always thinks we are trying to climb the social ladder!"
Fang Ru raised her eyebrows: "Who gave them that impression? We didn't show any liking for Yan Yan at all, did we? It was Yan Yan who was chasing after Zhi Yun!"
Thinking of Shen Jingyan's gentleness, generosity, composure, and understanding, and comparing her with Zhao Yanyan's unreasonable and spoiled nature, Fang Ru's affection for Shen Jingyan deepened even further.
...
The news of the resumption of the college entrance examination spread quickly, and the educated youth in the forest farm were all excited.
Going to university is the dream of every high school graduate, and everyone's enthusiasm for learning is at an all-time high. In the dormitories of the male and female students in the forest farm, it is common to see students studying late into the night.
As the farm manager, Lao Xu was a kind-hearted and reasonable person. He specially shortened the morning and afternoon work hours for the educated youth, so that they had two more hours of rest time each day.
The workers also knew the importance of the college entrance examination to these intellectuals, and took the initiative to take on more work.
Sometimes, the educated youth would be chased away by the workers to go study and review their lessons halfway through their work.
The forest farm created learning opportunities for the educated youth, but there were also many difficulties.
These educated youths hadn't touched a textbook for three years, and had almost completely forgotten what they learned in high school. Their review was practically starting from scratch.
Review materials were also hard to find. The dozen or so educated youths only had one set of high school textbooks brought by Gu Zhiyun's father. They took turns reading them, but some educated youths still couldn't touch the books for three to five days.
Among these educated youth, Gu Zhiyun had the best foundation. He was never stingy with his knowledge and often organized group review sessions for the educated youth, setting up a small blackboard to explain the problems to everyone.
In addition to that, he also had to help Shen Jingyan "review" her junior high school lessons, keeping him extremely busy.
Even with a good foundation, Gu Zhiyun hadn't been to class for three years and had encountered many difficult problems.
At times like this, all everyone can do is sigh and lament while looking at their books and the blackboard.
"It would be great if a great professor could teach us!"
Yang Zinuo sighed, biting her pencil, "If we keep fumbling around like this to review, I'm afraid we won't even get a foothold in university!"
Before we knew it, it was April. The vast snowfields of Northeast China finally showed signs of melting. The wind was getting warmer, the sun was shining more gently, and it looked like we could finally take off our winter coats.
After dinner that day, Gu Zhiyun gave everyone a math lesson, and the educated youth all took their notebooks back to their dormitories to do the problems.
Shen Jingyan prepared shredded pork noodles for Gu Zhiyun as a late-night snack, but after waiting for a long time, Gu Zhiyun still didn't come to eat.
She brought the shredded pork noodles to the kitchen and found Gu Zhiyun deep in thought, staring at the blackboard.
The kitchen was spacious enough that the educated youth not only ate there but also used it as a classroom.
Shen Jingyan glanced at the blackboard, which contained a solid geometry problem. Gu Zhiyun was pointing at the triangular pyramid, gesturing and calculating.
Shen Jingyan immediately saw the problem: it was a problem that required auxiliary lines. With the auxiliary lines, the solution became clear.
However, her clever boyfriend didn't seem to have thought of that, and was therefore stumped by the question.
Shen Jingyan smiled and waved the bowl of shredded pork noodles near Gu Zhiyun's nose.
"Brother Yun?"
"Little one, stop fooling around!"
Gu Zhiyun's attention immediately went out of focus.
He has no resistance to only two things: Jingya and the food she makes.
Now that both things were in front of him, his already unclear thoughts became a complete mess.
Shen Jingyan picked up her chopsticks, took a piece of pork belly, and put it into Gu Zhiyun's mouth: "Ah, open your mouth!"
The aroma of pork belly wafted to his nose, and Gu Zhiyun's mouth watered. He chuckled, half indulgent and half annoyed:
"Jingya, if you keep causing trouble, I'm not going to be able to solve this problem tonight!"
Chen Jingyan blinked innocently: "You need to be full to have the energy to think!"
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