Chapter 90 Warming Hands and Feet

The news of the resumption of the college entrance examination was a huge explosion at that time. If it happened in the future, it would at least be a "breaking" headline news on major interactive platforms, and it would stay on the news for many days.

In addition to the hustle and bustle at Shen Wenyu's place, the machinery factory was also extremely busy.

Over the past six months, a number of educated youth have returned from the countryside. Some of them have entered machinery factories through various channels. Most of these people have some education and are the main force in this resumption of the college entrance examination.

Similarly, many of the workers who entered the machinery factory for various reasons over the past decade, including those with only a high school education, want to take this opportunity to try their luck at moving up.

Everyone knows that the college students who graduated in the previous few years will be given important positions in the future. If they can get into college in these two years, they will definitely get a stable job with a high salary and a bright future.

"Is Xiaoyuan okay?"

"I have read the textbooks for the first year of junior high school. I don't know if I have read them or not. It is too late to read the textbooks for the first year of junior high school now. I also heard that the difficulty of learning will increase as time goes by. Otherwise, how can so many people finish primary school and junior high school?"

"Yeah, it's a pity for Xiaoyuan. If she hadn't been beaten before, she might have been able to take the college entrance examination now."

"Speaking of which, is Tang Jianguo coming back?"

"He... yeah, the time is almost up. It's gone so fast. Almost sixteen months have passed in the blink of an eye. The same goes for Liu Hongmei. Even though he treated her so well, she still went back to cling to him."

"What can we do? We can't get divorced. There are always conflicts when a couple lives together. Besides, they have a child. But the child is much more sensible now that he is being raised by the Liu couple."

"Indeed, she is more sensible than Liu Hongmei."

Tang Yuan thought that people in the boiler room were still talking about the college entrance examination, but unexpectedly they were talking about Tang Jianguo's gossip. She had ignored this matter for a while, but she still felt unhappy that Tang Jianguo was coming back.

In her opinion, the original owner suffered for more than ten years in his hometown, and Tang Jianguo, the father, should also suffer for more than ten years. Unfortunately, Tang Jianguo is an adult, and it would be good if he could be sent back for sixteen months, but more than ten years is definitely impossible.

Tang Jianguo...

Tang Yuan sat in front of the stove and thought for a while. Then, early the next morning, she went to buy a newspaper and a high school textbook, and sent them to the village through the post office, to Tang Jianguo.

Tang Jianguo is still very young, only about 34 or 35 years old, and I wonder if he will have a dream of going to college.

It would be best if he had one, after all, going to college means bringing honor to the family.

In the fragments of the original owner's memory, one can always hear the original owner's grandmother mentioning "bringing honor to the family", but it was a pity that her sons were all unsuccessful. Now that they have the opportunity, I wonder what choice this family will make.

She was not worried that Tang Jianguo would pass. After all, the college entrance examinations in previous years were extremely difficult, and even freshmen might not be able to pass, let alone a poor student like him. But if she could take this opportunity to tie Tang Jianguo up at home, let alone one high school textbook, she would be willing to send him ten or twenty copies.

The items were sent out, and in the following days she was focusing on resuming the college entrance examination.

Over the past year or so, she has received hundreds of sets of high school textbooks from Shen Wenyu. The biggest harvest was this summer, when many people sold all their high school textbooks after graduation.

Through Shen Wenyu's channels, she sold more than a dozen sets of high school textbooks in one go, each set costing five yuan, and Shen Wenyu could get a commission of one yuan.

As for the rest, she sold them all in a short period of time through the channels of Aunt Cao and Sun Dong. She earned more than 400 yuan from hundreds of sets of textbooks, which was enough to buy 2,000 kilograms of coffee beans.

After selling this batch, she gave instructions to Shen Wenyu, Aunt Cao and Sun Dong, and quickly disappeared.

Fortunately, although one hundred sets of books may seem like a lot, the number distributed to each individual is not that much. According to statistics, there are more than a hundred people in the machinery factory alone who want to sign up for the college entrance examination, not to mention the large circle near the machinery factory. Throwing such a small number of books into the water is like throwing a stone into a calm water, which only creates a little ripple.

News about the college entrance examination gradually faded, and was replaced by a crazy learning atmosphere. When walking on the street, you can see people holding books and studying hard.

However, there were no educated people in the areas where Tang Yuan was located, so the topic quickly shifted from the college entrance examination to various gossips.

During this process, the weather became colder.

Tang Yuan got up early in the morning, opened a cardboard box, revealing the cleaned saline bottles inside. He filled the bottles with hot water one by one, closed the lids tightly, entered a small compartment, placed the saline bottles on the chair, and put down the blanket in his hand.

Xue Shiqi has a lot of wool and can get it at a cheap price. As the weather is cold today, she specially bought a batch of wool and asked Shen Wenyu and Second Aunt to weave seven blankets, one for each of them, one for Aunt Wei, and one for each of the four people, to keep warm.

After putting away the salt water bottle and blanket, she brought out a coal stove from the house and placed it in the middle of the aisle so that both sides could have heat.

She originally wanted to put four, but putting four coal stoves in this day and age is too extravagant, so she just put one, which, together with a thermos and a blanket, can also provide a good warming effect.

Put a kettle on the coal stove to keep the water hot at all times. That way, whenever you feel cold, you can drink a cup of hot water to warm up your body.

While she was busy, her parents-in-law came over from home.

At this time of year, it is cold both inside and outside, unless you stay on the kang all the time. But if you want to stay on the kang all the time, you have to have money.

Fortunately, this place is not too far north, so it is not that cold in winter. It is said that if you go further north, people will have to stay in bed, otherwise their bodies will not be able to bear it.

The grandma shrank her hands. Since she had made some money, all the cotton coupons collected this year were hers, which allowed her to wear thicker cotton clothes. She wasn't too cold at all, except for the chills she felt after sitting for too long. She just needed to stamp her feet more often.

Arriving at the place, she reached out and knocked on the wooden door.

After knocking, she looked at her hand in confusion. For some reason, she felt her hand was warm when she knocked on the door.

After the wooden door opened, she realized it was not her illusion. Even standing at the door, she could feel the warmth inside.

"Why did you light the coal stove? What a waste." The old lady in law said in surprise.

"No, we can't let you work in a freezing cold environment all the time," Tang Yuan brought the mother-in-law and mother-in-law into the house, walked around the coal stove and brought them to her cubicle, took out the thermos from under the blanket on the chair and put it in her arms, "The coal stove is always boiling water, and when the bottle gets cold, you can use water to warm it up. Cover yourself with this blanket, it should be much warmer."

"This..." The old lady held the warm water bottle in her hand, "I... I really don't know what to say."

"Needless to say, you just need to do your job well here," Tang Yuan said, and then remembered something, "By the way, cotton is hard to buy. If you have any needs, tell me and I can find some cotton that doesn't require a ticket."

"Can I?" the mother-in-law asked in surprise. Seeing her nod, she quickly proposed an idea. "Yes, can I have five kilograms first? My family doesn't have many cotton coupons. Knowing that I was going out to work, they gave them all to me. I want to exchange some for my family."

"Sure, more is fine." Knowing that it's cold here, Tang Yuan specially prepared some extra cotton this year.

As the two were talking, someone knocked on the door again. Tang Yuan went out to open the door, brought the surprised person in, and said the same thing to him. Sure enough, the other party was so excited that he also asked for cotton.

The same was true for the remaining two people. They had saved some money in recent months, so it was impossible for them to buy expensive things. However, cotton was needed by every household, and the more the better, so they naturally would not miss this opportunity.

After Tang Yuan left, the four people in their respective compartments couldn't help talking again.

"It's so warm. I thought today would be like yesterday, with frozen feet."

"I even specially made a pair of thick cotton shoes just in case my feet get cold."

"You still need cotton shoes. Even if you have these things, you will still feel cold if you wear thin clothes. But now it is definitely not too cold."

"Not only will we not feel cold, we don't have a kang at home, and it's not as warm as here. And there's this thermos. I've always wanted one in my dreams, and I didn't expect it to come. This... is it ours?"

"Yes, she said we can take it back and use it, so that we can sleep well." The old lady in law couldn't help but reply while holding the thermos.

There is a kang in her house, but no one can sit on it all the time. It’s okay to sleep on it at night, but it’s definitely not appropriate to stay on it in broad daylight.

So during the day, she would feel cold at home, and it would be warmer here.

However, because she would be sitting here for a long time and it would get colder as time went by, she had to shamelessly accept the cotton coupons that her family had collected, and she always felt a little embarrassed.

Now, she can buy cotton and give it to her family, and she won't feel like she owes them anything.

"I'm going to sit on this side of the curtain and be a wallet, what about you guys?"

There was the sound of a chair being moved in the cubicle.

"I'm going to do the same thing. It will be warmer facing the coal stove outside."

"Let me cut the material first. Can we drink hot water here now? I see there is hot water on the coal stove."

"They said they were going to fill our thermos bottles... We can definitely drink it. If you want to drink it, you pour it first and I'll do it later. Oh, I didn't expect that I could always drink hot water here. Isn't this like having a thermos bottle?"

"Thermos, hot water bottle... We can drink from this one, too."

"It's cool."

"It's your hands that are cool, not the bottle. We have a bottle like this at home. Whenever your hands are cool, just pour out the water inside. It's just right to drink. It's neither too hot nor too cold, but warm."

"That's true. I'll drink this later."

The few of them didn't chat much normally, but they didn't feel strange when they did. It's not like they had never met each other during this period of time, they just came over one after another tacitly and pretended not to know.

As long as it is not overcooked, the possibility of the filling coming out is small.

However, since they started working as small wallets here, they rarely chat or meet with others. Almost all their time is spent on work. When they go home, they only meet with their family members. There is no way they would meet outsiders.

Tang Yuan was standing in the inner room at this moment, listening to the conversation outside and feeling thankful that she had washed the salt water bottle clean beforehand. Fortunately, she found bottles of raw salt water, so even if she drank some, it would not be harmful to her body.

But hearing them talking so happily, I thought that maybe after a while I could remove the curtains so that it wouldn't have much of an impact and the view would be wider.