A week passed, and classmates reported good news one after another. Some passed the interview of the student union, some got a job in the radio station... Of course, some were happy while others were disappointed. For example, Ding Mei applied for everything, but didn't get any interview. She was depressed for several days.

Someone saw that she was unhappy and tried to comfort her with good intentions, but when she saw that the person had joined the student union, she thought that the person was making fun of her and retorted.

From then on, no one in the class wanted to talk to her.

Ma Yan was puzzled. How could Ding Mei be so stupid if she was admitted to Fudan University? Less than a month after the start of the school, she had already offended nearly half of her classmates.

After hearing Ma Yan's doubts, Su Ting remained silent for a while, then squeezed out a sentence: "Maybe people with high IQs have low EQs?"

"Do you believe this?" Ma Yan looked at Su Ting with an unspeakable look and asked.

To be honest, Su Ting didn't really believe it. A person with a high IQ, no matter how low his EQ is, would not be unable to distinguish between good and bad. Someone like Ding Mei, who was not clear-headed, was obviously not that smart.

But this is understandable. After entering university, their college entrance examination scores were announced. Ding Mei was admitted to Fudan University just on the passing line, and according to her own words, she took classes for half a year after graduating from high school and then did nothing, and has been studying at home.

Ding Mei graduated from high school in 1976 and worked for half a year, which means she started reviewing in early 1977. At that time, the government had not yet announced the resumption of the college entrance examination, but she had already started reviewing. How could this not be surprising?

So many people asked her the reason at that time.

As for Ding Mei, she is straightforward and cunning, but she is also smart and speaks out everything. She will tell anyone who asks her about something.

Ding Mei came from a good family, a family of scholars, and she could count on one hand the highly educated relatives in her family. However, her parents were the outliers in both families, with poor academic performance, one in junior high school and the other in a technical secondary school.

The two had neither low nor high educational background, which was enough for promotion; nor high enough to prevent them from being labeled as such during the Great Movement. So during those years, the relatives of both families were either demoted or, if they were high-level talents, they went to the northwest to do scientific research. Only they lived a stable life.

After the Great Movement ended, Ding Mei's relatives returned one after another. Although they had been affected in the past because of their high education, their high education allowed them to see things further than ordinary people. When many people had not yet reacted, some people saw that the restoration of the college entrance examination was inevitable.

This person is Ding Mei's uncle. He knew that his niece could not bear the hardship of working in a front-line workshop, so he gave advice to her sister and brother-in-law and asked her to prepare for the college entrance examination.

So when most people hadn't reacted yet, Ding Mei had already started reviewing, and last summer, her uncle even let her live at his home and tutored her for the entire summer... No, the original plan was to tutor her for the entire summer, but because she was not smart enough, he tutored her until she registered for the college entrance examination and then let her go.

On the eve of the college entrance examination, her uncle gave her a test paper with predicted topics, and she got several big questions right.

There are big guys coaching and helping with predicting the test questions, and this college entrance examination is basically as difficult as that of a junior high school student. Even so, Ding Mei still has the lowest score in her class. Can you say she is smart?

Su Ting thinks she can't, so it's normal for her to have no brains.

Ma Yan was convinced by Su Ting's analysis and sighed, "It seems that no matter how smart I am, I can't be as lucky as someone who can be reborn."

"Needless to say, your child will have a good life in the future." Su Ting joked with a smile.

Although Ma Yan is only one year younger than Su Ting, she is still a grown-up girl. She has never been married or in love. She had no choice but to go to the countryside to join the production team after graduating from high school.

In fact, she was not without ideas over the years, but when she went to the countryside, the policy was already clear. It would be easier to marry a countryman, but it was also equivalent to giving up the opportunity to compete for a place to return to the city.

She didn't want to give up this opportunity, so she gritted her teeth and held on.

But some of them couldn't stand it and married locals. When the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination came out last year, there was a big quarrel at home! The quarrels were not the best. There were also cases where female educated youth wanted to take the exam, but the men wouldn't let them, and locked them up at home and didn't let them go out.

Looking at these things, Ma Yan and other female educated youth who had endured it were very grateful.

Because she had never experienced this before, Ma Yan blushed at Su Ting's teasing and said, "How can you be like that?"

"The truth is, our school is a well-known university after all, and the unit you will be assigned to after graduation will not be bad. If you work well, the conditions of the husband you find in the future will definitely not be bad. In the future, your family will definitely not be worse than Ding Mei's family. Thinking about it this way, isn't your son's life very good?"

Ma Yan smiled helplessly: "I can't say anything better than you."

"That's because what I said makes sense." Su Ting said, then changed the subject, "But I have always believed that studying can change your destiny. A good destiny is just a high starting point. How far you can go in the future depends on your personal ability."

Class stratification was a hot topic on the Internet before she traveled through time. After 2010, the saying that studying can change your destiny is no longer true.

Unless they are geniuses, children from ordinary families can only reach the starting point of children from wealthy families no matter how hard they try.

But in this era, studying can change one's destiny. As long as you can get into university, it means you have one foot in the door of success, and the rest is just a matter of reaching that step.

Many of the wealthy people who were active before she traveled through time were college students in the 1980s and 1990s. They caught the Internet boom and became rich overnight.

Although it would be inappropriate to attribute all of their success to getting into college, that was indeed their starting point.

As the first batch of college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination, they dare not say that they can compare with big guys like the two Ma brothers, but as long as they don't do stupid things, their future life will not be too bad.

So from the moment they received the acceptance letter, they have actually changed their destiny.

Ma Yan thought about it for a moment and said, "What you said does make sense." She put Ding Mei's matter aside and continued to work on the class leader election.

…

On Saturday night, Ma Yan was elected class monitor by two votes. Although Xu Hui failed to win the election for class monitor, he removed the word "acting" in front of the title of deputy class monitor, so his mood was relatively stable.

As other class leaders were elected one after another, some in the class were happy and some were sad, but the most disappointed one was Ding Mei.

Like Ma Yan, Ding Mei also made three preparations: the Student Union, the radio station, and the class cadre election. As a result, Ma Yan not only successfully joined the college student union, but also entered the second round of interviews at the radio station. It was just that the result of the former came out first, so she gave up the interview for the latter. Tonight she successfully became the class monitor, so it can be said that she got what she wanted.

She failed in the first round of interviews for the student union and the radio station, and only received one vote in the class leader election!

The most infuriating thing is that she cast the vote herself!

Before the class was over and the results came out, Ding Mei had an argument with the girl she often played with, blaming her for not voting for her.

Originally, after Ding Mei ran out that night, the relationship between the two had become a little strained. Ding Mei felt that the other party didn't care about her, and the other party thought that she had a problem with her brain. However, since they lived in the same dormitory and had poor interpersonal relationships, they went to and from class together.

After this quarrel, the relationship between the two completely collapsed, and the other party changed seats with someone else under the counselor's nose.

So in the second half of the election, Ding Mei had a gloomy face and acted like she didn't want anyone to get in.

However, because of the previous experience, no one in the class was willing to comfort her. They all pretended not to notice that she was in a bad mood and continued to devote themselves to the class leader election.

It sounds easy to campaign, but it is actually quite complicated. First, you have to propose the position you want to run for. Those who want to participate in the election have to take turns to go on stage and give a speech, talking about what they will do after becoming an official. Then they vote, and the votes are counted to decide on the candidate.

Even though there were only more than 50 people in their class, there were quite a few class leaders to be selected, eight or nine in total, and it was almost nine o'clock when they finished selecting all of them.

Moreover, this was a big event for the class. Even if Su Ting did not participate in the election, she could not slip away early. She could only endure it slowly until about 8:50.

After all the class leaders were selected, the counselor said it was time to leave. Su Ting picked up her child and slowly walked out, with no intention of staying to join the discussion with her classmates.

Su Ting walked out of the campus quickly and looked around first. Without looking carefully, she saw the military jeep parked on the side of the road. She quickly picked it up and walked slowly towards it.

In the car, He Yan was already tired of waiting and lay on his side in the back seat. He Dongchuan also closed his eyes and was thinking about something. He did not open his eyes and turn his head until he heard a knock on the window.

Seeing the mother and daughter, he smiled, opened the car door, took Su Ting's arms and said with a smile, "Why did she fall asleep too?"

"Boring." Su Ting lowered her head and looked towards the car, "Is Xiaoyan asleep too?"

"I told him to sleep at home, but he refused and insisted on coming over. He fell asleep after waiting for a while."

Just like last time, they arrived a little after eight today. Knowing that Su Ting had not finished her evening self-study class, he drove back home first and drove over at eight-thirty.

Before coming, He Dongchuan asked He Yan to wait at home, but he was unwilling to do so. As a result, he waited for half an hour when he arrived.

During this period, Duan Xiaolan and Lu Zheng came out of school and saw the car parked on the side of the road. They guessed it was him and came over to tell him that Su Ting was running for class leader in her class and might be out a little late.

Otherwise, if he hadn't waited long enough for them to come out, he would have gone in to look for them.

He Dongchuan opened the back door, woke He Yan up, and told him to sit on the right. He Yan was half asleep when he was woken up, his eyes were too sleepy to open, his mind was not very clear, he did not react, and instinctively moved to the right.

He Dongchuan slowly put it in, stood up and asked, "Do you want to sit in the front or the back?"

"Let's go to the back." Su Ting was afraid that no one would pull the jeep, so after the jeep started, the two children rolled off the seats.

He Dongchuan hummed, bent down and pushed He Yan to the right, then slowly moved him inside before he stood up to make room for Su Ting, closed the car window, and got in the driver's seat to drive.

The jeep started, and He Yan slowly opened his eyes. Seeing the scenery outside the window change, he shouted, "Dad..." He turned his head and saw Su Ting and Man Man. A look of surprise appeared on his face, "Mom, when did you come out?"

"Just came out," Su Ting said with a smile, "Please move forward."

He Yan scratched his head: "Why didn't I see it?"

"It would be strange if you could see it with your eyes closed."

He Yan reacted, yawned, covered his mouth with his right hand, and stretched out his left hand to poke his sister's face: "Why did my sister fall asleep too?"

"It's too late."

He Yan nodded. He also felt that it was too late and continued to pinch his sister's face.

Manman, who was immersed in sleep, was annoyed by being pinched. She frowned and raised her hand to pat He Yan's hand, then turned over and continued to sleep. He Yan smiled secretly and reached out his hand again without giving up, but this time he didn't pinch his sister before he heard his mother say, "Manman is crying, you comfort her."

He Yan froze. As an older brother, he certainly knew how to get in a bad mood when waking up.

Every time she was woken up because she didn't get enough sleep, she would cry for a long time and no matter how hard we tried to comfort her, she wouldn't stop crying, let alone being woken up after not sleeping for long like today.

He Yan felt his scalp tingling just thinking about it, so he very tactfully withdrew his hand.

After returning home, He Dongchuan carried Su Ting slowly back to the room, while Su Ting went to the balcony to look at the kettle that was boiling.

He Dongchuan started boiling the water after he got home. It had been more than forty minutes, and the water in the pot was boiling and the steam was rising to the roof.

Su Ting turned around and asked, "Xiao Yan, do you want to take a shower?"

"Wash!" He Yan answered loudly. He really liked to be clean.

"Then go find some clothes."

Su Ting picked up the kettle, walked to the bathroom, found the bucket that her grandparents used for bathing, poured boiling water into it, then added cold water. After that, she poured all the remaining hot water into another clean bucket, leaving it for He Yan to add water in the middle of the process.

When Su Ting walked out of the bathroom with a jug of cold water, He Yan also found his clothes, rushed out of the room, ran into the bathroom, closed the door and began to take off his clothes.

Su Ting put the kettle on the coal stove and bent down to count the honeycomb coals under the stone platform.

"What are you counting?"

The sudden sound startled Su Ting. She patted her chest and turned around: "Why are you walking without making any sound?"

"Just to scare you." He Dongchuan said with a smile.

Su Ting rolled her eyes at him and continued counting the coals.

He Dongchuan bent over and looked over. Seeing that there was not much honeycomb coal left in the corner, he said, "I'll bring some honeycomb coal next time."

“Is there enough at home?”

"Enough. If not, I'll borrow it from someone else."

"Who do you want to borrow it from?"

Nowadays, the amount of honeycomb coal that each family can buy is limited. It's not that you can buy as much as you want. The amount that can be bought is basically not enough, but there is always some that cannot be used.

In the past, their family had more than enough food to use up. After all, they had three meals a day, two of which were eaten in the canteen. Except for Sundays, Su Ting would light the coal stove in the afternoon, so at least one-third of the monthly ration would not be used up.

But Beehive coal was not like food coupons, it was supplied monthly and could not be rolled over, so the unused rations from the past could not be kept until now. Once the couple lived separately and started coal stoves on both sides, the Beehive coal was no longer enough.

In the compound, there were not many families like theirs who ate in the cafeteria every day. So for a moment, Su Ting really didn't know who He Dongchuan was going to "borrow" the beehive coal from.

"Zhao Junping's family just bought a new gas stove, so they should have some leftover honeycomb coal. I plan to get some from him." He said get, but in reality he just spent money to buy it.

Su Ting was surprised: "Gas stove? Where did he get the ticket?"

He Dongchuan said: "It was given to him by his wife's eldest brother from her family." Although he said it was given, he actually sold it.

It’s just that the time for reform and opening up has not come yet, and speculation is still being strictly cracked down on, so buying and selling tickets is all about exchanging tickets for tickets.

Su Ting understood: "Then it will be much easier for them to cook in the future."

He Dongchuan noticed her envy and asked, "Do you want to buy a gas stove too?"

"Yes!" Su Ting nodded without any concealment.

Gas stoves are so convenient. You can boil water and cook rice by turning on the valve, which saves a lot of work. But she also knows that gas stoves are not only expensive, but also difficult to get tickets. She can only envy them a little.

He Dongchuan was impressed and said, "I will pay more attention to it in the future. If I can get tickets, we will buy one and bring it back."

"That's fine." Su Ting affirmed his idea, and then asked, "Will the Zhao family no longer need to use coal stoves in the future?"

"How is that possible? Gas is so expensive and there is a limit on the supply. The Zhao family's gas stove can only be used for cooking. For regular cooking and water heating, we should still use a coal stove. The use of honeycomb coal will definitely be less than before." He Dongchuan pondered and said, "We will only be short of honeycomb coal in the next few months. We will be fine when the weather gets warmer."

Although people don't take baths as often in winter, they take longer and require more hot water, so every household uses more coal.

In summer, because we have to take a bath every day, we don’t need to rub for so long each time, and we need less water. One pot of hot water can bathe two or three people. In addition, the temperature is high in summer, and many people are not willing to take a hot bath. Women may need to pay attention to this, while men just take a cold shower.

Generally speaking, people will not be too worried about coal in the summer. Those who know how to live will store the honeycomb coal that is not used up in the summer for use in the winter.

They didn't care about these things in the past, but this summer they may learn to stock up.

After talking about the beehive coal, He Dongchuan took out a ticket from his pocket and handed it to Su Ting. Although he didn't say anything, one could tell how proud he was from the fact that he raised his chin higher than usual.

Su Ting took the ticket and asked in surprise, "Did you win the competition?"

He Dongchuan was humble now, and said calmly, "It was a narrow victory."

But how could Su Ting not understand him?

If it was really just a narrow victory, He Dongchuan's answer would definitely not be so concise, just two words to explain that they won beautifully this time.

Su Ting looked up at him with sparkling eyes: "Why are you so awesome?"

He Dongchuan coughed lightly, but was no longer humble, enjoying the admiring gaze of his wife.

But this admiration did not last long. After praising her, Su Ting turned her attention to the bicycle ticket.

Obviously, it was not the first time she got a bicycle ticket, nor was it the first time she bought a bicycle, but the more she looked at this small ticket, the more she liked it.

Su Ting asked: "Which brand should we choose when we buy another bicycle?"

"All right."

Su Ting squinted: "Don't you think your answer is too perfunctory?"

He Dongchuan had to reinterpret what he had just said: "What I mean is, as long as you like it, it's fine. If you can't make up your mind now, we can go to the department store tomorrow and choose carefully."

Su Ting was satisfied: "Okay."

…

Because they were going to the department store to buy bicycles on Sunday, they didn't stay out too late the night before and went to bed as soon as the time came.

After getting up in the morning, the family took turns taking a bath.

First, Su Ting felt uncomfortable because of the stickiness on her body and wanted to take a shower. When He Dongchuan saw this, he also took a shower. He had been running and practicing martial arts in the morning and was sweating a lot.

He Yan had the same reason for taking a bath as his father. In fact, he had been jogging in the morning for more than a year, but he did not take a bath every time after his morning run. After all, he jumped around every day and sweated a lot. If he had to take a bath after sweating a little, he estimated that he could only soak in the bathtub all day long.

But now both mom and dad have to take a bath. They love to be clean so much. If he doesn’t take a bath, it will seem like he is so lazy. So he must take this bath.

Gradually, when she saw that they were all taking a shower, she also started clamoring to take a shower. She had a good reason: she had not taken a shower last night, so she had to make up for it today.

Because of this incident, Su Ting and her friends' original departure time was delayed again and again, and they didn't get on the car until ten o'clock.

Fortunately, the distance was not far, less than ten kilometers. Although the cars at that time were not running that fast and the road conditions were not that good, there were no traffic lights on the road. Basically, as long as there was no one in front of us, we could drive straight ahead. In addition, there was no traffic jam, so the time required to travel the same distance was actually shorter than a few decades later.

However, after entering the city center, the car slowed down because there were too many people on the road. Although people would actively avoid vehicles at this time, He Dongchuan was cautious and did not dare to drive too fast. It took him four or five minutes to drive just a few hundred meters.

During this time, the two children kept looking out, exclaiming from time to time: "So tall! So beautiful!"

It's no wonder that the two kids acted like country bumpkins moving to the city. These days, most cities have single-story buildings, with four or five stories considered high-rise. But on this street, seven- or eight-story buildings are everywhere, and some are even more than ten stories high.

Moreover, these buildings were built before the liberation, all of them are Western-style buildings, which naturally look fashionable and beautiful in that era.

Su Ting didn't find it strange because she had seen many tall buildings in her previous life. She had also traveled to Shanghai, walked along this street, and seen the Pujiang TV Tower, so she was very calm when she came here for the first time in her life.

Amid the applause of his two children, He Dongchuan parked the car in front of the department store.

There are still many conveniences in this era, such as fewer cars and less traffic jams, and being able to park anywhere on the roadside without worrying about being fined by the traffic police.

After the jeep stopped, Su Ting pushed open the door and walked down. She went to the back seat, opened the door, let the two children get out one after another, and held Man Man's hand.

He Yan also held his sister's hand on the other side and often took her to play. He knew how to take care of her.

He Dongchuan also came around from the other side of the jeep, walked up to the three people and asked, "Should we go buy bicycles first, or go shopping and have a meal first?"

Su Ting said: "Let's go shopping first, and then buy a car after dinner." With the ticket in hand, there is no need to rush to buy a car.

"OK."

He Dongchuan nodded, and the family started walking along the street.

The city center is really lively. There are all kinds of shops on both sides of the street, selling department stores, fruits, clothes, and all kinds of things, divided into very detailed categories.

There are also a wide variety of things sold inside. For example, at this time of year, the street supply and marketing cooperatives can only sell apples and oranges. Occasionally, you can buy winter dates and pears, and the quantity is very limited. If you go too late, there will be nothing. In the fruit store, there are not only local fruits for sale, but also many southern fruits, all of which are placed on the ground in baskets. You can see a large area with a sweep.

There were more than two children. Su Ting couldn't walk anymore after seeing them all. She limped in and asked the salesperson how the fruits were sold.

The salesperson had a mediocre attitude. He pointed at the wall and asked, "Can't you check it yourself?"

Following the direction she pointed, Su Ting noticed a small blackboard hanging on the wall, on which was written the unit price of today's fruits for sale. Southern fruits were more expensive than those sold in the supply and marketing cooperatives when she lived on the island, but local fruits were cheaper than those in the street supply and marketing cooperatives.

Of course, these fruits don’t require tickets.

After seeing the prices clearly, Su Ting made a decisive decision to buy four pounds of apples, oranges, mangoes and tangerines. A customer saw that they were buying like wholesalers and couldn't help asking, "Can you finish all these fruits?"

"There's nothing we can't eat. Apples, oranges and tangerines can be stored for half a month. There are four people in my family. If each person eats one a day, we should be done in half a month." Su Ting said with a smile, "We don't live nearby, it's a rare opportunity to come here, and the price is cheap, so of course we have to buy more."

People tend to follow the crowd. Before, customers coming and going in the fruit store tended to look more and buy less. But when the customers who came later saw them buying so much and listened to her explanation, they all thought what she said made sense and increased their purchases.

For a while, the cashier at the fruit store was busy.

Although more than ten kilograms of fruit are not heavy, it is tiring to carry them for a long time, and before they knew it, it was already eleven o'clock, so they decided to go back for dinner.

After dinner at around 12 o'clock, they went to the beach for a stroll.

Early spring is perfect for flying kites, and today is a holiday, so many parents brought their children to play. As a result, the beach was very lively, and there were several people dressed up in a shady way selling kites.

Children all like new things, and Manman is no exception. When he saw the colorful kites flying in the sky, he also clamored for them.

He Yan is older now and cares more about his reputation than when he was a child. He was too embarrassed to make a noise, but his eyes were always following the kite in the sky. He forgot to look at the road and almost bumped into someone.

Seeing how much the two children wanted it, Su Ting called a kite seller, gave him money and let the two children choose one.

It’s just that the two children have different opinions. He Yan likes the majestic eagle, while Xiao Mo likes the beautiful butterfly. The brother and sister even started arguing while talking. One said the butterfly was too weak, and the other said the eagle was fierce.

Su Ting had a headache after hearing this, so she had to give in and said, "I'll buy each of you a kite, and then you two can stop quarreling, okay?"

The brother and sister looked at each other, quickly reconciled, and praised each other: "Butterflies really look beautiful when they are released!"

“Eagles are also amazing when they fly!”

Su Ting, who paid the money, said: “…” I now seriously suspect that you two deliberately quarreled with me to cheat me of my money!