Chapter 12

Xu Wen came out of the house and saw a lesbian about her age waiting at the door, panting and pushing a bicycle.

She has neatly short hair, slightly dark skin, and looks particularly capable.

It was a stranger, Xu Wen was sure that he didn't know her. "I'm Xu Wen, who are you?"

The female comrade wiped her sweat and smiled, revealing her white teeth: "I am Wen Yiming's cousin. He has something to do and can't go to school with you. He asked me to bring his bicycle..." The female comrade patted the handlebars of the bicycle, "to you."

Xu Wen was stunned for a moment, then shook his head to refuse: "Don't bother! I can just take the bus."

"But there are very few buses from here to the county town. There will be no buses at three o'clock."

Otherwise, she wouldn't have risked being late for work to run errands for Wen Yiming.

Xu Wen turned around and looked at the clock on the wall inside the room. It was two forty.

She waved her hand hastily and went into the house: "It's okay, there's still time. I'll just walk faster. Please ride the bike back! Besides, doesn't Wen Yiming have to ride to school by himself?"

All the clothes that Xu Wen needed to take to school had been packed neatly and he could just put them on his back and go.

The female comrade was worried: "But what if you can't catch the bus?"

It’s three kilometers from here to Gongshe Station!

It is not difficult for her to run three kilometers in twenty minutes, but can someone who looks so cute run fast?

Xu Wen ran out while waving his hands: "Thank you! I should be able to catch up. Besides, I can't ride a bike, so it's useless for you to leave it to me."

When the female comrade heard this, she got on her bicycle and chased after her: "Then come on board, I'll take you to the commune station."

This time Xu Wen did not refuse. If she really missed the last bus, she would have to walk until tomorrow morning.

After getting on the bus, she looked through the window at the lesbians hurriedly leaving and finally had time to think: Is Wen Yiming letting her down?

The county's No. 1 Middle School is located slightly east of the county center.

There is only one building in the school, and the rest are bungalows.

This only building is the teaching building and also the teacher's office.

The bungalows are divided into two by an aisle down the middle.

On the left is the teacher's family area, which houses not only current teachers but also former or retired teachers.

There is also a small printing factory in the first row of houses in the residential area.

On the right is the dormitory area, the front row is the male dormitory, and the back row is the female dormitory. There are six rows in total, with ten dormitories in each row.

Xu Wen was in Class 1. His dormitory was the first room on the left in the last row, right next to Central Avenue.

The dormitory is not very big, just a room with integrated door and window. A single door and a small window basically constitute the width of the room.

The bed is right at the entrance, or to be exact, a large bunk bed.

Five bunk beds are connected from south to north and can accommodate twelve people.

Apart from the beds, the small room only had an aisle about 80 cm wide and a simple three-layer open wooden cabinet in the corner of the wall.

Aluminum lunch boxes and toiletries are placed on the wooden cabinet in layers.

Xu Wen's class is quite special. There are few students, and even fewer girls. There are only four girls in her class, so there is extra space on the big porch to put other items, such as clothes that are no longer worn or books that are no longer needed.

When Xu Wen arrived at the dormitory carrying his bags, two female classmates had already arrived.

They are the good-natured Li Yun and the outspoken Shao Yueyue.

As soon as Li Yun saw Xu Wen, she exclaimed: "Wen Wen, I haven't seen you for just over half a month, how come you've become more beautiful again?"

Li Yun is the oldest one in their dormitory. She is 21 years old and has naturally curly hair.

Her parents work in the county government. Her family conditions are quite good. She is kind and caring. She is indeed the eldest sister in the dormitory.

Xu Wen smiled: "You look better too."

Shao Yueyue had just finished washing her hair and heard the two of them complimenting each other. She joked, "You two are both good-looking, but I'm the only one who's ugly?"

Shao Yueyue is one year younger than Xu Wen. Her family lives in a commune near the county seat. Her parents are both formal employees in the factory, and their family conditions are not bad.

It should be said that except Xu Wen, the other girls in the class are all in good condition.

Nowadays, the trend of favoring boys over girls is still quite serious. Families that can send their girls to high school are generally not bad, at least they have to be working-class families.

There are absolutely no other rural students like Xu Wen.

Pian Xu Wen was very competitive and always ranked first in the school in all exams, big and small.

In comparison, more male students come from poorer families.

"No way." Xu Wen knew Shao Yue was just joking, and shook his head with a smile, "Yueyue is the prettiest!"

Shao Yue wiped her hair with a towel and snorted when she heard that: "How dare I say it looks good in front of you? Not to mention me, I don't think anyone in our county would dare to say that."

"You're exaggerating. There are so many people in the county, how could it be my turn?" Xu Wen laughed and shook his head, placing the things he brought in their appropriate places one by one.

"Why do you bring so many pickled vegetables on such a hot day?" Shao Yue asked curiously, "We don't even have a fan here, won't they get damaged in such a hot day?"

Xu Wen shook his head: "I hope not! It's quite salty."

I'll be living on them for the next week.

Compared to Shao Yue, Li Yun understood rural life a little better and also knew that Xu Wen's family was not well off.

She glanced at the pickled vegetables and the can of flour with a strange color, and asked Xu, "Wenwen, are you going to eat? I haven't had dinner yet! Can you come with me?"

Having been classmates for a year and a half, Xu Wen certainly understood Li Yun's character.

This was because he was afraid that she was hungry, so he invited her to dinner under the pretext that he wanted to eat. He shook his head and said thank you: "Thank you, Sister Yunyun, I just came here after eating."

Li Yun didn't say anything more, just said: "Tell me if you need money."

Xu Wen thanked him again.

After Xu Wen put away the things he brought from home and Shao Yue's hair was almost dry, the three of them walked to the classroom together.

No matter how old the girls are, they always like to go out together. They go to and from class, get water, and eat together. The three of them are always together.

Xu Wen is actually quite independent and prefers to be alone. At the beginning, he felt that it was not good to live in the same dormitory with her, but later he gradually got used to it.

"Is Liu Rulan not here yet?" Xu asked when he saw that the bed of the last roommate had not been touched.

When Shao Yue heard Liu Rulan's name, her eyes rolled up so much that you couldn't see the black pupils. She looked disgusted and said, "How could the young lady come so early? She must be waiting for her father to drive her away in the morning. She can also show off at the door."

Liu Rulan is the same age as Shao Yue, both are 18 years old. Her parents are both cadres, especially Liu Rulan's father, who has a car in his unit and occasionally picks her up.

Every time she came by bus, Liu Rulan would deliberately linger at the school gate for a while so that her classmates could see her.

Cars are extremely rare these days.

There are many families like Xu Wen's who cannot even afford a bicycle, and some have never even seen a car.

It's normal for Liu Rulan to be a little arrogant.

It's just that she is a little too proud. When she comes to school, she always acts like a big shot and bosses her classmates around. Her attitude is rude and quite annoying.

No wonder Shao Yue is so disgusted.

But there are always some people in this world who despise poverty and love wealth and like to rush to be servants for young ladies.

The adjective used forty or fifty years later is "dog licker".

In their class, most of the students who are used to Liu Rulan are male students. In the dormitory, Xu Wen is definitely not used to her, but she is not as straightforward as Shao Yue.

Although Li Yun also disliked Liu Rulan, she had a soft personality and would keep her anger to herself, so she was not likely to refuse anyone.

Xu Wen asked that their classroom was on the second floor, which is the top floor.

Not only is the teaching environment very different from that of high schools forty or fifty years later, but even the banners and slogans in the classroom are different.

Decades later, high school classrooms were filled with words encouraging students to take the college entrance examination.

For example, "Three years of hard work, this is the first step." "Study hard for more than ten years, and work hard for the last half a year!"

The slogans posted in classrooms now all say: "Study for the world revolution and cultivate revolutionary successors who are both red and brick." "Education must be combined with production and labor." And so on.

Usually, Sunday evening self-study is the most interesting, and is divided into two camps: active and quiet.

The mobilization group refers to the large army that is in a rush to work.

These students are busy earning work points at home on weekends and have no time to do their homework, so they take advantage of Sunday night self-study to cram in their homework because they have to hand it in as soon as class starts on Monday.

The quiet ones are those who like to sleep.

Some students may be very tired from working part-time during the day, and have to stay up late at night to do homework.

There are also many students who live within ten kilometers of the school and are reluctant to take the bus and just walk here.

To the point that during evening self-study, I couldn't close my eyes once I calmed down and fell asleep on my desk.

Xu Wen thought it was lucky. After all, herding sheep was not tiring and he could finish his homework in the wild.

At most, I would bow to the grave and say, "Sorry, I need to borrow your house number plate."

After all, he requisitioned someone else's stone tablet.

Their class teacher’s surname is Chen, and his name is Chen Jinhua.

He was a particularly sensible young teacher. He walked into the classroom, shook his head and sighed, then walked to the podium and tapped the table lightly with a blackboard eraser.

After waking up all the sleeping students, he spoke: "The body is the capital of the revolution! You have to work on weekends and walk to school. It's already so hard. You don't have the energy to study if you sit here. Go back to sleep first! Get enough rest and study hard tomorrow. Go back!"

The students thanked the teacher in unison, some went home, some went back to the dormitory.

People like Liu Rulan who live nearby don't live on campus. She wants a dormitory for lunch break because she doesn't want to ride a bicycle home under the sun for fear of getting tanned.

Normally the school would not allow her to do this. But their class was special, with few girls and so many free beds.

Since she wanted to live with her class teacher, she didn't say anything.

Xu Wen couldn't go home and didn't want to go back to the dormitory.

She is afraid of heat and there is no fan in the dormitory.

There was a ceiling fan in the classroom, but it didn't keep the room cool even after it whirred for a long time. But it was better than nothing, and there was nothing to do in the dormitory.

Not only Xu Wen, but also the students who were not sleepy and lived in the dormitory stayed in the classroom tacitly.

Some are for studying, and some are for chatting.

Shao Yue pulled Li Yun over to sit in front of Xu Wen, facing her from behind. She whispered to them, "Have you heard? We're going to start this semester as military students."

In addition to daily studies, there are two other things that students must learn at the County No. 1 Middle School.

One is to study politics and labor before self-study every night, just like studying.

Another one is called learning about industry, agriculture, and military service.

These three types of learning do not require taking out spare time, but at least one week per semester must be set aside for comprehensive learning to ensure the implementation of the educational policy.

As the name suggests, learning from the working class means learning from the working class.

In the past three semesters, Xu Wen and his classmates have gone to different factories to study.

For example, machinery factories and fertilizer factories.

In this era, applying what you have learned is no joke.

In a machinery factory, you need to learn and apply physical knowledge.

You need to learn how to assemble rice threshers, seed drills and other machines from the workers and masters.

During the autumn harvest last year, the Taoyuan production team's rice thresher broke down after threshing only half of the rice.

Normally in this situation we would wait for the manufacturer's maintenance technician to come and fix it, because the villagers don't understand this.

However, in autumn, all the communes were threshing rice and wheat, and the rice thresher of a production team might break down. The waiting line for repair would take a long time.

If you don’t work, you won’t get any work points. Xu Wen wanted to earn more work points during the holiday, so he tried to repair it. Unexpectedly, he actually fixed it.

The production team also awarded her a certificate of merit and rewarded her ten yuan.

For this reason, the brigade also encourages students of appropriate age to study more, and the work assigned on weekends is relatively light so as not to affect their studies.

Of course, working in a fertilizer factory requires understanding the fertilizer production process, which requires the use of chemical knowledge.

In fact, these are child's play for Xu Wen, and he can understand them at a glance.

But it was of no use understanding it, and she didn't dare to make fertilizer privately.

The entire production team placed orders for fertilizers on a unified basis, leaving no room for her to perform.

They also went to a cement factory to learn the workers' spirit of endurance and hard work.

As for agricultural studies, the school has also taken great pains to do so.

The first is the school’s own farm.

The farm is not located at the school, but in a deserted place outside the county town, without even a road.

Daily necessities and various farm tools were transported by students on foot, or carried, lifted or shouldered.

Although Xu Wen was born in a peasant family, she was a very delicate girl. After walking all day and carrying things all day, her shoulders were red, swollen and her feet were covered with blisters.

The school farm is a wasteland.

Xu Wen and his class are the first batch of high school students after the resumption of enrollment, and their first task is to open up new areas.

They were divided into two teams, each with fifty people, who took turns to stay on this piece of land, and each team stayed for ten days to open up the land.

About one hundred high school students reclaimed twenty acres of arable land in twenty days.

If this is put into context forty or fifty years later, it would be considered a fantasy.

What teenager would be willing to endure this hardship?

Xu Wen had never suffered such hardship in his life, and his palms and soles were covered with blisters.

Fortunately, her classmates all helped her, and even her teachers took care of her.

In addition, there are vegetable plots in the school, which are directly under the responsibility of each class. Each class is responsible for watering and fertilizing different vegetable plots. When the vegetables grow up, they are picked and sent to the canteen.

Finally, we need to learn to be soldiers, that is, to learn solid skills and strong will from the comrades of the People's Liberation Army.

Last year, the military students visited and studied at a local base.

Of course, the premise is that it does not involve other people's confidential information.

In fact, we just borrowed other people's fields and playgrounds to conduct a military training, practice formations, pack our backpacks, and even go for a field training.

Of the three subjects, Xu Wen liked the vocational subject the most because it was relatively easy. When he heard that this semester would start with military training, Xu Wen immediately dropped his head.

"This is really not good news!" Xu Wen sighed.

Li Yun patted her on the shoulder and said, "Don't talk nonsense! Your attitude is not right."

Shao Yue nodded: "That's right! But this training session should be easier than last year."

"What do you mean?"

"I heard that this year we are looking for active military personnel to teach us at school."

Xu Wen twitched his lips. That really was military training.

I never thought that I could experience military training life again in high school in the 1970s.

"Also, there is another good news." Shao Yue lowered her voice mysteriously.

Xu Wen was not very interested. As long as the college entrance examination was not resumed, she didn't think there would be anything that could be considered a surprise in her high school life.

Having lived two lives, what could she not have experienced in terms of learning?

Compared to Xu Wen, Li Yun was much more supportive and asked Shao Yue with great interest: "What good news?"

"We're going to build a new school!"

"Wow!" Li Yun's eyes lit up. "Where will it be built? When will the new school building be completed?"

This school is a bit too run-down and cannot accommodate any more students.

Xu Wen was not in a hurry to be happy, and asked a question: "Are you sure you want to build a new school? I heard that our school will not be funded by the local government. Do you have the money to build it?"

This is an era when studying is not popular. A high school that cannot be used to take college entrance exams or assign jobs is not valued by the local community at all.

Not only that, but one also has to be extremely cautious, as there is a risk of violating certain rules if one is not careful.

"It seems not." Shao Yue shook her head, "I heard that we have to build it ourselves."

Xu asked: "..."

This high school experience was not in vain.

He can farm, go into the workshop and drag things out, and he can be a half-soldier, that's all, but now he has to build a school by himself?!

"I hope your information is unreliable!" Xu Wen murmured.

Li Yun shook her head: "I'm afraid it's true. Because I heard it too."

Xu asked: "..."

My head fell on the desk.

I really want to drop out of school!

After evening self-study, Xu asked the three of them to go back to the dormitory together and then go to get some hot water together.

The public toilet is to the north of their dormitory. On the left side of the public toilet is an arc-shaped archway, through which are the water room and the canteen.

You also need a water ticket to boil water, but this water ticket is printed by the school itself.

A cent for a jug of water.

I took the hot water back to the dormitory, then took the washbasin to the public faucet next to the front row of dormitories to get some cool water.

There is no public washing room in the school. There is only an outdoor public pool at the south end of the road that separates the dormitory and the family building.

The sink was built on the outer wall of the printing factory on campus, and hundreds of people lined up in front of the eight faucets every night to fetch water for washing.

In the summer, you just have to wait in a queue, but in the winter, the water freezes and you can't get any water at all.

Xu Wen had just put the basin under the faucet when she heard someone calling her.

Following the sound, she turned around and saw a person leaning against the parallel bars at the playground in front of the dormitory, seemingly waiting for her.

He was standing under the street light and Xu Wen couldn't see his face clearly.