Chapter 25 Commune Middle School "You're really unlucky to have met me."...
Zhong Ying knew that the commune middle school had been closed. Her younger brother, Zhong Xin, had returned from school in late spring, but had not been notified to go back to class since. Coming from the future, she also knew that during this period, the education sector was like a flickering candle with only a faint flame remaining. However, she lived in an era when the flame was being reignited and burned fiercely again, and had only a few vague impressions of this bleak history from written records.
Only now, facing history head-on, does Zhong Ying realize that written descriptions are far too superficial.
Despite it being the height of summer with the sun shining brightly, Zhong Ying felt a sense of desolation, as if an autumn wind was blowing through the school gate; the school was deserted.
“This…” Li Changgui never expected that the school he had longed for for so many years would be so dilapidated when he saw it with his own eyes.
Only Li Linshi had seen a similar scene before. Even before his death and before returning to his hometown, the university was in chaos. Not only were the graduating class of '68 waiting for job assignments, but the graduating class of '67, who had been stranded for a year, were also waiting. No one knew when they would be assigned, whether they would be assigned to work in a factory, or to a rural area.
Unlike his classmates who waited in vain, Li Linshi always had a clear goal and knew why he was studying. He didn't waste a single day and took the initiative to request to return to the grassroots level to build rural areas as a returning educated youth.
Li Linshi said, "Let's go in."
Zhong Ying snapped out of her daze and, taking advantage of the fact that there was no one on the road in front of the school, hurriedly went inside.
Li Changgui also cheered himself up. No matter what, this was the school he had always dreamed of attending.
This thought took hold in his mind, and Li Changgui looked around again. "Is this the playground? It's huge! It's even bigger than our production team's threshing ground! Are all these buildings classrooms? That's great, the village school only has two classrooms."
“Yes, that’s the playground. There are basketball games every day, between classes and between grades. Sometimes the teachers will also play against the students. There’s also a sports meet every semester, with running, long jump and many other events.” Li Linshi said, describing the scene when he was a student. “These bungalows are not just classrooms. The three buildings are teaching buildings, with three classrooms in each building. There are three grades in the whole school, and three classes in each grade, which is just right.”
"That's where the teachers' offices are, and the two buildings next to it are the teachers' dormitories. The building in the southwest corner is the canteen. Our student dormitories are in the North Street compound, two streets away from the school. Every day after class, after dinner, and after evening self-study, the students would walk together for a few hundred meters to the compound to rest."
Following his cousin's words, Li Changgui imagined himself in those scenes, playing basketball, studying, and walking back to the dormitory with the children...
Zhong Ying was also looking around at the school, which she saw as rough and simple. When she turned her head, she saw that Li Changgui had somehow changed from a nineteen-year-old youth to a teenager, looking about the same age as her brother Zhong Xin.
Zhong Ying was startled. Before she could say anything, Li Changgui, who looked like a junior high school student, had already rushed into a classroom, just like a student hurrying back to class after the school bell rang.
Li Changgui excitedly sat down in the chair in the first row, curiously touching the edge of the table. After a while, he looked up and waved to Li Linshi, "Fourth cousin, can you be my teacher and give me a lesson?"
Li Linshi suddenly felt as if something was stuck in his throat, making him feel choked and uncomfortable. "...Okay."
Zhong Ying picked up the tables and chairs that had fallen to the ground and tried to sit down, but these tables and chairs were meant for junior high school students in their teens, and it was a bit cramped for an adult like her to sit down.
She sat in a spot near the middle of the classroom wall, watching Li Linshi bend down to pick up a book that was open and lying face down on the floor, then walk up to the podium. He stood tall and elegant, and the way he talked about the text made him seem like a refined and composed intellectual young man.
Zhong Ying was momentarily dazed. If Li Linshi were still alive, and the village primary school of the Tonggan Production Team resumed operations, he would surely have become a good teacher. No, he was the next production team leader that the commune members were hoping for; he could have accomplished so much more.
It's a pity... Zhong Ying suddenly felt a pity.
As the sun rose to its zenith and he stepped out of the classroom, Li Changgui's wish had been fulfilled, his obsession resolved, and he regained his former youthful appearance. He let out a long sigh, as if releasing a pent-up frustration. "I really hope I can study in my next life, but unfortunately, all the schools have closed down now..."
"Yes, it will." Although Zhong Ying didn't want to reveal her origins to the second ghost, she still subtly hinted at some future developments. "Dawn will always come, and the flame of civilization will never be extinguished. When you are reincarnated, studying in your next life will definitely not be so difficult."
Li Changgui turned around and smiled at her, taking Zhong Ying's words as a way of comforting him.
"Alright, let's go back," Li Changgui said. His wish had been fulfilled, and it was as if the countdown had begun. He realized that he didn't have much time left in this world.
In those last few moments, Li Changgui suddenly longed to return to his parents' side.
Although they had clung to him like earthbound ghosts and bound him to the Tonggan Production Team in his previous life, Li Changgui still wanted to go back and see them one last time before he was reincarnated.
On the way back, Li Changgui walked ahead, while Zhong Ying quietly lagged a few steps behind, walking with Li Linshi a few dozen meters behind him.
Li Linshi happened to have something he wanted to ask her, "Will the school really continue to operate in the future?"
Upon hearing this, Zhong Ying became excited. This was the first time this ghost had asked her about the future. What did this mean? It meant that this ghost was finally treating her as a completely new person! She wouldn't have to take the blame for what happened before!
"Of course! This situation is only temporary." Zhong Ying lowered her voice. "Not only are there more and more schools, but the number of students is also increasing. In the future, you'll need at least a bachelor's degree to find a job. Can you imagine the level of education people will have in the future?"
Li Linshi nodded, and after just imagining it, he couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart, "That's really nice."
"Of course, things will only get better," Zhong Ying pressed, "So, how about you consider reincarnating with your cousin?"
Zhong Ying tapped her chin lightly with her fingers. "Let me think. If you were to reincarnate now, back when there was no one-child policy, there would be no limit on the number of people you could be reincarnated into. You should be able to change your numbers and start over very quickly. At the latest, you would be born in the 1970s, the same generation as my parents. When you grow up, whether you are a college student or a business owner in the 1990s, you can reap the benefits of the times!"
Her words seemed to be full of temptation, but Li Linshi remained calm. Zhong Ying stared at him carefully for a while, but she did not see a trace of interest in his eyes.
Li Changgui glanced back and saw Li Linshi and Zhong Ying whispering to each other side by side. He quickly took a few steps forward, not wanting to hear any mushy talk.
Zhong Ying had no choice but to abandon her little scheme. She also had a question for Li Linshi: "Didn't you say something incomplete just now?"
She had also been to school, and although campus life was wonderful, it was never as all good as Li Linshi described.
Since the environment had become bleak, Li Linshi didn't want to disappoint his cousin who had been looking forward to campus life, so he only mentioned the good aspects and didn't mention anything else.
Li Linshi turned his head and looked at Zhong Ying's face. The things he couldn't say to his cousin seemed to disappear when he was with her. "When I was studying here, the school was called Liuzhang Middle School. The following year, in 1958, the school was renamed Liuzhang Agricultural Middle School."
“That year, the school allocated a farm and divided the land into classes for management. The teachers led the students to work and learn at the same time,” Li Linshi said. “Back then, it was common for students to be so tired that they would fall asleep on the edge of the field.”
"The following year, the whole country was in a famine, and the school began to ration food. It was divided into three levels according to age. Because I started school early and was one of the younger students, I ate the lowest level, 24 catties of grain per month. When the rationing started, there was also rice and vegetables, and occasionally meat."
"Later it became one cornbread and one bowl of soup with a few vegetable leaves floating on top of each person."
"Later, even when the students grew their own vegetables, the harvest was not good, and there was no more cornbread, so they could only eat sweet potatoes." Li Linshi recalled the appearance of the teachers and students at that time, all of them were pale and thin. "The teachers always put the students first. An adult only had a monthly ration of 19 jin. Many teachers suffered from edema, and their legs and feet were so swollen that they could only walk with their shoes dragging."
Zhong Ying never expected to hear this. She herself had a tough time in school, burdened by heavy academic pressure, constantly competing with her classmates, as if missing a tutoring class would leave her behind. Her final grades plummeted, becoming another excuse for her father to criticize her mother. But these were only mental hardships. In modern society, with its advanced development and her family's relatively good financial situation, she had never truly experienced a lack of food or clothing.
It can only be said that each generation has its own hardships, and Li Linshi's generation can be said to have experienced almost all the most difficult things: the three years of hardship, the prevalence of the "exaggeration wind", the turmoil and catastrophe in the education sector... These almost spanned his academic experience and occupied half of his life.
Zhong Ying stared intently at his profile. In fact, if she were in his shoes, after studying hard for so many years, enduring hunger and hardship, and finally returning to her hometown after completing her studies, she would be entangled by a man in the village with only a primary school education, who would stop at nothing to marry her before she could even use her knowledge to help build the village...
Just thinking about it made Zhong Ying's fists hard. Wasn't this just like the story of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd?
In the past, people regarded the story of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd as a romantic myth, and even included it in elementary school textbooks. However, as people's understanding has progressed, they have noticed something amiss when they reread the story.
The old ox told the Cowherd that fairies were bathing by the river, and their clothes were left on the bank. He asked him to pick up the pink gauze dress, and said that the one who asked him for the dress was his wife.
Hey, the Cowherd actually did just that, using it as an excuse to marry the Weaver Girl.
That's ridiculous. I wonder which poor peasant, Tian Li, who couldn't find a wife, came up with this story.
The Weaver Girl, a celestial fairy, was trapped in the mortal world due to "fate." She not only had to use her weaving skills to supplement her family's income but also bore a son and a daughter for the Cowherd. Li Linshi, who was also "forcibly taken" from her, suffered a similar fate and even lost his life.
No wonder Li Linshi tried to kill her several times at the beginning.
Zhong Ying thought that if she were the "Weaver Girl" who was murdered, she would definitely transform into a more vengeful ghost than the red-clothed female ghost. She would relentlessly pursue the "Cowherd" from the highest heaven to the deepest hell, and she would not stop until the "Cowherd" was dead.
He claimed he wasn't the original owner of the body, and that he wasn't the one who committed the evil deeds. Zhong Ying dismissed it as mere sophistry and couldn't be bothered to listen to another word.
What nonsense are you spouting? Kill, kill, kill—she just wants to tear him to pieces to vent her hatred!
But in reality, Zhong Ying was dressed as a "gigolo".
Zhong Ying couldn't help but feel thankful that she had encountered a ghost that could understand human speech. Otherwise, she would probably have been instantly killed right after her rebirth, instead of being able to walk peacefully down the street, feeling the breeze on her face and smelling the resinous fragrance of the poplar trees by the roadside.
It's better to be alive.
Zhong Ying could not atone for her sins with death, so she could only express sympathy for the victim. When she looked at Li Lin, she said from the bottom of her heart, "You were really unlucky to have met me."
Li Linshi had no idea how many times Zhong Ying's thought process had gone through in such a short time. When he heard this, he felt that the originally peaceful atmosphere had suddenly changed. He became secretly wary. What was she trying to do by suddenly saying such harsh words?
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Author's note: Zhong Ying: (sympathetic) You're really unlucky to have met me.
Li Linshi: (Warning) Why did you suddenly make such a harsh statement?
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