Several girls decided to make fried leek dumplings for lunch. When Chu Jingqiu came back, their leek dumplings were almost ready. They just needed to make some loofah soup and they could eat.
During the meal, Shi Aihong cautiously asked Chu Jingqiu, "Jingqiu, the old Party secretary came to the educated youth center today, and the village is going to hold a literacy class.
He asked us, the old educated youth, to prepare and use the evening time to teach the villagers, and the classrooms had already been prepared.
There are 11 of us in total, plus the newly educated youth Yue Wenbin, making a total of 12 people. We will take turns teaching the villagers, two people in a group, divided into 6 groups, and then take a day off. Who do you want to be in a group with?"
Chu Jingqiu teased them with a smile, "Who among you wants to be in a group with me? Is there no one willing to be in a group with me?"
Lin Zishan rolled her eyes and said, "Jingqiu, you got it wrong. Everyone wants to be in your group. They feel safe in your group.
Today I went to Widow Zhang's house to buy eggs, and heard from several aunts in the village that there was a beautiful educated youth in the Red Star Brigade next door who was raped by bad guys after returning from class.
He seems to be crazy now, sometimes lucid, sometimes confused, and the bad guy has not been caught yet, which is quite pitiful.
We were a little scared, so we all wanted to be in your group."
Chu Jingqiu spread her hands helplessly and said, "But there's only one me, I can't split myself! How about this, the two sisters who aren't in my group, I'll give you a treat. Jiang Jiang will take care of the transportation, okay?"
Several people were skeptical and looked at Jiang Jiang suspiciously. Chu Jingqiu smiled and said, "I'm telling you, Jiang Jiang's fighting ability is comparable to mine, maybe even stronger. With her protecting you, you'll be safe."
When Jiang Jiang heard the praise, she raised her head proudly, twisted her little butt and ran to Chu Jingqiu, rubbing against her.
After hearing Chu Jingqiu's explanation, the girls were no longer worried, and several of them were amused by Jiang Jiang's actions.
The next evening, Du Jianguo and several educated youth came to the village primary school. The young and middle-aged villagers were gathered in the playground for a small meeting.
Du Jianguo first told everyone that opening this literacy class was a political task and everyone must take it seriously.
The villagers below were talking about it, thinking that learning to read was useless, and they might as well stay at home to peel corn kernels or make a few pairs of shoes!
Du Aimin's wife in the village is nicknamed the loudspeaker. Whenever something happens in the village, she will definitely spread it to the whole village.
She was shouting the loudest in the audience, saying that she didn't want to attend the literacy class. She and a few other women were also making a fuss and laughing from time to time.
Du Jianguo slammed the table vigorously, and the crowd quieted down. He said to Du Aimin's wife, "Aimin's wife, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but tell me why the sales outlet in our village can no longer operate.
Today I want to tell you guys something. Two years ago, there was a sales outlet in our village, but it went out of business. It was because of illiteracy.
Everyone went to the sales outlet to buy on credit and pay off the bill at the end of the year. As a result, a bunch of confusing accounts were recorded, and the sales outlet could no longer operate.
Ai Min's wife, others may not know that your Ai Min remembers a lot of confusing things, but I remember them clearly.
Your Ai Min is illiterate. He draws whatever people buy on credit, and then crosses it out after they pay him back.
That year, Zhang Lanhua bought seven eggs on credit and later paid them back, so your Ai Min crossed out the money.
At the end of the year, your son Ai Min saw the string of candied haws that Zhang Lanhua had drawn, and you and your wife insisted on asking her to return the candied haws. She didn't even know when she owed you a string of candied haws.
You two had a fight over this. You said, "Are those candied haws?" Those are the seven eggs you crossed out.
When the villagers heard this, they burst into laughter. Several educated youth also laughed so hard that Shi Aihong and Lin Zishan laughed until tears came out.
Du Jianguo still had a stern face and said to Fatty, "Liu Pangni, stop saying that being educated is useless. If you were educated, would you have made such a big fool of yourself during the New Year?
He was afraid that the educated youth might not understand the local customs, so he explained to them, "Our custom here is that when we put up couplets during the New Year, we put a 'sleeping in a lucky place' on the kang where we sleep, a 'safe journey' on the wheelbarrow, and a 'full of fat pigs' in the pigpen.
During Chinese New Year that year, I went to her house to ask her husband for some work. You'll never guess what I saw. Fatty Liu had pasted "Fat Pigs Filling the Pen" on her kang (kang) and "Sleeping in a Lucky Place" inside the pigpen.
You still have the nerve to say that learning culture is useless."
The villagers' laughter, which had just stopped, broke out again. The fat lady's face turned red with embarrassment, and she wished she could find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
Du Jianguo waited until everyone stopped laughing, then cleared his throat and said, "From today on, our village literacy class will officially begin. The educated youth will teach you, and no one is allowed to make trouble during class.
We will give work points to those who come to class, and deduct work points from those who disrupt the class. Then, we will give rewards to those who do well in their studies at the end of the year."
When everyone heard that they could earn work points by attending classes, no one objected anymore, and they all expressed that they would study hard and strive to get rewards at the end of the year.
On the first night, Jiang Qingzhou and Zhou Weidong taught the villagers. The old branch secretary and other educated youth watched from the side to see how the learning went on the first night.
The classroom was lit by lanterns and kerosene lamps. There were no desks, and everyone brought their own small stool. The words taught in the literacy class at the beginning were simple words, such as: person, mouth, hand, etc.
Jiang Qingzhou and Zhou Weidong were lecturing in the classroom, and the villagers were listening very attentively. They would read some simple characters a few times, lead them to read them a few times, and then give a few vivid examples, and basically everyone could learn them.
Some people who study seriously even use tree branches to draw and write on the ground, and they will be able to write in a short while.
There were two classes in the evening. After the first class, Chu Jingqiu and the others planned to return to the educated youth site.
Halfway through the journey, they saw Gu Weimin and a few others coming out of Du Erleng's house.
"Director Gu, why are you here?" Chu Jingqiu greeted him.
Gu Weimin called her aside and whispered, "Yesterday we called all the village party secretaries to the police station and showed them the portrait for them to identify. As a result, the Shannan Brigade party secretary recognized that this person was Zhang Baogen from their brigade.
This man is a bachelor, 29 years old. When I took people to his house to arrest him, I couldn't find him anywhere.
His parents told us that Zhang Baogen and Du Erleng from this village were close friends, and Du Erleng used to often come to him to drink.
Now Du Erleng's leg injury has not healed yet, but he came to Qingshan Brigade to look for Du Erleng. After we heard about it, we rushed to your village to arrest him.
We just held him down at the table and saw scratches on the right side of his neck. I think it was most likely him who did it.
Thank you so much for this. We've been under a lot of pressure these past few days. All the villages are holding literacy classes these days.
This incident caused panic among the people, especially the female educated youth, who were afraid to hear about having classes at night.
Now, we can give an explanation to the villagers, and everyone won’t be afraid to go to class anymore.”
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