Chapter 34: Preparation for the Exam

Both the guests and the hosts had a great time at the moving party.

Wei Dai invited only close friends with whom he had a real relationship, so the party was very lively.

After eating and drinking, they started chatting at the table.

“Wei Dai, I asked my sister-in-law about the matter you asked about last time. She said that theoretically, it’s not possible, but if you apply and explain your family conditions, the school will not disagree.”

Wen Jiajia was still chewing on a pig’s trotter and looked up when she heard this. Was he talking about Wen Chun and Wen Xuan’s admission to school?

“It’s just that you need to pay an extra 6 yuan per month for meals. Oh, this is for two children.”

That means a child needs to pay 3 yuan.

In an era when most workers only earn 20 yuan, 3 yuan is not a small amount. And this is just for the Yuhong^[1]refers to a specific kind of offered lesson or course, potentially in a mythical or historical setting. class. The Yuhong class does not teach children homework, so many people think it is not worth it.

In fact, if you are a soldier’s child, you only need to pay 1 yuan per month, and the rest of the meal expenses will be subsidized by military logistics, which is considered a welfare benefit for soldiers. Even so, many family members are unwilling to send their children to the red education class, thinking it is not worth it.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan are not Wei Dai’s biological children, so they cannot enjoy this benefit and can only pay more money.

From this, we can see that the food in the Yuhong class should be good.

It is indeed good. I heard someone say, “It is actually worth the money. There are boiled eggs and meat dishes every other day. My kid always complains that his mother’s cooking is not as good as the one made by the Yuhong class.”

Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but ask, “How many teachers are there in the Yuhong class? Are all the teachers from our family compound?”

Guo Xiangyang replied, “It seems that there are eight. Two people teach one class, six of the teachers are from our family compound, and the other two are invited from the teachers’ college.”

The scale of the Yuhong class is quite large.

Wen Jiajia saw the Yuhong class from afar yesterday and estimated that it was only over one acre in area, but in fact, it should be around two acres.

“Oh, by the way, sister-in-law, aren’t you looking for a job? The Yuhong class plans to recruit teachers and logistics staff. You have graduated from high school, so you are more than qualified to be a teacher in the Yuhong class,” Guo Xiangyang said again.

As for logistics… Wei Dai’s wife cooks such delicious food; it’s more than enough.

Before Wen Jiajia could answer, another person said, “The county police have also divided up two positions, which are to review files. If you are able, you can try to get one. It’s respectable and easy.”

“There is also the County Women’s Federation, which said they can give one, but the position should be taken by Li Hua’s wife.”

She has four children, two of whom are so young that they can eat their parents out of house and home. Her life must be as difficult as it can be.

It is said that Li Hua has to take care of several orphans of his comrades every month, and the whole army knows about this. The army also knows that his wife had a miscarriage due to hunger last year. So, this position, which does not require much education, must be given to her.

As for logistics, Li Hua’s wife is too stingy. She once worked in the logistics department of a hospital. From then on, the food she ate was like pig food. Even the canteen monitor couldn’t control her. She was sent out of the hospital like a big Buddha. Now, no logistics department would accept her.

In fact, Wen Jiajia was quite excited when she heard about the Women’s Federation.

How to say it, the Women’s Federation at that time, ahem… wasn’t it the Women’s Federation that later provided jobs for the families of leaders in their old age? It could still do something practical.

At that time, people emphasized that women could hold up half the sky. This was also a very extreme era.

Some people had advanced ideas and sought the liberation of women in all aspects, while others lived in the new society, but their hearts were still in the Qing Dynasty.

If you can get in there, if nothing else, you can always do some meaningful things.

But since the position was already taken, she did not fight for it. The other person was obviously more experienced than her and needed the position more than she did.

Wen Jiajia smiled and said, “There’s no rush for this.”

Wei Dai continued, “It’s not urgent. She has been preparing for the factory exam. There are too many family members in the army who want to find jobs. If she can avoid taking up the quota, she will do so.”

Everyone was a little surprised.

Soldiers in the army generally have a low level of education, and it is very difficult for them to pass the exam and enter the factory.

“Which factory does your sister-in-law want to apply for?” someone asked.

Wen Jiajia said, “The pharmaceutical factory, the pharmaceutical factory, is relatively close to us.”

“The pharmaceutical factory is good, and the benefits are very good. I heard from Wang Fuhai’s wife that the salary for a new employee is 23 yuan, and every Chinese New Year, boxes of apples and pears are brought home.”

23 yuan is the salary for administrative positions. The salary for technical positions is even higher, more than 27 yuan.

“But the pharmaceutical factory’s exams this year will be in May. They say it’s for the convenience of students in school. After the exams, they can go back, get their diplomas and start working. This way, the competition pressure will be huge.”

Wen Jiajia’s eyes lit up.

She and Wei Dai really didn’t know the exam time for the pharmaceutical factory. Now that they knew, they could just read the books and practice the questions slowly and wait.

The sun set in the west, and the bright moonlight replaced the afterglow of the setting sun. The evening breeze blew, carrying a chill, and rolled up the fallen leaves on the ground.

The amount of food for the 12 soldiers was really astonishing. Wen Jiajia was very happy because she didn’t like dealing with leftovers at all.

I don’t like leftover food at all!

But you can’t throw away leftovers these days. If someone sees you doing it, you’ll get criticized.

Even Wei Dai didn’t approve of her throwing away the food. He would just let her keep it so that he could eat it himself tomorrow.

Wei Dai was naturally the one who cleaned up today’s mess. It took him more than half an hour to finish.

It was late at night and the wind was strong.

Wen Jiajia pushed the window open a little, leaving a small gap for ventilation, and then picked up her pen to finish her homework.

She had already started practicing the questions for the second year of high school.

Really, if you study math seriously for the first time, it’s very easy to pick it up again.

Wait until you have finished half of the math before studying politics.

Oh, what a headache! My head hurts when I think about this.

Wei Dai came in only after he had swept the floor, planted the vegetables, taken a shower, and done his laundry.

When he came back today, he brought some vegetable seeds, and soon we had fresh leeks and onions to eat.

“Have you really identified it as the pharmaceutical factory?” he came over and asked.

Wen Jiajia nodded, “Let’s go to the pharmaceutical factory.”

She had little confidence in herself and could not find a job, so she could only enter the factory through examination.

Out of consideration for being a military dependent, the pharmaceutical company will not give her any convenience, but it will not deliberately block her either.

Time passed day by day as she was solving questions.

By the time Wen Jiajia started to learn about politics, the local area had welcomed the real spring flowers.

On the day of the Spring Equinox, what comes to mind is not flying kites, eating amaranth^[2]refers to a traditional food eaten on the day of the Spring Equinox. It is likely used here as part of cultural or regional customs associated with the Spring Equinox. and sending off the Spring Ox, nor is it “Spring Equinox wheat starts to grow, fertilizer and water should follow closely”, but: Oh, the sun’s ecliptic longitude reaches 0°, and on this day the sun shines directly on the equator, what does it mean? It means that from this day on, day and night are equal.

Well, my mind is full of geographical knowledge.

While memorizing politics, Wen Jiajia would also memorize some geography knowledge points to massage her head and make it feel comfortable.

My God, geography is so friendly compared to politics.

Wei Dai finished making the recliner for Wen Jiajia. He was so cunning that he made two of them, saying that he wanted to watch the moon with Wen Jiajia.

Watching the damn moon.

When Wen Jiajia sees the moon, she can think of a jade plate, but Wei Dai can only think of moon cakes.

He also made a few proper bamboo chairs and even a bamboo table to put in the yard.

If Wen Jiajia hadn’t stopped him, he would probably have built a pavilion in the yard.

His energy was still too strong, and Wen Jiajia really couldn’t stand his tossing and turning, so whenever he had free time, Wen Jiajia asked him to go dig spring bamboo shoots.

Spring bamboo shoots are so delicious.

They can be stir-fried, stewed, or cooked with wine lees and eaten cold.

Now we eat spring bamboo shoots for three meals a day at home. In the morning, we eat bamboo shoots mixed with wine lees.

Peel and wash the fresh spring bamboo shoots, put them into the pot and cook them. Add some salt and scoop in some wine lees.

As the cooking progressed, the bamboo shoots were cooked through and dyed red with the wine lees, which made people very appetizing just by looking at them.

After the fermented rice wine bamboo shoots have cooled completely, mix them with soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and sugar, and serve without changing the meat.

Wen Jiajia really likes this dish and eats it with porridge every morning.

Later, several neighbors next door learned from her, and as a result, there was not much lees left that Wen Jiajia had brought with great difficulty.

At noon and in the evening, we would cook bacon, fresh meat, and spring bamboo shoots together in a pot to make a delicious dish called “Yan Du Xian.”

Pickled pork with preserved vegetables is a seasonal dish. Eat it while there are spring bamboo shoots. After this period, you can only wait until winter to eat it.

I eat one pot all day, and sometimes I don’t even need to cook other dishes. I can just eat the pickled pork with preserved vegetables with rice.

The two sisters in the family, including Wei Dai, like it very much.

Or you can make braised bamboo shoots in oil. Braised bamboo shoots in oil are salty, fresh, crispy, and tender. They go well with rice, and are also great with porridge when they are cold.

However, even if you eat bamboo shoots three times a day, you may not be able to finish all the bamboo shoots at home. At this time, you can dry the bamboo shoots into dried bamboo shoots.

Wen Jiajia dried two large bags of bamboo shoots in a week, and the whole yard was filled with the smell of bamboo shoots.

She finally couldn’t stand it anymore and stopped the work. At that time, wild vegetables in the mountains sprouted again, and people came and went in Beishan.

Wei Dai was eager to try: “Want to dry some wild vegetables?”

Wen Jiajia: …

Uh. If I let you keep collecting, you will have to dry up everything at home, and by next year you won’t be able to eat all the food because it will be infested with insects.

Wen Jiajia covered her head and said, “Go build the chicken coop. Chun’er said she wanted to raise chickens.”

I don’t know why this kid suddenly wanted to raise chickens.

But it doesn’t matter. Children just like small animals. When she was in elementary school, she saw chicks being sold at the school gate and wanted to raise one.

When she got older, she wanted to have a cat, a dog, or even a bird. Even when she was in college, she wanted to buy a cat or a dog every time she went to the student street next to her school.

God knows, when she was in college, she not only had two cats and two dogs at home, but also a cat and a dog in her studio.

She didn’t even have enough time to play with the cat and walk the dog every day, so she had to hire someone to help her walk the dog and clean up its poop.

“But, can we raise chickens here?” Wen Jiajia was curious, please don’t forbid us to raise chickens.

Wei Dai pondered: “It’s not said whether it can be raised or not, but there are indeed people raising them, even in the building area.”

They raised chickens on the back hill of a residential area and often quarreled over where the eggs their chickens laid had gone.

However, they were afraid that the army would ban chicken farming, so they were very flexible in controlling the intensity of the argument and would never cross the line.

Anything is allowed unless prohibited by law.

Wen Jiajia made the decision, “Then let’s raise two.”

The yard is small, and if you raise too many animals, it will smell bad.

So Wei Dai got four little chicks from somewhere. They were so furry and chirped so softly that people’s hearts melted.

Wen Jiajia held a handful of crushed corn for them to eat and asked Wei Dai, “What if these four survived?”

The mortality rate of chickens at this time is still quite high, so most people would replace a few chicks when changing them.

Wei Dai said: “Then raise them for a year or so, and then kill two of them and eat them.”

Fine.