Chapter 99: Admission Notice

In the afternoon, Wen Jiajia took a math test. As a liberal arts student, she actually found math easier, which showed that she had a talent for science.

The math problems at this time were particularly familiar. For example, the textbook examples used annual military orders of imperialism, providing various data and asking for calculations based on x billion US dollars for the previous year and y US dollars for the current year.

Of course, the math problems on the test were not that difficult, but Wen Jiajia did them more smoothly and didn’t know why.

Wen Jiajia solved all the problems except for two small questions at the end, which she couldn’t answer.

But it didn’t matter because there were still more than 40 minutes left, and she could continue to work on them.

When it comes to math, if you don’t know how to do it, you just don’t know.

But if you have some idea, you can often work it out.

When Wen Jiajia was at home, she would often spend one or two hours, or even one or two days, working on a problem.

The key is to review math until you master the basic questions. If you want a high score, you need to tackle the difficult questions.

She was lucky this time and solved the two small questions in more than 30 minutes.

She wasn’t sure about one of the questions, but she needed to use the last ten minutes to check the previous answers.

Wen Jiajia started checking the name and other details, and surprisingly, she found she had filled in the wrong positive and negative sign!

At that moment, Wen Jiajia shuddered, and goosebumps covered her body. She quickly corrected it.

By the time she finished checking the last question, there were only two minutes left in the exam.

Wen Jiajia almost slapped herself. It was simple… How could it be simple? She still had to fight until the last two minutes!

The bell rang, signaling the end of the exam.

Judging from the status of other candidates in the class, the math test seemed a bit difficult.

Wen Jiajia thought about it for a moment and then decided not to dwell on it. It didn’t matter whether the exams were difficult or not. Adhering to the good tradition of forgetting about the subjects she had finished, she simply put Chinese and math out of her mind.

She took the bus home with Wei Dai. Dinner was already prepared, as the aunt had cooked early to ensure Wen Jiajia wouldn’t be hungry.

“Come and eat, Jiajia. You can rest well after eating. Don’t think about anything; just take a nap and relax,” Zhong Huisheng said, placing the distiller’s grains taro that Wen Jiajia loved on the table.

Wen Jiajia’s eyes lit up. “Auntie, where did you get the taro^[1]is a starchy root vegetable that is widely used in cooking around the world. It has a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and a texture similar to potatoes.? I’ve been wanting it for a long time but can’t find it.”

Zhong Huisheng also served Wen Jiajia a bowl of pickled pork with preserved vegetables. “Xiao Bao from next door gave it to me. She said she bought it in the village. I heard that the food task has been reduced a lot now, and many villages have started expanding vegetable and peanut planting.”

Wen Jiajia took the soup with a smile. “That’s great! It will be much more convenient for us to buy vegetables in the future. Didn’t Lao Wang say a while ago that we couldn’t use the vegetable plot anymore? We have to clear it because the research institute is moving in.”

This was big news in the army. A research institute was going to be stationed nearby, not with them but next to them. That piece of hilltop, which had been cultivated into a vegetable field, would be allocated to them.

The people in the family compound were very dissatisfied. After all, they had used the vegetable plot for several years, and it was suddenly being taken away. No one was pleased about it.

But there was nothing they could do. The vegetable fields belonged to the army, and if the army wanted to divide them up, they had to. Protests were futile.

Fortunately, many people will make the place lively in the future.

Many aunts in the family compound with single children were eager to join the research institute.

Men, women, young and old, in the army were all culture enthusiasts and were very optimistic about educated people.

If you’re an outsider, you might worry that intellectuals are too unstable—after all, in those ten years, intellectuals were often targeted. But in the army, most soldiers came from poor peasant families with a strong background and were not afraid of being implicated.

There was pickled pork with preserved vegetables and her favorite taro with fermented rice lees. Wen Jiajia felt quite full after eating.

It was windy outside again. No one knew where the wind came from, but it howled so loudly that Wen Jiajia couldn’t even go out for a walk.

If she couldn’t take a walk, she had to stay at home.

With nothing else to do, Wen Jiajia took out Wen Chun and Wen Xuan’s homework books from that period and started flipping through them page by page.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan: …

They stood aside, trembling, not daring to say anything.

During this period, their aunt had been busy reviewing herself and hadn’t checked their homework. They had hoped to escape scrutiny, but little did they know that she was actually waiting for them.

Wen Jiajia’s expression grew darker as she looked through the books.

“Why are there so many mistakes in the exercises in this half of the book? Were you playing with building blocks while doing your homework?” She glanced at the two girls. “Wen Chun, explain.”

“……” When your parents call you by your full name, it’s best to be serious.

Wen Chun twisted the hem of her clothes and whispered, “We didn’t do our homework seriously, and we didn’t check it after we finished.”

Wen Jiajia: “So you know you didn’t do half of the exercise book seriously. It seems you’ve been playing too much lately. I just asked Uncle to make new building blocks for you. Tell me, can you still do it?”

Wen Chun shook her head, and Wen Xuan nodded.

Wen Jiajia: “Hmm?”

The two sisters looked at each other and shook their heads together.

Wen Jiajia said calmly, “After I finish my exam tomorrow, I’ll have plenty of time to help you with your homework. So listen up: if you continue like this, I won’t let Uncle make any more building blocks for you.”

The calmer Wen Jiajia was, the more frightened the two sisters became, feeling that what their aunt said was true.

Not allowing Uncle to make new building blocks was like depriving them of meat!

The two sisters had a deep love for building blocks and had been playing with them since they were young. Even though Wen Jiajia had bought them basketballs, footballs, table tennis balls, and even badminton gear, she couldn’t divert their love from building blocks.

Even though they couldn’t buy Legos now, Wen Jiajia suspected that they would eventually need a house just to store their Legos.

The state of the children’s exercise books didn’t affect Wen Jiajia’s mood. She spent a happy evening and went into the next day’s exam in good spirits.

She didn’t take the foreign language test, but she still had two exams to go: politics, history, and geography were separated and had to be taken separately.

Politics was the subject Wen Jiajia was most nervous about. She reviewed math desperately, hoping to score high in math to compensate for her score in politics.

Wen Jiajia could now pass the political exam, but moving up was more difficult.

Politics was divided into three categories: word explanation, questions and answers, and discussion.

Word explanations were memorized. For example, if asked about the three components of Marxism, it would be an easy question.

But there were also questions requiring more thought, which was not explained in the textbook and needed to be written from scratch.

Wen Jiajia was not unable to write but was sure that some candidates would lose points for incorrect answers. As long as it wasn’t in the book, it was easy to make mistakes.

Then came the question and answer session, where each question was worth ten points, and the word explanations only added up to 30 points.

Wen Jiajia focused her attention, read the questions carefully, and reviewed each question three times before starting to write.

The invigilator walked around, but Wen Jiajia was not distracted. The two years of preparation proved invaluable, and the smooth feeling she had during the Chinese exam returned.

Without taking a break, Wen Jiajia finished the essay questions and began the essay questions.

Well, this was where major points were lost.

Wen Jiajia took a deep breath. The first question was about the Four Modernizations, asking to explain the objective necessity and favorable conditions. She had never reviewed this topic! She hadn’t even practiced writing it.

If a student preparing for the civil service exam were here, they could finish writing it in minutes. However, Wen Jiajia had to think carefully about it.

Fortunately, her previous life’s experience was helpful once again!

It’s said that working backward can be easier than working forward.

In her previous life, agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology were all among the best in the world. If asked to write about the necessities and favorable conditions, Wen Jiajia could come up with plenty.

She first organized her thoughts and then answered the questions point-by-point.

One, two, three, four… Wen Jiajia wrote fluently, feeling inspired, as if guided by a muse.

She wasn’t sure what the examiner would think, but Wen Jiajia felt her answer was adequate.

Maybe the examiner would think she was too confident and deduct points? Who cares? It was already written. Could she erase it and write it again?

Wen Jiajia glanced at the time. It was running out, so she quickly moved on to the next question.

The entire examination room was filled with the sounds of papers rustling and pens being set down. When the exam ended, some people even broke down in tears.

Why? Because they didn’t finish answering.

The political exam paper had many questions. For the last essay question, Wen Jiajia quickly answered a few major points without providing an in-depth analysis. She frowned for the first time as she left the exam room.

“…Didn’t the exam go well?” Wei Dai couldn’t help but ask, quickly putting his hand in her arm to warm it.

Wen Jiajia sighed. “It went relatively smoothly, but I felt it was a bit difficult. Didn’t you see many people with red eyes?”

Wei Dai patted her head. “It’s okay. Everyone struggles. We still have the next tests to take.”

Wen Jiajia didn’t dwell on her bad mood for long. After all, with more than 270,000 people being directly admitted out of more than 5.7 million, the competition was fierce.

After the political exam, the next subjects were history and geography, each worth 50 points.

Wen Jiajia was more comfortable with geography, so she completed that section first.

Next was history. Although she had loved history in her previous life, she had little interest in it this time.

However, Wen Jiajia answered smoothly. The seven questions were quite easy for her. For example, they asked about the leader of peasant uprisings in the late Qin, Tang, and Ming dynasties, their slogans, and the reasons for their failure. The questions were similar to those in history exams decades later, asking about fundamental reasons, and Wen Jiajia addressed the limitations of thought and lack of strategic goals.

The original owner’s history classes didn’t cover these topics in detail. During those ten years, history teachers had to be particularly cautious. Some details were omitted, if they could be. Students mostly just read the textbooks verbatim.

No wonder it was difficult for candidates to review now; they had to figure things out on their own.

After answering the last question, Wen Jiajia took a deep breath. The act of putting down her pen immediately caught the invigilator’s attention.

This was the first to finish in the examination room… The invigilator muttered to himself.

Wen Jiajia checked the time and saw there were still 20 minutes left. She reviewed her answers twice and then sat idle.

Her mood at this moment matched the relief she felt during her English exam in her previous life—both relieved and slightly puzzled.

Is that it? That’s it!

It was indeed over. After handing in her test paper, Wen Jiajia ran out of the school happily.

Now was her happy time. No more reviewing or working. How joyful!

“Let’s go!” Wen Jiajia exclaimed, leaning on Wei Dai and smiling. “Let’s go home! I need to plan how to spend this month.”

Wei Dai seemed to be thinking. “Waiting for the admission letter?”

Wen Jiajia suppressed her laughter. “Well, the results aren’t out yet. I don’t know if I passed.”

Wei Dai said confidently, “You definitely can!”

He had an inexplicable confidence in his wife.

He added, “Didn’t the tutor at the tutoring class say you could become a teacher there?”

“Hey, don’t say such things… uh, don’t be so pessimistic. Some things become less effective the more you talk about them,” Wen Jiajia replied with a snort.

The school was also doing its best for this college entrance examination.

It was said that all middle schools had been in session for the past two months, with teachers holding tutoring classes to help students review and prepare. People from outside the school attended as well.

Wen Jiajia went there but returned after attending twice. She was persuaded by the teacher to leave, who said that with her level, she shouldn’t take up a seat and should let others have it.

“If you’re interested, you might as well become a review teacher to help others while reviewing yourself,” the teacher suggested.

Wen Jiajia quickly declined. “You must be joking. How could I have the time to be a review teacher?”

The couple often quarreled, and when they returned home, the topic shifted to the small courtyard in the city.