Chapter 7

Su Ye went to the reception room to pick up the “Holiday Nutrition Subsidy” from No. 1 Middle School—a half-kilogram bag of grains, which included peanuts, mung beans, red beans, and rice, all made into a porridge, along with a couple of sugar cubes.

If this were in later years, it would be seen as a poor and insignificant gift. But in the 1960s, this half-kilogram of mixed grains and the sugar cubes were actually considered a precious gift. The welfare at the city’s No. 1 Middle School was quite good, no wonder even technical school graduates were fighting to get in.

That evening, Su Ye made a pot of eight-treasure porridge with the ingredients, sharing a bowl with Grandma Zhou, who lived downstairs and was widowed. She kept the rest to herself and enjoyed it all.

On Sunday, Su Ye dressed neatly and energetically went to No. 1 Middle School to report.

The teacher in charge of greeting Su Ye was Teacher He, the examiner at the time. He took Su Ye to the office.

Upon entering the office, Su Ye saw that the room was neatly arranged with more than twenty desks. The desks were stacked with textbooks and students’ assignments. Although it was Sunday, there were still teachers working in the office.

Teacher He adjusted his glasses and casually asked, “Comrade Su, how was the Laba porridge?”

Su Ye enthusiastically praised the school, “It was delicious—fragrant, sweet, soft, and sticky. This welfare subsidy came just in time! To be honest, if the school hadn’t given the subsidy, I would’ve almost forgotten what Laba porridge tastes like. This treatment is truly unmatched!”

Teacher He smiled without saying anything, and at this moment, another serious-looking teacher walked over and exchanged a glance with him.

Teacher He cleared his throat and said, “Comrade Su, first of all, congratulations on being hired by the school.”

Then, his face showed a troubled expression. “However, your qualifications are still not sufficient to gain full acceptance. To be fair, the school has arranged a re-examination. You can take the test here.”

The serious-looking teacher said, “Go ahead, just consider it a formality.”

The discrimination based on academic qualifications really is an ancient, hard-to-cross gap. It seems that they still look down on her qualifications, and even for a job, she has to go through multiple hurdles.

However, the teacher’s nutrition subsidy had already been given, and Su Ye had eaten it, so she believed the school wasn’t intentionally making things difficult for her.

Su Ye didn’t say anything and nodded. After receiving the test paper, she quickly skimmed through the questions and borrowed a pen to start writing.

Unlike the initial exam, Su Ye was now under the scrutiny of more than a dozen pairs of eyes. The other teachers in the office also crowded around, watching her write the re-examination questions.

This young woman seemed remarkably composed, carefully working through each question with solid fundamentals.

Teacher He and Zhou Yi exchanged a glance, their eyes silently communicating, “See? She really can do it.”

After finishing, Su Ye handed her test paper to Zhou Yi and asked, “When will the results be available?”

Zhou Yi casually glanced over the test paper and replied, “It can be done now.”

He turned to Teacher He and instructed, “Old He, take Comrade Su to complete the formalities.”

After completing the hiring procedures, Teacher He handed Su Ye a new set of textbooks. “Starting tomorrow, Teacher Su can begin teaching at the school. You’ll be responsible for teaching science to three grades of junior high.”

Su Ye nodded, stuffed the textbooks into her bag, and said seriously, “Thank you for the opportunity the school has given me. I will work hard!”

Teacher He smiled and silently thought to himself, “I hope so.” He hoped the new teacher wouldn’t let them down.

After leaving the school, Su Ye went to the city library to apply for a library card. On Sundays, the library was fairly busy, with many people dressed in blue, gray, or black work uniforms. From a distance, it looked like a sea of workers.

Entertainment in the 1960s was sparse, and reading was considered one of the few forms of recreation. Su Ye needed to borrow some mental nourishment to pass the time.

After borrowing a book, Su Ye wandered around the scrap station, planning to find some “props” to win people’s favor.

In the 1960s, the level of productivity was very low, and the country strongly advocated for “frugality” and the repeated use of everyday items. This is where the scrap stations played a significant role—they mainly collected waste items that residents no longer used, such as glass, scrap copper, iron, used toothpaste tubes, old newspapers, and so on.

What Su Ye was looking for was “scrap copper and iron.” After searching through piles of discarded materials for a long time, she finally found a few broken, nearly unrecognizable electrical appliances. She spent two yuan to buy them.

“Comrade, what do you need this for?” asked a worker at the scrap station, curiously.

Su Ye borrowed some tools from the station and began dismantling the broken electrical appliances. Casually, she replied, “Just curious to see how they’re constructed.”

She carefully took out the dirty parts one by one, gently wiping off the dust. Then, she took the books from her bag and, with more care, placed the “garbage” into her backpack.

The worker at the scrap station watched her, looking as if she were a fool, with pity in his eyes.

Su Ye returned to the military family compound, holding a stack of books.

On the way, she ran into the Women’s Federation director, whom she had met the day before at the social event. She quickly greeted her and went up to the family building.

The Women’s Federation director watched Su Ye hurry away and, with satisfaction, said to the person next to her, “Did you see that? That was from the Xiangqian’s family. She went out, and now she’s come back with a pile of books. You can tell she’s an ambitious person. I heard she became a middle school teacher. Now I can rest easy about the two of them.”

Su Ye, who had been struggling for over a month, finally solved her job problem and even became a middle school teacher. This news quickly spread throughout the entire compound.

The older woman around her, critical as always, said, “So what if she’s a middle school teacher? No matter how capable she is, can she be better than Xiangqian? With his conditions, he could’ve found someone better.”

—

In the Women’s Federation office.

At five o’clock, Li Hongli finished organizing the materials and left work on time. Her cousin was waiting for her at the door, riding a bicycle. In this era, very few people could afford a bicycle. A family with a decent income would have to save for an entire year, without eating or drinking, to buy one.

Yet, the one riding it was a young woman, and for a young girl to own a bicycle at that age, she must be someone exceptional.

Though this phenomenon was common in the compound, the girls couldn’t help but feel a sense of envy. When they saw that it was Li Hongli sitting behind on the bicycle, they immediately understood.

Li Hongli was the daughter of a leader.

Li Hongli’s cousin, Gao Anna, was born in the year when relations between China and the Soviet Union were as sweet as honey. Many families at the time gave their daughters Soviet-inspired names.

Gao Anna took Li Hongli home, took out a bag of sweet kumquats, and shook them gently before offering them to her. “Thank you for helping me find a job.”

Such luxury fruit was rare in the supply and marketing cooperatives, and during the winter when many roads were blocked by snow, finding any fruit to eat was difficult.

Li Hongli peeled a kumquat and praised, “So sweet.”

Her cousin first expressed gratitude for the job Li Hongli had found for her, then changed the subject. “It’s a pity that I didn’t get into the No. 1 Middle School, which was my first choice. I ended up at the No. 5 Middle School.”

Li Hongli almost choked on the fruit pit. “How is that possible? Even Su Ye got accepted, and you’re a legitimate vocational school graduate!”

“They have high standards. I heard that schools even have teachers with college degrees. This time, they only accepted one vocational school graduate,” her cousin frowned. “Wait, who is Su Ye? She’s not on the list of accepted candidates from the No. 1 Middle School.”

“That can’t be true. How can she not be on the list? She got the teacher subsidy from the school yesterday,” Li Hongli explained.

“Su Ye is a military wife from our compound, with only an elementary school education. She just wants to find a good job and is really ambitious. I just casually recommended her for the job at the No. 1 Primary School.”

Li Hongli briefly introduced Su Ye’s situation. After hearing this, her cousin’s face was already filled with indignation.

The more Gao Anna listened, the angrier she became. Tears of anger were welling up in her eyes as she snapped at Li Hongli, “How could you recommend a job to someone like her? She’s getting in through the back door, cheating!”

Compared to the No. 5 Middle School, although the salary and rations were the same, the No. 1 Middle School would give out various teacher subsidies during festivals. For Chinese New Year, they got an extra pound of sunflower seeds and peanuts, a pound of mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and a pound of rice for New Year’s Day… When all that added up, how much had she lost out on?

Li Hongli was stunned. She never imagined her cousin had been rejected.

Li Hongli hadn’t thought much of it before, thinking that Su Ye had just gotten lucky and somehow got accepted.

No wonder Su Ye was so confident she would be accepted. Li Hongli had even wondered where Su Ye, with only an elementary school education, got the confidence.

In Li Hongli’s eyes, her cousin was obviously far superior to Su Ye, yet the No. 1 Middle School had chosen Su Ye over her cousin…

Li Hongli couldn’t help but feel angry too. She patted her cousin on the shoulder and said, “Our compound will never tolerate this situation. You should go to the No. 1 Middle School and ask. If there really is someone getting in through the back door, the organization will definitely support you!”

Gao Anna nodded, holding back her anger. 

—

On the other side, 

After returning home, Su Ye opened the book she had borrowed from the library.

She still couldn’t understand what “labor” defined in the live streaming room referred to. What Su Ye could be sure of was that it wasn’t the same as what she understood by “labor.”

Flipping through the material in the book, Su Ye quietly read aloud, “Engels said, ‘Labor created humanity itself.'”

Labor is defined in ‘Selected Works of Marx and Engels’, “Labor refers to the purposeful activity in which people use certain production tools to act upon labor objects, creating material and spiritual wealth.”

In ‘Das Kapital’, labor is defined as the activity in which humans create material or spiritual wealth.

Creating material and spiritual wealth? Su Ye fell into thought. Over this period, she hadn’t created material wealth or, to put it another way, participated in creating material goods. The only reward she had received was for cooking, which meant… her cooking had pleased her fans and created spiritual wealth?

With a clearer direction, Su Ye suddenly felt more confident. To create spiritual wealth, being a teacher was simply the perfect job.

Su Ye excitedly rubbed her hands together, her eyes brimming with eager anticipation.

On Monday morning, at the No. 1 Middle School.

Su Ye, holding her registration notebook and dressed in clean clothes, arrived at the school for her report. After getting to the office, Su Ye spent a lesson’s time getting to know her new colleagues.

The entire middle school had six grades, seven subjects, with 2 to 4 teachers for each subject.

There were a total of 45 teachers at the school. Aside from the principal and vice principal, Teacher He seemed to be the head of logistics for the whole school, managing miscellaneous tasks and teaching Chinese.

Teacher Zhou Yi, who was in charge of creating the test, didn’t speak much, but he clearly carried a lot of weight and was highly respected by everyone.

This time, the No. 1 Middle School hired only two teachers, both fresh graduates from technical secondary schools. One was a thin, pale boy named Fang. The other was a medium-built, rosy-faced girl named Liu. All three of them were assigned to teach science, a minor subject.

Su Ye got a sense of responsibility from the school.

When the bell for the next class rang, the newly hired Teacher Fang returned to the office after his first science lesson. He was trembling, his face as pale as a wall. When other teachers asked him how he felt, Teacher Fang tried to maintain his composure and said, “It’s fine. I just forgot some of the words during the lesson and had to glance at the textbook a few times.”

Teacher He smiled and said, “That’s normal for a first class. Su Ye, your next class is with him, second-year class 1…” He turned to look at Su Ye.

Su Ye slowly took out a pile of scrap metal, wires, green circuit boards, and a soldering gun from her bag.

Teacher He asked, “Oh, what’s this?”

The curious gazes of the other teachers all fell on Su Ye. Zhou Yi glanced at her and then stared at the pile of objects for a few seconds.

Su Ye said, “The bell’s about to ring, I need to go teach. I’ll explain it to you all after class.”

Teacher Fang let out a barely audible sigh, lowered his head, and a hint of contempt appeared in his eyes. Both he and Liu, the teacher who was also hired this time, had graduated from the College of Electric Power and Hydraulic Engineering. He also had another excellent classmate who didn’t make it.

Yes, he had inadvertently learned about Su Ye’s academic background. Ever since he found out, the honest man had spent the whole night worrying about it.

He didn’t know how to face this unfair situation. Should he fight against this injustice without hesitation?

After Su Ye left, a woman walked into the office. She was Gao Anna, Li Hongli’s cousin.

This time, Gao Anna was accompanied by her teacher from the technical secondary school, who seemed to have come to seek justice for her. She challenged Teacher He, who was in charge of the assessment, saying, “I want to know why I was not accepted. I believe I was treated unfairly, and I would like to review the exam papers from that time.”

The technical secondary school teacher politely replied, “Although our school’s students may not be the most outstanding, the school has always upheld fairness. We will never tolerate any injustice or oppression against our students.”

The tone was sharp, and the attitude was clearly not friendly. Fortunately, the school had prepared for this, and Teacher He calmly took out the files and handed them over for the teacher to review.

Gao Anna flipped through her exam paper and saw the bright red score of 32. Her face flushed with embarrassment.

Gao Anna knew that the exam questions had been very difficult, so it was not surprising to get this score. However, with the teacher now looking at the paper, she couldn’t help feeling somewhat discouraged.

After a moment, she came across the papers of Fang Zhou and Liu Qiu, one scoring 38 and the other 36. Her embarrassment faded a little. She had only been 4 points behind the top two! She couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. After all, it wasn’t her fault, they were all in the same boat!

At this point, her shame turned into relief, and she didn’t even notice the fleeting look of sarcasm in Teacher He’s reflective glasses.

Gao Anna then asked, “What about Su Ye’s exam paper?”

Sure enough, Gao Anna was handed Su Ye’s exam paper. The score was a neat 100, and she was shocked beyond belief. “No, it’s impossible.”

Her cousin had said Su Ye had only completed elementary school. How could she possibly get such a high score? Gao Anna gritted her teeth and said, “You must have leaked the exam questions to her, it has to be that way.”

Gao Anna insisted that Su Ye be brought in for a direct confrontation. Teacher He, growing impatient, said, “That’s absolutely impossible. Not to mention that Su Ye is already in class, this is not the place for you to stir up trouble. Comrade Gao, our school does not tolerate even the slightest unfairness. The admissions process here is as fair and just as can be.”

He turned to the technical secondary school teacher and politely asked, “You’ve seen the situation. With your knowledge, do you think our school should have admitted Comrade Su Ye?”

If it weren’t for these technical school graduates being so useless, would they have gone so far as to bend the rules and admit Su Ye?

A well-designed exam paper can easily test a student’s fundamentals. Moreover, even if this exam paper were given to this technical school teacher to complete, she wouldn’t necessarily get a perfect score. The technical school teacher immediately fell silent, feeling puzzled.

This “backdoor” candidate, Su Ye—does she really have the ability, or was she given a sneak peek at the exam questions?

Fang Zhou and Liu Qiu, observing Gao Anna’s helpless expression, subtly showed support in their faces, mentally standing united against the common enemy. As Chairman Mao once said,

After watching for a while, Teacher Zhou couldn’t help but speak up, “Forget it, Old He. If you take them to attend a class taught by Su Ye, they’ll understand.”

Teacher He shot a furious glare at Teacher Zhou. What a useless teammate!

He was preparing to call the principal to handle the situation, and now he was supposed to take them to watch Su Ye’s class? That would only give them a chance to criticize her in front of the students.

Zhou Yi said, “Su Ye’s class today is sure to be very interesting.”

Seeing that Teacher He looked disapproving, Zhou Yi added, “If she can’t even handle this kind of pressure, she’s not fit to be a teacher at our school.”

Teacher He thought for a moment. Zhou Yi had a point. If Su Ye couldn’t withstand this little pressure, how would she be able to stay at the school after word got out? So, he led the two of them to the second-year, class 1.

At this point, Su Ye had already stood on the podium. She looked around the classroom and saw a group of not-quite-children but not-quite-adults either. Looking at their youthful, innocent faces, she couldn’t help but recall when she first entered middle school—innocent, naive, full of curiosity and hunger for knowledge.

Su Ye spoke up, “Hello, everyone. My name is Su Ye, and I’ll be your science teacher from now on.”

She took some chalk and wrote the word “Science” on the blackboard, then continued confidently, “What is science?”

“The English spelling is ‘science.’ Decades ago, great revolutionaries had a strong discussion about it and called it ‘Mr. Science.’ A hundred years ago, the gates of the Qing dynasty were broken open by the swords and cannonfire of invaders. A wave after wave of patriotic youth, in search of knowledge, embarked on long journeys to the West to study, hoping to strengthen the country through science and technology, because being backward means being beaten…”

Su Ye began her lesson with passion.

“Today, we study science not only to cultivate ourselves, but also to protect and build our country. Science has its unique charm. Today, I, Teacher Su, will explain what science is from my own perspective.”

Su Ye took out her precious items and, while pulling them out, casually asked the students which electrical appliance they liked the most. If anyone mentioned a radio, she would pick them as her assistant.

The students at this school had never seen such a teacher before. This class didn’t feel like a class at all, and a spark of curiosity flashed in their eyes.

A boy excitedly raised his hand. “Me! Me! I love radios the most! My dad uses it to listen to news from the Central Broadcasting Station, and we hear a lot of nice songs.”

Su Ye asked, “What songs do you like the most?”

The children immediately erupted in a chorus of excited chatter. “‘The Bright Red Star,’ ‘Singing for the Motherland,’ ‘Returning from the Target Practice’…”

Su Ye, listening attentively, continued pulling out parts and introducing them like she was showing off her treasures. “This is the circuit board, this is the relay, this is the switch, and this is the coil…”

“In a little while, Teacher will perform a magic trick and make the radio that you all love.”

Su Ye spent half an hour carefully assembling the parts, then gently reminded the students to close their eyes before picking up the soldering gun. She began soldering the circuit board.

The quiet clock ticked on, its hands moving slowly as time passed. Su Ye finished connecting the circuit and adjusted the magnetic coil.

Finally, under the curious and amazed gaze of the children, Su Ye pressed the switch. The crackling sound of electricity came from the old speaker.

“The five-starred red flag flutters in the wind, the victory song is so loud—” A melodious piece of music flowed from the speaker.

Zzzz… Su Ye adjusted the station. “According to the January 13th report from the People’s Daily, the central government has quickly allocated relief grain, and the famine in S province has been initially alleviated…”

Su Ye adjusted again, and the music returned to its previous, soothing melody. The students at the podium were so overjoyed they almost became dizzy.

The middle school students exclaimed in shock, “Wow, teacher, you made a radio!”

“Did you make this with science?”

One of the more mature students chattered, “My dad said a radio costs 85 yuan. That’s three months’ salary! Teacher, you’re amazing!”

“Singing for our beloved motherland, marching towards prosperity and strength—” The speaker blared out the high notes, reaching the most spirited part of the song.

It was as if it reflected the students’ own feelings at that moment.

Su Ye smiled as she lowered the volume and looked at her enthusiastic students. “That’s right. Teacher used science to make the radio you love. It would cost nearly a hundred yuan in a store, but it only cost me two yuan to make.”

“This is— the power of science.”

The passionate high notes conveyed a deep sense of patriotism, as if the old, worn-out radio was singing the power of life itself. The sound struck heavily at the hearts of every child. Their eyes seemed to spark with excitement as they looked up at their teacher in awe.

At that moment, the simple radio made from a circuit board and the teacher standing beside it seemed to glow in their eyes. A spark called “science” had been planted in their hearts, igniting their blood and making their bright eyes shine with enthusiasm.

They gazed at their new teacher with moist, admiring eyes.

This is… the power of showing off, Su Ye silently thought to herself.

Ding—The teacher, diligently working at the podium, imparting knowledge and changing the fate of three students, was rewarded with 1000g of fatty pork.

Su Ye stretched her body comfortably, feeling a sense of satisfaction.

Labor… really is great, finally, some meat to eat.

Outside the classroom, Gao Anna and her teacher stood in silence, staring at the “radio” on the podium.

Teacher He said, “Did you see that? How many teachers can assemble a radio with their bare hands? Gao, ask yourself, can you do it? Can your teachers do it?”