Chapter 30

Seeing how many girls were in the dorm now, Lin Yun could more directly feel the disparity—very few girls from rural areas ever had a chance to get an education. Families would often put everything they had into supporting a single male child, usually the only or most promising boy in the family.

That night, Lin Yun fell asleep thinking about all sorts of random things.

The next morning, she went straight to the office to find the teacher. “Teacher, are you available now? I came for the exam.”

The same teacher who had brought her yesterday was sitting in the office. “Ah, Lin Yun, just wait a moment—I’ll go get the exam paper,” the teacher said, then stepped out.

Before long, the teacher returned holding an exam paper. “Start with this one. Just do it here—I’ll keep an eye on you. No need to strictly follow the time limit. If you finish early, just hand it in. Let’s try to finish all the subjects today.”

“Another teacher will come by later, and I need to go back to class. Don’t be nervous—just treat it like before. All the teachers really have high hopes for you.”

Lin Yun nodded, expressing her understanding. “I understand, teacher.”

The first test was Chinese. At this time, Chinese exams mainly consisted of fill-in-the-blanks and explanations, along with some classical Chinese content. It was quite different from the high school exams of later years. But it was manageable—aside from some classical grammar she wasn’t familiar with, Lin Yun handled the rest just fine.

Chinese, math, humanities, science—by the time she finished all four subjects, it was already quite late. Lin Yun couldn’t help but feel thankful that English hadn’t yet become a mandatory subject in the entrance exams. Otherwise, she would’ve had to take another test today. That said, English at this time was still relatively simple for her—after all, the country used to prioritize Russian more heavily.

After finishing the exam, Lin Yun left to go look for Lin Yumei, wondering how things had gone on her end.

Unexpectedly, she had only walked a few steps when she saw Lin Yumei and Zhao Baozhu standing ahead, clearly waiting for her.

“You’re finally out! We’ve been waiting for ages. Let’s go eat something—you must be starving.”

“Sure, let’s go!” Lin Yun said, linking arms with the two of them as they walked together toward the cafeteria.

“How’d it go on your end, sis? No problems?”

“Should be fine. I finished most of the test and thought it was easier than I expected. All thanks to you teaching me during the summer,” Lin Yumei said, clearly touched.

“Then from now on, the three of us can go to and from school together. That’ll be so nice,” Zhao Baozhu chimed in.

“Yeah, although I’m the oldest, I’m now technically in a lower grade than you two,” Lin Yumei said casually, stating a fact without any real emotion.

They soon arrived at the cafeteria. The food wasn’t particularly great, but Lin Yun had timed it well—it was dinner time.

Because many students were day scholars, not many stayed to eat dinner on campus. Eating at the cafeteria also required ration tickets, and the variety of dishes was extremely limited—nothing like what schools would offer in later times.

But maybe because she was with Lin Yumei and Zhao Baozhu, Lin Yun actually felt happy while eating.

“Oh right, sis, did Gangzi come with you today?”

“He walked me to the main road and then went back. There’s still a lot of work waiting for him at home.”

Lin Yun nodded. “They don’t start school for a few more days, right?”

“Yeah, he and his group of friends will come together when it starts. But with his grades… who knows what’ll happen. If he could get into a technical secondary school, it’d be great—Mom wouldn’t have to worry so much about his future.”

Lin Yun didn’t comment much on that topic. After dinner, the three of them headed toward the classroom. Although school was officially over, there were still quite a few students studying in the classroom. The dormitories had no electricity; the limited electricity was reserved for the classrooms. Even then, the lights wouldn’t stay on all night—usually by 8 or 9 PM, power to the classrooms would be cut too.

Still, the classroom was far better than the dorms, which had no power at all. Sometimes the classrooms would even light mosquito coils. At this time, most students were eager to study, believing that only education could change their fate—help them become city dwellers, and no longer toil in the fields.

By around 8:30 PM, the lights in the classroom went out, and the remaining students began filing out. Since it was close to mid-month, the moon was bright enough that they could see their shadows on the ground as they made their way slowly back to the dorms.

The dorms were still lively—students were carrying their things to the well to fetch water and wash up. There was no running water, so students had to draw water from the well themselves.

Lin Yun followed the dorm girls to the well. It was crowded, with everyone lining up. She noticed that there were no tools provided to draw water—you had to bring your own. Lin Yun saw a lot of clever DIY designs.

She, Zhao Baozhu, and Lin Yumei all brought aluminum buckets, which gave them a slight advantage. Lin Yun even saw someone using half a basketball as a homemade bucket.

That person took their “basketball bucket” and left after drawing water. Watching all the inventive ways others drew water, Lin Yun realized she couldn’t just stand there feeding mosquitoes—mosquitoes were vicious at this time of year.

She stepped forward with her bucket. “Everyone, just use my bucket—it’ll be quicker. It’s getting late,” she said, handing her aluminum bucket to a few boys who were trying to use their homemade tool.

Hearing a girl speak, the boys clearly froze for a second. One of them quickly waved his hand. “No, no, it’s fine—we’ve got our own stuff,” he said, pointing to a water-drawing tool tied to a rope.

“It’ll be faster with a proper bucket, and I’m not just being nice,” Lin Yun said with a bright smile. “I’m waiting in line too and just want to get this over with and go to bed. We’re all classmates—let’s help each other out.”

“Thanks, classmate,” one boy said, taking her bucket and quickly tying it to their rope. They moved fast, working in pairs—it was clear they were used to chores back home.

Lin Yun’s words about helping each other as classmates seemed to affect the others. Zhao Baozhu came over and offered her bucket too—there was a spare rope nearby.