Chapter 32: That Educated Youth Fu Really Means It When He Acts

Shen Lingling was extremely, extremely unhappy about Shen Mo’er becoming a teacher at the village elementary school.

Of course she was unhappy—her own mother, brother, and sister-in-law were still locked up at the police station because of that fight. Even though the fight wasn’t directly with Shen Mo’er, in Shen Lingling’s eyes, she was still the true culprit behind it all. So it wouldn’t even be wrong to say that their family now had a grudge against Shen Mo’er and her father.

On top of that, Shen Lingling still remembered how Shen Mo’er had once eyed her job. If she hadn’t acted quickly and paid an extra three yuan a month to keep her position, there was a good chance Shen Mo’er would’ve used half a blue-brick tile-roofed house to take her job away back then.

And now, Shen Mo’er had still ended up becoming a teacher.

All her calculated scheming made Shen Lingling feel a chill—she was convinced now that Shen Mo’er had been targeting this job from the start. At the same time, she felt grateful for her own “wisdom” back then. Although she had to hand over three extra yuan to the family every month, at least she’d kept her job.

Of course, in Shen Lingling’s mind, Shen Mo’er was also the reason she had to make that sacrifice. So in her opinion, she definitely had a personal grudge against her.

Thinking this through, Shen Lingling concluded that she had not one, but two separate grudges against Shen Mo’er. Watching her “enemy” get to skip labor and earn a wage easily every day—how could that possibly make her happy?

If Shen Mo’er knew what Shen Lingling was thinking, she would definitely call her crazy, at the very least.

But regardless of what Shen Lingling thought, Shen Mo’er smoothly began her new job.

As the school principal, Cheng Tao had already heard hints from Zhou Mancang in advance, so he had arranged the class schedule. Aside from six weekly art classes, Shen Mo’er would also be in charge of three P.E. classes. That made a total of nine classes a week—not as many as Cheng Tao and Shen Lingling, but not significantly fewer either.

Shen Lingling and Cheng Tao each taught two core subjects—Chinese and arithmetic. The textbooks for these were standardized by the province. Art, however, had no official textbook. Even at Dongfanghong Elementary in the county, their art teacher had to compile their own materials. So Shen Mo’er would need to figure things out herself.

Zhou Mancang had fought to add this art class to help the village children learn a practical skill, so the focus was on teaching techniques that were most useful and easy to pick up.

That part wasn’t difficult. In the past few days, Shen Mo’er had already discussed several simple patterns with her father at home, and even referenced some of the current propaganda woodcuts. The materials they came up with were definitely simple, practical, and full of positive messaging.

As for the three P.E. classes, those were even easier—she just had them jog a bit, do some horse stances, and then let them play freely. She only needed to occasionally glance over to make sure no one was fighting or running off.

Most children loved to play. Sure, there were a few who were really into learning, but they were the minority. So when the students heard that aside from Chinese and arithmetic, they’d now also have art classes, they were instantly excited and curious.

When class officially began, Shen Mo’er picked up a piece of chalk and, with just a few strokes on the blackboard, drew a vivid and adorable little dog. The students were immediately hooked.

Art class quickly became the students’ favorite class—by far.

Shen Lingling, who had assumed Shen Mo’er had no teaching experience and would definitely make a fool of herself: “……”

She even overheard a few students during recess saying that their least favorite class was Chinese because Teacher Shen Lingling’s lessons were just too boring. Unlike Teacher Cheng, who told interesting little stories, or Teacher Shen Mo’er, who could draw fun little animals—if only there were no Chinese class at all, then going to school would be pure joy.

Shen Lingling was nearly furious to death.

Shen Mo’er, unaware of Shen Lingling’s dark thoughts or emotional suffering, quickly adapted to her new role as the elementary school art teacher. Outside of teaching students how to draw during class, she spent her free time in the office reading books.

Hadn’t Liu Yunshuang said that in a few years the college entrance exam would be reinstated? If that were true, Shen Mo’er was determined to sign up and take it.

In the Great Liang, women couldn’t take the imperial exams or serve in government. Even as a commandery princess, she had no exception to that rule. Compared to the Great Liang, this world was clearly much kinder to women. Women here could receive the same education and job opportunities as men. Though gender bias still existed, the overall environment was much more favorable.

“Women hold up half the sky.”

That phrase struck a deep chord with Shen Mo’er.

She had been raised freely by Shen Shaoyuan, who never used the typical strict rules of noblewomen to restrain her. So she had never understood—why could her imperial brothers do things that she couldn’t? Why could men pursue careers, while women were confined to the inner residence? Why did women have to be trapped from birth? Why could men seek glory outside while women could not?

So many whys—and after she arrived in this world, they were all answered.

So it turned out that even things that seemed set in stone could be broken.

It turned out that women could study, take exams, work—just like men. They could engage in any profession, even participate in national development and administration.

Shen Mo’er knew that the so-called “college entrance examination” was quite similar to the imperial civil service exam in Da Liang, but even more open and inclusive. It could be said that everyone had the chance to change their fate and attain an important position through the exam. She had traveled through time and space to gain this opportunity—there was no way she would give it up easily.

She wasn’t too worried about whether she was eligible to apply. After all, Liu Yinshuang’s background was similar to hers—they were both junior high school graduates and hadn’t attended high school.

Since Liu Yinshuang was so confident, it meant that after the college entrance exam was reinstated, junior high graduates like them would certainly be allowed to register.

Shen Mo’er asked Shen Shaoyuan to buy her a set of high school textbooks from the commune’s recycling station so she could start self-studying from the beginning.

The original owner of the body had been a decent student—not top of the class, but with a solid foundation. Combined with Shen Mo’er’s own knowledge of classical poetry and literature, studying first-year subjects like Chinese, politics, and history/geography wasn’t too difficult. But mathematics, physics, and chemistry were a different story.

Although she could ask Cheng Tao during breaks, break times were short and Cheng Tao himself was quite busy. It wasn’t practical to keep bothering him.

Besides, Cheng Tao had been part of the first batch of educated youth sent to the countryside. As he himself said, he had returned most of his high school knowledge to his teachers, and there were questions he couldn’t answer.

After some thought, Shen Mo’er decided to visit the educated youth camp. She originally intended to ask Fu Mingze—judging by his face alone, he looked like someone scholarly, probably capable of at least placing third in the imperial exams. But when she arrived, she didn’t see Fu Mingze; instead, she found Zheng Jiamin.

“Fu Mingze went to the commune,” Zheng Jiamin said, scratching his head when he heard what Shen Mo’er wanted. “I’m not sure how good his grades are. He has nice handwriting, but I’ve never seen him reading. Maybe you should wait for him to get back and I’ll ask for you?”

Since she was already there, Shen Mo’er took a math textbook out of the bamboo basket slung over her back. “There’s a problem I don’t understand. I don’t know if you might know how to solve it…”

Zheng Jiamin’s face immediately changed. “No, no, no! You’d better wait for Mingze to come back and ask him. I really don’t know. Not a single bit…”

Though he had attended two years of high school, he’d barely scraped by to get in, and learned almost nothing after that. In fact, even the better-performing junior high students probably had stronger foundations than him.

Zheng Jiamin had a clear sense of his own abilities. If he were any good, he wouldn’t have failed to pass even a recruitment exam and ended up forced to join the countryside work program.

Seeing the textbook was like seeing a monster—he looked terrified. Shen Mo’er was speechless, but didn’t press him. She put the textbook back into her basket and left.

She hadn’t gone far when she heard someone behind her ask Zheng Jiamin, “Comrade Zheng, do you know where Comrade Fu went?”

Instinctively, Shen Mo’er turned to look and saw a female educated youth in a blue cotton dress. She was quite pretty, with long black hair braided into two shiny plaits, each tied with a red ribbon.

Shen Mo’er remembered—this girl was Wang Qiutong, another educated youth who had come to the countryside with Fu Mingze’s group.

What Wang Qiutong was most famous for, though, was an incident in the county’s department store where she had argued with Shen Lingling over a cotton dress. In the end, Shen Lingling backed down generously. Wang Qiutong may have gotten the dress, but she also gained a reputation for being willful, spoiled, and possibly wasteful.

Whether it was this same dress, no one could say.

“Old Fu went to the commune. You looking for him for something?”

Tian Fang and Tian Cui had been arguing nonstop ever since they walked out of the police station. Wang Jinbao couldn’t be bothered to deal with them. He rubbed his stomach and said, “I’m going to the state-run restaurant to buy something to eat.” Without caring that his mother and aunt were practically on the verge of a physical fight, he turned and walked off.

Even then, Tian Cui still managed to squeeze in a question amidst the chaos, asking if he had brought enough money and food coupons. Wang Jinbao didn’t even look back, just waved his hand and left.

So Tian Cui turned her head and went right back to cursing at Tian Fang.

Wang Jinbao was very familiar with the commune and strolled leisurely through the alleys in the direction of the state-run restaurant. As he walked, he mumbled under his breath, “Damn it, what bad luck. That damn woman got me stuck in the police station for half a month. Just wait and see how I’ll deal with you when I get back. Tsk tsk tsk, soft, tender little tart—I’ll get you into my bed sooner or later…”

Just as he was muttering filthy obscenities to himself, everything suddenly went black. Something had been thrown over his head. Wang Jinbao froze for a few seconds, and just as he was about to yell for help, he realized his mouth had been covered.

The next few minutes were undoubtedly the darkest moments of Wang Jinbao’s life. Not even that day at Yangliu Brigade had he been beaten so miserably.

The pain was unbearable. He wanted to scream, but couldn’t get a sound out. He even began to suspect that whoever was beating him was actually trying to kill him. Then, at a certain moment, someone leaned close and spoke in a low, icy voice in his ear: “If you dare come to Yangliu Brigade again, we’ll beat you every time you show your face.”

By then, the person had already let go of his mouth, but Wang Jinbao didn’t even dare to let out a peep.

God, he really thought he was going to die today. Sob sob sob.

They had run far away before Brother Bao finally let out a chuckle and said, “That useless piece of trash, he’s such a coward.”

Fu Mingze didn’t respond. Today he was wearing a white shirt covered in patches. It was washed spotlessly clean, and although he had just beaten someone up, there wasn’t a speck of dirt on his shirt—not even a wrinkle.

If Brother Bao hadn’t seen him do it with his own eyes, he would’ve suspected the man had gone for a stroll instead of lying in wait and ambushing someone.

“I heard those two families were fighting over marriage stuff. Don’t tell me you’ve taken a liking to some new bride?” Brother Bao couldn’t resist teasing him again.

Since arriving at Liuqiao Commune, Fu Mingze had kept to himself, aloof and uninterested in anything. If they hadn’t known each other from years ago when Brother Bao had stayed with the Fu family, he doubted Fu Mingze would even acknowledge him.

So now, seeing Fu Mingze go out of his way to stake out the place and even personally beat someone up, Brother Bao figured there must be some personal grudge—maybe even something as dramatic as a love rivalry?

Fu Mingze gave him a cold glance and said, “With your kind of brain, you’ll believe any rumor. Isn’t doing black market business too risky for someone like you?”

Brother Bao: “…”

You could just say I’m stupid, no need to insult me in such a roundabout way.

Still, he couldn’t help making a snide remark: “Then what, are you out here doing justice for the people or something?”

Pfft.

If you don’t want to say it, fine.

Fu Mingze didn’t bother with him anymore. Ignoring Brother Bao’s muttered complaint about “kicking someone to the curb once they’ve outlived their usefulness,” he simply said, “Let’s go,” and walked off with his bamboo basket on his back.

Within Jiangbei County, there was a river called Baishui Creek that ran across the whole region. Roughly a third of the Yangliu Brigade’s outer perimeter bordered the creek. However, villagers never went to that part of the creek to fetch water or do laundry. The current was strong, the water deep, and the creek was too far from the village—not to mention dangerous.

Instead, most people went to a small nameless stream at the village entrance, a tributary of Baishui Creek. Only a few meters wide and quite shallow, the water was crystal clear and of good quality.

When Fu Mingze returned from the commune, it was nearly noon. Naturally, there was no one fetching water or washing clothes by the stream. He walked straight ahead without looking around, but his eyes involuntarily drifted toward the brand-new courtyard at the village entrance. From afar, he could only see that the gate was shut.

Suddenly—splash!—there was the sound of something heavy falling into the water, followed by a woman’s cries for help: “Oh no! Help! Help!”

Instinctively, Fu Mingze turned his head. A disheveled woman was flailing in the water, shouting at him, “Help me! Comrade Fu, help! I can’t swim, ahhh, I-I’m going to—”

Glug. She swallowed a mouthful of water.

Fu Mingze paused, looked at her, and calmly said, “The water isn’t deep. If you stand up, you won’t need to call for help.”

Then he turned around, ready to leave.

In the water, Yang Qingqing was completely stunned. She hadn’t expected Fu Mingze to actually ignore her and walk away. In this kind of situation, shouldn’t any normal person’s first reaction be to help? How could he be so cold, so indifferent, so heartless?

But Yang Qingqing had planned this whole “accident” with painstaking detail. Of course she wouldn’t give up so easily. She immediately cried out, “But I got a cramp! I can’t stand up! Sob sob sob Comrade Fu, please help me, I’m so scared and helpless. You’re such a good person—you wouldn’t just leave me here, would you…”

At that moment, someone came running from the direction of the village. “Comrade Fu! Y-you—watch out—”

Wang Qiutong came running, dripping with sweat and panting heavily. “Comrade… Comrade Fu… Watch out for Yang—”

She meant to say watch out for Yang Qingqing, but when she looked up and saw a disheveled figure bobbing up and down in the stream—even though it was broad daylight under the blazing sun—it gave her such a fright that she screamed, “Aaaah! A ghost in the water—!”

Yang Qingqing in the water: “…”

She had been observing Fu Mingze for several days and had finally found a good opportunity today. She had no idea why this meddling Wang Qiutong suddenly had to show up and ruin everything.

What rotten luck.

But of course, Yang Qingqing wasn’t going to give up just like that. She summoned all the acting skills she had honed in her life and continued to flail in the stream, putting on a desperate performance of struggling to survive.

“Qiutong, it’s me! Yang Qingqing! I accidentally fell in! My leg cramped! Hurry and save me! Get Comrade Fu to help me! You can’t just stand there and let me drown! Wuwuwu—help! Help! Glug—”

Yang Qingqing acted extremely convincingly. To make it seem more real, she even gulped down several mouthfuls of water.

She was practically putting her life on the line for the sake of this performance. But neither of the two people on the bank seemed moved at all.

Ever since Wang Qiutong had accidentally overheard Yang Qingqing and Shi Wei’s conversation in the vegetable garden, she had been secretly watching Yang Qingqing. So she knew Yang Qingqing was scheming something involving Fu Mingze today.

She didn’t know what exactly Yang Qingqing had planned at first, but after seeing this scene, there was nothing left to guess. How could she possibly believe Yang Qingqing’s nonsense?

Wang Qiutong stole a glance at Fu Mingze and saw that he remained completely unmoved.

Just then, another person came running up. It was Shi Wei. He looked anxious when he saw Fu Mingze. “Comrade Fu, have you seen Yang Qingqing? She said she was going to do laundry, but she hasn’t come back yet. Let’s look for her together!”

Fu Mingze raised an eyebrow slightly, once again struck by how utterly dim-witted these people were. The tricks they used to try to trap him were always so crude and pathetic, it honestly made one wonder if their brains were full of glue.

He couldn’t be bothered to respond and simply turned to leave, but Shi Wei grabbed his arm. “Comrade Fu, how can you be so cold-blooded? You’re both educated youths! Yang Qingqing’s missing and you won’t even help look for her?”

Wang Qiutong couldn’t help but speak up. “Comrade Shi, Yang Qingqing is right there in the water. You’d better go save her.”

She pointed to the nearby stream.

Seeing the disheveled woman in the water, Shi Wei’s expression froze for a moment. But he quickly hardened his resolve, tightened his grip on Fu Mingze, and pulled him over to the streambank. “Comrade Yang, hold on! We’re coming to save you!”

Yang Qingqing waved her arms and shouted weakly, “Hurry! My leg really cramped! Hurry, save me—!”

Shi Wei thought to himself that Yang Qingqing was really pulling out all the stops to trap Fu Mingze. Her performance was way too realistic. But remembering the benefits Yang Qingqing had promised him, he clenched his jaw and forcefully shoved Fu Mingze toward the water.

However, just as he pushed Fu Mingze with all his strength, Fu Mingze suddenly bent down slightly. Shi Wei pushed into empty air, stumbled, and before he could regain balance, felt a strong kick to his leg.

In the next moment, his whole body tumbled straight into the stream.

In fact, in that split second as he fell, Shi Wei thought he felt someone hold him back slightly—as if afraid he’d fall too hard and get hurt.

Splash!

A huge spray of water shot into the air.

Shi Wei choked on a mouthful of water and hadn’t even reacted yet when he felt something wrapping around him. Looking down, he saw long strands of hair floating like water plants.

“Ahhh! A water ghost—!”

A few seconds later, he suddenly realized it was probably Yang Qingqing, and his scream abruptly cut off.

“No, no, no! I can’t swim! Fu Mingze, hurry and save us! Wang Qiutong, help me—!” Shi Wei cried out in panic.

Wang Qiutong silently took a step back.

“She might really have a leg cramp,” Fu Mingze said coolly from the bank. After that, he didn’t spare the two a single glance and simply turned and walked away.

Not far off, several other educated youths from the commune were running toward them.

“Did someone say Yang Qingqing’s missing? Could she have actually fallen into the stream?”

“Fu Mingze, have you seen Yang Qingqing?”

“Ahhh, over here! Over here! Yang Qingqing and Shi Wei are both in the water—!”

“Hurry, save them! Save them—!”

Only Wang Qiutong, who had witnessed the entire scene, swallowed hard as she watched Fu Mingze’s departing figure.

She had never realized before—Comrade Fu really takes action when he needs to. That kick he gave Shi Wei just now was clean and ruthless!

These educated youths… not a single one of them is easy to mess with.