Chapter 45: A New Job

Lin Wei’s new job was introduced to her by Director Chen.

However, calling it a “new job” isn’t entirely accurate. Strictly speaking, it should be considered a short-term part-time role.

The reason for the part-time job stemmed from a female teacher at the military district primary school going on maternity leave. She had planned the leave well in advance—about a month off to cover childbirth and her postpartum recovery.

She was responsible for teaching three classes. Initially, the plan was for three other teachers to each take on an extra class during her absence. Although it was a bit of added workload, it was only for a month, and substitute teaching came with extra pay. All three teachers agreed without hesitation.

But shortly after the female teacher went on leave and checked into the hospital, one of the substitute teachers suffered a bone fracture and was also hospitalized. And as the saying goes, “a hundred days to heal bones and tendons,” he would need at least three months off.

Although the military district primary school was well-staffed, the teachers weren’t exactly idle. Lower grades had relatively light coursework, so one teacher often handled three classes. For the upper grades, with heavier homework loads, teachers typically handled two classes.

One teacher on leave could be managed by shuffling duties, but with two teachers absent, Principal Feng Ying of the military school was at a loss. The number of classes needing substitutes had suddenly jumped from three to six.

Moreover, since elementary school classes are often scheduled in back-to-back periods, teachers handling three classes already taught a minimum of six periods a day—their schedules were full. Therefore, substitutes could only be drawn from upper-grade teachers, and even then, subject requirements further limited the options.

Upper-grade teachers, although only teaching two classes, also had to prepare lessons and grade assignments. Some had heavy family responsibilities and couldn’t take on more work, reducing the available pool even further.

When the female teacher first requested leave, Feng Ying had already canvassed all the staff. In the end, she herself took on an extra class to barely make up for the shortfall.

Now, with four additional classes suddenly needing coverage, Feng Ying was so worried she was scratching her head in frustration. After asking around again, only two teachers said they could take on an extra class.

Before bringing the issue up with Chen Wenfang, Feng Ying had already made the two remaining classes do self-study during language periods for three days straight.

After hearing everything, Chen Wenfang asked, “Have you considered hiring another teacher?”

“I have,” Feng Ying replied, “but you know how it is. Tuition at the military district school is cheap, and the only reason it’s still operating is due to military subsidies. While the higher-ups are willing to subsidize, we can’t just increase expenses casually just because we have a fallback. Under normal circumstances, our current teaching staff is adequate—no excess.”

With a sigh, Feng Ying added, “If we bring in another person, it might solve the immediate problem, but what happens once Xiao Ding finishes her postpartum leave and Xiao Fang recovers from his leg injury and returns to work? Where would we assign the newcomer?”

Feng Ying had been one of the first military spouses stationed at Sanlin Base during its early formation.

Back then, Sanlin Base was nowhere near the size it is now, and the family quarters were just a few mud-brick buildings. The old house where Lin Wei now lived had only been built later as more military families arrived.

There weren’t many work units around the residential area either—let alone a primary school.

In fact, not only was there no elementary school at the base, but even the local commune brigades didn’t have schools. Children who wanted to study had to get up early and travel several kilometers to Yaxian Primary School.

The children of officers were in a slightly better position. Promotions in the military also depended on educational level, so parents made efforts to send their kids to school no matter how hard it was.

But for local commune families, few thought school was necessary. Given the distance and hardships, most children couldn’t endure, and very few completed even junior high.

So, establishing the military district primary school wasn’t just to serve military children—it was also to contribute to local education.

Feng Ying was the very first teacher when the school was founded, and for a time, she was the only one.

At the time, very few locals were willing to send their children to school. In their view, school wasn’t going to lead anywhere. Better to have the kids stay home and help out, easing the burden on their parents.

There were only about twenty children in the family quarters at the time. Subtracting the ones too young or already in junior or senior high school, only about a dozen were of primary school age.

Including local kids, the school enrolled just nineteen students in its first year, spread across various grade levels—with only Feng Ying to teach them all.

To manage the teaching, Feng Ying adopted a multi-grade classroom model, gathering all nineteen students in one room and teaching them in rotating groups.

In her spare time, she visited local families with school-aged children, persuading them with stories and logic to send their kids to school.

It wasn’t easy, but by the second semester, the school had thirty students. By the third, there were seventy.

Over the past two decades, the military district primary school had grown from nineteen students to seven or eight hundred, and the staff from one teacher to thirteen.

You could say it was Feng Ying, with the support of the military, who built the school from scratch.

So when making decisions, she always prioritized the needs of the military and the school—not her own convenience.

Hiring a new teacher would certainly solve the urgent need—but it would also mean permanently increasing school expenses. And even though it’s just one teacher, the cost isn’t negligible.

New elementary school teachers start at a salary of 26 units (currency assumed). After a year, they’re re-evaluated—higher performers might get 32, the rest 29. After that, raises are rare. Except for Feng Ying, the longest-serving teacher at the school only earns a little over 40 units a month.

Hiring a new teacher at the base rate of 26 units per month comes to 312 a year. With holiday bonuses and miscellaneous expenses, the yearly total would be at least 400.

If that 400 was truly necessary, Feng Ying would apply for it without hesitation. But the problem is—it’s not.

Under normal conditions, the school isn’t short-staffed. It’s only because two teachers are hospitalized that there’s currently a gap.

Hire someone now, and you solve the current issue—but once the regular staff returns, you’re left with a surplus and extra costs.

At that, Chen Wenfang sighed too. “That’s true.”

Seeing that Feng Ying’s teacup was empty, she picked up the pot and refilled it for her. “But we can’t just let those two classes self-study forever, right?”

“Exactly.” Feng Ying nodded in thanks and spoke helplessly. “That’s what’s got me worried.”

Although they weren’t graduating classes, and the kids didn’t face entrance exams, leaving them to self-study for a whole month was unacceptable.

Each semester was only four months long. Losing a whole month to self-study was practically sabotaging their education.

Holding her enamel mug, Feng Ying said, “I was thinking—what if we let the two classes join other classes?”

Chen Wenfang asked, “Are the two classes from different grades?”

Feng Ying shook her head. “Both are second grade.”

“I remember the second grade only has three classes total. How many students in each?”

“About fifty per class—so around 150 altogether.”

After thinking a while, Chen Wenfang asked, “One classroom can’t hold that many students, right? And even though they’re the same grade, the class schedules might differ. If they’re all learning Chinese at the same time, then other subjects might need adjusting too. But aren’t subjects for the same grade taught by the same teacher?”

“Exactly. One change affects everything. That’s what’s troubling me now.” Feng Ying leaned back in her chair, pressing her forehead as she sighed.

Chen Wenfang picked up the enamel cup, took a sip of tea, and pondered aloud: “If you’re not hiring a new full-time teacher, have you considered bringing in a temporary substitute?”

Feng Ying was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“Hire a temp, someone who agrees to teach for just one to three months. That way, the staffing gap is temporarily resolved, and when the hospitalized teachers return, you don’t have to worry about redundancy.”

Feng Ying thought about it. “It’s a workable idea, but where would we find someone?”

“Try asking the county high school principal—see if they have any suitable students?”

Feng Ying shook her head without thinking. “That’s not very reliable. Letting them teach might be worse than letting the kids self-study.” It wasn’t that she looked down on today’s high schoolers—truthfully, their academic foundation was concerning.

Most of the current high school students were just starting primary school before the political movement broke out. They barely attended proper classes before schools shut down, went home for two years, and when classes resumed, they were hastily promoted from first or second grade straight to fourth or fifth.

If they had been able to study properly in grades four and five, things could’ve been salvaged. But those years were chaotic—many intellectuals were persecuted, and there was a severe shortage of qualified teachers. Education wasn’t a priority; the curriculum was often half a day of academics, half a day of farm or factory labor. Who knows what the kids actually learned?

That was primary school. Middle school wasn’t much better. And by the time these kids reached high school, things hadn’t improved.

Feng Ying knew that at the county high school, while the first-year curriculum was somewhat stable, by the second year it was mostly meetings and political criticism sessions. Few had any real knowledge.

She truly wasn’t comfortable letting them substitute teach.

Feng Ying didn’t say all this aloud, but Chen Wenfang had known her for years and could more or less guess her concerns. She said, “Since you don’t want to choose someone from the county high school, let me recommend someone.”

“Who?” asked Feng Ying.

“Lin Wei. She came to the island with her soldier husband this June.”

When Lin Wei had just arrived on the island, Feng Ying was attending meetings in the district. Then when the elementary school went on summer break, she left the island to visit her aging mother, who was in poor health. She only returned at the end of August.

So although Feng Ying knew a new military spouse had arrived in June, she didn’t know who it was, their name, or any details.

Now hearing the name from Chen Wenfang, Feng Ying asked, “What’s her educational background?”

Chen neither nodded nor shook her head. She simply said, “It’s listed as high school, but in truth, she only attended for about a month before schools shut down and she had to return home. But her middle school grades were excellent. Her file says she ranked in the top ten in the city on the high school entrance exam.”

In Feng Ying’s view, even a high schooler who studied for just a month before the shutdown had more educational value than the current high school graduates. And Lin Wei’s strong middle school record was an added bonus.

But Feng Ying didn’t stop there. She continued, “What kind of work did she do before coming with the army? She’s been out of school for years—has she kept up with academics?”

“She was a warehouse manager at a cotton mill back home,” Chen Wenfang said. Seeing Feng Ying frown slightly, she quickly added, “She hasn’t been assigned any work since arriving here, so she started a little home school on her own, teaching her own and the neighbor’s kids basic lessons. I ran into her recently with the children and asked about it—her child can already write dozens of characters.”

“How old is her child?” Feng Ying asked.

“Just over three, not yet four. Both of her kids are quite smart.”

Feng Ying nodded. She worked in education and knew what to expect from three- to four-year-olds. But she didn’t make a decision immediately. She simply asked where Lin Wei lived—she wanted to talk to her personally.

Chen Wenfang said, “There are too many people around her place; too noisy. I’ll bring her to my house so you two can talk there.”

Feng Ying assumed Lin Wei must live near the shared housing and said, “Thank you, that’s a big help.”

“We’ve known each other for years—don’t mention it,” Chen smiled, told Feng Ying to stay at her house, and went off to fetch Lin Wei.

When Lin Wei was called out from her house, she was confused. As they walked, and Chen explained the situation, she said in surprise, “I’ve never been a teacher before. Will this really work?”

“Why not? If we’re talking about experience, which of the jobs around the base were you trained for? Didn’t you have to start fresh with all of them? What’s so scary about this?” Chen was confident in her. “Besides, how can you say you don’t have experience? That little home school you’re running—it’s pretty legit, isn’t it?”

Lin Wei chuckled helplessly. “It’s hardly a real school. I’m just playing with the kids, teaching them casually. They’re learning casually, too. It’s nothing like real teaching.”

Chen didn’t buy it. “Don’t try to fool me. Your two kids are just over three and they already know dozens of characters and can do basic math. If that’s ‘casual teaching,’ then I’d say none of the elementary school teachers are teaching seriously.”

Lin Wei had strong self-control. Anyone else might have gotten carried away being praised by the commander’s wife.

Even so, she instinctively stepped back a few times and said honestly, “Look, I’m only teaching three kids right now, all basically my own. If I mess up, no one will blame me. But you suddenly want me to teach over a hundred students? I’m nervous. What if I mess up and ruin their education?”

Chen Wenfang felt she was being too timid. “If you’re afraid of failing your students, then doesn’t that mean you’ll study harder to avoid mistakes? And who had experience teaching hundreds of students when they first started? Everyone just jumped in. Why can others do it and not you?”

Lin Wei fell silent.

Seeing her lower her head, Chen softened her tone. “Principal Feng has no choice. Two teachers were hospitalized back-to-back. All the staff who could cover are already filling in, but there are still two classes without teachers. If we can’t find anyone, those students will be stuck self-studying for a month.”

After a moment, Lin Wei asked, “Is there really no one else who can sub?”

“There are others,” Chen admitted, “but Principal Feng doesn’t trust them. She’s afraid they’ll do more harm than good.” She briefly explained Feng Ying’s concerns.

Although Lin Wei had attended high school before the shutdown, she knew people from her hometown who had studied afterward, and their academic abilities varied wildly.

She hesitated.

In truth, she wasn’t against the idea of being a teacher. Although during the political movement, teachers were often targeted, it wasn’t like every teacher got persecuted. Those who suffered were usually top intellectuals, had questionable backgrounds, or said something wrong and got labeled.

And what counted as a “top intellectual”?

Lin Wei, with her barely-earned high school diploma, didn’t qualify. You had to be at least a vocational school graduate—ideally a university one.

As for her background, Lin Wei came from a poor farming family, had participated in rural re-education programs, and had married a soldier. Her class status was spotless. She had always been careful with her words. If she ever said something wrong, no job would protect her—being a teacher or not wouldn’t make a difference.

The only other concern was time. Teachers were often busy, leaving little time for family. But as Chen said, she’d only be teaching two classes—four periods a day. If all were scheduled in the morning, she’d have her afternoons free.

And this was only a substitute position—at most three months. If the injured teacher recovered quickly, she might be done in two.

The only real issue was that this might affect her placement through the military family employment office.

But then Lin Wei thought: all the jobs outside the base were one-to-one matches—someone had to retire or transfer before a spot opened up. If a job didn’t require a degree, it’d be given to someone who’d followed the army earlier than her. For her to get placed, she’d have to wait at least a year or more.

If there were vacancies for positions with educational requirements, it wouldn’t take long for her turn to come. However, such positions were very limited, and there might not even be any openings before the New Year.

Moreover, before she made it through the life-and-death hurdle, she wanted to spend more time with her family. If the vacant position turned out to be demanding and time-consuming, she might not even want to take it.

With that in mind, the temporary job at the military district elementary school actually seemed quite suitable for her.

So, Lin Wei didn’t say anything more and followed Chen Wenfang to her home to meet Feng Ying.

Feng Ying was a few years older than Chen Wenfang. She already had some wrinkles on her face, but she looked quite spirited and spoke crisply. Upon meeting Lin Wei, she got straight to the point and explained her intentions in a few brief sentences, then gave Lin Wei a simple test.

Although Lin Wei had left school many years ago, she had a solid foundation and good memory. She hadn’t forgotten the material she had learned. Plus, after teaching the children, Zong Shao had someone get her two first-grade textbooks, so she was able to answer very easily.

Feng Ying was quite satisfied with Lin Wei. However, being a teacher requires not just knowledge, but also the ability to communicate. One doesn’t need to be extremely witty, but at the very least, must be able to pass on what they know.

So, after testing her, Feng Ying extended an invitation for Lin Wei to give a trial lesson. She needed to observe a class taught by Lin Wei before making a final decision.

But Lin Wei didn’t accept the invitation immediately. Instead, she asked Feng Ying to first report the matter to the Military Family Placement Office and go through the formal process so that the office would arrange the trial lesson.

After hearing this, Feng Ying was briefly stunned and turned to look at Chen Wenfang.

Chen Wenfang understood that Lin Wei had learned her lesson from past experience and gave Feng Ying a look, signaling her to agree.

The two had known each other for over a decade. Feng Ying knew Chen Wenfang well and could tell from her expression that there must be some backstory to this. So, she smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll report this to the Military Family Placement Office tomorrow.”