Chapter 62 State-Owned Restaurant

Carrying large and small bags, they walked out of the department store.

Since they rarely came to town, they didn’t rush back home. Instead, they decided to stop by a state-owned restaurant for lunch.

The restaurant was not far from the supply and marketing cooperative and was quite large, with around twenty tables inside.

Upon entering, they had to order first. Liu Yinyin glanced at the menu board listing the available dishes for the day and ordered braised pork, stir-fried bamboo shoots with pickled vegetables, and a bowl of winter melon soup.

For the main course, they chose white rice.

They found a table by the window and sat down. Before long, the braised pork and rice were served first.

The braised pork was a generous portion—at least a pound. Its vibrant color and rich aroma were enticing. The meat was tender, melting in the mouth, and perfectly balanced—fat but not greasy.

Liu Yinyin’s eyes lit up. “This is delicious!”

As expected from a state-owned restaurant, the braised pork was much better than what she made at home, even tastier than the dishes prepared by the chefs at Gu Cheng’s factory.

“We’ll come again next time,” Gu Cheng said.

Liu Yinyin simply smiled without responding. The dish was indeed delicious, but eating at a state-owned restaurant wasn’t cost-effective—it required both money and meat coupons. It would be much cheaper to buy meat and cook at home.

After finishing their meal, Liu Yinyin ordered two meat buns to take home for Jiang Cuihua.

The Village School Opens

Two days later, the school was finally completed, consisting of four classrooms in total.

The desks and benches had been handcrafted by the village’s skilled carpenters and arranged neatly inside the classrooms.

Since Liu Yinyin was the only teacher for now, only two classrooms were set up for immediate use.

To make the school look more official, Liu Changquan used his connections to purchase old textbooks, two used blackboards, and two boxes of chalk from the commune school.

That was all they could manage—there were no other supplies. The village simply didn’t have the resources, so they had to make do with what they had.

On the day the school was completed, Liu Changquan informed the villagers that they could now enroll their children.

There was no tuition fee, but since the old textbooks had been purchased, parents needed to pay for them.

From that point on, Liu Changquan handed over all school matters to Liu Yinyin.

With spring plowing about to begin—one of the village’s most critical tasks—he had no time to oversee the school any further. He just told Liu Yinyin to come to him if she encountered any problems.

And so, Liu Yinyin officially began her career as a teacher.

First Day of Enrollment

On the first day of enrollment, quite a few people showed up. Most of them were mothers or grandmothers bringing their sons to register.

Liu Yinyin set up a table at the classroom door and instructed the families to line up one by one.

“Teacher Yinyin, I’m here to enroll my son. His name is Goudan,” said a chubby woman, known in the village as Aunt Fat.

Liu Yinyin frowned. “Auntie, what’s his full name? And how old is he?”

“Full name?” Aunt Fat was momentarily stunned. She turned around and smacked her son lightly. “Goudan, what’s your full name again?”

Goudan, annoyed at being hit, pouted. “Mom, what full name? I only know I’m called Goudan!”

Since birth, everyone had called him Goudan—he had no idea he even had another name!

Aunt Fat glared at him before turning back to Liu Yinyin with a sheepish smile. “Teacher Yinyin, can I register him first? I’ll ask his grandfather about his full name later.”

Goudan was eight years old, which met the age requirement.

Liu Yinyin nodded and instructed, “The tuition fee is one basket of wild vegetables per day, and it must be provided on time. The old textbooks cost fifty cents. Notebooks and pencils must be bought separately.

“Also… if your child is too mischievous, disrupts the class, or gets into fights, I will send him home.”

Aunt Fat quickly assured her, “Don’t worry! If he dares to cause trouble, I’ll have his father whip him!”

Liu Yinyin: “……”

That might be a bit extreme.

“Next!”

“Teacher Yinyin, my son’s name is Liu Zhigao. He’s eleven years old,” said the next mother in line.

As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Zhigao shouted, “Mom, I don’t want to study! I want to go back and farm!”

At eleven, he could already earn four or five work points a day in the fields. He had no interest in sitting in a classroom with a bunch of little kids.

“Useless boy! What’s so great about farming?” His mother scolded him before delivering a hard smack on his back.

Liu Yinyin coughed lightly and said, “…Auntie, if he really doesn’t want to, just forget it.”

If his heart wasn’t in studying, forcing him to attend school wouldn’t be useful.

“No, no, my son actually wants to study. He’s just feeling shy because he’s older.” Liu Zhigao’s mother pulled her son forward and urged him, “Quickly tell Teacher Yinyin that you’re willing to study!”

After saying that, she took off her shoe…

Well, under his mother’s coercion, Liu Zhigao finally gave in.

Liu Yinyin felt a headache coming on. “…”

She had initially thought she could finish enrollment quickly.

But plans never kept up with changes. Unexpected issues kept popping up, and she ended up dealing with enrollment all the way until noon before finally completing everything.

Since there wasn’t enough time for lessons today, Liu Yinyin told them to arrive before 8 a.m. the next day for the first class.

After counting, she found that a total of twenty-two children had enrolled, including two from the Liu family—two more than she had originally planned.

She didn’t turn away the extra two children. It was fine for now—after all, some kids might drop out later.

Among the twenty-two children, the youngest was six years old, and the oldest was twelve. There were only four girls—the rest were all boys.

Liu Yinyin suddenly felt immense pressure. She realized she might really end up being a leader of a group of unruly kids.

At noon, she gathered her notebook and pencil, locked the classroom doors, and went home.

All four classrooms had locks, and Liu Changquan had given the keys to her for safekeeping.

“How was it?” Jiang Cuihua asked after looking after her grandson all morning.

Liu Yinyin took Gu Yanyan into her arms, kissed his soft, fair cheek, and sighed, “…It’s manageable.”

In short, there weren’t any major problems for now. As for small problems… She couldn’t think too much about them. The more she thought, the more problems there seemed to be.

Jiang Cuihua, on the other hand, felt her daughter was quite capable. If she could really become a teacher, it would be much easier than working in the fields. But…

Jiang Cuihua sighed regretfully, “Of all the things you could’ve asked for, why wild vegetables?”

Work points would have been much better—at least they could get grain rations.

Liu Yinyin had her own difficulties but couldn’t explain them. “…Wild vegetables are good.”

In the future, some people would want wild vegetables but wouldn’t be able to get them.

After lunch, Liu Yinyin made a trip to town.

She realized she was missing something important—a clock!

With classes starting tomorrow, she needed to keep track of time, and without a clock, it would be difficult to do so.

She did have a wristwatch in her system inventory, which she usually used in secret at home. But she couldn’t take it out and use it openly.

Gu Cheng also had a wristwatch, but he needed it for work.

With no other choice, Liu Yinyin had to go to town to buy one.

Wristwatches were too expensive, so she didn’t plan to buy one—she just needed something that could tell time.

After browsing in the supply and marketing cooperative, she took a liking to an old-fashioned wall clock but didn’t buy it.

Leaving the store, Liu Yinyin found a secluded spot and secretly took out an identical old-fashioned wall clock from her system inventory.