After all, she had made a lot of clothes at home in the past two years. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan hadn’t bought clothes since then; they were all made by her, and she even led the fashion trend in the family compound.

She made red overall skirts for the two sisters, and soon similar skirts were seen at school.

The two sisters were so upset that they cried out in frustration. It was supposed to be unique, made by their aunt, but more and more similar ones appeared on the market, making it difficult for them to stand out.

Wen Jiajia had no choice but to make them two pairs of jumpsuits in more novel styles.

The two sisters are older now, so they don’t have to worry about not being able to go to the toilet at school when wearing overalls.

However, similar styles were still available, and within a week, two or three pieces of the same style appeared.

Although the two sisters were upset, they eventually calmed down and comforted themselves by thinking that they were simply at the forefront of fashion.

After visiting the Cultural Palace, they headed to the market.

There weren’t many stalls left by the time they arrived, but judging by the marks on the ground, the market was quite large, with at least 100 stalls.

They then returned to Yaobo’s dormitory to pick up the others. The two girls were reluctant to leave.

Having lived in the family compound for so long, their social lives had become quite fixed.

The two sisters were thrilled to be in a new place and to make new friends.

A few days later, Wen Jiajia threw herself back into work and went on a business trip that lasted four days.

She’s now busier than Wei Dai, and her salary of nearly 90 yuan reflects the effort she puts in.

After a busy period, Wen Jiajia’s weight dropped to 90 pounds. She was noticeably thinner, even thinner than she was before giving birth.

Concerned that she might be malnourished, Wei Dai asked Dr. Peng to check her pulse one evening when she returned from overtime.

Dr. Peng happened to be accompanying his wife, who was performing acupuncture on Teacher Shen’s mother, so he took Wen Jiajia’s pulse as well.

After visiting her mother last year, Teacher Shen stayed with her for more than a month, only returning when the Chinese New Year was approaching.

But Xie Yang was busy, so he gave the aunt enough living expenses and left the Xie Yi brothers in her care.

During that time, the aunt essentially became a daycare provider, cooking daily for several children.

Interestingly, the children seemed to enjoy their food more during that period. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were always eager to eat.

Not long after Teacher Shen returned, she went back to her hometown, this time bringing her mother along.

It was only then that Wen Jiajia realized how serious her mother’s illness was—she could barely walk.

Fortunately, Dr. Peng and his wife are excellent medical doctors. After half a month of medication and several acupuncture sessions, Teacher Shen’s mother’s condition improved significantly. She could now walk and even do some work in the vegetable garden.

Dr. Peng concluded that Wen Jiajia was “not eating well and was overworked.”

Wei Dai immediately arranged for her to eat a variety of fish—grass carp, crucian carp, silver carp… Wen Jiajia almost felt like she was going to be sick from eating so much fish!

This was a crucial period when many fish were laying eggs. Wen Jiajia felt guilty as she ate, joking that she had probably eaten a whole pond of fish and had taken away all the fish roe and eggs.

Fortunately, Wen Jiajia is very adaptable. She adjusted to the high-intensity work and endured eating fish every day.

After a period of rest, her weight returned to around 100 pounds.

Wei Dai was satisfied with her recovery.

As the college entrance examination day approached, Xiaomei continued to grow.

She was now a year and a half old and had started walking around the yard, walking quite steadily.

The little girl had a strong desire to explore. She would often climb over the threshold and run into the yard when no one was looking, even if she fell a few times at the threshold.

As a result, Wei Dai, as a father, vented his frustration on the threshold. He simply replaced the living room door and removed the threshold.

After that, it became much easier for Xiaomei to play in the yard. Every morning after waking up, she would sit up and call for the aunt, then wait patiently for the aunt to carry her out of bed.

Sometimes, after Wei Dai and Wen Jiajia got up, they would carry her to the big bed while she was still sleeping, letting her slowly crawl out like a caterpillar.

Then she would walk out of the room, hold onto the door frame, and make her way to the yard, where she would touch the flowers and pick grass. Occasionally, she would run to the gate and sit on the threshold. If people passed by, they would always touch her furry head or chubby cheeks. She was almost becoming a local attraction in Beishan!

Gradually, her walking became more stable.

She is a cautious child and only started running once she could walk steadily.

One day, she even went to school to pick up her two sisters! She almost gave the aunt a heart attack.

It’s true that there aren’t human traffickers in the army, but there are still dangers in the area.

Fortunately, the military family compound was full of people, and before she even reached the school, someone informed the aunt of the situation.

That evening, Wen Jiajia sternly reprimanded Xiaomei, and Wei Dai did the same.

Having raised two children before, they knew it was unwise for one parent to play the good cop while the other played the bad cop during a child’s upbringing.

Xiaomei stood in the corner with her hands behind her back and her head lowered, her two braids sticking out beside her ears. At first glance, she looked dejected, but if you looked closely, you could see that she was pouting, a little unconvinced.

“You’re still not happy?” Wen Jiajia asked sternly, waving a bamboo whip in the air a few times, making a frightening sound as it sliced through the air. “How dare you be unhappy!”

Xiaomei shook her head vigorously, causing the purple mirabilis jalapa^[1]also known as the four o’clock flower. earrings to fall from her ears.

She suddenly wanted to squat down to pick them up, but when she saw the bamboo whip in her mother’s hand, she hesitated.

“Mom, my earring fell off,” she said softly, frowning. “I searched for it for a long time before I finally found it.”

Wen Jiajia wanted to laugh but held it back.

Mirabilis jalapa flowers usually close during the day and open at night, so it must have been difficult for her to find two blooming flowers before five in the evening.

Wen Jiajia helped her pick up the “earrings” and continued to lecture her: “Do you understand why you were wrong? You ran off without telling anyone, and Auntie was worried.”

Xiaomei responded, “But I had to go pick up my sister.”

“Your sister is old enough now; she doesn’t need you to pick her up.”

Xiaomei pouted, “But I wanted to ask the teacher if I could go to school. I want to go.”

“You can’t go yet, even if you want to. You’re still a child. When you’re as old as your sister, you can go. Now answer me, Will you run off like that again in the future?”

Perhaps because she noticed her mother’s increasingly stern expression, she began to correct her attitude and shake her head. “No.”

Wen Jiajia said, “You have to keep your word! If you do it again, I will really punish you.”

Educating children is actually a very difficult task. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan, perhaps due to the sudden changes in their lives, were very well-behaved when they were young—much more obedient than Wen Xiaomei.

At least with Wen Chun and Wen Xuan, if Wen Jiajia told them not to go out, they would stay in. If she forbade them from touching fire, knives, or hot water, they would obediently avoid those things.

This led Wen Jiajia to believe that all children were as easy to care for as Wen Chun and Wen Xuan—until she met Xiaomei.

However, after talking with other parents in the family compound and at the factory, Wen Jiajia felt instantly satisfied. Compared to other children, Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were angels, and Xiaomei was still a good child.

Wen Jiajia was destined not to spend much time with Xiaomei when she was two years old. Wen Jiajia was constantly busy with work and still had to squeeze in time to study. She was nearing the end of her review process and was now in the stage of consolidation and practicing questions.

Wen Jiajia chose to focus on the liberal arts. Her performance in physics was average, and even calling it “average” was an overestimation. Her physics grades barely reached the passing line. As for chemistry, she did fairly well under the guidance of Mr. Shen, but it couldn’t make up for the points lost in physics. In comparison, her history and geography scores were much more stable, with history being slightly weaker, but not by much.

Wen Jiajia briefly considered whether she should take a foreign language exam. She felt her overall grades were average, and aiming for a top school seemed unrealistic. Her only chance might be to rely on her foreign language skills and study in a top school’s foreign language program. Her foreign language abilities were quite good, certainly easier to pick up than in other subjects.

However, the school she originally attended did not offer foreign language courses, so even if she wanted to take the exam, she had no valid reason to do so.

This left her feeling a bit sad, like seeing a 100-yuan note on the ground but being unable to bend down to pick it up.

Wen Jiajia was frustrated and kept searching for a suitable excuse to take the exam, right up until the eve of the college entrance examination’s resumption.

But, facing Wei Dai’s knowing eyes, she decided not to pursue it further, realizing she didn’t really enjoy studying foreign languages anyway.

October 1977 was destined to be a momentous month in history, as the college entrance examination, which had been suspended for ten years, was finally announced to be reinstated.

Wen Jiajia wasn’t home that day; she was at work in the factory. When the news came over the radio, the entire factory erupted in excitement. People cheered, jumped for joy, and their shouts nearly shattered the glass windows!