While Wen Jiajia was getting dressed, Wei Dai went outside to prepare the water for brushing her teeth and washing her face. It seemed he wanted to brush her teeth and wash her face for her.

“Don’t be like this, just do what you need to do,” Wen Jiajia said helplessly while brushing her teeth and spitting out foam.

She wasn’t nervous at all. To put it bluntly, she was a bit like the eunuch, who was anxious even though the emperor was not.

Wei Dai rubbed his hands and placed them on her ears. “I don’t have much to do. You should hurry up and wash your hands. Don’t catch a cold. The temperature has dropped today. It’s dropped by at least three or four degrees compared to yesterday.”

“…Forget it.” Wen Jiajia stopped trying to persuade him. She brushed her teeth and washed her face, then went back to the room for breakfast.

Breakfast was ready, but there was no milk because Wei Dai feared it might cause diarrhea.

Wei Dai had originally planned to grind soy milk for Wen Jiajia, but since the family hadn’t had soy milk for a long time, he was afraid she wouldn’t be able to adjust to it, so he didn’t make it.

After much thought, he decided that porridge would be the safest choice.

The porridge was millet porridge, which Wen Jiajia liked. The aunt had kneaded the dough and fried the stuffing the night before. When Wei Dai got up today, he kneaded the dough himself, cut it into small pieces, and made dumplings. At this moment, the first pot of dumplings had just been steamed.

The buns were winter bamboo shoots and meat buns, which are Wen Jiajia’s favorites with cooked fillings.

Wei Dai dug the winter bamboo shoots yesterday, rinsed them, and cut them into dice. The meat was from a pig that had just been slaughtered, specifically the front leg meat, which has a good fat-to-lean ratio.

Compared with hind leg meat, the front leg meat of the pig has a firmer texture and more lean meat, making it more suitable for stuffing.

The stuffing was cut into dice, fried with bamboo shoots and chopped carrots, and then leeks were added. The taste was so delicious! At Wen Jiajia’s place, the steamed buns with raw stuffing were considered better.

In order to ensure good luck, Wei Dai went to the cafeteria to buy fried dough sticks and boil two eggs.

“Look, this is 100 points.” Wei Dai placed the eggs and fried dough sticks on the table in the shape of “100.” “You have to eat this later.”

Wen Jiajia didn’t refuse for the sake of good luck, but because she was afraid of frequent urination, she only had a small bowl of porridge, then ate two eggs, fried dough sticks, and finally two buns before she felt full.

“When will the car leave?” Wen Jiajia asked after swallowing the last bite of her bun. There were 32 college entrance examination candidates in the army, so the logistics department would arrange a car to take them there.

Since the logistics department had to go to the city anyway, and they set off at 5 o’clock every morning, it was okay to leave a little later today.

Wei Dai said, “It’s still early.”

He glanced at his watch. “Half an hour left.”

As he spoke, he began to eat voraciously. Wen Jiajia was walking around nearby, feeling a bit full from the meal.

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan also got up. Wen Xuan came out first, without changing her clothes, and said in surprise, “Good morning, aunt and uncle. Good morning, Auntie. Are we having buns today?”

Wen Jiajia quickly pushed her back into the room. “Hurry up and change your clothes. You are not allowed to eat buns before you change your clothes.”

Wen Xuan was so happy that she kept shouting, “Yeah, yeah.”  “I haven’t eaten buns for a long time. I miss them so much.”

Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but pat her on the head. This girl was only thinking about eating and didn’t even remember that her aunt was going to take an exam.

After a while, Wen Jiajia and Wei Dai went out.

One brought a pen and admission ticket, and the other brought hot buns and a kettle.

The two got in the car, which was already full of people.

Fortunately, there was a thick cloth blocking the view, so there wasn’t much wind when sitting at the rear of the car, and one could still breathe fresh air. Others all felt that they had made a mistake.

Gasoline trucks are fast and can get to the city in less than half an hour.

Coincidentally, Wen Jiajia’s examination room was right next to the pharmaceutical factory. She was very familiar with that area and must have felt safe sitting in the examination room.

Wen Jiajia stuck her head out and said, “Let’s get off in front. It’ll only take two or three minutes to walk there.”

“Okay!” Then he shouted to stop in front.

When the car stopped, only the couple got out, while everyone else went to other examination rooms.

This year, there are 5.7 million college entrance examination candidates! This number is also very impressive.

When they arrived at the examination room, there were already people waiting at the door.

Wei Dai handed her the kettle. “Hold this to warm your hands. I’ll wait for you at the state-owned restaurant later. We’ll have lunch there. What do you want to eat? I’ll tell your friend.”

Wen Jiajia thought for a moment and said, “I really want to eat noodles. Can you ask Xiaolan if she has any chicken offal noodles? There should be some. I heard Xiaolan say that the restaurant has had to buy chicken every day for the past few months. If there is, please help me get a bowl of spicy and sour chicken offal noodles.”

The new chef is Xiaolan’s cousin. Since Master He left, Wen Jiajia has gradually become familiar with him and can even cook dishes that are not on the menu.

Wei Dai nodded. “Okay.” It’s winter, so it’s more comfortable to have some hot soup.

The time to enter the examination room soon arrived, and Wei Dai couldn’t help but lean in and hug her. “Don’t be nervous. Just treat it as an exam at home.”

“I will,” Wen Jiajia said, patting his shoulder proudly. “Just wait; you’ll soon have a college student wife.”

Wei Dai responded, “…Okay.”

His wife was really relaxed and in the mood to joke around. She didn’t seem nervous at all.

After Wen Jiajia entered the examination room, she found her seat, sat down, and began to observe the classroom.

The classroom was surprisingly nice. It was similar to most classrooms in rural areas in the early 21st century. The classroom in Wen Jiajia’s father’s hometown was similar.

There was no multimedia, but the windows were bright. Now the windows were closed, so the cold wind outside couldn’t blow in.

There were more and more people in the classroom, including young men of seventeen or eighteen with fresh faces, middle-aged people with wrinkles, and people like her who had worked for several years. Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but sigh in her heart. She could only see this scene in the examination room in the past two years. She felt like she was witnessing history firsthand.

While she was thinking, the invigilator came in.

The bell rang, the test papers were opened, and then they were distributed.

The moment Wen Jiajia saw the test paper, she glanced at the composition question out of habit.

It was okay. The questions weren’t too difficult.

What was it? “Hard Fight,” a composition with a given topic, was Wen Jiajia’s favorite.

Moreover, there was plenty of material available, and Wen Jiajia didn’t need to rack her brains for information. Was working and preparing for the exam at the same time considered a hard fight? Wen Jiajia thought it was. Anyway, she had plenty of ideas and couldn’t wait to write a few hundred words.

Fortunately, Wen Jiajia was able to control herself and quickly wrote the introductory part first.

The previous questions were quite simple for someone like her who had been reviewing for two years, especially the ones she had memorized. She answered them smoothly.

Soon, with more than an hour left, Wen Jiajia finished the homework and was left in silence. It was the first time she had so much time for a Chinese exam.

Thinking back to her past life, she had been tortured by poor reading comprehension. Often, she would have only 40 minutes or even half an hour left to write her essay, and she would end up writing at the last minute with her pen flying!

Wen Jiajia suddenly felt full of confidence. That’s it? If the next few subjects were the same, her first choice would be a sure thing.

Wen Jiajia’s current state was one of inspiration. Even if she slowed down her writing speed, she could still finish the composition within 40 minutes.

The result was that her handwriting looked particularly beautiful, making it worthwhile for Wen Jiajia to spend time practicing calligraphy over the past year.

She used the remaining time to check her previous answers and waited another 10 minutes before the test ended.

After handing in the paper and leaving, Wen Jiajia ran into Wei Dai at the door.

Wen Jiajia ran over and said, “It’s so cold. Why don’t you wait for me at the state-owned restaurant?”

Wei Dai handed her the hot kettle again. “Here, warm your hands first.”

“I just wanted to see you first.” He smiled and said, “There are chicken offal noodles^[1]refers to a dish made with noodles and various types of offal, which are the internal organs and other parts of animals, such as liver, heart, kidneys, or intestines.. You can probably eat them when you go back.”

Wen Jiajia’s pace quickened. “What are you waiting for? I’m very hungry.”

Xiaolan was waiting for her at the door. When she saw Wen Jiajia at the entrance of the alley, she waved excitedly. “Come and eat. I’ve prepared a whole set of chicken innards for you.”

She didn’t ask Wen Jiajia how she did in the exam since there were still several subjects to take.

Wen Jiajia ran over and hugged her. “It must be sour and spicy.”

“Yes! The soup base is still made from pork bone soup, and the noodles are made from this year’s new rice. I’ve tried it, and it’s very chewy.”

It was really elastic!

Wen Jiajia slurped the noodles into her mouth, savoring the sour and spicy soup.

The soup was neither dry nor overly sour and spicy. Due to the pork bone soup, it was very mellow, with layers of sour and spicy flavors.

After drinking half a bowl, the coldness in her body was completely dispelled, and she felt extremely refreshed.