Chapter 28

When Jiang Jiang arrived home, Lin Youqing had already arranged her room.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

Jiang Jiang looked around the room and excitedly nodded. “I like it.”

The bed was about 1.2 meters wide, placed to the right of the entrance. The blankets were neatly folded, and beside the bed was a desk specifically for studying, facing the window. Light streamed in from outside, and Lin Youqing had even installed blackout curtains for her. On the desk sat a pot of green pothos, lush and vibrant.

To the left of the entrance was a large wardrobe for storing clothes, which would give Jiang Jiang a dedicated space for her things.

“Thank you, Dad,” she said.

Lin Youqing smiled and ruffled the child’s hair. “Why don’t you try this chair and desk to see if the height is suitable?”

Upon hearing Lin Youqing’s words, Jiang Jiang sat down in the chair and reached out to test the height, finding it just right.

“It fits!”

Jiang Jiang neatly arranged the pencils, erasers, and notebooks that He Guijuan had bought for her on the desk.

Seeing her earnest demeanor, Lin Youqing couldn’t help but smile. He patted her head and said, “Alright, Dad has some things to take care of, so you can play for a while.”

“Can I read a storybook?” Jiang Jiang asked.

“Of course.”

Jiang Jiang went to their bedroom to get a storybook to read. She didn’t recognize many words, but the book was filled with illustrations, and she could generally understand what each chapter was about by following the pictures.

After Lin Youqing finished taking care of documents in the cave, he glanced in and passed by Jiang Jiang’s room. He found her completely absorbed in her reading. Watching her so focused, he quietly closed the door behind him before taking his briefcase filled with documents and heading out.

As time flew by, it was now March, and the spring semester of 1976 was about to begin.

He Guijuan specifically took half a day off to enroll Jiang Jiang at the county elementary school.

The school was built on a hillside, with rows of uneven stone caves. He Guijuan held Jiang Jiang’s hand as they walked through the school gate, where many parents were already accompanying their children.

Several rains had fallen after the Awakening of Insects, and today was a rare sunny day.

However, the wind blew cold, stinging their cheeks, and the ground was still wet, with small puddles forming. If one wasn’t careful while walking, they could easily step into a puddle, getting their shoes and socks wet and splashing mud all over themselves.

Jiang Jiang carried a military green crossbody canvas bag, a popular style of student backpack at the time. He Guijuan had also braided her hair nicely for her first day of school.

Although it was the first day, she didn’t stand out too much; she was still wearing the maroon jacket and corduroy pants, which were warm and presentable without being flashy.

A red paper sign with “Enrollment Office” was pasted on the door.

“Teacher Tian,” Jiang Jiang exclaimed, recognizing the young woman sitting at the enrollment office. She was the same teacher she had seen at Aunt Huang’s house.

“It’s Jiang Jiang, right? You’re here to start school, too?” Teacher Tian smiled warmly as she looked down at Jiang Jiang.

Jiang Jiang nodded.

“What’s your full name?”

“Lin Jiang Jiang.”

He Guijuan and Lin Youqing had discussed giving Jiang Jiang a different name. Still, after two days of deliberation, they couldn’t come up with anything particularly good. In the end, they decided not to change their daughter’s name, only adding the surname “Lin” in front of it.

After all, the name “Jiang Jiang” sounded quite nice as it was—simple and easy to remember.

Teacher Tian recorded Jiang Jiang’s name in the registration booklet. “Alright, the first classroom for the first grade is the first cave on the right. Textbooks will be distributed in the afternoon, and a class meeting will be around two o’clock. Parents can leave for now.”

“Thank you, Teacher Tian,” He Guijuan replied.

“It’s no trouble at all.”

He Guijuan then took Jiang Jiang to the first-grade classroom. The room was spacious and bright, furnished with more than twenty desks and over twenty double benches.

The desks were long tables for two, without drawers, but the large hole beneath them could be used to store backpacks.

Above the lecture hall hung a red paper banner with black characters that read, “Study hard and make progress every day.”

In front of the blackboard stood a table called the podium, cluttered with chalk and rags.

More than a dozen children were seated inside the classroom, their dark, shiny eyes filled with curiosity. From these children’s clothing, one could roughly discern their family situations.

The boys’ clothes all looked fairly similar, with neither particularly good nor particularly bad outfits.

The girls showed more variation; aside from one or two girls who appeared to come from well-off families, dressed in trendy clothes and with neatly braided hair, the rest looked rather disheveled, with uneven haircuts. Nevertheless, all the children had bright eyes.

The first row was completely occupied, so Jiang Jiang chose a seat in the second row.

“Is that it, Mom? Are you going back now? You’ll come to pick me up after school?” He Guijuan gently touched Jiang Jiang’s head. “Are you scared?”

“I’m not scared.” Although the environment was unfamiliar, Jiang Jiang felt a surge of excitement.

Before leaving Dongxi Village, Uncle Fugui had told her to study hard, saying that only through education could she find a way out. Jiang Jiang had kept this advice in mind.

Today marked the first day of her school life, and she was determined to study diligently in order to repay her hardworking parents. “Mom, you can go back now.”

“Alright, after school, I’ll take you to the state-run canteen for some shepherd’s purse wontons.”

“Okay!” Jiang Jiang’s face lit up with excitement.

He Guijuan smiled and playfully rubbed her cheek. “Then I’ll head back now.”

“Goodbye, Mom.”

The surrounding girls watched Jiang Jiang and He Guijuan’s interaction with envy. Their mothers would never speak to them so gently.

After He Guijuan left, Jiang Jiang lowered her head to examine the hole beneath her desk, unstrapped her backpack, and placed it inside.

When Jiang Jiang looked up, she saw a girl standing in front of her.

The girl wore small leather shoes, had single eyelids, and crossed her arms while tilting her chin as if she were speaking to Jiang Jiang, or perhaps she wasn’t.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Me?” Jiang Jiang pointed to herself in confusion.

“Who else?” The girl rolled her eyes.

“I’m Lin Jiang Jiang.”

The girl scanned Jiang Jiang from head to toe. “I’m Chen Qiannan. Starting today, I’ll be your deskmate.”

After saying this, the girl sat down next to Jiang Jiang.

Jiang Jiang thought she heard the girl mumble, “She looks fairly clean; she shouldn’t have any lice, right?”

And just like that, Jiang Jiang had a new deskmate.

—o—o—o—

At two o’clock in the afternoon, Teacher Tian entered the classroom to hold a class meeting and asked everyone to stand up for self-introductions.

Most of the students were somewhat shy, quickly saying, “Hello everyone, I’m ×××,” before sitting down again, their faces flushed. Although Jiang Jiang wasn’t particularly nervous, she also didn’t say much.

On the other hand, her deskmate, Chen Qiannan, stood up and gave a long and elaborate introduction.

Once the self-introductions were finished, Teacher Tian randomly called a few students to help distribute the textbooks.

There were a total of four textbooks: “Arithmetic,” “Language,” “Music,” and “Pictures.”

Jiang Jiang carefully opened the cover of the book, and a rich scent of ink greeted her. Unable to resist, she leaned down to sniff again before seriously writing “Lin Jiang Jiang” in pencil on the title page.

From that day on, she was officially a primary school student.