Wang Ying returned home, and as soon as she put down her medicine box, Xu Shuang came in. Seeing Wang Ying looking a bit upset, he quickly asked how she came back so soon from Tian Dazhu’s house.
Wang Ying explained what happened, and Xu Shuang tightened his lips. “Next time they ask, don’t go!”
Wang Ying smiled. “Why do you seem even more upset than I am? It’s not that serious.”
She was angry because Tian Dazhu cared so much about a child that might not even be his, but didn’t care at all about Mai Miao and Mai Sui. She didn’t even mention Mai Miao and Mai Sui—just the youngest, Mai Ya, who was born premature. The two hundred yuan from Qian Juhua’s separation was mostly spent on this child, yet her biological father didn’t even look at her or ask about her condition. To be blunt, if that little girl didn’t make it, Tian Dazhu probably wouldn’t even come to see her.
Wang Ying felt disheartened. “No matter what, that’s still his biological daughter. Tian Dazhu doesn’t seem like a bad person, so how can he be so cold-hearted?”
Since they were at home, Xu Shuang didn’t hold back. He directly hugged Wang Ying tightly. “He’s obsessed with wanting a son. His brain isn’t working well.”
Xu Shuang continued, “He’s always thinking the people in our village are gossiping about him, laughing at him for not having a son. But look at Widow Sun in our village—she doesn’t have a son either. And there are other families too—there’s nothing special about not having a son.”
“Our village has been pretty good about things. Don’t think his mother and sister-in-law are tough on him; it’s because he’s too soft. If he stood up for himself, even with three daughters, no one would dare to covet his wealth.”
Wang Ying said, “When I look at Tian Dazhu, I feel like a person’s whole life is shaped by their parents. His temper must have been influenced by his mother when he was young, and he didn’t really learn to read or write. Because of his inferiority complex, as he grew up, he became more afraid of being laughed at by others. That’s why he’s strayed further and further down the wrong path.”
Xu Shuang asked, “So?”
Wang Ying pouted, “So… I’ve decided to suggest that the brigade leader start a village school!”
From too many people, she had seen the problem of lack of education. In just a few years, society would undergo drastic changes, and if people didn’t continue their education, they would still be stuck in the mountains.
Xu Shuang didn’t seem surprised at all. “What will we do? Our brigade doesn’t have many kids who can go to school, right? The brigade leader probably won’t agree.”
Wang Ying snorted. “There are official ways to do things, but with our brigade’s situation, we can simplify it.”
Once she made up her mind, Wang Ying didn’t feel so angry anymore.
Xu Shuang happened to bring out lotus root soup. Since there was no meat at home, they used pork lard to grease the pot, and then simmered it with mushrooms and peanuts.
Even though it was a vegetarian soup, it tasted just as good. The soup was tea-colored, with soft peanuts, thick mushrooms, and the autumn lotus root cooked to a tender and crisp texture. When you bit into it, long strands of it would stretch.
The vegetarian lotus root soup was served with vegetable-filled pies, with a filling made from carrots, eggs, and vermicelli, all wrapped in a thin layer of dough and fried until golden on both sides. A bite of pie and a sip of soup—it wasn’t just delicious, but also warm and comforting, opening up your appetite.
After dinner, Wang Ying took out paper and a pen to start making plans.
A few days later, Wang Ying had a clear idea and invited Wu Guihua to join her in suggesting the idea to Tian Youfu.
Tian Youfu looked at Wang Ying in surprise. Previously, he had asked her if she would be willing to take a position as a small cadre in the brigade, such as women’s director or accountant, since the women’s director position was vacant and the accountant was already quite old. But Wang Ying had almost immediately rejected the idea, saying that she would be happy just being a barefoot doctor.
So why was she standing up now?
If Wang Ying knew Tian Youfu’s confusion, she would definitely answer him.
For other matters, she was content to be passive—after all, if she didn’t do it, someone else would. But when it came to education, if she could contribute even a little, she was more than willing to do so.
This was different from all the other things!
Wang Ying said, “Captain, we have four young intellectuals coming to our brigade this year, and there will definitely be more in the future. With so many young intellectuals, they’re only earning a few work points by working in the fields. I think, instead of that, we should apply to the commune for a primary school. I just discussed this with Director Wu, and we have more than sixty children in our brigade between the ages of five and eleven, but fewer than ten of them are going to school. Director Wu is also worried because the commune has requirements for the number of children attending school, but our brigade is too far from the commune, and we can’t send them to the primary school in Xipo Town. I think we should apply for a primary school here, so that children from the two surrounding communes can also attend it.”
Tian Youfu hesitated a little. “But we don’t have a place to set up a primary school in our brigade, do we? If we build a new building, won’t that cost money?”
The most pressing issue was money. Building a primary school would require bricks for the building, desks and chairs inside, and some additional expenses. How could the brigade afford it?
Moreover…
Tian Youfu didn’t feel like he could recover the cost in the end.
Everyone was poor. Children attending the commune’s school had to pay two yuan per semester, which might seem like a small amount, but don’t underestimate those two yuan. Families often had multiple children—two or three was normal, and some even had six or seven. Sending all of them to school would be a financial burden that few families could bear.
Before Wang Ying could speak, Wu Guihua spoke up first: “Captain, don’t just refuse outright. If you don’t cooperate, I won’t be able to handle it.”
After taking on the role of women’s director, Wu Guihua realized that the job wasn’t just about protecting women and children’s rights, but also involved ensuring that children had access to education.
She had been thinking about this issue for a while, and when Wang Ying brought it up, she was eager to discuss it with Tian Youfu.
Tian Youfu frowned, “You’ve seen the harvest this year, right? Even if we wanted to build, we’d have to wait two years.”
After a year with bad weather, where would he get the money to build a primary school?
Wu Guihua wasn’t satisfied and snorted, “If we wait a few more years, our brigade might not even be able to afford it.”
Tian Youfu could only shrug. There was no money in the brigade; what could he do?
Wang Ying took out a piece of paper and started calculating with Tian Youfu.
“Actually, it’s not entirely impossible. Look, at the beginning, the number of students won’t be that many. If our brigade can take in twenty to thirty children, that would already be a good start.”
“With twenty to thirty students, there’s no need to build new buildings. We can use the existing buildings at the young intellectuals’ site, which are spacious and have many empty rooms. One of those rooms can accommodate more than twenty students. The desks and chairs will be easy to arrange; we can get someone to make tables, and chairs can just be simple benches. For twenty or so children, six or seven benches will be enough. If there aren’t enough, the students can bring their own benches from home.”
“As for other things, we can paint a blackboard ourselves, and chalk is cheap. Students who can’t afford books can copy them by hand.”
“Let’s make do with this for now. If there are more students in the future, we can consider building new classrooms.”
“Based on this plan, tuition won’t be expensive. We can charge just one yuan per student. The young intellectuals can act as teachers. When there are fewer students, it can be half a day of class and half a day of work. As the number of students grows, we can gradually make the teachers full-time.”
Wang Ying’s approach was simple and straightforward: the issue now wasn’t whether it would be good or not, but whether it could be done at all.
Even if the school was rudimentary and the conditions weren’t great, it would still be a school.
As long as there’s a teacher and lessons are taught, they could at least start. Other issues could be dealt with later.
Seeing that Tian Youfu was somewhat moved, Wang Ying added another point.
“If our brigade doesn’t act quickly, the two surrounding brigades might beat us to it.”
Tian Youfu was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood Wang Ying’s point.
The issue of difficulty in sending children to school wasn’t unique to the seventh brigade—it was a problem for the two surrounding brigades as well.
The three brigades were in a poor situation. They were too far from their own commune, but too close to others. When something had to be done at their own commune, it became very troublesome.
Wang Ying was right; he had already heard the leaders of the other two brigades mention this. At that time, they had planned to build a school for the three brigades together, with a location chosen in the middle for convenience.
But after delays and with people constantly stirred up by outside issues, the three brigade leaders had the intention but no power to act.
Now that the situation had stabilized a little, and with young intellectuals available to teach, there were fewer complications. Tian Youfu found himself warming to the idea.
Building the school in his own brigade would not only ease the financial strain but also provide a solution for the young intellectuals.
It would be a win for him.
If he waited and the other brigades built their schools first, then his brigade would lose out.
Tian Youfu rubbed his hands together, “Let me think about it.”
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Wang Ying’s suggestion was practical.
You say the houses at the young intellectuals’ site are simple?
They’re already quite good! They were newly built this year! Most of the houses in the brigade aren’t even as good as the young intellectuals’ houses!
You say the benches are too rough and the kids can’t read?
What’s so hard about that? Any kid above six or seven is already doing chores at home. Copying books isn’t hard work!
You say education costs money?
One yuan is already very cheap! It’s even cheaper than the two yuan at the commune! You’re not going to study for one yuan? Do you expect the brigade to pay for it?
…
Tian Youfu made a decision, “I’ll go talk to the party secretary and the accountant. We’ll have a meeting to discuss the details.”
He thought it could work, but there were still many things to consider, like what to do during winter breaks, how to select the young intellectuals, and what the teachers’ pay would be.
Wang Ying quickly proposed an idea that was soon agreed upon by everyone.
Tian Youfu rushed to report to the commune before the weather got too cold. The commune sent people to check the situation. After reviewing it, they agreed to the plan.
As long as the commune didn’t have to allocate funds, building a village school wasn’t a big deal.
Tian Youfu quickly passed the news to the brigade members.
To his surprise, most of them were supportive.
“As long as it’s only one yuan per semester, I think it’s fine.”
“That’s easy for you, your family only has two kids! We’ve got four, it’s really a struggle.”
“Don’t worry, your youngest two aren’t even five yet, and they won’t be included. Just send the older ones for now, and worry about the younger ones later.”
“My family only has girls, should we not send them?”
“Are you stupid? Why wouldn’t you send them? Even if they just learn a little, it’s good. Look at Wang Ying—she learned and became a doctor. I heard from Guihua that you need at least a primary school education to be a midwife.”
“Exactly, even just a few years of learning will help. The more characters they know, the better their prospects for finding a husband.”
The discussions among the brigade members were friendly, and most of them felt that having their children learn a bit of education was not a bad thing.
But over at the educated youth station, the atmosphere was quite different.
Almost every educated youth was a bit tempted.
Teaching—it was a highly regarded job even in the city.
Despite the chaos outside, most of the trouble was in middle schools. Primary schools were affected much less.
Teaching young children to read and write wasn’t physically demanding labor; it was clean, decent, and respectable…
The educated youth team leader, Yang Hong, quietly observed everyone. Regardless of gender, most were itching to volunteer.
And it wasn’t just because of the primary school teacher positions. There was also a piece of news that Tian Youfu brought back.
This year, the commune had allocated a spot for the Seventh Production Team—Tian Youfu was to recommend someone to attend the Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers University.
When Tian Youfu returned, he had gone straight to Wang Ying. Among the production team, very few had graduated from high school, and in terms of ability and performance, Wang Ying was exceptional. As for the all-important class background, Wang Ying’s was solid.
Basically, if Wang Ying agreed, Tian Youfu could send in her name immediately.
But Wang Ying had refused without hesitation.
