After counting carefully, there really were quite a lot of girls from the Hongqi Workers’ Family Compound who had been admitted.
“Just the four of us, plus A Man and Hu Niu… That’s already more than there were in previous years, right?” Wanwan looked at the little gifts piled on the table, counting on her fingers.
Lin Qiaozhi felt it was more than that. “These past few days, when we’ve been checking the admission notices, we’ve heard good news from other families too.”
Ning Zhenzhu sprang to her feet excitedly. “I’ll go ask around!”
She dashed out in a flash.
The Ning family lived on the first floor. Without the space-consuming shared corridor, it was much more spacious. Outside the door was level ground, where quite a few elderly people sat in the shade fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans and chatting.
Ning Zhenzhu got along well with everyone. The neighbors all liked her, and she was especially beloved by the elderly.
She made a quick round asking around and soon came running back.
She was so excited that her braided pigtails bounced as she counted off, “Grandma Wu said there’s also the Li family’s second daughter from Workshop Three, Juanhua from the Wang family in the cafeteria logistics department, someone from the Shi family in Maintenance Team One…”
They counted them one by one, then did the math.
So far, among the Hongqi Agricultural Machinery Factory’s students admitted to vocational secondary schools and senior high schools, girls outnumbered boys by ten percent, reaching a ratio of six to four!
Lin Qiaozhi swept her arm grandly. “Come on, let’s spread the word!”
“Let’s go!”
They hit it off immediately.
Once they decided, they acted.
Lin Qiaozhi and the others immediately shut the door and rushed out full of energy, telling everyone they met, spreading the news wherever they went.
Not even the summer heat could dampen their enthusiasm.
The young girls were vibrant and full of life, as radiant as the sunflowers blooming across Jiangcheng in summer.
Meanwhile, the residents of the Hongqi family compound who got caught by them: “…”
Of course they were happy to hear the good admission news and wanted to smile, but with the girls practically getting in their faces, subtly implying, See? You’re the ones with the prejudice, those smiles inevitably became a little awkward.
Lin Qiaozhi and the others weren’t awkward at all. They were thrilled!
Many of the people who had argued with them the fiercest were at work and weren’t in the residential compound.
After walking all around the family compound, Lin Qiaozhi still wasn’t satisfied and boldly suggested, “How about we go to the factory broadcasting station? Let’s broadcast this good news to the whole factory!”
A Shui gave her a thumbs-up. “Great idea.” She chuckled. “Far more kids from the family compound got into vocational secondary schools and senior high schools this year than in previous years. News this good should absolutely be announced to the whole factory!”
When they arrived at the factory broadcasting station, the staff became visibly wary the moment they saw them.
The station director even deliberately assigned someone to stand in front of the entrance to keep anyone from simply ducking inside.
Little Qiaozhi, who had once relied on her small size to slip into the broadcasting station under someone’s elbow, had clearly left a lasting impression.
Lin Qiaozhi rubbed her nose. Fair enough!
She wasn’t discouraged. Instead, she insisted, “Then we’d like to suggest that the broadcasting station air this inspiring piece of good news at noon to boost the factory workers’ enthusiasm for the afternoon shift!”
“Is that really all?” the broadcasting station director asked suspiciously.
“Of course!”
The girls didn’t even need to exchange glances. They instantly fell into perfect coordination.
Every one of them wore an expression that said it was only natural.
“The admissions aren’t even over yet, and we’ve already surpassed the number admitted in the previous two years by a huge margin. Doesn’t that count as inspiring news?” Ning Zhenzhu asked with genuine surprise.
A Shui smiled. “We just spent the whole way here sharing the good news with everyone. Everybody was happy to hear it.” She didn’t even blink.
The broadcasting station thought it over.
It made sense.
There really wasn’t anything wrong with it.
At noon, workers in the workshops, cafeteria, offices, and family apartment buildings all heard the factory broadcasting station announce:
“Good afternoon, comrades. We have a piece of good news to share. In the recent high school entrance examination, the children of our factory have carried forward the spirit of hard work…”
The broadcast first praised the factory, then praised its children, before reading out each student’s name and school one by one. Every time a name was announced, that child’s parents would be met with playful cheering from the surrounding workers and surrounded by envious looks. It truly felt like paradise!
The morale boost was immediate.
The broadcasting station thought there wasn’t the slightest problem with it. What a fantastic script!
What they hadn’t expected was that the news from the family compound would spread through the factory discussions as though it had grown wings.
You wouldn’t know without listening, but once people heard the broadcast and matched the names, the girls really did make up sixty percent of those admitted!
How could there be as many as sixty percent?
Listening to the heated discussions and arguments erupting across the factory, the broadcasting station director thought, Next time… next time we’d better stay as far away from Lin Qiaozhi and her friends as possible!
“Hahaha…”
Lin Qiaozhi and the others laughed so hard they nearly fell under the table.
It was as though something weighing on their hearts had scattered into the air along with their laughter.
After the laughter died down, Lin Qiaozhi rested her chin on one hand, absentmindedly kneading the slip of paper A Man had hidden.
She couldn’t help thinking of the two essays Wanwan had written before: Growing Up Under the Party’s Education and How Labor Tempered Me.
She said, “Wanwan, you’re good at writing. Two of your exam essays were chosen by your teacher before, recommended to the People’s Yangtze River Daily, and one of them was even published! Why don’t you try writing an essay about this topic?”
When they were little, she hadn’t understood why so many girls supposedly “lacked staying power.”
It wasn’t until she entered middle school that she gradually understood why.
Middle school was much harder, and the homework was nothing like the tiny amount they had in elementary school.
Take A Man, for example.
“A Man, help your mother wring out these clothes.”
“A Man, Mother has to hurry to the grain and oil store before the newly arrived white flour sells out. Feed your little brother some milk. Use the infant formula.”
“A Man, get the needle and thread and mend these three pieces of clothing. They’re torn at the crotch and under the arms. The fabric scraps are in the basket, so use them sparingly.”
As soon as she got home, her younger siblings clung to her, and every time she tried to do her homework, someone interrupted her with another chore.
Then, once her grades dropped, everyone sighed, “Girls just don’t have staying power.”
The more A Shui talked, the angrier she became. She slapped the table twice with a loud bang. “Write it! Wanwan, write all of it down. You’re a great writer. Maybe it’ll even get published in the Jiangcheng Evening News.”
Wanwan was the only one among them with a somewhat reserved personality.
The praise made the corners of her mouth lift as she rested her chin in her hand, yet she still protested stubbornly, “You’re exaggerating. The Jiangcheng Evening News? That’s the biggest newspaper in Jiangcheng.”
She said that, but she quickly picked up her pen.
She wrote with great care. She also wanted more people to see it.
A Shui pulled out the old books the four of them had collected from the bookstand and grinned. “We can’t slack off now. Like Qiaozhi said, let’s study ahead. Once we get into vocational secondary school and senior high school, we’ll still be among the top students!”
Then they’d be assigned to good work units!
The reason they gathered at Ning Zhenzhu’s house every day wasn’t just to chat. If they wanted to chat, couldn’t they just go down by the river and enjoy the cool breeze while talking?
If they got the chance, maybe they could even find an opportunity to graduate early, just like Qiaozhi.
A Shui opened her book, still basking in the thought. “Once we’re all earning salaries, let’s go eat at a state-owned restaurant together and finally find out what Dongpo Pork Knuckle that costs ¥1.18 a serving actually tastes like!”
What a wonderful thought.
“That’s way too expensive. The braised pork for fifty-three cents is a much better deal,” Wanwan said, flipping through her book while practically drooling.
Lin Qiaozhi declared boldly, “We’ll buy them all!” Once they were earning money and had grain coupons and meat coupons in hand, they’d buy everything and eat it.
In her previous life, they had made the very same wish that summer and dreamed of the future together.
But in the end, none of it came true.
A little over a year after they enrolled, Jiangcheng was swept up in school suspensions. Many schools stopped teaching properly. Everyone studied farming, memorized quotations, and wrote ideological reports. Normal education was thrown completely into chaos.
By the time the movement to send educated youth to the countryside began, strictly speaking, none of them had truly graduated in the normal sense. They had missed more than a year of classes.
The political atmosphere also grew increasingly tense, and work units didn’t dare recruit graduates from their cohort.
The policy required educated youth to go to the countryside for labor. What work unit would dare openly hire people? The number of available positions shrank dramatically.
Even the job assignments for vocational secondary school graduates were stalled with excuses such as “this group’s professional skills do not meet the required standard.” Everyone passed the responsibility around. No one dared stick their neck out.
The job opportunity A Shui managed to exchange for was only as an ordinary production-line worker in a textile factory.
The only thing she could do was wait for seniority to slowly raise her wages.
Yet throughout those long winters year after year, Lin Qiaozhi still received a package from A Shui every year. In her letters, A Shui always wrote, “We promised. Once we’re earning money from work, we’ll go eat something delicious together.”
Lin Qiaozhi blinked, her gaze resolute.
This time, it wouldn’t happen.
As long as she successfully graduated early and entered the factory ahead of schedule, she was confident she could make everything fall into place.
In the sweltering summer, the girls gathered together to study, the rustling of turning pages accompanied by the constant chorus of cicadas.
…
The days grew hotter and hotter.
The atmosphere in the Lin household also became more strained with each passing day.
Just a few days earlier, it had still been filled with laughter.
After Zhou Shu and the others received their admission letters, their parents all brought them over to visit and personally express their thanks.
Lin Wuqiang had never enjoyed so much prestige. He was even learning how to drive, and it felt as though he had never been this pleased with himself in his entire life.
Jiang Hongmei was cheerful every day as well. She had even become a little more generous when buying groceries.
But Lin Jiadong’s admission notice never came.
“How could there not be one?”
The bed was covered with newspapers. Lin Wuqiang and Jiang Hongmei sat at the edge of the bed, flipping through them over and over, their expressions growing increasingly anxious.
They searched through every newspaper.
There was nothing!
Even Lin Qiaozhi found it unexpected.
Judging from the scores in her dream and what she remembered, even without the few exam questions they had reviewed together that happened to appear on the test, Lin Jiadong still shouldn’t have failed to get in.
But she couldn’t be bothered to figure out why, nor did she want anything to do with his affairs.
Rather than waste time thinking about it, she would rather study a few more pages of her textbook.
That morning, Jiang Hongmei, frazzled and at a complete loss, stopped her.
Having no idea what to do, Jiang Hongmei gripped her daughter’s wrist tightly. “Qiaozhi, you’re the smart one. Help your mother think of something.”
Lin Qiaozhi looked at her. Those eyes were filled with both anxiety and hope.
What she heard wasn’t Help your mother think of something.
What she heard was Help your little brother. Give him a hand.
She silently studied Jiang Hongmei’s expression. “Mother, I do have an idea.”
“Good! Good! Tell me!” Jiang Hongmei urged anxiously.
“Focus on yourself instead. I noticed you’ve been putting less effort into your literacy classes lately.” She reminded her that missing this opportunity was something she would truly regret for the rest of her life. “As for Lin Jiadong, his only options are to look for work with a junior high school education or repeat a year and take the entrance exam again.”
What was there to be so troubled about?
Did their family have connections that could arrange a job for Lin Jiadong?
Jiang Hongmei froze.
“Mother, don’t listen to her!” Lin Jiadong, who had been eavesdropping nearby, rushed over and pulled Jiang Hongmei to his side. He glared fiercely at Lin Qiaozhi and said angrily, “You just can’t stand seeing me do well. What kind of decent workplace or good job can someone with only a junior high school education find? Fine if you won’t help me, but you’re even stopping Mother from making plans for me. I’ve never seen an older sister like you!”
Still dazed, Jiang Hongmei nodded along and took Lin Qiaozhi’s hand. “Qiaozhi, Jiadong only failed because of you. Besides, you’re making all that clanging noise every day anyway. Why don’t you teach your little brother some fitter’s work while you’re at it? Next year…”
“Hold on.” Lin Qiaozhi caught the key point. “What do you mean he failed because of me? I didn’t even lay a finger on him.”
She turned to stare at Lin Jiadong. “You said that? That’s what you told Mother and Father?”
Lin Jiadong didn’t dare meet her eyes.
Nor did he answer.
But Lin Qiaozhi didn’t miss the resentment he failed to hide in them.
She suddenly remembered how tense things had been at home during the final stretch before the high school entrance exam.
No wonder his grades had slipped. So he hadn’t been studying properly at all. Instead, he’d been fixated on getting her into the factory technical school. He had probably also been watching all those people who came to her for last-minute tutoring, resenting the fact that she taught outsiders instead of him.
“Good thing I never taught you.”
Even without teaching him, he still managed to blame her. Lin Qiaozhi felt only more relieved, her eyes full of mockery. “If I had taught you and you still failed, then you’d probably say I ruined your entrance exam results too. That black pot would’ve landed squarely on my head.”
He only failed because of her.
How ridiculous.
Carrying her file and ruler, she headed outside.
She went to the shady spot she usually used.
Several discarded scrap pieces from the workshop were piled in the corner.
She picked up the file and began filing away with complete concentration, stroke after stroke.
If anyone had been watching, they would have been astonished by how quickly she had improved. That was the result of spending the entire previous night practicing in her dream, the skills steadily becoming part of her through repeated practice.
Sweat soaked through her clothes.
The constant clanging of metal filled the summer air.
Finally, as summer vacation drew to a close, Lin Qiaozhi decided to try dismantling a lathe.
In her dream.
She crouched beside a lathe.
It was rather funny. The mannequin instructor had just finished repairing a minor problem with the machine and was in the middle of reassembling it.
She squeezed him aside.
Picked up the mannequin instructor’s tools and immediately started taking it apart.
After she dismantled it, the mannequin instructor put it back together.
But even after reading various materials and learning different techniques, dismantling a lathe was far from as simple as she had imagined.
Lin Qiaozhi studied during the day and practiced at night.
Every single day, her mind revolved around improving her skills and figuring out how to dismantle that lathe.
She was becoming a little obsessed.
Later, when she met up with the others again, Ning Zhenzhu asked, “Qiaozhi, are you going to cross the river this year?”
“That drive shaft must’ve been fastened too tightly for safety reasons.”
Ning Zhenzhu: ?
Ning Zhenzhu and the others exchanged bewildered looks.
What was she talking about?
Wanwan waved a hand in front of Lin Qiaozhi’s eyes. “Qiaozhi?”
She hadn’t studied herself silly, had she?
Even Lin Qiaozhi felt that something wasn’t quite right with her state of mind. She had been wound up too tightly. Something weighed heavily on her, pressing down until she could hardly breathe. Meeting the hopeful gazes of Zhenzhu and the others, she agreed to join them for the river crossing.
On the day of Jiangcheng’s river-crossing event, she changed into a set of old clothes, twisted straw into rope, and tied her sleeves and pant legs tightly.
The moment she reached the river embankment, she saw the riverbank packed with people as far as the eye could see.
Ahead stretched the vast river, its surface glittering with sunlight.
The organizing committee had hung a huge red banner high above that read: [A Ten-Thousand-Li Crossing of the Yangtze].
This was Jiangcheng’s magnificent annual Yangtze River crossing event.
It wasn’t just individuals taking part.
Many work units had also formed teams, all hoping to seize first place in one stroke and bring honor to their organizations.
Groups already battled the waves along the river. Large crimson flags snapped loudly in the river breeze, with eye-catching banners reading “Hongqi Team,” “PLA Escort Team,” “First Blossom,” and more.
Standing atop a makeshift platform built from three wooden tables stacked together, a member of the organizing committee held a loudspeaker and spoke passionately.
“Comrades! Today we once again welcome our annual ‘A Ten-Thousand-Li Crossing of the Yangtze’ event! Here in Jiangcheng, the Yangtze is broad and magnificent. Chairman Mao himself crossed the Yangtze here in Jiangcheng many times…”
At those words, enthusiastic cheers and thunderous applause erupted from the crowd, while the older generation straightened proudly, overcome with emotion.
“…Before the event begins, let us all recite Chairman Mao’s poem written here in Jiangcheng, ‘Shui Diao Ge Tou: Swimming’!” the organizer shouted passionately, practically roaring as he began in a ringing voice. “Just drank the waters of Changsha, now I feast on Wuchang fish!”
Then he thrust both arms high into the air.
How could the passionate people of Jiangcheng suppress the excitement in their hearts? Amid the howling river wind, tens of thousands of voices rang out in unison.
“Just drank the waters of Changsha, now I feast on Wuchang fish. Across the ten-thousand-li Yangtze I swim, my gaze embracing the vast skies of Chu. Let the wind blow and the waves beat against me, it is better than strolling through a peaceful courtyard…”
Born beside the Yangtze, living by East Lake, and making their living around more than a hundred lakes, there wasn’t a single landlubber among the people of Jiangcheng.
Holding back the excitement surging within her, Lin Qiaozhi warmed up, then, amid the stirring chants of encouragement from the various teams, dove headfirst into the river.
Her body swayed, gliding forward like a fish.
The cool river water washed over her, leaving the summer heat and restlessness far behind.
Sprays of white water leapt high into the air.
Her strength and courage were constantly being spent, yet constantly replenished by the stirring battle cries and the mighty, surging river.
“Splash!”
Lin Qiaozhi burst up from the river’s surface, braced herself against a rock along the bank, and gulped down mouthful after mouthful of fresh air, feeling the boundless vitality bestowed by the great river.
She wiped the water from her face.
It felt absolutely exhilarating!
Crossing the Yangtze, letting the vastness of the mighty river wash over her body and nourish her soul.
It was as though Lin Qiaozhi’s mind had suddenly broken through.
With the bold spirit of a daughter of the Yangtze, she thought, even if she broke it, the worst that could happen was starting over from the beginning!
Before school started, she finally succeeded in independently dismantling an entire lathe!
September arrived, yet Jiangcheng still hadn’t shaken off the lingering summer heat.
Filled with hope for the future, Lin Qiaozhi walked into the classroom of the factory technical school.