Meanwhile, the lesson continued.
The rhythmic clang of metal never really stopped, carrying far into the distance.
After being turned down, Zhou Shu was visibly a little dejected, but he still practiced diligently.
Lin Qiaozhi had more or less figured out the best way to teach him.
She found a spot against the wall, pulled out a book, and reviewed the material she needed to memorize. Every now and then, she would look up at Zhou Shu and point out what he was doing wrong.
She was in the middle of reading when an enthusiastic voice suddenly called out beside her.
“Sister!”
“Tired, aren’t you? Mother made mung bean soup and chilled it in cold water. She specifically told me to bring some over for you two.” Lin Jiadong carried a tin kettle in his right hand, while two enamel mugs dangled from the fingers of his left.
He motioned for Zhou Shu to take one of the mugs, freeing a hand so he could quickly pour Lin Qiaozhi a cup. With a flattering smile, he said, “Sister, give it a try. See if it’s sweet enough.”
Lin Qiaozhi felt something was off.
It wasn’t as though she and her younger brother had never gotten along this well before.
But this kind of eager flattery… she couldn’t even remember how many years it had been since the last time. Back then, it had all been for toys, or so he could show them off outside.
So what was it this time?
She took a sip of the mung bean soup.
Then she saw her brother pour a cup for Zhou Shu as well before striking up a conversation with him as if they’d been close friends for years, asking about how his practice was going.
Faced with such sudden enthusiasm, Zhou Shu was clearly a little at a loss.
“It’s… it’s going pretty well.”
“Making progress fast, right? My sister’s teaching is pretty good, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Lin Qiaozhi watched as Zhou Shu turned to pick up his hammer, when in reality he was quietly slipping free of the arm Lin Jiadong had draped over his shoulder.
Lin Jiadong, however, still managed to ask whether he thought Lin Qiaozhi or his previous instructor taught better.
That question hit Zhou Shu right where it hurt.
His master had called him stupid and impossible to teach. His parents had said the same. All those grievances had stayed bottled up inside him.
He was still grateful that Lin Qiaozhi had stood up for him. Sneaking a glance at her expression, he said, “Of course Sister Qiaozhi teaches better. I picked it up right away!”
A vague sense of foreboding stirred in Lin Qiaozhi’s heart.
She spoke up.
“Finish your drink, then get back to practicing. No slacking off.”
“Right away.” Zhou Shu immediately tilted his head back and drained the cup in one gulp before turning to resume practicing.
Lin Jiadong sidled over with an eager grin and reached for the enamel mug she had set beside her. “Sister, want another cup? I’ll pour you some more. It’s getting hotter these days. Don’t get heatstroke.”
People didn’t suddenly become this attentive without a reason. Lin Qiaozhi pressed a hand over the mug and looked him straight in the eye.
“If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”
“I just want you to teach me too.” Lin Jiadong rubbed his hands together.
He said, “Sister, you improved so fast. There has to be some kind of trick, right? Teach me. I’ll definitely remember your kindness. I’ll take care of all the sweeping and dishwashing at home. I guarantee you won’t have to lift a finger.”
Lin Qiaozhi didn’t believe him.
When they were kids, Lin Jiadong had made the same promises before, just to trick her into giving him her toys. But in less than two days, he’d shirk all the chores and leave them for their mother to do.
Jiang Hongmei would take over the chores he refused to do. She never scolded him. Instead, she’d call Lin Qiaozhi lazy.
A few days later, she’d start lamenting how miserable her life was, saying only her own daughter had a heart of stone, nothing like other people’s daughters who knew how to care for their mothers.
Little Qiaozhi had been unhappy after hearing that. She’d gone to find her brother and dragged him over to help with the chores, but he’d pretended not to hear her, shaken off her hand, and run outside to play, shouting, “Mother wanted to do it for me!”
“I’m not teaching you.”
There was a trace of sadness in Lin Qiaozhi’s eyes as she said coldly, “You won’t learn it anyway.”
“You haven’t even taught me yet. How do you know I can’t learn?” Lin Jiadong shot back instinctively before forcing a smile. “Sister, you figured it out on your own so quickly. If you just tell me the trick directly, I’ll definitely learn even faster.”
“So you’re not taking the high school entrance exam anymore?” Lin Qiaozhi asked. In her dream, they had gone to high school together.
It was just that she had done well, while Lin Jiadong’s grades had been much worse.
“If I can get into our factory, why bother with high school? After graduating from high school they don’t assign you a job anymore. You’d still have to get into college. I’d rather attend a vocational technical school. Once you graduate, you’re assigned a job. None of the vocational schools I could get into are as good as our factory,” Lin Jiadong said.
That was right. Lin Jiadong originally hadn’t been able to get into high school at all. It was only because he’d studied alongside her the whole time and happened to hit several of the exam questions they’d reviewed that he barely squeezed in.
Lin Qiaozhi lowered her eyelids.
“When I say you can’t learn it, you can’t learn it.”
With so little time, what was there to learn?
“You… you…” Lin Jiadong took a deep breath. He couldn’t afford to start arguing, so he swallowed his anger, changed tack, pointed at Zhou Shu, and said, “You’ll teach an outsider, but you won’t teach your own brother?”
“You’re comparing yourself to him?”
Lin Qiaozhi almost laughed.
“He already has a foundation. Do you? He’s practiced hammering steadily for a long time. Have you? His palms are covered in calluses, so no matter how hard he practices these next few days, his hands won’t blister or split open. Can you say the same?”
As complicated as her feelings toward her parents might be, she certainly didn’t owe Lin Jiadong a thing.
They had never been particularly close siblings to begin with, so why keep pretending otherwise with forced smiles?
Lin Jiadong’s face darkened. Furious, he threw the tin kettle onto the ground and stormed off.
Zhou Shu, who had secretly been listening with his ears perked up as Lin Qiaozhi “praised” him, was speechless.
He stole a glance at Lin Qiaozhi’s expression, and his heart trembled.
She was so fierce.
Lin Jiadong had made her angry, then just ran away?
“What are you staring at?” Lin Qiaozhi shot him a glance. “Practice.”
Zhou Shu immediately looked away and buried his head in his training.
Around lunchtime.
After giving Zhou Shu a few more pointers, Lin Qiaozhi packed up her schoolbag and headed home, regardless of whether he planned to continue practicing that evening.
Her expression wasn’t very good.
Lin Jiadong only ever had those same two tricks.
When she got home, dinner was already on the table.
She said nothing, washed her hands, set out the bowls and chopsticks, and sat down to eat.
If she didn’t speak, someone else certainly would.
Sure enough, Father Lin served her some food before asking, “Qiaozhi, how did the teaching go today?”
“It went all right.”
Father Lin chuckled.
“This child is always so modest. Your brother told me you taught him really well. Zhou Shu’s previous instructor couldn’t teach him at all, but once he got into your hands, he learned it just like that.”
She shot Lin Jiadong a glance.
Avoiding her eyes, Lin Jiadong kept his head down and continued eating.
Coward.
When they were kids, he still dared to fight with her. The older he got, the more spineless he became. Now he only knew how to hide behind their parents.
“He won’t learn it. There’s not enough time,” Lin Qiaozhi said bluntly.
Lin Wuqiang said, “We’ll just hurry things along. If you can teach that blockhead Zhou Shu, isn’t your brother smarter than him? We aren’t asking for much. As long as he scores a passing grade and gets into the factory school.”
Jiang Hongmei chimed in, “You girl, didn’t you already figure it out? Once you’ve learned it, just teach your brother the trick directly. It’s not like it’ll cost you a piece of flesh. Why are you so selfish?”
“I already told you he can’t learn it. This isn’t about some trick. It’s not like solving math problems. This takes a huge amount of practice.” Lin Qiaozhi let out a derisive laugh. “Besides, I worked so hard to figure it out. Why should I teach him? Does refusing make me selfish?”
A surge of irritation welled up inside her.
Seeing that just a few sentences had already sparked her anger, Lin Jiadong hurriedly pressed down on Jiang Hongmei’s hand beneath the table while frantically signaling Lin Wuqiang with his eyes.
Lowering his voice, Lin Wuqiang tried to smooth things over.
“Family members should help each other. If you teach your brother and he gets into the factory, you’ll have someone looking out for you there in the future. Otherwise, as a young woman, you’ll end up being bullied.”
“I already told you he can’t learn it! Can you listen to what I’m saying for once?”
Lin Qiaozhi slammed her chopsticks onto the table with a sharp crack.
It was always like this!
Always!
No one paid attention to what she said. No one listened to her reasoning.
Then when she finally lost her temper, they turned around and criticized her for being ill-tempered.
“We didn’t even say anything. Why are you, a young lady, so fierce? I wonder who you take after. And now you’re throwing a tantrum.” Jiang Hongmei moved the dishes aside, worried they might get broken from the table being slammed.
With a cold expression, Lin Qiaozhi looked at Father Lin.
“I can’t teach him, and I won’t teach him. Father, if you really believe there’s some trick to this, if you really believe Lin Jiadong is so smart that he can learn it in just a few days, then trade away the promise Uncle Zhou gave you to teach someone to drive. I refuse to believe there isn’t a single fitter in all of Jiangcheng who wouldn’t want their own child to learn driving.”
“I’ll guarantee it right here. Zhou Shu will definitely pass the make-up exam. It just depends on whether you’re willing to do it.”
Turning to Jiang Hongmei and cutting off the words she was about to say, Lin Qiaozhi spoke first.
“Oh, and Mother. You’re not selfish. You’re so noble. You can go ahead and tell people about that literacy class job opportunity. I’m sure you’ll find a fitter willing to teach Lin Jiadong.”
After saying that, she viciously kicked the solid wood dining table.
The entire tabletop, along with the bowls and plates, shook violently, producing a deafening bang, followed by the clatter of dishes knocking against one another.
“So because I haven’t lost my temper in a while, you’ve all forgotten what I’m like, is that it?”
She pointed at Lin Jiadong.
“If I hear this brought up one more time, I’ll beat him up one more time.”
She slung her shoulder bag over her shoulder and strode toward the door.
As she stepped outside, she turned back and said, “And another thing. I don’t know how you’re planning to squeeze Lin Jiadong, who never even registered, into the make-up exam. But don’t use me to curry favors. I won’t agree to any of it.”
On the second-floor corridor.
Quite a few heads poked out, and curious neighbors edged closer to listen.
That loud bang had been startling.
The whole building had heard it.
Without changing her expression, Lin Qiaozhi walked past the neighbors wearing awkward, forced smiles and headed downstairs.
Only after she had left did hushed whispers gradually begin to spread.
“As expected. It’s that wild girl again. Whenever there’s a huge commotion in this building, nine times out of ten, it’s her.”
“What was that noise just now? Did someone flip a table?”
“Who knows? Maybe they smashed a thermos.”
“She’s still got such a terrible temper. Who’d dare marry her in the future?”
“That’s different now. She’s got a job waiting for her. She might even become a senior engineer one day.”
Amid the hushed whispers, some people even craned their necks to peek inside, asking with concern (and curiosity) what had happened.
Lin Qiaozhi walked out.
She sat beneath a plane tree in the western corner of the residential compound, leaning against its thick trunk.
She rubbed her eyes miserably, then tilted her head back and blinked hard, forcing the glimmering moisture to dry in her eyes.
She looked at the sky, at the plane tree’s leaves swaying in the summer breeze, and at the red-brick apartment building in the center of the compound where Engineer Lu lived.
Not long after, the apartment building where the Lin family lived was abuzz with discussion over the commotion.
In another apartment building farther away in the residential compound, Lin Qiaozhi’s name also came up.
Zhou Shu pressed his lips together. Though he said nothing, his face clearly proclaimed, I’m not stupid. He stood as straight as a young sapling.
Lying before him were three steel rods he had hammered in half.
Mother Zhou beamed and slapped Father Zhou on the arm. “See? I told you our Xiao Shu wasn’t slacking off. He just needed someone smart to point him in the right direction. This money was well spent.”
Father Zhou, who had just said twice in a row, “Break me another one so I can see,” was smiling too.
It really had been money well spent.
Sure, he was only barely passing and there was still some risk, but this was only the beginning!
Eldest Brother Zhou crunched on a cucumber. “Lin Qiaozhi’s pretty good at teaching. Better than your previous master.”
Zhou Shu nodded vigorously. “Of course! She’s a hundred times better than Master Hao!”
The two brothers, one big and one small, immediately received a hard knock on the head.
Mother Zhou’s expression turned stern. “Watch your mouths. You’ll offend people talking like that.” She took the opportunity to teach her children how to conduct themselves. “No matter how skilled a master is, when you’re outside, always speak well of them. If they’re good, praise them more. If they’re not, praise them less. At least say something nice.”
Zhou Shu rubbed his head.
Seeing the conversation drift away, he tried to steer it back.
He really wasn’t stupid!
After a long pause, he finally managed to blurt out, “Sister Qiaozhi even praised me today.”
Father Zhou and Mother Zhou’s eyes lit up.
Could Xiao Shu really have a hidden talent for fitting?
Father Zhou asked curiously, “What did she say?”
Delighted, Zhou Shu added a tiny embellishment as he told his parents, “Sister Qiaozhi said I already had a foundation, that my hammering fundamentals were solid, and that I worked hard. She said I’d definitely make it.”
Mother Zhou was delighted to hear that.
She silently remembered Lin Qiaozhi’s kindness.
…
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Jiang Hongmei dismissed the neighbors who had gathered to watch the excitement with just a few words before closing the door.
Turning back, she saw the plate with a crack chipped into it and the bowl missing a small corner, and it pained her to no end.
“That damned girl has a heart of stone. How did I end up giving birth to such a cold-hearted child? Ever since she was born, all she’s done is make me angry. I only said a couple of words, asked her to teach her brother a little, and she kicked over the table, smashed dishes, and even wanted to hit people.”
Lin Wuqiang sighed. “Mother and Father will think of another way for you.”
Lin Jiadong sat in silence for a while without saying a word. Then he got up, went into the inner room, and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Lin Wuqiang’s back seemed to have grown a little more stooped.
A few lines formed between his brows as he said to Jiang Hongmei, “I told you to treat Qiaozhi better. Wasn’t it just a bite or two of meat, washing a few dishes, cooking a meal? Such small things. Look what it’s come to.”
After saying that, he got up and went to sit by the doorway.
Jiang Hongmei’s lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but she still didn’t dare speak.
Holding back her emotions, she looked at the unwashed dishes and leftover food on the table, then at the father and son inside the house and by the doorway, neither of whom offered to lend a hand. Thinking about how the family only had so few dishes to begin with, and now some were cracked and chipped, while all the neighbors were laughing at her behind her back, her eyes reddened with grief.
Why was her life so miserable?
Back when she’d given birth to twins, a son and a daughter, she had been the envy of the entire residential compound. She’d held her head high. Who hadn’t envied her for having a son to support her, along with a daughter who could help out around the house and, when she grew old, stay by her side to care for her?
But what happened?
Now all the neighbors were laughing at her.
Jiang Hongmei was genuinely heartbroken.
Hadn’t she treated Qiaozhi well enough?
Back in her rural hometown, which family’s daughters hadn’t looked after their younger siblings since childhood, washed dishes, cooked meals, cut grass, and fed pigs? Which family’s daughters hadn’t just learned a few characters, attended a literacy class, and gone home to work as soon as they could avoid being illiterate? Weren’t all her own younger brothers and sisters raised by her?
Even here in the residential compound, so many girls came home after school to help their mothers tend the stove, wash clothes, wash dishes, sweep the floor, and wipe the tables. They were all so capable and sensible.
Just look around. How many girls had it as easy as she did? She got to study, shared the housework with her younger brother after coming home, got half the eggs whenever they ate eggs, a share whenever they ate meat, and even had new clothes made just like the boys.
She had hoped this girl would study hard and find a good job later on.
She had treated her daughter so well.
Yet she’d ended up raising an ungrateful, cold-hearted ingrate who didn’t know how to care about or be considerate toward her mother and couldn’t be relied upon in the slightest.
She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand as she cleared the dishes and wiped the table. Then she remembered she still had to carry the dishes downstairs to wash them at the communal sink, and her eyes reddened again with sadness.
…
For the time being, Lin Qiaozhi decided to stay at Ning Zhenzhu’s house.
She still had an old change of clothes there, along with her own toiletries.
When she was little, during the worst of the fights at home, Director Meng would sometimes take her in for a few days. Later, little Zhenzhu had tugged at her sleeve with sparkling eyes and asked, “Do you want to stay in my castle?”
The “castle” she spoke of was a bed completely enclosed by a finely woven mosquito net.
Believe it or not, Ning Zhenzhu was the only girl in the entire Hongqi Factory residential compound with a room of her own.
Back then, families were large, but housing was scarce. Ning Zhenzhu had been born late in her parents’ lives. By the time she was old enough to need her own room, all of her older brothers and sisters had already married and moved out. On top of that, her mother doted on her.
Ning Zhenzhu adored her mother just as much.
“Mother, why are you still awake?” Ning Zhenzhu asked, affectionately rubbing her forehead against her mother’s shoulder, trying to act cute to hide the guilt of being caught.
She called her “Mother.”
But anyone who didn’t know better would probably be surprised. The elderly woman was deeply lined with wrinkles and looked old enough to be her grandmother.
Ning Zhenzhu didn’t care. No matter where they were or who was around, she always called her “Mother” with the same affectionate warmth.
“You never bother putting your shoes on properly.” Mother Ning scolded fondly. Only after watching her daughter put on her slippers did she tap her on the nose. “You’re that happy Qiaozhi’s here? Her family’s making quite a scene.”
Rubbing her nose, Ning Zhenzhu protested coquettishly, “Mother~ How is that making a scene? She’s fighting for us girls’ half of the sky. Girls in our factory’s residential compound already have it much better than those in other factories. She’s so brave!!”
“Mother, don’t you like Qiaozhi too?”
“Alright, alright, I misspoke.” Mother Ning chuckled, but she couldn’t help recalling the little Qiaozhi who had rushed into someone else’s house, pulled her beaten best friend out, and spread her arms wide to shield her.
Her own little girl had hugged her knees, eyes sparkling with admiration. “Mother, I want to be her best friend too.”
As the saying goes, by the age of three, a child’s future can already be seen.
She was getting old. She didn’t know how much longer she could protect her precious Zhenzhu. With a friend like that, someone would protect her daughter in the future. She could close her eyes without worry.
“Of course Mother likes Qiaozhi too.” She wasn’t about to spoil it. She’d let this silly girl enjoy herself.
“Mother, you’re the best!”
Ning Zhenzhu poured some water, then happily tiptoed back to her room.
She discovered that Qiaozhi was sleeping so deeply!
She must have been completely exhausted.
In her dream, Lin Qiaozhi was sitting in on the lessons of an Eighth-Grade Fitter! It was such a rare opportunity. Even if she couldn’t understand much of it, she still wanted to listen. Once the girl in her dream left with the army, she’d never have another chance to come to this machinery factory.
By the following day, word of the commotion had spread through the residential compound.
The residential compound seemed large, yet at the same time very small. News traveled through it in no time.
Mother Zhou heard about it as well.
Along with Zhou Shu’s heavily embellished, completely biased version of the story: Sister Qiaozhi’s younger brother had been completely unreasonable.
Remembering Lin Qiaozhi’s kindness, she quietly sounded her out, then sought out the mothers of several other factory children who had also failed the assessment and let slip a little about Zhou Shu’s progress.
Once she put the two sides together, it worked out.
Lin Qiaozhi didn’t mind. Herding one sheep was herding; herding a whole flock was the same.
It wasn’t appropriate to charge money directly, so they simply called it neighbors helping one another. She was teaching the children, after all. Surely it was only proper for their families to treat the teacher to some food and give a small token of thanks?
In any case, Lin Qiaozhi was very satisfied.
One after another, she received a small packet of malted milk powder, assorted pastries, a bowl of deep-fried chicken frames, a small piece of braised pork belly, and, every now and then, an aluminum lunch box filled with extra meat dishes from the factory cafeteria…
Every last bit went into her stomach.
She had never eaten so well in her life!
How could Jiang Hongmei bear to let all those good things end up in the Ning family’s stomachs?
She no longer cared about saving face and took the initiative to ask Lin Qiaozhi to come back home.
The atmosphere in the house settled into an uneasy calm.
That stiff, awkward atmosphere lasted all the way until the high school entrance examination.
Before the results were even released, on the day the school organized students to check their answers, Lin Qiaozhi picked up a packet of date paste pastries wrapped in oiled paper that she had saved and went to visit Wang Baiqiang, the teacher who had sat in the middle during the fitter assessment.
Without the slightest attempt to conceal her intentions, she asked about the specific requirements for graduating early and entering the factory.