Most children of the factory workers knew at least a little about the factory technical school’s early graduation policy.
They had been born in the factory, attended the factory daycare, eaten in the factory cafeteria, played games, watched movies, and grown up there little by little. Surrounded by it all their lives, practically everyone could recite the history of Hongqi Agricultural Machinery Factory by heart.
“But that was ages ago!”
“So why did they suddenly come out with a new policy?”
A boy clutching a basketball raked his fingers through his hair in agony. He had been on his way to the court to play, and this news hit him like a bolt from the blue.
Outside the school wall, a sparse crowd had gathered beneath the notice after hearing the news.
“What’s going on?” asked a boy who attended school outside the factory. He looked confused. “You’re not graduating early anyway. Why are you so worried? Didn’t you say you still had to retake one of your practical classes because it was too hard?”
That one question instantly set everyone around him off.
Summer in Jiangcheng was already hot and stifling enough to make people irritable.
“You don’t get it! This isn’t about graduating early or not. Our graduating class has been under Black-Faced King Yama’s iron grip for both classes and assessments. Look, isn’t his name right there at the bottom?”
“We’ve already been chewed out enough before. Now we’re even more beneath his notice!”
“Does Engineer Wang expect all of us to reach this level?”
“Aaaah…” The boy clutched his hair and threw his head back in despair. “Is he trying to kill us or what?”
The students training in welding and the other trades quietly let out sighs of relief.
The graduating class of fitter students had originally thought Wang Baiqiang simply couldn’t stand students who were “worse with every class” and “the worst class I’ve ever taught,” so he had dug up the old policy just to scare them.
But Lin Qiaozhi had never tried to keep it a secret.
Whether it was bringing jujube paste pastries to Engineer Wang’s house or having Wang Baiqiang publicly state that she had been the one who drew that mold blueprint by following an existing model.
The fitter graduating class at the start of the new semester: “…”
Was this karmic payback for fighting with the younger sister who was two years younger than her when they were little?
But Lin Qiaozhi hadn’t even come out on the losing end!!
They were filled with grief and indignation.
Why?
Had she gone crazy?!
Some people even wanted to go argue with her, but they were quickly dragged away by everyone else.
Anyone who actually went to “reason” with Lin Qiaozhi had to be crazy. Never mind whether they could beat her in a fight, that wild girl who never let herself come out worse would turn right around and go to Engineer Wang, making things even harder for them.
Even if she suffered herself, she wouldn’t let them live in peace either.
Lin Qiaozhi was absolutely capable of pulling a move that hurt the enemy a thousand while costing herself eight hundred!
There was obviously only one fitter class, not many people at all, yet somehow they managed to create an atmosphere of utter misery throughout the factory residential compound.
Something that had initially been difficult for people to accept spread dramatically through the neighborhood.
Those who heard about it couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Some, seeing the aggrieved and miserable expressions on the students’ faces, doubled over laughing until tears streamed down their cheeks.
Of course, some families secretly guessed that she simply wanted to start working earlier so she could move out. After all, having a job and earning money gave a person confidence and independence.
Lin Qiaozhi had absolutely no idea any of this was happening.
How could she have known that Wang Baiqiang’s name alone was enough to terrify the graduating class like this?
She was busy collecting old textbooks everywhere.
She didn’t have much time left. She had to hurry!
Since they were all children of factory workers, finding textbooks went fairly smoothly.
After spending several days on it, Lin Qiaozhi gave all the books a rough read-through.
Unfortunately, because the girl in her dream had quit her job as the factory radio announcer and followed her husband to his military posting, even when Lin Qiaozhi entered that dream again, she could only move around the military family compound in the mountainous area.
This time, Lin Qiaozhi was much more cautious.
An Eighth-Grade Worker was incredibly rare!
You couldn’t expect to encounter one in every dream.
With her current skill level, an ordinary machinery factory was more than enough for her to practice and build a solid foundation.
She recalled the dreams she had experienced.
Suppressing the urge to dwell on the words, “What girl doesn’t get married?” and expressionlessly skipping over all the matchmaking scenes, she chose a parts factory whose products were said to be exceptionally reliable and constantly in demand.
From her experience, if the girl in her dream said the quality was excellent, then the mannequin workers in that parts factory must have solid technical skills.
The mannequin workers in these dreams all felt astonishingly real, even more real than actual people!
She walked through the workshops one by one, comparing everything against the textbook as she checked each item in turn.
Fitters had many specialties, but according to the actual production needs of Hongqi Agricultural Machinery Factory, the technical school’s main areas of training were maintenance fitters, assembly fitters, and mold fitters.
Put in the simplest possible terms.
At their factory, that meant repairing tractors, assembling tractors, and manufacturing tractor molds.
From repair to production.
To do that, they had to practice filing, grinding, turning, fitting, milling, planing, boring, electric welding, and a whole series of other techniques.
Only by mastering all of these skills could they work with confidence and ease.
Naturally, they would also be able to meet the requirements for early graduation.
Lin Qiaozhi didn’t train specifically for the three conditions required to enter the factory. Doing that would only limit her path. She believed that only a solid foundation would allow her to pick up any job quickly and apply what she had learned across different areas.
With the framework already mapped out in her mind.
Lin Qiaozhi arranged her schedule, devoting both her days and nights to it. She set strict standards for herself: thoroughly understand the theory from the books, master every practical skill she practiced, and patiently drill the fundamentals over and over without ever growing tired of it.
Just as she had once buried herself in practicing her hammering technique, she now polished these fundamental skills again and again.
Immersed in practice, she barely noticed the passage of time.
Before she knew it, the senior high school entrance examination results and admission notices began arriving one after another.
The factory residential compound became completely abuzz, and the intense discussion pushed the news of Lin Qiaozhi wanting to graduate early and enter the factory to the sidelines.
The high school entrance examination admission results!!
The biggest event in every child’s life.
If they failed, they could only look for work with a junior high school education.
If they got into a vocational secondary school, they would be assigned a job upon graduation. That was an iron rice bowl for life!
If they got into senior high school and later entered university, they could become a cadre like Director Meng!
For many people, this was unquestionably the most important turning point of their lives.
Every morning at daybreak, the notice board outside the factory office was already packed with people, shoulder to shoulder.
“Make way! Make way! If you’ve finished reading, move out!” workers and family members stuck at the back shouted.
“Juan’er, help me look! See if Jiadong’s name is there!”
Nowadays.
After completing the admissions process, vocational secondary schools not only sent students their admission letters but also published the admission lists in municipal newspapers, announcing them publicly to all citizens and schools to prevent duplicate admissions by other schools or organizations.
The newspapers usually came out first.
The factory office bought newspapers every day and posted them on the bulletin board so everyone could keep track.
Lin Qiaozhi was there too.
She didn’t need to check for herself. The factory technical school’s admission notices had been released the earliest.
But she wanted to see the results for Zhenzhu, A Shui, and Wanwan. The four of them had been getting up early every day and coming together.
In the bustling crowd, Lin Qiaozhi was the first to spot a familiar name. Delighted, she exclaimed, “A Shui, I found yours! Railway Technical Institute!”
On the other side, Ning Zhenzhu jumped up and waved in her direction, her dimples deepening with her broad smile. “Wanwan! Yours is here too! Mechanical and Electrical Engineering School. I found it!”
Envious glances immediately came from every direction.
Even if some people privately thought those weren’t suitable choices for girls, it didn’t change the fact that both were excellent work units!
The Power Supply Bureau and the Railway Bureau. Those were prestigious employers. Once they were assigned jobs after graduation, their futures would be secure for life.
The girls squeezed their way out of the crowd.
Their hair was a mess.
Looking at each other, they couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
Ning Zhenzhu had also received her admission letter to Jiangcheng No. 1 High School the night before.
Every one of them had achieved a good result in the entrance examinations.
Beaming, Ning Zhenzhu said, “Let’s go celebrate with some popsicles!”
“Let’s go!” Lin Qiaozhi agreed.
Sun Shuirou’s face lit up with joy. “I’m getting a milk-flavored one to try.”
Zhou Niuwan urged, “Come on, hurry up! It’s so hot today. We worked up a sweat squeezing through that crowd. I’m melting.”
Arm in arm, the girls happily headed toward the factory office’s grain and oil store, where foam coolers packed with huge blocks of ice were set out every summer to sell popsicles.
“Lin Qiaozhi.”
Before they had even turned the corner and left the street, someone called out to them.
They stopped. Lin Qiaozhi turned around and saw a girl wearing a small floral blouse and old gray homespun trousers. She was smiling, though her eyes still glistened with tears.
“This is for you.” She took two quick steps forward and stuffed everything she was holding into Lin Qiaozhi’s arms. Her voice was choked with emotion, yet light as she said, “I got into West Lake Health Technical School. I’m studying medicine.”
The moment she finished speaking, she spun around and ran off, leaving behind only a faint voice carried by the wind. “Thank you.”
A Shui curled her lips. “How fake. She was the one who backed out at the last minute and got us scolded for sticking our noses into other people’s business. And now she’s acting all sincere.”
“That’s enough.” Lin Qiaozhi draped an arm around her shoulders. “A Man had her own difficulties too.”
She lowered her head to look at the little bag in her hands. The girl had carefully tied it with a ribbon bow and tucked four beautiful sunflowers into it.
She opened the bag. Inside were four exquisitely handmade floral hair ornaments in the shape of blooming sunflowers, decorated with delicate honeysuckle blossoms.
Ning Zhenzhu leaned over, picked one up, and held it against herself before sighing. “A Man’s hands are still as skillful as ever.”
Smiling, she tried to place one in Sun Shuirou’s hair, but Sun Shuirou awkwardly turned her head away. “I’m not wearing a flower she made.”
She glared at Lin Qiaozhi and the others. “After what she did back then, you’re seriously not angry anymore?”
Lin Qiaozhi placed one in Wanwan’s hair and smiled. “Weren’t we angry back then? We all called her a traitor, scolded her plenty, and never played with her again.”
She had been especially angry herself back then. “But A Man was thoughtful and sensitive, and she still had little brothers and sisters at home. If she’d washed her hands of everything, her mother really would have worked herself to death.”
It was only after more and more friends drifted apart that she understood not every girl was fortunate enough to have both the courage and the circumstances to resist.
The four of them truly were something rare.
“Look, didn’t you all promise back then to get into health school together and study medicine together? But now you’ve switched to the railway instead. You broke that promise too, so now you’re even.” Holding the sunflower in her hand, Lin Qiaozhi waved it in front of A Shui’s eyes.
How was that even?
“Whose side are you on?!” A Shui snapped in embarrassment and irritation. She snatched the flower away, stuffed it into her pocket, then pounced over with bared teeth and flailing claws.
Laughing together, they continued on to buy popsicles.
Whether it was a coincidence or something that had been planned in advance, no one knew.
After receiving those four carefully handcrafted flowers, they went on to receive several more gifts along the way.
Some people brought them over personally, then turned and ran away.
Some didn’t come themselves, instead sending a younger sister trotting over with quick little steps. The little girl would throw her arms around their legs, tilt up her head, and hold something out with both hands, saying, “Here!” while the older sister stood far away, smiling at them with pursed lips.
Some gifts were for all four of them.
Others were just for Lin Qiaozhi.
From handmade hair ties and floral ornaments, to knitted wool gloves, to homemade floral-scented lard lip balm made using an old recipe from the countryside, tinted with flower petals so it was moisturizing and added a healthy flush…
Every one of them came from friends who had once drifted away.
From those childhood friendships, when they had all noisily shouted together, “If he won’t do it, neither will I!”
After buying their popsicles, they ate as they walked to Ning Zhenzhu’s house.
Only Zhenzhu and her mother lived there, so there wasn’t much work to do. The four girls divided the chores among themselves and finished everything in no time.
They had agreed on this beforehand because every time they came over, Mother Ning would always prepare something for them to eat or drink, such as dried sweet potatoes, mung bean soup, or herbal tea.
After finishing the work, they ran downstairs and pumped cool groundwater from the old hand pump to wash their bare feet.
The oppressive summer heat melted away in an instant. They sat down comfortably, looking at the unexpected gifts they had received today, all wearing wistful expressions.
Wanwan picked up the jar of floral-scented lard lip balm and sighed. “Hu Niu got into a technical secondary school too. That’s wonderful.”
Thinking back on it, she had learned to make this old-fashioned lip balm during the time Little Hu Niu had been sent back to the countryside.
Yes, her family had sent her back there, saying they didn’t want her anymore. It was only after Director Meng intervened that she was brought home again.
Because of that incident, Director Meng established a new rule. If school-age children remained in the countryside instead of returning to attend school, their parents would no longer be eligible for honors such as Model Worker or Outstanding Worker, and it would even affect their chances for pay raises and promotions.
“Now that I think about it, there seem to be quite a few girls from our Hongqi Workers’ Family Compound who got into technical secondary schools,” A Shui muttered. She was absentmindedly fiddling with the sunflower hair ornament she had taken back out of her pocket.
As she toyed with it, a thin strip of rolled-up white paper slipped out from the flower’s stem.
Lin Qiaozhi and the others: ?
“What’s this?”
A Shui picked it up and carefully unrolled it. Written in neat, graceful handwriting were the words:
“Our girls are smart. Our girls work hard. Our girls get good grades. Our girls have staying power.”
Ning Zhenzhu nudged Lin Qiaozhi with her elbow in delight. “That’s what you said!”
Lin Qiaozhi picked up her own sunflower, aimed her eye at the stem, and peered inside.
The others did the same and found rolled-up slips of paper hidden in their flower stems, each one rolled into a slender little cylinder.
They all bore the same words.
But the handwriting had clearly improved. They had obviously not been written at the same time.
It had happened just two or three years earlier, when Lin Qiaozhi and the others had just entered middle school.
Thanks to Director Meng, most families were willing to let their children attend school. But even after making that decision, they would still unconsciously mutter things like, “Boys are smarter. Once they put in some effort, they shoot right ahead. Girls just don’t have staying power.”
Lin Qiaozhi couldn’t stand hearing things like that. She wanted to argue with the adults, only to realize there really were many examples around her. As they got older, many girls’ grades gradually began to decline.
She couldn’t understand it. Why should girls supposedly lack staying power? Yet she couldn’t reason with the adults, nor could she argue against all the examples around her.
Her eyes reddened with frustration. Wiping away her tears, she shouted like a child throwing a tantrum, “Our girls are smart! Our girls work hard! Our girls get good grades! Our girls have staying power!”
As soon as she finished shouting, she turned and ran away.
By then, she had long since grown tired of playing with toys. She had already stopped playing with those annoying boys, her girl friends had drifted away one after another, and all the arguments at home had run their course.
So she simply put her toys aside and buried herself in her studies.
And that transformed little Qiaozhi, whose grades in primary school had only been somewhat above average, into one of the top students that any school in Jiangcheng would have eagerly competed to recruit before the high school entrance examination.