Lu Yuning raised her eyebrows slightly.
Oh, right. The brigade was going to set up a sugar factory. Why hadn’t her own older sister and cousins thought about finding jobs at the brigade’s sugar factory?
Just then, Grandma Lu had finished her work and came in from the backyard carrying a basket of vegetables.
“Have Yuchun and the others gone home?”
“Mm, they’ll be back in a little while. Grandma, why don’t Fifth Cousin and the others find jobs at the brigade’s sugar factory?”
Grandma Lu turned to look at her. “What did you hear?”
Lu Yuning tilted her eyes toward the doorway.
“There. I just heard Grandma Sixteen and Grandma Thirteen talking about it.”
Grandma Lu smiled and sat under the veranda, placing the vegetables on the ground and picking through them as she spoke.
“Only people without ambition would think about coming back and relying on connections in the brigade to get into the factory and become workers. But think about it. There are so many people in the entire brigade. Who would they have enough positions for?”
Lu Yuning understood.
“But our Fifth Cousin and the others all graduated from high school!”
In this era, forget about college students. Even high school graduates were scarce talents.
Middle school graduates were already considered educated people.
Grandma Lu sighed. “Your brothers have very high ambitions. It’s just that the family didn’t have the means. Otherwise, your brothers would definitely have gotten into university.”
Lu Yuning was shocked!
What? Go to university?!
Grandma Lu perhaps felt that Lu Yuning was quite sensible in the way she spoke and acted, so she explained a little more to her.
“Actually, your Eldest Cousin, your cousin Yuxin, could have gone to university back then too. But the world was in chaos, so in the end, he chose to join the army.”
When Lu Yuxin graduated from high school, it happened to be 1948. The country had not yet been established, and everything was chaotic. Even if he passed the university entrance examination, it hadn’t even been decided yet whether he would be able to attend. Besides, the university was far away, thousands of li from home. How could Grandma Lu possibly feel at ease letting him go?
Later, after the country was established, the family had several more children. At that time, the state distributed farmland to them, and every household was busy working from dawn to dusk. But there was indeed hope. Everyone felt that they had said goodbye to the dark society of the past and were welcoming a bright future.
But the land had been distributed and the crops had been planted. They couldn’t possibly harvest everything overnight. Looking at the more than ten mouths, big and small, in the family that needed food, as the eldest among the grandchildren, Lu Yuxin resolutely went to join the army.
His thinking at the time was simple. Rather than waiting until he finished university and started working before he could help support the family, it would be better to join the army right away. That way, he could both reduce the burden on the family and send the subsidies and other benefits he received from the army home to make things easier for them.
Grandma Lu felt heartache whenever she talked about it. With so many children, she felt that Yuxin was the most sensible one and also the one who had suffered the most.
Fortunately, he later dared to fight hard in the army and gradually earned merits. Not only did he establish himself there, he was also sent by the state to the National Defense University for further study, fulfilling his dream of attending university. Now he had officially been promoted to deputy battalion commander. As long as he continued working hard, he had no need to worry about his future in the army.
Lu Yuning had already heard her older sister and Fifth Cousin talking earlier about how they were planning to look for jobs, and how they would continue studying and pursuing further education at their future work units.
So there really was a role model!
Her Eldest Cousin was truly amazing!
Lu Yuning’s face was full of admiration.
“Grandma, Eldest Cousin is amazing. Even under such difficult conditions, he could still continue studying at university. I want to learn from him in the future too!”
Grandma Lu smiled. “Good. Once you start school, you have to study hard!”
Lu Yuning nodded.
“But Grandma, that doesn’t conflict with Fifth Cousin and the others finding jobs at the brigade’s sugar factory, does it? Can’t they also continue studying at their work units?”
Grandma Lu shook her head. “That’s different. Your Eldest Cousin is in the army. What kind of place is that? It’s the place the state values most. As long as someone has the ability, the state will cultivate them. But the brigade is different. No matter what, the brigade can only rely on your Great-Granduncle’s abilities and connections, or at most, have the leaders in the commune say something. How much opportunity for further study could they possibly provide?”
That was why she said that if someone had no prospects and truly couldn’t find a better way out, working at the brigade’s sugar factory was still pretty good.
Of course, the kind of “people without ambition” she was referring to here were those who had high educational qualifications on paper but actually had little knowledge in their heads.
Those who were unable to do better because of circumstances were not included.
Put simply, it was those good-for-nothings who muddled their way through their qualifications or relied on connections to obtain diplomas who belonged to the “people without ambition” Grandma Lu was talking about.
Now Lu Yuning truly understood.
So this was why Fifth Cousin and the others insisted on heading to the town, the city, and even the province!
Indeed, working hard and doing well at a major work unit meant that the level of further education they could receive in the future would be different, and their future prospects would also be different.
No wonder they had gone directly to the town and city to tutor their classmates’ relatives, earning a little money for living expenses while continuing to take the examinations for the work units they wanted to enter.
Nowadays, even getting into a factory required taking an examination.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
It really was true that being born Chinese meant having to compete like crazy from ancient times to the present!
Even in the later generations, the competition was enough to make every young person howl in misery!
Lu Yuning’s heart tightened.
Compared with the competition of the later generations, it was still better to compete in this era.
At the very least, there were genuinely many opportunities in this era!
Whatever you did, as long as you worked steadily at it, you could become a big shot in the future!
Just thinking about it made Lu Yuning excited!
She was going to become a big shot of this era too!
This kind of experience was truly strange!
No wonder all the souls in the Underworld said that the benefits and treatment of being a mission employee in the Quick Transmigration Department were good. Just the experience of transmigrating through one mission after another was already an extremely precious opportunity!
Although she was now in the brand-new System Department, it wasn’t much different from the Quick Transmigration Department.
Grandma Lu smiled as she watched her space out, wondering what she was thinking. She shook her head and continued picking vegetables.
Lu Yuning came back to herself and also got up to help.
Lu Yuping’s home was close by, so she soon returned. Sitting beside Lu Yuning, she quietly said, “Yuning, Grandma said she wants my Second Brother to become a worker in the brigade.”
Lu Yuning nodded. “Mm, I also heard your Grandma talking about it with Grandma Thirteen in the alley just now.”
There were few grandsons in Lu Yuping’s family, so Lu Yuping had always directly called her second cousin “Second Brother,” while she called her own biological older brother, Lu Yujun, “Brother.”
Lu Yuping rested her chin in her hands and frowned worriedly.
“If my Second Brother really starts working at the brigade’s sugar factory, then Second Aunt will become even more unbearable in the future.”
Seeing that the vegetables were almost all picked, Lu Yuning clapped her hands, sat up straight, and turned to look at Lu Yuping.
“What does that have to do with you?”
Lu Yuping frowned.
“You don’t know…”
As she spoke, she glanced at the alley outside. Seeing that Grandma Sixteen was still chatting with Grandma Thirteen, she lowered her voice.
“You know what kind of person my Eldest Aunt is, but my Eldest Brother can only farm in the brigade. Mm, my Eldest Brother didn’t even finish elementary school back then.”
Lu Yuning nodded. She knew about this.
Grandma Sixteen had three grandsons. The eldest, Lu Yulin, was about the same age as Lu Yuxin. He was twenty-six this year and had gotten married long ago. His eldest son was already nine years old, while his youngest was now two years old and could already run around.
However, because Grandma Sixteen’s family had few grandsons, when their family split up, Grandma Sixteen and her eldest son, Lu Dashan, and his wife simply continued living together. The main rooms and both the eastern and western side rooms in the original old-house courtyard were all given to Lu Yulin’s family.
Second Uncle Sixteen’s family and Lu Yuping’s family each expanded a courtyard beside the old-house courtyard. They were just like Lu Yuning’s family, each having their own main entrance as well as a smaller side door for going back and forth.
Lu Yuping also usually worked in the courtyard where Grandma Sixteen lived, which was why there was the situation of Grandma Sixteen’s eldest daughter-in-law dumping her chores on her.
Lu Yuping continued, “Now Grandma wants Second Brother to become a worker at the brigade’s sugar factory. If he really gets in, Eldest Aunt will definitely make a fuss again.”
Someone who schemed over even the smallest daily chores certainly wouldn’t let go of something this big.
And as a niece from a different household, she would be even more likely to become a scapegoat in the arguments between the adults.
Of course, that was what Lu Yuning thought. Lu Yuping herself didn’t think that far. She only vaguely felt that she would be the one to suffer if that happened.
Lu Yuning frowned. “Then just stay out of their way. Let them make their fuss. You’re still a child. There’s nothing you can do about it, and you don’t need to get involved.”
Lu Yuping sighed. “I guess that’s all I can do. Yuning, I really want to grow up quickly. Then I can go outside and find a job myself. Even getting married would be fine…”
She really didn’t want to stay at home anymore. It was really scary!
Lu Yuning said helplessly, “Actually, you think being a child is bad now, but once you grow up, you’ll think being an adult is bad too…”
Lu Yuping was surprised. “How could that be? I definitely won’t think being an adult is bad!”
Lu Yuning: Heh.
Wait until you grow up before you say that.
Lu Yuning said, “Actually, we’re going to start school soon. Once that happens, whatever happens at home won’t have anything to do with us.”
Lu Yuping nodded, clearly relieved.
“Luckily Great-Granduncle is the brigade leader. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to go to school either.”
Lu Yuning very much agreed.
Before Hong’an Brigade had been changed into a commune collective, there had already been many people in the village who were unwilling to let their daughters go to school.
Later, Great-Granduncle held a meeting and criticized them, and things gradually got better. Now, basically every household would let their children go to school.
Although it cost money, Great-Granduncle would deduct the money each year from every household for the children’s future schooling expenses. That way, whether they were sincere about it or not, at least the children could safely attend school.
The difference was that some children brought better food with them to school, while others brought worse food. Great-Granduncle couldn’t control that.
As long as the children could go to school and not grow up illiterate, could eat their fill—or, well, at least have something to eat—and grow up safely, that was enough.
Even as the brigade leader, it was impossible for him to watch over so many people in the brigade every day and make sure they treated their own children well.
Even so, without Great-Granduncle keeping things in check, someone like Lu Yuping, honestly speaking, might really not have been able to attend school.
According to Grandma Sixteen’s own way of thinking, no matter how poorly a boy did, he should at least graduate from elementary school. But no matter how clever a girl was, there was no need to waste that money on her education.
That was simply how things were.
However, Lu Yuning didn’t know that at this moment, Grandma Sixteen had already come to feel that studying really was useful.
If their family had a university student, they would have struck it rich long ago!