After sending a letter to Cen Zhengnian, Chu Xia decided to go to the high school near Textile Mill No. 3 to inquire about how to become a transfer student.
The original owner actually has a high school diploma, which is equivalent to repeating a grade, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she has to attend high school.
The factory propaganda department is not busy. After entering the factory propaganda department, Chu Xia didn't face any difficulties in the workplace that she expected.
The first task given to Chu Xia was to familiarize the new workers with the factory floor and explain the rules and regulations of the factory.
It was a straightforward job, and she was assigned only two new employees. Other newcomers had different guides, and each person had to guide only a few newcomers.
After a tour of the factory, she was taken to the office of the head of the propaganda department, who had more to say to the newcomers.
Then she had no more work for the day, so she was so free that Chu Xia found it unbelievable.
She didn't come here for a promotion, so when she wasn't working, she took her high school textbooks and continued to study.
Previously, she was preparing for the factory's internal recruitment exams; she hadn't finished studying her first-year high school material.
But she was making good progress. For the science subjects, she was essentially reviewing the material, as she had already studied it during her high school years and had been continuously reviewing it when she was in college. Her knowledge was still quite fresh, making her comfortable with the subjects.
Chu Xia was unaware that on the day she joined the propaganda department, Factory Director Zhang made a phone call. He spoke casually, saying, "She has entered."
It's unknown what the person on the other end said, but Factory Director Zhang immediately responded with a smile, saying, "That's not the case at all. She got in on her own, ranking first. We just provided an opportunity."
It seemed that the person on the other end was expressing gratitude. Factory Director Zhang playfully pretended to be upset, saying, "Old leader, if you keep saying that, I'll get angry! You've helped me so much in the past and even saved my life. This is a trivial matter."
***
The district where Textile Mill No. 3 is located has three famous high schools, No. 6, No. 9, and No. 13, as well as a number of other lesser-known high schools.
Liangzhou is, after all, the capital city of the province, so educational resources are much better than in the following cities and counties, with many schools.
The original owner went to school at No. 6 High School, which is a little better than No. 9 High School and a little worse than No. 13 High School and is the closest high school to Textile Mill No. 3.
Chu Xia's first consideration was also this high school.
But when she went to ask about enrolling herself in class, the head of the Academic Affairs Office took one look at her diploma and rejected it outright.
"Your graduation year is too long ago. We only accept students who have completed these last two years of high school."
Chu Xia understood what the head of the Academic Affairs Office meant. During the original owner's time at school, hardly any students attended classes diligently, let alone achieved good grades. Obtaining a graduation certificate for two years of study was a mere formality.
Plus, after so many years without studying, why bring her in? It's simply a matter of lowering the high school's college entrance examination rate, and the principal was being quite reasonable.
Chu Xia will not simply give up; she immediately said, "I can take the entrance exam for the current class. If I don't pass, I'll leave on my own! Director, I really want to go to school. Back when I was in school, there were no university entrance exams available. I went straight to work in the factory after graduation. When the opportunity to resume the college entrance exam arose, my child was still young, and I missed it. Now, I understand the importance of knowledge and deeply regret it. I truly want an opportunity to take the college entrance exam. I'll do my best to study! "
Chu Xia did want to enter the second year of high school. At this moment, high schools are in a two-year system, and after two years of attending, one can take the college entrance exam.
If she wanted to continue in medicine later on, even if it was Chinese medicine, she had to have a degree.
Otherwise, not only would she not have a valid reason to take out her medical skill, she would also have no way to practice medicine because there was no professional qualification certificate.
Nowadays, qualification certificates aren't like those in later generations, where they are obtained through a standardized examination. These certificates are issued directly after graduating and working for a certain number of years in a hospital.
For traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, there's another method to obtain a medical qualification:through apprenticeship. In her previous life, she had this, as her grandfather acquired his medical practitioner qualification through this method. With years of practice and improving skills, he became a renowned senior traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in their area.
The director frowned with a difficult face. He also likes motivated students, but rules are rules; he really can't accept her.
However, he appreciated Chu Xia's attitude. He handed her the graduation certificate and said, "If you had come a few days earlier, you could have participated in the transfer exams at our school that have already concluded for this year. However, the transfer exams at No. 9 High School haven't started yet, so you go there and ask."
The transfer exams at other schools have already ended and Chu Xia can't force herself in. It's her own poor consideration, thinking that it's not September, so high school won't start so early.
But she forgot that second-year students have always started school earlier than other grades.
Fortunately, there are other schools, so she asked one by one but couldn't find one that accepted her.
Chu Xia took a day off from work to inquire at other schools. She took the bus directly to No. 9 High School.
No. 9 High School is relatively far away from Textile Mill No. 3; it takes half an hour by bus, while No. 6 is just ten minutes away by bus.
No. 9 High School, compared to No. 6 High School's management, is a little loose since their sophomore year has just started.
As soon as the doorman heard that she was asking about the transfer exam, he directly let her in and pointed out the way for her.
"You're here to take the transfer exam?" The director of the No. 9 High School's Academic Affairs Office pushes his glasses, looks at Chu Xia's high school diploma, and then looks at her face, with a look of incomprehension: "You have a suitable job; why are you thinking of enrolling to take the college entrance exam? Now the college entrance exam is difficult; ah, those students, every day, sleep later than the dog, get up earlier than the chicken, and eat like they're in war. In the end, only a few manage to pass. Even those who pass are assigned to work units. Isn't this a superfluous endeavor?"
Chu Xia looked serious and said, "It's not superfluous; I want to get ahead; I want to learn more; I don't like the repetitive work in the factory day after day; I want to learn the profession I really like; I want to go to university!"
The director's eyes opened bulging, looking so excited that he slapped the table. "Well said! You have such a high level of thinking and awareness! It's so rare that you still know how to get ahead at your age; I'll give you this chance!"
Chu Xia didn't even think it would be this easy for her to get the chance to take the transfer exam.
"But you still have to pass the transfer exam; your score can't be lower than the minimum score line of this year's university admission; otherwise, I can't accept you in."
Chu Xia breathes a sigh of relief in her heart, and a smile appears on her face as she says, "I know; I'll go home and review carefully."
From the director's mouth, she learned that this year, the minimum score for admission to the province's science universities is 390, and the transfer exam can't be lower than that.
And even if you pass the transfer exam, you can't take the college entrance exam if you don't pass the provincial preliminary exam, which took place in May before the actual college entrance exam
The preliminary exam was introduced this year.
Chu Xia hadn't heard of this in her last life, and she didn't even know about it until the director told her. When she was in school, she applied and went directly to the examination center to take the college entrance examination at the time.
The No. 9 High School transfer exam is on the 5th of September. Counting that there is only half a month left, Chu Xia did not dare to relax at all, grasping the time to study.
English, she is the most certain. When she was studying medicine, she learned English as her mother tongue. Reading foreign literature and publishing papers were all translated by herself.
Chinese primarily involves memorizing literary knowledge, word explanations, and classical Chinese. For math, physics, and chemistry, it's all about solving problems and becoming familiar with current high school-level questions.
Politics is a subject that all students, regardless of their major (arts or sciences), have to take. It's the most challenging subject for her as it doesn't relate much to her prior memories, and it involves a lot of memorization.
Chu Xia recites Chinese literature and politics every morning, then spends the day reviewing math, physics, and chemistry. At night, she works on problems and reads a few pages of the English book.
She was able to flip through her English textbook quite quickly, as it didn't pose much difficulty and was similar to junior high school English in her later life.
What pleased her the most was finding that in Cen Zhengnian's bookcase, there were exercises he had done in the past. While not plentiful, they were sufficient to help her understand the current examination question types.
The matter of Chu Xia wanted to take the exam, she didn't mention anything about it to anyone else except Cen Zhengnian.
Cen Huai'an found out on his own.
The two always studied together at night. Cen Huai'an was puzzled; hadn't his mother already passed the exam? What is she studying now?
He couldn't help but ask.
None of the other adults in the family complex would read every day like his mom. He didn't understand why that was, but he liked his mom like this.
"Because I want to go to university and set a good example for you. And there's no end to learning; we have to live and learn."
University was a very distant thing to Cen Huai'an; after all, he hadn't even gone to primary school yet.
"Is university a nice place?"
Chu Xia shook her head and said, "I don't know, but I think it's great there; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people who want to go to university. Your dad is a college student."
Cen Zhengnian is indeed a college student; he is a college student of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and was pushed up from the army.
She doesn't understand the specific nomination process, but she knew that Cen Zhengnian was exceptional among "worker-peasant-soldier" students. He was really talented and was transferred to the Northwest to participate in scientific research projects in college.
As soon as she talked about Cen Zhengnian, Cen Huai'an stopped talking, but Chu Xia could tell that he was curious about university.
Chu Xia changed her words, smiled, and rubbed Cen Huai'an's stubbled hair. "But we don't need him. Liangzhou has a university. After I finish my exams, I'll take you to visit."
The light in Cen Huai'an's eyes re-brightened, writing word for word in his little notebook, 'Today, Mom said she would take me to university.'
He still struggles with many characters and uses pinyin as a substitute.
Chu Xia had already taught Cen Huai'an all the pinyin, and he learned it extremely fast. He is now capable of spelling words on his own.
She bought a Xinhua dictionary and a Xinhua thesaurus. With these tools, Cen Huai'an can look up words and phrases on his own.
Cen Zhengnian's primary school textbook is a 1958 edition that included pinyin.
Learning pinyin can be challenging for young children. Chu Xia remembers that when she was in primary school, the first grade was all about pinyin.
Some kids didn't even learn pinyin until they graduated from primary school.
But Chu Xia only taught Cen Huai'an once and he remembered it, making her wonder if pinyin wasn't as difficult as she remembered.
When she asked Sister Li about her family's children, her eldest daughter was in the fourth grade of primary school and still couldn't spell some of the pinyin, and her eldest son was in the first grade of primary school and had learnt nothing at all.
It's not that the knowledge is not difficult, it's that it's not difficult for Cen Huai'an.
But it's convenient for Chu Xia, she doesn't have to teach Cen Huai'an one word at a time. She set a rule for him to learn two pages of new words from the textbooks today.
He can go through it himself, and when he encounters a word he doesn't know, he looks it up in the dictionary first and then asks Chu Xia if he doesn't know it again.
Most of the time, his questions were about the meanings of words, and he could use the dictionary to find the definitions.
***
Cen Zhengnian got another letter from home from the guard; he was about to open it and read it when the phone on the table rang.
He put the letter on the table and picked up the phone. "Hello, this is Cen Zhengnian."
"Zhengnian, I heard from Lingling that you sent quite a few things to Chu Xia and An'an; is that true?"
It was Cen Zhengnian's mother, Jiang Shengnan.
Both of Cen Zhengnian's parents were soldiers, and the army they worked for was stationed in Ganzhou in the northwest. Fang Lingling's parents and his parents were in the same unit, and the two of them lived in the same family compound when they were young.
The space research base is in Ganzhou, not far from the army. The soldiers guarding the base were transferred from his parents' unit.
The space research base is also a military research center under the Ganzhou army.
Therefore, Fang Lingling often returned to her own home. Her mother doted on her, and when she didn't go home, she sent her father's guards to bring her food every day.
Cen Zhengnian is the complete opposite of her style. He almost never returns home; his mother even called him to not go back. She calls him ten times, but nine out of ten times she can't find him.
He is always immersed in the projects at the base, and staying up all night is a common occurrence. Sometimes, he sleeps directly in the laboratory, not caring about a phone call.
"Yes," Cen Zhengnian said back.
Jiang Shengnan's tone was very happy: "You finally got the hang of it, son. Because you didn't come home for a few years, I was afraid that Chu Xia didn't want you. I still have a lot of food here; I'll have Lingling bring it over, and you send it to Chu Xia and An'an together."
Cen's mother actually often sends things to the original owner and An'an, but those items were always taken by Wang Yulan after being sent.
They were all precious items, including fur, ginseng, and various ration tickets, including overseas Chinese tickets that allowed access to items not available elsewhere.
She was afraid that Chu Xia and An'an would not be able to eat well, use good things, or live comfortably.
Jiang Shengnan knows that her son is not sociable, so she does the work of placating her daughter-in-law.
Now that she knows that her son will actually send things to her daughter-in-law, she is really happy as hell.
Those things were originally what she had prepared to send to her daughter-in-law, so it was a good time for her son to send them in his name to increase the affection between the young couple.
When Cen Zhengnian heard Fang Lingling's name, he frowned. "Mom, don't let Fang Lingling bring it. Logistics send supplies to the base every day; you should let Uncle Yang help bring it over."
"But why?." Jiang Shengnan spoke in a puzzled tone, "Lingling is returning to the base today, if your Uncle Yang brings it we will have to wait until tomorrow."
"She has impure intentions, I don't want to have too much contact with her." Cen Zhengnian said plainly, without saying too much about Fang Lingling, but anyone could hear the dislike in his words.
Cen's mother didn't think that way at first, and when her son said that, she realized something was wrong: "No way, you're married..."
The rest of the words Cen's mother didn't finish because she thought of Fang Lingling, who has been married and divorced. Chu Xia isn't in Ganzhou. Fang Lingling had been a scheming person in the past. It was normal for her to have ideas again.
"I know. I'll have less contact with her in the future. Zhengnian, it's not easy for Chu Xia and An'an; you need to care more about them; write and call them more often. Tell me if you need anything; I'll buy what you can't."
"Good."
After hanging up the phone with his mother, Cen Zhengnian opens Chu Xia's letter with anticipation, and inside is a photo.
He froze, and his eyes instantly revealed surprise. He doesn't read the letter first, but first looks at the photo in the light.
The photo shows Chu Xia smiling and hugging An'an. The two of them are facing the camera, and you can tell that An'an is a little nervous; his little face is tightly tensed; there is no smile.
Cen Zhengnian's thumb gently strokes An'an's face in the photo.
This was An'an; he hadn't seen him since he was a year old.
An'an had grown up and did resemble him; his eyebrows and eyes were like when he was a child, just a little thin. He had seen his colleague's children, raised white and chubby.
And Chu Xia's face is also very thin; the face is a little pale. Cen Zhengnian's eyes show concern: is it that the money he gave is still not enough?
It had been a long time since Cen Zhengnian had interacted with the outside world. In his memory, life had been tough in the past, and they had to scramble to buy even basic necessities.
He picked up the densely written letter, and his eyes unconsciously rippled with laughter.