Chapter 67
◎Admitted to Capital University◎
Li Suqin brought a bowl of fragrant hot noodle soup to the dining table. “Hurry up and eat. After you’ve finished, drink a cup of brown sugar water. I’ve also filled the thermos for you.”
This was a bowl of green vegetable and egg noodles. Two tender white fried eggs were placed on top of the hand-pulled thin noodles, with two green vegetables blanched on top, and a sprinkle of chopped scallions and cilantro. It looked very tempting. The fragrance of pepper was very strong. Tangtang couldn’t help but sneeze. The noodles were cooked to a perfect consistency, and she swallowed them with a chew.
In this cold and damp winter, being able to eat such a fragrant bowl of hot noodle soup was undoubtedly a very happy thing.
Tangtang had already had a cup of brown sugar water just now. After a few bites of noodles, she felt much more comfortable.
It was probably because of the round-the-clock review in the past two months that her period had come a few days early.
Since Zhou Shunian had taken her to see Grandpa Zhou, she had finished the pile of traditional Chinese medicine she had gotten, and she had felt much better at that time. Usually, Yu Juanfang would also make her some more nourishing medicinal meals. It had been a long time since Tangtang had felt so uncomfortable.
“Juesheng, I’ve had your uncle move a cot to the main hall. You can sleep here tonight. Tangtang is not feeling well, so let her sleep on the bottom bunk alone, and Wani can sleep on the top bunk.”
“Alright.” Su Juesheng caringly ruffled his sister Tangtang’s head and moved the quilt from the top bunk to the cot.
As Li Suqin spoke, she also re-made the bottom bunk. After Tangtang finished the hot noodle soup and drank another cup of brown sugar water with a lot of minced ginger, she lay back in her quilt, feeling warm and comfortable in her stomach.
“Tangtang, hold this.” Li Suqin stuffed the hot water bottle into the quilt. Perhaps because she had just given birth, she had a maternal gentleness about her.
“Auntie, thank you.” Tangtang held the hot water bottle, her eyes sparkling. Not only was her uncle good to them, but even her aunt was very good. She felt that everyone she had met was very good.
“Silly child, we’re family. Why are you saying thank you? Sleep well tonight and do well on the exam tomorrow.”
“Alright.”
Drowsiness came over her. Tangtang closed her eyes. Li Suqin tucked her in tightly, then blew out the kerosene lamp and closed the door.
…
This year, more than five million candidates across the country walked into the college entrance examination rooms. The restoration of the college entrance examination system broke through the cage that had imprisoned knowledge and thought, giving more people the opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives. The long winter was finally coming to an end. Spring had arrived, and the withered trees would sprout again.
After the college entrance examination, the three of them, Tangtang, refused Yu Laowu and his wife’s offer to let them stay in the city for a few more days. They packed their things and took the bus back to Yuhuai Village.
The college choices were roughly divided into three tiers: national key universities, ordinary universities, and junior colleges. Before taking the college entrance examination, Tangtang and the others had already filled out their college choices based on their usual performance.
After returning to Yuhuai Village, Tangtang estimated her score. According to the admission situation of the class of ’65, it shouldn’t be a problem to get into Capital University. But this was the first year of the restored college entrance examination, and everything was unknown, like a blind man crossing a river by feeling the stones. She had no confidence in her heart.
The days of waiting for the results were monotonous and boring, but life had to go on. Tangtang rested at home for two or three days. Sun Xiangrong invited Tangtang to go to the city to buy some scented powder. Tangtang was not interested in scented powder, but her mother insisted on stuffing a few yuan into her pocket and pushed her out the door.
So, Tangtang went to the county town with Sun Xiangrong. She had a bowl of sweet and delicious hot soy milk, ate a flaky turnip and meat pie, bought herself a shell bracelet, and bought a box of clam oil for her mother to use on her hands in the winter—a gesture of borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha.
On the last day of the solar year, Yu Juanfang slaughtered an old hen from the family, stewed a delicious chicken soup, and improved the family’s meals.
Finally, the day of the announcement of the admission results arrived.
The village entrance was packed with people. Yu Laowu was the first to bring them the good news. “They got in, both Tangtang and Juesheng got in! Tangtang got into Capital University! Juesheng got into Capital University of Transportation! Wani got into Capital Medical University!”
“What? Capital University?” The villagers gasped. Although they didn’t know what Capital University was, as soon as they heard “Capital,” they knew it was the best place in the country!
“That Capital University is our country’s highest institution of learning. In the past, only the sons of officials could go to that school!” someone next to them explained. “That Capital University of Transportation and Capital Medical University are also national key universities. The children of the old Su family are really promising!”
The crowd now understood. They grinned and congratulated Su Huimin and Yu Juanfang.
Tangtang was also very happy. Although she had estimated it to be about right in her heart, even if it wasn’t Capital University, she should have been able to get into a local university. But when she really saw the four words “Capital University” on the admission list, a huge surprise erupted from the bottom of her heart.
She had gotten into Capital University. She had done it!
If it weren’t for the fact that a man shouldn’t cry easily, Su Juesheng really wanted to squat on the ground and have a good cry. He had gotten into university! His hard work had not been in vain. He no longer had to carry a hoe in the fields, covered in sweat, living a life where he could see the end of the year from the beginning!
After the college entrance examination, Wani couldn’t eat or sleep well. Her heart was like it was hanging on a rope. It wasn’t until she saw the words “Capital Medical University, Su Wani” on the admission list that she finally settled down. Tears of joy gushed out. The dark circles under her eyes were now red and swollen, but the smile on her face was particularly brilliant.
She had gotten in, she had gotten into Capital Medical University! She could finally change her own destiny, no longer have to scrape a living from the soil, no longer have to find a young man from the village as a husband, and no longer have to revolve around her husband and children for the rest of her life! From now on, the world was wide open, and she could measure it with her own feet whenever she wanted.
The third son, Su, was drenched in sweat, his face red from the sun, but he had a smile on his face. His third son’s daughter had gotten into Capital Medical University! He was proud to have such an outstanding daughter!
Yu Yahong had been crying and laughing all morning. If it weren’t for the fact that everyone knew the inside story, they would have mistaken her for a mentally unstable woman.
Shuanfu was also happy for his sister. Their old Su family’s third branch had actually produced a university student! The capital, such a faraway place. They had only seen it in the newspapers. Now his sister was going to university in the capital!
And it was a medical school. It was said that after graduation, she could be assigned to a hospital to be a doctor with a scalpel!
“What about Baocai’s second son and old man Sun’s third daughter? Didn’t they take the exam together?”
“They got in, they all got in!”
“Su Zitian got into our province’s junior college, and Sun Xiangrong got into our province’s normal college!”
All five of the children from Yuhuai Village who had taken the college entrance examination this time had gotten into university.
Tangtang and Su Juesheng couldn’t help but look at each other and smile with their parents. Yu Juanfang put her arm around Tangtang’s shoulder and caressed her hair. “Our family’s children are all good!”
Tian Wenwen held her child and looked at the girl with phoenix eyes in the red floral dress, who was surrounded by the crowd. When they were in primary school, she and Sun Xiangrong were deskmates. Sun Xiangrong’s grades were even worse than hers, but she hadn’t expected to get into university either.
Her expression was a little dim. She caressed her protruding pregnant belly. This was her third child. The first was a girl, and the second was a son. Her mother-in-law wanted her to have another boy.
If she had insisted on studying back then, would her fate have been different?