Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 412 The Time Has Been Set
A week has passed in the blink of an eye, and a few things have happened in the past few days.

The news that the Lujiawan Library had a complete set of self-study books on mathematics, physics, and chemistry spread quickly. In addition to the educated youth from other places in Nanhu Commune, the educated youth from other communes who were still stranded in Gufeng County brought their luggage and food to the library, hoping to copy the books there.

Moreover, the principal of Nanhu High School, which doesn't have many students, was also eyeing the set of books. He negotiated with Secretary Yang for two or three days, and finally reached a cooperation agreement with Secretary Qian of the commune as witness.

Lujiawan provided the materials, and Nanhu High School provided the teachers, thus establishing the Nanhu College Entrance Examination Review Class on the spot.

All anyone needs to do is register at Nanhu High School and pay a 1 yuan materials fee to join this study class.

The one yuan wasn't wasted. The school mobilized dozens of teachers and students to quickly carve mimeograph stencils using borrowed math, physics, and chemistry textbooks and handwritten copies from educated youth. Then, they used the school's mimeograph machine to print review materials. The one yuan was just enough to cover the cost of materials.

In exchange, after the college entrance examination, Nanhu High School will form a support partnership with Lujiawan Village Primary School to assist Lujiawan Village Primary School in training teachers and guiding teaching.

Although there aren't many teachers in high schools, most of them are older teachers. In other words, they all entered high school and became teachers at least ten years ago, so their knowledge base is quite solid.

Whether it's tutoring students in review classes or guiding the educational work of Lujiawan Village Primary School in the future, it's more than enough.

As a result, almost all the educated youth who wanted to take the college entrance examination, as well as the current and previous graduates from other communes and production teams, were scrambling to get into the review classes at Nanhu High School.

The young people of Lujiawan are an exception.

Zhang Cuie, Yang Zhijun, and the others had attended classes at the review center before, but after one day, they all felt that the teachers there were not as good as their own teacher, Mr. Chen, and many people were asking them for advice, which actually delayed their studies, so they stopped going.

This makes room for others.

Another thing was that Chen Fan took Jiang Lili and Huang Ying to the prefectural committee to retrieve all the photos they had taken before.

In the brigade headquarters office, Chen Fan handed the box containing the photos to Zhang Wenliang to distribute, but his eyes turned to Secretary Yang, "Uncle Yang, hasn't the registration time been set yet?"

"It'll be done soon, probably in the next day or two."

Secretary Yang leaned back in his chair, smoothed his hair, put his hat back on, picked up his pipe to fill it with tobacco, and sighed, “They’re all a handful. Half of the high school students in Gufeng County are taking classes in the commune’s high school review class. I want our team members to go there too, firstly to hear how high school teachers teach. They’ve been doing education for decades, so they must have some experience.”

Secondly, it also allows me to build relationships with other students, who are all preparing for the college entrance examination. Perhaps some of them will get into good universities and become cadres in various organizations after graduation.

As the old saying goes, the bond between classmates is the strongest; good classmates can stay friends for life. While we're all still ordinary people, let's build relationships so we can help each other in the future, right?

As he lit a match, he said irritably, "And those brats came back in less than a day, saying that the high school teacher wasn't as good as you. Can you believe how angry I am?"

He lit a cigarette, took a puff, and looked at Chen Fan. "I'm not saying you're not as good as a high school teacher. Didn't you also say that among three people, there must be a teacher? Anyway, that's the gist of it."

Chen Fan chuckled twice, about to speak, when Xiao Liewen slammed his large tea mug on the table. "I disagree with your opinion. What do you mean by building relationships and helping each other? Oh, are you sure it won't turn into officials protecting each other in the future? If all the benefits go to the officials, where are the ordinary people supposed to make a living?"

"Pooh."

Secretary Yang, meeting his tongue sharply, spat at him, "What do you take me for? I'm paving the way for the younger generation, but if they dare to do anything wrong, you don't even need to lift a finger, I'll kick their whole family out of Lujiawan!"

He paused, took a couple of breaths, and continued, "I'm using Xiao Chen as a benchmark. Look at all our delicatessens, which one didn't start out from Xiao Chen? What does that mean? That's what connections are!"
If you have no connections or favors, who will care about you? If you have connections, use them in the right way; that's called contributing to the collective. Why must you use them for personal gain?

Xiao Liewen was speechless for a moment, then ignored him while smoking.

Chen Fan smiled, and only then did he have a chance to speak.

He smiled at Secretary Yang and said, "Uncle Yang, since there are no outsiders here, I'll just say what's on my mind. If you're hoping to build relationships with people in the review class, that's just grasping at straws."

Secretary Yang was taken aback and stared at him intently. "What do you mean?"

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "You'll see if you don't believe me. How many of those educated youth from other places will come to share the good news after they get into university? And look at those local graduates, both current and past, how many of them will come back with gifts in return?"

Upon hearing this, not only Secretary Yang, but also Captain Zhang, Xiao Liewen, Ye Shubao, and Zhang Wenliang all looked at Chen Fan with suspicion in their eyes.

Before they could speak, Chen Fan waved his hand and said with a smile, "I always believe that you have to be strong yourself to succeed. As long as all of our students can get into good universities, Uncle Yang, believe it or not, even strangers, or even those who rejected Brother Sanhu before, will show us goodwill."

I understand your point of view, given that you used me as an example. But think about it again: if I only knew those three basic skills, would they still be so respectful?

Upon hearing this, everyone fell into deep thought. After a moment, Zhang Wenliang was the first to shake his head, "No."

He raised his head, looked at the crowd that was staring at him, and said seriously, "Back then, my older brother and I accompanied Xiao Chen to the prefectural committee's health department. Although their leaders were very polite, I could sense that they still had some arrogance about them."

It wasn't until the older brother introduced Xiao Chen as a writer, mentioning that he had published articles in *Jiangnan Literature* and that his news articles frequently appeared in the *Yunhu Daily*, that they suddenly became very enthusiastic.

Ye Shubao nodded slowly, and said thoughtfully, "So, Xiao Chen earned his connections outside through his own abilities, not by climbing the social ladder!"

Xiao Liewen slammed his hand on the table. "I knew it! You have to be good yourself to succeed. No matter who you try to build connections with, it's not as good as honing your own skills!"

Secretary Yang immediately rolled his eyes, "Get lost! When did you say that? It was clearly Xiao Chen who said it!"

The others immediately tried to suppress their laughter, but it was a bit difficult.

Xiao Liewen, with his thick skin, was no match for him. He casually smoked his cigarette and said, "Anyway, I told you your plan wouldn't work."

Seeing Chen Fan's strange look, Secretary Yang chuckled and said, "Originally, I wanted to cooperate with Nanhu High School, not only to take advantage of them, but also to use their places to send our students there so they could get to know those people."

Actually, if we had more space here, and if the village school weren't so far from the commune, we wouldn't have had to hand over this review class to someone else, letting the high school benefit from it for nothing.

He paused for a moment, then chuckled and said, "But since you put it that way, then forget it. Let's just consider it our contribution to society."

After saying that, he was still somewhat unwilling, his brows furrowed tightly, and he asked, "Those old educated youth, would they really leave without even saying goodbye?"

Chen Fan shrugged. "There will definitely be people who come back to express their gratitude, but there definitely won't be too many."

Indeed, this is true. Whether they were factory workers or educated youth sent to the countryside, the first thing most people thought of when they received their admission notices was to go home!

This kind of thinking is completely understandable. How could one not miss home if they were away for a year or two or even more than ten years?
Having finally obtained the pass to go home, of course I had to rush back as soon as possible.

However, those who had helped them in the past saw it as somewhat heartless and ungrateful.

So he never thought of trying to build any relationship with this year's college entrance exam takers. Safety was the only exception, because they were already friends before, otherwise he wouldn't have arranged for him to stay at his home.

As for others?

As the saying goes, you need to be strong yourself to succeed!

It took him several years of experience in society to realize that what determines one's social circle is one's own ability, not wining and dining others. That might make you a familiar face, but it's completely useless.

Secretary Yang may lack experience, but that doesn't mean he's stupid. What kind of fool could be a brigade secretary?

Chen Fan's few words revealed the truth to him, so after clicking his tongue, he put the idea of ​​winning over future cadres out of his mind and instead talked about the autumn harvest.

Under the overall planning and arrangement of Ye Shubao and the leadership of Zhang Wenliang, the autumn harvest in Lujiawan is about to begin in full swing.

Zhang Wenliang opened his notebook and began his serious introduction, "Compared to previous years, this year presents both challenges and opportunities. The challenge is that we have fewer workers, and the opening of Luwan cooked food shops and cooked food workshops..."

Then Captain Zhang grabbed a crumpled piece of paper and smacked him on the head, yelling, "Challenge, opportunity? What, you want to take the college entrance exam? Speak like a human being!"

Zhang Wenliang calmly tossed the crumpled paper that had fallen on the table into a basket in the corner and said seriously, "In short, although there is a shortage of labor this year, because we have harvesters, the autumn harvest will not only not be delayed, but can actually be completed ahead of schedule."

I am confident that I can lead the entire team of harvesters to successfully complete the harvest task, ensuring that every grain is safely stored. We will absolutely not neglect grain production because of developing sideline businesses, nor will we let the autumn harvest hinder our sideline income generation!

Secretary Yang nodded in satisfaction and was about to speak when the phone on the table suddenly rang.

He quickly picked up the phone, "Hello, this is Lujiawan Production Team, where are you?"

A few seconds later, his eyes lit up. "Mmm, mmm, okay, no problem, thank you so much!"

After hanging up the phone, he said directly, "The college entrance examination registration time has been set. It will start tomorrow and end on November 7th. It will be held at the commune school district office. No certificate from the production team is needed. Candidates can just go there themselves."

(End of this chapter)