Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 421: Give and take
With the college entrance examination over, this frenzy that lasted for more than a month has finally come to a temporary end.

Almost all the students taking the exam were anxiously waiting for the results, hoping to see their names on the medical examination list if they were lucky.

If you can't even get on the medical examination list, there's no doubt that you have no chance this year and can only wait until next year to try again.

In contrast, Chen Fan was in a much better mood. After giving some application advice to the students in Lujiawan, he stayed at home and enjoyed some leisure time.

The 23 students, including Zhang Cuie, Huang Ying, Yang Ju, and Liu Dan, all decided on the universities and majors they wanted to apply for under Chen Fan's arrangement.

Zhang Cuie applied to one of the most competitive universities and majors in this year's college entrance examination: Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University's Department of Chinese Language and Literature, or Peking University Chinese Language and Literature for short.

This major is practically representative of the Chinese Department at Peking University.

When people talk about the Chinese Department at Peking University, they usually mean this major.

In particular, the "Old Three Classes" occupied many important positions in the literary world, both in front of and behind the scenes, and dominated the national literary scene for more than a decade until the early 21st century when their influence diminished with the decline of literature. Ultimately, they did not live up to their great reputation.

Liu Dan also applied to the Chinese Literature Department, but her major was Journalism.

This journalism major can be described as having a "rough fate." It used to be one of Peking University's flagship programs, and Mr. Li once studied here.

Later, Peking University merged with Yenching University and absorbed Yenching University's journalism department to form the Chinese Department's journalism editing major.

In 58, the news editing major was merged into the Journalism Department of Renmin University.

As a result, the program was shut down in 73, and all the faculty members of the journalism department were reassigned to Peking University, becoming the journalism major under the Chinese Department.

Next year, in 78, Renmin University reopened, and this major was once again assigned to Renmin University, becoming part of the Renmin University Journalism Department.

Therefore, there is no Renmin University among the key universities this year.

No, it should be that Liu Dan will become a student at Renmin University next year.

Years later, the Department of Journalism at Renmin University still holds the top position in the national ranking of comprehensive strength in journalism and communication disciplines.

The implications of this background are self-evident!

Journalism and literature are the two jewels in the crown of Peking University.

Even freshmen who have just enrolled are seen by their classmates as future "great writers" and "great journalists," and their demeanor is incredibly charming.

Then there's Huang Ying, whose dream was to be a saleswoman. Inspired by Chen Fan, she became a foreign trade saleswoman and planned to apply to Beijing Foreign Trade College.

Why not apply to Peking University?
Sorry, at that time, Peking University did not have a major in foreign trade.

In this year's college entrance examination, Peking University admitted 1177 undergraduate students from 14 departments.

Among them, there are 134 students in the Department of Physics, 138 in the Department of Chemistry, 69 in the Department of Geophysics, 71 in the Department of Geology, 59 in the Department of Geography, 138 in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, 121 in the Department of Philosophy, 80 in the Department of Economics, 60 in the Department of History, 31 in the Department of International Politics, 83 in the Department of Law, 51 in the Department of Library Science, 130 in the Department of Western Languages, and 12 in the Department of Russian Language.

Of these 14 departments, only 5 have specialized programs: Chinese Literature, Spanish Languages, Geophysics, Geology, and Geography.

The Chinese Department offers three majors: Literature, Classical Literature, and Journalism; the Spanish Department offers English, German, and French; the Geophysics Department offers two majors: Geophysics and Space Physics; and the Geology Department also has two majors: Rock and Mineral Resources and Geochemistry, and Paleontology and Stratigraphy.

The last department, Geography, also has two majors: Physical Geography and Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology.

So even if you include all the majors, there are only 21.

Even so, it is one of the universities that offers the most majors.

Even if you included all the admission brochures from universities across the country, it would still only be a thin booklet, which is nothing compared to the later college application guides that are as thick as dictionaries.

For example, the BJ Foreign Trade College, which Huang Ying plans to apply to, is currently the only school in the country that offers a foreign trade major.

It is also the only institution of higher learning directly under the Ministry of Foreign Trade. It only has four departments: the first department is English, the second department is Russian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Arabic, the third department is foreign trade, and the fourth department is management, which is actually responsible for cadre training.

Although it is not a key university at present, it was included in the list of the only key universities in the country specializing in foreign trade a few months later.

Want to get into foreign trade?

Graduates from this school either work for the Ministry of Foreign Trade or are employed by major national foreign trade companies. Their starting point is the same as the endpoint for most graduates of foreign language majors from other schools!
So there's no need to think twice, just apply to this school.

Given that the school only plans to recruit "one" student majoring in foreign trade in Jiangnan Province, Chen Fan intends to let her choose to accept the school and major adjustment.

It's better to be safe than sorry. What if there's a son of a big shot in the province's foreign trade system who's also studying hard?
So it's always better to be on the safe side.

At worst, they could be transferred to the economics department at Peking University.

After all, Peking University is still alright.

The last one, Yang Ju, chose mechanical engineering as her major and was quite talented in science, so she directly chose Tsinghua University and majored in mechanical and electrical engineering.

As for the other 19 people besides the four of them, five of them were persuaded in advance by Teacher Guo and Teacher He to apply to Jiangnan University, although their majors differed slightly.

In view of this, Chen Fan skipped over the rest and listened to the ideals and pursuits of the remaining 14 people before giving them the most suitable advice.

As a result, most of them chose schools in the provincial capital, and only 5 people chose to go to the capital to study with Zhang Cuie and the others. Chen Fan also selected suitable schools for them, all of which were directly under ministries and commissions, and graduates could directly enter government agencies.

Yes, it's "them," because they were all girls, and the earliest students to follow Zhang Cuie into the study class's predecessor—the girls' cram school.

Originally, all seven of them wanted to go with Zhang Cuie, but their families didn't agree to them going too far.

They're all girls, why go so far? In the end, they'll all get married anyway, so the furthest they're allowed to go is the provincial capital for schooling.

In the end, only the five of them persevered, which shows their loyalty and righteousness.

As for Zhang Cuie and the other three?
Teacher Guo and Teacher He from Jiangnan University didn't come over; Teacher Chen turned them away. Did Zhang Cuie's parents dare to offend Teacher Chen, or did Captain Yang get too cocky and dare to disobey Teacher Chen's advice?
So even if they were unwilling, they didn't dare to say a word, especially since they were also thinking about their own agendas.

……

Outside Lujiawan Wharf, the river water in winter has lost the wildness of a few months ago, appearing gentle and calm.

No boats were docked at the makeshift pier; only a straight wooden walkway leading downwards and a solitary wooden dock stuck in the ground remained.

Because the river has receded significantly, this place is no longer suitable for large ships to dock, and it has simply been abandoned.

They did add a simple wooden walkway down from the original platform to make it easier for Chen Fan's small yacht to dock. Even if the water level rises next year, Chen Fan can still dock along this walkway without being affected.

Then, upstream at Lujiawan Team 7, a new permanent wharf is under construction.

Originally, that was the entrance to the Liuhua River, the most suitable place to build a dock. However, the water flow was too rapid in the summer, which made construction inconvenient and the simple dock was not suitable for mooring boats in such a rapid flow. Therefore, it was temporarily placed in Team 6 further downstream.

Now that the water level has dropped to its lowest point, Lujiawan is not short of money, so it hired the commune's construction team and also hired a team of people from the county construction company who are good at building wharves. The two teams were put together to build a new Lujiawan wharf.

The members of Team 6 were somewhat unhappy that the dock had been moved to Team 7.

After all, the production team's receiving point was right at the dock, and they often had to carry chickens, ducks, and geese to deliver the goods. In the past, the dock was right at their doorstep, just a few steps away, but now they had to carry the goods to Team 7, so naturally they were unhappy.

However, while they were unhappy, Chen Fan was very happy.

The dock used to be here, which was noisy and inconvenient for fishing. Now that the dock has moved, the area is quiet again, and he is naturally happy.

Taking advantage of this rare moment of leisure, Chen Fan steered his small boat to the middle of the river, sat on a stool, and cast a line.

When Anquan arrived, they saw a small boat floating in the middle of the river amidst heavy snow, and an old man wearing a straw hat...

His head was completely white; what else could he be but an old man?
With a long face, Anquan shouted, "It's snowing so heavily, and you still come out fishing? Are you crazy?"

Chen Fan glanced up and then calmly recited aloud, "An old man in a straw hat and raincoat, fishing alone on a snowy river!"

Then, with a swift motion, I lifted the rod and caught a yellow catfish.

Damn it, why is it Huang Gu again?

I caught dozens of yellow croakers today. Could it be that I stirred up a fish nest?

Well, he's safely here now, so I'll feed him everything.

This kind of fish is quite delicious, and it has few bones. You might not even need dozens of them to enjoy.

After removing the fish and throwing it into the fishpond, he took off his gloves, put away the fishing rod, and without starting the boat engine, he took out the two oars that he had assembled and propped them on the wooden frames on both sides of the small boat. Only then did he retrieve the anchor and slowly row towards the shore.

Before they even reached the shore, Anquan shouted, "Are you crazy? Are you crazy?"

He pointed at Chen Fan and cursed, "In this freezing weather, instead of staying indoors by the fire, you insist on coming out to fish. You have a machine on the boat, but you insist on using the oars. Are you trying to be romantic?"

Chen Fan brought the boat to shore, securing the mooring rope to a wooden stake on the boardwalk. He glanced at him and said, "So angry, did you eat firecrackers? Where's your wife? Doesn't she care about you?"

An Quan's face fell again. "She went back to Hangzhou."

Chen Fan's eyes widened. "You don't want me anymore?"

He clapped his hands and said, "I knew it! Your sister-in-law is so beautiful, how could she possibly be interested in you? Look, look, she must be confident she can get into university, so she dumped you beforehand..."

Then he backed away, "Hey, you guessed right, you're all embarrassed and angry now."

Anquan rolled his eyes, retracted his right leg that had been kicked out, took the enamel bucket of fish from his hand, and was immediately surprised, "How many did you catch?"

Chen Fan pursed his lips, jumped onto the boardwalk, and walked up. "Forty or fifty fish, but apart from a few carp, the rest are all yellow croakers. Since my wife has run away, she might as well stay here with me. I'll find another one when I go to school."

Just as Anquan was about to retort, he suddenly grinned and burst into laughter, "I have to tell Keying what you said, and see how she deals with you when she gets back!"

Chen Fan feigned surprise, "Huh? You're coming back? Didn't you say she didn't want you and ran away?"

Safety rolled her eyes again. "Get lost. When did I say that?"

She paused for a moment before explaining, "It was fine before, but this time she took the college entrance exam and came back to check her scores. We were all very confident that she could get into university. Her homesickness suddenly started to rise and she couldn't control it."

She sighed as she spoke, "After crying at home for two days, I thought it over and over and decided to let her take leave and go back first. I will fill out her college application for her, and then we will meet up in Shanghai when it's time to register."

Chen Fan pursed his lips and nodded without saying a word.

Like Yu Keying, many other educated youths couldn't suppress their homesickness after taking the college entrance examination, so they returned to the city ahead of schedule.

However, most of them ran away after receiving their admission notices, without even filling out their application forms, except for Yu Keying.

After a few seconds, Chen Fan suddenly turned to look at Bao An and laughed, "Aren't you afraid your wife will run away?"

Anquan glanced at him and laughed, "You can't expect anything good to come out of a dog's mouth."

He then exhaled a long breath and said, "Originally, I wanted to accompany her to Hangzhou, but in the whole of Zhejiang, only Zhejiang University is on the list of key universities, and Zhejiang University is a science and engineering school, so there are no suitable majors for us."

We discussed it for two days, but we still felt that the future was more important. Besides, Shanghai is not far from Hangzhou, and if she misses home, she can go back anytime.

So we decided to apply to universities in Shanghai together, and if all goes well, we'll apply to stay and work in Shanghai afterward.

(Of the 88 key universities listed in the newspaper, 16 are comprehensive universities.)

(Here's another categorized version)

In the time it took to say a few words, the two climbed up the embankment and looked back safely at Lujiawan in the snow. "We'll definitely come back here in the future, but not very often."

Chen Fan chuckled twice and said, "When you go to university, you're considered employed, and your employers pay you a salary..."

Before he could finish speaking, Anquan laughed and said, "We've already submitted our resignations, and we really won't be coming back for a long time."

Chen Fan looked at him; although he was smiling, his smile was very complicated.

He felt a mix of reluctance, relief, and an eagerness to escape... He couldn't quite put his finger on it all.

After a few seconds of pause, Chen Fan nodded slightly and smiled, "A brave man cuts off his own arm; decisive. That's good."

If he doesn't resign now, but waits until after he graduates from university and then receives a transfer letter from the new employer, he can enjoy his original salary and benefits for those four years, which is much better than the 19.5 yuan per month school food and allowance.

But he didn't want to take advantage of his former employer, so making this decision in advance was nothing short of a brave sacrifice!
There are advantages to doing this. At the very least, it will save you a lot of trouble when you graduate, and you will be included in the first batch of job assignments.

With his 10 years of experience as a sent-down youth and his college entrance examination score of over 400, as long as he doesn't fall too far behind during his school years, he would definitely be sought after by relevant units. It can be said that he has both gains and losses.

(End of this chapter)