CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 40: THE START OF SCHOOL

"Why did I call you? I knew you were surely doing chores for your family. But don’t worry about waiting; what’s the rush? From now on, we can go to and from school together and save a lot of time."

Gu Juying was a straightforward girl, perhaps due to her family’s influence. She always carried a kind of spirited courage and was bold in manner.

On her back, Gu Juying had a brand-new army green backpack, and Gu Xiaoqing knew it must have been sent from the army by her dad.

"But you can’t always be the one who’s tired. How about this? Next time during the break, you teach me to ride a bicycle, and then we can take turns giving each other rides, so neither of us has to be the only one exhausted."

Gu Xiaoqing actually knew how to ride a bicycle. After all, by the time she returned, bicycles were no longer rare; everyone on the street could ride them.

Gu Xiaoqing said this to find an excuse for herself to learn to ride a bicycle later. She couldn’t be seen as an oddball.

Gu Juying readily agreed.

"Xiaoqing, what happened this time? I’ve heard about it—a turnaround victory for your family, defeating your grandparents and second uncle completely. It’s spread all over the village, saying your fighting spirit is fierce, that you are possessed by Mu Guiying."

Gu Juying was indeed curious. During the break, her brother and father from the army took her to live there for a while. She only returned when school was about to start, and that’s when she heard the villagers talking about how ferocious Gu Xiaoqing was.

They said that she made the biased old men and women in the Gu Family speechless and even reclaimed the money her second uncle borrowed from them. All these events intrigued Gu Juying greatly.

This friend of hers, Gu Juying, knew well. Though they both had the surname Gu, Gu Xiaoqing’s temperament, when speaking kindly, was gentle; when not so kindly, was timid, fearful of conflict—she avoided trouble faster than a mouse.

This time, being spoken of as so valiant, no wonder Gu Juying was eager to discover the truth.

Everyone has a heart for gossip.

Especially with such a drastic change, how could Gu Juying not be curious?

Gu Xiaoqing smiled and said, "Don’t believe their nonsense. It was just my grandparents who came to our house insisting my dad not let me go to school and make me work in the fields. I refused. It was actually the village elder who came back to take charge of the situation; otherwise, my grandparents wouldn’t have let it slide so easily."

Gu Xiaoqing brushed it off lightly. What more could she say?

Many people knew about the family’s troubles.

Gu Juying sighed and said, "Indeed, with grandparents like yours, there’s no limit to their bias. If you didn’t resist, your dad would certainly have listened to them, and that would have been the end for you.

Let me tell you, schooling brings great prospects. My brother said if you go to university, you’ll become talented, capable in the future.

Besides, your grades are good. If you focus on your studies, you’re sure to get into college. Even becoming a teacher is better than digging soil in the village.

Don’t be like those shortsighted ones thinking about getting married right now. Those people lack vision. The city is wonderful; I’ve seen it this time—cars, apartment buildings, shiny black asphalt roads, city people dressed cleanly and neatly with different accents."

Gu Juying passed on her experience. In her view, Gu Xiaoqing should have ambitions and feared her friend might be held back by her grandparents, so she spared no effort depicting the beauty of city life to attract Gu Xiaoqing’s imagination.

Gu Xiaoqing had already understood Gu Juying’s intentions and laughed as she replied, "Got it, mother hen. I’ll study well. If not to become a city person, at least to be knowledgeable enough not to be cheated."

Soon, the two arrived at school, in just half an hour.

This was the village’s middle school, and conditions weren’t great. There were only four classrooms; actually, two were classrooms, and the other two were for the principal’s office and the teacher’s office.

Most that could be done was in front of the four rooms—a spacious grain-drying yard, also serving as the students’ playground.

An old bell was hung under the porch in front of the classrooms, ringing slightly with the wind—this was the class bell.

Beside the principal’s office door hung a wooden plaque with "Sishui Middle School" written on it.

This was the only middle school for the villages here.

Just middle school, with only two classes.

Sometimes, the number of students couldn’t even fill these classes.

In this era, most people didn’t value compulsory education much, especially for girls.

Many girls would find it good enough to attend elementary school.

For rural people, being able to read words and calculate accounts was quite satisfactory.

Girls still had to marry. To them, daughters of the family weren’t truly one’s own; why spend a fortune on their education?

Even boys weren’t flooding middle schools.

After all, the lack of labor was a concern—families thought teenage boys could work in the fields, so who’d let them waste time at school?

Therefore, only a few came to study.

When Gu Xiaoqing and Gu Juying arrived, the classroom doors were already open, with a few scattered students cleaning.

Gu Juying locked her bicycle outside the classroom, beside another one, which didn’t seem to belong to a student, but a teacher.

The two girls walked into the classroom, and Gu Xiaoqing saw a familiar face—it was Weimin, a boy from the neighboring village, Liujiawan. Gu Xiaoqing knew him because Liujiawan was the hometown of her second aunt, and Jiang Weimin was her second aunt Jiang Xiulan’s brother’s son.

Jiang Weimin noticed Gu Xiaoqing too, but didn’t even look up, continuing with his sweeping, clearly not planning to associate with her.

Gu Xiaoqing also kept silent. She hadn’t intended to be a popular person in life, so she didn’t care about greetings.

Among the others was two girls, Liu Meixian and Li Fengyun, both from Jiang Weimin’s village. But evidently, they didn’t know about Jiang Weimin and Gu Xiaoqing’s relationship.

Seeing two more girls made them happy to introduce themselves. After all, they were classmates for the next three years.

Everyone was new, eager to form good relationships.

Gradually, students from each village arrived.

Gu Xiaoqing realized there were sixty students in a class.

But, in reality, these sixty included twenty from seventh grade, twenty from eighth grade, and twenty from ninth grade.

All attending classes together.

The class was quite mixed.