CHAPTER 806: CHAPTER 767: FAMINE ERA 8 (SECOND UPDATE)

Without a proper mattress for the school bed, she folded the worn-out mattress to make do.

Now that the weather is gradually warming up, there’s no need for a thick quilt; she found a relatively thin one. In this era, there weren’t large quilts, usually, they were 1.2 or 1.5 meters. It was just about right for her alone. She changed into a threadbare yet clean quilt cover, with a worn-out sheet over it, packaged and done.

She tidied this up with Mom after returning home.

That night, everyone at home knew she was going to the City to take care of the old professor, except for Grandpa and Father, no one knew she was going there to study.

School had six days of classes each week, with one day off. Though it was a small county, each class had thirty students.

On Wednesday morning, Father helped her carry the quilt, slung the army-green small school bag that Grandpa and Father secretly bought her, and under the family’s gaze, she left home, was sent to school, and met the teacher; anyone who was a teacher at that time was referred to as ’teacher.’

Unlike what she saw in the Republic-era TV dramas, where women mainly wore cheongsams or blue blouses with black pleated skirts, male students wore black school uniforms, junior high students wore boy scout uniforms, and high school students had military training uniforms; female students wore blue tops and black pants.

Those were the standards in large cities like Shanghai, but back in the small rural county places, not only were there no uniforms, the students’ clothing resembled ordinary local folks. Some even wore patched clothes like hers, and among them, boys were more numerous than girls. It was clear that boys were considered more suited for studying, while the idea that women without talent were virtuous had deeply rooted itself into their hearts.

After boldly introducing herself, she was arranged in the last row. In terms of height, she was not the tallest, and in age, there were even older ones. Because in this era, studying was not like in her previous life where everyone had to attend school; here, it was conditional—if conditions allowed, one studied; if not, one took a break. Whenever the economy permitted, one came back, regardless of age, so some elementary students over ten were still attending, which was perfectly normal.

Each morning consisted of three classes, with one outdoor activity class.

Even as a transfer student, wasn’t much noticed in the class, because she didn’t look good and dressed plainly.

Furthermore, their class was seated one person per desk, with a total of thirty people. She was assigned there since a student had dropped out earlier, leaving a vacant spot.

Generally, there were two classes per grade, and in her class, including herself, there were only four girls, giving her the impression of attending a boys’ school.

At noon, when she returned to the dormitory, she realized the girls’ dormitory was the only one in the entire school with thirty beds. After she joined, there were just twenty-six people, making it evident how rare girls at middle school were. Generally, if a girl could attend a higher elementary school, the family was considered benevolent. In such small places, letting girls attend junior high school meant the family conditions were usually good, but her conditions were the worst among them.

The school offered very few classes because there weren’t many teachers. National Language, Mathematics, History, along with Writing Practice and Calligraphy were the focus. Of course, there were also art, physical education, and music as auxiliary subjects. Being a small place, there wasn’t English, unlike in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing where there was English.

In the Republic, they were still using brushes; those with better conditions had pencils and fountain pens. Calligraphy practice involved writing large characters, which required brushes. Other classes might use quill pens or fountain pens. She had spent one silver coin to equip herself with affordable quill pens, writing paper, brushes, ink, etc. Combined, it cost one silver coin, which would suffice for a month, after which she’d need to buy more writing paper.

She didn’t dare to write too beautifully, but with a solid foundation, it was hard even if she tried to write poorly.

During the period of the Republic of China, emphasis was placed on literature, for instance, a scientist might be admitted to Tsinghua despite scoring zero in mathematics because of their excellent writing.

Moreover, during this time period, there were numerous literati, figures like Lu Xun, Ba Jin, and Guo Moruo, each of whom were influential figures in the literary world of her past life.

Thus, aside from offering National Language classes, they also provided calligraphy and writing practice, the former requiring you to master character writing, the latter specifically evaluating your literary skills. If your National Language skills weren’t good, and you struggled with history, achieving significant success was difficult, because the literature of this era was imbued with national characteristics, requiring one to learn history thoroughly.