110: Chapter 109: Challenges Keep Coming 110: Chapter 109: Challenges Keep Coming On their way back to the Ten Miles Team, Wang Xixi looked at Lin Nianhe for a good while before finally couldn’t help but ask her, “Nianhe, are you and that Public Security comrade dating?”
Lin Nianhe imdiately shook her head: “No, he’s my childhood playmate, the boy next door.”
Lin Nianhe had been expecting this question for a long ti!
She knew Wang Xixi misunderstood, but it would obviously seem like she was guilty if she jumped out to explain herself.
Seeing her face full of candor, Wang Xixi couldn’t help but glance at her bicycle, “Then how dare you accept his bicycle?”
“Ah?”
Lin Nianhe was stunned for a mont before she laughed, “This might be considered a regional cultural difference.
Let tell you, in our compound, we can fight to death among ourselves, but if soone from another place cos to cause trouble, even with big grievances, we would join forces to deal with it.”
“It’s like helping each other… We grew up in the sa compound.
If I ask you for a favor, whether you can do it or not, you have to do it for , and if you don’t do it well, I still have to tease you about it.
So, often there’s not much politeness.”
What Lin Nianhe described was indeed the unique compound culture of Beijing.
The elders of these children worked in the sa units, and their forebears had fought and strived together, creating bonds since childhood that are naturally extraordinary.
Such unique emotional bonds seem almost incomprehensible to outsiders.
Wang Xixi was stunned for a long while, simply unable to figure out how to comnt.
Lin Nianhe looked at her and added, “Plus, I will pay him back.
I just didn’t bring money with today.”
Her money was all kept in her space; she could take it out anyti, but she couldn’t explain why she needed to bring so much money just to buy a notebook in town, so she could only delay the matter for now.
Finally, Wang Xixi slowly nodded, grudgingly accepting, “So, it’s actually just you giving him money, and he buys you a bicycle, right?”
Actually, there was still a difference.
Lin Nianhe said to herself.
Because he wanted to be in front of her.
But she was too lazy to explain further, smiling and nodding: “Yeah, that’s right.”
Wang Xixi stuck out her tongue and whispered, “I always thought he had feelings for you…
hehe, turns out friends from your place also take care of each other like this.”
Lin Nianhe: “…”
The little spark in her mind that had been extinguished for a long ti was rekindled with just one sentence from Comrade Daxi.
Could it be that Su Yuncheng actually liked her?
Oh no, liked the original host?
Lin Nianhe felt it was impossible for Su Yuncheng to like her.
What about her did he like?
The way she wielded the kitchen knife proficiently?
Suddenly, the bicycle handle she was holding felt a bit hot in her hand.
Her heart, a bit in chaos.
Lin Nianhe’s heart was quickly distracted by other matters.
Because she was delayed on the road, as soon as Lin Nianhe got back to the Educated Youth Corps and had barely taken a couple of bites of stead bun, she heard the gong for literacy class preparations.
That afternoon, Principal Wu and Li Dahe were not idle either.
They had moved the desks and chairs made by Second Uncle Li to the two rooms in the brigade’s building and set up two small blackboards, simply arranging the classrooms.
They also went door-to-door to tally up the exact number of literacy class attendees.
Excluding elders and children, as well as those who had been to school, the entire Ten Miles Team needed two hundred and one people to be literate, including one hundred and eight n.
Lin Nianhe: “Truly a number that suddenly makes you want to climb a mountain.”
Principal Wu: “…”
Lin Nianhe: “Principal, before class starts, do you want to chant a slogan?
Like ‘acting for heaven’?
Or should I donate another one hundred and nine flagpoles to you?”
Principal Wu patted her on the shoulder, glared at her, and asked, “You bought extra notebooks and pencils, what are you going to do with the rest?”
“I’ll give them to the kids as rewards when the elentary school starts,” Lin Nianhe said casually.
A notebook costs five cents.
As the richest in Ten Miles Team, Comrade Lin didn’t care about this small amount of money.
“That’ll do.”
Principal Wu didn’t use any superfluous words, just asked Lin Nianhe, “Have you decided what you want to teach everyone?”
Lin Nianhe answered seriously, “I made a call to my dad in the town this afternoon, and he told quite a bit about literacy classes.
I think I should know what to teach everyone.”
She understood what Mr.
Lin ant, which was to start with life and teach sothing down-to-earth.
“Right,” Principal Wu instructed, “Don’t be nervous, they are all aunties you are familiar with.
If you don’t know what to teach, just go with the basics like personal pronouns and numbers.”
“Okay.”
In fact, both of them were a bit nervous.
Lin Nianhe was nervous because it was her first ti on the podium, Principal Wu was worried that so people might not show up.
As it turned out, Principal Wu’s concerns were unwarranted.
The one hundred and eighty generals neatly packed into the temporary classroom, so even brought their own little stools, and those who really had nowhere to sit just stood aside.
It was the sa on Lin Nianhe’s side; Aunt Li had helped count the number of people on the way, not one was missing.
But Lin Nianhe’s nervousness had no outlet, she could only comfort herself: It’s fine, she’s seen the world, no matter how many aunties there are, they couldn’t possibly have questions as tricky as those professors during the thesis defense, don’t panic.
“Educated Youth Lin, what are we learning today?”
“Why do you talk so much nonsense?
Isn’t this obvious?
Teacher Educated Youth Lin is here to teach us to read and write, if you don’t know this then why are you even here?”
“Exactly, your mouth’s like the waistband of cotton pants, don’t start with all that trivial chit-chat…
Hey, Educated Youth Lin, how do you write ‘making a fuss over nothing’?”
Lin Nianhe: “…”
Heh, she would also like to know.
She didn’t even fully understand what those four words ant!
On July 18th, 1975, Lin Nianhe, who had been transported here for nearly three months, faced her first true challenge.
The na of this challenge was: The aning and written expression of Northeastern idioms.
Lin Nianhe, facing the aunties’ enthusiastic eyes, fell silent for a mont before breaking into a slight, gracious smile.
“Second Aunt Li’s question happens to be sothing I planned to bring up.”
Teacher Xiao Lin didn’t show the slightest hint of panic, her lips curved in a smile as if everything was according to her script.
“I would like to explain to everyone the difference between Mandarin and local dialects.”
“Our country is vast with abundant resources, there used to be a saying ‘the accent changes every ten miles’, this might not be very apparent in the Northeast, but in the South, it’s possible for dialects in villages just a few miles apart to be unintelligible to each other.”
“Without going too far, let’s talk about recently when Educated Youth Wen Lan spoke in her hotown dialect, none of the aunties could understand, right?”
Teacher Xiao Lin threw out the most convincing example.
When Wen Lan spoke her native Shaanxi dialect, she had indeed isolated everyone in the village.
The aunties nodded their heads in agreent, appearing impressed.
Lin Nianhe was quite pleased with everyone’s reaction and continued: “So, when people from all over the country co together, how should they communicate?
As early as the beginning of the century, ‘Mandarin’ was proposed, which is what Educated Youth Wen Lan uses to communicate with everyone normally.”
“Being able to speak a dialect is sothing to be proud of, but speaking good Mandarin is essential for communication.”
At this point, Widow Zhao couldn’t help but speak up, “I feel like what Educated Youth Wen Lan normally speaks doesn’t sound too different from us, right?”
“Exactly, so that ans we are speaking Mandarin, aren’t we?”
“We talk to Miss Lin and it sounds pretty similar, doesn’t it?”
“…”
On July 18th, 1975, Lin Nianhe, on her first day as a teacher, faced her second true challenge.
The na of this challenge was: Am I not speaking Mandarin?
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