Struggle Life in the 1970s

When we arrived at the school gate, many people had already entered the examination room.

Chu Ye did not waste any time. He said hello to Jianwen and Mu Jiajun, then went to school carrying his cloth bag.

Following the examination room number on her admission ticket, she quickly found the place, which was on the second floor of the school teaching building. There was already a teacher guarding the entrance of the examination room, reminding the candidates to take their stationery and enter the examination room.

When it was Chu Ye's turn, she handed over her admission ticket. After the invigilator carefully compared the real person and the photo, she emptied her pockets to confirm that she had no cheat sheets or the like, and was then allowed to enter.

More than half of the seats in the examination room were occupied, and there was an invigilator standing on the podium. Chu Ye had never seen this teacher before, so he must have been sent by another school to invigilate the exam.

After Chu Ye sat down, some more candidates came in one after another and soon the classroom was full.

Chu Ye sighed in her heart that there were so many people taking the exam, but she was not discouraged. Her hard work in the past few months made her believe that she was no worse than others.

After a while, the bell rang outside and the invigilator began to announce the examination rules and distribute the test papers. A few minutes later, another bell rang.

The invigilator said: Start answering the questions.

-

At the gate, after Chu Ye entered the campus, Jianwen originally wanted to take Mu Jiajun back with him, but he waved his hand to refuse, saying that he wanted to stroll around the town for a day and would leave in the afternoon when Jianwen came to pick him up.

After that, he took out five dollars from his wallet, handed it to Jianwen, and said with a smile that the bill was too heavy and that Jianwen had worked hard on his journey, and asked Jianwen not to mind him taking a ride in the morning.

Although this was said out of courtesy, it was somewhat awkward. Jianwen agreed to send Chu Ye to the exam out of kindness and did not want any reward.

So he refused decisively and hurriedly drove the ox cart back home.

Mu Jiajun was sitting at the school gate, and soon he was chatting animatedly with the security guard, Uncle Wang.

Uncle Wang also called him to a shady place and the two of them sat together.

Mu Jiajun is a cheerful person. As long as he wants to, he can quickly get along with others. Besides, he has a good appearance, so outsiders are willing to chat with him when they see him.

Half a day passed quickly, and just as Uncle Wang was talking about when he was young and he and a few young men from the same village hunted a wild boar in the mountains, the bell rang in the campus.

The first exam is over.

Seeing this, the two looked at each other. Uncle Wang stopped talking and told Mu Jiajun that he would continue to explain to him in the afternoon. Then he stood up and opened the school gate.

Mu Jiajun also found a small corner at the door and stretched his head to wait for Chu Ye to come out.

After a while, candidates came out like a stream of water, a sea of ​​people. Some had sad faces, while others talked in groups of three or five.

There were not many people waiting at the school gate, as most of the candidates came alone. Therefore, the scene of Mu Jiajun waiting for people at the school gate was particularly eye-catching.

Now there are several girls hiding far away, wanting to see who he is waiting for. Among them is the girl who was pulled by her companions - Qiao Mingzhu.

Qiao Mingzhu is from the next town. Her parents are both employees of a chemical factory. She has two older brothers and she is the youngest in the family.

In addition, there are few girls in this generation in the family, so she is also very loved at home.

Just like today, among a crowd of blue and green coarse cloth clothes, she was the only one wearing a white dacron shirt with small flowers and a pair of white shoes.

When she came out of the examination room just now, she attracted countless people's attention. After all, she was good-looking and fashionable, and was exactly the object of secret crush for adolescent boys.

Now she was suddenly pulled aside by a girl from the same village. She was a little unhappy at first, but when she saw Mu Jiajun's figure, she remained silent.

They all wanted to see who this man with a mixed-race face was waiting for.

Their curiosity soon got the answer.

The man, who was originally craning his neck to look at the campus, suddenly shook his arms and a bright smile broke out on his face. Then a thin girl ran up to him and the two of them started talking and laughing together.

After seeing the girl's appearance and the clothes she was wearing, Qiao Mingzhu and the others felt bored. They had thought that the girl this handsome guy was waiting for would be a beautiful lady from a good family, but she didn't look that good.

Qiao Mingzhu looked down at his shirt, then looked at Chu Ye's old coarse cloth clothes in the distance. He snorted coldly, turned around and walked towards the street.

Others followed her, whispering.

On this side, when Chu Ye stepped out of the school gate and saw Mu Jiajun, she was also very surprised. She thought that Mu Jiajun would go back with Brother Jianwen in the morning.

She originally planned to finish the exam in the morning, find a cool place at the school gate, eat some steamed buns, read some books, and then enter the examination room in the afternoon.

But now that she saw Mu Jiajun, she felt embarrassed to let Mu Jiajun squat with her at the school gate. Besides, she only had one steamed bun left, not enough to share.

She had no choice but to tell Mu Jiajun her original plan. However, Mu Jiajun was not surprised at all. He took the purse in his hand, walked out and asked Chu Ye to follow him to a restaurant.

"How can this be possible? You go, I'll just eat at the school gate." Chu Ye refused. She had no money on her and didn't want to eat out.

"No, you will definitely not be full with just one steamed bun. Besides, I can't just watch you eat steamed buns. I'll go to a restaurant." Mu Jiajun ignored her refusal and took her cloth bag while she was not paying attention, along with the steamed bun inside, and walked towards the town.

After walking a few steps, he turned around and urged, "Follow me, I've been hungry for a long time. Let's finish our meal quickly so you can read for a while longer."

Seeing Chu Ye still hesitating and struggling, he raised the cloth bag in his hand with a smug smile on his face, "Your steamed buns are here with me. If you don't eat, you won't get good grades in the exam if you're hungry in the afternoon. Besides, you don't need a meal since you owe me."

"If you want to pay me back, give me a big red envelope when you make money in the future. I'll make it clear in advance that I won't accept it if the red envelope is not full."

After saying that, he strode forward, leaving Chu Ye with a helpless smile behind him, and finally put aside his hesitation and followed him. Although there were students hiding in the shade along the way and eating their own lunch, there were also many who chose to eat in restaurants because their families gave them money.

Mu Jiajun found a noodle shop not far from the school, walked straight in, and ordered two bowls of shredded pork noodles.

Chu Ye just came over and had no time to refuse when she saw Mu Jiajun taking the change, finding a seat and motioning for her to sit down.

Chu Ye looked distressed, "I'll just have the clear noodle soup."

"No, that won't work. If my family finds out that I invited you to dinner and asked you to have clear soup, they will scold me." Mu Jiajun put down his bag and told Chu Ye to take a rest.

The two of them were still arguing about what kind of noodles to eat, but what they didn't notice was that the table next to them was filled with a group of people who were curious about who Mu Jiajun was waiting for at the school gate.

The moment Mu Jiajun stepped into the restaurant, a girl noticed him and motioned to the people at the table to look together.

The people at the table who were originally chattering about the morning exam suddenly became quiet when they saw Mu Jiajun and Chu Ye, and looked at their words and actions together.

When the noodles for the two were served, Chu Ye looked over and saw two bowls of steaming noodle soup, topped with a spoonful of fried golden shredded pork, mixed with green vegetables and shredded carrots. There were oil spots all around the bowl, which made people's appetites whetted just by looking at it.

Chu Ye was not hungry originally, but when he sat here and smelled the food, his appetite was immediately aroused.

Seeing that Mu Jiajun couldn't wait to start eating, Chu Ye also started eating.

"How is it? It tastes good, right?" asked Mu Jiajun.

The heat made Chu Ye's nose sweat and her originally pale face turned rosy. She nodded vigorously, but there was still noodles in her mouth so she couldn't speak. So she raised her thumb to express her approval to Mu Jiajun.

"Tsk, you're such a country bumpkin, you've never eaten good food." A female voice came from the side, but the tone of the voice was not pleasant.

Chu Ye swallowed what was in his mouth and turned his head, just in time to see a girl in a white floral shirt looking at him with an unhappy expression.

The man had an oval face, phoenix eyes, and upturned eye corners. He looked at people with an unconscious sense of arrogance. This man was Qiao Mingzhu.

Chu Ye looked at their table. The other girls all lowered their heads, wishing they could bury their faces in their bowls. Only Qiao Mingzhu glanced at them with disdain, then folded her arms across her chest, straightened her back, and glanced at Mu Jiajun with a hidden look in her eyes.

Chu Ye naturally also saw her actions. She glanced at Mu Jiajun who was sitting opposite her and concentrating on eating, then looked around herself, and finally confirmed that this person was talking about her.

She remembered the girl's clothes, and when she came out of the examination room, she saw the girl walking in front of her.

She looked at the girl carefully for a few times to confirm that she really didn't know her, and wondered why she suddenly targeted her.

But no matter why she targeted her, Chu Ye was not a pushover. She just buried herself in her studies in this life and didn't want to care about other things, but that didn't mean she was a pushover.

Chu Ye immediately fought back, "So you are a city person? Now you are still eating in the same restaurant with me, a country boy, and you don't seem that powerful."

Chu Ye didn't even look at her, he just kept talking to himself, but his voice was just loud enough for people at the next table to hear.

After saying that, she continued to eat. In her eyes, this bowl of delicious shredded pork noodles was like Chinese New Year, and she had to finish it well.

Opposite her, Mu Jiajun, who was eating peacefully, suddenly heard her talking. He looked up in surprise, frowned, and looked around, not understanding what was going on.

"You! If someone didn't pay for you, would you be able to afford it?" Qiao Mingzhu immediately fought back, but when she saw Mu Jiajun's gaze, she reached out to touch her hair, raised her chin, and snorted, "Who knows what your relationship is?"

This was said cryptically, but everyone present had been educated and no one was stupid, so they easily heard the hidden meaning: Who knows whether the two of you are having an improper relationship between a man and a woman.

Mu Jiajun understood now. Someone was saying bad things about them. He glanced at Chu Ye and saw that she was still eating and seemed not to want to bother with this girl anymore.

But Mu Jiajun was not a pushover, so he would not allow others to throw dirty water on him. So he said, "It was me who rushed to spend money on her, and as a brother I bought a bowl of noodles for my sister, and there were still people who complained."

He glanced at it briefly, then retracted his eyes, as if he didn't want to look any further. He continued, "Only those with unclean hearts will see everything as dirty."

After these words were spoken, the surroundings fell into silence, and no one dared to speak at this time.

Chu Ye's head was full of what Mu Jiajun had just said: These are noodles that the brother bought for his sister. She felt a little uncomfortable and subconsciously wanted to refute, but after thinking about it carefully, she felt that Mu Jiajun was not wrong.

He is indeed two years older than me, so it is reasonable to call him brother.

So she didn't refute and continued to eat noodles.

On the other side, Qiao Mingzhu felt angry when she saw that she was being humiliated. She was always flattered wherever she went and had never been treated like this before.

She spoke again, her voice becoming sharp, "You are not a gentleman!"

In her opinion, this sentence is a powerful weapon. In the past, whenever a boy treated her badly, she would say this sentence, and that boy would become more gentle to her.

But today she hit a hard wall.

Mu Jiajun never claimed to be a gentleman. He was spoiled by his family since he was young and always lived his life as he pleased.

Seeing that Chu Ye had eaten everything in his bowl, he stood up, picked up their bags, and walked out without even looking back, leaving a word.

"Gentlemanly manners are reserved for those who deserve them."

(End of this chapter)