Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 58 Yenching University, A New Beginning! (Please continue reading!)

The registration point for Yenching University students was the main dining hall, which not only served as a place for students to eat but also functioned as the school's auditorium and cinema. From the outside, it looked like a large tiled building, with firewood piled up next to the entrance and soot marks on the walls.

Inside, supported by wooden beams, the room was already packed with people. Liu Yimin and Liu Zhenyun found the registration area for the Chinese Department, handed over their admission notices, grain ration transfer certificates, and other documents to the teacher in charge of registration. After verifying the information and filling in their names, their registration was complete.

"Hey, fellow villager, do you have five yuan? I'll lend it to you first, and I'll pay you back when we get to the dorm!" Liu Zhenyun said awkwardly to Liu Yimin. Students had to pay a five-yuan deposit to get a wooden stool, which could be used in the dorm or in the dining hall when movies were being shown.

Liu Yimin nodded and took out a ten-yuan note from his pocket: "Teacher, this is for both of us."

After paying, a dark-skinned, thin senior student handed each of them a stool and instructed them, "Make sure you keep the wooden stools safe, or you won't get a refund if you lose them! My name is Chen Jiangong, a senior from the Chinese Department. You can come to me if you need anything."

Liu Zhenyun pulled Liu Yimin aside and whispered, "Senior Brother Chen Jiangong, I've read his novels in magazines. He was already a writer before he started school."

"Oh!"

Liu Zhenyun thought Liu Yimin didn't know the gravity of the situation and wanted to say a few more words, but Chen Jiangong, who was distributing stools, overheard him.

He turned to Liu Zhenyun with a flourish: "Junior brother, you can say it out loud, yes, I am Chen Jiangong. I dare not call myself a writer, but I have published a few articles."

Last year, when the college entrance examination was reinstated, many of the students who entered the Chinese Literature Department were already quite well-known. Before going to school, Chen Jiangong, like his older brother Liu Yiguo, was a coal miner. Now 29 years old, he said that it was difficult to find a partner while mining coal, so when introducing himself, he said that he worked at the "Ferrous Metallurgical Powder Research Institute".

The two greeted Chen Jiangong and then turned to line up to get their meal tickets. At Yenching University, students could receive a minimum monthly stipend of 14.5 yuan, of which 12 yuan was for food and 2.5 yuan was for pocket money.

Those who had worked for several years before going to university and still received a monthly salary were considered the elite among students.

For staple food, the boys get 36 jin (13 catties) of food per month, plus some vegetable tickets. With 36 jin of staple food, they'd have to figure out how to eat their fill. Holding their colorful meal tickets, the two started looking for their dormitories and were assigned to the same room.

The boys' dormitory is located on the north bank of Weiming Lake. It is collectively known as "De Cai Jun Bei Zhai" and is a classical architectural complex in the style of the Ming and Qing dynasties, consisting of seven courtyards. It is a brick-concrete structure with a powerful and vigorous design, full of masculine energy.

With its green tiles, white walls, red pillars, pavilions, doors, windows, and various carvings, the courtyard house inherits the tradition of traditional courtyard houses, but also bears obvious traces of Western culture.

"Wow, the place they live in is like a palace," Liu Zhenyun exclaimed, standing to the side with his carrying pole, yielding to pedestrians.

They lived in dormitory 308 on the third floor of Junzhai. When they went in, there were already people inside. It was a six-person dormitory, but the wooden boards on two of the beds had been removed.

"Hello, my name is Li Xueqin. I am from Zhejiang Province. I used to be a production team leader. My college entrance examination score was 373, which made me the top liberal arts student in our region."

"Hello, my name is Chen Dazhi. I didn't do very well on the exam. I used to be a carpenter!" Chen Dazhi had thick lips and spoke with great force, but his accent was also very heavy, like someone from Jincheng.

"My name is Liu Zhenyun. I scored 397 on the exam. I'm from Henan Province and I served in the army!"

Seeing that they wanted to speak, Liu Zhenyun quickly said, "I'm not number one, he's number one!"

"397 isn't the best in the region?" Li Xueqin couldn't believe it. Since the migration of people from the south, the academic performance of students from the south has been superior to that of students from the north. He already had a score of 373, so this was 397 and he still wasn't the best.

"Hmm, he got 451!" Liu Zhenyun thought that this score was inhuman. He got 89 in math, which was already very impressive. Most people got 30 or 40. He got ahead of others by doing math. When asked how much Liu Yimin got, he replied 91!

Silence. The entire dormitory was deathly silent. The person from Henan Province had first played a "2," then a pair of royal flushes, leaving everyone bewildered. After that, they didn't even bother to ask Liu Yimin's name or grades.

After a while, the four of them became acquainted, and Li Xueqin, while smoking, angrily told them that back in the production team, he was qualified to become a worker-peasant-soldier university student, and his academic score was the highest in the commune, but someone else took his place. He thought he had no hope in this life, but unexpectedly, the college entrance examination was reinstated, and that's how he got the opportunity to go to university.

After introducing himself, Chen Dazhi remained silent. Liu Yimin later learned that this was because the Jincheng dialect was only spoken to people from Jincheng!

Worker-peasant-soldier students were admitted through recommendation, and while academic performance was still required, it had a very low impact on admission. Yenching University still has a class of worker-peasant-soldier students from the class of '76, who are taught by professors in the Chinese Department, and they still have to start learning grammar.

The quality of students taking the college entrance examination in 77 was slightly better, but there were still many students with poor foundations. In the classroom test at the beginning of the semester, some people did not know who "Han Yu" was.

After making the bed, Liu Yimin lay down on the top bunk to test it out and thought it was okay. Turning his head, he saw Liu Zhenyun on the next top bunk taking out a bird's nest. After a while, under Liu Yimin's disgusted gaze, Liu Zhenyun took out a rough five-yuan note from the bird's nest and handed it to Liu Yimin. The note was dirty, and the sweat from his hands seeped into the banknote, giving off a foul "money" smell.

“Fellow villager, you should learn from me. Money is easy to lose if you keep it in your bag. Do you know why I put it here?” Liu Zhenyun moistened his finger with saliva, counted the money in his pocket, and put it back into the bird's nest after confirming that there was nothing in it.

"Because it's sensitive!"

"Yes, I can feel it even when someone touches me lightly. This is an experience I learned when I returned home from the army."

After making his bed, Liu Yimin prepared to go buy some things. He called Liu Zhenyun along, even though Liu Zhenyun didn't have much to buy. However, since they were the only two people from the same hometown in the dormitory, he wanted to make the most of their relationship.

At the Yenching University supply and marketing cooperative, to Liu Zhenyun's incredulous gaze, Liu Yimin bought soap, a mirror, a kettle, a thermos, toothpaste, towels, and other daily necessities.

Some of the votes were thanks to Comrade Lao Zou.

"Comrade, another box of Seagull shampoo." Liu Yimin always felt uncomfortable washing his hair with soap.

Liu Yimin bought two boxes of face cream and gave one to Liu Zhenyun. Liu Zhenyun insisted on accepting it, but Liu Yimin insisted. I don't know what the dormitory rules were like in the 70s, but in a 21st-century boys' dormitory, your toiletries don't belong to you, they belong to everyone.

Liu Yimin didn't want to share a box of face cream with others, and on the other hand, he also quite liked Liu Zhenyun.

"Wow, you're really rich! How did you manage to buy so much stuff? You could have used that money to buy a few magazines!"

Liu Yimin looked back at him and smiled even more broadly. Buying magazines—by all accounts, Liu Zhenyun was practically his customer.

Liu Zhenyun felt that his first lesson in college was taught by Liu Yimin. Seeing the female classmate next to him constantly chewing something, Liu Zhenyun stared at her intently for a few moments, his small eyes filled with great confusion.

Catching up with Liu Yimin, he asked, "Why are the girls in Yanjing like cows in the production team, always chewing?"

Thank you all for your monthly tickets and recommendation tickets! I'd also like to ask for your votes! Have a great weekend, and thank you all for your support!
(End of this chapter)