Chapter 86

The Capital Publishing House first published Zhou Cunren’s supplementary teaching books, and afterward the textbooks he compiled also began to come out one after another.

These books were distributed to various bookstores and happened to attract the attention of some middle school teachers.

The textbooks of the 1970s were written very poorly—the content was scattered and full of mistakes. Not to mention ordinary teachers, even experienced teachers who had graduated from key universities had to spend a lot of effort preparing detailed lesson plans before class.

But the textbooks written by Zhou Cunren were like a breath of fresh air, eye-catching and refreshing.

The education department organized several senior teachers to compile and review exam papers, and Zhou Cunren earned a place among them.

When Ye Qingshui and Xie Tingyu went to the hospital to visit the old man, they heard the news from his fellow patients. Ye Qingshui felt sincerely happy for Zhou Cunren.

“Teacher Zhou has really endured the hardships and finally seen the clouds part to reveal the moon.”

Indeed. Ye Qingshui still remembered the first time she had met this old man, his whole being exuding a dispirited aura of death, as if he were on the verge of suicide.

But looking at him now—even though ill—he was still vigorous and full of spirit, his face glowing with health.

Taking part in preparing and grading the university entrance examination was tough work. It meant enduring a one- to two-month period of complete isolation, and the stipend he would receive might not even cover a month of his medicine expenses. But the fact that the Ministry of Education had invited him meant that they recognized him as a person.

For Zhou Cunren, this was a form of affirmation.

It had nothing to do with background or family origin—this time, it was his knowledge that others acknowledged.

Hearing this, Zhou Ke teared up and stubbornly said, “Grandpa can’t leave the hospital.”

But Zhou Cunren only smiled, “I can. Grandpa will take his medicine on time.”

He urged the young couple, “Study well, strive to get into a key university.”

He patted Ye Qingshui on the shoulder, speaking with deep meaning: “Especially you.”

Getting into university was never easy; from the countryside, it was even harder than ascending to heaven. But Ye Qingshui was one of the rare gifted and diligent students Zhou Cunren had ever met. Such a fine seedling should not be buried in the village.

Moreover, in Zhou Cunren’s eyes, Xie Tingyu was not an ordinary person—his family background should be quite good. If Ye Qingshui gained the status of a university student, in the future no one would dare to look down on her.

With a stern face, Zhou Cunren said seriously: “If you don’t get into university, I’ll have no face to see you again.”

A warmth rose in Ye Qingshui’s heart, and she smiled brightly: “I will. I will never let you down.”

Zhou Cunren left the hospital and went to the provincial capital to work on the college entrance exam papers. Ye Qingshui also began the final sprint toward the exams.

She did not rely on her experience of having lived once before to underestimate the exams. On the contrary, she treated them with great importance—using even the gaps between meals and bathroom breaks to pull out her textbooks and recite.

The Ye family elders took the matter of the young couple taking the exam extremely seriously. The whole family was on edge. Even when Ye Qingshui tried to cook, Uncle Ye would chase her back to her desk to study.

The couple went through several rounds of practice papers compiled by Zhou Cunren. With her head start in review, Ye Qingshui outscored Xie Tingyu by dozens of points.

At that time, Xie Tingyu was just beginning to “neglect his proper duties,” building a biogas digester for the village.

After a month, Xie Tingyu freed up a little time and managed to review. Each time he showed great improvement, but he still made Ye Qingshui feel somewhat nervous.

By late October, the educated youth center in the village launched enthusiastic review classes and formed mutual-aid study groups.

The young couple from the Ye family each busied themselves with their daytime work, then lit lamps at home at night to supervise each other.

“How is it? Did I score better than Brother Yu this time?” Ye Qingshui propped her chin on her hands, sitting beside the man, nervously watching him grade paper after paper.

Xie Tingyu lightly uncapped his fountain pen and quickly compared the answers, his hand sweeping smoothly across the pages with checkmarks and notes.

The flickering lamplight swayed, casting shadows across his face.

His back was straight as a spear, his features even sharper, his brows gathered in focus, the two slightly raised eyebrows like strokes of ink across his temples. Two months of hard labor had darkened his skin; the muscles of his iron-like arms shone with a honey-colored sheen.

When he finished grading, he spread out his arm and easily pulled his wife into his embrace.

“Want to see for yourself?”

Ye Qingshui saw the number beginning with a nine, but instead of her usual excitement, she only felt the burning heat of that arm around her waist, like a branding iron.

Xie Tingyu bared his white teeth, ready to tease her, but as he lowered his head and looked at his wife, he saw her eyelashes trembling nervously.

The dusky lamplight fell on Ye Qingshui’s slightly flushed face, making her bloom as beautifully as a flower. At her age now, she was in her prime—having shed the greenness of a girl, she had gained a touch of womanly allure.

The sight made Xie Tingyu’s heart blaze; his throat tightened, his Adam’s apple bobbing unconsciously.

If last year he still thought of her as a tender seedling to be carefully nurtured, treating her like a younger sister—now he could no longer fool himself. What kind of “sister” made a man want to fuse her into his very bones the moment he touched her?

If not for the daytime labor exhausting most of his strength, and the nighttime cramming that left him collapsing into sleep, there would have been little chance of keeping such thoughts at bay.

At this moment, Xie Tingyu felt an awkward tension. He was certain his wife would push him away, yet he still could not bring himself to release her.

There was probably no man under heaven as pitiful as Xie Tingyu.

Ye Qingshui felt the constant heat flowing from his body and instinctively shifted backward a little.

Xie Tingyu hugged her close, resting his head against her shoulder. His husky voice, muffled through their clothing, rumbled low: “Don’t move. If I score higher than you this time, can’t I hold you a little longer?”

At his words, Ye Qingshui hesitated, somewhat stunned.

Looking into his dark eyes and the pitiful expression on his face, she could not bear to refuse. She thought of how, when she had been accused of having a miscarriage, he had trusted and defended her almost blindly. She touched his body now, hot as if burning…

Her heart felt warm and burning, and she struggled to avoid his blazing gaze.

Xie Tingyu spread out his hand, revealing two test papers.

Xie Tingyu: 96 points.

Ye Qingshui: 92 points.

With a lift of both arms, he easily pulled his wife into his embrace, holding her tightly and taking in a deep breath.

Suddenly, he asked her: “If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Shui’er once say she’d give me a surprise?”

“What’s the surprise?”

So far, all he had received was a shock—where was there any trace of a surprise?

Ye Qingshui leaned against his shoulder, her arms wrapped around his firm, hot waist. She couldn’t help but laugh:

“Mm… when the time is right, I’ll tell you then?”

She never expected that a promise she had casually made one night would be remembered so firmly by him. How could he know that, for the sake of that promise, she would have to give up the university she longed for—or at least postpone it for two years.

“Right now, your main task is to do well on the exam and strive to get into a key university. Grandma said there are plenty of people in the compound who look down on our family. Brother Yu, you’ve got to show them.”

Ye Qingshui slipped out of the man’s arms and vanished in a flash.

For the college entrance exam, the educated youth center lively established mutual-aid study groups.

Not just Ye Family Village—the whole country was swept up in the wave of restoring the university entrance exams. Hundreds of thousands of scholars were struggling hard for this precious opportunity.

Before the city library even opened its doors, long lines of students were already waiting outside, eager to borrow books and study inside.

Reading this news in the newspaper, Ye Qingshui couldn’t help sighing to the man: “Everyone is trying to make up for the time lost in those past years.”

She pointed at the paper, the glance at the corner of her eyes full of meaning.

Seeing this, Xie Tingyu couldn’t help but smile. Ever since Grandma had written to order him to take the exam seriously, his wife had been especially nervous.

He gave a firm cough and promised: “The work at hand is nearly wrapped up. Once it’s done, I’ll have free time—maybe even make it so Shui’er can review under bright lights.”

Ye Qingshui happily lifted her head. “Really?”

“Really. In a while, I’ll let you see for yourself.”

“Brother Yu, promise me—you’ll throw your whole heart into the exam this year.”

Hearing his wife’s words, Xie Tingyu felt a deep warmth. She rarely asked anything of him. He didn’t dare boast about other things, but when it came to studying, Xie Tingyu was confident.

Originally, he had planned to put in about eighty percent of his effort. Now, it became a full one hundred percent.

The tense atmosphere of exam preparation everywhere made the educated youth taking the exam that year value their studies even more.

Tightening their belts to buy reference books wasn’t enough; sacrificing labor time and seizing every spare moment wasn’t enough. At night, they even stayed up, forcing themselves to study as if suspending their heads from beams and pricking their thighs with awls. They wished a single day could be split into two.

This was the normal state of exam preparation for educated youth in the countryside.

Everyone knew that Xie Tingyu had been busy from dawn to dusk promoting the village’s biogas project, with no time to spare. Naturally, he had no chance to join the lively study group.

Many educated youth worried for him in secret, urging him to come to the center to study with them.

But there were also some who had always envied him, saying with ill intent: “He’s a cultured educated youth, isn’t he!”

A well-educated young man from the capital, now reduced to a buried farmhand toiling silently in the countryside—how many people were waiting to laugh at him?

Why was he working so hard—was he hoping that next year he might get a workers-peasants-soldiers university recommendation slot?

From the time the exam was announced until it was held, there was less than three months in between. One could imagine how difficult it was.

At the end of October, Xie Tingyu finally produced a biogas lamp.

For rural people, this news was even more important than the college entrance exam.

Before night had even fallen, the open ground of the village playground—usually used for meetings—was packed with people. They had all come to see the biogas lamp.

A high bulb was set up over the playground. The villagers who had brought flashlights all turned them off in tacit agreement. At the moment everyone was watching, Xie Tingyu calmly pressed the switch.

“Click.”

Bright light burst forth, dazzling the eyes. A sixty-watt glow lit up more than half the playground.

“Wah—!”

“There’s really a lamp!”

“My goodness, it looks brighter than a flashlight!”

“If you put this in a house, it’d be as bright as daytime!”

The village cadres looked at the bright biogas lamp, so happy they almost couldn’t speak. Their respect for Xie Tingyu reached its peak.

The scorching gazes cast upon him were so intense that Ye Qingshui thought these cadres practically wanted to hoist him up and carry him home to worship.

Inwardly, they couldn’t help but think: Educated Youth Xie’s ideological awareness is truly higher than others’. While the other educated youth are sharpening their heads trying to study for the exam, he sacrificed his review time to solve the villagers’ difficulties.

Everyone said this year’s exam was as hard as climbing to heaven. Since Educated Youth Xie was too busy to study, how could he possibly score well? They secretly decided: if he failed to get into university, then next year’s workers-peasants-soldiers recommendation slot would go to him!

If Ye Qingshui knew what the village cadres were thinking, she would probably be both amused and exasperated.

Clearly he was material for a provincial top scorer, yet he was being pitied as if he might not even pass the exam.

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