Rebirth: Starting from a Trainee Teacher

Chapter 2 Let’s break up

"It's good to be a high school teacher. Not everyone can get into an experimental middle school now. Fresh graduates usually don't even consider it. A high school classmate of mine at the University of Foreign Languages ​​paid someone to get in but didn't get in."

Liu Hanyu was very envious. It was really great to be a formal teacher in a key middle school in the city.

"How much is your classmate going to spend?"

Zhou Jing asked curiously.

"Twenty thousand. Have you found someone?"

Liu Hanyu counted on two fingers.

"No, maybe it's because I went to an experimental high school!"

Zhou Jing was also very curious about why Experimental Middle School hired him directly without even having to go through an interview.

"Okay, your school is much better than the University of Foreign Languages. When are you going to Yu City?"

Liu Hanyu sat by the stream with her skirt lifted up, picking up small stones and throwing them into the river to splash water on Zhou Jing.

"Go home for a few days tomorrow, and go up on August 1st or 2nd. Where are you going to find a job?"

Zhou Jing's home is in Qing County, and he plans to go to the city to rent a house in August. The teacher dormitory provided by the school is a townhouse with no toilet or bathroom. It is okay to live there occasionally, but it will be inconvenient for a long time.

"I will take the civil service exam first. The national exam will be in December, and the provincial exam will be in April next year."

Liu Hanyu studied accounting and wanted a more stable life. There were no good companies to work in after graduation if she returned to Yulin City.

"You can also try to take the civil service exam. After all, teachers have time to read books and the learning environment is good. Our high school Chinese teacher passed the exam and became a civil servant of the Municipal Education Bureau while working. He is very impressive. I heard that he ranked first in the written test for that position. The school didn't want to let him go. Our Chinese teacher even made a scene in the principal's office."

Liu Hanyu added.

"Come on, help me when you become an official."

After washing his feet, Zhou Jing washed his face with stream water.

Zhou Jing would not consider being a civil servant. He would rather be a teacher than a civil servant.

Teaching at least allows you to maintain the knowledge system you have learned so that you don’t forget everything a few years after graduation.

"I'm not destined to be an official. If I could pass the exam to become an ordinary clerk, my ancestors would be very proud." Liu Hanyu sighed, stretched out her wrist in front of Zhou Jing and complained, "I pinched it yesterday and it still hurts."

"More delicate than Lin Daiyu, pick me a tomato."

Feeling a little thirsty, Zhou Jing looked towards the vegetable garden of Liu Hanyu's grandmother's house above the river. The tomatoes there were big and red.

"go alone."

"I'm sorry."

"Are you still embarrassed?" Liu Hanyu said, and went to the vegetable garden to pick two tomatoes. He washed them in the small pond outside the well next to the river. He ate one and gave one to Zhou Jing. "The day before yesterday, I saw such a thick snake with mottled skin swallowing a frog by the well. I was so scared that I dared not walk in the grass."

"I'm afraid of snakes, too."

Zhou Jing admires some young men in the countryside who knock snakes unconscious and put them in glass bottles to make wine.

Once when he was pouring wine into the bottle, the snake woke up and struggled wildly in the bottle, which made Zhou Jing's scalp tingle.

"How about you go home the day after tomorrow? Tomorrow I will accompany my grandparents to the market in town, and the day after tomorrow I will go to my second aunt's house in the city, and then we will go to Yushi together in August."

Liu Hanyu's home is in Yushi City. She originally wanted to stay at her grandmother's house for a few more days, but it was too comfortable in the countryside and she couldn't concentrate on reading at all.

"Row."

It doesn't matter if Zhou Jing stays one more day.

A strong wind blew from the river, rustling the willow trees, and Liu Hanyu's skirt flew up.

Liu Hanyu quickly held the hem of her skirt with her knees, and found that she was being stared at by a pair of eyes. She said unhappily, "I'll dig your eyes out."

"You won't lose anything by taking a look."

Zhou Jing smiled and said.

"You are becoming more and more dishonest. Does your girlfriend know that you are so naughty?"

Liu Hanyu bit her lip and said.

"There was a girl in the village named Xiaofang. She was pretty, with big, beautiful eyes and long, thick braids. The night before you returned to the city, you and I came to the river."

Zhou Jing sat on a stone warmed by the sun, looking at two village girls whistling on the road on the other side of the river.

The other party looked back, and one of the aunties said who was this boy, so handsome, another auntie said he seemed to be He Caixia's grandson, and a college student, and another auntie went on to say he had a bright future.

College students in remote rural areas are rare these days.

Zhou Jing's whistle stopped abruptly. He was really embarrassed now.

"Goose goose goose Zhou Jing, you don't even let the rural aunt go."

Liu Hanyu held it in for a second but couldn't help laughing out loud like a goose, holding her stomach and bending over with laughter.

"The rural aunts are wearing such fashionable clothes."

Zhou Jing thought she was a young woman. His high school classmates often joked that a farmer had a little farmland, and Zhou Jing also thought that such a rural life was ideal.

"Who says country people can't be fashionable? The corn is all wilted in the sun. My grandfather said that if the wind in the ditch blows forward, it will rain soon, but if it blows backward, there will be no rain. Now it is blowing backward, and I don't know when it will rain."

Liu Hanyu stopped laughing, looked at the green cornfield on the dam, and pointed at the willow treetops swaying in the wind.

"You're a liberal arts major, don't you have a more professional explanation?"

Zhou Jing complained.

"The wind is southeast in front and northwest in the back. Can you tell the directions now?"

Liu Hanyu threw the remaining piece of tomato at Zhou Jing's feet.

"Doesn't the sun rise over there?"

Zhou Jing pointed in the direction of the second uncle's house across the street.

"Oh, left is west, right is east, that's south, so the wind blowing forward is definitely southeasterly." Liu Hanyu roughly confirmed the direction and understood. She looked at the child eating popsicles outside the store and said, "I want to eat popsicles, too. Do you have money?"

"No."

Zhou Jing is penniless now.

After sitting on the river bank for a while, Zhou Jing and Liu Hanyu went back to their grandmother's house.

Grandma made cold noodles for Zhou Jing today. In the past few days, grandma has made all kinds of delicious food for Zhou Jing, including jelly made from potato starch, cold noodles made from buckwheat noodles, and date paste cakes made by grandma herself. It is a unique delicacy.

All vegetables including cucumbers, coriander, tomatoes, peppers, etc. are grown in our own vegetable garden and are fresh and hygienic.

The elderly in the countryside are very homesick. My grandfather passed away early. Zhou Jing's family and uncle's family are both in the county town. He was very worried about his grandmother being alone in the village, so he asked her to move in with him many times, but she refused to go anywhere.

Zhou Jing could understand that city dwellers envied the pastoral life in the countryside.

"Grandma, stop busying yourself. I'll cut it."

Zhou Jing washed his hands in the water tank in the yard. After drying the water in the tank for half a day, it was ready for bathing. He returned to the house and started cutting cold noodles by himself.

"Don't cut your hand off."

While the old lady was talking, she had already cut three sheets of cold noodles.

"I'll do it. Grandma, sit down and rest for a while."

Zhou Jing helped the old lady sit on the kang, first mixed a portion of cold noodles and handed it to her, and then picked up a date paste cake.

"Half of a pancake is enough for me. By the way, I received Yuanyuan's high school admission letter. I think it's the No. 10 Middle School in Yu City. Your aunt asked you how the school is. I wonder if you can transfer to the Experimental Middle School?"

The old lady said while eating cakes.

"How many points did Yuanyuan get in the exam?"

Yuanyuan is my uncle’s daughter, Wu Yuan. My aunt had already taken notice of Zhou Jing before he even started working at the Experimental Middle School.

"522 points."

"It's a bit difficult to transfer to an experimental middle school. I haven't started working yet, so how can I have such a big face? The 10th Middle School is also good."

Zhou Jing took a small stool and sat by the stove, eating some cold noodles and some date paste cakes, which were better than any delicacies from land and sea.

The old lady understood and said, "I also told your aunt that you don't know anyone since you haven't started working yet."

"I won't go back tomorrow. I'll go back the day after tomorrow and talk to my uncle."

Grandma wouldn't understand what happened at school, so Zhou Jing didn't say much.

Today is the fourth day of the cold war between Zhou Jing and Chen Jiaqian after their quarrel. It is not a good idea to keep leaving them alone like this. In the afternoon, Zhou Jing found a place with a cell phone signal and hesitated whether to send a text message or make a phone call.

After hesitating for a while, he dialed Chen Jiaqian's number.

"what's up?"

Ten seconds later, the girl's lukewarm voice came.

"Let's part ways in peace!"

Zhou Jing went straight to the point without any reluctance.

"Are you serious?"

There was an obvious fluctuation in Chen Jiaqian's voice, and it could be heard that she was trying hard to control her emotions.

"Seriously."

Zhou Jing answered directly and clearly.

"Then let's divide it!"

There was silence for three or four seconds, and then Chen Jiaqian's voice was heard again, again without any extra words.

(End of this chapter)