binnovel Chapter 67 "Full of Love" - World Widows Raising Children 8
Chapter 67 "Full of Love" - World Widows Raising Children 8
In March of this year, Director Wang from the subdistrict office came with two staff members to inform us that grain would be rationed and distributed in a unified manner. Each household would be issued a grain ration book based on their household registration. At the end of each month or the beginning of the next month, they would go to the grain store to collect grain coupons based on the number of people listed on their grain ration book, and then use the grain coupons to buy grain at the grain store.
At that time, Liu Yuxi was only concerned with observing the Jia family's reaction. Anyway, the other matters would be discussed again at the general meeting in the courtyard later. Judging from the Jia family's reaction, Qin Huairu's household registration should have been transferred to the city, while Jia Zhangshi was still feeling regretful. It was estimated that only her household registration remained in the countryside. In this way, the Jia family's life should be better during the three years of hardship.
Sure enough, after Director Wang left, the three old men recounted the matter in detail again (the second set of RMB was also issued in February or March of 1955; the author has already listed the currency as the second set to save time, so this detail will not be repeated here). They reminded everyone to take their household registration booklets to the street office to apply for grain ration certificates as soon as possible.
I won't go into detail about the grain rations because I couldn't find a unified standard. Roughly on average, the rations ranged from 8 to 30 jin (4.5 catties) for children to adults, and a few jin (1.5 kg) for those with heavy physical labor. Of these rations, refined grains only accounted for a little over one-tenth, and most of them were coarse grains. Because they lacked oil and moisture, most adults couldn't eat as much as they wanted because the rations were insufficient.
Most families had to exchange refined grains for coarse grains to make up for their food shortages. Some families only saw white flour when they ate dumplings during the Lunar New Year. (First came grain coupons, then gradually meat coupons, vegetable coupons, non-staple food coupons, cloth coupons, etc. For convenience, they were standardized, and from then on, everything required coupons!)
The people in the courtyard had been mentally prepared before the New Year, so they accepted it relatively quickly. Except for Jia Zhangshi, who was still grumbling, everyone else made plans to go to the street office to get their grain ration certificates. Liu Yuxi also went with everyone else to get theirs.
Because Liu Yuxi had to organize her notes every night, Jian Guojian and Jian Dang were very self-motivated in their studies. Every day after dinner, they would sit at the table together and do their homework. After Liu Yuxi finished her work and checked their homework, she would review the day's lessons with them and then preview the next lessons. There wasn't much to learn in first grade, so Liu Yuxi taught them until the first semester's textbook was finished.
Thinking about it, there are only eleven years left until 66, and the current school system is still 6.3.3 (6 years of primary school, 3 years of junior high school, and 3 years of senior high school), which was only changed to 5.3.3 (5 years of primary school, 3 years of junior high school, and 3 years of senior high school) in 58. So either Jian Guo and his brother will attend a vocational school, or they will have to skip a grade. They will have to skip a grade, otherwise if they make plans at that time, they may risk being sent to the countryside.
So Liu Yuxi borrowed the first-grade textbooks for the second semester from Uncle San again. He had returned the first-grade textbooks he had borrowed before the start of the semester, since Yan Jiekuang was also in first grade this year and would need textbooks too. If they had old ones, they wouldn't need to buy new ones.
Although Liu Yuxi taught them in advance, she didn't force them to learn too quickly. She only continued learning after ensuring they had thoroughly mastered the material. She planned to let them skip grades as they could, and if that didn't work, she would have them try to get into a vocational school. In this way, the three of them progressed together. (Aside: The author believes that parents' "teaching by example" is extremely important. Simply telling them what is right and wrong, and how to do something, is useless. You have to demonstrate through your actions how you should do it to be convincing. For example, we all teach children to stop at red lights, go at green lights, and wait at yellow lights. If you're driving with a child, that's fine, but if you're riding an electric scooter with a child and you make them run a red light, their understanding will immediately change. Some parents teach their children not to lie, yet they also make their children lie to their spouses. What are they teaching their children?)
After Liu Yuxi thoroughly mastered the theoretical knowledge of the Level 2 fitter, Sister Chen arranged for her to practice. Because the operation techniques for Level 2 are more complex, even after diligently completing her daily tasks, she could only process a few Level 2 workpieces, so her progress was relatively slow. Of course, this was only her own perception; everyone in the workshop felt that she was making rapid progress.
By mid-June, when the new round of worker level assessments came around, Sister Chen intervened and had the workshop director register Liu Yuxi for the Level 2 fitter assessment. Naturally, Liu Yuxi passed. Now, Liu Yuxi and Jia Dongxu both earn 38.6 yuan a month, and Jia Dongxu feels immense pressure. If Liu Yuxi passes the next assessment while he doesn't, he'll lose face. Now, he stops bragging and joking at work. After completing his own tasks, he either helps the Level 3 fitter or chases after Yi Zhonghai with questions.
The moment the two of them got to work, the atmosphere in the entire workshop changed drastically. Now, everyone in Workshop One finished their tasks early and started honing their skills, hoping to improve even further in the next grading exam. Of course, the higher the fitter grading level, the harder it gets, but if you work hard, you'll improve and get promoted sooner, right? Whether others felt it or not, the workshop foreman was overjoyed. If they kept this up for a year, Workshop One would definitely win the workshop competition!
Time flies when you focus on something. When it came time for the year-end assessment, Liu Yuxi felt that her level 3 fitter skills were not yet proficient, so she did not apply. Jia Dongxu, on the other hand, applied but did not pass.
In the second half of the year, the textbooks for the founding of the nation and the Party were changed to simplified characters. When Liu Yuxi taught them again, he found it much easier, and the two brothers felt the same way, since traditional characters were too difficult to write. After a summer and a winter vacation of tutoring, when they enrolled again in 1956, Liu Yuxi enrolled the two brothers in the third grade.
During our free time, I either take them to the library to read or we go out to play. When they come back, we talk about our experiences. They're not good at writing, and their vocabulary isn't great, so we focus on speaking first to improve their vocabulary and language expression. Now, both kids have a larger vocabulary than some middle school students. There will definitely be an exam when they register, since it's a grade skipping program.
After the founding of the nation and the founding of the party, the other children in the courtyard were unlucky and were forced to study hard by their parents. Liu Yuxi felt that if all the children in the courtyard continued to study hard like this, what kind of story would there be? Everyone would become a talent.