Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 142

Jiang Ning was in the competition class, and she had to go to the clothing store to help on weekends. She was too busy, and there was no time to teach her. She was too embarrassed to bother Jiang Ning all the time.

She wanted to drop out of school.

She lowered her head and took Jiang Ning’s hand. “Thank you for staying with me some time ago.”

Her eyes were red. “I just graduated from junior high school, and someone came to my house to propose marriage. My dad wanted to get me engaged, but my second sister didn’t agree and insisted that I go to school. When I was admitted to No. 1 High School, she said that she would be willing to do anything to let me go to No. 1 High School.” 

He Xiaofang fell into self-doubt. “But I’m really tired from studying. I don’t know if I can get into college. If I don’t, it won’t be worth the tuition fees paid by my second sister.”

Other classmates went home on Saturdays and Sundays, but she didn’t dare to go home.

On one hand, the three sisters lived in one room, and her little nephew lived there. On the other hand, she was afraid that if she went back, her father would want her to get engaged to the man. Then the man would not let her study.

She was worried every day that she would not be able to go to college, that she would be sorry for what her second sister had done for her, and that she would be like her eldest sister, who got married early and had a child but was then driven back by her husband’s family. She was anxious and scared.

She wanted to drop out of school, but she didn’t dare.

Jiang Ning waited quietly for her to finish. In fact, He Xiaofang’s situation was very common in rural areas. During the years she worked, she had seen too many He Xiaofangs. Even after the millennium, when Jiang Ning went to work, she once met a junior high school colleague whose family had engaged her as a little girl and planned to have her marry as soon as she graduated.

The little girl was also ignorant. People around her said that the man would be good to her, so she shyly listened to the arrangements given by her family and got ready to get married.

Jiang Ning said, “In the second year of high school, the class can be divided into liberal arts and science. You can choose the liberal arts that you are good at, so that you can have more time and energy to improve your grades.”

She was not worried about English. Their class teacher, Teacher Wang, was quite good at teaching English. After most of the semester, He Xiaofang, who never dared to speak English, did so. Even if she still stuttered and had a heavy accent, it was a big progress.

Besides, they were Chinese. Didn’t everyone speak English with a local accent?

Jiang Ning’s accent was stronger than theirs in her previous life. After all, the dialect of Shuibu Town was a dialect among dialects, and even the locals in Wucheng found it incomprehensible.

“If you are worried about your grades and not being able to get into university, then you can look into the Normal College in our city. After dividing into liberal arts and sciences, with your grades, it is still possible to get into the Normal College. After graduation, you may get the best job allocation, and if not, you can work hard to get a job.” Her voice was gentle and calm, just like with every girl she had encouraged at work over the years. “Otherwise, you have to go back to your original world, repeat what your parents did, and live a life you have seen since childhood.”

He Xiaofang shuddered when she thought of the little girls in her village who got married and had children at the age of seventeen or eighteen and who visited the house with a baby in their arms at a young age. 

She shook her head, saying, “I don’t want it.”

“Yes, if you don’t want to, then just run in another direction and work hard. Keep going and don’t look back.” She held He Xiaofang’s hand.

The confusion and hesitation in He Xiaofang’s heart dissipated unconsciously, and she said with tears in her eyes, “Ning Ning, thank you.”

She didn’t know why she told Jiang Ning what she was thinking. Maybe her intuition let her know that Jiang Ning would be willing to listen.

After studying for more than half a semester, Jiang Ning was much more comfortable with mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

When she was free during lunch break, she took the opportunity to give a lecture to He Xiaofang, and Xu Xiuli was with them.

Although her grades in all subjects were very good, she was still far behind Jiang Ning, who directly rose to second in the class by nearly 60 points. Although she understood many of the things Jiang Ning told He Xiaofang, hearing it from Jiang Ning again made her feel enlightened as if her mind had been opened.

When she was lecturing on the topic, everyone in the dormitory who had been taking a lunch break, chatting, or reading, gathered around unknowingly, listening to Jiang Ning’s soothing and gentle voice as she lectured on the topic. She spoke very carefully, step by step. She would pause and ask He Xiaofang softly from time to time, “Do you understand?”

If any of them had attended Teacher Xia’s class at No. 1 High School, they would have found that Jiang Ning and Teacher Xia were very similar in the way they lectured in class. Even their expressions and intonations were very similar.

At that time, Teacher Xia was like that—bit by bit, gently and firmly, pulling her out of the dark mire.

No one spoke in the dormitory, except occasionally when Jiang Ning asked if they understood. Those who didn’t understand would ask, and Jiang Ning would continue to explain to them until they did.

In the faculty and staff apartment, Teacher Ji packed a meal and did not eat in the cafeteria. Instead, he went back to his single dormitory, where his wife had also come.

He and his wife were college classmates, and they had a very good relationship. When they graduated, his partner was assigned to be a teacher in Wuzhong.

He followed his wife to Wucheng, and No. 1 High School happened to be looking for a teacher for the competition class. His alumni recommended him to the principal of No. 1 High School, so he came.

Although he and his wife didn’t teach at the same school, the schools were next to each other. His wife sometimes came to the dormitory and had meals with him.

The food cooked by the Yizhong chef was more delicious.

When he came back from fetching food, his wife was sitting at his desk, helping him correct test papers. He opened the folding table and put it aside with a smile on his face.

She taught physics at Wuzhong and also led the physics competition class for the first year of high school. Although she was a physics teacher, she was also good at mathematics and chemistry. She corrected a few papers, raised her head, and joked with a smile, “Ah Wei, how are the grades of the class?”

Ji Jianwei smiled and said modestly, “Just so-so.” 

He took a chair and put it in front of the table. “Let’s eat.” His partner also smiled when she heard this and put down the test paper she had just finished marking.

At Wuzhong School, while Ji Jianwei’s wife was sitting in the office grading, she suddenly thought of the competition class test papers of the No. 1 High School students she had seen at Ji Jianwei’s place. She raised her head and asked the leader of their physics group, who was also their academic affairs head, “Director, when will we jointly host an examination with No. 1 High School?”