RESLW Chapter 17

Chapter 17 The Start of School Term and Dividing the Classes

The next morning, a small blackboard was set up at the entrance of the Third Junior High School, on which a list of classes was posted, but no scores were announced.

The pair of siblings, together with Lu Xia, go to the school together. They look for their names and classes on the class list.

“Ranran, it’s great. We are both in the same class. We are in class three.”

The score is not announced and it’s not sorted by ranking too. Got directly divided into the same class with her neighbor-plus-best friend, it simply made Lu Xia elated.

“Let me see which class Leilei got into?”

Hearing the result of the class placement report from Lu Xia, Mei Xiaoran didn’t plan to find her own name anymore. She wants to know which class Mei Xiaolei was assigned to first. If she could get into the same class with her brother, it would be nice.

The result was, Mei Xiaolei got into class one.

The teachers who stood beside them then shouted, “Students, after you see the result of class placement, please return to your respective classes. Your Class Advisor is already waiting for you.”

“Then let’s go quickly.”

Mei Xiaoran and Lu Xia were holding hands and running towards grade one’s class three.

The Class Advisor looks a little older than Mei Zhonghua. He is over forty years of age, not that tall, with a solid figure and round face. At first glance, he seems to be a good man.

“I’m your Class Advisor, Liu Hualan. You two, what are your names, say it out.”

“My name is Lu Xia.”

“My name is Mei Xiaoran.”

When he heard Mei Xiaoran reported her own name out, Liu Hualan sharply looked up at her and pointed to the front position in the middle. “Sit there.”

Mei Xiaoran points toward Lu Xia once and asks, “Teacher Liu, where is she sitting?”

“If you two want to sit together, just do so then.”

Liu Hualan’s attitude towards the students is not as much as his looks. It’s lukewarm and not strict.

Mei Xiaoran very happily pulled Lu Xia towards the middle of the fourth row, found two seats next to each other and sat down.

Almost all of the students had intermittently arrived. Liu Hualan saw that most of the students were already seated, he cleared his throat and started taking the attendance……The purpose of the teacher’s attendance is actually very simple. He only wants to know the students, their names and checking their seats in accordance to their student’s number. Otherwise, if he can’t even name the students he teaches, that will be a big failure!

After finishing the attendance, Liu Hualan turned around and wrote two big words “Junior High School” on the blackboard.

“Students, do you know why I wrote these two words on the blackboard?”

“It’s because Teacher wants to remind us that we have reached junior high school and we should work harder to contribute to the socialism of The Four Modernizations*.”

(TN : The Four Modernizations were goals to strengthen the fields of agriculture, industry, defense, science, and technology in China.)

“That’s right!” Liu Hualan revealed a satisfactory smile, “That’s what I mean! After you enter junior high school, the pressure to study will be greater than in primary school. The homework will also change from the original two subjects to multiple subjects. There are a lot of new subjects that you have not been exposed to before. Moreover, we still have to attend the morning and evening self-study session. “

These words made the following students blast the pot*. Inside the student’s hearts, what the morning and evening self-study represents is not an additional study time, but an extra time and space to play. Imagine getting up at five o’clock in the morning and only going home when it’s already dark in the evening, everyone simply won’t be too excited about this.

(TN : complain and quarrel loudly.)

“Be quiet. Be quiet. Wait until I finish first. It’s not too late for you to discuss it then.”

Liu Hualan looked around the students. “The morning and evening self-study is not as fun as you think. The teachers from the Administrative Department will come over to check at any random time. The only thing you can do is to study hard. This is your only way out.”

The classroom suddenly became quiet. It seems like the students are perplexed by the problem of this way out.

Lu Xia asked Mei Xiaoran in a soft voice, “Ranran, have you thought about the way out in the future?”

“No yet. I don’t want to think about those now. I’d better think about what’s before my eyes and what I can do to study well.”

Liu Hualan knocked on the table, “OK, now I’ll choose a few students to go get the new textbook. The new textbooks may not be enough. I will distribute it according to the order of registration. Those who didn’t get the new textbook, don’t worry too much about it. The Xinhua Bookstore is sending the book to us right now. At least two days later, all the books definitely will be sent to you. “

Liu Hualan selected several tall boys in the class to go to the Administrative Department to get new books, and then began to appoint class representatives.

“Qi Lin, Study Committee Member.”

“Yang Yu, Political Representative.”

“Mei Xiaoran, Chinese Language and Literature Representative.”

Hearing her own name was announced, Mei Xiaoran was stunned. In previous life, she used to be a class committee when she was in primary school. Since she started junior high school, it was only in her second year that she became a class committee member. But after her rebirth……Since the roulette of fate has been reset, let it be as it is now. Whatever she said doesn’t count anyway.

After the appointment of the class committee, those boys also brought back the new textbooks. Liu Hualan then distributed the textbook to everyone according to the order of registration.

After the textbook was distributed out, it was already 10:30 in the morning. Liu Hualan advised the students a few more words and let them go home. At 2:40 in the afternoon, they were ready to open the school gate. Promptly at 3:00, the class starts.

Everyone left the classroom while hugging a newly distributed thick pile of textbooks.

“Ranran, why did they add so many subjects in junior high school? With only the Chinese Language and Literature, and Mathematics, I already can’t figure it out. I heard the English Language is very difficult to learn……” Lu Xia wants to cry while she talks about it. English, she is utterly ignorant of it!

“Lu Xia, you are really impatient. Everyone has never learned English, so the difficulty is the same for everyone.” Mei Xiaoran’s English is not good either. In her previous life, the worst subject she learned was English. It seems that since junior high school when she started to learn English, she had never passed the test. It was not until she stepped into society that she found the importance of English. But her foundation was too poor to even make up for it. But now, like everyone else, she is just a blank sheet of paper in front of the English Language. Grow from nothing into something, there must be a process. In fact, there is nothing wrong with learning again from scratch.

After returning home, Mei Xiaoran and her younger brother reported to their parents about the classes placement, informed them that they would have classes starting from this afternoon, and they would begin their morning and evening self-study from September 1st tomorrow.

“The morning and evening self-study will start tomorrow?”

Li Mingyun murmured, “It seems that we have to buy an alarm clock. I’ll go buy an alarm clock later then.” When it comes to buying an alarm clock, she was really distressed. They have to fork out several Yuan more. This money, they can’t avoid spending it. The children are in need. Fortunately, Mei Zhonghua has made a lot of money selling watermelon these days. Otherwise, afraid that they can’t even afford the alarm clock!

Mei Zhonghua knocked on the table. “Alright, let’s have a meal first. Let the children sleep for a while after the meal. Wake them up at 2:30 and get ready at 2:40, just in time to enter the school gate . Nothing will be delayed.”

After the meal, Mei Xiaoran and her younger brother used the old newspaper to wrap the book cover……In those days, it was all done like this. Everybody cherished the textbooks so much. For textbooks that had been covered, at the end of the school term when the cover was torn, the brand new look of the front and back cover were just totally the same as a new one*. Mei Xiaoran actually didn’t care about wrapping the book cover, but participating in this activity makes her have so much enjoyment and even forget about her previous life, and she could experience the fun of childhood again.

Li Mingyun hurriedly took the money to buy the alarm clock. When she bought the alarm clock back, Mei Xiaoran and her younger brother had fallen asleep.

Get up punctually at 2:30 in the afternoon, wash the face and walk to the school gate, just in time with the preparation to open the school gate, and the class starts at 3:00 on time.

(TN : I used to do this, but with gift paper instead of newspapers. This habit persisted till now, but changed it with transparent plastic book covers instead. Just curious, has anyone ever experienced wrapping the book like that in your school year?)

Prev |TOC | Next