Chu Wan heard that Erhuzi from the village was going to drive a tractor into the city to transport fertilizer.

She went over to ask and found out that it would be five or six days later, so she made an appointment with Erhuzi to take her into the city at that time.

In the next few days, she studied hard at home using her high school textbooks. She originally studied liberal arts, so politics, history, and geography were easy for her to learn. She could just work hard to memorize them. When she had memorized them well enough, if she could save some money, she could sign up for the college entrance examination tutoring class organized by the Beijing Federation of Trade Unions and have someone give her some pointers on the test points. She would probably have a better idea of the answers.

As for Chinese, Chu Wan felt that she should have no problem with it. After all, she had read a lot of books and her writing skills should be okay. She had no worries about English. After she became rich, she often traveled to different countries and dealt with foreigners more. Her spoken English was very good. Although she might be vague with some grammar concepts, her spoken English was still there, so she just needed to improve her grammar.

That said, the hardest part was mathematics.

Since she had made up her mind, she started working on her mathematics. The high school mathematics textbooks included three volumes of ‘Algebra’, as well as ‘Plane Geometry’, ‘Solid Geometry’ and ‘Introduction to Calculus’.

After studying for a long time, she still couldn’t figure out the solution. She went to ask Teacher Ning, who assessed her and tactfully suggested, “You should first brush up on your junior high school knowledge. I’ll highlight the key points and tell you what to learn.”

Chu Wan: “…Okay.”

Chu Wan could only concentrate on learning junior high school knowledge. Fortunately, her foundation was not too bad at the beginning. Under the guidance of Teacher Ning, she made up for the junior high school mathematics knowledge every day and felt that she was making rapid progress.

The only downside was that she always felt sleepy. She had to go to the store at the entrance of the village to buy some medicated oil and apply it on her temples whenever she had nothing to do. In the end, the smell made her nose uncomfortable.

Great-grandfather couldn’t bear to watch it any longer and shook his head, “Why does Wanwan have to endure this? Can learning this improve your eye?”

Chu Wan felt helpless, thinking that her great-grandfather would of course think it would be easier for her to just marry into the Lu family—but nothing in the world was that simple.

She then said, “Grandpa, your great-granddaughter wants to make progress, you can’t hold me back like this!”

Great-grandfather took a puff of his pipe and said slowly, “If those were useful, university professors would have made a fortune long ago!”

Chu Wan: “…”

She sighed and thought that her great-grandfather was right.

But she still had to learn what she should learn.

For four or five days in a row, she stayed at home studying. Su Yanjing came to see her twice, but it seemed like he was just testing the waters, and she didn’t pay much attention to him.

Anyway, it wasn’t her who was short of meat; it’s him. So she was not in a hurry at all.

The news that she and Su Yanjing had broken up also spread in the village. Whenever she went out, people would ask her about it. Chen Lei even came to test her.

She told Chen Lei generously that, yes, it’s over.

When asked why they broke up, she said that she was thinking about going to college and had no time to date and had to concentrate on studying.

Chen Lei was puzzled. “You? You were a slacker in high school. You’re just not cut out for studying. I haven’t even passed the entrance exam yet, and you’re still thinking about going to college?”

Chu Wan actually knew that Chen Lei was telling the truth, so she said, “I really don’t have a good foundation, so I have to work hard, that’s why I’m not dating for the time being.”

Chen Lei thought about it and it made sense. She looked at Chu Wan with sympathy, “You can’t copy me in everything. I took the college entrance exam because I felt I had the ability. You missed too many lessons before. The college entrance exam is so competitive now. You have no chance. Stop wasting your time!”

Chu Wan ignored her.

Chen Lei was quite proud, “Forget it, I won’t talk to you about it anymore. Where there is a will, there is a way. Just work hard.”

After saying that, she left.

Chu Wan looked at Chen Lei’s cheerful steps and knew that she must be eager to look for Su Yanjing.

Let her do it, as long as she liked it.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

As for Chu Wan, she said something to her great-grandfather, packed up her bag, put the nine yuan and six jiao in her pocket, and took Erhuzi’s tractor into the city.

It took more than 40 kilometers to get from Yongling Village to Deshengmen in Beijing. The tractor was so bumpy that it made people dizzy. Chu Wan suffered from motion sickness from the beginning, and it was extremely uncomfortable.

Also, this tractor had no protection from the wind and rain. It was a chilly spring day, and the wind blew through her cotton-padded jacket. The jacket was made of old cotton and did not block the wind at all. She was thin and had little flesh on her body. Before long, she was shivering from the cold.

Chu Wan sighed, thinking that the first thing she would do when she made money was to buy a down jacket, something big and fluffy. 

But were there down jackets these days? If not, then a winter jacket or a cotton jacket would also be fine. Anyway, she had to stay warm and not suffer this kind of torture again.

When the tractor was halfway there, a jeep appeared behind it.

Chu Wan watched the military green jeep appear in her sight and gradually catch up to them. She couldn’t help but sigh that she also wanted to ride in a jeep.

The jeep was definitely warmer than this.

Thinking of this, she pulled her old, drafty, cotton-padded jacket closer, wrapped her old scarf tightly around herself, bent over, and tucked her hands into her sleeves, which made her feel a little warmer.

Just as she was half-bowed, the jeep drove up to the tractor and slowed down.

Chu Wan felt something was wrong, so she looked over and saw the person in the passenger seat of the jeep looking sideways at her, his black eyes precisely scanning her direction.

She was immediately surprised: it was Lu Shouyan.

Lu Shouyan was Lu Jianshi’s Seventh Uncle. In her previous life, she asked Lu Shouyan for help in divorcing Lu Jianshi. Lu Shouyan had directed Lu Jianshi to go through the divorce quickly, and then he left in a hurry because he had an urgent and important meeting.

As a result, Lu Jianshi not only refused to divorce her, but also pestered her. Later, Lu Shouyan’s ex-wife, whom he had divorced several years ago, came to find her and eventually ruined all her plans.

When their eyes met, Chu Wan looked away and lowered her head.

She was in no mood to talk to him now.

Lu Shouyan stared at her with his dark eyes and called out tentatively, “Wanwan?”

When Chu Wan heard him calling her name, she could only nod reluctantly as a way of acknowledging it.

When she was a child, she was often taken by the Old Master of the Lu family to live with them—about month or so each time. Lu Shouyan had loved her very much, but when she grew up, she went out to shovel the land and run around, so she went there went less and less. As for Lu Shouyan, he joined the army eleven years ago and now seldom came back. She only saw him a few times in the past, and she hadn’t seen him at all in these most recent years, so it was normal that she didn’t recognize him now.

Seeing her nod, Lu Shouyan gestured to Erhuzi, “Fellow villager, please stop for a moment. I need to talk to Wanwan.”

Pearls and Jade Beside Me in the ’80s translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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Chapter 6.2 — He Gave Her Pocket Money
Chapter 6.3 — He Gave Her Pocket Money
Chapter 7.1 — There Must be Compatibility Between Husband and Wife
Chapter 7.2 — There Must be Compatibility Between Husband and Wife
Chapter 8 — The Beauty of Line Carving
Chapter 9 — In My Eyes, This Is 200 Yuan