Daily Life in the 70s
Chapter 107 Work

Chapter 107: Chapter 107 Work

"Pan Shuiqin nodded sweetly, placing a hand on her stomach, ’I’m already a good half month late.’"

Yang Peimin hadn’t expected her casual query to hit the mark, and she congratulated her with surprise, "Cousin, congratulations."

But Pan Shuiqin kept her calm, not swept away by the surprise, "We can’t be sure yet. We will see in two months if there’s any reaction. We can’t talk about it yet. If it’s not true, it would be so embarrassing."

In the countryside, it wasn’t common to go to the hospital for pregnancy tests; they just waited until the belly showed.

Yang Peimin nodded, "Then take care of yourself, don’t work too hard. Eat more nutritious food. We just bought some eggs, I’ll pack some for you to take home later."

There wasn’t much food at home, especially during the lean season. Eating meat every meal was unrealistic. Compared to meat, eggs were a bit cheaper at 50 cents per pound. You could buy ten eggs for that, and they added nutrition whether fried with edible amaranth, chives, or tofu.

Whenever she cooked, she almost always fried an egg. In other families, this might be considered extravagant, but she couldn’t cook many other dishes and didn’t want to eat a purely vegetarian diet, so she managed buying meat and eggs herself, using her own money. Nobody could complain about it, and even when Shen Yidong ate the egg and meat, he spoke less.

They also kept seven or eight chickens, six of which laid eggs. Almost every day, they got two to four eggs, which sometimes weren’t enough, so she had swapped for some with neighbors’ families.

Pan Shuiqin refused, "I can’t take yours, we have them at home."

Yang Peimin knew her concerns and replied, "Don’t worry, I have a salary now, using my own money comfortably and honestly. Consider it a nutrition boost for my future nephew or niece. Please, don’t refuse. It’s just a few eggs, no need to be so formal."

Pan Shuiqin, unable to counter the mention of the child, took only two eggs as she left, stubbornly refusing to take more.

The initial sell-out of Gong Chenglan’s goods eventually slowed and stabilized.

Yang Peimin didn’t need to follow up much; Gong Chenglan and Pan Shuiqin almost took care of the materials and distribution.

Things had also started moving at the school.

She taught the second grade, which had thirty-five students. She had noticed that in nearly a month of substitute teaching, there had never been full attendance; not even excuses were made. When she asked the children from her village, the reasons varied wildly: they went to work, stayed home to care for siblings, parents visited relatives so they had to babysit livestock, they cooked for working parents, or perhaps the parents didn’t let them go to school anymore after having a new baby—all were helping at home instead of coming to school.

Yang Peimin discussed this issue with Teacher Huang, the homeroom teacher.

The homeroom teacher, a woman in her thirties, responded without even looking up, "That’s normal. When they can’t even get enough to eat, who has the mind to study?"

Yang Peimin felt a bit muted. She knew the circumstances were unique; many in the rural areas did not value education highly, believing that the intangible promise of a future was less tangible than earning a few more work points to help the family get by a bit more comfortably.

They were just a group of endearing children, their eyes thirsty for knowledge, some perhaps still not quite understanding the significance of schooling, still looking somewhat confused. Some of the children missed two or three days of classes each week, some faced the imminent possibility of dropping out.

Teacher Huang glanced at her expression and said lightly, "Don’t think about helping them, it’s thankless work."

Yang PeiMin sat down beside her and spoke, "Sister Huang, have we ever done home visits? Every child is the hope of their parents, the hope of our society. We can’t just watch and do nothing, can we?"

Teacher Huang shook her head, slightly amused, "Mr. Yang, you are still too young, full of passion. Your heart is in the right place, but this issue cannot be resolved. See? Every class has more boys, and only one or two girls, and even the boys, many of them can only write their own name by the fourth or fifth grade. Being willingly ignorant is considered normal. Having one less person working at home means having much less food. Although the harvest has improved over the last two years, many children’s families still eat only two meals a day."

"This kind of mindset is deeply ingrained. Previous efforts by educated youth have been made, only to be driven out. It would be very embarrassing for us too. It’s a thankless task, you know, Mr. Yang?"

Teacher Huang picked up the porcelain jar on her desk, shook her head, and walked out.

Yang PeiMin sighed, returned to her desk, and pulled out the list of students’ information. The imbalance between boys and girls was evident, and the ages varied from eight to twelve years old, some were even repeating a grade.

When she got home, Shen Yidong’s two daughters clung to her, calling her auntie repeatedly.

Yang PeiMin smiled. The two little girls had gotten familiar with her over time; they always clung to her whenever she was home.

Xiao Fen was already six years old. Usually children started school at seven, so they were still at home playing. They liked listening to her stories, intrigued by the pictures and words in picture books.

Yang PeiMin thought about enlightening them through play.

Shen Yidong saw this, knowing that Yang PeiMin was not merely fooling around with his daughters. He let it be, relieved not to be bothered, and was happy to see it.

However, as playtime that doubled as learning time increased, Xiao Fen gradually became reluctant to participate, quickly forgetting the characters she learned. Yang Peimin thought about it and then introduced a form of reward; after each lesson, she could have a candy. Afterwards, she was willing, although not enthusiastic, similar to how adults endure passing time.

Moreover, this approach was not good for her teeth. Eventually, Yang PeiMin came up with another solution, a point system: good performance in each lesson earned a point, and accumulating ten points could lead to a small gift.

This method worked well, boosting enthusiasm and patience.

Following this incident, she thought about applying this method to her students.

Having small gifts like cured meats and eggs was feasible; even if the children weren’t keen, their parents would be. The score couldn’t be too easy to obtain—one point a day, thirty points to earn an egg, fifty for two. This system meant the gifts weren’t excessive, just symbolic, but they represented hope and goals.

Yang PeiMin discussed this with the Shen elders. Chen Guizhi stayed silent, hesitant to express her opinion, while Shen Erniu pondered before nodding, "Daughter-in-law, you must consider the practicalities, we shouldn’t sink our own wages into this."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.