MDMP Chapter 63.2

It was said that next year’s high school was not something students could get into just because they wanted to. They had to be admitted based on their graduation exam results.

So now teachers in the third grade of junior high school were paying close attention to learning.

***

The time finally came on December 11, 1977, the day of the college entrance examination in Songnan City.

Zhao Suisui had inquired before that the province where Feng Qiqing lived would also take the college entrance examination on that day.

The number of people taking the college entrance examination this year reached more than five million. Zhao Suisui’s junior high school was also requisitioned as a college entrance examination venue.

Therefore, Zhao Suisui and her classmates were on vacation at home these days.

However, how could Zhao Suisui miss such a big event when the college entrance examination was resumed?!

After discovering that Zhao Jingcheng and Lu Zhou did not want to go, Zhao Suisui asked Wang Yue, who came to her house to play, to go to her school hand in hand.

Compared with the tense atmosphere exaggerated by the teachers, the atmosphere outside the college entrance examination room was not as tense as imagined.

However, there were really many people coming to take the exam. In addition to these candidates who were going to the examination room, there were also some people like Zhao Suisui who came to watch the excitement.

Zhao Suisui and Wang Yue each bought a sesame seed cake on the road.

The two of them were eating and watching the excitement outside the examination room.

At this time, the gate of the examination room had not yet been opened, so the candidates gathered outside the examination room.

Some were still reviewing with books in hand, while some were eating breakfast quickly, but most of them were chatting together after meeting familiar people.

Some even quarreled at the school gate over trivial matters…

This lively scene stunned Zhao Suisui and Wang Yue.

But when you thought about it, there was nothing wrong with it.

After all, there were only two months of review time, and many people had not touched textbooks for nearly ten years. How well prepared could they be? Maybe many candidates are still confused now!

Moreover, there were 5.7 million people taking the college entrance examination this time, but only 300,000 were admitted in the end.

Among them, 5.4 million people were just there to be soy sauce¹打醬油/酱油 (dǎ jiàngyǒu) literally means to buy soy sauce in small quantities bringing in one’s own container as people in the countryside used to buy milk from the peasant.

According to the Taiwan edition of Wikipedia it later changed to have to have two different meanings in Mainland China:

– 某某人的孩子都可以打醬油了 (mǒumou rén de háizi dōu kěyi dǎ jiàngyóu le): someone’s child is big enough to buy grocery or to help in the household).

– Internet slang: 與我無關 (yǔ wǒ wúguān), none of my business or it doesn’t bother me, or 不予置評 (bù yǔ zhìping), no comment.

It is similar to 路人心態 (lùrén xīntài), the attitude of a bystander..

As the time for the first exam approached, candidates entered the examination room one after another.

There were fewer and fewer people outside the school gate. Only those who came to watch the excitement and those who overslept or forgot to bring their admission tickets and could not enter the examination room were left.

Zhao Suisui and Wang Yue also met other classmates outside the school.

Classmates who knew each other of course gathered together to chat.

Others came here to cheer for their relatives who were going to take exams.

A classmate asked Zhao Suisui what she was doing here.

Zhao Suisui thought for a while and said, “I just came here to feel the atmosphere of the college entrance examination. By the way, my Little Uncle is also going to take the college entrance examination. I want to pray for him outside the examination room!”

Feng Qiqing, who was already sitting in the examination room and answering questions in another province, suddenly sneezed.

After all the candidates entered the examination room, there was no excitement outside.

Zhao Suisui and the others were a little bored waiting, but since they were here, they decided to wait until the first exam was over before going home.

After all, Zhao Suisui was going to pray for her Little Uncle, so she had to be sincere!

The time of the exam might be a matter of seconds for the candidates, but for those waiting outside, it was really like a year!

After waiting for an unknown period of time, Zhao Suisui finally heard the bell ringing for the end of the exam.

People gradually came out of the school gate.

 

 

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