Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 145 - 144 No? Then Create...

Chapter 145: Chapter 144 No? Then Create...

Su Yuncheng finished his words, then, just like Lin Nianhe did before, he pushed Zhou Chujiang aside and went off to pull up weeds.

Apparently, debating identity issues with Zhou Chujiang was less important than pulling weeds.

Zhou Chujiang stood there dumbfounded until finally Li Dahe, who couldn’t stand it any longer, made the excuse that the two high school teachers should head back to Lan County and dragged him away.

Before today, Zhou Chujiang always felt his life lacked challenges; everything he wanted would be delivered to him without him even asking.

But today, he was rejected, ignored, rejected, and belittled...

In short, he experienced everything he had never encountered before, all in one go.

Zhou Chujiang had never suffered so much indignity!

Before being pulled away by Li Dahe, he made one last attempt, asking Lin Nianhe, "Comrade Lin, what is your dream?"

Lin Nianhe propped her chin in her hand, gazing into the lush green distance, and replied, "Facing the sea, with spring flowers blossoming."

Poet Zhou Chujiang of the cornfields, didn’t understand.

He just wondered, Lan County doesn’t have a sea.

So what did she mean?

Wanting to return to Beijing?

But there’s no sea in Beijing either, right?

Zhou Chujiang returned home full of doubts, wracking his brain to decipher what Lin Nianhe’s dream really meant.

He thought about it all evening, and still couldn’t figure it out.

But then his parents came home.

Mr. Zhou pointed at him the moment he walked in: "What good deed have you done today?"

Poet Zhou felt very sad and responded languidly, "What can I do? Just went to proctor exams for folk-school teachers."

"Then why did your uncle specially call to tell you not to act so smart?" Mr. Zhou frowned, looking suspiciously at his son.

Hearing the word "uncle," Zhou Chujiang suddenly snapped back to reality, remembering the person in the cornfields.

’You’ll believe it.’

That phrase echoed in his ears again.

With a start, he asked, "Dad, did my uncle mention someone?"

Mr. Zhou had an "I knew it" expression, then smacked Zhou Chujiang on the head: "You really know how to cause trouble for your old man! You manage to offend your uncle’s leader just by visiting the production team; why don’t you just ascend to heaven?"

Zhou Chujiang was struck dumb, both literally and figuratively.

He believed it.

But this belief was too surreal – that man looked to be about his own age!

...

Zhou Chujiang’s affairs did not distress Lin Nianhe; she even quickly forgot about this person and the incident.

But she was still feeling down.

"Ah, what a poet of the cornfield, can’t even understand what Educated Youth Lin is saying, with that dumb look on his face, he’s only good for deceiving young girls."

"What’s wrong with not understanding? What’s wrong with a farmer not getting it?"

"Maybe that’s because Educated Youth Lin can ace the tests with perfect scores. That Teacher Zhou was reading poetry, and Educated Youth Lin even sneered."

"Isn’t it because our team is dubbed the Advanced Cultural Team? Our teachers are all poets..."

Indeed, because of one sneer, Lin Nianhe was unilaterally dubbed a "poet" by the villagers.

Even though she had never written so much as a satirical poem.

Every time the villagers address her like this, Lin Nianhe feels both guilty and awkward.

But Li Dahe does not grant her any leave, and the Educated Youth Corps is too noisy to hide in, so she can only face countless teases every day, silently hoping that the next hot topic will emerge quickly to divert the villagers’ attention.

Oddly enough, lately it seems they’ve run into bad luck—Ten Miles Team is so peaceful it doesn’t seem right, and the topic leaderboard is not being updated.

Sitting idly by is not in Lin Nianhe’s nature, so—

"Principal, I think we should promptly promote our cause in Victory Team and Nine-miles Team. Look, it’s almost August."

After another teacher training session, Lin Nianhe seriously said to Principal Wu.

Principal Wu nodded, looking at her: "We do need to attend to this matter. I have discussed this with Hongzi a few days ago but couldn’t find a good approach. What do you think?"

Lin Nianhe blurted out: "Let’s first invite the villagers from Victory Team to come and take a look here, mainly the parents with school-age children to visit the elementary school, and by the way, brush off the issue with the Advanced Cultural Team."

Lin Nianhe thought that since there wasn’t a topic, she might as well create something new. As long as it could shift everyone’s focus, that would suffice.

Principal Wu pondered for a moment and then nodded: "That could work. You write a simple, easy-to-remember poem for promoting education that we can use to call people to action."

Lin Nianhe: "..."

"What’s the matter? No inspiration?" Principal Wu asked with concern.

Lin Nianhe looked at her and slowly shook her head.

Principal Wu asked again: "Then what is it? Can’t you write a simple and understandable poem?"

Lin Nianhe silently nodded after a moment.

Thinking for a while, Principal Wu sighed and said: "Then make it as simple as possible. Would that work?"

Lin Nianhe shook her head again.

Principal Wu, somewhat puzzled about what she meant, lightly smacked the desk: "Speak up!"

Lin Nianhe licked her lips, tentatively asking: "Principal, have you ever considered the possibility... that it’s not that I can’t write simple, easy-to-understand poems, but that I simply cannot write poems at all?"

Principal Wu immediately shook his head: "Never thought of that."

Lin Nianhe full of hope: "Could you consider it now? It’s not too late."

"Get out of here!"

Principal Wu couldn’t help but laugh as he gave Lin Nianhe a little slap and asked her: "So what is going on? Why does everyone say you’re a great poet?"

Lin Nianhe: "Would you believe me if I said I just carelessly laughed and that got me into this mess?"

"I don’t."

"Well, you might want to work hard at convincing yourself, because that’s the reality."

"..."

In the end, the poem was not written.

But the villagers from Victory Team still came.

Not many, just the team leader along with the accountant and a handful of men skinny as poles.

The team leader of Victory Team was a short, thin middle-aged man with a bitter expression named Cao Manfu. There weren’t many people in Victory Team, and they had been sitting at the bottom of the commune’s ranking for years, which had turned Cao Manfu’s hair white before reaching forty.

The only thing that let Cao Manfu stand firm in front of Li Dahe was the fact that though his hair was white, it was plentiful.

"Brother Li, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you," Cao Manfu said with a pained face after taking a tour around the school, "You know what our team is like, every half-grown kid is a labor force, what’s there to learn... we can’t afford it, we can’t afford it..."

Li Dahe was avoiding Cao Manfu’s eyes while pretending to put on a cigarette: "You still have to let the kids go to school."

He knew that what he was saying was easier said than done.

Victory Team had been plagued with bad luck over the years. Last year it was wild boars, which not only destroyed the crops but also killed several strong laborers. The year before, falling rocks destroyed half their farmland, and the other half was barely left untouched. The year before that, a string of muffled thunders led to a wildfire that burned half of their houses and caused countless deaths and injuries...

They all depended on the heavens for their food, yet it seemed God was particularly keen on smashing their bowls.