Quick Transmigration: The Pregnant Little Fairy is Pampered by the Heirless Boss

Chapter 385 The Beloved Little Sister 20

For more than twenty days after the college entrance examination, Ji Jianguo worked at home during the day and sat under the kerosene lamp at night to read the well-worn "College Application Guide".

This booklet was specially obtained by Ji Xiaosong from the county education bureau. It lists in detail the majors and enrollment numbers of major universities across the country.

This summer is exceptionally hot.

Amidst the chirping of cicadas, Ji Jianguo sat shirtless in the courtyard, repeatedly calculating his estimated score on scrap paper with a pencil:

Chinese 85, Math 90, Physics 95, Chemistry 88, English 60...

The total score should be around 420 points.

This score would have been enough to get into a top university last year, but he wasn't too optimistic.

"Brother, have a bowl of mung bean soup." Ji Xiaosong walked over with a rough porcelain bowl, and couldn't help but smile when he saw the densely packed calculations on the ground. "Still calculating scores?"

Ji Jianguo wiped his sweat, took the bowl, and drank it all in one gulp: "Little sister, which school do you think I should apply to?"

Ji Xiaosong squatted down and pointed to a few lines of text on the guide: "I think the Capital University of Iron and Steel is good; its metallurgy program is a national key university. Why don't we apply there?"

Ji Jianguo shook his head: "I want to learn something practical."

His gaze lingered on the four characters "Shangqing University" before quickly shifting away.

Although the school is recruiting 30 students from the province this year, he doesn't dare to hope for it.

In mid-July, the county education bureau posted the college entrance examination results.

At three o'clock that morning, Ji Jianguo got up in the dark and rode his bicycle to the county town.

As dawn broke, the entrance to the Education Bureau was already crowded with students and parents checking their scores.

Sweat soaked through Ji Jianguo's blue cloth jacket, and his palms, clutching the examination admission ticket, were drenched in sweat.

"Ji Jianguo!" The staff member at the window suddenly raised his voice, "Total score: 438 points, 62nd in the province!"

The crowd erupted in a buzz.

This score is definitely top-tier this year, more than enough to get into a top university.

Ji Jianguo stood there stunned until someone behind him nudged him and brought him back to his senses.

He stumbled to the post office and called his sister, who was on duty at the clinic.

The moment the call connected, this seven-foot-tall man suddenly choked up and couldn't speak.

Ji Xiaosong's rapid breathing came from the other end of the phone: "Brother? Is that you, brother? The results are out?"

Ji Jianguo's throat tightened, his fingers gripping the telephone cord tightly. After a long while, he managed to squeeze out a voice: "Song'er... 438 points... 62nd in the whole province..."

"real?!"

A loud crash came from the phone, like an enamel mug falling to the ground.

Ji Xiaosong's voice suddenly trembled with tears: "I knew it! I knew you could do it!"

She sniffed. "Don't move from the post office. I'll ask for leave and go there right now!"

"No need..." Ji Jianguo wiped his face, only to realize that he had been crying without realizing it. "You go to work, I... I'll go buy two pounds of pork belly..."

"Why buy meat!" Ji Xiaosong cried and laughed on the other end of the phone. "Hurry up and go to the Education Bureau to ask about filling out college applications! Oh, and bring that guidebook with you, make sure you read through all the folded pages..."

As Ji Jianguo listened to his sister's nagging instructions, he could picture her staying up all night to organize his study materials.

He suddenly interrupted her: "Little sister, if it weren't for you..."

"Don't talk nonsense again!" Ji Xiaosong's voice suddenly turned serious. "Hurry up and get down to business. Tonight... tonight we'll make dumplings!"

After hanging up the phone, Ji Jianguo squatted at the entrance of the post office for a long time.

The scorching July sun beat down on his back, leaving a ring of white sweat stains on his blue cotton jacket.

He pulled out a crumpled piece of fruit candy from his pocket. It was a gift from his sister on the day of the exam, and he hadn't been able to bear eating the last one.

The candy wrappers shimmered in the sunlight, like the good days that were finally coming their way.

*

On the day of filling out college applications, Ji Xiaosong took a day off to accompany her older brother to the Education Bureau.

Several large tables were set up in the conference room, where high-scoring candidates from various communes were carefully filling out their application forms.

Ji Jianguo stared at the first choice column, his pencil hovering in mid-air, unable to fall.

"Comrade, can you give me some advice?" he mustered up his courage and asked the admissions officer next to him.

The teacher adjusted his glasses and carefully examined his transcript: "With your score, I recommend applying to the Automation Department of Qingdao University. The country urgently needs talent in this field, and graduates are guaranteed good job placements."

Ji Xiaosong's eyes lit up, and she secretly pinched her older brother's arm.

Automation, a new discipline that emerged in the early 1980s, is becoming a cutting-edge subject with the wave of reform and opening up.

Ji Jianguo took a deep breath and neatly wrote "Department of Automation, Shanghai University" in the first choice column, Capital University of Aeronautics and Astronautics as the second choice, and Xiqu Jiaotong University as the third choice.

His hands were still trembling slightly when he handed the form to the teacher.

The days of waiting for the admission notice were even harder than preparing for the exam.

Ji Jianguo works hard during the day, but always suffers from insomnia at night.

One late night in late July, he suddenly shook his younger sister, who was sleeping in the next room, awake: "Little sister, what if you don't pass the exam?"

Ji Xiaosong rubbed her eyes and sat up. Moonlight streamed through the window and fell on her tired face. "Brother, have you forgotten what the old Party Secretary said? 'One red heart, two preparations.' If you don't pass the exam, you can try again next year. The production team will always need an accountant."

In the early afternoon of August, the sound of cicadas was suddenly interrupted by a series of urgent bicycle bells.

Ji Jianguo was weeding in his private plot when he looked up and saw Old Zhang, the postman, running up and down with a manila envelope in hand, shouting, "Ji Jianguo! Your admission letter to Shanghai University!"

The hoe fell to the ground with a clatter.

Ji Jianguo took the envelope with trembling hands. The four bright red characters "Shangqing University" on it stung his eyes.

He carefully opened the seal, and the admission notice clearly stated: "Ji Jianguo, you have been admitted to the Industrial Automation major in the Department of Automation..."

"Brother!" Ji Xiaosong appeared on the edge of the field at some point, his white coat still stained with iodine, clearly having just run back from the clinic.

She rushed over and hugged her older brother, her tears wetting a corner of the admission notice.

The news spread like wildfire throughout the entire commune.

That evening, the production team made an exception and slaughtered a pig, and the whole team, young and old, came to congratulate them.

The old Party Secretary, holding a bowl of sweet potato liquor, patted Ji Jianguo on the shoulder and said, "Jianguo, you've really made us poor and lower-middle peasants proud!"

On the night before they left, the brother and sister sat in the courtyard enjoying the cool air.

Ji Xiaosong stuffed the national food coupons she had saved for half a year and thirty yuan into her older brother's luggage bag: "It's cold in the capital in winter, so I knitted you a sweater..."

"Little sister," Ji Jianguo suddenly interrupted her, "if it weren't for you all this time..."

"Don't say that." Ji Xiaosong stuffed a bag of White Rabbit milk candy into his satchel. "Remember to write when you get to school. Oh, and I prepared some motion sickness medicine for you; you'll need it for the long bus ride tomorrow."

The next morning, the commune specially sent a tractor to take Ji Jianguo to the county town to catch a bus.

The entire production team came to see him off, hurriedly stuffing boiled eggs and fried peanuts onto the truck.

Ji Jianguo, dressed in a new blue Zhongshan suit made by his younger sister, with a big red flower pinned to his chest, was surrounded by people like a groom.

As the tractor started, Ji Xiaosong suddenly caught up and shoved a small cloth bag into his hand: "Brother, take this!"

When Ji Jianguo opened it, he saw that it was the Hero brand fountain pen, with a red string tied to the cap, a local custom to bless travelers on long journeys.

"Study hard when you get to the capital!" Ji Xiaosong's voice mingled with the churning of the tractor. "I'll come see you during winter break!"

Ji Jianguo gripped his pen tightly, watching his sister's figure grow smaller and smaller until it became a blue dot on the edge of the field.

The poplar trees along the roadside rushed past, just like those days of toiling in the fields, gradually fading away from him.

After a three-day, two-night journey, Ji Jianguo finally stood under the archway of Shangqing Garden.

The September sunlight filtered through the sycamore leaves, casting dappled shadows on his faded white canvas shoes.

He took a deep breath, shouldered his patched duffel bag, and strode toward the long line at the registration desk.

The team was full of spirited young people like him, but Ji Jianguo knew that he was special.

He was the first farmer in the county to pass the entrance exam for Shangqing High School.

When he neatly wrote "Industrial Automation Major" on the freshman registration form, the Hero fountain pen gleamed in the sunlight.

Ji Xiaosong, thousands of miles away, is giving injections to patients at a health clinic.

The sound of a radio broadcast drifted in from outside the window, reporting the news that the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that "economic development must rely on scientific and technological progress."

A slight smile played on her lips as she steadily inserted the needle into the patient's vein.

In this fourth year of reform and opening up, countless ordinary people like them are heading towards a brand new future in their own ways.

Life at home might have been too comfortable for You Yong, who was getting anxious.