Chapter 180: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 180: New Rural Construction Begins

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

"If we don't pick near the Ancestral Hall, don't pick the Village Entrance, and don't pick the Village Center, then where would be a good place for the Cultural Room?"

Faced with the villagers discussing in a hubbub with no consensus, Zhang Zhongtian also wore a troubled expression.

If none of those three places can be chosen, it will absolutely be very difficult.

Because other places are basically all owned land.

Using someone else's land for the Cultural Room, they definitely wouldn't be willing.

Villagers are all like this — when there's a bargain to be had everyone rushes in, but if someone else gets an advantage, even a tiny bit, everyone definitely won't be willing.

Sure enough, next several more villagers proposed several more locations.

But all were rejected one by one.

In the end it was still Wang Zhanggen who put forward a suggestion:

"Why not still build the Cultural Room at the Village Center Pond! No one ever said building a Cultural Room at the Village Center Pond means you have to fill the pond in — we can build it on top of the fish pond!"

The moment Wang Zhanggen said this, everyone couldn't help but stare blankly, then their thinking opened up.

"Right, actually we can build at the Village Center Pond, no need to fill the fish pond in!"

"If the Cultural Room is built on top of the fish pond, its feng shui will definitely be excellent!"

"Only, building the Cultural Room on top of the fish pond, the cost will definitely be more than building on normal ground, right?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"Can the Town Government allocate that much money?"

Although the crowd agreed with Wang Zhanggen's suggestion, they also had quite a few misgivings.

The biggest misgiving was the money issue.

Liang Yuanchao proposed at this point:

"Let's first see how much the Town Government can allocate; if it's not too far off, our village can raise the rest, wouldn't that work?"

He then looked at Zhang Zhongtian:

"Our village actually has quite a few rich people — for example He Dazhu, Secretary Zhang, they both have quite a lot of money. Let's erect a Merit Stele outside the Cultural Room; everyone who donates gets their name carved on it, so those who do good deeds leave behind a good reputation!"

The implication of Liang Yuanchao's words was very clear.

That is, the shortfall in funds — he hoped most of it could be made up by Zhang Zhongtian.

These years Zhang Zhongtian, using the convenience of his Village Committee Secretary position, has earned no small amount of money; now is his time to give back to Shanggou Village.

Zhang Zhongtian is that shrewd, so he naturally saw through Liang Yuanchao's meaning at once.

But he didn't resent it.

If donating a bit of money can leave a good reputation in Shanggou Village, he's actually very willing.

Because only with a good reputation and good word-of-mouth can he wield higher authority in Shanggou Village.

So he was the first to step forward and agree with Liang Yuanchao's suggestion:

"I agree with what Old Liang said — let's first see how much the Town Government can allocate; if the money isn't enough, we'll all chip in together!"

Thus, this matter was settled.

The Cultural Room would be built on top of that fish pond right at the village center, and the fish pond must be preserved intact.

Many subsequent matters need the Village Committee cadres led by Zhang Zhongtian to coordinate with the Town Government.

The road hardening allocation, the Cultural Room allocation — both need communication with the Town Government.

As for tap water, a reliable villager needs to be found to locate a water source, survey the terrain, then build a water storage pool and purification pool, then install water pipes connecting to every household.

These are all big projects — there's plenty to be busy with.

For this, Wang Zhanggen even turned down several building construction projects.

He devoted himself to planning the Cultural Room's construction and budgeting for the road hardening project.

Shanggou Village is quietly undergoing a huge transformation.

This change probably rivals the Household Responsibility System of the seventies and eighties last century.

Villagers are all delighted and encouraged, believing New Rural Construction has a chance to revitalize Shanggou Village once again.

Someone even suggested fixing up the long-abandoned Shanggou Village Primary School.

Because who knows — in a few more years Shanggou Village might have many newborns; children are born and soon need to go to school, and no school won't do.

Hearing this suggestion, Zhang Zhongtian felt reopening Shanggou Village Primary School for teaching was almost impossible.

However, maintaining Shanggou Village Primary School well is indeed very necessary.

Not for any other reason — just because that primary school is where he, Zhang Zhongtian, and his son Zhang Zhiqiang both studied; he has deep feelings for that school, just like for Shanggou Village.

So he privately put up some money to have He Dashu — that idle large-age single man — tidy up Shanggou Village Primary School: clear out the weeds inside, repair the already damaged doors and windows of the classrooms, so wind and rain wouldn't get in and mice wouldn't move in, letting the ancient school collapse into ruin.

In the blink of an eye a month passed, and New Rural Construction kicked off in full swing.

Wang Zhanggen and Li Xiulan, this couple, started getting busy.

And their second son Wang Erhai has the Gaokao this June.

And now it's already May, only one month left until the Gaokao.

At this key juncture, he seems to have also settled down, no longer playing around like before, preparing for a final push.

But whether he can test into university — that's uncertain.

Actually Wang Erhai also knows his chance of testing into university is extremely slim.

He's just giving it his all, so he won't have regrets later.

The high school in this mountain-pass small county town has a tiny chance of getting students into university to begin with.

The high schools in the small county town have one or two thousand people take the Gaokao every year, but those who can test into a second-tier university or above have never exceeded fifty, and those who can test into a first-tier university sometimes number fewer than ten; in better years, there might be ten to twenty.

Places like Tsinghua and Peking University are even more existences that the county high school can only look up to but never reach.

These two high schools in this small county town have been running for decades now, and to date they've produced only one Peking University student — a pride of heaven among prides of heaven — and to this day no one has been able to catch up to him.

Take Xiao Hua for example; in terms of studies he already counts as having aptitude, counts as working hard enough.

Right now every exam he can consistently place within the top five in the whole school.

But out of 750 total points, he can only score around 630 — forget Tsinghua and Peking University, even the minimum score lines of Fudan and Zhejiang University are impossible to reach.

The only schools Xiao Hua can even take a shot at are the local Zhongda and Huagong in Guangdong.

And even that still requires performing better than usual.

If he happens to underperform and scores ten-odd points less than his usual exams, he might not even get into Zhongda or Huagong.

Can only say, rural poor people, wanting to climb up, wanting to break through social strata, under the resource crushing and dimensionality-reduction strike of city people, it's really too hard.

If Xiao Hua had lived in the city since childhood, with his aptitude and level of effort, his ceiling would definitely be much higher than now.

It's just that in this world, everything exists — only "ifs" don't.

Birth is a technical skill; no one can choose their own birthplace.

We who are born poor, resenting heaven and earth is useless; the only thing we can do is work harder than others — if working twice as hard isn't enough, then work ten times as hard; if working ten times as hard isn't enough, then work a hundred times as hard.

And this merely secures the opportunity to attend the same university as those city people, nothing more.

……