Before the Spring Festival, the cold current suddenly came, and the bitter north wind was like horses galloping. It rushed from the village to the end of the village, bypassed the courtyard wall, crossed the roof, and roared all night.

When I woke up in the morning, the sky was dark and the fields were pale. The ground was covered with thick frost and the trees were covered with shiny ice. The whole world seemed to be frozen.

Sister Hong was on morning shift today. When we went out together, Xiaozhuang was not awake yet. Sister Hong knocked on the landlord's door with a guilty look on her face. The old couple was eating around the stove in the room. Sister Hong begged them to help take care of Xiaozhuang. The aunt quickly agreed. After finishing the rice in the bowl in three, she explained a few words to the old man who was eating, and then ran to the west room where we lived. During the days we stayed here, we were grateful to the two kind and generous elderly people from the bottom of our hearts. It was precisely because of this mentality that we sometimes felt ashamed of being unable to repay the elderly.

Tonight, the cram school is about to take the final exam. When I came home from get off work yesterday, I didn’t sleep all night, racing against time to review. In the second half of the night, Sister Hong woke up from her sleep and saw that I was still studying hard under the light. She pulled me into the bed without saying a word. On the bed, I still couldn’t fall asleep. I was confused in my dream and seemed to memorize the definitions and formulas that had been overnight.

I pushed the bicycle and walked out of the village entrance with Sister Hong. A sharp cold wind suddenly came to me. Although I was wearing a thick labor protection coat, I still felt a bone-permeable cold. I quickly shrank my head and looked at Sister Hong with concern. She also wrapped her head and face tightly with a big scarf. Because the wind was too strong, the car could not ride for a while. We walked across the field path with a rustling fallen leaves on the ground until we walked on the flat asphalt road bells by the city. Only then did we follow the heavy worker crowd, shaking the bells and riding the bicycle toward the factory.

When I arrived at the factory gate, I didn't get off the car or slow down. While the two guards were not paying attention, I suddenly slammed hard and slashed through the blue-gray gatehouse. Sister Hong didn't pay attention in the back seat, and suddenly flicked and quickly hooked my waist. Seeing that we didn't get off the car, she slipped into the gate. Several young workers riding bicycles following behind me also wanted to rush in. They were blocked by two guards who had just reacted. A sharp shout immediately came from behind us.

When we arrived outside the workshop, we got out of the car. When I pushed the bicycle into the carport, Sister Hong also walked in.

"Don't be nervous about the exam today. Your foundation is poor. Just show your usual level." Sister Hong looked at my blood-red eyes and couldn't help but give in with heartache.

"I will definitely not disappoint you and Xiaozhuang." I scrubbed the messy hair on my forehead and nodded vigorously.

"Let's cheer you up." Sister Hong raised her small pink fist and shook it hard in front of my eyes.

"With you and Xiaozhuang, I'm not afraid of anything." At that moment, my heart was warm.

Sister Hong tiptoed and kissed me on the face. When several small mopeds around saw it, they couldn't help laughing. I felt a little embarrassed for a moment, and Sister Hong smiled at the sisters with a generous look on her face.

We walked into the workshop and broke up. Sister Hong turned around and left. I walked through rows of textile machines and walked towards the security class. On the way, I met a bunch of Mao Xiaoli, with an electrician bag behind his butt, and was teasing two small wheelbarrowers who were about to get off work. When Xiaoli saw me coming, he greeted him proudly. I remembered the apprentice of the electrician class that he bullied people. I thought that when I was free, I would teach him well and let this Xiaoli, who bullied people by virtue of his power, could not change the dogs to eat shit, and he felt a little bitter.

I was absent-minded all morning, thinking about problems while working. Several elementary apprentices who followed me saw that I had always had a stern face and thought I was unhappy, so I was cautious when working, for fear that something would make me angry. They were the same as when I first came to take over, and were still in a state of youth and ignorance.

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We returned to the security class, packed up our tools, and the elementary apprentices went to the cafeteria for dinner. I went to the large workshop alone to find Sister Hong. The two of them were next to a row of yarn machines and finished the cold rice brought by the family. In recent times, in order to save money, Sister Hong and I have never been to the cafeteria again, and the meals were prepared from home.

When I was at work in the afternoon, I asked for leave for Team Leader Xu, and said that I would take the exam tonight and I needed to read the books carefully to make it easier for him to stop giving him any more work. When I said this, everyone didn't say anything, but Fatty Zhang whispered, and I didn't care about him, just pretending that he didn't see it.

Everyone went out to work, and the room was quiet, accompanied by the sound of machines coming from outside the door, I reviewed the concept while doing math problems. The math review was almost done, and I just picked up the physics textbook, and the door was pushed open with a slam.

"Wu Ping, go and help me see, that broken machine has problems again." Xiao Meihua hurriedly rushed in with a big forehead.

"..." I raised my face and wanted to say that I would have a rest in the afternoon, but when I saw her anxious, sweat was oozing on her forehead, and the words didn't spit it out.

Xiao Meihua wiped the sweat from her forehead and complained irritably: "I can't get the salary at all, and this machine has problems all day long, so it's really not for people to live."

"Don't worry, I'll go and show it to you." I didn't think about it anymore, put down the book, got up and took tools from the cabinet, and called Xiao Meihua to walk out of the door.

The distributor machine that Xiao Meihua blocked has long been time to be maintained. I have repaired it for her three times this week. Now, the factory is in a downturn and the maintenance costs are almost gone. It is only Lao Ma towed the broken car and barely maintained the operation.

"Sanhong's family is still running a mine in your field?" In order to comfort Xiao Meihua's emotions, I started gossiping while doing work.

"Hey—don't mention it. Now not only my land, but also the surrounding land is occupied." Xiao Meihua said angrily, "There are several large wellheads in our village. I heard that many powerful people in the county have invested in the stocks. The two brothers of Hu Xiumei are the two tigers in Chengbei who once fought with you and Lu Yu."

When I heard her say "The Two Husky in the North of the City", I couldn't help but feel sad and angry. It seemed that they had approved the procedures. Did the master really help them? Thinking of this, my heart was chaotic, and my mind was gone, and the hammer in my hand hit my nails, which made me jump up in pain.

"What's wrong? Is it hurt..." Xiao Meihua screamed in surprise and asked repeatedly when she saw me grinning.

"It's okay, it's okay..." I held my fingers and opened my mouth wide and sniffed. I didn't recover for a long time.

"What's wrong?" At some point, Senior Brother Xiao Cai stood behind us and asked nervously.

"Wu Ping smashed his hand." When Xiao Meihua said this, it seemed that her hand was injured, and her voice changed in panic.

"Hurry up and go to the factory hospital to check it out." Senior Brother Xiao Cai pulled my hand and saw that my whole nails were purple. He hurriedly urged, "Don't you still have to go to class tonight? I'll do the rest of the work."

As the saying goes, ten fingers are connected to the heart. I sweated coldly in pain. Before I could say thank you, I covered my swollen thumb and hurried out of the workshop = the gate.

The factory hospital was not big, with few doctors and nurses. Now even the "veterinary doctors" have been transferred away, leaving only two female nurses barely maintaining it. They simply cleaned the wounds, applied some purple medicine, and applied some anti-inflammatory powder, and finally bandaged them. After coming out of the factory hospital, one of my hands became numb.

Before I got off work, I had already left the factory gate. When I arrived at the county trade union, the sun had not set yet. I sat alone in the cold classroom, enduring the pain of my fingers and quickly read the book. The classmates came one after another, and the classroom became lively because it was the first big exam, filled with a rare tension. My red-faced little fat man came again. When he walked into the classroom panting, Teacher Yu, the invigilator, had already started to hand over the test papers.

That night, we took two consecutive exams, the first one was mathematics and the second one was chemistry. I felt that I was not doing well in math. There were three questions in the last big question, and I racked my brains to guess and did one. Chemistry is my favorite course, and Teacher Yu taught it well, so I almost didn’t feel any difficulty and finished it smoothly. I came out to check the answers with others, but I only got two fill-in-the-blank questions wrong.
Chapter completed!