Chapter 438 - 157: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (44)

Chapter 438: Chapter 157: The Green Tea Female Supporting Character in a Period Novel (44)

Kyoto General Hospital had borrowed the school cafeteria for the occasion, providing a free meal for each candidate. It included two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, a staple food, and soup. Many ate the hearty meal with tears in their eyes. ’This is the kind of life we’ve been longing for.’

After eating, no one strayed far. They stayed in the classroom hallways, holding their books and quietly studying.

They had grown accustomed to the August heat, and a sense of restlessness had become natural. But this was different. They had endured the hard labor of the countryside and the crushing disappointment of having their hopes of returning to the city dashed time and again.

They had never imagined they would one day be able to walk into a classroom again, to stand at a crossroads in their lives.

Chi Yun’er sat in her office, looking through each person’s application materials.

The materials were actually quite simple: three sets of qualifying test papers, a certificate and letter of recommendation from their commune, a copy of their household registration, and an information form they had filled out by hand.

Besides their basic information and a photo, the form included a few subjective questions about their career expectations and what motivated them to keep striving in life and their studies.

Everyone took the recruitment exam very seriously, filling out the forms with great care. Their answers were full of heartfelt words accumulated over their years in the countryside.

Some even wrote so much that their answers spilled onto the back of the page, reading like the script of a family drama.

In truth, many of those sent to the countryside were the middle children in their families.

Their older brothers and sisters could take over their parents’ jobs, and while their younger siblings were still in school, the family would make arrangements for them before they even graduated.

All the resources and money went to their siblings. They, the ones sent away, might be mentioned by their families at first, but as time went on, they became superfluous.

If their families wouldn’t pull strings for them, how could they ever return to the city?

Even if they managed to get their household registration transferred back, their families could never go back to the way they were.

Older brothers now had wives and children, parents were no longer the ones in charge, and younger siblings had grown up and had their own social circles. Returning from the countryside reeking of the earth, they were complete outsiders in their own homes!

’Forget about living at home long-term. Even when we joyfully take leave to come back for holidays, we have to sleep on the floor, not to mention walk on eggshells around our sisters-in-law...’

’If others won’t cherish us, we’ll do it ourselves! We have to find a good job, return with our heads held high, and live a better life than our cold, harsh families!’

Chi Yun’er couldn’t help but chuckle softly and whisper, "As you wish..."

The exam began at two in the afternoon. First was a three-hour block of math and comprehensive science, followed by a half-hour break, and then a one-hour foreign language test.

The difficulty was similar to the high school joint entrance exams, as were the subjects. ’Even if more than half of the educated youth fail,’ Chi Yun’er thought, ’they’ll have a goal to work toward. In a year, they can be fully prepared for the college entrance exams!’

After a full day of testing, everyone stumbled out of the classrooms feeling light-headed and unsteady. Their hearts were filled with anxiety. They probably wouldn’t have the mind for anything else until the results were released.

Having received Chi Yun’er’s instructions, Xu Chengfang grabbed a megaphone and, with four junior staff members, led the vast procession of candidates back to the General Hospital on foot.

The General Hospital’s commercial street wasn’t finished, but the guesthouse renovations were complete. It was perfect for the out-of-town educated youth to stay in temporarily until the results were announced.

What was originally a five-story office building was now half staff dormitories and half guesthouse.

The guesthouse offered many types of accommodations: single rooms, standard double rooms, triple rooms, quad rooms, six-person rooms, eight-person rooms, and even large communal bunk rooms!

In short, even though there were seven to eight hundred educated youth needing lodging, the guesthouse could still accommodate them all.

This Vice Director Xu was already looking the part.

She walked at the front with the megaphone, telling everyone to be quiet and follow in an orderly line.

After entering through the south gate of the General Hospital, they made a right and walked for about ten minutes before stopping in a small field.

"Comrades, please separate by gender. Men on the east side, women on the west. Please form columns of thirty..."

Everyone kept their mouths shut, shuffled into position, and formed a full twenty-eight columns!

Vice Director Xu nodded and, holding the megaphone, said, "On behalf of our comrades at Kyoto General Hospital, I welcome all of you who are applying for positions here. Although you will be non-tenured personnel, your salary and benefits will be just as good. There will even be generous bonuses to be earned..."

"On your way here, you must have seen the circle of shops outside our General Hospital, right? For a third of you comrades, that will be your future battlefield."