Chapter 32

It is said that this is the first time Xiao Fei has seen Lin Chunli after his rebirth, and she is still the young version of Lin Chunli.

In the winter of 2014 in his previous life, he had once met Lin Chunli in City Z.

At that time, Lin Chunli had already retired early due to illness.

At that time, she was taking care of her son in City Z. Her hair was already white, and her face was full of wrinkles, making her look like a standard old lady.

A person in her fifties, aging to such an extent, was due to the hardships of life.

Lin Chunli's husband had a sudden heart attack in the deep autumn of 1996 and passed away before he could be saved, leaving her to raise their two children alone.

The pain of losing her husband dealt her a huge blow, plunging her into deep sorrow from which she could not extricate herself for a long time. After her children grew up, she remarried in 2006.

This marriage also ended in tragedy.

The man she married treated her very poorly and, two years later, started an affair with another married woman, leaving her.

Thinking about all the things that happened to Lin Chunli and their meeting in the winter of 2014 in his previous life, Xiao Fei felt a bit酸酸的 (sour) in his heart. She was a pitiful woman who had been tormented by fate!

Lin Chunli had been Xiao Fei's teacher from the third grade of elementary school until he graduated.

In the rural elementary school, there were not enough teachers, so each class in Xili Village Elementary School had only one full-time teacher who was responsible for being the homeroom teacher as well as teaching Chinese, mathematics, natural science, and music.

Lin Chunli graduated from X City Normal University in the 1980s, a time when college graduates were highly valued. She could have stayed in the city and had a better future.

But she chose to return to the countryside.

In high school, she had a boyfriend, Liu Xianmin from Xili Village.

Although Liu Xianmin did not pass the college entrance exam and returned to the village to farm, which made him vastly different from her in status, she still defied her family's opposition and married him.

Then, she became a teacher at Xili Village Elementary School.

Many people said she was foolish, giving up a good life in the city to marry a farmer and suffer, but Lin Chunli just smiled it off.

In Xiao Fei's memory, Lin Chunli had a very good temper and never hit or scolded students. She spoke softly and taught vividly, and almost every student she taught admired her immensely.

She was multi-talented, skilled in drawing, and her pencil sketches were vivid and lifelike.

She understood music and had a beautiful singing voice. She also had a guitar, and during her free time, she often played and sang in the office. Now, recalling it, her guitar playing was quite good, and her singing was also very beautiful. She even composed the school song for Xili Village Elementary School:

Here, the sound of reading is clear,

Here, laughter flies,

The lovely Xili Village Elementary School faces the sun and strives upward!

We wander in the ocean of knowledge,

We sow in the vast land of learning!

Bearing the heavy hopes of the times,

With the expectant gaze of our loved ones,

Today we study diligently here,

Tomorrow we will surely become the pillars of the republic...

To this day, Xiao Fei can still clearly remember the lyrics and melody of the "Xili Village Elementary School Song" composed by Lin Chunli, and he can hum it at will.

It must be said that the lyrics of this school song are quite good, and the melody is very beautiful and stirring.

Xiao Fei knew that music was Lin Chunli's hobby, and she had done a lot of research in this area. She had a natural talent for singing.

If her youth had been in the new millennium, coinciding with the peak of domestic talent shows, she might have achieved something significant in music.

Thinking about this, Xiao Fei suddenly had an idea. Why not ask Lin Chunli for some music theory lessons?

In his previous life, the thing Xiao Fei regretted the most was not learning an instrument. If he could learn to play the guitar from Lin Chunli, that would be great.

"Hello, Teacher Lin, please come in and sit down," Xiao Fei invited Lin Chunli.

Lin Chunli smiled and waved her hand, "No, thank you. Today, a letter for you was delivered to the school. I saw it was from the Z City Evening News, so I decided to bring it to you personally."

As she spoke, she handed the letter to Xiao Fei.

At this time, the postman would usually deliver letters directly to the school, and the teachers would have the students deliver them to their homes. Lin Chunli, seeing that the letter was from a newspaper, feared it might be important, so she decided to deliver it herself.

Xiao Fei took a look and indeed saw that it was a Z City Evening News envelope. He felt that the letter was quite thick.

"Thank you, Teacher Lin. I'm really sorry to trouble you to bring it here personally. Please come in and have a drink of water," Xiao Fei invited her again.

"No, no, I need to hurry home to help my child with homework," Lin Chunli smiled and refused again, turning to leave.

Xiao Fei quickly said, "Teacher, I have a favor to ask. I wonder if you can help me."

Lin Chunli stopped, "What is it?"

"I want to ask you to teach me how to read sheet music and play the guitar," Xiao Fei said, scratching his head awkwardly.

"Oh, no problem at all. If you want to learn, you can come to my house in the evenings," Lin Chunli agreed readily. "But I'm not professionally trained, I just know a little. I'm not sure if I can teach you well."

Xiao Fei ignored her last comment and smiled, "Thank you so much, Teacher Lin. I'll probably be bothering you often."

"Don't be so formal. By the way, how did you do on the college entrance exam, Xiao Fei?" Lin Chunli asked about Xiao Fei's exam results.

"I don't think I did well this year," Xiao Fei replied.

Lin Chunli said, "Few people pass the first time. If you retake the exam next year, you'll definitely succeed! I took the exam three times when I was in high school."

After Lin Chunli left, Xiao Fei opened the letter from the Z City Evening News and read it.

The envelope contained a sample newspaper and a letter written by Liu Zelai.

In the letter, Liu Zelai said that Xiao Fei's article was very well-written. At such a young age, to write an article with such depth of thought, it was clear that Xiao Fei was very talented.

Liu Zelai also mentioned that he couldn't communicate with Xiao Fei beforehand, so he took the initiative to set up a column for him in the Z City Evening News's Baihua Platform supplement. This was to facilitate the publication of the ten articles Xiao Fei had sent in the shortest time possible. He hoped that Xiao Fei would maintain the column and write more good articles during the period after the college entrance exam.

Liu Zelai told Xiao Fei that he had specially applied to the newspaper's leadership, and Xiao Fei's articles in the column would be paid at a rate of 150 yuan per article, which was a high rate for good articles.

He also encouraged Xiao Fei to keep writing.

He believed that as long as Xiao Fei worked hard, he would achieve great success in writing.

The content of the letter was warm and comforting, making Xiao Fei feel very comfortable and grateful to Liu Zelai. The 150 yuan per article was the standard rate for well-known writers in the Z City Evening News.

It seemed that Liu Zelai and the Z City Evening News really valued his ten articles. Perhaps this was his big break?

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