sjar Chapter 321 Era: XCMG's Simple-minded Wife 25
Chapter 321 Era: XCMG's Simple-minded Wife 25
On the day of the college entrance examination, at five o'clock in the morning.
Ji Xiaosong got up quietly, afraid of waking the three children.
She put on her most presentable navy blue coat in the dark, which Xu Weidong had specially bought for her using the labor protection cloth coupons issued by the factory.
In front of the stove, Ji Dan had already cooked millet porridge and was using molecular gastronomy techniques to reconstitute a few peanuts into something with nutritional value comparable to an egg.
"Body temperature 36.7°C, blood pressure normal."
Ji Dan lowered his voice to a whisper, “It is recommended to consume 300 kcal to maintain optimal brain function.”
Ji Xiaosong shook her head and only ladled out half a bowl of porridge: "Eating too much makes me sleepy."
It was still dark outside the window, but a few lights had already been lit up inside the family compound.
Several young people on their way to take the exam hurried by, their canvas bags slung over their shoulders, their footsteps crunching on the snow.
"Exam admission ticket, pen, draft paper..."
Ji Dan mechanically checked the item list, then suddenly paused, "There's also this."
He pulled a small cloth bag from under the kang mat, inside which were "steel stationery" made by Xu Weidong himself.
The compass axle was made from scrap steel bearings, the protractor's scale was modified from a blast furnace thermometer, and even the pencil was carefully sharpened to a slant suitable for long-term writing.
Ji Xiaosong carefully placed the cloth bag close to her body, when she suddenly heard a noise coming from the inner room.
Xu Nian'an woke up.
The little girl neither cried nor made a fuss; she simply stared at her mother with her dark, grape-like eyes.
Ji Xiaosong's heart softened, and she gently picked her up: "Mommy has an exam today, why don't you stay home and play with Auntie?"
Nian'an suddenly grabbed her collar with her little hand and babbled a few syllables that sounded like "Go for it!"
Ji Dan's pupils dilated slightly: "Language development has advanced by 127%, suggestion..."
"Shh..." Ji Xiaosong kissed her daughter's forehead, "This is a miracle."
As dawn broke, long queues had already formed outside the examination hall of the county's No. 1 Middle School.
Ji Xiaosong stood in the middle of the group, constantly receiving strange looks.
She was one of the few married candidates at the entire test center, and the only mother carrying her child on her back.
"Comrade, the exam rules prohibit bringing infants and toddlers." The invigilator frowned and stopped her.
Ji Xiaosong was prepared: "This is my cousin. She's with the child and is waiting outside."
She pointed to Ji Dan, who was standing by the wall.
Before the proctor could say anything, a voice suddenly came from the side: "Let her take the exam, Teacher Zhang. This is the wife of Technician Xu from the steel plant."
The speaker was a clerk from the county education bureau who had conducted a literacy campaign inspection at the steel plant last year.
He lowered his voice: "Her husband almost sacrificed his life to save state property..."
The proctor's expression softened, and he finally waved his hand: "Examination Room 1, Seat 23."
The classroom reeked of a mixture of cheap chalk and frostbite cream.
Ji Xiaosong's fingers trembled slightly when she received the test paper.
The first question in the Chinese language test was to mark the pinyin, and the second question was to "analyze the ideological connotation of 'The Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains'".
These were too easy for her.
But when she turned to the math paper, her breath caught in her throat.
The final, challenging question was: "A steel plant needs to build a cylindrical gas storage tank with a volume of 50 cubic meters using the least amount of materials. Find the optimal diameter-to-height ratio."
This is clearly the very problem that Xu Weidong was struggling with just last month!
The pen nib hovered over the paper for a moment, and Ji Xiaosong suddenly remembered the discussion with Ji Dan that night about how to use Bernoulli's equation to explain the optimization of blast furnace air intake.
At this moment, the formulas calculated late into the night came flooding in like a tidal wave.
She wrote quickly and swiftly, even subconsciously writing down "this can be verified using a method similar to controlling the heat when steaming buns" during the problem-solving process.
During the lunch break, Ji Dan held Nian An and waited under the locust tree outside the examination hall.
It uses a bioelectric field to maintain the baby's body temperature, while releasing protein-rich nano-mist from a hidden pocket in the collar, disguised as white mist condensed from breath, which is inhaled into Ji Xiaosong's lungs.
The essay topic was "An Unforgettable Day".
Ji Xiaosong munched on a multigrain pancake, her eyes shining. "I wrote that on the day of the explosion, when Weidong was carried out, he was still thinking about his three children."
Ji Dan's auditory sensors suddenly picked up on a murmur: "...That woman with the child actually handed in her paper early? She must have just made things up..."
Just as it was about to turn its head, Ji Xiaosong pressed its hand down: "Ignore them."
Her gaze swept past the crowd and landed on the steel plant chimneys billowing white smoke in the distance.
At this moment, Xu Weidong must be in the workshop, charging towards 900 MPa with the workers.
The physics and chemistry exams in the afternoon will be the real battle.
When the test papers were handed out, a collective gasp filled the classroom.
The last major question, worth 20 points, required calculating "the energy loss of a certain type of rolling mill during the hot rolling process".
Ji Xiaosong's pen tip pierced the draft paper with a "snap".
This problem was practically tailor-made for steel mill workers! She pictured Lin Xiaomei calculating parameters on the blackboard, and remembered Old Li's grumbling, "Each ton of steel billet will consume an extra 15 kilowatt-hours of electricity..."
The solution process was smooth and efficient, right up to the last step.
"The lubrication method of the transmission device needs to be improved."
She inexplicably wrote an extra line, then quickly crossed it out with a pen; this was a technique that wouldn't be widely adopted for another two years.
As the bell rang to signal the end of the exam, the setting sun shone on the mottled walls of the examination hall.
As Ji Xiaosong walked out of the school gate, she saw Ji Dan surrounded by several curious family members of the test takers. Ji Dan was using seemingly ordinary twigs to draw geometric shapes on the ground, helping several rural test takers estimate their scores.
"This is an application of the Pythagorean theorem..."
Its voice was gentle and patient, just like a real village teacher.
The bus on the way back was packed with test takers.
Some people excitedly checked the answers, while others were dejected.
Ji Xiaosong, leaning against the car window, suddenly noticed a prominent slogan posted on a roadside utility pole:
"Strive to achieve the Four Modernizations!"
Nian'an, nestled in her arms, suddenly giggled, her little hands patting the car window as if in response to the approaching spring.
At the entrance of the steel plant, Xu Weidong stood in the snow for two hours, leaning on his crutches.
When he saw his wife and daughter get off the bus, a smile finally appeared on his frozen face: "How was it?"
Ji Xiaosong tucked Nian'an into his arms and took something out of his pocket.
The scrap paper I saved during the exam was covered with formulas that might be useful for steelmaking.
"The last question..." Her voice trembled slightly, "is a simplified version of that difficult question from our factory."
Xu Weidong's eyes lit up immediately.
Ignoring the people around him, he grabbed his wife and his cane fell to the ground with a thud.
“I knew it…” the tough guy’s voice choked up, “You could do it.”
Suddenly, a horn blared behind me.
A Jiefang truck carrying off-duty workers passed by when someone shouted, "Our talented girl has finished her exams?"
A chorus of whistles and applause erupted from the bus.
Lin Xiaomei leaned halfway out of the car window, waving a notebook in her hand: "Sister-in-law! We've figured out the 'steaming method for controlling the heat' you mentioned last time!"
Looking at this group of young people, their faces covered in coal dust but their eyes shining, Ji Xiaosong suddenly understood the path she had to take:
It's not about creating miracles with spiritual power, but about igniting more sparks with knowledge.
Just like now, the lights of thousands of homes are gradually lighting up in the twilight.