In the anticipation of everyone, the college entrance examination results were released, and everyone was rushing to inquire about their scores.
Since they had registered at their workplace, their results were all sent to the factory office.
Zhou Lina had no interest in jostling for information at the factory office at this time.
She would find out her results sooner or later anyway, and if things went smoothly, someone would notify her of her score.
It wasn’t long before she saw a colleague who had just rushed out to inquire about the exam results return to the office, pale-faced.
Colleagues, who had been discussing the college entrance exam results, fell silent upon seeing this scene.
"It’s okay if you didn’t do well, as long as you’re not at the bottom," someone consoled, while at the same time taking a dig at Zhou Lina.
They all considered themselves competent, and wondered why Chief Xiao was cultivating Zhou Lina, which of course made them look on her unfavorably.
A colleague floated over to Zhou Lina’s side, "Accountant Zhou, you really kept things under wraps, you actually scored the highest in the entire factory."
"Exactly," another colleague who followed into the office added with a nasty expression, "With so many subjects, you only lost a mere twenty-something points."
To think that their best subjects were twenty or more points away from a perfect score, yet Zhou Lina’s results could be this impressive.
After that remark, everyone in the finance department looked at Zhou Lina with faces full of shock and awe.
"No way, that can’t be."
"Yeah, is there a mistake, is it?"
They truly thought Zhou Lina’s score would be at the bottom, or at least close to it.
But the outcome was so unexpected, she had done so well.
"No mistake, we checked several times," another colleague drawled.
"Little Zhou, you really kept it too well hidden."
Was it her fault? Zhou Lina wouldn’t take the blame for this, "I did mention before that I did well, it was you who thought I did poorly."
"When we registered, I also mentioned that my high school grades were not bad."
Zhou Lina had an expression that clearly said she had been honest, and it wasn’t her fault they hadn’t believed her.
Seeing Zhou Lina’s innocent expression, everyone truly felt like coughing up blood, but they couldn’t accuse her of deceiving anyone, she had indeed said so before.
It was just that they hadn’t believed her at all, "We should have asked for guidance."
Back then, in order to get pointers, they had racked their brains and owed many favors.
In the end, they still didn’t do well, even though the best teacher was right beside them, they had failed to appreciate it.
One quick-thinking colleague was worried about their own child’s performance, which was really not good; not just thinking about university or community college seemed out of reach, but even entering a vocational school was a risky matter.
"About your study materials..."
"Right, right, Accountant Zhou, your study materials..."
After all, Zhou Lina must have had plenty of study materials to achieve such outstanding results.
"The three of us only had one set of books and one set of tutoring materials, but Aunt Gu already took them," said Zhou Lina.
In truth, they had gathered three sets of books, but upon learning that Gu Kai’s brother lacked study materials, they mailed a set to him.
Another set was given by Gu Wei to someone close, and so the three of them were left with just one set of materials.
It wasn’t that they were overly generous, but they had been studying continuously; having one set of books was enough, as they could take turns using them.
"You three only had one set of books?" a colleague exclaimed.
"Yep, Gu and I had long since graduated from high school, and to save money, I gave all my books to Xiao Xuan."
"Gu Kai had gone to the countryside as an educated youth and didn’t take any books with him either."
"After we heard the college entrance exam was restored, we had to figure out where to get books."
Nods of agreement followed, as everyone knew how hard it was to get a textbook at that time, "There were no books in the bookstores."
"We even went to the waste station, to no avail," someone sighed lengthily, "If I had had books, I think I could have gotten a better score."
Zhou Lina listened to their discussions, knowing that if they had had books, they could also have achieved good results, but she didn’t participate at all.
It wasn’t that she was aloof, rather if she spoke up, she would invariably tell them that they were just clutching at straws.
Previously, when they did practice questions in the office and discussed how to tackle the problems, she wanted to ask if they had read or consulted with a teacher at all.
Forget it, if their exam results weren’t good enough, and if they couldn’t even indulge in some wishful thinking, it would stifle them completely.
Someone sneaked up to Zhou Lina, "Accountant Zhou..."
Zhou Lina looked up at the other person, as if her family wouldn’t be attending the college entrance exam, and she had also mentioned that they had no more study materials.
"After you’re admitted to university, will you go to study?" the person asked in a low voice.
Oh, they were asking about her job. Indeed, she was going to study; how could she possibly return here? They would surely make job arrangements for her.
"I will study, I haven’t thought about work yet," she had been preoccupied with revision and exams before, and with work right after the exams.
She never really considered the job aspect, and now, while she was happy with her scores, others were asking about her job prospects.
She knew that soon enough, even more people would be eyeing her job, what a hassle.
As expected, after the results were out, many sought out her, along with Zhang Shifen and Gu Wei, to inquire about job matters.
Knowing that Zhou Lina and her husband had done well and would be attending university, it implied two job vacancies, causing much excitement.
Eventually, Gu Wei handled the matter, making arrangements for the couple’s jobs.
"The two have some connections in the Capital City and can pull some strings," she explained.
Ah, it could be done this way? Zhou Lina knew that leaving it to Gu Wei would yield a meticulous plan, but she didn’t expect it to work out so successfully.
Since the job matter was settled, Zhou Lina and her husband began to pack their belongings.
If it were just the two of them, it would be quite straightforward; whatever they needed they could take immediately. As for less urgent items, they could fetch them later or ask Zhang Shifen to mail them.
But now they had to take three children with them, which, apart from avoiding the school enrollment frenzy, also meant dealing with the Gu Family relatives who had mostly moved back to the Capital City already.
In particular, Gu Kai’s grandparents and parents had already returned. Gu Wei would go back to visit her parents and brother’s family, and Gu Kai would go to see his elders.
As Gu Kai’s wife, although she had sent them a family photo, no amount of pictures could compare to meeting in person.
"After we get there..." Zhou Lina was genuinely worried. Even though the Gu Family had a spacious quadrangle with individual living quarters,
having in-laws above her on both sides was definitely daunting, and she couldn’t bluntly say she didn’t want to live with the elderly.