The farm branch is built on the top of a barren ridge, where it is very arid, so almost all the crops planted on the ridge are drought-tolerant, such as peanuts, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, etc., and even the drought-tolerant crops also need to be watered, at this time it is necessary to go to a small river at the foot of the ridge to get water. From the top of the ridge to the foot of the ridge must walk a slope of about 50 degrees, a distance of several hundred meters, every time the teachers take a group of immature students to climb back and forth, with each person's own bucket to the top of the ridge bucket to water the various crops they have worked so hard to plant, that kind of labor intensity, even the nearby farmers are not willing to do, if a young male teacher does a morning, he will be so tired that he can't help but sit on the top of the ridge or even sit on the slope and gasp for breath, the worst thing is, This kind of work is often carried out in the hot sun, and the little water that the students bring with them is drunk soon after the work begins, and every now and then everyone queues up in the canteen to fetch boiling water to replenish the severe water shortage and take the opportunity to take a break, and the teacher is no exception. At that time, there were often girls who fainted from exhaustion during their work, so experienced teachers would always carry some of the most popular medicines in Octagon Town at that time, such as gold balm, flower oil, white flower oil, etc., for emergency use.

In the two years of junior high school, Tang Boqiang couldn't remember how many times he walked back and forth between the farm branch and Bajiao Town, each time he traveled ten kilometers one-way, walking on foot with weights, or picking dung water, or picking bricks, or pulling sugar cane, the rich family felt sorry for their children, gritted their teeth and bought a bicycle equivalent to a few months of income of Tang Boqiang's family to ride between the farm branch and Bajiao Town, but Tang Boqiang did not dare to hope that such a thing would come to his head, Every time, I went on the road alone or with a few classmates who could chat with Shi Wenhua, and every time I would bring a lunch with porridge and dried radish or salted fish.

The branch school was built in such a place, and the houses of the branch school are arranged in a "U-shape" shape with openings towards the river at the foot of the slope, with student dormitories and classrooms in the middle and on one side, and teachers' dormitories on the other. Living in the branch school, to put it bluntly, is to take care of the crops on the farm, of course, classes are still arranged in the morning, but the content of the class is mostly related to the operation of agricultural machinery, agricultural machinery and the planting of crops, and the content of mathematics, physics and chemistry and language is only a few, Tang Boqiang knows what this means, and when he returns to the school headquarters after half a year, their grades will definitely be a big difference with the grades of the students in the school headquarters, because the school has mobilized from top to bottom, from teachers to students, They all hope that the students of their school can get good results in the college entrance examination in the future and win glory for the school.

Tang Boqiang knows that with his ability, with the ability of his family, he can't change all this, and all he can do is to obey the arrangement, according to Tang Boqiang's idea: Since so many students are going, why can't I go, even if it is really worse than the students in the school headquarters in the future, I also believe that I can catch up.

Everything in the world always follows a certain law, why the failed person always fails, and the successful person can get up and continue his success after falling, which has its inevitable law inside. When a person voluntarily gives up in the face of difficulties, he is destined to lose everything, and failure is destined to accompany him for life; When a person is tenacious and never gives up easily, the god of fate will also favor him infinitely. Tang Boqiang belongs to the kind of person who is favored by the god of fate, and belongs to the kind of person who does not give up easily, and this time is no exception.

The homeroom teacher of the senior one (1) class is Mr. Yi Mucai. Tang Boqiang has been fond of this teacher Yi for a long time, although he is only a college graduate, but he is recognized by the school as a talent, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting everything, what Tang Boqiang admires even more is that he is said to be arrogant, very ancient intellectuals "do not bend their waists for five buckets of rice" style. Tang Boqiang, who has read a large number of classical classics and comic books, is particularly fascinated by this, and this feature has also deeply influenced Tang Boqiang's future life. With such a teacher as the class teacher, Tang Boqiang was of course excited.

There is another thing that makes Tang Boqiang happy, that is, Mr. Qin Xiangqiu, the head teacher of the first (3) class of high school. Teacher Qin Xiangqiu's mathematics is also a recognized master of Bajiao Town Middle School, and he is very methodical in teaching, which Tang Boqiang has already understood. In other words, during the six months of living in the farm branch, the mathematics class will be taught by teacher Qin Xiangqiu. Later proved that Tang Boqiang's judgment was very accurate, when the second semester of the first year of high school began to divide the examination into ordinary classes and top classes, Tang Boqiang's physics and chemistry were a mess, but he squeezed into the top class with excellent mathematics and Chinese scores, which was half a year later.

Of course, there is also one thing that makes Tang Boqiang feel lost, that is, his friend Shi Wenhua is not among the three classes in the boarding school, which makes Tang Boqiang feel at a loss.

After the Spring Festival in 1977, Tang Boqiang lived a life of living and studying in the farm branch with his classmates from other three classes. The living arrangement of the school is very regular, Monday to Friday morning, because of the cold wind on the top of the mountain in winter, at this time the students are arranged to study in the classroom, the content of learning is limited to agricultural machinery, chemistry, mathematics, language and politics, in addition to the Chinese and mathematics is a separate teacher on the three classes of classes, other courses are on a teacher, such as agricultural machinery and chemistry by the teacher Gu Jian alone, the teacher Gu Jian originally taught physics, in Gujing Town Middle School, his physics is not the best, At this time, he is in charge of taking chemistry courses, and the quality of them can be imagined. Every Friday afternoon, the teacher and classmates go back to the town of Octagonal, and rush back to the farm branch before dark on Sunday, and at the same time, two students are assigned to work night shifts every night, reportedly because they are worried that someone will come in the middle of the night to steal the ripe crops on the farm. In the cold winter, on such barren mountains and mountains, although he only sat at the door of the dormitory, occasionally picked up a flashlight and took a picture on the road not far away, but the cold wind blowing through the eucalyptus woods, the cries of various insects and the swaying kerosene lights in the dark fields around the dormitory from time to time brought great fear and psychological pressure to the students on duty.

Crop cultivation and watering are mostly done in the afternoon. In the branch school, Tang Boqiang received special care from Mr. Yi Mucai because of his good grades, and this care was really special: Tang Boqiang was responsible for leading the only cow in the branch to wander around to graze every afternoon, and came back on time before sunset to tie the cow to the cowshed and then go to eat.