Chapter 17 Was it a wrong payment?

August 1965, 8, Friday, the 20th day of the seventh lunar month.

Erqi Theater on Fuxingmenwai Street is the artistic production base of the Railway Art Troupe.

The registration receipt, household registration booklet, and graduation certificate that Wang Yuanchao brought with him were all lying quietly in the grass-green canvas Jiefang shoulder bag. No one asked for them or verified his identity at all.

So not serious?
He had a bad feeling in his heart.

In the past few days, he had memorized the thin Chinese and political textbooks in junior high school. With the training from a province with strong examination performance in his previous life, he had a good grasp of the written test and it was not difficult at all.

But after leaving the examination room, I heard various complaints from candidates:
"How do you write the word 闆? I hate these kinds of characters that have been changed. Simplifying a radical and removing some strokes is fine, but I can't remember these unrelated simplified characters at all."

"I have to use simplified characters. It's too difficult. How many years have I learned traditional characters? How many years have I learned simplified characters? Who can remember them all?"

……

In 1956, simplified Chinese characters came into use.

The principles of simplifying Chinese characters are: "narrate but do not create", "follow conventions and make steady progress". In other words, we should try to use simplified characters that have been popular among the people for a long time, and only collect and organize them and make necessary modifications, and do not create characters without authorization.

In 1964, the Executive Yuan announced the "General List of Simplified Characters". The first list contains 352 simplified characters that are not used as radicals, the second list contains 132 simplified characters that can be used as simplified radicals, and the third list contains 1754 characters inferred from the second list, totaling 2236 characters. These are the simplified characters commonly used today.

In other words, the textbooks in previous years, even those for the first and second year of junior high school, still mixed simplified and traditional Chinese!

Those with good academic performance have all been admitted to technical secondary schools or high schools, while those who come here to take the recruitment exam are, to some extent, "bad students" who failed the high school entrance exam.

Wow, no wonder Wang Yuanchao felt it was not difficult, that’s why!
Some students who lacked confidence left without waiting for the results.

However, there were still many people gathered outside the theater, waiting for the invigilators from the art troupe to quickly mark their test papers and waiting for interview notifications.

It rained a little last night and the temperature dropped several degrees. It was almost 10:30 and the temperature was still below degrees, but the sun actually gave people a warm feeling.

Is autumn coming soon?
Wang Yuanchao had no time to lament the autumn in the north. He looked over the cheat sheets he had carefully prepared, perhaps they would come in handy during the interview later.

Even a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit, and he already felt something was wrong.

In the previous life, when I was taking the civil service exam, even though I knew there were many interview masters, I would still try my best to get a high score in the written test, because only if your written test is so outstanding, people will not dare to give you a bad score in the interview.

We have to recruit some people with real talent and knowledge, right? And they can't be too ugly, right?
-
The grading results came out very quickly. There was no long essay, only a short essay based on a picture. The office graded and marked the papers, and the results came out very quickly.

The office director quickly received the performance summary.

First place, Wang Yuanchao, 98 points;
Second place, Zhao Liangchen, 74 points;
……

Eighth place, Hou Yaowen, 68 points;
……

Hiss, this first place is leading by a huge margin!
Could it be that this child forgot to write his name during the high school entrance examination?

Such seeded players should definitely go to technical secondary schools or high schools.

If the interview wasn't too bad, our Railway Art Troupe deserves to be the one to pick him up.

A total of 6 people were admitted this time, and 20 places were given for the written test. We will try to choose one out of three.

But the director looked at the score of the 18th place, 52 points, so he lowered the interview score line by 4 points, so that it was 25 out of 6. Well, that's much better.

[If the last few interviews performed too well, they would not be suitable, right?]

Soon, the staff took the list of shortlisted candidates for the written test and started going outside to notify the shortlisted candidates to prepare for the interview.

Everyone lined up in a long queue in the corridor inside the theater according to the interview order notified by the staff.

The staff said:
“First of all, congratulations to all of you for passing the written test among hundreds of people and becoming the best to enter the interview stage.

The interview will be conducted by the four sub-group leaders of our art troupe, the office director, and five judges, and everyone will give a comprehensive score. In the end, the top six comrades in the written test and interview will become members of our glorious art troupe! "No one knew that the notification was made from the back to the front, and the people at the front were complacent. Choose one from four, and the people at the front have a great chance!

The smile gradually faded from front to back.

The person in the middle had a serious expression, and the people in the back, who were standing in front of Wang Yuanchao, already had heavy looks on their faces.

Wang Yuanchao, who was at the end of the list, thought:
No way? The competition is so fierce?
He thought to himself that he had done very well in the exam. How many of those who ranked ahead of him had connections?

Or do you simply know the exam content in advance?
It makes perfect sense considering that even the test takers didn’t review the results at the test site.

If everyone has high scores, then it depends on the interview performance. Wang Yuanchao cannot miss this opportunity.

As for the opportunity to replace his mother, if possible, he was going to give it to his younger sister. He couldn't let such a well-behaved girl go to some remote place to eat dirt in the future, right?

Everyone sat down on a row of benches along the corridor and started waiting for their names to be called for interviews.

Wang Yuanchao began to talk quietly to the person in front of him (the third one) and the person in front of him:

"How did you do on the exam?"

"I made a lot of mistakes. I was surprised to get the interview."

"I'm almost there too. I didn't expect the recruitment exam for the art troupe to be so difficult."

"If the opportunity to become a regular employee isn't difficult, will it still be our turn?"

……

Although the two of them were talking in whispers, Wang Yuanchao could hear it clearly from such a distance.

Either these two are lying and being polite to each other, or the interview ranking is not based on test scores.

The first interviewee went in happily, but after about two minutes, came out worriedly.

Then came the second one, the third one... Each person's time was no more than five minutes, basically two or three minutes each.

Isn't this a bit formalistic?
What can you get out of this interview in three to five minutes?

Just one minute of self-introduction is gone!

Until the eighth person, when the time finally passed a little longer, Wang Yuanchao confirmed the time again and again. This person went in at 11:42 and came out at 11:51.

Based on the ranking order and interview time, this person is sure to get in.

Wang Yuanchao couldn't help but take a look at him. He was a frivolous young man wearing a white shirt with two buttons undone.

Unfortunately, the other party's eyes didn't even fall on them.

The next ones resumed to two to three to five minutes each.

The eighteenth time took a little longer. Wang Yuanchao looked at his watch and it was already 12:32, about seven or eight minutes.

When he saw Wang Yuanchao's gaze, he nodded to him and said hello.

This is a lively and polite guy.

Looking at the few competitors ahead of him, Wang Yuanchao estimated that it would take until 1 o'clock before he could get his turn.

Although he felt that he was well prepared, his heart still started beating uncontrollably as the time approached.

(End of this chapter)