As the school season began, Jian Ping An excitedly went to preschool every day, and Zhang Guoqing and Zhou Jiao began packing up their belongings to go to school.
After a winter break, many schoolmates had changed significantly. Having completed a sester, they had seen the world, and many people had gained experience returning to their hotowns.
Except for a few, everyone gathered together, hiding more joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness behind their laughter.
Going ho to visit relatives, spending ti with family for the New Year, enjoying the kinship. This was supposed to be a happy thing, but things are never that simple.
Still waters run deep, and those who are stable do not boast. Speaking deeply with shallow connections is what a gentleman avoids.
This is the basis for many smart people’s behavior. Even the students who got into prestigious universities, regardless of their inexperience, learn to speak cautiously after seeing several people expelled from nearby universities.
Everyone knows that being expelled and sent ho ans their life is over, also implicating their family mbers. In school, they can tighten their belts and use extra provisions to support their families, and graduating early can sustain a household.
Nobody wants to talk about their own hardships, but after receiving food coupons, many smiling faces often have swollen red eyes.
The chanical and Electrical 59 (1) class was managed like a solid fort by Zhang Guoqing and Yi Jiefang in the student union, with the help of a few cadre students, so outside disturbances did not affect the class.
Similarly, in the canteen, students gathered together without ntioning how their winter vacation went, everyone focused on eating, while the occasionally lively ones discussed experintal issues.
The tree desires calm but the wind will not stop, and soon complaints began to arise around them.
A girl on the right sighed, "You city folks are lucky, still having access to enriched flour and polished rice. No matter how little, it’s white flour and rice. In our place, sigh... speaking more only brings tears."
"You’re near the sea, that’s sothing. My hotown is in the mountains, now that’s hardship. My parents and siblings have never eaten white flour, and when I got off the bus, I used coupons to buy five buns. When I took them ho, no one in the family wanted to eat them. My younger brother kept half for to take on my journey back."
In an instant, the sound of chopsticks stopped for a mont.
"Let’s cherish what we have. It’s not easy to eat a full al nowadays. After spring begins, with wild vegetables, it’ll get better."
A girl laughed self-deprecatingly, "Better? Haha..."
Her companion comforted her, "In the past, the older generation even ate belts when crossing the grasslands, there’s nothing that can’t be overco. Things can only get better, not worse."
The other said in a low voice, "When I left, the village was already eating grain husks. My youngest nephew’s head was big from hunger, always saying it’s dizzy. Even grain husks may not last until spring, and this month I’ll have to ask you for help again."
"Okay, I’ll squeeze, make sure to send it this afternoon."
A nearby boy heard this, frowning, and told his companion, "I hate eating grain husks, not only hard to swallow, every ti I eat, my gums are filled with tiny thorns, and pulling each out hurts trendously."
"I didn’t go back this winter, don’t know how the family is."
"Don’t worry, your big brother knows what he’s doing. He told to advise you to eat well, there are elders at ho, they will arrange things. When I returned, he asked to keep an eye on you, make sure you study seriously, and graduate early."
Zhang Guoqing glanced at his classmates and signaled to Yi Jiefang that it was not suitable to stay here, better to leave after eating. These talks, regardless of how keen people might react, would definitely affect the classmates’ mood; he was worried soone might lose control and cry loudly, which would be very serious.
Yi Jiefang winked at him, unwilling to leave now, as he hadn’t heard enough gossip. Staying in Beijing all day, he had forgotten what the outside world was like.
Zhou Jiao saw them exchanging signals, looking at Zhang Guoqing’s frustration, feeling both amused and saddened. Truly a mother hen personality, caring so much about others’ business.
Can she say she also wanted to know what the outside world was like?
"...Since your father said so, don’t worry. The older generation has rich life experiences, once spring passes and sumr harvest cos, you won’t worry about hard tis at ho."
"You wouldn’t have ntioned it if we hadn’t brought it up. Now I dream of my grandmother every day. Our family depends on her; my dad is honest, and my mom just knows how to work hard. Our family’s food and expenses depend on my grandmother’s arrangents. If she were still alive, I wouldn’t be worried sick every day about the family."
After saying this, he wiped his face, finished his soup, looked into the distance, and said with a lancholic tone, "Our village has the most poplar trees, after spring starts, the first thing that sprouts is poplar catkins. Early in the morning, the ground is covered with poplar catkins. My grandmother would quickly tell to sweep them up.
Then soak them in a big basin for a day and a night, pluck off the hard shells, rinse the leftovers clean, chop them with a knife, use elm bark flour to make dumplings, steam and eat them; though they have a bitter taste, they can barely fill the stomach."
"My grandmother is also very capable. This ti when I went back, I just found out that last year she dug up grass roots. If not for that bag of roots, relying on thin gruel from the village would be difficult.
The old lady was afraid of being discovered, secretly cutting the roots into pieces at ho alone and drying them. Before I left for ho, she milled them into flour and stead them for to eat. This ti before I left, she held my hand, telling to study without sending anything back ho."
A girl nearby heard this and turned her head curiously to ask them, "Classmate, where are you from? In my hotown now, not to ntion grass roots, even tree bark has been stripped bare by the team."
"We are from the South, our hotown is by a mountain, crops grow all year round, if there’s not enough food, there are still so fruits and vegetables. Plus, the nearby team forbids townspeople from digging on the mountain, and once the Awakening of Insects is over, all kinds of wild vegetables erge, better than your hotown!" After saying this, she smiled smugly, then restrained her expression, head down.
After the class finished eating, everyone returned to the classroom to wait for Counselor Xiao Wu to hold a eting.
A female classmate handed a note to Zhou Jiao during the interval, surprising her as it asked for ten minutes of her ti. After pondering for a mont, Zhou Jiao nodded at her.
After class, Zhou Jiao followed her out of the classroom, into the wilderness, seeing her hesitant to speak, she encouraged her with a smile—who seeks you out if it’s nothing important?
"Zhou Jiao, I want to ask you about sothing, please keep it confidential."
What is Zhou Jiao most afraid of? It’s things like secrets. But since it’s been said, she could only nod and smile, saying: "If it involves serious issues, don’t tell . I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep the secret."
"I trust you, I trust the character of both you and Zhang Guoqing."
Zhou Jiao helplessly looked at her, trusting her still had to involve Zhang Guoqing, what was so important about this matter. Could she leave now?
The other party chuckled upon seeing this. After a mont, she looked around, whispering, "I want to know about the Northeast. I heard many refugees there are doing well."
Indeed it involves lives——Zhou Jiao asked seriously, "Has the person you care about gone to the Northeast? You need to know the situation varies in the Northeast Three Provinces."
"To be honest, my parents want to take the whole family to the Northeast. Our family’s situation is worse than what was said at the canteen, we can’t afford not to go."
Zhou Jiao didn’t ask whether her family leaving would affect her future. They weren’t that close, and she wasn’t interested in others’ privacy.
Recalling what she saw and heard returning to her hotown before the year’s end, she softly said, "Our provincial city’s train station has inspections, and there are guards at the county town’s entrance. Families evacuating traveled north, usually heading to the grasslands and the furthest north. It’s said that managent there has relaxed a lot. If relatives are directly related, you can apply to join them."
"Have you seen outsiders in your local area? How are they doing?"
Zhou Jiao shook her head, "I only stayed a few days at ho, it was too cold, and I didn’t see anyone active in the streets. I didn’t see any outsiders in the county town either."
After hearing this, the person thanked Zhou Jiao with a heavy heart and walked back to the classroom with her.
Zhou Jiao didn’t say anything further. Today the person sought her out, perhaps not without hoping for her help. She didn’t contemplate their purpose for seeking her. After all, nobody could force her to act.
The human heart is unpredictable; who knows what kind of background they have. Trustworthy? Zhou Jiao didn’t even trust herself.
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