After inspecting the factory layout, Huo Haocheng drove Gu Jinghe to the military hospital. In order not to expose Ruan Ruan's whereabouts, they dropped her off at a distance and then drove to the state-run restaurant to wait for them.

Upon arriving at the state-run restaurant, Ruan Ruan and Gu Jingming went in first to order food, while Huo Haocheng parked the car.

"Sis, they have braised pork today, I want to eat that," Gu Jingming said to Ruan Ruan, looking at the menu hanging on the wall.

"Okay, ma'am, please give us one braised pork, one mushroom stewed chicken, cucumber salad, steamed eggplant, and braised cabbage, plus five servings of rice, three steamed buns, and two dumplings," Ruan Ruan said to the cashier.

At first, everyone noticed it was just the brother and sister working there, but they ordered way too much and wanted to stop them. However, when they heard her say she wanted five meals, they realized they were wrong. So, after Ruan Ruan finished ordering, they simply collected the money: "That's five yuan and twenty-two fen in total, plus one jin of grain coupons and two liang of meat coupons."

"Here you go, thank you, big sister." After giving the money and tickets, Ruan Ruan sat down with Gu Jingming at a prominent table near the entrance.

"Sis, did we order too much?" Gu Jingming felt a little hungry when he heard that their meal would cost so much money and tickets.

The money and tickets for this meal are enough for them to eat at home for several days.

"Don't worry, I have money. When I earn more money in the future, I'll take you to eat more delicious food." Ruan Ruan looked at Gu Jingming, who was still so young, and she was already worried about these things. It really proved the saying, "Poor children learn to be independent early."

"Little brother, how often do you come to eat?" Ruan Ruan thought it was good to be thrifty, but one shouldn't be too frugal. Money is meant to be spent, so it's better to make sure you and your family eat well and stay healthy. Getting sick less often is more important than anything else.

"It's been a long time since I've eaten here," Gu Jingming replied honestly, not understanding why his sister asked that.

"Do you know how much an ordinary family like ours earns in a month?" Ruan Ruan was referring to working-class families in the city.

"I don't know, but it should be a few dozen yuan." Gu Jingming didn't have the habit of asking about other people's economic situation. However, most of his classmates at school came from working-class families in the city. He had observed them and felt that their families must be well-off.

"Yes, even the cheaper ones cost thirty or forty yuan, and the more expensive ones can cost over a hundred. Do you know the current prices?" Ruan Ruan continued to ask.

"I know this. Vegetables are a few cents a pound, some are one cent a pound, meat is seventy cents a pound, rice and wheat flour are also fifty cents, and coarse grains are cheaper, one cent a pound. And then, sister..." Gu Jingming would occasionally go shopping with Teacher Shen when he had time off, and he would do the hard work to carry the food back, so he was fairly familiar with the prices.

"What's wrong? What are you two talking about? Why does Xiaoming look like that?" Huo Haocheng parked the car and came in, only to see Gu Jingming looking at Ruan Ruan with a curious expression.

"Brother-in-law, my sister is asking about the prices of food I'm eating now," Gu Jingming said naturally as he watched Huo Haocheng return, answering their earlier conversation.

"Do you think it would be a burden for families who earn only a few dozen yuan a month to eat well every day?" Ruan Ruan didn't immediately explain to Huo Haocheng, but continued to ask Gu Jingming.

“Even if a family has five members, their daily expenses for vegetables, meat, and staple food would be around 1.5 yuan, which would be about 45 yuan a month. And that’s the price of eating meat every day. If they eat meat once a week, that’s only four times a month, and they can save 18.2 yuan. That means each family’s monthly expenses would be 26.8 yuan, which is affordable for every family in the city.” Gu Jingming quickly calculated their monthly expenses using his arithmetic skills.

"So, do you think having good health is more important, or is it more important to ruin the health of the whole family just to save a little bit of money?" After hearing his calculations, Ruan Ruan had a new understanding of Gu Jingming's mathematical abilities; he was definitely a mathematical genius.

"Of course, a healthy body!" Gu Jingming blurted out when he heard Ruan Ruan ask that question. Who doesn't want a healthy body these days?

"Do you know how much it costs to go to the hospital for a checkup and get medicine?" Ruan Ruan continued to ask.

"I'm not too sure about that, but it shouldn't be low?" Gu Jingming said, scratching his head.

"What are you doing? Is your head itchy?" At this moment, Gu Jinghe and Jiang Yuli walked over.

"Sister-in-law, you're here. Sister-in-law, my sister just asked me how much it costs to go to the hospital for a check-up and get medicine. I don't know. Sister-in-law, you're a doctor, can you tell me?" Gu Jingming ignored Gu Jinghe and went straight past him to greet Jiang Yuli, and told her about Ruan Ruan's question.

“If it’s just a common cold and fever, the doctor’s visit and medicine will cost about 1.5 yuan. If it’s more serious and requires injections or IV drips, it will be more expensive.” After Jiang Yuli and Gu Jinghe sat down, she looked at Ruan Ruan and then returned to Gu Jingming’s question.

"Wow! Is seeing a doctor this expensive? That's enough to buy two pounds of meat!" Gu Jingming thought it would only cost a few cents or a dollar at most, but he didn't expect that a simple cold and fever would cost one dollar and fifty cents.

"So now you think it's worth spending the money you would have spent on medical treatment to buy some nutritious food so that the whole family can have a healthy body?" Ruan Ruan guided Gu Jingming to think about it little by little, instead of directly telling him not to avoid eating just because it's expensive and to pay more attention to his health. That kind of advice is much more useful.

"Sister, I understand. I won't think like that anymore. It's more important to use the money to buy good things and have a healthy body than to wait until you get sick to spend money on treatment." Gu Jingming now understood what Ruan Ruan meant by asking him these questions. In the past, he only thought that if he was frugal in life, he would have money to treat his illness when he got sick. But he never thought about how to keep the people around him from getting sick.

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