Chapter 2 is back.

Luo Yan is a senior in high school at No. 4 Middle School, which is only two kilometers away from her home.

She lived nearby and arrived late. Just as she sat down in the classroom, her deskmate Wang Qianyun reminded her, "The homeroom teacher came by and said we should read some vocabulary during morning reading today."

It turns out no one ever paid attention to this subject. They scheduled three classes a week for the English teacher, and Luo Yan only saw her once.

However, she has always been a good student. What she thinks in her heart doesn't matter. She does everything that can help her get high scores. She obediently takes out her English book from her schoolbag and opens it up.

Just as she was about to speak, a classmate standing next to her said, "Luo Yan, excuse me."

The school currently has more students than teachers, so they have to cram as many people as possible into the classrooms.

There was only one aisle for the entire row of seats, and the desks in front and behind were barely three inches apart. Every time a student sitting inside had to go in or out, it was a huge struggle.

Luo Yan sat by the aisle, getting up countless times throughout the day.

She was already used to it, and even swung her arms a couple of times as if to exercise when she stood up.

As soon as she moved, the surrounding air moved, and Wu Huifang, who was sitting behind her, said, "Yanyan, there's a breeze!"

As she spoke, she sniffed and tucked her hands into her sleeves.

Luo Yan quickly withdrew her hand and asked, seeing her like this, "Are you feeling unwell?"

Wu Huifang: "Yesterday my uncle and aunt came to visit, and I took my cousins ​​to go ice skating at Shichahai. I was so cold that I couldn't even speak."

She felt dizzy when she woke up this morning and complained, "I told her I didn't want to go, but my mom insisted I go."

Luo Yan: "That's how adults are."

He touched her forehead again.

Wu Huifang looked up: "Do you feel hot?"

Luo Yan thought for a second: "I don't know what level of heat is considered hot."

The two of them laughed together, and then stopped chatting.

In the classroom, some students were studying diligently like them, while others were laughing and playing around.

This angered the homeroom teacher, who stormed into the classroom, slamming her hand on the podium and earnestly admonishing, "Your class is the luckiest; you must cherish it..."

He wasn't the only one who said he was lucky; it's a common belief among many.

First, this year's students are basically all first graders who entered school after the resumption of classes in 1969, and they have not missed a single year of the five-year primary school, three-year junior high school, and two-year senior high school system. Second, in the past two years, there were basically no restrictions on age and academic qualifications for the college entrance examination, and most of the admitted students were from the "old three classes" (referring to students who graduated from high school in 1966, 1967, and 1968). However, this year, the scope of enrollment has narrowed, and current year's students have an advantage. Third, they entered senior high school just in time for the resumption of the college entrance examination, so the school's focus naturally shifted. Unlike previous years, when most of the students spent their time learning agriculture, teachers could concentrate on teaching, and everyone learned more thoroughly.

With the right timing, location, and people, it seemed like not doing well on the exam would be letting down the country and the people. Luo Yan lacked strategic thinking; all she could think about was her family of four.

Putting everything else aside, the family has basically used up all their savings and connections to get her brother a job. If she doesn't pass the exam, there will be a whole host of problems.

Fortunately, Luo Yan herself felt that the possibility was very small, let alone in the eyes of others.

Even when the teacher is giving everyone a pep talk, they have to specifically mention, "I hope everyone will learn from the good students, like Qianyun, Luoyan, and Fengxiang in our class. How did they achieve their good grades? They did it by studying diligently and steadily."

Luo Yan and Wang Qianyun were both called out by name. They glanced at each other in tacit agreement, shrugged slightly and smiled, and then remained silent, each reading their own books, treating the homeroom teacher's lecture as background noise, listening to him conclude with "All four classes in the morning are English."

Four lessons? That's a really last-minute attempt to catch up.

The English teacher probably rushed out the lesson plan yesterday, wanting to cram the entire book's content into these few lessons at once.

Luo Yan's mind was racing so fast she could barely keep up. She didn't even react when the school bell rang, and just sat there blankly.

Wang Qianyun nudged her: "Yanyan, everyone's going out now."

Luo Yan snapped out of her daze, swept everything into her schoolbag, stood up to make room for her, and said, "Huifang, shall we go?"

Wu Huifang: "I'm going to my maternal grandmother's house for dinner today."

That's not on the way.

Luo Yan rode her bicycle home by herself, jumped off at the gate of the courtyard, lifted the handlebars and stepped over the gate.

Liu Yinfeng had already prepared all the dishes, and only started heating the pan and adding oil after hearing her daughter call her "Mom".

Luo Yan went inside and poured herself some water. Holding the cup, she approached the kitchen doorway and asked, "Mom, what's for lunch?"

At this time of year, it's the same few dishes over and over again.

The mother and daughter ate lunch together. Liu Yinfeng said, "It was Chinese cabbage with some pork cracklings."

Anything with oil tastes good. Luo Yan: "It's great. We have ribs for dinner, so we have meat twice a day."

Actually, there was only a small amount of pork cracklings, which was like an ant trying to shake a tree compared to the cabbage. Luo Yan didn't taste any flavor at all.

Even a small mosquito bite is still meat, so she was quite satisfied and ate a bowl and a half of rice.

Who says only half-grown boys can bankrupt their fathers? A daughter's appetite shouldn't be underestimated either.

After watching her finish eating, Liu Yinfeng said, "Your mother-in-law sent a letter. Read it to your mother."

She is from southern Anhui, and many of the terms of address still follow the local dialect, such as calling a child's maternal grandmother "grandma".

Luo Yan wiped her hands before opening the envelope and began reading aloud: "Mom is fine, this is what you sent last time..."

The long, rambling text, spanning eight pages, left Luo Yan with a dry mouth and throat. She breathed a sigh of relief after finishing it.

Liu Yinfeng, however, was still somewhat unsatisfied and studied the few words she could understand.

Seeing this, Luo Yan said, "Mom, I'll read it to you again."

Liu Yinfeng: "No need, no need, you're going to be late for school."

With only an hour for lunch break, Luo Yan couldn't dawdle any longer. She put her gloves back on and said, "I'll read it again when I get back tonight."

She ran so fast that she didn't close the door properly, and the thin envelope on the table was blown around the room by the wind.

Liu Yinfeng reached out but couldn't grab it, and muttered to herself, "If this could fly back, it would save us a lot of trouble."

She fled to Beijing with her family during the floods of the 1950s. She temporarily stayed in Fengshou Hutong and met Luo Xinmin through a neighborhood resident. They settled there after getting married.

After the flood receded, her parents took their other children back to their hometown. In the following twenty years, she only met with her blood relatives a handful of times. The rest of her memories were captured on these papers, light yet heavy as Mount Tai, every word precious.

Liu Yinfeng pondered the words in her mother's letter, cleaned the dining table, wiped her hands on her apron, and took a small portion of the things sent from her hometown to visit other people's homes.

Not far away is No. 21, in the same alley.

Liu Yinfeng called out "Wang Xiujuan's" name as she stepped inside, and there was a response on the second call.

Wang Xiujuan poked her head out from inside the house: "I'm here, I'm here. Come in and sit down."

Liu Yinfeng: "Are you just staying home?"

Wang Xiujuan: "I knew you were coming, so I was waiting for you."

Then she said, "Oh, why did you bring something?" Liu Yinfeng replied, "It's dried tofu that my mother sent. Have a taste."

The two met while doing odd jobs on the street. They were about the same age and got along well, spending their days chatting about this and that, and visiting each other frequently.

However, Wang Xiujuan still politely said to her, "You can keep it for yourself."

Liu Yinfeng picked up her cup and took a sip: "I still have plenty left."

Wang Xiujuan: "I can never have too much of what my mother has."

Liu Yinfeng: "I actually hope there will be less. The harvest is not good, and my family has been eating the government's grain resale every year. It's better for them to keep the grain they receive than for the grain they send to me."

Another headache: "It has to be reciprocal; I still need to buy some things and send them back tomorrow."

Wang Xiujuan: "Let's not go tomorrow, let's go for a walk now, we don't have anything else to do."

"Okay," Liu Yinfeng stood up. "I'll go home and get a ticket."

The two met again at the entrance of courtyard number 13, walking hand in hand.

Before they even reached the alley entrance, Wang Xiujuan said, "Sanfang is back."

Liu Yinfeng hadn't heard that name in so long that she instinctively asked, "Who?"

Wang Xiujuan: "The third daughter of the Shuilan family."

Liu Yinfeng remembered and drew out the "oh" sound: "Him? When did he come back?"

Wang Xiujuan: "This morning, when I came back from buying groceries, there was a stranger standing in the yard, which gave me a big fright. You wouldn't believe it, he used to look like a little monkey, but now he's tall and strong, with a scruffy beard, and he looks like someone you don't want to mess with."

Liu Yinfeng: "I remember he was sent to the countryside in Xinjiang?"

Wang Xiujuan: "Yes, I asked, and they said it would take more than ten days to get back by car."

"What a hardship!" Liu Yinfeng said, "It's good that you're back, it's good that you're back."

While others saw it that way, Wang Xiujuan whispered a reminder: "You forgot, Shuilan's job has already been given to Erping, and her daughters Yuyao and Yuying are still at home. Now another third party is coming back..."

In the past two years, too many educated youth have returned to the city, and half of the families in the alley have similar stories.

Liu Yinfeng didn't think much of it when she heard it, but it wasn't until the whole family was having dinner that she remembered: "Son, are you still in contact with the other party?"

Luo Hong, munching on a rib, hadn't really been listening, and asked, "Three sides? What three sides?"

Then it immediately dawned on me: "You mean Zhou Weifang?"

Liu Yinfeng: "Yes, it's him."

Luo Hong: "Yes, why?"

Liu Yinfeng: "He came back today."

Luo Hong sat up abruptly: "Really?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yinfeng retorted, "Would your mother lie to you?"

“That’s not what I meant,” Luo Hong waved his hand. “I was just a little surprised.”

Liu Yinfeng: "The number of people returning to the city now is not something to be alarmed about."

Luo Hong: "He wrote to me just two days ago, but he didn't mention it at all."

Liu Yinfeng pouted, her expression clearly showing her disappointment: "I was wondering who she was hiding in her room reading, turns out it was a man."

Luo Xinmin laughed and said, "I told you my son doesn't have a girlfriend."

So it turns out the couple had discussed this matter. Luo Hong said, "Mom, I already told you we're friends."

Liu Yinfeng also had a point: "You keep it to yourself, can't I guess?"

Luo Hong: "Someone asked me to inquire about something. Can I tell you?"

Luo Yan, who hadn't spoken until now, temporarily closed the book: "What is it?"

Luo Hong's younger sister was never one to pry into other people's business. When asked, she blinked and said, "I can't tell you either."

If you don't want to talk about it, then don't. Luo Yan took the ribs from her brother's bowl and said, "I don't care to ask anyway."

Luo Hongshun agreed: "Okay."

Luo Yan was so angry that she stomped on him.

The parents ignored the siblings' antics and simply gathered the food from the table in front of them.

After all, it's no big deal to hurt a person, but it's unacceptable to ruin good food.

A note from the author:

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The settings may not all be based on reality and may be slightly adjusted according to the development of the story, but they will never be too far off the mark.