Guan Baiyu's school dismisses students at noon on Fridays, and the school does not provide lunch that day.

The previous times, Guan Baiyu was unprepared and went home hungry, only eating when he got home.

But he often didn't return until after 1 a.m., two hours later than their usual mealtime.

Shi Zhen told him that he must buy some food in Changxi City and eat before going home.

Thinking that things at the station were too expensive, Guan Baiyu bought an extra serving of pickled vegetable fried rice when she went to the cafeteria for breakfast this morning. She put it in a plastic bag and took it with her to eat when she left the school at noon.

The school would bring back any unsold vegetables from the previous day to sell the next morning. Unsold rice from the previous day would also be fried into egg fried rice or pickled vegetable fried rice. The egg fried rice had more eggs and would also have some peas and carrots, etc., and cost 40 cents a bowl, while the pickled vegetable fried rice only cost 20 cents a bowl.

The fried rice with pickled vegetables only has a little bit of pickled vegetables, but Guan Baiyu likes it very much because it is filling and cheap.

In addition, soy sauce noodles also cost two cents, and the cheapest option was, of course, porridge for one cent.

Some students at their school come from poor families and often buy two portions of salted vegetable fried rice in the morning, saving one portion for lunch. Some even bring their own food from home and don't buy food at school.

When school first started, some students kept eating food they brought from home. They couldn't bear to throw away the spoiled food because of the hot weather, and ended up getting food poisoning.

Later, the principal even personally urged everyone over the school's public address system to finish the food they brought to school on Monday and not leave it for Tuesday.

Some girls have small appetites and come from poor families, so they share a vegetarian dish and a rice dish with each other. This way, their meals only cost two or three cents.

If it weren't for Shi Zhen, if he had still gotten into No. 1 Middle School... Guan Baiyu felt that he would have applied for poverty assistance and then eaten like this.

Now... he eats pickled vegetable fried rice in the morning, and occasionally spends three cents to add a fried egg to his meal.

When Shi Zhen brought Guan Baiyu home, Shi Xingchao had already eaten lunch.

When they make breakfast in the morning, they usually make a little extra. Shi Xingchao eats the leftover porridge or rice from breakfast for lunch. As for the vegetables, he finishes any leftovers from breakfast, and if there are no leftovers... he eats about a quarter of the vegetables that Zhao Qiujuan brings.

Occasionally, when it rains and Zhao Qiujuan doesn't come over, he'll chop some scallions, add soy sauce and lard, and make a soup with boiling water; that'll do for a meal.

As far as Shi Zhen knew, his stinginess with food only improved after he had a son. He was more generous with his son, but when his son was not at home, he and his wife could make a meal by soaking a packet of pickled vegetables that cost a few cents online in soup.

Because of their behavior, because these two people manage the property management of the entire community and often work as security guards and cleaners themselves...

Shi Xingchao's son always thought his parents were poor and felt that it was not easy for them to raise him. Therefore, he buried himself in his studies and wanted to earn money to repay his parents.

After this child went to university, they stopped asking their parents for living expenses, and then...

His parents suddenly produced more than ten million yuan.

Shi Zhenting felt sorry for the child.

Zhao Qiujuan brought over some stewed pig's feet with soybeans at noon today.

Shi Dalin gives Zhao Qiujuan two hundred yuan every month to buy groceries. This is already the monthly wage that some poorly performing factories pay their workers, so the Shi family's meals are quite good now.

Because Zhao Meiyun's leg was broken, she still ate pig's feet all the time.

Shi Zhen put two pieces of pig's feet on Guan Baiyu's plate, added some soybeans, and told Guan Baiyu to eat them. He then went to buy a chicken, asked someone to kill it, and put the chicken in a pot to stew.

After finishing his work, Shi Zhen checked the time and found it was already past 2 PM, so he decided to go and check on the Wang family.

"Brother, can I go?" Guan Baiyu asked.

“Of course,” Shi Zhen said, “but there’s nothing fun to do over there.”

"I'm just taking a look around." Guan Baiyu wanted to know what Shi Zhen's workplace was like.

Shi Zhen agreed and drove the tractor to take Guan Baiyu to the Wang family.

When they arrived, the people on the construction site had just finished having a snack.

Shi Zhen had told the Wang family beforehand that he had to leave for a while and that they didn't need to prepare any snacks for him. When he arrived, he didn't eat any snacks and instead took Guan Baiyu to see the house that hadn't been built yet.

The bricklayers were building a big house, and next to them was Mr. Wang's chubby son, leading a group of children about his age, building walls and small houses with red bricks.

The chubby boy even brought bed sheets from home and covered two walls with them as a roof.

His family really let him waste things.

The children are short, and the wall they built was low, so at most it would injure their feet if it collapsed. In addition, some of the children's parents were watching nearby, so Shi Zhen didn't need to worry.

As soon as Shi Zhen arrived, the chubby little boy from the Wang family rushed out and said to him, "Brother, can you show us some martial arts again?"

Shi Zhen: "..."

Wang's chubby little boy should actually be going to kindergarten... but because the kindergarten is too close to his home, he always sneaks home halfway through and then hangs around Shi Zhen.

"Martial arts?" Guan Baiyu asked, somewhat curious.

His brother had taught Qian Qi some exercises before, and would occasionally drag him along to practice... But martial arts... Does his brother really know them?

Shi Zhen suddenly remembered that in his past life, Guan Baiyu quite enjoyed watching him throw bricks.

"It's not martial arts, it's just playing with bricks." Shi Zhen picked up a brick and started tossing and catching it.

No matter how he threw the brick, he always managed to catch it in his hand.

Later, he added a brick, which gave him even more ways to play.

Guan Baiyu was stunned by Shi Zhen's unexpected move, while the children kept exclaiming "Wow!"

As Shi Zhen played, his mood improved, and when he turned around and saw Guan Baiyu staring intently at him, he couldn't help but smile.

Guan Baiyu's face suddenly turned red.

Shi Zhen noticed Guan Baiyu's expression and sensed something was wrong. He stopped what he was doing, grabbed the two bricks in his hands, and instead of looking at Guan Baiyu, said to the children, "Throwing bricks is dangerous. You can't play with them, understand?"

"I understand..." The chubby boy from the Wang family looked a little disappointed.

Shi Zhen added, "If you want to play, you can throw bouncy balls."

Recently, a new toy appeared at the convenience store: a bouncy ball about the size of a ping-pong ball that costs 50 cents. Wang Xiaopangzi has several of them.

These balls bounce when thrown on the ground; they're soft and won't hurt anyone if they hit someone. No matter how they throw them, they're fine.

After listening to Shi Zhen's explanation, the chubby boy took his friends to play with bouncy balls. Since there weren't enough bouncy balls to go around, they tossed and caught marbles instead.

They were just tossing the glass marbles, which were about the size of a thumb, around like that. They weren't going to cause any real harm; at most, they'd just break the marbles. So Shi Zhen didn't bother with it.

He composed himself, walked towards Guan Baiyu, and asked with a smile, "Am I good?"

Guan Baiyu's eyes lit up: "Amazing!"

His brother looked so powerful just now!

Moreover... his brother used to give off a very calm feeling, but just now, Guan Baiyu felt that he seemed very happy and was laughing very loudly.

He liked his brother's energetic personality.

At that moment, he was so excited... his heart was pounding!

Guan Baiyu looked at him with admiration and said, "Brother, you are really amazing!" Seeing him like this, Shi Zhen felt relieved.

Guan Baiyu's behavior before seemed a bit like someone experiencing first love... thankfully, it wasn't.

The child simply idolizes him.

After Shi Zhen competed with Master Zhang in bricklaying, Master Zhang became more disciplined.

Master Zhang has behaved himself, not to mention the others.

Now that Shi Zhen has brought his younger brother over, everyone greets Guan Baiyu with smiles.

Upon seeing this, Shi Zhen immediately introduced Guan Baiyu to them, emphasizing that Guan Baiyu was a student in the experimental class of No. 1 Middle School.

Everyone showered him with praise, but Guan Baiyu seemed rather embarrassed.

Shi Zhen went out today, and when he came back, he started building some walls. Of course, while building the walls, he couldn't help but play around with some fancy tricks.

Do both Little Fatty and Guan Baiyu like to watch it?

While Shi Zhen was working, Guan Baiyu watched from the side, her eyes sparkling.

His brother was very serious and skilled when he was building the wall. Even though he had changed into dirty clothes because of the work, for some reason, he just felt that... he looked really cool!

At five o'clock in the afternoon, everyone else finished work, and Shi Zhen took Guan Baiyu back to their residence.

As soon as Shi Zhen got home, he heard Shi Xingchao talking about Shi Xinghuo: "Brother, can't you be a little more frugal? You go out for a stroll, fine, but you even brought soda with you... Don't you feel bad about spending money like this every day?"

Shi Xinghuo looked completely bewildered: "Why should I feel bad?"

"Brother, you only earn a little over four hundred a month, and your food expenses alone are already a hundred yuan. You still spend another hundred on miscellaneous things... You spend too much!" Shi Xingchao looked at Shi Xinghuo with a disappointed expression.

Shi Xinghuo was even more confused.

Seeing this, Shi Zhen asked, "What's wrong?"

Shi Xingchao immediately said, "Ah Zhen, my brother has been spending money too much lately, spending three or four yuan every day!"

Shi Zhen knew that Shi Xinghuo spent three or four yuan every day, since Shi Xinghuo gave him his salary and then Shi Zhen gave Shi Xinghuo pocket money.

However, he didn't pay much attention to it.

Shi Xinghuo is an adult now. He goes out to work with the people from the waterworks. If his colleagues buy food, it wouldn't be right for him not to buy any.

With the day approaching when Shi Xinghuo's past life would end, Shi Zhen became more lenient with him.

Moreover, although he himself didn't like spending money, he did have some money in his hands. It was nothing to him that Shi Xinghuo spent a few yuan every day, and he wouldn't stop him.

“He’s probably just buying food, right? It’s nothing special,” Shi Zhen said.

"How can he spend so much on food! He eats three meals a day and is already full, yet he still spends three or four yuan. Even big bosses don't spend money like that!"

Shi Zhen: "..." The big boss wouldn't spend only three or four yuan a day.

Every time Shi Xinghuo asked him for money, he would give him five yuan. Sometimes Shi Xinghuo would ask him for money again the next day, and sometimes it would be after two days. Overall, Shi Xinghuo's monthly expenses were only around one hundred yuan, and he could still save more than two hundred yuan.

Shi Zhen asked Shi Xinghuo, "What did you buy?"

Shi Xinghuo glanced at Shi Zhen and began counting the things he had recently bought: "Watermelon, soda, sesame seed cakes, blackfish noodles..."

It's all food... Shi Zhen asked, "Did you use it to treat people?" Was it for colleagues to treat each other?

Shi Xinghuo nodded.

Shi Xingchao immediately exploded: "Why did you ask someone to do something so nicely! They're just trying to scam you! Brother, don't you want to get married? If you want to get married, you can't just spend money recklessly, you have to save it!"

Shi Xingchao had no objection to his brother buying snacks. His brother used to buy popsicles and other snacks from Shi Zhen. At first, he would ask to try a bite, but after he had tried them all, he stopped asking his brother for some and just watched him eat them.

He thought his brother only spent a few cents on food at Shi Zhen's place, maybe 50 cents or a dollar a day at most. But when they chatted today, he found out his brother spent so much!

Does this look like a normal life?

"Alright, Xingchao, don't be angry... Xinghuo, how about this, since you don't smoke anyway, just buy some snacks to eat every day... I'll give you two yuan every day from now on, as pocket money, how about that?" Shi Zhen said.

At that time, two yuan could buy quite a lot of things, at least enough to buy some snacks.

Shi Xinghuo has been following his colleagues around reading water meters lately.

Shi Zhen had seen the person he was with before. That person clearly came from a well-off family, which was why he wasn't willing to do dirty work, but he didn't seem like the type to bully Shi Xinghuo.

Shi Xinghuo had previously brought back the zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) that he had given him.

It's possible that because they have high spending power, Shi Xinghuohua had more money after treating each other to meals.

"How can I spend two yuan every day!" Shi Xingchao felt that he didn't need that much.

“Brother Xingchao, some kids in town get two yuan a day as pocket money.” Shi Xingchao was speechless.

Shi Xinghuo had no objection to receiving two yuan as pocket money every day.

"Alright, let's go eat!" Shi Zhen said.

Speaking of food, Shi Xingchao added, "Ah Zhen, you bought chicken again, and an old hen no less... Aunt Xiumei's chickens are much cheaper, why didn't you buy any? Before, when Aunt Xiumei asked if you wanted a dead chicken, you didn't want any..."

Shi Zhen: "..." The farmed white chickens don't taste as good as old hens!

As for the dead chicken... he really had no interest in it.

Shi Zhen changed the subject: "Brother Xingchao, I'm going to take a shower, and then we'll eat!"

Shi Xingchao fell silent.

But Shi Zhen couldn't take a shower. When he walked to the door, he saw Liang Qinxuan.

Liang Qinxuan was overjoyed to see Shi Zhen: "You're Guan Baiyu's brother! Is Guan Baiyu here?"

"Yes." Shi Zhen.

Liang Qinxuan breathed a sigh of relief and turned to a middle-aged man standing not far away, saying, "Uncle, we've arrived at my classmate's house! You can go back now and come pick me up tomorrow morning."

After saying that, he rushed into the house and said to Guan Baiyu, "Baiyu! That was close! It was really close! I almost got into big trouble!"

"What's wrong?" Guan Baiyu asked.

Liang Qinxuan immediately said, "That woman went into premature labor! After finishing class with my teacher, I went home and saw that woman there, but my dad wasn't. Afraid she'd frame me, I ran out without even going inside. I played around outside for a bit before going back, and nobody was home. I asked around and found out that the woman had gone into premature labor. When I got to the hospital, she had already been taken for a C-section. Chen Shaojin even said my grandma caused her premature labor... Luckily I wasn't home, otherwise they would definitely have framed me!"

Liang Qinxuan has been talking about Guan Baiyu a lot lately, so he's become a bit paranoid and is afraid of being framed every day.

This time, his grandmother was framed and cried, saying that she hadn't done anything. However, his father didn't quite believe her, which made him even more disheartened.

What bothered him most, however, was something else entirely.

He wanted to take his grandmother with him, but she kept saying that she hadn't done anything wrong, and that she was still thinking about the child in that woman's belly. She even said that the woman was wicked and couldn't take good care of the child, and that she would take care of the child after it was born.

His father paid no attention to him at all, and his grandmother's heart and soul were only focused on that child.

He felt excluded and couldn't stand it any longer, so he asked his cousin, who drove for his father's company, to take him to Guan Baiyu's place.

Liang Qinxuan rambled on and on, his eyes reddening as he spoke, looking like he was about to cry.

However, he did not cry.

He noticed... what the house in front of him looked like.

Liang Qinxuan had never lived in such a dilapidated house in his entire life.

In this small room, there was a makeshift bed made of a door panel... or was it a shared sleeping area? The pillows on top were made of cloth wrapped with straw, and there were three of them. Was this room meant for three people to sleep?

Right next to the dormitory-style sleeping area was a dining table, and next to that was the cooking area.

This place is small and cramped, and the ground is dirt!

"Guan Baiyu, is this your home?" Liang Qinxuan asked in a low voice. He thought the house was small when he was outside, but he didn't expect it to be like this inside.

"Yes." Guan Baiyu's expression remained unchanged; he felt his home was quite nice.

Liang Qinxuan looked at the house again and felt embarrassed to complain to Guan Baiyu about what had happened to him.

Although what he went through was a bit upsetting, looking at the place where Guan Baiyu lived... he was already living much better than Guan Baiyu.

Liang Qinxuan thus emerged from the emotional trauma of being abandoned by his family.

He thought of something more practical—he asked his cousin to leave because he wanted to sleep with Guan Baiyu tonight.

Now... he can't sleep in this place!

But his cousin... has already passed away.