Chapter 15
Which faction does Chen Lanjun choose?
She doesn't choose either faction.
What a joke, how can she waste time on such things? She had been away from the high school learning environment for a long time. Just studying hard required a lot of energy, not to mention that she also had to think about how to make money during school. How could she have the energy to get involved in the open and secret struggles of her classmates?
Almost instantly, she weighed the pros and cons and said decisively, "Thank you, I'll go out to eat."
Don't get involved with either side. Let them do whatever they want, just don't disturb her from studying and earning money.
Regarding Chen Lanjun's attitude, some of her classmates from towns looked at her as if she was ungrateful.
Liu Li nodded indifferently, turned around and led a few classmates away. She just thought Chen Lanjun was interesting, and she didn't have to be friends with her.
After Liu Li and his group left, Teacher Qin also left in a hurry. Without these people, Cao Hongyao's short-haired roommate was obviously relieved and complained: "This person is really a jerk."
"Okay, stop talking." Cao Hongyao said calmly. She looked at Chen Lanjun and smiled: "Do you want to go eat together?"
"It's not very convenient," Chen Lanjun stood up and folded the chair into a seat, "I want to eat alone today."
Chen Lanjun also declined Cao Hongyao's invitation to dinner and walked out of the classroom alone.
The No. 1 High School in the county did not adopt a closed management system, or rather, the management of high schools in those days was quite free. Going back a few years, students came and went like the wind, running around the county, and the teachers and principals who were criticized as "stinking old nine" did not dare to say a word about it.
Therefore, Chen Lanjun left school freely.
Although she had been to and from this county town several times, she was always in a hurry. Now she finally had the free time to take a good walk and have a look.
It was the time when people were leaving work and school. There were many pedestrians on the road, wearing blue work clothes or white shirts. Most of them walked, but some rode bicycles and drove forward leisurely. The No. 1 Middle School of the county was located in the central area of the county. Chen Lanjun walked along and saw several large courtyards in turn. They were all offices of government agencies, and there were guards standing at the gates.
I saw a familiar figure in the crowd. It was Liu Li. She was carrying her iconic schoolbag and riding her bicycle into a large courtyard. She didn't even get off the bike. She just greeted the guard and he let her through.
This little girl's family background seems to be really good, Chen Lanjun thought.
Wandering aimlessly from one end of the street to the other, Chen Lanjun was thinking about whether there was any way to make money.
After walking for a while, she finally found something she hoped to see. A middle-aged woman squatted at a road junction with a bamboo basket next to her. She stood by the basket, looking around with vigilant eyes, paying attention to any movement nearby.
You can tell at first glance that they are selling things secretly.
Chen Lanjun turned around and walked towards the middle-aged woman selling things. She said that even in a small place, there must be people who dare to take risks to do business and make money.
When Chen Lanjun approached, the middle-aged woman called her quietly, "Selling fried meatballs, want some?"
"Yes, give me fifty cents." Chen Lanjun said.
The middle-aged woman nodded, pulled out a newspaper from the side of the basket, and took off the small quilt covering the basket. Inside were fried meatballs that were fried to golden brown. This meat dish is often seen at local banquets. As long as you have the ingredients, it is not difficult to make, just minced pork, flour and the like. But it is delicious and has meat! In the era of food and clothing shortages, frying was a very luxurious cooking method. You had to put a certain amount of oil in order to fry things. When ordinary people cooked, they would use a pig hair brush dipped in oil to scrape a circle in the iron pan. Even if there was a fishy smell, how could they dare to fry anything? Fried meatballs can only be seen during festivals and banquets. So every time there is a banquet, this fried meatball is the first to be snatched up.
Chen Lanjun hadn't eaten fried meatballs for a long time and missed the aroma a little, so she was willing to pay for them.
Fifty cents is actually not a small amount, but there are not many fried meatballs in the newspaper roll.
Chen Lanjun was a little dissatisfied: "This is too little, give me a few more."
"Hey, where can I get more? The oil and Fuqiang flour require money and tickets. It's already very affordable to have this much."
As the middle-aged woman explained, she folded the newspaper and packed it with a thin cotton rope. She managed to withstand Chen Lanjun's condemning gaze and did not add any more meatballs.
Just as she was about to receive the meatballs, the middle-aged woman suddenly pulled her hand back as if she had been electrocuted, and threw the fried meatballs wrapped in newspaper into the basket.
"Over there, stop!"
Two shouts of rebuke rang in her ears like thunderbolts from the blue sky. Chen Lanjun looked in the direction of the sound reflexively and saw two men in green uniforms and big hats running towards her.
A gust of wind blew by my side. It turned out that the middle-aged woman selling fried meatballs had already started running with her basket. She also left a message to Chen Lanjun in a righteous manner:
“Run!”
Chen Lanjun hesitated for a moment. She was not a salesperson, so did she need to run?
Wait, this was a small county town in the late 1970s. If the seller ran away, how could she prove that she was the buyer and not the seller? If they had a target for arresting people, then it was not impossible to arrest a pig and claim it was a cow. If she was arrested and given a disciplinary punishment, what would she do with the college entrance examination?
run!
Chen Lanjun ran as fast as she could, with the sound of the wind whistling in her ears.
It's incredible! She never ran like this when she was a hawker! I'm speechless.
I ran all the way, and a smell of blood rose from my lungs to my throat. It's over, it's over. I haven't run for such a long time, and I really don't have any endurance.
Chen Lanjun looked back, somewhat desperately. The two men, who were probably from the Office of Combating Speculation and Profiteering, were still chasing her. The middle-aged woman selling fried meatballs who was running ahead of her had long since disappeared - she was a local and an old hand, and her legs had disappeared as she ran.
Are we really going to be caught?
This thought flashed through her mind, she gritted her teeth and sped up again. But her legs were not obedient, and they became heavier and heavier, as if they were tied with sandbags, and the distance between her and the person who caught her was shortened little by little.
Cats catch mice, they are professionals.
Just when she was about to reach the dead end, someone suddenly called out to her from the wall beside her: "Come here, I'll pull you over!"
Chen Lanjun turned her head to look, and it was Liu Li! She appeared inside the wall inexplicably.
There was no other way, so Chen Lanjun took Liu Li's hand, exerted all her strength, and climbed up the wall with her feet.
"This woman climbed over the wall, so I'll climb over it too!" said a man who was chasing after her, panting.
Just as he was about to climb up, another older man grabbed his cloth shoes.
"Flip your ass! Whoosh-whoosh, get down!"
"What are you doing, brother? If we catch this, our target for this month will be solved."
"Open your eyes and take a good look. Inside the wall is the county party committee compound! Who can you mess with? Let's go."
The two men left cursing.
Inside the wall, Chen Lanjun breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down on the ground.
I'm really going to die, this guy is running away!
Liu Li beside him laughed heartily. Before, Chen Lanjun, whom Liu Li had seen, was always calm and relaxed, but now, Chen Lanjun ran with her hair disheveled and out of breath, and her demeanor had disappeared without a trace. This contrast was very funny.
"Hahaha."
"Are you laughing like a ghost?" Chen Lanjun glared at Liu Li unhappily.
Liu Li was not afraid of her and continued to smile: "Didn't you say you were going to eat by yourself? How did you get caught up by the police?"
"Bad luck."
After a long while, Chen Lanjun finally recovered and had time to look around. This was probably the area of the family quarters. It turned out that there was a small earth slope inside the wall, which was higher than the outside, so it was easy to see what was going on outside.
She briefly explained what happened to Liu Li and complained, "I'm so unlucky. I just wanted to buy some fried meatballs!"
Liu Li smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's really unlucky. Well, this group of people is enough. They have restrained themselves in the past two years. Before, I heard of someone being arrested for selling two eggs."
She paused, curled her lips, and said, "Now, in fact, there are people doing some... things in the yard, but the scope is small and relatively closed, and no one cares anyway."
Liu Li looked at Chen Lanjun and said, "Have you eaten yet? Why don't you come to my house and I'll have someone make you some fried meatballs?"
Chen Lanjun waved her hands: "Thank you for your kindness, but I really can't eat anymore. I've lost half my life by running like this."
"You are such a jerk," Liu Li said, "Normally, other people want to get to know me but they don't have a chance. Are you afraid of Cao Hongyao?"
"Provocation doesn't work on me." Chen Lanjun slowly stood up, holding onto the tree trunk. "I'm not afraid of anything. I just want to study hard. I'm repeating a grade."
Liu Li thought about it and said, "Okay, I understand."
When she came out of the compound, it was already late, and the risk of being recognized and caught by the people she had beaten was very small. Chen Lanjun walked slowly along the street back to the No. 1 Middle School in the county.
After thinking about it for a while, she realized two things. First, it would not work to set up a stall in this county like in Suicheng. The general environment was not so broad, and she was too busy to play cat and mouse with the "daban" people on the street. If she wanted to make money, she had to find another way.
In addition, she must practice long-distance running! If she encounters such a situation in the future, she must run away quickly.
After returning to the dormitory, Chen Lanjun fell asleep immediately. Even the sound of Cao Hongyao and the others returning to the dormitory after evening self-study did not make her open her eyes.
"Why did you fall asleep?" a roommate was surprised.
"Shh, keep your voice down." It was Cao Hongyao's voice, softly, "She must be tired, let her sleep well."
A sleepless night.
In the next few days, Chen Lanjun went to school and studied diligently and did not go out for a stroll.
Teacher Qin finished grading her baseline test paper and gave it to her: "Overall, it's OK. Your English is especially good, almost full marks. But why didn't you use some aphorisms in your Chinese composition and political science answers? When you have time, you should read more editorials in newspapers and magazines."
This is indeed Chen Lanjun’s weak point. When writing essays nowadays, she still has to appropriately use some popular slogans.
The situation was not so optimistic in mathematics. I had not memorized some formulas for a long time and they were a bit rusty, so I did not do many questions.
In addition to consulting the math teacher, Chen Lanjun also went to the school library to try to borrow some targeted reference books.
I looked through the library from top to bottom, but there were no reference books, so I had to return empty-handed.
Chen Lanjun remembered that when she left Suicheng, an educated youth gave her a review book that seemed to be about mathematics. She rummaged through the box for a long time and found the review book, preparing to read it during the evening self-study.
The review materials were handwritten, and some of the questions were very representative. Chen Lanjun compared the textbook with the review materials, and the more she read, the more she realized the beauty of the review materials. It really helped her sort out the context, and the selected examples were all representative.
As Chen Lanjun was flipping through the pages, she suddenly stopped.
A thought flashed through her mind.
The review material in her hand seemed to have the potential to become a new job.
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