Chapter 5252 [Second update]
"Competition class?" Jiang Bai was surprised.
He really didn't know about this. The three siblings, except for him and Jiang Wu who were closer, didn't usually talk about their own affairs.
It was like three parallel lines that were moving forward but didn't intersect, each of them was in charge of their own affairs and lived their own lives.
But during this period of time, after Jiang Wu started school and entered the same school as him, she always brought him meals at night, which were either braised pork or vegetables and braised pork.
Maybe it was because he had too much meat to supplement, and Tong Jingang would bring him some food from time to time, he finally slept well during this period of time, at least he didn't have to be woken up by hunger at night.
His legs still hurt, but not as often as before.
Today, she brought him clothes and shoes again.
Two pieces of clothing and a pair of shoes, they looked expensive. If we calculate based on 50 yuan for one piece of clothing, two cotton-padded jackets would cost at least 100 yuan, and the shoes would cost at least 150 yuan.
He didn't know where she got the money. He
couldn't tell what he felt in his heart. He felt worried, and also... a strange feeling of never being cared for, like a piece of candy he ate when he was a child, or like the sunlight shining in during the cold winter.
The teacher was about to come to the classroom, but he didn't go to the competition class to find her, but returned to the classroom.
Tong Jingang saw that he had just taken the clothes and ran out, and now he came back with the clothes in his hand with a frown, and asked him in confusion: "What's the matter? Why did you run away with the clothes? Don't you even look at your coat..." He paused, and then asked Jiang Bai: "What's the situation? Your parents are worried that you will spend money recklessly, so they put all the money with our sister? Then the money they gave you before would not be put with your brother and spent by your brother, right?"
"No." Jiang Bai said lightly.
How could his sister have money? His parents would not give her money, unless it was grandpa.
But he knew very well that his grandpa's salary in these years was taken away by his mother before he received it.
His clothes are actually much better than Jiang Liu's.
In their rural area, every household has the newest eldest, the second oldest, and the most worn out third oldest. He was lucky because he was the second oldest.
Except for the occasional new clothes during the Chinese New Year, he had been wearing old clothes that Jiang Song couldn't wear since he was a child.
Jiang Song was two years older than him and taller than him, so his clothes were too small and soon became obsolete for him. So he never lacked clothes since he was a child.
It was just that Jiang Song was very active since he was a child. He would go up the hills and down the river at home, chase rabbits and catch fish. There was nothing he couldn't do. He was the leader of the children since he was a child, so his clothes and shoes were torn very quickly.
When Jiang Bo was a child, the knees and buttocks of his clothes were always patched.
After growing up, Jiang Song was finally not so naughty, but he liked to play ball.
Football, basketball, table tennis, even billiards, running, long jump, high jump, even when walking, if Jiang Song saw a leaf hanging from a tree, he would jump up to touch it, or jump up to shoot without a ball, and he would aim at anything and kick it.
He seemed to have endless energy, and he would run around outside all day. Jiang Bai could never get a complete piece of clothing that Jiang Song had left.
Jiang Xi couldn't get it either.
Jiang Xi had two older cousins. The older cousin gave her clothes to the younger cousin, and the younger cousin gave them to Jiang Xi.
Both cousins dropped out of school early and worked at home, cutting grass in the mountains and working in the fields. They were all good at it, so you can imagine what clothes Jiang Xi had.
That's true. No matter it's from the Jiang family or the uncle's family, they are all "broken and tattered for the third child".
He couldn't figure out where Jiang Qing got the money from and what was the meaning of giving him two pieces of clothes and a pair of shoes.
Tong Jingang took off his down jacket and let Jiang Bai wear it. Jiang Bai folded the clothes and put them back into the transparent bags, stopping Tong Jingang from stuffing his stinky feet into the new shoes.
Tong Jingang was full of indignation: "Fuck, I don't even think your feet are smelly, but you think mine are!"
Jiang Bai only has one pair of shoes. It's okay in summer, he wears sandals, but in winter, he has no shoes to change, and his feet really stink. The whole boys' dormitory is stinking.
Jiang Bai had endured this kind of environment for three years and was used to the stench, but he still insisted on cleaning his shoes every week unless it rained. He was very careful to avoid damaging his shoes.
But no matter how careful he was, the soles of his shoes were almost worn out.
Tong Jingang saw him put his shoes away and asked him in confusion, "You're not going to wear them?"
Jiang Bai glanced at him and said, "You haven't figured out what's going on yet."
Jiang Xi stuffed the things in his hands and ran away without saying a word.
Jiang Xi ran so fast because the evening self-study class was about to start and he was too late.
After the first class of the evening self-study class was over, Jiang Bai came to the administrative building opposite. After finding the competition class for the senior year, he looked out the window and saw Jiang Xi behind him.
The teacher was not in, so he walked to the door, knocked, and shouted, "Jiang Xi!"
Everyone looked up at him, then at Jiang Xi, curious about the relationship between the two.
It was really that No. 1 Middle School was too strict, with boys and girls divided into groups and streams, and even the toilets were separated, one on the left side of the teaching building, and the other on the right side of the teaching building. They couldn't even walk together, not to mention that now there were male students openly coming here to look for female students, how could they not be curious?
Jiang Xi was also surprised to see Jiang Bai, and walked out of the classroom: "Second brother, what's wrong?"
Jiang Bai held the things in his hands: "What's the matter? Where did you come from? Why did you stuff so many clothes and shoes for me?"
Looking at Jiang Bai with a worried face and a tightly locked brow, Jiang Xi couldn't help laughing: "Why should I stuff it into you? If I stuff it into you, will you eat it?" She pushed the bag he handed over back: "I bought it for you!"
"Where did you get the money? Give it back, I don't want it!"
The management of No. 1 Middle School is strict, and students cannot leave the school at all. He is not worried that Jiang Xi will do something bad, but he doesn't know where her money comes from. She suddenly bought so many things for him. He feels uneasy unless he finds out.
Since the craze of going to work, there have been many idle hooligans in Wucheng. The senior management of the No. 4 Middle School next door is not so strict, so some hooligans go to find those girls.
Jiang Bai is afraid that his sister is young and will go out to meet people in society on weekends and be deceived by those hooligans with a few sweet words.
Jiang Xi said: "I can tell you, but you have to keep it a secret for me. Don't tell your parents when you go home."
Jiang Bai had prepared for the worst and took a deep breath: "You tell me."
"I submitted a few articles to a magazine and they were accepted. They paid me the royalties."
Jiang Bai found it unbelievable. Submitting articles to a magazine always seemed so far away from them. His sister actually said that she submitted articles to a magazine?
"Which magazine?"
"Reader, Youth Digest."
Jiang Bai felt relieved. Jiang Bai
knew both magazines. Someone in their dormitory bought old copies of these two magazines and read them in the dormitory. He had also read them. The quality of the works in them was very high. His sister was only a few years old. How could she submit articles to these two magazines?
But his tone finally relaxed a little, and he was not so worried, but he still asked in detail: "Which manuscript did you write? Can you show it to me?"
Jiang Xi saw that it was almost time and the second evening self-study was about to start, so he said to Jiang Bai: "I'll tell you tomorrow at noon. Class is about to start, so don't worry about your clothes and shoes."
"I'll wait for you in the cafeteria tomorrow at noon." Jiang Bai saw that class was indeed about to start, and hurried to the teaching building.
Jiang Xi looked at the shoes on Jiang Bai's feet.
In the conversation with Jiang Bai a few years before her rebirth, Jiang Bai also told her about his shoes.
His soles were worn out and he couldn't wear them, so he bought two pairs of insoles to put underneath. When it rained, his shoes and socks were all wet. In winter, his feet were cold, and both feet had frostbite.
When I went home on New Year's Day, I told Jiang's father and mother that the soles of my shoes were worn out and I had no shoes to wear.
Jiang's mother found a pair of stinky shoes that Jiang Song had worn and no longer wanted.
When he talked about this, he even laughed: "Do you know how long I took to brush those shoes?" He and Jiang Xi were actually different. When talking about these things, he did not complain about Jiang Ma, because his frugality was the same as Jiang Ma's. He could understand Jiang Ma's way of saving money. He just hated Jiang Song's smelly feet and did not like Jiang Song: "I brushed them for a long time, but the shoes still smelled. I don't know how he wore them. He didn't wash his shoes when they were so dirty. He probably knew that I could wash them, so he never washed his shoes."
Tong Jingang saw Jiang Bai coming back with the clothes and shoes again, and hurriedly asked: "What did our sister say?"
Jiang Bai put the bag at his feet, "The teacher is here."
Tong Jingang suddenly returned to his seat and sat up straight.
The next day at noon, Jiang Bai was waiting at the entrance of the cafeteria. When he saw Jiang Xi coming over, he took Jiang Xi's rice bowl. Tong Jingang, who was already in the queue, waved his hands vigorously: "Jiang Bai! Jiang Bai! It's my turn, rice bowl! Give me our sister's rice bowl!"
Tong Jingang was originally tall and strong like a gorilla. He was conspicuous in the cafeteria. When he shouted, everyone's attention was attracted to him.
Seeing Jiang Bai and Jiang Xi standing at the entrance of the cafeteria, the discipline committee members with red armbands were about to go over to ask about the situation, but when they heard the shout, they stopped.
Jiang Xi also reacted very quickly. Seeing that more and more people were pouring into the cafeteria, she turned three steps into two steps, quickly slipped to the end of the food queue, and lined up behind the food window queue.
Jiang Bai also hurriedly ran to the food window and handed the rice bowl to Tong Jingang.
Xu Xiuli and He Xiaofang also came, but they couldn't help Xu Xiuli and He Xiaofang get food. There were several discipline committee members on duty in the cafeteria every day. If any boy or girl said a word more, it would be recorded.
They all knew Tong Jingang and Jiang Bai, who were both in their third year of high school, and knew that they were not real brothers. When they saw Tong Jingang taking Jiang Xi's rice bowl to get rice, they wanted to come over and ask, but they heard Jiang Xi waving his hands: "Second brother! Second brother! Bring me the rice bowl, it's my turn!"
Jiang Bai hurriedly carried three large rice bowls over, and Jiang Xi pushed all three rice bowls to the chef who served the food: "Big sister, three parts of braised pork!"
The sister who served the food was an aunt in her forties or fifties.
But in Jiang Xi's eyes, the younger sister was the little sister, and the older sister was the big sister, all sisters.
The aunt who served the food laughed when the little girl called her big sister, and filled all three rice bowls for her, and finally added a spoonful of soup.
Jiang Xi's mouth was as sweet as honey: "Thank you, big sister!"
Tong Jingang took the rice bowl from Jiang Bai and exclaimed "Fuck!" in surprise: "Why is there so much meat?"
The three of them were extremely eye-catching. Not to mention Tong Jingang's gorilla-like body, just Jiang Bai's outstanding appearance alone, except for the freshmen in the first year of high school, there were few people in the second and third years who didn't know Jiang Bai.
Even if No. 1 Middle School was strict, who wouldn't secretly take a few glances at a handsome guy?
Now with Jiang Xi, who was dressed fashionably like he walked out of the TV, the three of them naturally attracted attention.
Tong Jingang walked to the table of the boys' group unconsciously.
The discipline committee member stopped Jiang Bai and Jiang Xi who were trying to leave with their lunch boxes. The two of them showed their badges to the discipline committee member: "We are siblings, born of the same parents, and we have something to talk about."
The discipline committee member knew Jiang Bai, and from the class teachers, he knew that there was a high school student named Jiang Xi who only slept three hours a day and was the best in the exam. He just glanced at the similar names and said nothing, and continued to stand guard.
There were no mixed-sex tables in the cafeteria, so Jiang Bai and Jiang Xi each took their chopsticks and went to the basketball court outside the cafeteria.
If it wasn't raining, the two of them would sit on the parallel bars next to the basketball court and eat and chat.
"What's going on?" Jiang Bai sat on the parallel bars.
Jiang Xi was lying on the parallel bars, eating rice with a rice bowl in his hand.
"It's just like what I said last night, I wrote some manuscripts and sent them to several magazines such as "Reader" and "Youth Digest" to earn some pocket money."
Jiang Bai was choked by Jiang Xi's "earning some pocket money". Clothes and shoes worth more than 100 yuan are "a little pocket money"?
But at the same time, he felt sour and bitter in his heart, and there was a surge of warmth.
His sister earned some royalties and bought him clothes and shoes.
But then he thought it was not right, his sister was also wearing new clothes and new shoes.
"Does writing make a lot of money?" He also wanted to write.
"Just make some pocket money." Jiang Xi turned her head and saw through his money-grubber's thoughts at a glance. She discouraged him and said, "You're already a senior in high school, and you still want to make money? You should finish the college entrance examination first, and then think about how to make money. With a college degree, you can earn much more than a high school student in a month."
"Besides, writing requires talent. Do you have it?" She turned her face and asked him lightly.
Just one sentence made him give up the idea of making "pocket money" from this.
There are three siblings in their family. Jiang Song is an average of liberal arts and science, while Jiang Bo is a pure science person who has no talent for writing.
He is totally incapable of being a writer. He has no interest in liberal arts, but only in math, physics and chemistry, especially physics. But his physics teacher made him no longer passionate about learning.
Jiang Xi did not tell Jiang Bo how much money she made from submitting articles, and Jiang Bo did not ask. He just wanted to know the source of his sister's money, so he said, "Don't buy it for me next time, buy it for yourself." He
and Jiang Song are about the same age and height, and he can wear the remaining clothes Jiang Song wears, but his sister's tattered clothes are really tattered clothes.
Now seeing his sister finally wearing a new set of clothes, I have to say, it looks really good.
But his stingy nature came out, looking at her clothes and said: "Isn't your clothes a little too small? You are growing up now, and they will be too small in two months. You should buy two sizes up." He pointed at his school uniform, and his expression finally revealed the pride of a teenager: "Like me, when I saw my elder brother grow so tall, I knew I would grow tall too, so I ordered the largest size. Now I am in the third year of high school and I can still wear it. Don't look at you as short now, you will definitely grow fast in the future, that's what I did. You'd better tell the boss to change you to the largest size."
The boss Jiang Xi himself: ...
Jiang Xi just smiled and didn't say much.
When her store was opened, Grandpa Jiang came to Wucheng, and Jiang Bai would naturally know about it. She didn't want to tell him too much. They were three siblings in three cities, and they were used to making all decisions on their own, without discussing with anyone, and without needing anyone's consent.
Jiang Bai asked her to tell him which issue her work was published in, and he would go to the bookstore to look for it. If he couldn't buy a brand new one, he could buy a second-hand one for collection.
My sister's composition was published in a magazine.
Jiang Xi thought he wanted to confirm whether she had really published any works, so she didn't care and said, "Don't go to the bookstore to look for it. Every time a work is published, the magazine will send me a sample issue. I have it in my dormitory. I'll get it for you later."
After dinner, Jiang Xi returned to the dormitory and looked for the sample issues in the dormitory. When she couldn't find them, she turned around and asked the people in the dormitory, "Where are my magazines? Has any of you seen them?"
Jiang Xi put the sample issues that she received on the table. Anyone who wanted to read them could read them, and they just had to put them back to her after reading them. Sometimes girls from the dormitory next door would come to borrow them.
Seeing that the books were not in her dormitory, she went to ask in the next dormitory, but they also didn’t have them: “We returned them after reading them?”
“That’s strange, how come all the books are gone?”
Everyone also found it strange, and helped her look: “I put them back every time after reading them.”
“Who read it last Friday?” They recalled, “Liu Ping, yes, it was Liu Ping.”
“Liu Ping, did you take the books home last Friday and forgot to bring them here?”
Liu Ping from the upper dormitory denied, “I didn’t bring them. I put them back after reading them!”
Xu Xiuli suddenly said, “Where are the magazines written by Xingxing before? I don’t think I have seen the magazines written by Xingxing before for a long time.”
After being reminded by Xu Xiuli, the people in the dormitory realized, yes, where did the magazines they had read before go?
At first they thought Jiang Xi put the magazines away after they finished reading them, but now it seems that Jiang Xi didn't collect the magazines at all.
Before, the people from the neighboring dorms also came to borrow magazines, but after borrowing and borrowing, there were not many left in the dormitory. They got used to it and didn't notice that the magazines Jiang Xi bought before were gone.
Dormitory head Wang Xia said, "I remember that Liu Min and the others returned the magazines they borrowed."
"Yes, I remember that too. I was in the dormitory when they returned the magazines. Every time Jiang Xi bought a new one, they would return it after reading it."
"Where did all the books go?"
People at that time cherished books very much. Even if it was just a small magazine, it was a very precious thing for these girls.
"Let's look for it again." Wang Xia helped to look everywhere, and went to the next dormitory to ask if anyone had taken the books back by mistake.
But even if they had taken them back by mistake, there wouldn't be more than 30 books, could they have taken them all back?
Jiang Xi's "Martial Arts" has been serialized for ten issues, and "Reader", "Youth Digest" and "Friends" have also been serialized for four or five issues. In other words, these three magazines alone add up to fourteen or fifteen books, and there are also seven or eight books that Jiang Xi bought before the start of school.
Jiang Xi was too busy before and didn't have time to read these books, and he didn't hide the books because they were his own, so everyone could read them if they wanted. Now where are the books?
Everyone said they didn't take them.
The girls in the next dormitory heard that all the magazines Jiang Xi bought were missing, so they went back to their dormitories to look for them. Only the latest "Martial Arts" was in the hands of a girl and she hadn't finished reading it yet.
Everyone was very confused. After reading the magazine, it was over. Who would take this thing? Besides, even if they had finished reading it, who would borrow it? Jiang Xi would borrow it. You can borrow it anytime you want.
Their dormitory building was a relatively new building in No. 1 Middle School. It was built later. There were six floors in total. There were sixteen dormitories on each floor, all the way up to 616.
There were a total of thirty-two dormitories on the fifth and sixth floors, all of which were occupied by girls.
616, 615, 614, 613, 612, these dormitories were occupied by girls from classes one and two. One of the dormitories was a mix of girls from the two classes. The girls from class three lived in 611 and 610 below.
During the lunch break, because there was some noise in their two dormitories, the girls in dormitories 609 and 612 on both sides were startled and came out curiously to see what happened.
When they heard that Jiang Xi had lost her books, they thought it was her textbooks at first and were worried about her. Later, they heard that it was the magazines she bought, such as "Reader" and "Youth Digest", so they were no longer worried. They were just curious why books were lost, and more than 30 of them were lost.
A girl in 609 next door suddenly thought of something and said, "Speaking of magazines, I remembered one thing. On the way home last Saturday, a fellow villager from Class 7 was reading "Reader" and "Martial Arts" on the bus. He said that he and students from other classes rented them for 1 cent for two books and could read them for two days."