The two girls wore close-fitting padded jackets underneath, thermal underwear, and dark blue work pants on their lower bodies, and on top of that, military overcoats issued by the school for winter protection. They also wore warm military-style cotton hats on their heads and red scarves around their necks. They walked out of the school looking clumsy.
A few days ago there was a blizzard, and although the sky cleared up today, it was still freezing cold. The snow on the streets and alleys showed no signs of melting and remained frozen solid.
Through the efforts of all the teachers and students, their school has basically cleared all the snow from the roads and piled it up in the green belt.
I thought it would be the same outside, but when I went out, I found out that only the area around their school had been cleaned up.
In most sections, only one path suitable for walking has been cleared.
Tao Zui and Tao Ran were somewhat surprised to see Xiao Jiu come out with a girl, but they still greeted her politely.
“Yuanyuan, this is my eldest brother Taozui, who is five years older than you, and my second brother Taoran, who is three years older than you. They are both studying at the Northwestern Polytechnical University Graduate School.”
"Big brother, second brother, this is Yuan Yuan. She visited our home before, but you weren't there. Third brother and fourth brother have already met her."
She was my high school classmate. Due to family reasons, I lived with Sister Ju for a year and even tutored her to get her junior high school graduation certificate.
He applied to military academy with me during the college entrance exam, majoring in public health and preventive medicine. He'll probably work in disease prevention in the future.
As Xiao Jiu introduced them, the two were also sizing each other up. Xiao Jiu noticed that Yuan Yuan's gaze lingered on the eldest brother, Tao Zui, for a few more seconds.
Looking at the two older brothers, they really are blockheads; all they know is how to study. After greeting others, they don't dare to look at them anymore.
Despite the various constraints of this era, it's still a bit too naive.
The two brothers had made plans before coming, but unexpectedly, their sister brought a classmate along, so they politely asked her about it.
"You haven't had breakfast yet, have you? Shall we find a place to eat breakfast first?"
It was already nine o'clock, and Xiao Jiu looked directly at Yuan Yuan.
"Don't worry about me, I got up early today and already ate in the cafeteria,"
"Have you eaten?" When Xiao Jiu looked at the two brothers, they nodded. "We ate in the cafeteria too, at seven o'clock sharp."
Xiao Jiu twitched her lips. "I ate something this morning, I'm not hungry. Bro, what are your plans for today?"
When we went out together last time, we had already visited some of the attractions. We didn't have enough time to leave the city, so we could only wander around inside the city.
Moreover, it's New Year's Day today, and there might be some promotions at the mall that the two men definitely wouldn't be interested in, but it's a different story for the girls.
"How about we go to the department store with you first?"
Unexpectedly, both girls shook their heads at the same time, Xiao Jiu said.
"We'll definitely have to buy things once we go in, and it's such a hassle to carry around all that stuff when we're out having fun!"
Yuanyuan's concern was money; girls love beauty, and if they see something nice and suitable, they want to buy it.
But she still wanted to save money, so the only way to save money was to not go at all.
But she was too embarrassed to say it, and luckily Xiaojiu understood her and refused.
Finally, the four of them squeezed onto a bus and went to the foot of the city wall. At this time, the city wall was still a historical remnant and had not undergone modern repairs.
It is said that the city wall was reinforced and repaired in the 1980s, so the city wall is now not only dilapidated, but there are also dirt roads outside the wall.
Similar to later periods, as a key cultural relic site, there is a fee to climb the city wall, which is one cent per person, not expensive at all.
Within a reasonable and acceptable range.
Today is New Year's Day, and there are many visitors. Everyone is queuing in an orderly manner.
Listening to the various dialects spoken around him, Xiao Jiu felt a sense of familiarity, which showed that tourism existed even in this era.
However, they are usually accompanied by locals, perhaps visiting relatives and taking the opportunity to see the city walls of the West Market.
After all, this is one of the best-preserved city wall buildings, and it continues the entire historical and cultural lineage of the ancient capital of Chang'an.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government has been trying to maintain, repair and renovate the site, but given the current state of the country, it has not been done on a large scale.
The reason they become fee-charging entities is to generate revenue for basic maintenance and construction, which is perfectly understandable.
It's a pity that the city wall, which was barely preserved after the war and was the only one that hadn't been demolished, was damaged even more severely during a certain period by various brick-breaking operations.
How unattainable it is to be able to travel through time and step on the most historically significant paving stones!
When she visited in later years, the floor tiles here were flat and orderly, but now the floor tiles made her realize how difficult it was for them to survive.
Xiao Jiu brought her camera again today. Although the photos turned out to be black and white, if she could take more pictures of the scenery from this era, they would be very valuable for making a photo album in the future.
Standing on the city gate tower and looking out, the West Market was still underdeveloped. You could see large wheat fields. Even though some sections had roads built, they were winding and muddy. After a little rain, the roads would be covered in mud. Even if you used cinders and stones to fill the gaps, the roads would return to their original state in a few days.
There are very few buildings over ten meters tall inside the city gates. Apart from the main streets which appear to be planned and repaired, most areas are still in the recovery phase.
After all, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the first priority has been to ensure that the people have enough to eat. Most of the houses today were built after the destruction of the country for temporary living. Only a small number of houses have been preserved intact, but those are not places that ordinary people can live in.
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