Most of the food brought to school was coarse grains, which amounted to about two ounces per meal. The school cook would help prepare it, such as coarse grain pancakes, cornbread, or steamed buns. No matter what kind it was made into, the weight you brought was there, and when averaged out over each meal, that was the amount you received daily.
Xiao Jiu initially thought it was too troublesome, which is why she didn't do it. In fact, she also noticed that almost no one was sending over fine grains. Given the current conditions, it's clear that anyone sending fine grains would definitely have ration coupons.
During famine years, it wasn't just ordinary families who ate refined grains. Even city kids like Pang Weiwei, whose families both worked, didn't eat refined grains every day.
So when asked, it turned out that only Pang Weiwei and Tao Tao had brought meal tickets.
When Zhou Shengnan heard that the two of them had brought meal tickets, she was not surprised. As for Pang Weiwei, well, how could a working-class city girl not be able to afford meal tickets?
Tao Tao is a young girl, and she came to school on her own this time. She doesn't seem very popular, but she has the most complete set of things for boarding students.
Putting everything else aside, the family brought three basins. The largest one was undoubtedly for washing clothes, the medium one was of unknown use, and she knew the smallest one was for washing her bottom. Moreover, they were all enamel basins with different patterns, and they looked brand new. Could this be an ordinary family?
They had enamel mugs for drinking water, military-style water bottles, two wicker thermos flasks, and even multi-tiered portable mess kits...
The bed they slept on had a mattress, a straw mat, a mosquito net, and even a very fine towel blanket, a good thing without a single patch.
This child may be dressed simply, but she has toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, face cream, and soap. These are all things that are out in the open. The things locked in the cabinet must be even better, not worse.
And most importantly, Tao Tao's complexion is the best among the six of them.
Good complexion means you're eating well, and eating well means you're well-off. Whether you're from the countryside or the city, being able to eat your fill gives you confidence.
Moreover, once they arrived here, they had all explained their family situations. However, this young girl, Tao Tao, was not talkative and didn't say much. She only mentioned that her family lived in a rural area of Y County and that she was the youngest in her family. She didn't say anything else. She was really low-key.
While Zhou Shengnan and the others were still lamenting that the two of them hadn't gotten any free soup, Xiao Jiu yawned, sat up, and shook her head.
"It's okay, Sheng Nan. I'm not hungry yet. We can eat at noon."
She then tidied up the bed, changed into a shirt and trousers inside the mosquito net, skillfully took out a mirror from the closet, placed it by the upper bunk railing, combed her black hair, and quickly braided two pigtails, tying them with black rubber bands. That was it.
After she finished getting ready, she realized that her roommates were all looking at her. Xiao Jiu was stunned and thought there was something on her face. She touched it, but there was nothing there.
He asked awkwardly, "Why is everyone staring at me?"
"I just admire how good-looking you are. I'm really envious of your thick, black hair—it's so straight, smooth, and shiny. How do you take care of it?"
Gao Mingxia has naturally curly hair that is very soft and not stiff at all. If it gets even slightly messy, it becomes impossible to comb. Hairdressers wouldn't even take her hair.
How do you maintain it?
"It just comes out after washing!" What other method could you use? In this day and age, people are truly born beautiful, all-natural, everything is of good quality, there aren't many chemical additives, we eat healthy, drink healthy, and even live healthy. How could our hair not be smooth and shiny?
Feeling embarrassed by the stares, Xiao Jiu quickly took the basin and went outside to wash up.
The water room is next to the girls' dormitory. It is a water room with a wall built around it, which is to make it convenient for girls to wash up in the summer.
There is a huge water tower inside and outside the water room. The water in the water tower is pumped up from underground and connected to the tap water pipe, which makes it more convenient to use.
After washing up, she also washed the clothes she had changed out of yesterday with soap. The soap was black soap she bought from some craftsmen in the village. It was homemade, dark gray, and had no smell. Its main selling point was that it was easy to use and cheap. Every now and then, he would take his homemade soaps around to sell or barter with other things. This time when she came, her grandfather gave her several bars.
Laundry detergent was still a rarity in those days. You needed laundry coupons to buy laundry products. Even things like shampoo required coupons when they were in short supply. The shampoo she had was bought with coupons she earned from selling vegetables on the streets. It was a blue paste, Seagull brand, and a big bottle cost three yuan, which would last a long time.
The washed clothes were hung on wooden clothes hangers and hung directly under the eaves outside the windows. There was a clothesline on both sides of each dormitory window. It looked sturdy, but it was a bit high, so we had to bring a stool to stand on and hang it up.
She draped her outer clothes over the outside, washed her inner garments, and hung them directly on the clothes rack to her bed frame.
Pang Weiwei had finished getting ready by now. Seeing how quickly Xiao Jiu had tidied up, she couldn't help but ask, "Did you live at school in junior high?"
Tao Tao chuckled, "Yeah, I've been living at school since I was little, so I'm used to it."
"You're ten years old this year, so how old were you when you started junior high school?"
"I only went to school for a year in total. Before that, I studied at home. My older brother and his family are all college students and they teach well. My grandparents are getting old, and I have to help take care of my family, so I haven't been to school. It wasn't until my grandparents urged me that I started to formally enroll and take the high school entrance exam."
It's not that she's being high-profile right now, it's just that if she doesn't talk about it now, it will definitely be discussed in class. The main thing is that her age is a real highlight, and it's hard for people to ignore it.
She specifically mentioned that her older brother was a college student, implying that it was because they taught her well, not because she was a good student. This was also because college students held a relatively high social status in that era. With this preconceived notion, the minor factor of her being able to enter high school at her age was naturally overlooked.
She then made her bed and left the dormitory, saying, "I have something to do and I'm going out for a bit. You don't need to wait for me to have lunch together."
Not wanting to talk too much about family matters with her roommate, Xiao Jiu made an excuse to leave school.
There are actually a lot of delicious foods in their city of L, but most of them require coupons, not only meat coupons but also grain coupons. She had eaten a lot of delicious food in her previous life, but in these difficult times, it's better to save some money.
Because everyone's standard of living is similar, she doesn't have much interest in food, and she doesn't have high requirements for clothing either.
As long as you are clean and tidy and not ashamed, there is no need to keep buying new clothes to wear.
This wasn't just her opinion; her sisters also felt it should be this way.
Although she should dress herself up nicely at this age, she remembered a very thought-provoking saying on the internet from her previous life.
Beauty is a disaster if it is born into a poor family.
Xiao Jiu didn't think her face was particularly beautiful, but in a time when everyone was malnourished, her health was a kind of enviable beauty.
What time is it now? How can anyone still think that these sisters are the most useless and brainless transmigrators because they don't know how to use cheat codes?
Having a cheat ability means you have to go into business? You have to live a carefree and unrestrained life? And be better than the people in this life?
Whether you say she has no ambition or that her time travel is useless, she feels that her current life is pretty good.
During famine years, having enough to eat and drink, and protecting her family from hunger, was the meaning of her existence.
In summer, people don't lack vegetables, and she does have meat, but given that she's unfamiliar with the area, it's not suitable for her to openly sell it secretly for the time being. It won't be too late to start reselling it once she's more familiar with L City.
So Xiao Jiu started wandering around the school area, through the residential compounds and alleyways, taking notes as she went. She also inquired about any vacant rooms for rent, thinking that if the price was right, she could rent one to cover her tracks.
There are almost no rental units in the tenement buildings; each household is very crowded. There are some single rooms in tiled houses for rent in the alley, but these houses are mostly low and dilapidated, which is really not suitable for a young girl like her. Even in such a dilapidated house, it costs five or six yuan a month. There is no water or electricity, and even the bed is made of wooden planks. It is really impractical.
When we got tired of walking around, we would find a small garden by the roadside, go inside to eat a boxed lunch, and continue walking around until we were exhausted before heading back to school.
As soon as Peng Juan and Zhu Hongqi saw her return, they quickly said, "Oh my goodness, you're back! Hurry up, it's time to go into class."
Xiao Jiu looked at the sky in surprise, "What time is it? I've completely forgotten the time."
"It's 3:30. The loudspeaker just announced that we new students should be in class at 4:00. I guess they're handing out books. Hurry up, Shengnan and the others have already gone ahead. If we can't wait for you any longer, we'll have to go too."
Xiao Jiu scratched her head sheepishly, "Sorry, let's go quickly then."
I closed the dormitory door, locked it, told the dormitory supervisor, and then hurriedly headed towards the teaching building.
Their school building is two stories high and was only built a few years ago. The first year of high school is on the second floor, and the second year is on the first floor. One grade is on each floor, and the rest are school offices and various laboratories. She counted ten classrooms on the first floor.
When the three of them entered the classroom, it was almost full. It was mostly boys, but the six girls were mixed in. So as soon as they walked in, they were stared at by the boys, who were all different kinds of people.
Some looked to be in their twenties, with unshaven beards; some had acne all over their faces and mustaches; and some still looked very young, with heights like cell towers. The only thing they had in common was the strong smell of sweat and foot odor in the classroom, probably because there were many boys, making the hormone levels here extremely high.
Xiao Jiu rubbed her nose uncomfortably. Just as she sat down in the front row where Zhou Shengnan and the others had taken up their seats, a middle-aged man in his thirties walked into the classroom. He was wearing a white shirt with a yellowed collar, blue pants, and black-rimmed glasses. He looked very refined. He first looked around the classroom and, after confirming that almost everyone had arrived, beckoned a few boys over.
"You guys come with me to the registrar's office to move the books. The rest of you, don't just sit there. You're all high school students now, so hurry up and clean the classroom. We'll have a quick class meeting in a bit."
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