Chapter 14 Dinner
When Shi Luo went out, Li Zhe and Xie Chen also came out. The three of them each carried a stool, a lunch box and chopsticks and went to the front yard.
The kitchen in the front yard was not big enough, so the old educated youth set up the table in the yard. Although it is a little colder at night now, it is still okay to eat in the yard.
When Shi Luo and the other two arrived, the dishes had already been placed on the table, and most of the other educated youth had also taken their seats.
Shi Luo and the other two quickly put their stools next to each other and sat down.
As soon as the three of them sat down, Deng Jiao began her opening remarks. "Hello, everyone is here. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Deng Jiao. I have been here for five years.
It's fate that we, the educated youth, have come to the same place from all corners of the world. I hope that we can help each other and unite as one. Now that I've finished, let's introduce ourselves."
Shi Luo listened around and found that except for the female educated youth Deng Jiao, the remaining old educated youth were the female ones named Zhou Lihua and Li Zhaodi. Zhou Lihua was the one who lived in the first single room in the backyard.
The two male educated youth were named Zheng Aiguo and Zhu Fuqiang.
I just heard from Deng Jiao that there are actually more than just these few educated youth in the brigade. Some of them married men from the brigade or married people from the brigade as their wives. Anyway, they all moved out of the educated youth compound after getting married.
Shi Luo looked at the five old educated youths one by one and could only say that these five people seemed to be living an ordinary life in the village.
They all look quite thin, giving people the feeling that they have not been full for a long time.
Their clothes were all patched up with patches. The only one who wore better clothes was Zhou Lihua, but her clothes only had a few fewer patches than others.
The one who looked the most miserable was Li Zhaodi. The others at least still had some flesh on their bodies, but Li Zhaodi was really skin and bones.
After everyone finished introducing themselves, Deng Jiao started talking again.
"Let me say a few words. The rule in our educated youth home is that if we eat together on weekdays, the female educated youth will take turns cooking, and the male educated youth will be responsible for chopping wood and fetching water. However, after the autumn harvest, both men and women have to go to the mountains to collect firewood for the winter.
I've already asked the three new female educated youths, and they'll cook their own meals in the summer. What about you three male educated youths? Do you want to eat with us? "
"No, I'll fire it myself," Shi Luo quickly refused.
What a joke, eating with the old educated youth, you must be crazy.
Li Zhe and Xie Chen also refused one after another.
Deng Jiao was a little unhappy that the three new male educated youth did not eat from the big pot. The conditions of these three people seemed good, and if they ate together, she could get more benefits and maybe save some food.
No matter how unhappy Deng Jiao was in her heart, she remained calm on the surface and nodded to indicate that she understood. "Oh, by the way, we also have a male educated youth, his name is Cao Wang. His grandmother's home is from our brigade, so he has been living there since he went to the countryside. He doesn't interact much with the people in our educated youth compound.
I mentioned today's gathering to him, but he said he couldn't come. If you want to meet him, go find him at the brigade later. Okay, now that we've said what we need to say, let's have dinner."
While everyone was introducing themselves, Shi Luo looked at the dishes on the table. There were six dishes: stewed potatoes and eggplants with green beans, stewed cabbage with vermicelli, fried bacon with chili peppers, scrambled eggs with leeks, pickled eggs, cold cucumber salad, a soup made with dried fish and shrimp, and the staple food was cornmeal and sweet potato flour steamed buns.
It sounds good, but if you look closely you will find that the bacon is cut very thinly, and the whole dish uses less than three taels of meat.
The amount of egg was pitifully small, and the chives took up 98% of the entire plate, not to mention the soup. There were only a few dried shrimps floating on the noodles. In short, Shi Luo didn't see a single dried fish.
There seemed to be eleven steamed buns in total, probably made for one per person.
Although the quantity of these dishes is small, the amount of cabbage, beans and potatoes is large, so it is no problem for each person to eat until they are 60% to 70% full.
Although Shi Luo knew that the result would definitely be like this, he was still very depressed.
He had vowed before that he would never suffer any loss, but seeing how quickly the old educated youth picked up his chopsticks, Shi Luo felt that he could only eat the steamed buns, and the lunch box would be wasted.
Shi Luo had no choice but to pick up his own steamed bun, broke off a piece and put it into his mouth. After taking a bite, he was shocked by the rough texture. It seemed that this steamed bun made of two-grain flour was mixed with bran. It was really terrible.
Shi Luo felt that if he swallowed the steamed bread dry, his throat would probably be damaged.
Seeing Shi Luo's ugly expression, Xie Chen sighed, picked up Shi Luo's lunch box and gave him a spoonful of soup.
Shi Luo took the soup and was very grateful to Xie Chen.
Shi Luo drank two mouthfuls of soup to swallow the steamed bread in his mouth. He felt extremely devastated. This could be called a soup. It was just a pot of boiling water with a few dried shrimps. It didn't even taste salty.
Shi Luo looked at the steamed bun in his left hand, then at the soup in his right hand, and was very glad that he could live alone and cook on his own.
Shi Luo now felt that the team leader's decision to build single rooms for the educated youth in the courtyard was extremely wise.
If there were no single rooms, I would have to sleep on a large bunk bed with the old educated youth and eat from a big pot.
Shi Luo felt that by then, not only would he not be able to just eat and do nothing, he would probably not even want to live.
Now not only Shi Luo thought so, even Li Zhe felt that his decision to partner with Xie Chen was extremely wise. Li Zhe finally understood what Xie Chen meant by what he said just now about not being able to eat it.
Shi Luo only had a piece of thin, translucent bacon and an egg the size of a little fingernail for this meal. The rest of the time he ate the potato, eggplant and green beans stewed closest to him. Maybe because the potatoes and eggplant were stewed too much, it tasted surprisingly good.
The dishes on the table were almost finished, and Shi Luo had not even eaten a third of the steamed bun in his hand. Shi Luo decided not to make things difficult for his throat and stomach.
He handed the remaining steamed bun to Li Zhe, because he just saw Li Zhe eating it very enthusiastically. Anyway, he had been eating it by breaking it into pieces and had never bitten it, so it would be okay to give it to him. After all, he couldn't waste food.
Li Zhe was overwhelmed when he saw the half-eaten steamed bun that suddenly appeared in front of him. He had just finished eating 85% of it with great effort, and his throat was sore. Now he really didn't want to eat anymore.
Just when he was about to refuse, he looked up and saw Shi Luo's fair and tender face. Then he thought that Shi Luo was not very old and looked spoiled.
Li Zhe sighed. It was obvious from Shi Luo's expression that he couldn't get used to this thing.
There was no other way, so in the spirit of not wasting food, Li Zhe ate the steamed buns left by Shi Luo.
Shi Luo felt relieved when he saw Li Zhe still eating the steamed buns he gave him with great enthusiasm.
He immediately decided that if there were any activities that he had to attend in the future and he was given steamed buns that he had to eat, he would return them to Li Zhe.
In fact, Li Zhe was not eating with enthusiasm, but with great effort. After all, if he didn't grit his teeth and exert force, he would not be able to swallow it at all.
Xie Chen shook his head helplessly as he looked at the little movements of Li Zhe and Shi Luo, and calmly ate the steamed bun in his hand. He had eaten this thing countless times in his previous life.
In my previous life, after I got married, I refused the things my family sent me. At that time, the food I earned was not enough to eat, so this kind of steamed corn bread was really a good thing.
Although I am not used to eating it now, it is not impossible for me to eat it.
Looking at Li Zhe, Xie Chen suddenly remembered that in his previous life, Li Zhe had lived a better life than himself in the Youth League Institute.
At that time, Li Zhe could earn work points by himself, and his family would send him money and things from time to time. I remember that when I was in the most difficult time, Li Zhe secretly sent me food to help me.
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