“Ding!? Ding!? Ding!”
The bell for the end of get out of class was rang by the old man at the door, once, twice, three times.
Soon, students rushed out of each classroom, running towards the school gate in twos and threes, laughing.
The classroom, which originally held about 30 people, was soon mostly empty, with only 13 or 14 students still sitting in their seats reading and writing.
Jia Shuanghua swallowed and kept looking out the window.
"Why hasn't the cafeteria aunt come yet? Are you going to pick the junior high school first today?"
Chen Xingling was having trouble with a solid geometry problem. Hearing this, he whispered, "Wait a minute. There are dozens of lunch boxes to be carried up and down from the high school department, and they also need to be picked up from the small canteen. It will take at least ten minutes."
After a while, the old lady from the cafeteria finally came.
She put down her carrying pole and shouted loudly: "It's time to get your meal! It's time to get your meal!"
Jia Shuanghua stood up suddenly and excitedly pulled Chen Xingling out of the room.
I saw two large bamboo baskets filled with lunch boxes of all sizes neatly arranged. Some were dirty, some were so old that it was hard to tell whether they were made of aluminum or iron, some were tied with red or blue strings as marks, and some were enamel basins with one or two sweet potatoes placed crookedly, and some people only steamed half a corn.
Chen Xingling's aluminum lunch box was bought by someone else. It was shiny and glossy, and a small "Ling" was written on it as a mark.
This was written with a ballpoint pen that she had found in the hyperspace. She wanted to make a cute little sticker, but thought that colored stickers had not appeared in that era, so she couldn't be too innovative to avoid not knowing how to explain it, so she could only use a pen instead.
The marked lunch boxes were easy to recognize, and people came forward in groups of three or four to grab a bite. Soon, everyone had taken their lunch and left.
Jia Shuanghua had a big appetite and brought two large lunch boxes. One was in the front, but she couldn't get to the other one. She could only wait until the other students had finished taking their food before she could finally get a look at the other one.
The two were about to go back to the classroom when the old lady shouted, "There's still a piece of corn! Who dropped it? Whose is it?"
At this time, a boy ran out of the class, looking embarrassed and ran down the stairs, hesitating: "Mine... mine."
The old lady glanced at him, frowned and whispered: "Young man, how can you eat half a corn every day? You are so skinny and your face looks bad."
The boy smiled apologetically, held the half corn in his palm awkwardly, and quickly hid back in the classroom.
Chen Xingling looked at his patched pants and ill-fitting shirt, and felt that he looked familiar, but couldn't remember his name for a moment.
Jia Shuanghua seemed to see her confusion and lowered her voice, "Have you forgotten? He is Ma Dali, who ranked third in the class placement test. He lives in the west of the city, which is quite far from the school."
Ma Dali?
This name seems familiar, and I have a hunch that I have seen it in a book - could it be a minor supporting role?
"Do you know him?" Chen Xingling asked, "From the west side of the city?"
Jia Shuanghua is a girl who was born and raised in the Yu District of Chongqing City. She attended elementary school, middle school and high school in the city.
There were not many students in each class in the middle school. After all, only a handful of families could afford to send their children to higher grades. There were only familiar faces everywhere, so she recognized many of the students in the city.
"Yeah." Jia Shuanghua sighed and whispered, "He is the same age as me. We were in the same class for many years in elementary school. He is the eldest in the family, with two or three younger brothers and sisters. His family is famous for being poor in the west of the city... really very poor."
Chen Xingling uttered a low "Oh".
In this era, most families can only barely hover on the edge of poverty, and those who can eat and wear warm clothes are considered lucky. The Gu family has never lacked food and clothing, because they have Gu Qi, a highly qualified engineer.
Jia Shuanghua pulled her to a corner and lowered her voice, "Da Li's father passed away when he was a few years old. Later, his mother was always sick, and the family sold everything they could just to pay for his mother's medical treatment. When we were in fifth grade, he didn't come to class for most of the semester. His grades were very good, and the teacher felt sorry for him, so he asked everyone to raise a few dollars for him and send it to his family. Later I found out... it turned out that his mother also died of illness. Since then, he has been working and studying at the same time, and he has to support two younger brothers and a younger sister. Life is very tight."
"Are his younger brothers and sisters also studying?" Chen Xingling asked.
Jia Shuanghua shook her head: "It seems that one of the brothers is in the junior high school, and the other one went to the countryside. His sister is now in the first grade of junior high school. Her grades are very good. She always ranks first in the class in every exam."
Chen Xingling sighed and whispered: "Even in difficult situations, they still remember to study and learn to improve themselves. Such a family will only be poor temporarily, but will not be poor forever."
"But...he is really miserable." Jia Shuanghua smiled bitterly: "You didn't have lunch at school a few days ago, so you didn't know at all. He only had a piece of corn every day, and when he was hungry, he would drink cold water from the tap. There were few people using the tap in the cafeteria, so he often drank cold water secretly. After school, he would run around to work and earn money, and sometimes he couldn't get home until the middle of the night."
Chen Xingling looked at his skinny appearance and his sallow complexion and couldn't help but mutter, "It's really miserable."
Suddenly, a short storyline flashed through her mind - and there were the three words "Ma Dali"!
That’s right! No wonder it sounds so familiar!
The book records that Gu Qi had been working in the shipyard, and later he occasionally helped other private enterprises design some large machinery. Among them, Ma Dali, the owner of a large enterprise, admired Gu Qi very much and asked Gu Qi to design a lot of production machinery.
Later, Ma Dali caught up with the great period of economic take-off, set up factories and large enterprises, founded national brands, expanded his business overseas, and became one of the first large groups in China.
He always admired Gu Qi and treated him as an intimate old friend. Later, when Gu Qi moved overseas in his later years, Ma Dali would take a long-distance flight to visit Gu Qi from time to time, and he also secretly helped the devil Gu Yinmo.
Legend has it that he had a bad fate when he was young and suffered a lot, but fortunately he worked hard to improve himself, led his brothers and sisters to start businesses and get rich, and eventually became a wealthy tycoon!
Ma Dali is from Yucheng, a few years younger than Gu Qi - it turns out to be him!
Thinking of this, Chen Xingling suddenly had an idea and quietly observed Ma Dali coming.
He was sitting by the window diagonally opposite. Perhaps he was too tired, or perhaps it was due to long-term malnutrition. His thin back was hunched like a shrimp. His facial features were ordinary, but his eyes and eyebrows had a hint of indescribable wildness.
"Wow! Chicken legs!" Jia Shuanghua exclaimed, staring at Chen Xingling's lunch box with her round eyes, almost drooling.
There were only low voices in the classroom, and the silence was broken by the shout of "chicken leg"!
The next moment, everyone's eyes turned to Chen Xingling!
There were two lunch boxes on her table, one filled with steaming white rice, and the other filled with two huge chicken legs and a bunch of vegetables.
In the era of material scarcity, it was rare to have meat every few days. People like Chen Xingling who could eat two large chicken legs in one meal were undoubtedly the best representatives of super rich and inhumane people.
"Hey! Chen Xue, you are too extravagant! Two chicken legs!"
"I'm so jealous! I haven't eaten chicken in half a year!"
Chen Xingling looked innocent: "..."
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