The Ups and Downs of the Commoners 2

This book is the second volume of the novel "The Ups and Downs of the Commoners". It will tell you about caused by the disastrous consequences of the "Great Leap Forward" and the People's Commune Movement in China in the middle of the last century to the livelihood of the Commoners, as well as the difficult path of study of the protagonist of this book, Fang Zhengben.

• Novel

								
The Ups and Downs of the Commoners 2

Volume 2
The Anxiety plus Anxiety is more Anxiety

Hunger is growing,
Will the road of study be smooth?
Personal diligence,
The great contribution of the family,
What will be the result?

Chapter 37

The night before going to school, Wang Qihui repeatedly told Fang Zhengben, saying: "Zhengben, from tomorrow you will go to school, it is far from home, and the people at home can't control you, you have to listen to the teacher, don't be greedy for fun."    You must study well so that you can make a difference in the future.    Also, your elder brother in Yuejin Reservoir, not far from there, if there is something, you can go to him.    Fang Zhengben nodded and agreed, and kept it firmly in his heart.    He checked the things he was going to bring again and said, "Mom, there are no boxes at home, I want to take one of your bedside tables so I can put things away."    Wang Qihui said: "If you don't find it too heavy, take it!" ”
The next day was August 30, the last day for new students enrolled. In the morning, Fang Zhengben got up very early. In order to avoid delaying time because he went home after breakfast to move his luggage, he takes his luggage with him when he goes to the public canteen for dinner.   His luggage included a quilt and a school bag, as well as a hoe and a nightstand. The quilt he took with him was the latest in the family, made from cotton left over from the confiscation of cloth made by his mother when government "cracked down on small handicrafts" three years ago.   Inside his bag was an enamel cup, a black-glazed bowl, a pair of bamboo chopsticks, a towel and a broken fountain pen.   He also brought needles and cotton thread to mend his clothes.
When Fang Zhengben was putting his luggage in the courtyard dam outside the public canteen, he met Ying Zhenlian coming to the public canteen to eat. She asked very casually: "You are leaving today?" Fang Zhengben nodded and said, "Yes." Seeing Fang Zhengben carrying a hoe, she asked again: "Are you going to study, what you doing with the hoe?" "Maybe it's about labor!" Fang Zhengben said, "The hoe is notified by the school, and you must bring your own labor tools." At this time, Meng Yongxiu also passed by, but she did not speak. Seeing that Fang Zhengben was about to go to the middle school in the district, she felt both envious and strange.
After eating a bowl of corn paste in the canteen, Fang Zhengben was about to leave. At this time, many people stood at the door of the canteen and looked at him, all of them were surprised that there was a person in the village who wanted to go to the district to study. Wang Qihui has been sending Fang Zhengben to the edge of the courtyard dam. Fang Zhengzhong stood beside his mother and asked, "Third elder brother, when will you come back?" Fang Zhengben said: "I don't know, I'm afraid it won't be long." Ying Jingzhong stood in the pile of people, looked at Fang Zhengben's back, smiled and nodded, and said: "Well, now he is a real scholar!" Cao Yuhua continued: "He will henceforth eat the grain rationed by the state. It will definitely not be a problem to come out and find a job in the future!”
Fang Zhengben said goodbye to his mother and hurried to school.   Although the luggage he carrying was not light, he felt energized at the thought that he would start a new life from today and had a bright future, and the weight of his luggage was nothing.
When he was about two kilometers away from Xinghua Town, he saw people on both sides of the road holding bowls and chopsticks, helping the old and the children, and going to their public canteen to eat.   At this time, he also felt that his stomach was very hungry.   But he knew that the hungrier he was, the more he needed to get to the school as soon as possible.
Fang Zhengben came to the street and saw two state-run restaurants open.    A few customers had just finished eating and were walking out of the restaurant.    He knew that it was past noon, and he was not sure whether he could eat lunch when he arrived at school.    Should I go to a restaurant first and go to school? He doesn't even need dish, just a bowl of cooked rice.    No way! It was because he didn't have any extra money on him to eat in restaurants.
Fang Zhengben finally arrived at school. The first thing that caught his eye was the "Admission Instructions" and "Junior High School New Student Placement List" posted on a blackboard on the right side of the school gate. He carefully read the above and found that there were 4 classes in their grade, and he was divided into Class 1 of Grade 1962. According to the arrangement of the "Admission Instructions", he first took the "Admission Card" and "Admission Notice" to the General Affairs Office to pay the fee, and then went to the office to find his homeroom teacher to register.
His homeroom teacher, surnamed Tang, was Wenbo, about thirty years old, a not tall but very shrewd and capable person. After Teacher Tang saw Fang Zhengben's payment receipt, he looked him up and down, and asked him where his family lived, what was the his family background, and who were in the member of family, and Fang Zhengben answered them one by one. Teacher Tang asked while taking notes in a notebook. After registration, Teacher Tang pointed through the window to a door facing the office in the row of houses behind and said, "The boys' dormitory in our class is there. I'll give you the number of the bed, go find your bed yourself!" Said, he wrote a number to Fang Zhengben. Before leaving, Teacher Tang asked again: "Have you had lunch?" Fang Zhengben was in a hurry to sign up at first, so he forgot about his hunger for a while. Now after Teacher Tang asked this, he remembered that he was still hungry, and said busily: "I didn't eat." Teacher Tang picked up the pen again, gave him a note, and said, "You take this slip to the student dining hall to eat."
Fang Zhengben bowed to Teacher Tang and turned to walk out of his office.  When he moved his luggage to the dormitory, he saw that Wang Dingjun and Zhu Zihong, classmates from elementary school, were already there.  Fang Zhengben asked, "Hey, how long have you been here?"  "We're been here before noon."  Fang Zhengben found his bed, he see bed covered with only a layer of straw, and put the quilt roll on the  and pushed the bedside table and hoe he brought under the bed, saying: "I haven't eaten yet, I have to go to eat first!"  He took his cutlery and walked towards the student dining hall.
Because many students here are far from home, on the day of registration, the student dining hall is irregular for students to eat. Fang Zhengben handed a note from Mr. Tang to a master cook, and the master looked at it carefully and recognized that it was Mr. Tang's handwriting, so he poked a ball of rice with a shovel in an enamel basin, put it into Fang Zhengben's enamel cup, and scooped a little fried eggplant form a vegetable basin with an iron spoon and poured it on his rice. Fang Zhengben took the enamel cup from the master, stood outside the dining hall, and quickly swallowed the 125 grams of rice. Although that bit of rice was far from enough for Fang Zhengben to eat, and the fried eggplant was also short of oil and salt, he still ate very satisfied. Because it was rice after all, it was much good than the corn paste with vegetable he ate at the public dining hall.

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