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On the sixteenth of the lunar month, Uncle returned home and told Second Uncle that the child from Second Uncle's family had also been accepted into Annan County Eight Middle School this year.
As the saying goes, "A good appearance is three parts distant," especially when it comes to the children of relatives from the previous generation. Coupled with some grievances against the three uncles, Hu Ruoyun had no desire to deal with them at all.
Let them be; don’t you look down on us poor folks? We’ll just keep our distance. We neither eat your food nor drink your water!
Days passed by without much change.
Before long, winter had arrived, and by this time, there was little farm work left at home. Riding a bicycle back in the cold was too uncomfortable, so Hu Ruoyun decided to stay at school over the weekend.
On this particular Saturday, after two self-study classes, most of the students went home to their mothers, leaving only about twenty students on campus who weren’t going back. The school cafeteria opened only a small window to provide simple meals.
In Hu Ruoyun's class, Liu Shuiwang was the center for the School Basketball Team. He lived in Geda Ying Township and hadn’t gone home this weekend. The school beauty, Wang Bingbing, and another girl, Tong Caiying, also stayed behind.
Shuiwang’s family owned a small convenience store, so they were better off than most of their classmates. Wang Bingbing’s family lived in the county town; her parents were a technician and an accountant at the Agricultural Machinery Factory, giving them an even more comfortable life.
Tong Caiying was from Wangdian Township. Hu Ruoyun had seen her father once during summer when he delivered grain using a donkey cart. The old man wore a sweat-stained coarse cloth shirt and had a dark red complexion with a dull expression.
In Hu Ruoyun's memory, it seemed like Tong Caiying hadn’t changed clothes all summer; she always wore gray wide-legged trousers that matched her colorless expression.
As time passed, Hu Ruoyun gradually learned more about her situation.
Tong Caiying had two older brothers; the eldest had just married two years ago, and their new house along with the bride price had drained this ordinary farming family's savings. The second brother was studying at university in the provincial capital, and his tuition and living expenses made life even harder for this already struggling family. There was also a younger brother who would soon graduate from elementary school (at that time, there was no Compulsory Education) — all of them needed support from home.
The clothes she wore were also old garments altered by her mother from her brother’s hand-me-downs.
Hu Ruoyun heard from her female classmates that while others ate together in groups—some fetching food while others bought bread or vegetables—Tong Caiying always ate alone. She would first get her meal and then buy bread; often she wouldn’t buy any vegetables at all, usually just eating pickled radish strips or garlic shoots brought from home with her rice.
In her, Hu Ruoyun vaguely saw a reflection of her past self…
In the foreseeable future, despite being hardworking and achieving good grades, this girl who lived such a difficult life ended up dropping out before graduation. Later on, Hu Ruoyun heard that she soon got married to a worker six years older than herself who had a slight limp; her bride price was used by her family to support her studying brothers!
Hu Ruoyun felt an ache in her heart.
As dinner bells rang, Wang Bingbing went to call Tong Caiying, who was studying at her desk: “Caiying, we’re the only girls left today! Come on, let’s eat together.”
Tong Caiying shook her head in panic: “Bingbing, I’m not hungry; you go ahead!”
Wang Bingbing was a carefree girl and didn’t press further: “Then I’ll go! Do you want me to bring you some buns?”
Tong Caiying shook her head again: “No need! Don’t bring me anything!”
Suddenly, Hu Ruoyun remembered that during lunch when they went to eat, this girl had sat at her desk without moving. When they returned after finishing their meal, she seemed still to be sitting there until class started again.
Could it be that she didn’t have any meal tickets but felt too embarrassed to say so?
Shui Wang was not doing well in his studies, but his performance was similar to Brother Biao's. He was straightforward and loyal, insisting on taking Hu Ruoyun out for dinner.
Though he called it a restaurant, it was really just a makeshift stall set up by local villagers at the school gate. There were no elaborate dishes—just bowls of noodles paired with meat and some baked flatbreads. The school meal tickets were accepted there, and while it was slightly more expensive than the school cafeteria, the taste was better. The place operated only on Saturday and Sunday afternoons to evenings.
The two of them linked arms as they entered the Small Eatery, where they enjoyed two bowls of shredded pork noodles for a total of one dollar twenty cents. As they were leaving, Hu Ruoyun noticed some buns in the owner’s steamer and asked, “Uncle, how much are your buns?”
The owner smiled broadly, “These are filled with white radish and pork. Normally, it’s five for a dollar, but since there are only these six left and they’re still warm, I’ll give them all to you for a dollar.”
Shui Wang looked puzzled. “You’re not full after one bowl of noodles? I’m stuffed!”
Hu Ruoyun handed the owner a dollar. “Pack them up for me.”
He turned to Shui Wang and said, “Take them with you; you can eat them later if you get hungry.”
Around eight o'clock that evening, Wang Bingbing hummed a tune as she headed back to the dormitory. Not long after, Liu Shuiwang pulled out a copy of "Heavenly Dragon Eight Parts" from his desk and told Hu Ruoyun, “I’m going to lie down in the dorm and read.” He then left as well.
Only Hu Ruoyun and Tong Caiying remained in the classroom.
Hu Ruoyun took out four of the buns and walked over to Tong Caiying. “Here, I bought too many; I really can’t finish them.”
Tong Caiying looked up, her delicate face showing signs of malnutrition. Without waiting for her to respond, Hu Ruoyun placed the four buns down and took the other two back to the dormitory.
He recalled the scene from "Ordinary World" where Sun Shaoping was taken by Sister Runye to Tian Xiaoxia's home for dinner, as well as Zhang Yonglin's first experience eating steamed buns at Corydalis's house in "Greening Tree."
His act of avoidance at that moment was a sign of respect for this female classmate.
What he didn’t know was that after he left the classroom, Tong Caiying sat at her desk, eating the buns with large tears falling onto her textbook.
On this early winter evening, after being hungry for most of the day, a boy had given her four buns under the pretense of having bought too many—along with an endless warmth.
Back in the dormitory, Hu Ruoyun tossed the remaining two buns to Shui Wang on the upper bunk. “Here you go; I took four for myself and saved two for you.”
Liu Shuiwang caught them and bit into one while chewing. “Dude, you’re such a glutton!”
The next morning, Liu Shuiwang slept in late in the dormitory but reminded Hu Ruoyun to save him two buns.
After thinking it over, Hu Ruoyun bought four buns to take to class. Sure enough, Tong Caiying was already there studying. When she saw Hu Ruoyun enter, she shyly smiled at him with gratitude.
Hu Ruoyun placed two buns in Shui Wang’s desk drawer and handed the other two to Tong Caiying. “Here, these are for you.”
Tong Caiying graciously accepted them and even took a bite right in front of him.
Once she finished her bun, Tong Caiying sat across from Hu Ruoyun. “Do you want to hear my story? It might give you some material for your writing!”
Tong Caiying had been picked up by her parents!
She heard her mother say that in that year, when she was not yet a month old, someone had wrapped her in a small blanket and left her on the grinding stone at the edge of the village. Her father, who went out to collect manure in the morning, found her and brought her home.
Her grandmother was still alive at that time and said that the family already had two grandsons (her younger brother had not been born yet). Life was tight at home, and they wondered why they should take in another girl from who knows where.
Looking at the little girl crying hungrily in front of them, her parents thought that since they had brought her back, they couldn’t just send her away while she was still starving. The couple hurriedly prepared a bowl of noodle soup and added a spoonful of brown sugar, feeding her bite by bite. To their surprise, after being fed, the child began to suck on her fingers and smiled sweetly at them! That one sweet smile made it impossible for her parents to part with her.
...
Later, the family welcomed a little brother, making life even more strained. The eldest brother spent all the family's savings on his wedding, after which he and his wife moved out to live on their own. The second brother was attending university in the provincial capital, and the autumn harvest barely covered his tuition for a year; his parents had to scrape together living expenses from various sources.
Her parents treated her well, but the burden on the family was too heavy. The fact that she could attend high school already added significant economic pressure on them. She worked hard to study and scrimped on her ration tickets and vegetable money.
In these past few days, she had less than a pound of grain tickets left and didn’t know when her family would send more food. So...
Tong Caiying said this with a smile, but Hu Ruoyun could clearly see tears glistening in her eyes.
Hu Ruoyun opened her desk drawer and took out 20 pounds of grain tickets along with a Great Unity card, handing them to Tong Caiying. “Consider this a loan; you can pay me back whenever you have it!”
Tong Caiying accepted it with a bright smile on her face. “Thank you!”
Then she added, “Do you know why I usually keep to myself? I just don’t want others to pity me! But with you, I feel like I don’t have to worry about that.”
Hu Ruoyun pondered for a moment. “Do you believe I’ve been through something similar? So I can understand!”
Tong Caiying listened without nodding or shaking her head.
This scene resembled that of Sun Shaoping and Hao Hongmei during their high school days in "Ordinary World," didn’t it?
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