Chapter 137

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Who knows if it was because the grave relocation changed the feng shui, but Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen's mud/plaster work projects went better and better; basically every construction site they took on received unanimous praise — on one hand their prices were fair, on the other their skills were excellent and quality was guaranteed.

As more and more people who had gone out to work returned to the countryside to build houses, the prices of rural builders also began to climb steadily; after the millennium it was practically a new price every year.

Previously a big worker cost thirty yuan a day, later it rose to fifty, eighty, even a hundred.

Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen benefited considerably from this; they were no longer destitute, and they began to be able to save some money.

However, because they had been scared poor before, the couple were extraordinarily careful and cautious when it came to spending money.

Even when Wang Xiaohua wanted to buy a radio earlier, they were unwilling to shell out that hundred-odd yuan.

Saving money was one aspect; on the other hand, deep down they believed a radio would not help Wang Xiaohua's studies much at all, and might even have the opposite effect.

Conservative, stubborn thinking made them subconsciously fear and resist new things.

Time flew and another year passed; it was already 2003.

This year Wang Dashan started junior high school.

Because Shanggou Village was more than ten kilometers from the town middle school and transportation was inconvenient, making a daily round trip was impossible, so Wang Dashan, like the other Shanggou Village junior high students, had to board at the school.

On the day of enrollment registration, Li Xiulan accompanied Wang Dashan to the school.

Only to see the school packed with people, extremely lively.

New students not only had to complete enrollment check-in, but also had to go to the cafeteria to hand in rice or pay money, collect meal tickets, then buy daily necessities, claim a bunk in the dormitory, and so on.

A long queue lined up at the cafeteria entrance, all there to pay for board.

At that time this town middle school still allowed paying board directly with rice, so many rural people came to hand in rice; Li Xiulan was no exception — she carried over thirty-plus jin of rice.

After much difficulty it was her turn; the rice was weighed, the manager recorded the weight, issued meal tickets, and only then did Li Xiulan come out of the cafeteria holding the meal tickets.

She handed the meal tickets to Wang Dashan and patiently admonished:

"At school don't you go causing trouble for me; if you don't study well, then just eat more rice — we did pay the rice, so you can't not eat!"

Wang Dashan pouted:

"Mom, I heard the school cafeteria food is terribly unpalatable!"

Li Xiulan immediately glared at him:

"It's just a bit less oil — how is that unpalatable? You never lived through the era of having no rice to eat, yet you know how to be picky!"

Wang Dashan thought to himself, it's not you eating, it's me eating, so of course you can make sarcastic remarks.

But he didn't dare talk back to his mom directly; otherwise she'd pick up a bamboo strip and whip him, and then he'd really have a bad time.

"Got it, Mom, I'll eat properly. By the way, Mom, how much pocket money do you plan to give me each week?"

Pocket money was what Wang Dashan cared about most.

He hoped to get a bit more pocket money, so he wouldn't have to eat that unpalatable cafeteria food every day; he could go to the school's only small shop for "extra meals."

Li Xiulan said:

"From now on I'll give you five yuan pocket money each week."

Wang Dashan immediately looked displeased:

"Ah, that little?"

Li Xiulan rebuked:

"Don't you complain it's little; as long as you don't randomly spend money outside school, one yuan a day is plenty for you!"

Wang Dashan countered:

"Then what about the round-trip bus fare? I come back once every Monday, the bus fare alone costs two yuan; you want me to stretch three yuan over five days — how is that enough?"

Li Xiulan thought for a moment and felt Wang Dashan's words were also reasonable.

She wasn't an unreasonable mother, so she changed her tune and said:

"Then I'll give you seven yuan a week; that should be fine, right?"

Wang Dashan couldn't say anything more.

Because he knew seven yuan a week was already the most pocket money he could fight for.

In a blink school started.

Wang Dashan roomed in one dormitory with twenty-odd male classmates.

The dormitory was only thirty-odd square meters, yet held over ten double-decker wooden bunk beds.

Twenty-odd people in one dormitory, and no toilet either — to use the toilet you had to go downstairs to the first floor.

How bad the environment was goes without saying.

The most fatal thing was the school's management style — not humane in the slightest.

At night when the sleep bell rang and the lights went out, teachers came on patrol; not only was talking in the dormitory forbidden, but going downstairs to pee or shit was also forbidden — everything had to be done before lights-out.

As for those who needed to shit or pee, that was also not allowed; if you went down, you had to stand in punishment downstairs for over half an hour, and repeated offenses would be reported and criticized.

So the students didn't dare go down to shit or pee.

What if you really couldn't hold it?

Either sneak out to the outside corridor to pee, or bring your own plastic bottle and pee into the plastic bottle.

This caused the entire dormitory building to reek of urine, and occasionally you could even see a few turds in the corridor aisles.

Simply like a pigsty.

Wang Dashan's very first week at school, he truly couldn't stand it; he felt his home was already very poor and dirty, but after boarding he discovered the school dormitory — that simply wasn't a place for humans to live.

Additionally, the cafeteria's rice and dishes weren't fit for human consumption — every day it was either winter melon or pumpkin, either water spinach or lettuce, not a drop of oil to be seen, and occasionally you could even spot a grasshopper or a green caterpillar.

In all his life, Wang Dashan had never collapsed like this.

After barely persisting through the first week, he drove back home after school and told Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen that the school simply wasn't a place for humans to live in, and he didn't want to study there anymore.

Upon hearing this, Li Xiulan flew into a rage:

"Even if you don't want to study, you'll stay put in that school for me — at least get me a junior high graduation certificate, otherwise watch me not clean you up!"

Wang Dashan's face was full of depression:

"Then give me a bit more living expenses — the school's rice and dishes truly aren't something a person can swallow!"

Li Xiulan angrily rebuked:

"Saying so much — turns out you're just disliking how little the living expenses are. Wang Dashan, are you trying to live a young master's life?"

Wang Dashan's face was full of grievance:

"Anyway, I really can't eat down that rice and dishes."

Li Xiulan still wanted to scold Wang Dashan, but at this moment Wang Zhanggen stepped forward to speak up for Wang Dashan:

"Alright, stop scolding him. I've also heard that the school's rice and dishes are very unpalatable — everyone hands in rice that's a mixed mess, and some parents even deliberately hand in old rice, so naturally it can't possibly taste good. Why don't we just give him a bit more living expenses? The child is at the age of growing, look at how thin he's become!"

Li Xiulan looked at Wang Dashan, and only then discovered that Wang Dashan was indeed much thinner than a ping ping person.

He had already started growing taller — now nearly 1.7 meters in height — but weighed at most only seventy or eighty jin.

Actually she also couldn't bear to let her own son suffer too much hardship, so in the end she still softened her heart:

"Fine, fine. Then from now on I'll give you ten yuan living expenses per week — that should be enough, right!"