In my second year of junior high school, I transferred from a rural middle school to a town middle school. There is a three-story teaching building in the school, with dormitories behind it. It is backed by a hill, on the top of which there is a water tower and a TV broadcast tower in the town. On the other side of the hill, there are some scattered residents. A distant uncle of mine lived at the foot of the mountain at that time. He worked in a machinery factory and was a single man, but at least he had a dormitory. In order to avoid the pain of traveling, I stayed with this uncle at that time.
The conditions we live in are not good. It is a dilapidated house filled with miscellaneous things. There is air leakage in the corners, and the squeaking of mice can be heard from time to time at night. My brother-in-law has been living independently since he was very young. He has a strong ability to adapt to the environment. He is not demanding about life and can often adapt to circumstances. In order to heat hot water for washing his feet, he found two saw blades, tied a porcelain clip to each end, connected the live and neutral wires, and made a simple heater . He threw the thing into a bucket and turned on the electricity. Bubbles soon began to bubble in the bucket. Although I think it is a bit dangerous and a bit novel, in the end this method is quite practical and solves our problem of using hot water in winter.
Our lives seem to be harmonious, but in fact they are not. I am a man of few words, not good at communication, I am self-respecting and sensitive, and I seem to have an inferiority complex due to being dependent on others. As for my brother-in-law, he is carefree and has a bit of a hot temper. He is a calculating and calculating person. My arrival caused him some trouble, but because of my parents' feelings, he could not object. But I know that this kind of life is not a long-term solution. I should still go back to school, be a resident student, and live a collective life.
My parents fulfilled my wish, and I moved to the school dormitory in the second semester of my second year of junior high school. It was said to be a dormitory, but in fact it was temporarily converted from a large auditorium. The conditions in the school are limited, and there are many students living there, so thirty or forty people gather in such a large dormitory. The whole room was filled with uniform iron frame beds, divided into upper and lower bunks. In summer, the house is hot and humid, mosquitoes and flies are scurrying around, and the smell of urine and sweat permeates the room, which is disgusting. In winter, the north wind comes through the cracks in the windows covered with plastic paper, and the chill is so intense that the sheets can hardly withstand the cold.
In such a large mixed dormitory, there are many people and many things, so losing things has become a common occurrence. There were even quarrels and fights among students, which made the teachers very distressed and disturbed. Some students collude with young people in society, study late at night, and often cause trouble in school. Incidents of beating fat occur from time to time. There was a classmate named Si Mao in the class at that time. He was tall, tall, and powerful. His brother was a well-known second-rate boy. Si Mao bullied classmates in other classes. People knew his true nature and had to swallow their anger and not dare to provoke him. After the dormitory building of
school was completed, we moved to the new dormitory. The new dormitory had many single rooms, and five or six students lived in one dormitory. The conditions were much better than before. Although the atmosphere outside is not good, the atmosphere of learning in the class is still strong. Most of the students come from rural areas. They have been instilled with the ideal of reading since they were young. They understand that knowledge can change their destiny. Only by reading can they get out of this poor ravine. "In books, there is beauty like jade, and in books there is a house of gold."
We have evening self-study in school, and sometimes there is a power outage, so everyone lights candles and reads at night. After self-study in the evening, all the day students went home, while the residential students consciously stayed in the classroom to continue studying. Everyone is holding back their energy. We believe that every effort is rewarded, and we must catch up in our studies. There are couplets posted on the wall of the classroom, "It is the time for men to study when the lamp is on the clock and the chicken is on the clock," and "There is a road to the mountain of books, and hard work is the path to the mountain of books, and there is no limit to the sea of learning, and the boat is a boat ." These all convey a kind of inspirational power to everyone.
I go home once a week, carrying a bag of rice or a few bottles of pickles from home. Meal stamps in the school cafeteria are exchanged for rice, while vegetable stamps are bought with separate money. The rice in the cafeteria was first steamed in a steamer, and later in a tin box. The master chef shoveled it down to half a catty or four taels, and he was very precise.What we ate the most was the fried pumpkin which cost 5 cents a portion. The bright red soup stained the bowl and tasted quite sweet. There are also meat dishes that cost two cents or three cents, but I have to eat them carefully. At this time, the pickled garlic heads, pickled sauerkraut or a little dried fish and bacon brought by my family become rare delicacies.
The living conditions for boarding students are very difficult, but with so many classmates together, everyone enjoys their hardships, and they feel that life is full of fun.
We were a little tired of the school's steamed buns. We thought they were dry, hard and difficult to swallow. One day, Pingguo, nicknamed Xihou, told us that there was a steamed bun shop next to the Agricultural Bank of China. The steamed buns made by the boss were so delicious that the fat in the steamed buns oozed out when you tasted them. After listening to Xihou's vivid description, we seemed to have smelled the fragrance of the buns, and our mouths were about to flow. Seeing it is better than hearing it. Everyone was eager to try it, saying that they must make an appointment to go to that steamed stuffed bun shop to have a meat-free meal the next day.
The next day was a foggy day. When I was doing my morning self-study at around seven o'clock, the fog still hadn't dissipated, and there weren't many pedestrians in the town. Six or seven of us surrounded the bun shop. Looking at the steaming buns in the steamer, Jianjun and Chunfa picked up the buns and stuffed them into their mouths without waiting for the boss to take action. "Well, it's delicious, so delicious!" They exclaimed as they ate. Others seemed to get the hint and followed suit.
The middle-aged boss had obviously never seen so many people gathered around him at once. He couldn't resist, so he had to say, "Take your time, don't grab! Don't grab!" He was dazed for a moment and didn't know how many buns these students had eaten. "Two of you, three of you, four of you!" the boss repeated according to the students' reports, thus counting the number of buns sold.
Not to mention, the taste of these steamed buns is really good. Whether it is meat buns or vegetable buns, they are both greasy and delicious, with a lingering fragrance on the teeth and cheeks. They are not comparable to the yellow-skinned steamed buns in the school cafeteria. Several people were in a hurry, but within a few minutes, everyone devoured all the buns in their hands. Some people were picking their teeth and wiping the fat from the corners of their mouths, looking like they were still unfinished.
"Hey, I had a great time eating today!" Jianjun said with emotion on the way back.
"Yes, yes? I ate four steamed buns today, and the boss asked me how many. I said three, and the boss had no doubts!" Chunfa said proudly.
"That's right, the boss didn't even count! I just paid less for two buns!" Jianjun laughed.
"You are really capable, but you are so dishonest! We paid real money!" Laixi said in an envious tone. Compared with those two people, he seemed to have suffered a big loss.
"This is simple, then you will have to report two less tomorrow!" Xihou reminded Laixi.
"I always feel that I can't do this!" Laixi muttered, "Besides, my boss is not a fool, how can he let others take advantage of him every time!"
"Who can't tell him how to count!" Jianjun looked at ease.
A few days later, when we went to that steamed bun restaurant again to eat steamed buns, this time the boss didn’t let us get our own steamed buns. Instead, he distributed steamed buns to each of us while collecting money. Jianjun and Chunfa wanted to take advantage again, but they couldn’t succeed!
Thinking about it now, although life on campus is wonderful, there are also some risks. The first serious illness I suffered from was acute jaundice and hepatitis when I was living on campus in the second year of junior high school. It was such a horrific experience that I still remember it deeply.
Because I thought the food in the school cafeteria was bad, one day my roommate Shuhua said, "The food in the hospital cafeteria is good, there are few people eating, and there is no need to queue up. The food is affordable and tastes good! Moreover, their rice is steamed with wooden bamboo rafts." It’s not like the tin boxes used in the school cafeteria, it has a natural and mellow aroma!”
Shuhua said this, Dabing and I were moved. The next day we went to the hospital cafeteria to buy meal tickets and vegetable tickets, and started eating together there.The hospital cafeteria is not too far from the school. Although we have to walk a little longer every day, considering that we can eat more delicious meals, we don't hesitate. Dabing's academic performance is very good. He is a good student in the eyes of the teacher. He is also the object of our envy and a role model to learn from. We have similar interests, and we go to the cafeteria together every day to get food, and then go back to the dormitory together and go to the classroom for classes.
Go past the old street, cross a long embankment with lakes and ponds on both sides, and soon arrive at the hospital cafeteria shaded by pines, cypresses and green bamboos. The mountains in the distance, the water nearby, and the rows of willows give people an impression of beautiful scenery. Sometimes we would hold lunch boxes and chase each other, laughing and playing. It was such an innocent time.
One day Shuhua said to me, "Hey, why are your eyes yellow? Do you have some disease?"
"Really? No wonder I feel lack of energy these days, my appetite is bad, and I hate oil!" I suddenly became nervous.
"You can't go wrong by going to the doctor!" Ding Bing also said.
The results from the hospital came out quickly. I was suffering from acute jaundice hepatitis, a serious infectious disease. I quickly took sick leave and was hospitalized for treatment, and my mother also put down her farm work and came to the hospital to take care of me. The attack of this disease is still a bit dangerous. My limbs are weak, my face is yellow, and alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase have reached their peak levels. I had to put in several intravenous drips every day, and the doctor also prescribed me some pills.
During my hospitalization, I was in a bad mood. On the one hand, I was worried that I would fall behind in my homework, and on the other hand, I was worried about the sequelae and spending too much money at home. Because some people say that this is a disease of wealth. Even if it is cured, it is difficult to eradicate it. Lying on the hospital bed, my mind was filled with all these miscellaneous desires. I even complained a little, thinking that I always pay attention to hygiene, so why did I get infected by the strange virus ?
Many things in the world are so strange. If you are not sick, you will not pay attention to it; the more you pay attention to it, the more you will understand a lot of knowledge that you did not know in the past. This is probably the saying that a long-term illness can lead to a cure! I even know that there is a vaccine for this disease. If you get the vaccine in advance and produce antibodies, the virus will stay away from you. But no one told me this, so there was no way to take precautions.
In order to make the disease heal faster, the doctor also prescribed some traditional Chinese medicine for me. The medicine tasted really bitter. It's just that good medicine tastes bitter but is easy to practice. If it can alleviate the condition, we can only follow the doctor's advice. After all, we can't hide diseases and avoid medical treatment. At the same time, the doctor also prescribed me a black syrup, which I continued to drink every day. In this way, I drank more than 10 bottles of syrup, seven or eight sets of traditional Chinese medicine, spent about 20 days in the hospital, and finally was discharged.
The illness came and went like a mountain, and it went away like a thread, which made me experience a roller coaster feeling. Later, I unexpectedly learned from Shuhua that Da Bing had suffered from this disease before and had been secretly taking medicine. No need to ask, this time I was infected by him. But what can be done? Viruses and plagues are impossible to prevent in this world, and we can only face them bravely.
Three years of junior high school passed by in a flash. After I was admitted to high school, I entered the county town to study and started a new study life. However, the accommodation experience in the town middle school during those two years was something I will never forget.
