Chapter 1320
: Not much left.
Spinach cost 50 cents a pound in winter, which was definitely not cheap in those days; in fact, it was quite expensive. After all, domestic pork only cost 80 cents a pound at that time, and a regular worker's daily wage was only 1.2 or 1.3 yuan.
It's important to know that plastic greenhouses were very rare back then, and in Northeast China and even the entire northern region, fresh green vegetables were nowhere to be seen in winter.
Moreover, as Feng Chengmin said, growing vegetables in this freezing cold is extremely difficult, and the cost of growing vegetables is frighteningly high.
Therefore, Wang Anding's price is actually not high at all.
Feng Chengmin treasured these 20-plus kilograms of spinach. He not only put them in three layers of burlap sacks, but also borrowed a tattered quilt from Wang An's house to wrap the sacks.
There's no way around it; the outdoor temperature is around -27 or -28 degrees Celsius right now. Fresh spinach will freeze solid in just a few minutes if left outdoors.
Vegetables frozen solid and then thawed before eating are... well, let's just say they taste awful. You can't even describe the flavor; they're just absolutely terrible.
And so, Feng Chengmin tied the cotton quilt containing the spinach with a rope, carried it on his back, and rode his horse home.
Wang An went back inside and comforted the two little ones, Xingfu and Kuaile, for a while until they fell asleep. Only then did Wang An go to his parents' house to chat with Wang Yi for a bit.
The day after Wang An and the others returned from Yi Province, Wang Yi, Wang Xiaomei, and Wang Xiaoli, the three siblings, started their winter vacation.
However, Wang An has been leaving early and returning late every day these days, so he hasn't had time to talk to the three of them. He mainly wanted to chat with Wang Yi.
The two younger sisters were only in the preschool class and went home every day, so Wang An didn't have much to talk about with them.
Wang Yi, however, is different. His younger brother has always had excellent grades since he started school. If possible, Wang An hopes that his younger brother can continue his studies and, ideally, receive an admission letter from Tsinghua or Peking University.
Of course, even if he can't get into Tsinghua or Peking University, he has to get into Harbin Institute of Technology or something. In Wang An's previous life, Wang Yi failed to get into university for some reason. In this life, Wang An doesn't want him to follow the same path.
When Wang An entered Wang Yi's room, Wang Yi was playing with his two little sisters. Upon seeing Wang An enter, Wang Yi took the initiative to speak:
"Big brother, are you done with your business?"
Wang An casually sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and laughed:
"Yeah, I'm all done with work for now. How's school going? What were your final exam scores?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Yi casually replied:
"Chinese 95, Algebra 99, English 90, Geography 94, History 96."
In this era, all subjects are still scored out of 100, including the college entrance examination. However, English is scored out of 50, while English-related majors are scored out of 100.
After Wang Yi finished speaking, Wang An frowned and said:
"Your English isn't very good either, how come you only got 90 points?"
Wang Yi was taken aback upon hearing this, and subconsciously replied:
"I don't know either, I've just never been able to get English right."
What Wang Yi really wanted to say was: 90 points is still a high score, isn't it? It's still better than when you were in school, right?
However, Wang Yi was still somewhat afraid of this older brother, so he didn't dare to say anything.
Wang An nodded, rubbing his teeth, and said with narrowed eyes:
"When we go to Harbin sometime, I'll see if I can buy you some English study guides or something. By the way, do you think the Xinhua Bookstore has any books you might need?"
Wang Yi shook his head and said:
"No, by the way, one of my classmates transferred from Harbin. He had an English workbook, and I copied all the questions down."
To be honest, although the college entrance examination was reinstated in 78, the availability of supplementary teaching materials was indeed lagging behind. The knowledge in the textbooks and the questions set by teachers were simply insufficient. Wang An nodded, keeping this in mind, and then asked Wang Yi:
"Does anyone bully you at school?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Yi's eyes flickered slightly, but he still said:
"No, no one is blaming me."
Wang Anke knew his younger brother all too well. Just by looking at his shifty eyes, he knew that he probably hadn't been bullied much, but he must have been bullied or suffered some humiliation.
So Wang An said with a smile:
"It's alright. This is just a small place like DJ County. I can handle it. Tell me, did your teacher give you a hard time, or did your classmate bully you?"
Wang Yi said subconsciously:
"neither"
At this point, Wang Yi suddenly realized something, and then, forcing a firm expression, said:
"Nobody's messing with me. My teachers are all nice, and my classmates get along well too."
Although Wang Yi's personality wasn't as strong as Wang An's, they were very similar. He didn't want to tell his family if he was bullied, always feeling that he had to rely on himself for his own affairs, as if it would be particularly shameful to talk about it.
Wang An chuckled and suddenly changed the subject:
How much money do you have left in your pocket?
Wang Yi exclaimed "Ah!" and said, his face flushed red:
"No, there aren't many left."
Wang An frowned and said sternly:
"How much is left?"
Wang Yi gets a day and a half or two days off every week, and Wang An, worried that he might forget, instructed Mu Xueqing to give Wang Yi 10 yuan every Sunday when he returns to school.
In those days, in a county town, 10 yuan a week for pocket money was an extremely high standard for a junior high school student.
Wang An was extremely familiar with the food in the county middle school cafeteria. It was bad enough that they ate those cornbreads that could kill someone every meal, but the worst part was that they were never full.
There's no way around it; the saying "a half-grown boy can eat his father to death" isn't just a random saying.
Therefore, Wang An's purpose in having Mu Xueqing give money to Wang Yi was to prevent Wang Yi from having too much hesitation when buying school supplies and snacks because he didn't have enough money.
However, 10 yuan a week is definitely not enough to spend all of it under normal circumstances. Given Wang Yi's personality, he should be able to save at least 5 yuan. And over a semester, he should be able to save at least 100 yuan. But now Wang Yi is saying that he doesn't have much left.
Wang An's face fell, and Wang Yi knew he couldn't hide it anymore, so he stammered and said:
"There's still more than 30 yuan left."
Upon hearing this, Wang An's face immediately darkened, startling Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli so much that they stopped playing their games and just stared blankly at Wang An, who was about to explode in anger.
Wang An noticed the two little girls' expressions, and, suppressing his anger, said to Wang Yi in a low voice:
"What exactly happened?"
Wang Yi said hesitantly:
"There's a guy named Bao Zhijun near our school, and some of the ninth graders hang out with him." (End of Chapter)