Poor family mother and son

Chapter 7 The Lunch Disaster
The school is divided into 3 classes.Monte class, classics class and winter class.

The Mongolian class is used to enlighten children, teaching some textbooks such as "Thousand Characters" and "Tongmeng Xun" to achieve the level of literacy and writing, and then teaching classics, such as one or two of the Four Books.The youngest child is also 7 years old.

The classics class is used to train talents for imperial examinations, and most of them are fifteen or sixteen years old when they teach a subset of classics and history.However, children who have reached the age of fifteen or sixteen, as long as their families value them, will send them to schools in the city.After all, the advantages of public schools are far greater than private schools.

The winter class is more interesting. It is intended to be a literacy class for adults in the village in winter. At this time, when the spring planting and autumn harvest are over, they will be idle. They will teach some common words in daily life, accounting, etc., so that even if they go out to do part-time jobs, it will be easier to find a job. If you learn how to calculate accounts, you can't be an accountant, at least you can hope to find a job as a cashier.

Unexpectedly, the villagers felt a headache when they saw the words after trying it a few times in winter.

Besides, winter is not completely idle. Weaving baskets, chopping firewood and hunting are also sources of income during slack farming, and adults do not like to go there.

But I sent the half-old children in the family. The children who are eleven or twelve years old don’t want to take the imperial examination. Not to mention the rations, half of the older children are missing, causing trouble.

After all, "Half a child eats a poor old man".

So the winter class is not only held in winter, but also held all year round like the other two classes, and you can drop out at any time.If you think you have learned enough, you can leave at any time.

This winter class was proposed by Mr. Xie himself. He felt that not everyone has to take the imperial examination to study, but people who are not educated can't do it, so they can learn some other knowledge.

This idea is very advanced.Mr. Xie would rather be tired and keep this class.Moreover, the acceptance by the villagers is very high now, and it has been developed for a long time.

Mengban has two classes in the morning, and now the first get out of class has just ended, Chu Qing can go to prepare lunch in an hour, so he went back to the utility room with the things Mr. Xie gave him.

I dipped some ink with a dip pen I made myself, and tried to write on paper.This paper is not good, it is yellowed and ink is stained.

But the dip pen can't store much ink, it's better than a brush, and the writing won't be too big.But the nib is a bit hung and not smooth.Chu Qing ran to the water tank again, and rubbed on the edge of the tank.This time, writing is smoother.

The paper given by Mr. Xie has already been cut and is suitable for use.Chu Qing began to copy stroke by stroke.

Traditional characters have many strokes, and Chu Qing only copied half of them in an hour.Some words are written on paper after gesticulating with fingers on the table for a long time.

At the stage of being poor and blank, not a single piece of paper can be wasted, and strive not to write typos.

Looking at the sky outside the window, it was almost ten o'clock, so Chu Qing got up and went to the kitchen.

There is no rice cooker, no horse spoon, so everything is inconvenient, and preparations need to be made longer in advance.

Nothing is difficult in the world, make rice at noon.

Pasta takes longer and is not worth the money.Meat, vegetables, and eggs are all available in the kitchen, and they are delivered every morning.

If you want to save eggs by making custard rather than scrambled eggs, then make custard.Meat is available at noon every day.But only a pound of meat.Forty or fifty students in three classes only have one catty of meat, which is to borrow the taste of meat.

But it doesn't matter, I only cook [-]/[-] of today's meat, and make the remaining piece with tomorrow's, so that tomorrow there will be more meat.

Rice is stewed in the pot on the left side of the stove, and the rice is stewed in a big pot, which is easy to get rice.Chu Qing was worried, and found a kitchen towel to cover the edge of the pot lid. "Dae Jang Geum" is not in vain, the kitchen is not a problem for me.

Chu Qing separated the meat and chopped it into fillings.The pot on the right was empty, and it was painted with primer. It was really painted with pork skin, and the bottom of the pot was carefully rubbed on.

Scoop out a tablespoon of oil from the earthen pot, stir-fry the meat stuffing and serve it out for preparation.

Just put chopped green onion and soy sauce in the pot at this point, and then add some water immediately.No starch, it's a pity, let's make do with it.The taste of the prepared sauce is okay, but it is not thick.

The rice on the left pot is almost done, take it out, empty the pot and brush the steamed egg custard.

The bottom of the pot is only shallow, and it falls off as soon as you close it, so there is no waste, but the rice grains don't look stretched.This shows that it is not yet ripe.It doesn't matter, just wait until the custard is steamed and then steam it in the pot for a while.

Steam the egg custard first.Because the lunch included her own and Xiaobao's, Chu Qing tried her best to prepare as much as possible.

The pot on the left is steamed with custard, and the pot on the right is used for cooking.Because oil is more expensive, people cook a lot at this time.

Chu Qing didn't stir-fry the vegetables either, but boiled the vegetables for a while, took them out and rinsed them in cold water, then added various seasonings, and ate them cold.As soon as the pot on the right was freed, Chu Qing put the rice on it to steam.

When the children's noises sounded, Chu Qing had already prepared the meal and was pouring sauce on the egg custard.The fast-legged child ran to the kitchen first because he smelled the fragrance.

"Don't come in! Wash your hands first, and then line up at the door." Chu Qing ordered.

"Why!" The voice sounded familiar, Chu Qing looked up, and saw that it was the child who called "the widow, the cook, the dumb child" in the morning, with an angry expression on his face.

"We're always like this!"

"Running will bring dust into the food. Wash your hands before eating and you won't have diarrhea." Chu Qing replied calmly.

"What's the matter!" the child shouted, "first come, first served, if you are late, you will have no food!" He said it with confidence.

It seems that the lunches of these children were not balanced before. According to the theory of first come, first served, the children in the small class may not have much to eat.

"No," Chu Qing said firmly, "Your monthly food expenses are the same, so the amount of meals will be the same. I will distribute each meal equally."

In the past, because the women in the village took turns to cook, they often gave priority to their children. The older children were taller, taller, stronger, and eloquent, so they could always fight for an extra bite for themselves.

The children can only look forward to the days when their mothers come to cook to be full.After all, people in this era eat two meals a day, except for those who go to work in the fields to eat dry rice, the rest of the people have two meals.

In the past few years of turmoil and conscription year after year, many families are short of labor, and even those who do heavy physical labor basically have no food to eat.So the meal at noon in the school has become a resource for children to compete for.

Eat dry meals in the school.This was requested by Mr. Xie, and the villagers of the three villages also agreed.

Otherwise, the children will be hungry at home, and the adults will feel distressed.Those who can come to the school are the most important children of each family. If you pay for the food, it must be worth the money.It may not be full, but it is better than eating some rice soup at home.

The children who rushed to the kitchen one after another crowded at the door, and they had different reactions when they heard Chu Qing's words.

The little children were very happy, "I can eat enough!" They clapped their hands; most of the older children didn't speak, because they were afraid of Chu Qing's calm and authoritative appearance, and they didn't know Chu Qing, so they didn't say anything for a while, but The children who were fined to copy 50 times shouted:

"Eat more or less according to your ability!"

"Why are those little bastards like us? We have to starve to death if they are exhausted?!"

"It's never been like this before, how often do you change the rules?"

With such a yell, it feels like a camp is about to explode.Clear headache.

Arguing with children, alas, really!
"I'm the cook here, and I'm in charge of the school's lunch. Each person pays 6 catties of rice or noodles plus 30 Wen per month. Do you usually have to explain to those who eat less? It doesn't matter. I will ask Mr. Xie and the village head about this question later. Now, do you want to line up for food first or solve the problem of eating more and eating less?"

The smell of the food is strong, the children who have been studying all morning are hungry, and those who run fast and slow at this meeting have also arrived.The children chattered, no matter how dissatisfied they were, they had to give way to their bellies.

"Dinning!" said the children.

"Wash your hands and line up!" Chu Qing said.Taking advantage of the time when they were washing their hands and queuing up, Chu Qing quickly set up the dishes, one spoonful of rice, one spoonful of vegetables and one spoonful of custard for each person.The rice is served in a bowl, and two dishes are served on a plate.

"Two dishes!" A child exclaimed!
"It's custard!"

"There's meat!"

There were more and more exclamations, and the anger just now disappeared for the time being.Usually, the big pot of rice in the school is one meal and one dish, not for delicious food.After all, women have to rush back to cook for themselves after cooking here, so they don't have time to play tricks!

The children went to eat with rice bowls in one hand and vegetable dishes in the other.The rice is neither soft nor hard, the grains of rice are stretched out, and there is no crust.The crispy rice also softened after steaming in the drawer again.

The dishes are different, especially the egg custard is topped with minced meat, and the cold dishes are more flavorful than the usual boiled dishes, and they are not too soft to bite.The children ate very well.The result is: the older children are not full, and the younger ones are not enough.

Meals without oil and meat are really not very hungry.But the children were no longer hungry.Although the older children thought the food was delicious, they ate less than usual and were not very happy.

But they have no reason to refute what Chu Qing said, they all have the same food expenses, why should they eat more?
The story quickly spread.Mr. Xie found Chu Qing in the utility room during lunch break.

"What do you think of this?" Mr. Xie asked.

"Sir, the kitchen didn't announce the rules. I took over on the first day. I didn't know the previous practice, so I did it according to the principle of average. If there is something wrong, please point me out." Chu Qing said politely.This is a leader, to be respected.

"There's nothing wrong with it," Mr. Xie stared at Chu Qing for a while, and then said slowly, "It's just that it's fair or not for you to say that it's fair to eat more and eat less. I'm afraid it will cause discord among the villagers."

"Yes, sir, I didn't think carefully." Chu Qing admitted his mistake first.Whether the problem is solved well or not is a matter of level, but whether you are aware of the existence of the problem itself is a matter of attitude.

"Sir, the school should be open for a long time. The older children eat more and the younger children can't grab it. It should be a problem left over from history. Usually, the adults didn't bring this up. It's probably for the sake of peace."

"Yes."

"But the problem itself exists, and the grievances have been accumulated for a long time, but if someone finds out about it one day, I'm afraid the trouble will be even bigger."

"Will it be?"

"Yes. The school is located in our village. Because it is nearby, women from our village usually come to cook lunch. Naturally, they will give priority to taking care of their children. What about the children in the next two villages? Especially the younger ones? It has been a long time , The children in this village may not eat much food, I don’t know how the children in the two villages are, and their parents have any ideas.”

"Yes. What do you think?"

"Sir, I'm new here. My wages should be shared by the three villages, right? You can hold a meeting with the village chiefs of the three villages..."

"A, meeting?"

"Well, just get together and discuss whether students should pay food according to their own food intake. The monthly money is fixed, but the food can be paid according to their own food intake. If you want to eat more, you can pay more food. I They can provide a corresponding amount of rice according to the amount of food they hand in. In addition, "

Chu Qing took out a piece of paper from his bosom, on which was the menu that Chu Qing had just finished writing.A menu of ten meals.

"After the holiday, I can publish the menu for the next ten days and post it on the kitchen door. In this way, the students will know what they can eat every day, and they can also copy the menu to the family, so that the parents can also know what they are eating. What and how much your child eats every day, be fair and open, and have no complaints in your heart."

Mr. Xie's result menu: "You wrote this?"

"Yes."

"Not bad. I thought you could read, but I didn't expect you could write. It's not bad." Mr. Xie praised.

"You're too proud," Chu Qing blushed.Hard-tipped pen calligraphy, it has won an award. "I still can't write a lot of characters." Hurry up and be humble.

"This word..." Mr. Xie shook the menu, looked at it carefully, and asked with some doubts:

"You wrote it with those bald brushes? How can you write so small and so clear?"

"This is it." Chu Qing took the homemade dip pen, "I don't know how to write with a brush. I usually use a firewood stick to write on the ground when I recognize characters, so I can't use the brush well, and I can't use the force."

"Well, not bad, very good!"

Not bad, what ah, the problem went wrong ah.

"Sir, do you think this menu is feasible?"

Quickly bring the topic back.

"I'll take the menu. After school in the afternoon, I'll talk to the village chiefs about it. I'll let you know the results."

"Yes."

"You are busy." After finishing speaking, Mr. Xie went back, looking at the menu while walking, muttering something in his mouth.

(End of this chapter)