Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 684 Chapter 683 Lotus Blossom

"Teacher Tang, you have to keep it a secret for us! If it gets out, it won't matter if I'm embarrassed, but Lu Yan won't be able to face anyone." Luo Zhiping was still responsible. He threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stomped it out, and begged.

"I will definitely not say anything nonsense." Tang Zhitong nodded in agreement. He could only promise not to say anything. As for whether others would spread the news, that was beyond his control.

"Thank you, Teacher Tang. Let's go to class." Luo Zhiping bowed to Tang Zhitong and glanced at the time.

Tang Zhitong was naturally happy to do so. If he had not habitually given up the cigarette to Luo Zhiping, he would have been listening to the class at this moment.

After slipping into the classroom, Tang Zhitong did two things at once. First, he roughly read through the textbook course, and then began to make up his homework frantically.

This week was a bit busy and he had fallen behind on his homework, so he didn't plan to go back to the escort office today, but instead planned to catch up on his homework at school.

After class at noon, Luo Zhiping took Lu Yan's enamel rice bowl to the cafeteria to get food as usual. Tang Zhitong sighed. With his behavior, he still begged him to keep it a secret for them?
Tang Zhitong was not the only one who could see that Luo Zhiping and Lu Yan had something in common, but the other classmates just didn't mention it in front of them.

Tang Zhitong shook his head. Everyone has their own opportunities. He hoped that they would not do anything that would catch people off guard.

Back in the dormitory, Tang Zhitong took out his lunch from the closet.

The lunch box contained shepherd's purse mixed by Tang Zhitong himself, and the steamed corn bread could only be wrapped in newspaper. For fear that it would get stuck to the paper scraps, he specially took out cold steamed corn bread.

While his roommate was still not back, Tang Zhitong took out the steamed bread and put it in his enamel rice bowl, then found his own enamel bowl and poured a cup of boiling water.

"What the hell is going on? The cafeteria is just a mess." Several grown men lived together, and more than half of them smoked, so the air in the dormitory was inevitably polluted. Tang Zhitong opened the doors and windows for ventilation as soon as he came back. Just after he finished his work, he heard other classmates passing by his dormitory door complaining.

"That can't be helped. We can't go out to buy food."

"Even if I can go, I may not be able to buy it. Let's just make do with this for now. It's not like I'm going to eat this every day."

The sound gradually faded away. When his roommate came back, Tang Zhitong realized what the other students were complaining about, because Luo Zhiping also complained after he came back: "Is this for people to eat? Are you trying to fool us college students like this?"

"Okay, talk less. Didn't the cafeteria write it? This is called recalling the bitter past and thinking of the sweet present." Lu Jian, the oldest and knowledgeable about human nature, advised.

"What kind of meal?" Tang Zhitong asked curiously.

"There's some corn pulp mixed into the steamed bread." Lu Jian pushed the rice he had gotten to Tang Zhitong.

"Oh, I thought it was something else. It's edible, but it makes my throat a little sore." Tang Zhitong took a look. Isn't this what he ate in Wuhan? It looks similar.

"Teacher Tang, have you eaten it?" Luo Zhiping asked in confusion. He just came back from home yesterday, and this kind of food was not included in the food supply for the residents of the old city.

"I have. My company sent me on a business trip to Wuhan after the Spring Festival, and I ate this stuff every day there. If you can't get used to it, can we switch?" Tang Zhitong picked up his enamel rice bowl and handed it to Luo Zhiping.

"How can I do that? You have all recalled the bitterness and sweetness, but I am the only one who doesn't participate. It seems that I am ignorant. I will definitely eat this 'lotus berry' today!" Luo Zhiping was dissatisfied with the food, but in fact, he felt more sorry for Lu Yan. How could such a good girl eat such rough grains?
"This is called lotus bud berry? It's a good name." It was the first time that Tang Zhitong heard of this name. Maybe it was also called that in Wuhan. However, most of the time the investigation team ate alone, so it was normal not to have heard of it.

"That's what the chef in the cafeteria calls him. I don't know what it's called, but it sounds quite elegant. I wonder how it tastes." Lu Jian happily put down his rice bowl and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, I mixed some shepherd's purse. Everyone take chopsticks and try it. It will definitely go well with this lotus berry." Tang Zhitong opened the lunch box and placed it in the middle of the table.

Tang Zhitong knew what corn kernels tasted like. Not only did it make your throat sore, it was also hard to swallow. So when they were in Wuhan, the comrades in the investigation team ate pickles in big mouthfuls to stimulate saliva secretion, and at the same time drank soup in big gulps to wash it down.

Life was really hard during those days, so everyone worked hard to catch up with the progress, just to return to the city one day earlier...

Tang Zhitong munched on his steamed bread and paid attention to the expressions of his roommates.

Gu Mancang and Lu Shi were the most natural. Although they swallowed a little slowly, their expressions did not fluctuate too much.

It was different for the trainees, as they had all been working for many years and had eaten the food they were supplied with. They might have eaten this kind of food many years ago, but when they ate it now, they still frowned unconsciously.

"You've got to say it, Teacher Tang's cooking skills are as stable as ever. The shepherd's purse is mixed well." Fang Qingliang couldn't stand the roughness of the lotus berries, so he was the first to pick up his chopsticks.

"Everyone, try it, don't just stand there and watch." Tang Zhitong said to the other students.

"This is not a good thing. I saw some in the open space of our college. We can pick some during the break and I'll mix it for everyone." Tang Zhitong didn't say that he would bring some from home. There are not many of these things in the urban area. If you want to dig some wild vegetables, you have to run at least five or six miles.

"It's a deal then. I'll go dig them this afternoon." Luo Zhiping obviously could not enjoy the blessings brought by the lotus berries, so he was the first to jump out and express his opinion.

"No problem, I'll prepare the sauce when I go back today and bring it over tomorrow. Pick the tender shepherd's purse, wash it in the dormitory, and blanch it in boiling water before mixing it." Tang Zhitong nodded in response. Soy sauce is currently limited in quantity but not in number of times, so it is reasonable for him to bring it from home.

After deciding on the extra dishes for tomorrow's lunch, students in Dormitory 219 discussed the recipe of lotus berries, and expressed their "admiration" for the ingenuity of the creator.

Tang Zhitong had never seen how this thing was made, but after eating it for so long in Wuhan, he could probably taste it.

The corn cobs are ground into powder, which is then mixed with flour and fermented to make rice.

This is roughly the process, but each family adds different things to it. When I was exchanging meals with grassroots workers at the Yangtze River Bridge, some of them added sweet potato flour and sorghum flour into this kind of rice.

I ate today's meal a little slower than usual.

After the meal, everyone took a nap as usual under the leadership of Lu Jian and Dou Yongchang.

Although there is no alarm clock, my biological clock is very punctual.

The 59th grade Cable Department had no classes this afternoon. Tang Zhitong planned to go to the classroom to catch up on his homework, while other roommates discussed picking the shepherd's purse first and then going to the classroom.

Tang Zhitong did not participate, and everyone understood his situation. Not everyone can abide by the rules so strictly after experiencing a highlight moment.

Downstairs, a group of people gathered in front of the notice board. "That's great. We still have a lot of hard times ahead of us."

"My goodness, this is enough for a week?"

"Could it be that the canteen took advantage of our rations? Why do we take so long? Just give it as a token of your appreciation."

"You should be content. Our canteen is very clean. When I went home during the winter vacation, I heard that some units in our area had a meal called "Recalling the Bitterness and Thinking of the Sweetness".

That food, what a mess, someone deliberately mixed sand, grass roots, and tree bark into it, it doesn’t taste good to begin with, but they force people to eat it, and if you don’t eat it, you’ll be punished with something else.”

"Aren't you afraid of damaging your teeth?"

"It hurts your teeth. If you break them, your fortune will be in trouble."

"Is there no objection to this?" The man from a wealthy family couldn't understand this kind of thing and asked.

"How can I not object? An old man was eating a bitter memory meal and talking about his early years. He said that when he worked for the landlord, he ate better than this."

"It's good enough to have something to eat. We have nothing to eat. Many elderly people didn't make it through the New Year." A student who came from a severely affected area murmured nearby. How much he wanted his family to have bitter memory rice to eat. At least there is some food in the bitter memory rice, and as long as there is food, people can survive.

They are all young and promising college students with their own conscience and values. After hearing what this classmate said, the other complaints stopped.

Tang Zhitong stopped to listen for a while, glanced at the posted notice, and heard someone next to him ask him: "Student Tang, what do you think about this?"

Since giving the report, Tang Zhitong has become well-known in the school. Many classmates would smile, nod and say hello to him when they see him.

When people asked with a smile, Tang Zhitong replied with a smile: "I have heard from old comrades who came back from the battlefield in the northeast that the conditions there were very difficult. They often ate fried noodles and snow. When supplies were insufficient, they ate potatoes, which were frozen hard and could not be washed. They put them under their armpits to warm them up and thawed, then ate a layer, and then continued to thaw.

Not only were the conditions difficult, but the enemy's planes and artillery were constantly bombing the positions.

Compared to them, I think our lotus berries are still pretty good, at least they’re warm, right? "

Happiness is achieved through comparison. Fan De Biao once said: Happiness is when I am hungry and see someone else holding a meat bun, then he is happier than me; when I am cold and see someone else wearing a thick cotton-padded jacket, he is happier than me; when I want to go to the toilet and there is only one pit and you squat there, then you are happier than me.

Tang Zhitong knows his limits. Some things can only be kept in the heart and cannot be spoken out loud.

You can criticize what is done poorly, but you cannot say that it is worse now than before. Can't there be some temporary difficulties in development?

After saying that, Tang Zhitong nodded to several classmates and went straight to the classroom. It was actually useless to discuss such things because individuals could not change the school's decision. It would be more practical to go back and do some homework and study.

While Tang Zhitong was doing his homework, the other boys in dormitory 219 were not doing well in digging shepherd's purse.

The Post and Telecommunications College has opened up several plots of land, but no crops have been planted on them yet. There are wild vegetables in the fields, but there are too many people digging them up.

The students in the school do not have the conditions to cook, so they don’t dig this; the school’s chefs know that it tastes good, but they will at most dig some for themselves and will not take the effort to dig it for the whole student body as they do not have that much manpower and time; it is mainly the family members of the school’s teachers who dig it, and they will dig some back to eat themselves.

Shepherd's purse is different from leeks. After you cut the leeks and water them with some golden juice, they will grow again after a while.

After digging up shepherd's purse, you have to wait for the next seed to sprout and emerge.

The brothers spread out and looked for what was left in the fields. It took them an hour or so to collect a handful each.

"Let's go? There aren't many left. Next time we'll go look for it in the fields outside." Luo Zhiping bent over for a long time and felt a sore back. He stood up and patted his back with his hands.

"It's likely that it's everywhere outside. It's possible that the members of the commune also eat this." Lu Jian shook his head and was not optimistic about Luo Zhiping's suggestion.

Lu Jian and Luo Zhiping gathered the shepherd's purse from their roommates' hands, each picked up two handfuls, and went back to the dormitory to put them down, while the others went to the study room.

Since the start of the winter vacation, there are obviously fewer people on the school playground. Students try to stay in the dormitory or classroom to study as much as possible to reduce the amount of exercise and save energy.

Zhou Zheng came back from dinner and saw them. He called out, "Xiao Luo, if you see Tang Zhitong tomorrow, ask him to come to my office to see me."

"Okay, Teacher Zhou. Is it okay today? He didn't go back to the unit today and is doing his homework in the classroom." Luo Zhiping agreed readily.

"Really? Then I'll go to the classroom." Zhou Zheng glanced at the shepherd's purse in the two people's hands and didn't say much. If his students have the ability to improve their food, he should still support them.

Tang Zhitong was a little confused when Zhou Zheng called him out. After Zhou Zheng led him to a less crowded place nearby, he asked, "Teacher Zhou, do you have any instructions?"

"The report you gave last time was very successful. Many students have told the college that they hope to add two more sessions. Is your time convenient?" Tang Zhitong is not an ordinary student. Now Zhou Zheng treats him more and more like a colleague. There is only discussion in his words, no orders.

"Teacher Zhou, it's up to you to decide. Tell me the time in advance and I'll make time. As long as you ask, there's no problem on my side." Tang Zhitong didn't expect it was about a report. Come to think of it, Xiao Wang had given several reports on the song "One Cent", but he had only given two, which was a bit embarrassing.

"Well. Other universities nearby also want to invite you to give reports. What do you think..." Zhou Zheng did not say that this was a greeting from the school leaders. He did not want to put too much pressure on his students.

"Then go, but please, Mr. Zhou, help me control the number of people. Don't have too many of them. I still have homework to finish and I'm exhausted." Just when he was about to lose face, he didn't expect the job to come to him. Since Zhou Zheng had spoken, Tang Zhitong readily agreed.

Tang Zhitong had heard about how this matter spread outside the school. During his last report at school, he was in a relaxed mood and did not make the report serious or rigid, which was widely praised by students.

There weren’t many entertainment programs at the time, and the news spread from one classmate to ten, and then to a hundred, and the matter gradually fermented.

As mentioned in the previous article, due to the higher proportion of female students in the Post and Telecommunications College, students from other colleges and universities came to form an alumni association. Someone happened to listen and spread the word, and the image of a role model for college students in the new era was established.

"Okay, I'll choose a nearby university for you, so it's convenient to go there." Zhou Zheng smiled at Tang Zhitong's understanding and told him another good news: "Didn't I tell you a while ago that the school was going to set up a scientific research class? Now the school has approved it, the class number is 603, and you are one of them."

(End of this chapter)