Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 334 333 Canteen
The next day, Sunday, was the day Teacher Zhou said the class meeting would be held in the afternoon.

Since neither Mr. Wang nor Mr. Wang could convince the other last night, the debate was a bit long, which affected their sleep time. Today, both of them woke up later than usual.

Fortunately, no Fengzhi came to call the door today.

After breakfast, Xiao Wang went into the wing to assemble scraps of leftover materials, while Tang Zhitong stuffed two Wotou in his bag and planned to go to school.

Although Teacher Zhou said that the meeting would not be held until the afternoon, Tang Zhitong thought it would be better to meet him first.

Tang Zhitong felt that the location of the dormitory and the bed might have been arranged intentionally by Teacher Zhou. Of course, it might also be a coincidence. However, Tang Zhitong did not dare to gamble.

Generally speaking, when the university starts, there will be a self-introduction. Some impatient counselors will directly appoint the class committee, and some counselors will appoint them temporarily and organize elections and voting later.

Tang Zhitong could distinguish the primary and secondary conflicts. His base was in the city bureau, and his positioning of the university was a springboard. It was used to increase capital. He could build a good relationship with his classmates, but there was no need to be a class cadre.

I don’t know since when, many people like to compare the “ivory tower” to a university.

Tang Zhitong feels that today's universities are not enough. Today's college students are not focused on studying. They have many other social tasks to complete.

Tang Zhitong did not go back to the dormitory, but went directly to the office to find Teacher Zhou.

"Hello, Teacher Zhou." Tang Zhitong knocked on the door before entering the office, very politely.

After some inquiring, Tang Zhitong successfully found Teacher Zhou. It was almost the same as before, with several teachers huddled in one office.

This series of greetings confused Tang Zhitong, and he waved his hand: "Hello, students, please sit down."

"What's the matter? Sit down and talk." Teacher Zhou pointed to the chair, took off the bottom of the bottle, pinched the bridge of his nose with his hand, and put it back on.

"Okay, tell me when the time comes. Try not to fall behind in the class." Teacher Zhou nodded and agreed happily.

The difference may be that the house is newer, the windows are bigger, the lighting is better, and the desks are all old ones.

"I have a personal situation, so I came here to report to you first." Tang Zhitong maintained a very low profile in front of Teacher Zhou and spoke very respectfully.

There are many activities like this, such as going to factories, going to rural areas, etc. College students have many things to do, and class cadres need to do more...

Before Tang Zhitong could respond, another young man next to him also stood up and said hello to Tang Zhitong: "Hello, Teacher Tang."

When he went to register, Tang Zhitong heard a lot of gossip. The College of Posts and Telecommunications had selected many students for full-time training to participate in the celebrations a month later.

Tang Zhitong hoped that Mr. Zhou would be directly appointed to the class meeting today, and that he would find an opportunity to talk to him about this matter alone.

"Come so early, we have a meeting in the afternoon." Teacher Zhou was looking at the materials at his desk. After hearing Tang Zhitong's movements, he raised his head and responded.

When Tang Zhitong returned to the dormitory, there were three unfamiliar faces, but Lu Jian and Dou Yongchang were not there.

"Teacher Tang!" After seeing Tang Zhitong, a young man stood up first to say hello.

Teacher Zhou’s name only has the character “正” (zheng), which is consistent with his name. His name is Zhou Zheng, and his person is also upright.

There were no trucks to ride with today, so Tang Zhitong spent an hour and a half on his bicycle for the fifteen kilometers.

"...Okay, thank you Teacher Zhou." Tang Zhitong felt that Teacher Zhou didn't get what he wanted to express. He opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but in consideration of other people, he didn't say anything in the end.

"That's it. I still have work to do at my unit, and I'll have to go back from time to time." Since there were other teachers and classmates in the office, Tang Zhitong said it more tactfully.

The remaining young man spoke with an accent from Henan Province and was thin. He stood up nervously and followed awkwardly: "Hello, Teacher Tang."

After leaving the office, Tang Zhitong shook his head and laughed at himself. Teacher Zhou had been straightforward before. He had chosen the wrong way to communicate through hints this time.

The young man who said hello first was happy, and took the initiative to extend his hand to Tang Zhitong and introduced himself: "Teacher Tang, my name is Luo Zhiping, from the 49th City Bureau. Director Su mentioned you to me before I came here."

"Tang Zhitong, we are all classmates here, don't call us teacher, you will scare us two roommates." Tang Zhitong stretched out his hand and shook it with Luo Zhiping. No wonder he knew about him. It was Su Chu who mentioned it. Pass.

Tang Zhitong felt that he had become more worldly. When he heard these words, the first thing he thought of was what Su Chu's purpose was...

"Haha, my fault, my mistake. Let me introduce you. This is Lu Shi, a top student from Hebei. This is Gu Mancang, a top student from Henan Province. These are advanced workers from our 49th City Bureau. Comrade Tang Zhitong." Although Luo Zhiping checked in later than Tang Zhitong, he already knew his roommates, so he took the initiative to introduce him.

"Hello, hello. From now on, we will all be troubled classmates under the same roof. Let's take care of each other." Tang Zhitong shook hands with the two roommates one by one.

The two college students obviously haven't adapted to this adult way of greeting, and they seem a little embarrassed, among them Gu Mancang is more obvious.

Tang Zhitong sat down and chatted with three peers for a while, just about what day he came and where he was from.

All three of them reported in yesterday. Luo Zhiping went home for a night and had just moved in not long ago. According to Lu Shi, Lu Jian, Dou Yongchang and two other roommates went out early in the morning, saying that they wanted to take a good look around the city before classes started.

Two other roommates, Shi Huaian and Fang Qingliang, were also trained.

At this point, the identities of the eight people in the dormitory became clear, and Lu Jian's guesses were all correct.

Previously, because there were names posted on the beds in the dormitory, Tang Zhitong took a look at them when he came to check in. He had an impression of everyone's names, but he might not agree with them.

Tang Zhitong was particularly fond of the name Gu Mancang. He felt that it was full of good expectations for the lives of the people in the world. He thought that he was at least from a scholarly family. Unexpectedly, after meeting the real person, he found that it was very different from his guess.

"Gu Mancang, Gu Mancang, the millet is flowing across the vast land. Your surname is perfect when paired with your name. The meaning is so good." After chatting for a few words, Tang Zhitong couldn't find anything to talk about. He could only praise his name. When praising a person's name, should he praise someone for wearing patches on top of each other and looking simple?

"My father said that the harvest was good that year, so he named me Mancang. Later, when I was in junior high school, the teacher said that I was a good student, so he changed my name to two homophones, and I became Gu Mancang." Hearing Tang Zhitong praise her name for its good meaning, Gu Mancang smiled shyly, rubbed the patches on his pants back and forth with his hands, and said.

"Your teacher is a knowledgeable person." Tang Zhitong praised, saying that it would not be troublesome to change his name now, otherwise it would be doubtful whether he could successfully take the college entrance examination.

Gu Mancang smiled so plainly that he didn't know how to reply.

"It's getting late, let's go have dinner? I haven't eaten in the university cafeteria yet, so I'm looking forward to it." Luo Zhiping saw this, raised his wrist, looked at the time, and suggested.

"Okay, I haven't eaten it either. Let's try it." Tang Zhitong stood up and took out his lunch box from the closet.

The dormitory is newly built, and the beds and closets are also new. However, since most of the space in the dormitory is used to store beds, the closets are made into two rows of square grids. The top row is extremely high, and most people need to move a stool to put and take things.

Tang Zhitong felt that he didn't use it often. In order to facilitate others, he consciously chose the top grid on the day he came to report.

Of course, the top is not without its benefits, it is a little cleaner than the cabinets below.

Although there are locking noses on it, not many are actually locked.

"Let's go? Let's go together." Luo Zhiping greeted Lu Shi and Gu Mancang.

"We'll have two meals that day." Gu Mancang said with some hesitation.

"It's the same in my hometown. I asked my fellow villagers yesterday that our quota is valid for that month and you can't take it back with you. Let's go." After hearing this, Lu Shi gave some advice.

Tang Zhitong heard Gu Mancang's words, but did not speak. He could only sigh in his heart.

Gu Mancang finally followed him to the cafeteria and bought his first lunch after coming to the College of Posts and Telecommunications.

Tang Zhitong and Luo Zhiping used aluminum fast food boxes commonly seen in Sijiucheng, while Lu Shi and Gu Mancang made do with cups.

Since Tang Zhitong didn't have a food connection, he didn't have a meal card. He only ordered one dish from the canteen, the kind with minced meat. The five-cent meal ticket cost a large spoonful.

Staple food is not expensive either. Corn flour steamed buns cost three cents each, and the two-and-a-half pieces were both bought by Lu Shi and Gu Mancang.

The state has always provided subsidies for university cafeterias, which may be the biggest bargain that ordinary people can get in their lives.

It is now and it will be in the future.

When Tang Zhitong went to college around the turn of the millennium, his breakfast consisted of fried steamed bun slices, pickles, boiled eggs, and porridge for free. Lunch and dinner are two yuan and a half (two vegetarian dishes, two steamed buns and one soup), and three yuan and a half (two meat dishes, two steamed buns and one soup).

Although the food tastes average and there is not much meat gained during the four years, there is no problem in eating enough and rural families can afford it.

After entering the society, it is difficult to eat such cheap meals. Every time the price of meat and eggs increases, the prices of multi-grain pancakes, meat buns, and steamed buns also rise. However, the prices of meat and eggs fall, which are used by migrant workers to satisfy their hunger. Snacks do not follow the price reduction.

After flipping it over several times, the price of Roujiamo increased from 1.5 yuan to 7.5 yuan, or even 10 yuan...

Before the epidemic, Tang Zhitong could sneak into the university occasionally and have an affordable lunch, but as the situation developed, the school's door was no longer open to past students.

The employment opportunities of graduates are getting worse each time, and the standard of living is also experiencing steady negative growth. Even street restaurants have launched three-dollar meal packages.

The so-called three-yuan meal package is a portion of rice, with free soup and pickles.

Have college students ever experienced such hardship? But you can get it after flexible employment.

At the same time, some canteens offer no more than three yuan for a full meal, such as pork ribs or braised pork!
The benefits are different. Who doesn’t look forward to such benefits? Therefore, many people rushed to join them.

Well, after entering this kind of unit, everyone will learn a common skill: complaining and crying about poverty.

A lot of work, a lot of overtime, tired! I don't make much, only three to five thousand a month...

Others are simply not enough to tell outsiders, oh, by the way, they will also label themselves and call themselves "vulnerable groups"...

As for whether he is really weak or fake, Tang Zhitong doesn't know.

Occasionally, you can see people jumping out to show off their wealth, but it seems as if there is a big invisible hand that quickly suppresses them until they become silent.

There was a large meat dish today, and Tang Zhitong was so cruel that he spent two vegetable tickets to order one portion.

The first time I went to the cafeteria at the beginning of the school year, I couldn’t get enough of it, so I ate catfish!

Although the teaching building, dormitory building, and family building of the College of Posts and Telecommunications are basically completed, the construction of the canteen has not kept up.

In fact, this cannot be blamed on the school. Who would have thought that colleges and universities across the country would expand enrollment in the past two years?
58、59年的招生人数都是57年的2.5倍，60年招生人数更是57年的3倍以上！
Although the number of students admitted to the School of Posts and Telecommunications in the past two years is not so exaggerated, it cannot bear the large base and has recruited more than 56 college students in only 1600 years.

Luo Zhiping had a meal card, so he bought two steamed buns and ordered a dish.

Tang Zhitong glanced at it and didn't say much. It was not unusual for him to go home to eat after changing the food relationship. No matter how the supply in Sijiu City was reduced, the family would not be short of one or two meals.

"Let's go back to the dormitory to eat?" Tang Zhitong suggested to his roommate, looking at the crowds of people and the fact that there were no free tables in the cafeteria.

"Okay, let's go." Luo Zhiping agreed readily, and he was impatient with the crowd.

Lu Shi and Gu Mancang hesitated for a moment, then agreed after looking at each other.

However, before leaving, the two of them went to the free soup area to queue up for soup, and stuffed the steamed buns casually into their pockets.

How big can the cup be? But they still went to get free soup.

The free ones are the most expensive, but as far as the current school canteens are concerned, free is free without any strings attached, except that there is not much rice in the soup.

Tang Zhitong and Luo Zhiping both had food in their lunch boxes, so they didn't go there.

Tang Zhitong couldn't bear the crowd, so he went over to say hello to Lu Shi and Gu Mancang and said he would wait for them at the entrance of the cafeteria, so he and Luo Zhiping went to the door to smoke.

After walking out of the cafeteria, Tang Zhitong realized later. No wonder when he and classmate Xiao Wang were walking around the campus the day before yesterday, they saw people coming and going in and out of the cafeteria. It turned out that there was food in the lunch boxes they brought. Just like myself today, I couldn't find it. Where to eat, go back to the dormitory to eat.

"Teacher Tang, our roommate's life is very difficult." Luo Zhiping, who is also a smoker, said with emotion as he took the cigarette from Tang Zhitong.

"Oh, it's not easy. I see a lot of people get free soup." Tang Zhitong handed his lunch box to Luo Zhiping, motioning for him to take it, then took out a match and lit cigarettes for the two of them.

"Oh, look at me, I don't have any sense of price. Thank you, Teacher Tang." Luo Zhiping was very poor. He was holding a lunch box in each hand, so he couldn't fight for anything, so he could only suffer like this.

"We are roommates and we don't want to be like the work unit." Tang Zhitong first lit Luo Zhiping's cigarette and then lit it for himself. Then he took his lunch box and the two started puffing away.

(End of this chapter)