Chapter 32

After the onset of deep winter, it's hard to have a good day.

Up until today, it has been a whole week without seeing the sun. The sky is gray, no, the whole world is gray. Apart from the few round cypresses in front of the main building, it's hard to see any green when you look around.

Feng Yiping has always been afraid of the cold. Now he is wearing two sweaters, and outside those, a slightly small knitted vest. Below, he is wearing thermal underwear, a knitted pair of pants, a total of three pairs of pants, and two pairs of socks. The cotton shoes his mother made last year are not too small, but the soles are worn out, so he nailed on a leather sole.

Even so, he still feels cold. His ears are already frostbitten, the earlobes are red, and at night when he sleeps, the heat inside the quilt makes them especially itchy, itchy to the point of being unbearable. When he can't resist and uses his hands to scratch, a thin layer of dead skin comes off. To make matters worse, there are signs of frostbite on his heels.

At lunchtime, the cold wind keeps blowing, seeping through his clothes and freezing him to the bone. When it blows on his face, it really feels like an ice blade scraping across.

Feng Yiping clamped the enamel bowl under his arm, put his hands in his pockets, lowered his head, and hunched his body as he walked ahead. Xiao Zhijie, wearing a newly bought knitted cap, caught up from behind and patted him on the back, "Why are you so afraid of the cold? You're wearing so much and still get frozen. Why don't you just stay in the classroom, and I'll get your lunch for you?"

"Okay!" Feng Yiping handed the bowl to him and ran towards the classroom without hesitation.

Wang Changning came up and put his arm around Xiao Zhijie's shoulder, "While you're at it, bring my lunch back too!"

Xiao Zhijie turned away in a huff, "I was just being polite, and he took it seriously."

The classroom is actually quite cold too. It's a tile-roofed house, very large, with high beams, and it's drafty everywhere, but at least it's not as windy as outside.

If this short story gets published, I'll definitely buy some new clothes, Feng Yiping thought fiercely. Although he is wearing a lot, the sweaters and pants are made from yarn taken from sweaters his sister couldn't wear and from sweaters his parents had worn out, so the two sweaters and the vest are all mixed colors and not very warm.

The cotton shoes are heavy and not breathable. Once his feet sweat, the inside becomes icy cold. They are called warm shoes, but they are not really warm. Maybe everyone is about the same, so every time there is a break, the classroom is filled with the sound of stomping feet.

In such weather, writing with a cold pen is not a pleasant experience. After writing for ten minutes, you have to stop and rub your hands. Some students use tin cans to get hot water from the cafeteria to warm their hands, but by the time half a class is over, the hot water has turned cold. There's no way to get a hot water bottle, and even if you could, the school wouldn't provide hot water to hundreds of students without limit—how much firewood would that require?

A pair of knitted gloves costs two or three yuan, which is too expensive. Most students buy the cheaper white labor protection gloves. They are cheap, but the insulation effect is quite poor, barely better than nothing. But the wisdom of the working people is boundless.

Winter is the dry season, and the county's hydropower station generates much less electricity, often causing power outages. During evening study sessions, some people use oil lamps made from ink bottles and toothpaste tubes, and some share a candle between two people. Soon, someone invented a method to coat the outside of the labor protection gloves with wax, which actually made them warmer, and this method quickly became popular.

But some teachers deliberately make things difficult for students.

They patrol the classroom with their hands folded, criticizing anyone they see writing with gloves, "Look at your handwriting, it's like chicken scratching. Take off your gloves! If you can't bear a little hardship, what kind of future can you expect?"

So these days, as soon as dinner is over, Feng Yiping runs to Wang Yumin's house, where they have a brazier. As soon as he opens the door, the heat hits him. After Teacher Zhu finishes his lessons, Feng Yiping stays by the brazier, roasting chestnuts for Little Swallow, and according to Wang Yumin, he would jump into the fire if he could. Wang Yumin has to call him back to the classroom three or four times, and in such weather, having a brazier to warm up by is the most blissful thing.

On the table, a dual-cassette recorder is playing Ye Qianwen's "A Walk in the Rain," the most popular song this year. Little Swallow's mouth is full of chestnuts, and she generously gives the one she just peeled to Feng Yiping. These are chestnuts Feng Yiping brought from home, and when roasted over charcoal, they emit a warm, sweet aroma and are crunchy when bitten.

Thinking about how he is comfortably listening to music, eating chestnuts, and warming himself by the fire, while other students are suffering in the cold classroom, he feels an extra sense of happiness. It's great!

He never expected that seeking out Teacher Zhu would bring such additional benefits.

"Alright, go back to the classroom and take these homework books with you." Wang Yumin urged for the third time today.

"Bye, Little Swallow." Feng Yiping rubbed Little Swallow's face with his warm hand and took a stack of homework books back to the classroom.

After the final monthly exam of the semester, it was already 1993. The learning atmosphere became tense again because there were less than twenty days until the final exams, and the Spring Festival was also approaching.

On Saturday, he went to his grandfather's house, where his grandfather didn't cook but made noodles. His third uncle had slaughtered a pig for the New Year, and they had already invited his first uncle's family for a meal. Tonight, they were inviting him and his grandfather.

They could smell the aroma from far away, the scent of peanuts, indicating that fresh peanut oil had just been pressed.

His third uncle's house was a three-room bungalow next to the oil mill. Although it wasn't a building, it was definitely one of the best in the village. The bottom of the exterior wall was a meter-high cement health wall, and the top was painted white. The doors and windows were also cement gray, giving it a public building feel of the era.

Yangyang's face was chapped, and he was wearing thick cotton clothes, playing with a top at the door. Seeing them, he called out, "Grandpa and Brother Ping are here."

The door opened, and his third uncle came out carrying Dongdong, who looked reluctant. His third aunt was in the kitchen, shouting, "Didn't you say you like Dad the most? Go play with Dad. I'm very busy now."

Yunyun came out to tease her brother, "Dongdong, didn't you say you like Mom the most this morning? Why do you now like Dad the most?"

Dongdong, who attends kindergarten, shouted from his third uncle's shoulder, "Because Mom doesn't give me meatballs. Such a stingy adult, I don't like her."

"Ha ha," even his grandfather laughed.

Dinner was very sumptuous. Despite her strictness, his third aunt was a capable housewife. Each person started with a bowl of liver soup. The liver was very fresh, thickened with starch, and the soup was rich and creamy, sprinkled with green onions. The liver was perfectly cooked, not raw or overcooked, not at all fishy, and the seasoning was just right. In one word, it was fresh! In two words, very fresh! In three words, extremely fresh!

After the liver soup, came the soybean and pig's trotter soup. Knowing that Feng Yiping usually doesn't like soybeans, his bowl had only a few, and it was mostly pig's trotters, very substantial.

The soup had been simmered for a long time, and the collagen from the pig's trotters had been extracted, along with the fat. For Feng Yiping, who usually eats pickled vegetables at school all year round, it was a bit greasy. However, the pig's trotters were not greasy at all. The fatty parts were like jelly, "slurp," and they went down the throat in one go. The lean meat was the best part, more delicious than the lean meat from other parts of the pig, with a rich aroma, tender and not tough, and a bit sticky. As for the bones, they could be easily separated with a light touch of the chopsticks, with no meat left on them.

The fried tofu and braised pork were cooked together in a pot, with half of the pot filled with Chinese cabbage and the other half with mung bean vermicelli. Meat broth was added to just cover the vegetables, and a little homemade chili powder and green onions and garlic were sprinkled on top, making it the main dish for the evening.

His grandfather and third uncle were drinking, while the others were eating. His third aunt was the busiest, having to feed Dongdong, who was very mischievous and only ate a small bite after much effort.

This reminded Feng Yiping of feeding his son, where he and Zhang Yan had to use all sorts of good words, threats, and promises to get him to eat a single bite, leaving both adults exhausted after a meal.

As a housewife, his third aunt also had to take care of his grandfather and Feng Yiping, so she could only eat a few bites when she had a chance. It wasn't until Yunyun, who had eaten her fill, took over feeding Dongdong that she could eat in peace.

The meal lasted about an hour, and Feng Yiping left the table with a full, satisfied stomach.

After dinner, his grandfather and third uncle talked at the table, while his third aunt cleaned up. Feng Yiping watched TV with his three cousins. The TV still had no remote control, so Yangyang stood in front of it, constantly changing channels. Dongdong couldn't stay still and kept jumping on Feng Yiping, who held him down, "Dongdong, you're full. Jumping like this will make you vomit."

Yunyun said, "He just doesn't remember. A few days ago, he ate a lot of meat and then jumped around, and he vomited."

During this time, his third aunt came over to chat with Feng Yiping and didn't mention borrowing money again. She only asked when Feng Zhenchang and the others would return. Feng Yiping said it