● Liu Shengbiao (Yunnan)
In my drawer, there is a meal ticket. This meal ticket has accompanied me through 30 years of ups and downs. After studying, working and moving, it is still lying in my drawer. The meal ticket looks a little old or even broken, but I still cherish it carefully, in my drawer, in my memory and in my life. In fact, it has become a part of my life, and I can't give it up, just as I can't give up that extremely difficult life course.
We came to this world, because the family we were born in, the environment we live in and the times we live in are different, so we may experience different things. In my past decades of experience, what I can't forget so far is hunger, especially the hunger in junior high school for three years. I'm so hungry that I'll never forget it, never forget it. But fortunately, I didn't leave the hungry school. There is a belief that supports me, which helps me overcome hunger and help me through that difficult time.
When I entered junior high school, my home was fifty miles away from school, so I had to study on campus. The school will have classes for a month in a row before it has five days off. At that time, the school implemented a "health" meal, and the food was very light. There is only one dish all year round, either boiled cabbage with clear water or stewed potatoes with white water, and there is no oil or water. That's not enough. The most terrible thing is not having enough to eat. I remember that the school was at the top of the mountain and the canteen was at the foot of the mountain. Every time I finish eating in the canteen, I climb that slope and go back to my dormitory. I'm hungry again. So at that time, I hated that hillside very much. It took away a little bit that I just ate.
Next to the school is a village. At that time, farmers didn't need chemical fertilizer, and they could only grow crops by farmyard manure, so local farmers regarded the excrement pulled by students as a treasure. In order to get it fairly, the villagers made a rule that every household should take turns to dig out the excrement in the school toilet every five days. One day, two farmers quarreled beside the toilet, because neither of them found excrement, and they suspected each other of stealing excrement that should belong to them. As everyone knows, it is because students have no shit to pull for days.
One afternoon after school, students ran to the canteen with bowls, only to find that the boiler was broken and the canteen was not cooking. Students who have been hungry all day are dumbfounded at once. When people are hungry to a certain extent, they have no strength, and even walking will be harassed by the wind; When people are hungry to a certain extent, they are very powerful. Driven by hunger, groups of students went to the village next to the school to see if the farmers had any leftovers. If you are lucky, you can get half a bowl of leftovers by paying a meal ticket. I'm unlucky. I walked into a dozen with a meal ticket in my hand, and I didn't find any leftovers. The sun has gone home, the tired birds have returned to their nests, and every household has turned on the lights. I walked to the last house in despair. Maybe God won't close one door, but he will open another. This time, God finally gave me a look. When the farmer's master saw me stumbling, he stood up and walked to the rice cooker, dug there for a long time, and finally took out a spoonful of rice and poured it into my bowl. I wolfed down a spoonful of rice and asked my host for a bowl of hot water to drink before I felt a little strength in my body. The feeling of being dizzy from hunger is beyond the ordinary people's understanding, nor can people who are full now. In my junior high school life, endless hunger has been pestering me, leaving a deep imprint in my mind that can never be erased.
Walking out of the farmer's house, I found an old cow tied to the house. She seems to be working during the day, and now she is hungry. She is munching on hay, eating so hard and eating so sweetly, wagging her tail from time to time to drive away the flies that disturb her dinner. The stars came out and the moon came. The breeze blowing from the river wiped the sweat off the old cow, and the old cow enjoyed it comfortably. I just stood there, staring at the old cow with ecstasy, watching the steaming sweat on the old cow and the delicious hay in his mouth. It seems to be a mouth chewed with an old cow. When the old cow swallowed the chewed hay, I swallowed a mouthful of saliva, but I was still hungry. Suddenly I envy the life of the old cow. When I am hungry, the old cow can eat her own stomach. However, on second thought, this is also the result of the old cow's labor. The hay in its mouth is also the field it plows and sows in spring. Busy for a spring and summer, it harvested autumn and a full meal that I envy now! Suddenly, I understood something and walked firmly to school.
(Photo: Network)
● Introduction to the author ●
Liu Shengbiao, male, Han nationality, from Xuanwei City, Yunnan Province, is a middle school teacher. Love literature, like sports and travel.
Prose from Tianfu