Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 775 Different Treatments, Brother Fang Teaches You How to Earn Foreign Exchange (Two Chapters in One)
After Xie Chunrong finished his speech, Professor Ren Yingqiu gave his closing remarks.

Fangyan glanced at his watch and found that they were keeping time quite accurately.

It's almost twelve o'clock.

After Professor Ren Yingqiu finished his speech, they began to evacuate in an orderly manner from the auditorium entrance.

Fangyan and his friends took the things they had just distributed and walked outside in the crowd. Actually, Fangyan could have gone home to eat today, but since it was his first day at school, he decided to experience it first.

There were no trays in the cafeteria at that time, so people had to bring their own food.

Some people use aluminum lunch boxes, some use enamel bowls, and some use large teacups.

Each one has its own unique mark on it to avoid taking the wrong one.

Fangyan and his class of freshmen sat at the front and walked at the back. By the time they took their food to the cafeteria, seniors from other grades had already started eating.

But it doesn’t matter. The cafeteria is open for one hour for lunch, and there will be food as long as you come within this hour.

Students need to hold BJ city food coupons, which are 30 kilograms of coarse grain coupons per month and 5 kilograms of fine grain coupons per month, to queue up for meals. In addition, only 2 meat coupons are issued per month.

But today is different. Today is the first day of school, and the school provides every student with an extra meal, braised hairtail slices, with a limit of two pieces per person.

As for today's staple food, there are cornmeal steamed bread and sorghum rice to choose from.

Side dishes include cabbage stewed with tofu, shredded radish fried with vermicelli, and potato chips.

The soup is made of boiled cabbage in water, with some scattered tofu dregs floating on the soup, which makes people wonder if this should be the pot-washing version of cabbage stewed with tofu.

In addition, there is an activity of exchanging food coupons for eggs at the back door of the cafeteria. One pound of food coupons can be exchanged for two eggs. Expensive white sugar can also be bought in the teachers' family area, at two yuan per pound. Please note that the market price of this white sugar outside is 78 cents per pound.

When Fangyan and other freshmen were getting their meals, the auntie told them that in addition to the regular window, there was also a patient meal window next door, which provided noodles and egg custard. Of course, they also had to get their food coupons separately.

In addition, meat dishes are limited for purchase twice a week, mostly stir-fried dishes with fatty meat, and the price ranges from 20 to 30 cents.

I didn't make any special arrangements for my dialect, just like other students. I ordered a dish of fried shredded radish with vermicelli, which cost me ten cents and one tael of grain coupons, and a dish of sorghum rice, which cost me two taels of grain coupons.

There is a big iron bucket of soup in the corner of the cafeteria. When you walk over, you can see a few cabbage leaves floating in the soup. The soup is so clear that you can see your reflection in it. It's free and you can have as much soup as you want.

On the other side, there were people guarding the egg soup and tofu soup. The egg soup contained some egg flowers and cost five cents and 0.1 grain coupons, while the tofu soup cost three cents and 0.1 taels of grain coupons.

The smallest circulating unit of food coupons was the city liang, or 50 grams. The canteen made its own "meal coupons" to split 1 liang of food coupons into 10 "0.1 liang coupons", which were only for use in the canteen.

This emphasizes "precise planning" and reflects the scientific nature of allocation.

Anyway, Fangyan thought the exchange was too troublesome, so he just ordered clear soup.

Looking at the sorghum rice in the aluminum lunch box and the oil-free fried vermicelli with shredded radish, Fangyan really had no appetite. But when he saw the seniors eating enthusiastically, Fangyan started eating too.

"Oh, I'm used to eating at Union Hospital. I almost forgot to give my ticket just now." Yang Jingxiang said on the side.

Zhang Yanchang also said:

"Don't tell me, I just ordered the three dishes of Chinese cabbage stewed with tofu, shredded radish fried with vermicelli, and potato chips, and then I remembered that these three dishes are charged separately."

“Hahahaha…” These words made Little Peng on the side laugh out loud.

Zhang Yanchang held up a lunch box piled high with food and said to everyone:

"I have a lot of food here, you all help me eat some."

He handed it to Fangyan first:

"Brother Fang!"

"No need." Fangyan waved his hand.

Then he handed it to Meng Jimin:

"Brother Meng?"

Meng Jimin took a look and shook his head as well:
"Forget it."

Then he passed it to several other acquaintances, but no one had much appetite, mainly because the contrast was too great. They were all eating free employee meals at Union Hospital some time ago.

Zhang Yanchang finally had no choice but to walk to the other side of the long dining table and greet Du Heng and Yan Yifan:
"Come on, Lao Du, Lao Yan, have something to eat!"

"Oh, thank you!" Yan Yifan didn't hesitate and picked up a piece of food with chopsticks immediately.

Du Heng also picked up a piece of chopsticks and asked:
"You guys ate for free at Concord before?"

Zhang Yanchang nodded:

"Yeah... Oh, give me some more. I can't finish all this."

Du Heng took another bite and exclaimed:

"Good boy, this Imperial Hospital is indeed different."

Soon everyone else got their food and sat down.

Most people enjoyed the food very much. Some people even shared food they brought from home with their classmates. One of them, who was also from Sichuan, held a bottle of chili powder and asked everyone else to pour some.

He also added fried peppercorns and salt, which gave it a unique flavor and was immediately popular among many people.

After it was passed around, only one third of the bottle was left.

Fangyan ate his meal while feeling the university atmosphere of that era.

It’s a pity that there is no military training. If there was, it would have been more exciting.

The college entrance examination was resumed in 1977, and the first batch of 77 college students enrolled this year. The core task of the education system is to rebuild the teaching order. Military training has not yet been put on the agenda. The military training system was not gradually established until the mid-1980s.

So Fangyan and his classmates didn’t have any military training and just went straight to class.

"Student Fangyan, have some meat." At this time, a lunch box was handed to Fangyan, and inside it was greasy braised pork.

Fang Yan saw that it was Xiao Chengzhi and asked:

"No, where did you get it?"

Xiao Chengzhi said:
"There's a window over there that sells meat dishes."

Fangyan and the others looked in the direction he pointed.

Seeing many foreigners and well-dressed people queuing there, Fangyan finally realized:

"The window of the international class?"

"That's right." Xiao Chengzhi nodded.

Then he said to the dialect:

"Would you like to eat something?"

Fangyan shook his head:
"Forget it, it's just a piece. There's such a big piece of ginger, you should eat it yourself."

When Xiao Chengzhi took a look, he discovered that among his five pieces of meat there was indeed a large piece of meat disguised as ginger.

Suddenly he was stunned.

At this time, Deng Nanxing also came over with a large bowl of meat and said to Fang Yan:

"There's no limit on the amount of meat dishes there. Today we have braised pork, sweet and sour spareribs, and steamed hairtail."

"All the aromas in the cafeteria today came from there."

Fangyan then remembered that when they came here before, they smelled the fragrance in the cafeteria. At that time, they thought it was the fragrance of lunch. However, when they ate, they found that it was all watery and had no taste at all.

Then Deng Nanxing said:

"But you have to use foreign exchange coupons. They don't accept food coupons at the window."

"I also had a few foreign exchange certificates in my hand, so I went over and tried it, and it worked."

After saying that, he took out his enamel bowl and showed it to everyone. It contained braised pork and sweet and sour spare ribs, which were greasy and steaming, piled full in the bowl.

Deng Nanxing had another bowl of white rice in it. He said to Fang Yan:

"Look, I just looked carefully, all of them are fine staple foods, white rice, meat buns, egg noodles, and butter bread. I took a look and found that they are specially provided by Shanghai Guanshengyuan."

"There are also imported foods like Cuban sugar and canned luncheon meat from East Germany."

"After the meal, there was fruit. I don't know where the pears came from. Foreigners are limited to one pear per day with their foreign student ID."

"No way, so rich?" The classmates around, whether they knew him or not, all looked over curiously.

Xiao Chengzhi said to everyone:

"It's normal to earn foreign exchange."

"All in all, it's still not worth it to eat at the window over there in the cafeteria."

After saying that, he picked up the piece of ginger in his bowl with chopsticks and started chewing it. After chewing, he swallowed it.

Fangyan smiled and said that he could accept this situation.

But for other students, the shock may be too great.

Even though schools emphasize fairness everywhere, there are still unfairness in the cafeteria.

And it was right next to the window.

Of course, they did spend foreign exchange coupons.

"Brother Fang, give some. I can't finish so much." Deng Nanxing said and poured the ribs directly into Fangyan's bowl.

"Okay, okay! Let's just taste it together." Fangyan stopped talking quickly.

Then he took one of the two ribs in the bowl and gave it to Meng Jimin who was standing beside him.

"Old Meng, take it and chew it."

Lao Meng was very happy when he got the pork ribs from Fangyan.

Lao Fang didn’t give it to anyone else, so he gave it to himself.

It turns out that I am the veteran of the team!

Of course, other people had no objection to this, as they all knew that Fang Yan and Meng Jimin knew each other the earliest, and that he had learned medical skills from Meng Jimin's master Zhu Liangchun.

In the end, he is not only a friend, but also a fellow apprentice without official status. Others really can't compare to him.

Afterwards, Xiao Chengzhi and Deng Nanxing became the focus of the others around them, mainly because the food they ate was so delicious. Deng Nanxing was already regretting ordering two dishes. It turned out that Brother Fang was smart as he didn't order more meat or vegetables.

He just went there out of curiosity. Tomorrow he will definitely ride his bike to Union Hospital to eat.

The dean has said that you are welcome to go back, live and eat there at any time.

Isn’t this better than foreigners spending foreign exchange coupons?

By this time, Fangyan had almost finished his meal. The sorghum rice really irritates the throat, and combined with the bland shredded radish and vermicelli in the soup, he felt choked after finishing it, but at the same time felt like he hadn't eaten anything.

The only thing I can remember is eating a piece of meaty ribs.

After drinking the soup and eating some snacks, the lunch is complete.

After eating, the others also went to wash the dishes one after another.

Fang Yan waited for Deng Nanxing and the others to finish eating and did not leave.

Then they saw the school teachers also coming to get their meals. They got their meals at the teacher’s window using colorful meal tickets, which they simply handed over without paying.

Then it was put in the rice bowl. Although the quality was not as good as that of the International Window, it was actually not bad. It was basically the same as the meals for doctors in Dongzhimen Hospital.

"Have you eaten, Fangyan? Come over and give me some food." At this time, Professor Yue Meizhong, who hadn't been seen for a long time, passed by and saw Fangyan. He greeted him and took out a few meal tickets from his pocket, meaning to treat him.

After the old man said this, the few remaining students at the scene all turned their eyes to Fangyan.

Wow, the freshmen even know the old professors in the school?
Yue Meizhong's hair is gray, and he looks to be in his seventies or eighties. He is definitely an old professor.

Facing the initiator of the TCM postgraduate class, Fang Yan quickly stood up and responded:
"Thank you, Professor Yue, I'm full!"

Professor Yue said:
"Then I won't be polite to you."

Fang Yan smiled and said:

"You're welcome. Please eat."

The old man then walked to the teacher's window with his bowl and started queuing up for food.

Then school leaders came one after another.

The senior students present greeted the teachers they knew.

There are many people who know Fangyan, including Meng Jimin, and many of them are old acquaintances.

As they passed by them, the two of them greeted the leaders one after another.

"Professor Ren!" "Secretary Wang!"

"Dean Zhong!"

"..."

Many of them were people they had met when they were compiling the "Study of Chinese Materia Medica Processing".

Some are also members of their editorial boards.

Anyway, most people know it. Even if you meet someone you don’t know, they know the dialect.

Some even went to Fangyan's table to talk to them.

Now the remaining freshmen and seniors around looked at Fangyan differently.

If the food that attracted them just now was ordered from the international window, it has now been changed to dialect.

It’s not a big deal to know so many teachers, as the old students also know them. But the key is these people’s attitude towards dialects, which is very different from that of the old students.

Although no particularly intimate words were said, I could feel that the tone and attitude were different from those of others.

This attitude occasionally appears in Meng Jimin and Xiao Chengzhi who are standing by.

And Fangyan is the person that everyone pays attention to without exception.

I thought that was the end of it, but unexpectedly, after Professor Ren Yingqiu finished cooking, he came over and asked Fang Yan:

"Xiao Fang, in the seventh chapter of Chinese Medicine Processing, there is a technique called 'Nine Steaming and Nine Drying'. Have you ever tried using a pinewood steamer instead of a traditional iron steamer?"

Fang Yan was startled, then immediately shook his head:
"No, although the aroma of pine wood is good for medicine, it is difficult to control the temperature. The quantitative standard of the 'civil and martial temperature theory' is not clear yet."

"Look at this!" Professor Ren Yingqiu took out a notebook from his pocket, turned to the last page and handed it to Fangyan.

Dialect saw what was written above:

"The first steaming uses strong fire to force its shape, the second steaming uses gentle fire to nourish its nature, and the third steaming uses the residual heat of charcoal ash to collect its spirit..."

There was no need for Fang Yan to ask him, Ren Yingqiu just said to Fang Yan:

"I went back to my hometown during the Chinese New Year, and a Taoist priest who had returned to secular life told me this."

Fangyan looked at it and said:
"Oh, really? That's a Taoist doctor's method. You can give this a try."

After saying this, he turned around and called out to Lao Fan who was standing beside him:
"By the way, Lao Fan, come over and take a look."

Lao Fan put down his lunch box and walked over.

Ren Yingqiu asked:
"Who is this classmate?"

The dialect said:

"He's from Jiangyou, Sichuan. He's half your hometown. He's a traditional Chinese doctor."

"Oh, my fellow countryman." Ren Yingqiu immediately switched to his hometown dialect.

Lao Fan was a little surprised:

"Old... No, Professor Ren, where are you from?"

Ren Yingqiu said:
"I'm from Jiangjin." (Currently in JJ District, CQ City)
"Then we are indeed fellow villagers!" Old Fan scratched his head.

Then he took the notebook from Fangyan's hand and started reading.

When others saw this scene, they realized that there were real hidden talents around Fang Yan.

Either he is Zhu Liangchun's disciple or he is a Taoist doctor.

Lao Fan then discussed it with Ren Yingqiu again and confirmed that they could give it a try, but they were not sure if other situations would arise in the north.

Afterwards, I chatted with Professor Ren Yingqiu for a while, and the time was almost up.

Next, Fangyan and his friends said goodbye to Professor Ren Yingqiu and went to wash the lunch boxes.

At this moment, the classmates came over and asked Fangyan:

"Student Fangyan, how do you know so many teachers?"

Fangyan thought for a moment and said:

"We worked together before, so we know each other."

"Ah?" Everyone looked at Fangyan in confusion. Have you worked with that professor?

"What do you do for a living?" someone asked in dialect.

Dialects are funny:

“Traditional Chinese medicine.”

"Just like everyone else, except that I'm a local Chinese medicine practitioner. It's normal for me to know the professor, right?"

"They not only teach in schools, but also go out to treat patients."

After hearing Fangyan's explanation, everyone finally understood.

So this is ah!

No wonder Fangyan knows these people.

However, some people still felt something was wrong and decided to go back and find out what this dialect was about.

At this moment, the characteristics of the era of inconvenient information transmission were concretized in the face of dialects.

In the Internet age, all of this can be clearly known with just a simple search.

After dinner, the freshmen rested for an hour, and then at 2 pm, they went to the school’s tiered classroom to start ideological and political studies and ideological education.

Mainly watching the documentary "Barefoot Doctor Xiang Yanghong".

This is a story about educated youth from Yunnan using silver needles and herbal medicine to serve the poor and lower-middle peasants.

Then the old professor talked about the core of the June 26th Directive and their stories from that year.

Finally, everyone stood up and sang the "Anthem of the Bethune International Peace Hospital".

The ones who lead the singing are all senior foreigners.

"The gunpowder smoke of Taihang Mountains and the turmoil of North China have forged our immortal military soul. The Red Cross embodies lofty ideals, and the spirit of Bethune stands tall in the blood and fire. Soldiers are soldiers, ensuring victory, saving lives and healing the wounded with enthusiasm, being Bethune-style revolutionaries, and marching forward in service of the people..."

After singing in dialect, I realized that there are actually quite a few foreigners.

People from many countries have it.

People of all skin colors.

If I had known earlier, I would have let Anton and Sofia get in as well.

But it seems that they are not old enough.

The afternoon ended in this atmosphere.

When leaving, the head teacher Fang Yaozhong greeted the students in Class 1:

"Everyone must be on time for evening study at 7pm, no matter if they are commuting students or not, no one is allowed to be absent."

Now, Qiao Wangzhong, the head teacher of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Class, also notified the students in his class.

It is required to go to the classroom at night, mainly to get to know each other and receive ideological and political education.

After hearing the news, the students from the international class next door asked their head teacher Zhang Sheng, who replied:
"No need. We are few in number and there are foreign students as well. You can make your own arrangements for the evening."

Hearing the news from the next class, Du Heng and his friends said:
"Look at them! They are so different from us."

"That's right..." Yan Yifan also nodded.

Others echoed it.

Only a few people around Fangyan did not speak. They knew too clearly that these people were different from them from the beginning to the end.

People don't come here just to study.

Most students in the international class come from the socialist camp in Asia, Africa and Latin America, such as Vietnam, Cuba and East Germany.

The school needs to demonstrate its educational superiority and avoid strict management that may cause diplomatic disputes. The collective political learning content during evening self-study involves ideological output, which is sensitive to foreign students.

This institutional dual-track system reflects the complexity of higher education in the early days of reform and opening up. It had to uphold revolutionary traditions while also opening up a privileged channel for the internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine in the early stages of globalization.

If you have come into contact with overseas Chinese businessmen, you will understand that although they seem to provide a lot of preferential treatment, in fact, more comes out of their pockets. The same goes for the foreign students here.

At least this is the case for the foreign students in this school at present. As for the fact that Fangyan had licked certain schools without any bottom line in his previous life, that is another matter.

Most people are still a little unconvinced. Why do others get such good treatment, but they have to be treated like this?

We were still talking on the way out.

After returning to the dormitory, Du Heng said to Fang Yan:

"Why are they treated as special in the international class?"

The dialect said:

"They are different from us. They are children of overseas Chinese, foreign personnel, and children of high-ranking officials. Don't always think about comparing yourself with them. Think about how to cooperate with them and get benefits."

"Ah?" Du Heng looked at Fang Yan in surprise. He originally wanted to complain, but he didn't expect Fang Yan to give a different answer.

The other people in the dormitory also looked at Fang Yan.

"For example?" Yan Yifan asked.

The dialect said:

"For example, you can earn their foreign exchange coupons, or be their tour guide or translator during holidays. Or, even simpler, as long as you don't have a mysophobic mindset, you can run errands and fetch food and water for them in exchange for compensation."

"As long as it doesn't violate school regulations, you can do it."

After hearing Fang Yan's words, Zeng Yong said:
"This...isn't this speculation?"

Fangyan said speechlessly:
"You earn foreign exchange certificates and use them. Is this considered speculation?"

When everyone heard this, they looked at each other, as if it was true?

But I just feel a little embarrassed. I was scolding others before, and now I am going to earn foreign exchange from them?

And will people do it?

"How much is the appropriate amount?" someone asked in dialect.

Fangyan thought for a moment and said:
"At least enough to keep you fed with meat in the cafeteria for a week."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this. A week’s worth of meat?
Can't even think about it.

Du Heng was surprised:
"Are they so rich?"

The dialect was helpless and reminded:
"You need to find out who are the people who can study abroad in our school these days?"

"Sons of high-ranking generals, children of national leaders, children of wealthy overseas businessmen! If you have fewer, they won't be happy!"

Everyone felt like they had opened the door to a new world and that their worldview had been refreshed by the dialect.

Everyone in the dormitory was a little excited.

Du Heng asked:

"Brother Fang, is this possible?"

Hearing that his name had changed, Fang Yan said:

"Trust me, you have to do this early, otherwise the price will be rolled down later."

After speaking in dialect, he took the car keys and said goodbye to everyone:
"Okay, I've shown you the way. I'm going home to have dinner. See you later!"

Speaking in dialect, he left the dormitory and walked outside.

Today is not only his first day of school, but also his older sister and younger brother's first day of school.

I have to go back and listen to what their campus life is like at Peking University today.

In addition, today only Luo Huichun is in charge of the overall situation at Union Hospital, and it is not known whether any problems have been encountered.

Director Fang still has to go and take a look.

PS: The 6000-word basic chapter has been updated.

There will be more updates later.

(End of this chapter)