Era: Rise from the Wilderness

"That way, Mom won't have to keep eating dry bread and cold snacks for lunch."

Li Yunjing explained, looking at his mother, "Eating like this every day is bad for your stomach in the long run."

Under the dim light, He Ling was holding half a steamed bun, eating it with vegetable soup, when she heard this, she paused for a moment.

Looking at her son's earnest face, a warm feeling welled up in her heart again, making her nose tingle.

This child has really grown up and knows how to care for others.

"My son is right."

She quickly took over the conversation, her voice slightly choked, but she tried to keep her tone normal, "The busiest time is around noon, so I just grab a quick bite."

"But Yun Jing... he's going through a growth spurt, and he's eating those unhealthy snacks and sausages every day for lunch. How can that be okay?"

"We should get a place where we can heat up our meals."

She didn't mention herself; her words were all about her son.

Li Yunjing felt a pang of tenderness and a sense of helplessness upon hearing this.

That's what a mother is like—always thinking of her child first.

Li Hongfeng looked at his wife, then at his son, and nodded. He took this matter to heart: "This is easy to handle."

"I'll go to the gas station tomorrow morning to get a liquefied gas cylinder; a small one will do."

"The stove is even simpler. I can find some scrap bricks and cement at the factory and build one myself."

"At noon... I'll take some time to go to the market and buy some ready-made food, or some vegetables, and we can cook something simple at the store. It's better than eating nothing at all."

And that's how it was settled.

We finally finished our simple home-cooked meal around nine o'clock.

He Ling cleared the table, Li Hongfeng took another sip of herbal tea, and Li Yunjing helped wipe the table.

The small bungalow was filled with the lingering aroma of food and a simple, comforting warmth.

The next morning, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Li Yunjing walked into the classroom in the morning light.

The air still carried the slight coolness of the night dew.

At 7:30, just after the bell rang to end the morning self-study session, the homeroom teacher, a "pregnant woman," walked into the classroom on time with slightly heavy steps.

She was wearing a loose, dark blue dress, with her lesson plan and attendance book tucked under her arm.

The classroom fell silent instantly.

She wrote today's class schedule in the upper right corner of the blackboard with chalk, the handwriting was a little messy but powerful.

He then patted his hands, which were covered in chalk dust, and slowly swept his gaze over the more than forty young faces in the audience.

"Before classes officially begin, we will temporarily appoint a few class officers."

Her voice was slightly hoarse, typical of pregnant women, but very clear: "It's senior year of high school, and the class has been reorganized. We need a few students to assist the teacher in managing the class's daily affairs."

The classroom became even quieter; some students looked on expectantly, while others kept their heads down, afraid of being called on.

"Li Xue!"

The pregnant woman called out the first name.

"arrive!"

A crisp, clear voice rang out from Li Yunjing's right.

His deskmate stood up in response.

This is a girl with a neat ponytail, her school uniform is faded but clean, and she has an upright posture.

"You will temporarily assume the role of class monitor."

"yes!"

Li Xue's voice was crisp and clear.

"Advisor Zhuo, you will temporarily serve as the class monitor."

Li Yunjing looked in the direction of the voice and saw a tall, thin boy sitting in the middle of the third row. He was wearing thick black-rimmed glasses and had his brows slightly furrowed, seemingly annoyed at being interrupted from his thoughts.

This is the class's famous "prodigy," who has consistently ranked first in the class and has never fallen out of the top five in the entire school. He is the teachers' darling and a guarantee of the college entrance examination pass rate.

"Zhang Xiaojun, Labor Committee Member."

"Wang Yuting, Arts and Literature Committee Member."

One by one, names were called out, and the students whose names were called stood up in response, some excited and some shy.

Finally, the pregnant woman's gaze fell on Li Yunjing by the window and lingered for two seconds.

"Li Yunjing, the sports committee member!"

Li Yunjing was lost in thought, planning to check on the stove construction at the convenience store at noon, when he suddenly heard his own name called and paused in surprise.

Sports committee member?

Where does he find the time to do this?

He inwardly groaned, but in front of so many people, he couldn't directly refute his teacher.

He stood up, his face instantly switching to that youthful smile—a mix of embarrassment and exhilaration at being entrusted with a great responsibility—and his voice boomed, "Yes! I guarantee I'll complete the mission!"

The pregnant woman seemed satisfied with his reaction and nodded.

By the time she finished assigning all the class officers, the bell had already rung twice to signal the end of get out of class.

The morning break time was thus taken up.

The old-fashioned round clock on the wall pointed precisely to eight o'clock.

"Okay, let's begin the first lesson."

The pregnant woman picked up her Chinese textbook and said, "Turn to the first page."

The first formal class of the new semester has begun.

The classroom was filled with a fresh yet slightly tense atmosphere.

Sunlight streamed through the cleaned glass windows, casting bright spots of light on the dark brown wooden desks, with dust motes dancing slowly in the beams of light.

Above the blackboard, the red Song typeface slogan "Study diligently and serve the motherland" is particularly eye-catching in the sunlight.

Li Yunjing looked around and saw that most of the students had straightened their backs, opened their eyes wide, and kept their eyes on the chalk and lips of the Chinese teacher on the podium.

But he also keenly noticed that the two boys in the back row of the classroom, who were sitting upright, had their eyes already drifting to the basketball court outside the window where the boys were playing basketball early in the morning; and the boy to his right, separated by an aisle, had the corner of the cover of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" faintly visible under his Chinese textbook, and the pages were being carefully turned by his fingers.

"It seems that there's no shortage of people who pretend to be slacking off in any era."

He chuckled to himself and shook his head.

Unwilling to waste precious time on texts he already knew by heart, yet also unable to stand out too much and attract the teacher's attention, Li Yunjing chose a compromise.

He opened his math textbook, his slender fingers moving quickly and quietly between the pages, his gaze scanning line by line, page by page, over the formulas, theorems, and examples like a scanner.

High school math, physics, chemistry, English... these subjects, which I used to repeatedly study for the college entrance exam and almost memorize, now reappear before my eyes, giving me a strange sense of familiarity, like meeting an old friend, and even a touch of relaxed detachment.

Many things that seemed difficult to understand back then are now as clear as the lines on my palm.

"Hey, Li Yunjing, pay attention in class!"

A deliberately lowered, disgruntled female voice sounded in my ear, and at the same time, my arm was gently pushed.

Li Yunjing turned his head and met his deskmate Li Xue's slightly furrowed brows and disapproving gaze.

The girl with the ponytail clearly disapproved of his "neglecting his duties" behavior of openly flipping through the math book during Chinese class.

As the temporary class monitor, she felt it was her responsibility to remind her seemingly "carefree" deskmate.