To please others? It's better to please yourself.

As the lunch bell rang, Xu Jing'an quickly packed her things, grabbed her lunchbox, and went to the cafeteria to get her food.

The cafeteria is on the west side of the teaching building; I just jogged there.

Otherwise, if you go late, there will be a lot of people, and the waiting time will be long. In the end, there will be more soup than vegetables left.

When she rushed to the cafeteria with her food bowl, there were already quite a few people in front of her. Xu Jing'an was also helpless; she felt she was quite proactive enough in getting food, but she had never been the first in line.

"There's always someone stronger than you," she guessed that's where the saying comes from!

Line up. In winter, there's not much to choose from when getting food. In the dead of winter, it's mostly cabbage or radish, maybe with a potato, onion, or carrot (the last two depend on luck).

The school has both boarding and day students.

Boarding students all live far from home, and they eat all three meals a day at school. Their household registration and food rations are tied to the school.

Each month, these students pay the school with food or money coupons, and the school gives the boarding students a large sheet of pre-printed meal vouchers. From the first day of each month to the last day of the month, students must present breakfast, lunch, and dinner vouchers for each meal.

Students like Xu Jing'an who commute to school can eat at home if they live nearby; otherwise, they can only eat here for lunch if they live far away or their families are too busy to cook.

Staple foods can be bought at the cafeteria, but most people bring their own (when it's cold, they can put them in the communal steamer to heat them up). So most of the time, you only need to get side dishes.

After she finished getting her food and took her own steamed buns back from the steamer, she finally managed to squeeze out of the crowd, but the line was already more than 5 meters long.

Xu Jing'an, carrying her lunchbox, turned around to find a place to sit. The tables and chairs in the cafeteria were limited, and those who arrived late had to eat standing up.

The walls were covered with slogans: "Corruption and waste are heinous crimes."

"Every grain of rice and every bowl of porridge should remind us of the hard work involved in obtaining them."

"Every thread and every piece of cloth reflects the difficulty of obtaining resources."

"Xu Jing'an—, Xu Jing'an—, here!"

Xu Jing'an looked in the direction of the sound and saw her classmate Wang Jingjing waving at her.

Although they weren't in the same class, they somehow clicked. Now they've become best friends who share secrets.

Xu Jing'an quickly went over, and Wang Jingjing moved over to the side. "Eat quickly, it gets cold fast in winter!"

Neither of them spoke, and they focused on eating. The cafeteria was packed with people, and it was so noisy that you had to shout to be heard.

After washing the rice bowl, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief; the journey had been like a battle.

"Jing'an, my mom said that her supply and marketing cooperative has some defective fabric that doesn't require a ration coupon tomorrow. Do you want some? If so, remember to have Auntie come over around 10 o'clock in the morning." Wang Jingjing whispered in Xu Jing'an's ear with her round little face.

Xu Jing'an quickly replied, "Yes! Of course I want it, thank you Jingjing."

"What are you thanking me for? Do we need to say that between us? It's just that each person can only have a maximum of three feet, no more!"

"That's quite a lot."

These days, being able to buy cloth without ration coupons is a huge bargain; "what more could you ask for!"

Xu Jing'an wiped the water off her hands onto her body.

"Ugh~ Let's hurry into the classroom, it's so cold outside!" The two held hands, hunched their shoulders, and jogged back to the classroom.

Once upstairs, the two separated. Xu Jing'an returned to her seat, lay on the table, and only breathed a sigh of relief when she turned her face to the wall.

Xu Jing'an has been in this world for 3 months.

Nothing special happened before I arrived. I just slept one night and when I opened my eyes the next day, I found that the whole world had changed.

After a moment of confusion, I quickly got up amidst the hurried footsteps and urging of my family members, and helped tidy up the house, wash the dishes, and do some other chores.

The original owner's second sister, Xu Jingping, kept urging, "Third brother, hurry up, hurry up, we're late!"

Xu Jing'an quickly grabbed her schoolbag and ran into the school with her second sister, Xu Jingping.

The walls on both sides of the school are inscribed with the words: "Education serves proletarian politics; education is combined with productive labor."

As soon as they entered the school gate, the two separated. She ran to the corner of the wall, looked at the name and class on the book, and realized that it was Xu Jing'an from Class 3 of Grade 1.

After finding a seat and listening attentively to the lectures, I spent more than a month in a state of anxiety before I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The Xu family was having a hard time. The school offered subsidies to students from impoverished families, allowing them to apply for tuition waivers or half-price tuition. Xu Jing'an wanted to apply, but after inquiring around, she discovered that there were many families even poorer than hers.

Xu Jing'an was just an ordinary person, as was the original owner of this body.

The Xu family owned a machinery factory. There were four children in the family, and she was the third. She had an older brother, an older sister, and a younger brother.

Although there is some neglect, with many children, every family is the same. In any family, there is always one child who is not favored by the parents.

Xu Jing'an didn't take it seriously at first. This year is 63, and she will graduate from high school in 66. She was thinking of finding a job as soon as she graduated so that she wouldn't have to go to the countryside.

If family members aren't close, then let them be. They can each go their own way. She's a married woman, so she doesn't have much to do with her anyway.

Unexpectedly, her older brother said last night that he has a girlfriend, a temporary worker named Xu Duoduo from the No. 1 State-owned Cotton Mill.

She immediately felt that the name sounded familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before.

Xu's mother was overjoyed. But there was nothing she could do; the family was poor.

Only Xu's father and mother work in the family. They both work at a machine factory. Xu's father earns about 30 yuan a month, and Xu's mother earns 18 yuan a month at the canteen.

But no one springs from a crack in a rock.

My grandmother's family gives me a fixed five yuan a month for retirement; my maternal grandmother's family also falls ill every few days. Each time, they send someone to deliver a message to Xu's mother, asking her to go back and visit when she has time. They don't say anything else; if anyone asks what's going on, it's just that she misses her daughter.

Xu's mother could only go back every now and then, carrying some things. There was nothing she could do; her sister-in-law and nephews and nieces were all waiting at the street corner.

That's what they say to everyone they meet, "The child's aunt has come back to visit the elderly."

"My mother-in-law dotes on her daughter; she misses her terribly if she doesn't see her for a few days!"

With all the neighbors watching, as long as her mother was still alive, Xu's mother had no choice but to accept it, what else could she do?

Mothers who favor their sons always find ways to gain benefits from their married daughters.

In addition, there were weddings, funerals, and social obligations with relatives, friends, and colleagues. With four children to support, the family didn't save much money.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent their eldest son, Xu Jianguo, to be an apprentice at the oxygen plant factory. They would have arranged for him to get a permanent position at the steel mill or the current machinery factory much earlier, since big factories offer better benefits.

Xu Jianguo earns less than 20 yuan a month. In addition, his family's house is less than 30 square meters, which has been divided into 3 bedrooms, just enough for them to live in.

With no extra rooms available for the wedding, it's naturally difficult for the eldest son to find a marriage partner.

Who knew that Xu Jing'an would have a dream that very night!