Chapter 33: Who Says Foodies Don't Have Ideals?

  Compared to the simple school days, time outside of school always flies by quickly. The freshness of switching roles from student to teacher has not yet worn off, and a week's time has passed...

  Since several interns from the Normal University came to Zhuoma Township Junior High School, there have been quite a few changes. Class leader Ding Yizhi and League branch secretary Wang Huating taught Chinese and English to the graduating class of ninth grade. The class leader's teaching was meticulous, and Wang Huating's English had already passed the sixth level, so teaching junior high school students was easy for her. Si Muxian and Liu Cuiyun were in charge of the eighth-grade Chinese language course. This pair of young literature enthusiasts finally found a place to use their skills, especially Si Muxian, who told interesting stories about Luzhou's history, making those naive children listen with great interest. The old teachers who were replaced were almost all over fifty years old, and seeing how responsible the interns were, not a few of them simply handed everything over to the interns, happy to have a few days of leisure.

  These people came, and obviously took away Dan Yong's limelight. Apart from his beautiful calligraphy, he couldn't bring out anything stronger than others in teaching. He was just muddling along teaching seventh-grade language, helping with odd jobs at home when he had time off, or doing other miscellaneous tasks around school.

  Luckily, there's someone who can be considered not the worst, who is it? Of course, it's Lei Dapeng. Everyone knows what level he's at, and no one dares to let him substitute for classes, nor does he dare apply himself. With an extra idle person like this, there's no way to arrange him, so he reluctantly returns to his old job, chopping wood and starting a fire in the kitchen, or sweeping the floor. This lazy good-for-nothing can't even do these simple tasks well. As long as Shanyou isn't watching, either the fire is too big and sticks to the pot, or it's too small and the food is undercooked. He's been kicked by Egg Brother many times for this, and after a few days, he's complaining all day long. If it weren't for Wang Huating being here, Lei Dapeng would have said more than once: "I'm not serving you guys!"

  It's not early, but it's already been pulled up by Dan Yong to make a fire and cook. The coarse food in the countryside is very simple, generally porridge in the morning, but with two gluttons here, this porridge is quite good, made from carefully selected stone-milled millet and corn flour, added with locust flower buds picked in season when it's almost cooked, sweet and smooth to drink. The side dish is shredded radish, or scallion and radish leaves, sometimes some small bok choy or tender cucumber. This season, the village also has its own vegetables from the self-cultivated land, knowing that the city people come to teach the children to read books, the villagers' parents have not been stingy in sending these fruits and vegetables.

  Gurgling... the sound of simmering, in the newly tidied kitchen, Lei Dapeng sat by the stove, crunching on a radish, it had been many days like this, life was really too monotonous, if he didn't gnaw on the small radish he would fall asleep.

  Watching Shan Yong use a knife to peel a thin, dark stick, he has been peeling this thing in his spare time these days, but he doesn't know what it's for. However, at this moment, Lei Dapeng seems to have something on his mind, blinking his eyes, wanting to speak several times, but hesitating, as if there is a difficult matter weighing on his heart. After a while, Shan Yong looked up and saw that the fool was staring straight at him, picked up a dried mud ball by the stove and threw it over, scolding: "What are you looking at? Are you calling everyone to eat? Just thinking of eating for yourself?"

  "Egg brother, I think you're acting strange?" Le Dapeng stood up and patted his butt.

  "What's wrong?" Shan Yong smiled, putting away a large stack of thin sticks and the thumb-sized mud balls roasted on the edge of the furnace, thinking that Lei Dapeng had discovered his thoughts.

  "I've found out that you're entering menopause ahead of time, and you're always either hitting or scolding me." Lei Dapeng said discontentedly, staring with wide eyes.

  This period of time, the mood is really not good. Since leaving school, since the figure that made him infatuated disappeared from his sight, Dan Yong's temper has indeed become much worse. It seems that he was indeed a bit slow to treat his brother. However, brothers don't need to be polite, so Dan Yong laughed and scolded: "You have the nerve to say this, let you cook a few times, it's either undercooked or overcooked, who else should I beat if not you? You can't even do something useful like this."

  "Damn, I'm here to teach, but you're suppressing me like a kitchen helper. What a waste of talent! Damn." Lei Dapeng let out two "damn"s in a row, gave Single Courage the middle finger, and leaned out the window, shouting: "Hey, everyone come down and eat... waiting for me to feed it into your mouth!"

  This guy, except for being polite to Wang Hua-ting, was not polite to anyone else. When someone came in, they each scooped some porridge and served themselves three steamed buns. When Wang Hua-ting finally arrived, Lei Da-peng suddenly stood up as if electrified, scooped out a serving, handed it to her, pushed Si Mu-xian aside, and placed all the dishes in front of Wang Hua-ting, completely disregarding everyone else's feelings.

  Every time such a naked enthusiasm occurs, it always makes several people giggle, the more enthusiastic, the more Wang Huating appears to be a bit embarrassed. But Lei Dapeng doesn't feel embarrassed at all, and he stares straight at Wang Huating while eating. Wang Huating holds her chopsticks but can't move her mouth, and advises: "Dapeng, why don't you eat?"

  "Hmm, I'm not hungry, I've been in front of the pot all along, and I ate my fill early." Lei Dapeng's eyes sparkled like peach blossoms as he smiled, full of deep affection. Si Mu Xian let out a snort of laughter, which made Lei Dapeng glare at him angrily, scaring him into hastily carrying his bowl to sit down next to Shan Yong behind the stove.

  Although they were classmates, the relationship between them was subtle. Class leader Ding Yizhi had always been quiet, but his eyes would occasionally glance at Wang Huating, and he often showed disdain towards Lei Dapeng. When this happened again, Shan Yong intervened, calling out to Lei Dapeng: "Dapeng, come over... let's discuss something, the few of us will have a meal together. Don't disturb others while they're eating, they still have class, you idle person with nothing better to do."

  Wow, this works, Lei Dapeng got up and walked towards Egg Brother with his younger brother. As soon as they left, Wang Huating let out a sigh of relief, now she regretted giving Lei Ge a good face at the time. This is great, a little sunshine made Lei Ge radiant like this, can't hide it anymore. After Lei Dapeng left, she looked at Shan Yong with gratitude, but Shan Yong was very focused on whittling a wooden stick and didn't notice her at all, making her feel empty and lost again.

  Lei's brother came up, looking at Dan Yong still whittling a thin wooden stick, and glancing at Si Mu Xian, asked with interest: "What are we eating? I see there are quite a few dogs in this village, why don't we catch one back?"

  "Try it on, let the villagers find out, and beat you to death." Danyong said with his eyelids not raised, casually saying: "I said what I wanted to eat is several times stronger than turtle meat, several times stronger than dog meat. Test you, what delicious food can be eaten in this place?"

  A slender stick, about one foot long, with uniform thickness; a mud pellet, which had been kneaded into over a hundred grains in the past few days. Suddenly, Sima Xiang's eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "I know now..."

  "Didn't ask you, what about Da Peng?" Dan Yong smiled and interrupted, staring at Lei Da Peng.

  It's like a barbecue, but there's no fish on the skewer, it's too thin. It must be roasted, but the rare things that can be taken out are not in Leida Peng's eyes. Leida scratched his head, dug his ears, and grabbed his chin, couldn't think of anything for a long time, and asked his superior, Muxian, who was selling him a riddle, smiling but not speaking. This made Leida anxious, and he cursed: "If you don't say it, I don't care about knowing... What good things can this place have? At most, they are wild boars and pheasants, which are protected animals. You two dare to catch me and report me."

  Everyone burst out laughing, and it's not certain if they could catch him. Dan Yong and Si Mu Xian didn't say a word, except for Lei Da Peng, Wang Hua Ting, Ding Yi Zhi, and Liu Cui Yun didn't pay much attention to the food. After finishing dinner, Liu Cui Yun washed the dishes, and students started arriving at school one after another, starting a new day. The mystery was still unsolved, but what made Dan Yong and Si Mu Xian curious was that Lei Da Peng, who couldn't fit two taels of goods in his stomach, didn't care about what to eat this time, staring straight at Wang Hua Ting and Liu Cui Yun as they walked into the classroom together.

  Waiting for Simu Xian to leave, Shanyong returned to the dormitory with his textbook and had just come down from the stairs when Lei Dapeng stretched out both arms, without saying a word, and solemnly blocked Shanyong's way. Shanyong smiled and said: "Want to know what to eat? I knew you couldn't hold it in."

  "No, no, I have other things." Lei Dapeng said with a difficult expression.

  "What's more important than eating?" Yun Dong was puzzled.

  "Ideals... are more important than eating." Lei Dapeng said solemnly.

  Shan Yong's eyes widened in surprise, and Lei Da Peng didn't mince words, directly grabbing Shan Yong and asking: "That... that, are we brothers?"

  "That goes without saying." Danyong said casually, this brother can't even recognize him, but he's already become sworn brothers with a thick skin.

  "Hey, brother, I've helped you a lot, haven't I?" Lei Dapeng said with a stern face, looking so serious that Shan Yong was taken aback. Seeing Shan Yong's expression, Lei Dapeng started counting on his fingers: "You're short of money, I'll give you as much as I have, if it's not enough, I'll even steal from my mom to lend it to you... You get into trouble, and I'll smooth things over with my dad... There are some good stuff in my dad's cabinet, I'll steal them out and give you a share first... And when it comes to fighting, who have we ever said no to? And when you want to hook up with girls, I've even provided you with condoms, those were all imported, stolen from my dad's pocket..."

  "Stop, stop, stop...... Da Peng, come on......" Danyong's face was no longer tolerable, but he didn't know what had happened to Lei Da Peng, and he brought out all these old grievances. He pulled him to the corner of the building and asked with a mixture of laughter and tears: "What do you mean? Do you want to settle accounts with me? I haven't wronged you in any way, have I?"

  "Not, not... I mean, you've always been good enough to me. Can't I consider you as my own brother and you consider me as your younger brother?" Lei Dapeng asked seriously.

  "What do you think? My mom is more affectionate towards you than me, should we be sworn brothers?" Dan Yong said, this was a true embarrassment, the relationship was too close, it's hard to even try to distance themselves.

  "Then you'll help your brother out, no problem?" Lei Dapeng said, it seemed that he wanted to take advantage of their relationship to make a request. Shan Yong patted his chest and nodded, naturally there was no problem. So Lei Dapeng blurted out the words that had been stuck in his heart for a long time, and extended his hand expectantly:

  "Give me that textbook, I'll be the teacher for two days."

  Uh, Shan Yong choked again, staring blankly at Lei Da Peng who was full of expectation, but had no idea what made him think of singing this out.

  "Look, I know you don't consider me a brother, not even helping with such a small matter." Lei Dapeng became displeased and angrily wanted to leave. Shan Yong grabbed him and asked: "Wait, what do you mean, why don't you go find those few?"

  "You're asking because you don't know, right? If I ask them, they'll just laugh at me for my poor handwriting and think I'm not qualified to be a teacher. Only we two are on the same level, so neither of us will laugh at the other." Lei Dapeng said honestly.

  Shan Yong was both amused and annoyed, and asked in surprise: "Then I don't understand, you know your own level, brother isn't making fun of you, compared to me and the others, you're far inferior, why make a fool of yourself like this."

  "No, Egg Brother... I just wanted to get rid of this habit." Lei Da Peng said.

  "This is addictive, what's so addictive about it?" Yunrong was puzzled.

  "Go ahead, ah, from kindergarten to elementary school, middle school, university, every day he was scolded and trained by teachers, either slapping his head or kicking his butt. How did we survive such hardships? You're not unaware of this, right? So I've always dreamed that one day when I become a teacher... those who are naughty and get zero points in the class will be praised and rewarded; those who excel academically and get high scores will be criticized and struggled against...” Lei Dapeng said with righteous indignation. It seems like he's been oppressed for too long, just waiting for the day when the serfs rise up and sing their song. Looking at Egg Brother, whose eyes were wide with shock, Lei Dapeng pulled him along and begged: "Egg Brother, brother has lived so big, besides eating, this is all I have left in terms of ideals, can't you just satisfy me a little bit?"

  "Me... Oh no, Big Peng, aren't you misleading the young master?" Dan Yong was at a loss for words, and for a moment, he couldn't find suitable words to comfort his brother.

  "Come on, the kids here are still young and naive, the whole school is just a reserve team for migrant workers. I think those teachers are just talking nonsense, anyway they can't learn well, and the promotion rate is not high either. It's better to let the children have fun." Lei Dapeng said, although his words were harsh, but it was also the truth, the level of students in this school, half of them were not much different from Lei Dapeng.

  Some things are actually simple, can't overthink, the more you think, the easier it is to make mistakes. This sentence suddenly made Dan Yong thoughtful, smiled and slapped the book into Lei Dapeng's hand, waved his hand: "Go, congratulations on realizing your dream... but ideals and reality have a gap, you may not get what you want."

  "Ah... no need to thank me, Egg Brother, I knew you'd be considerate."

  Lei Dapeng, however, was no longer concerned, hugging his textbook as if it were a treasure, and ran quickly to the classroom of Grade 7 Class 3 with a happy smile, it turned out that this was what had been on his mind for so many days, no wonder he hadn't been in high spirits.

  The campus was quiet for a while, and after listening carefully, nothing seemed to have happened. Then, the rural postal worker came riding a green bicycle, and Shanyong knew that his package had arrived. He smiled and went to greet him, and indeed, everything was as he had hoped. The goods had arrived, and after signing and unpacking, two thin high-intensity flashlights appeared before his eyes, along with a packet of prepared seasonings. It seemed like he had seen something delicious, and Shanyong's face broke into a faint smile. In fact, his mind was not entirely on teaching...