She Only Cares About Cultivation

Once the class started, she sent her to the teacher there. Crying was inevitable, just like kindergarten kids, but she’d get used to it slowly.

The school here provides meals for the children. For infants who are nursing, their mothers typically come to feed them once every two hours. For those who can eat solid food, they’re given some rice paste. Each month, there’s a three yuan fee for meals and childcare. Primary school students pay two yuan a semester and bring their own food. Most choose to do this, but a few who don’t bring food have to pay four yuan. For infants, it’s three yuan, and they don’t need to bring food as they eat at the school. The money mentioned here is after converting to a second set of RMB; if it’s the first set, you’d add at least three more zeros at the end.

After her child was dropped off, Zhang Li and An Yi worked at their respective desks, preparing materials for their classes.

In this era, teachers received very few office supplies, such as triangular rulers, chalk, books, ink, feather pens, and drafting paper. The school provided these but only once per semester. Once used up, teachers had to find a way themselves.

That’s why Zhang Li was very frugal. She explained everything thoroughly and only transferred it to her lesson plan after ensuring it was correct. These lesson plans were like daily homework that had to be submitted later!

An Yi naturally couldn’t be any different from the other teachers, so she too would only neatly transfer her lesson plans once she was fully prepared, making them clean, crisp, and pleasant to look at.

"Teacher An, your handwriting is amazingly beautiful! How did you practice? I must learn from you someday; compared to yours, my writing is just awful."

"You haven’t seen me practicing writing tirelessly when I was a kid. If I didn’t write well, the adults would whip me; it was as miserable as can be. It’s never too late to practice writing as long as you’re willing."

However, practicing writing requires ink and paper, and these things are quite expensive. After thinking for a while, Zhang Li shook her head and gave up.

But she couldn’t help asking, "Teacher An, your family’s circumstances are pretty good, right?"

"I feel those were ages ago. That was when my parents were still around, the home was intact, and everything was good. But now, it’s all gone..."

Zhang Li saw her face full of melancholy and decided not to ask further: "Teacher An, please accept my condolences; things will get better."

An Yi was relieved when the topic shifted away, and afterward, the two of them busily tended to their own work, saying nothing more. During the big break, An Yi fetched her daughter back, secretly fed her a snack, then sent her back again, and went back to teaching.

It wasn’t noticeable until the class began. When her mouth was busy speaking tirelessly, she then felt the importance of drinking water. Luckily, she was prepared with a tea canister. This enamel tea canister was bought by herself, with a white base color and blue rim, featuring red five-pointed stars and the big red words "Serve the People."

Generally, such enamel items like cups, bowls, and basins were given as rewards to outstanding individuals in the 1950s and 1960s. This tradition even continued until the late 1970s. It was only after the 1980s and 1990s, following the Reform and Opening, that people began to buy these things themselves, back when they were essential for getting married!

She remembers the scenes commonly seen in movies where a teacher takes a sip of tea and spits out the tea leaves—it was too real.

Her own tea cup had tea leaves too, which she made herself from Spirit Grass cultivated in space. The taste was an exquisite delicacy of this age, something even money couldn’t buy. Gifting it to others proved exceptionally effective.

After the village chief and the secretary tasted it, they never forgot. They asked several times where they could buy it, but she always said it was gifted by a friend. She’d offer more if they wanted it, but only when she needed them to do something; nobody would share such a great thing for no reason!

Tea eggs made from these tea leaves tasted unbelievably delicious, guaranteed to be unforgettable after just once.

After school, Zhang Li took her child home. Their family couldn’t afford meal fees, given she had just started working with no salary yet.

An Yi initially planned to go home, but seeing Zhang Li go home, she decided against it. Rather than going to the cafeteria, she directly took out food from space to eat. After she was done, she placed it back in space, not bothering to wash it—washing could wait until she was home.

At noon, she ate pickled green beans sautéed with minced meat. Her daughter had stewed ribs with shredded carrots and potato strips, plus a little rice. All of this was boiled in plain water, without any salt, yet she found it flavorful and sweet. She placed her daughter at the base of the folding table she made, and her daughter grabbed and ate the food independently—she was quite handy.