After raising the flag, the students ran to the classroom with a smile, the first class was the mathematics class of the head teacher Wang Na, Li Liang took out the textbook, and couldn't help but smile wryly, although he had a good academic performance, but he paid a few years of primary school after graduating from the teacher's school, and then transferred to the town government to work after he rarely touched the textbook, not to mention the mathematics knowledge of the second year of junior high school, at least he forgot most of it.

He was holding the book in a daze, and Zhang Chen next to him saw him in a daze, quietly poked his waist, and whispered: "Turn to page 25 and learn functions and equations and inequalities today." ”

In this way, Li Liang followed the rhythm of the teachers, combined with the teacher's explanation and the vague memory in his mind, and gradually became familiar with the textbooks in his hand. After class at noon, the students went to the cafeteria with their lunch boxes in twos and threes. Li Liang also followed Zhang Chen to the cafeteria, Zhang Chen was a little embarrassed, but a little happy. Usually, Li Liang goes over to eat with Wang Chao and his boys, and rarely goes with her.

When the two came to the cafeteria, there was already a long queue. Seeing that the queue was very long, Li Liang took the empty lunch box in Zhang Chen's hand into his hand, and said to Zhang Chen: "Chenchen, you go and occupy a seat, I'll line up for dinner." Zhang Chen was about to hand Li Liang the money and food stamps in his hand, but Li Liang refused, so he nodded and went to find a seat.

Finally, it was Li Liang's turn to eat, the fat master in the canteen held a big long spoon in his hand, and in front of him were several large pots of dishes, most of which were vegetarian dishes, and the pots containing fried shredded potatoes, fried bean sprouts with chili peppers, and braised eggplants were all large aluminum pots with a diameter of one meter, and the only two meat vegetables, chili peppers, dried fish and braised pork were packed in small pots. Most of the students eat vegetarian dishes, and only a few students who are better dressed and have better family conditions will eat meat dishes. Li Liang made small dried fish, braised pork, bean sprouts and braised eggplant, three taels of rice per person, such a meal only cost 6 cents and 6 taels of food stamps, it was really cheap.

With the food in his hand, Li Liang quickly found the position occupied by Zhang Chen.

"Liangzi, why do you cook so many dishes?" Zhang Chen whispered, usually when they eat, they girls usually make one dish, and rarely make two or three dishes.

"No more, no more, I can eat!" Li Liang said as he ate.

"Li Liang, Chenchen!" At this time, there were two large boys on the side, one of whom was tall and strong and black, and the other was tall and thin but white, and the two bodies formed a sharp contrast, and they walked over at the same time.

Li Liang looked up and saw that the boy led by Zhang Chen was Zhang Chen's brother Zhang Meng, who was in his third year of high school in this school, and next to him was his classmate Lei Lei. Li Liang usually hangs out with the two of them, and the three of them are also ranked according to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Taoyuan Three Knots. Zhang Meng is the eldest at 18 years old and is the eldest brother; Lei Lei is two months younger than Zhang Meng, and everyone is used to calling him Erlei; and Li Liang is the youngest and the third.

"Brother, have you eaten?" Chen Chen called Zhang Meng.

"I've eaten," Zhang Meng replied, and said to Li Liang: "Li Liang, come to the pond after dinner, we will wait for you!" After speaking, he walked out with Lei Lei.

After eating, Li Liang quickly rinsed the lunch boxes of the two people and sent Zhang Chen back to the classroom, Chenchen was a little worried, she said to Li Liang carefully: "Li Liang, it seems that I heard my brother say that I helped you teach you a lesson about the boy who fought with you two days ago, you must not think about it anymore, forget it, listen to the teacher, learning is the most important!" Li Liang nodded, and trotted all the way to the pond behind the cafeteria.

Walking to the edge of the pond, Zhang Meng and Lei Lei squatted under the root of a plane tree, lit a cigarette and took turns smoking. The two saw Li Liang coming over, and handed Li Liang a few puffs of cigarettes.

Li Liang waved his hand and said, "Brother Meng, Erlei, you smoke it, I won't smoke it!"

"Okay, Liangzi, I usually ask my brothers to smoke cigarettes with a dead face!" Zhang Meng saw that he didn't smoke, hehe smiled, put the cigarette in his mouth and took a hard puff before handing it to Lei Lei.

Li Liang then remembered that he used to smoke with Zhang Meng and Lei Lei, but now he is really not used to smoking a cigarette by several people in turn. Moreover, the cigarettes Zhang Meng smoked obviously did not have a filter, and the smell of smoke was too great, and Li Liang, who was used to smoking cigarettes with filters in later generations, was not used to it.

Lei Lei also took a sip and sighed: "Oops, this school is boring!"

"It's so boring!" Zhang Meng also sighed.

Li Liang knew that Zhang Meng and Lei Lei were purely mixed up at school, so he wanted to get a high school diploma. Zhang Meng's parents are both workers in the Chengguan Coal Yard, and there are many brothers and sisters in the family, including two older sisters, as well as a younger sister Zhang Chen and a younger brother Zhang Junjie; the eldest sister Zhang Xin went to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution and just returned to the city this year to be unemployed; the second sister Zhang Jia, like Li Liang's sister Li Meng, also worked as a nurse in the county people's hospital, and her salary was not high; her younger sister Zhang Chen and her younger brother Zhang Junjie were still in elementary school, and their family had a large population and were in the stage of barely solving the problem of food and clothing.

Lei Lei's family situation is slightly better, his parents are both township forest farm workers, he is rarely at home, and he only comes back on Sundays, and there is a younger brother Lei Xin at home, and Zhang Meng's younger brother Zhang Junjie is a classmate, and he is also in elementary school.

The three of them are all people whose parents don't have time to take care of them, and their respective homes are still relatively close, so although Li Liang is two or three years younger than the two of them, they can still play together.

Suddenly seeing Zhang Meng and Lei Lei, Li Liang's heart was full of emotion. In fact, after the college entrance examination in July this year, Zhang Meng and Lei Lei unexpectedly fell off the list, and the two did not choose to repeat their studies, but stayed at home, occasionally took a temporary job, and waited for their parents to take over after they retired from illness.

Since the end of the 70s, a large number of intellectual young people have returned to the cities, and the situation of urban employment is extremely severe.

In order to properly settle the lives of retired workers and promote the renewal of the ranks of workers, the state stipulates that after a worker retires or retires from his post, "if his family life is really difficult, or if he has many children who go to the countryside and has few children in employment, he may, in principle, recruit one of his children who meets the requirements for recruitment to work." By the early 80s, the employment of children was at its peak.

Some parents have not yet reached retirement age, but their children are old and have no job, so they will use alternative methods to handle sick retirement in advance.

What made Li Liang sigh was that Zhang Meng, like his sister Li Meng, also died young. Unlike his sister who died of injury, Zhang Meng died of depression after being imprisoned during the YD in 83. At the beginning of 83, once Zhang Meng came back from work in the coal yard and saw a group of thugs snatching a woman's purse on the street. Zhang Meng, who was strong-blooded, rushed up and kicked the gangster in the lead, but the gangster was unlucky, and after being kicked to the ground, his head hit the road hard, and he died after being sent to the hospital.

Originally, Zhang Meng's behavior belonged to righteousness and bravery, but when he met the national YD, Zhang Meng was confused from righteousness and courage to intentional homicide and was imprisoned, and later sentenced to 10 years in prison because of insufficient evidence of intentional homicide. In prison, Zhang Meng couldn't figure it out, and died of depression within a few years.

Lei Lei's development is relatively smooth, after graduating from high school, he took over his father's class, and has been the head of the forest farm from an ordinary worker and the head of the labor unit to the head of the forest farm.

Seeing his sister and Zhang Meng again in this life, Li Liang wanted to change their fate and not let them be defeated by fate again.

"Brother Meng, are you planning to go to the coal yard to take over your uncle's class?" asked Li Liang.

"My parents both work in the coal yard, and my sister is now back in the city and has no job, so it's hard to find a partner. My dad wanted me to go to the coal yard with my sister after high school to top my parents' class, and they both went through the sick discharge. Zhang Meng took a puff of cigarette and continued: "But now the leader of the coal yard means that most of the workers' families now have this kind of demand for top shifts, and there are few jobs in the coal yard, and it is impossible for all of them to let my father and their 40 and 50-year-old workers all retire from illness, and a family of workers will handle at most one sick retirement. ”

At this time, Lei Lei interjected: "My dad's forest farm is also like this, but my family is fine, just me and my brother have two children, my brother Lei Xin is only 12 years old, my dad is ready to operate, let my mother retire from illness, and I will take my mother's class." ”

The actual situation is the same as what Zhang Meng and Lei Lei said, and later Zhang Meng's family really let Zhang Meng's eldest sister Zhang Xin take the shift, but to be honest, the work in the coal yard is really not a good job, dealing with briquettes all day long, and people can be comparable to blacks after a busy day, and girls are very guilty of doing this job.

Li Liang suddenly had an idea, and his memory was that this year, the 105 National Highway and another national highway in the west of Hekang City were renovated, and there were frequent traffic accidents at this intersection in the past, and the county spent a lot of money to build an overpass there to divert traffic, and at the same time, the China National Petroleum Company also built a large gas station under the overpass. 500 meters on the east side of the overpass is the newly put into operation of the county state-owned cement plant, the plant has hundreds of employees, is a key enterprise in the county, and the benefits are good.

In Li Liang's memory, after the overpass was opened, some bold local villagers built several simple storefronts opposite the gas station, opened a few shops and restaurants, and specialized in the business of passenger trucks passing on the national highway and cement factory workers. Unexpectedly, with the continuous development of reform and opening up, the frequent exchange of personnel and materials on the national highway, and gradually the business became bigger and bigger, and several simple façade houses built of wooden boards were actually converted into a number of 7-storey buildings, and a comprehensive township farmers' market was formed. The first few villagers who participated in the operation became the leaders of the county who became rich in the early days, and also drove the villagers in the surrounding villages and towns to make a fortune.