The humble door was pushed open from the outside, and a normal family of Irlanhill civilians filled the room with a faint smell of rice during dinner.

Being able to eat a full meal is already one of the benefits of the empire for the people of the periphery of Ellan Hill.

They didn't have such a good life before, and of course they couldn't bother to improve their food.

It's different now, and every month they get something they couldn't have imagined before.

In the beginning, they worked hard to get some Bude mustard, which was cheap and abundant, giving them hope for a life in poverty.

Subsequently, after eating pickles for more than a year and finding that the food was becoming more and more abundant, the people, whose income had increased several times, finally began to work the patterns of eating.

About half a year ago, vegetables began to appear on people's tables, and the number of sweet potatoes began to increase.

Then, people who have the desire to buy cheap canned ham and canned fish and so on, although they know that most of the space is filled with starch, but the taste is really good, enough to make people happy for many days.

Of course, time is still moving forward, and society is constantly evolving. Nowadays, decent families are eating fresh meat and eggs.

They can also occasionally consume some cooked food, such as fragrant roast chicken, roast rabbit, stewed large pieces of meat of mountain beasts, and so on.

Fat and meat skin have also begun to come to people's tables, which also shows that most of the areas ruled by Irlanhill have initially solved the problem of food and clothing for the people.

Leaving his school bag behind, the boy who had just come home from class at the best local high school No. 1 threw off his sneakers and ran to the kitchen table full of plates.

Then, a voice of slight disappointment rang out, and the able-bodied boy, apparently dissatisfied with the dinner his mother had prepared: "Huh? …… Eat canned fish again......"

The production areas of this canned fish are all in the coastal areas, and the brands are naturally the same, and the taste is no different.

At first, he still liked this taste very much, but over time, he was no longer satisfied with this canned product, which had nothing to do with freshness.

As the saying goes, half the size of the child, eat the poor. At this time, it is the time to grow up, and the boy can eat several bowls of rice at a meal, and his favorite is the cooked chicken hanging in a row in the supermarket two blocks away.

"What did you learn in school today?" My mother was cutting a piece of tofu in the kitchen, and this white and tender food from the Seris region became more and more popular among the common people.

After she came home from work, she began to have dinner, and she has been busy until now without a short break.

For the mother, getting her children home from school with a hot dinner is a top priority.

The boy threw his schoolbag on his cot and went back to the kitchen to fight for the best interests of his mouth: "Mom! We've been eating this canned fish for three days in a row, and I'm going to eat roast chicken! ”

"The roast chicken in the supermarket is too expensive, and your father is just an ordinary factory fitter, how can you have the money to eat several roast chickens a month." His mother's helpless voice came from the kitchen, with a hint of exhaustion in it.

What was once the proudest profession of the worker is now less sdemanding. Layoffs are often heard in large factories, and competition is fierce in small businesses.

As a textile worker, the housewife of the textile factory to which she belongs has recently been trying to reduce costs, and the only advantage of a small town like theirs is cheap labor resources compared to those large cities that have developed.

Factories in big cities are automated, numerically controlled...... The original workers are in danger of being eliminated, and the traditional skilled workers can no longer keep up with the progress of the times.

I heard that many factories in Seris have been completely robotized, with only a few managers in them, and the labor cost has been compressed to a level close to zero.

So those small enterprises that had no technological advantage began to move to the periphery of the empire, living here today, and moving farther and poorer tomorrow to squeeze the poor who had not yet been lifted out of poverty.

In this ordinary family in front of us, men and women are the most basic labor force, the kind of people who are about to be eliminated by the times, although their lives have also improved, but they are destined not to make any qualitative leaps.

"You haven't said anything about your classes in school, where are they?" The mother, who already had a budget for the money in her hand, obviously didn't prepare today's roast chicken, so she continued to ask.

The boy pinched out a fish tail from the can, hung it into his mouth, and boasted while chewing: "I am strong in mathematics, I have mastered all the things I have learned recently, the teacher said that I can be admitted to the University of Falling Dragon City, but I think that if the family can come up with a sum of money, my score can almost be admitted to the second university of Seris at my own expense......"

He is the hope of the whole family, and in this typical ordinary family, the only one who is most likely to change the future is him who is still studying.

And this boy really lived up to expectations. His grades are very good in the class, and he is the kind of "good student" who is likely to be admitted to a good university, get a better education, and find a decent job after graduation.

At school, the teachers also paid more attention to him, and there were even a few little girls who liked to ask him questions.

Mother's voice weakened as she cut something: "Seris? Where is the university good, but the cost is too high...... There's no way a family like ours would allow you to go to study in Seris. ”

"Mom! If I can go to Seris II University, it will be easy to find a job when I come out. "The boy sat at the table and coquettished.

"The problem is, your father and I don't make enough money in a month for you to spend three days in Seris......" The mother weighed the family's savings, and thought that it would be better to have an early showdown with her son for this kind of thing, so that he could dispel this idea.

That's Seris! It's prohibitively expensive. I heard that the city is so huge that there are 15 districts and 44 subway lines, and it makes people's scalps tingle just thinking about it.

The radio news often introduces the world's only megacity. Even if you've never been there, you can see how prosperous and expensive it is.

The cheapest prices there are as high as 120 gold per square meter, which is enough to buy a decent house in this small town on the edge.

"It's not that exaggerated." Of course, the child didn't believe it, and muttered a little unwillingly.

"That's the exaggeration." The mother shook her head reluctantly: "Your father went to Seris, and at that time his salary was only 1 gold coin per month, and Seris's hotel cost 70 silver coins a day. ”

"When you said that, it was three years ago!" Children do not understand their parents' predicament and insist on their own ideals.

"It's more expensive now. Remember Uncle Bard? Mother asked, bringing up an acquaintance. Bard was their neighbor, and it is. It's just that the people of Bad have found a job to work in Seris.

Washing dishes in a small restaurant in Seris, I heard that there is a salary of 1 gold coin a day, which is called a generous one.

"He? Didn't his boss own a small restaurant in Seris? The child heard about Uncle Bud's deeds and immediately nodded and said.

"Yes, I heard from your father that he sent Bard back to borrow some money from an acquaintance to turn over his business." Mother said with a sigh.

This is not a nonsense, Bud did come back a while ago, and he did come back to help his boss borrow money. However, 1000 gold coins were obviously not so easy to borrow in this small city, and in the end, Bard could only return empty-handed.

"How much to borrow?" The child is curious about such gossip.

"Yes, I asked your father if he was going to borrow 100 gold coins...... He even said that he wanted to borrow 1,000 gold coins to be enough...... "The mother brought the fried tofu to the table, put it in front of the child, and said in a thoughtful manner.

The child stuck out his tongue, three thousand gold coins was too far away for him, and he was good at math, of course, he understood what three thousand gold coins meant to a family like theirs.

"Okay...... I know. The child was sullen and lowered his head to his mouth with the rice, which had some sweet potatoes in it, which made it taste so sweet.

But when the boy ate it, he tasted a bitter taste. He has worked hard, but he is still far, far away from the world he longs for.

The girl he liked had come here from Seris with his father. The girl's father was a municipal magistrate and had a high income, and the girl's grades were also very good, and her knowledge was the envy of the boy.

The girl had eaten Seris's sweetest ice cream, touched the mottled doors of the old palace with her own hands, and as long as she stood there, her aura was different from that of other girls.

She had a beautiful dress that the girls here had never seen before, she had a history of the empire that was extraordinarily expensive at first glance, she had a beautiful pink bicycle, and she had big eyes that could make people haunt her with a wink.

Today, this beautiful girl told him that in a year she would be admitted back to Seris, and it was estimated that she would be admitted to Seris No. 2 University.

"I've heard people say that Dothan University is good." Seeing that her son was depressed, the mother explained distressedly: "At the end of this month, if we still have a balance, how about my mother buy you a roast chicken?" ”

"Uh-huh......" swallowed the fragrant but hard-to-swallow meal in his mouth, and the boy responded. There are many, many things, things that are in the heart, and before he has imagined it, for him, it is already over - it is like two parallel lines.