On March 14, Hurgana could already faintly feel the breath of spring, and at six o'clock in the morning, Hurley awoke from her gray dream under the guidance of the biological clock she had cultivated during this time, and looked blankly at the increasingly familiar ceiling for a while, only to realize that she had a thin layer of fine sweat on her body.

"Good morning, Mrs. Elton!"

"Good morning, Schiller!"

Downstairs there was a faint greeting from Mother and Bessie to the guests who had come to Carl's cake shop to buy breakfast in the morning, and since Hurley's room was located on the back street, she could not hear it very clearly, she lifted the thick quilt, and the cold of early spring suddenly made the girl shiver at the girl who was only wearing a small tulle vest and panties, and a thin layer of sweat on her body.

"It's not like spring has arrived at all!"

After complaining, Hurley hurriedly put on thick clothes, the cotton underwear produced by the textile factory was covered with a woolen sweater produced in the north, and then put on a thick and bloated coarse cotton coat and pants.

After struggling to prop up the thick wooden windows, the fresh morning air mixed with the cold rushed into the room, washing away all the dullness brought by the night, and after looking at a quiet back alley, Hurley packed her canvas schoolbag and prepared to go downstairs with her heavy schoolbag.

As she stepped up the stairs, her gaze casually swept over the next door of her room, and the scene from last night's dream suddenly came to mind in bits and pieces, darkening her brown eyes.

Today is her eleventh birthday, but Xia Lin, who brought their family the current life, has no chance to participate again.

"Good morning! Hurley, waking up pretty early today! And Happy Birthday! ”

As soon as I got downstairs, I saw Bessie hurriedly walking from the storefront in the front hall to the cake workshop in the back, because of the death of Xia Lin, Bessie and Anthony's wedding was simply held, after all, in that case, no one in the Carl family had the heart to hold a grand wedding.

"I usually wake up pretty early......"

Hurley bowed her head a little awkwardly when she heard this cheerful blessing, as if she was resisting Bessie's optimism.

People in the slums, and even people in this world, don't pay that much attention to life and death, like losing a loved one or friend in a misfortune in their lives, which is a common thing for them, and only a moment of mourning is needed for them to muster up the courage to continue to walk into the future.

After all, the weight of life is on the shoulders of the living, who don't have so much time to grieve.

But maybe it's because of Xia Lin's family situation that has changed a lot now, but Hurley has never forgotten his existence, and the blessing just now also reminded her of the scene on the day she and her family celebrated Xia Lin's birthday.

Bessie didn't care about Hurley's little mood, and Carl's cake shop, which had already become famous throughout the imperial capital, was crowded with people who came to buy cakes and various desserts for breakfast, even in the morning.

After the funeral, Lannie accidentally found a notebook in that room while sorting through her belongings, in which she recorded many new dessert preparations.

The breakfast of sandwiches with black tea, green tea, or milk, which has recently become popular among ordinary citizens, is the breakfast set that Carl Cake Shop tried to launch according to that notebook.

A serving of just 10 copper pebis is enough to make for a delicious and fulfilling morning in the day, and it is very popular with the townspeople, and even many people buy this set menu for lunch and dinner, so Bessie and Lannie are very busy every day.

Hurley descended downstairs to the dining room, where a sandwich with bacon, sausage slices, fried eggs, cabbage leaves, and cream was already in her place.

After placing her bag on her seat, Hurley avoided the busy Bessie and Zu, found her own clay cup from the steaming kitchen, scooped a glass of fresh milk with a wooden spoon from the milk bucket next to her, and returned to her seat to eat what was definitely a hearty breakfast.

"I'm going to school!"

"Be careful on the road!"

After breakfast, Hurley greeted her busy mother with her schoolbag on her back and got into a carriage on the side of the street.

Some time ago, after the slum clearance campaign, there were some things called inspection offices all over the slums, and if there were any robberies, thefts, fights, etc., the inspectors with rifles and black sticks on their backs would be dispatched to educate the so-called "law and order instability".

Even if they can run for a while, those people can't run for a lifetime under the noses of their enthusiastic neighbors.

Because of this, the slums, or the new district, are much better than before, and even the adjacent West Side may not be as good as the new district, so the Carl family can now rest assured that she, a girl who is fourteen and will soon be fifteen, will go to school in a carriage.

Lately, her father has always gone to the industrial park early, and he seems to be very busy, and Hurley has heard that something big is happening in the industrial park, but she has seen a few times in that memory, and Wyatt, who is as beautiful as a girl, can make something big, which makes Hurley very curious.

In her spare time in the carriage, Hurley took out a thin booklet from her pocket and began to recite an excerpt from the epic on it, which was the so-called "supplementary book" distributed by Xinglan Primary School, which was simply printed with articles that needed to be memorized in the Chinese textbook.

In their free time, the students of Xinglan Primary School can take out this booklet of "Compulsory Memorization of Texts for Primary Schools Affiliated to Xinglan Industrial Park" to consolidate the articles they have learned in class.

There may be students in Xinglan Primary School who do not have very good academic performance, but there are definitely no poor students with poor learning attitudes.

Because every poor child knows that they have obtained this learning opportunity, which is the dream of countless slum children, as long as they complete five years of study, they can get a permanent position in the industrial park, which is the hope for themselves and their families.

The pride and joy on the faces of the regular employees and their families, and the generous remuneration they can bring back to their families, all make the hearts of these precocious children full of longing.

The carriage clattered forward for a while, and then suddenly stopped, and the sound of clanging gradually sounded in her ears, and Hurley, who was closing her eyes and memorizing the text, did not pay attention to it at first, but after waiting for a while, she found that the carriage suddenly entered a strange situation of moving and stopping for a while, and she couldn't help but put down the thin booklet in her hand in confusion, opened the door and asked the coachman:

"Uncle Marven, what's wrong?"

"Miss Hurley, there seems to be some construction going on on Banyan Street in front of you, blocking half of the road, horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians, I think we have to wait before we can get there!"

The coachman, Marven, pointed to the side of the street next to the carriage, which was blocked by a low wooden fence, and replied.

There were many workers wielding hammers to pry large stone slabs out of the road, and several heavily armored city guards were eyeing them at the sight of impatient pedestrians trying to step over the fence and enter the construction site.

(End of chapter)