The person in charge of the school cafeteria, relying on being a relative of the principal, didn’t treat us students as human beings at all.
The chicken drumsticks were born in the same year as my great – grandmother.
The meatballs, which were all fatty meat, were sold for eight yuan each.
No matter how strong the seasonings were, they couldn’t cover up the stinky and rotten smell of the duck meat.
Just as no matter how high – sounding the excuses were, they couldn’t hide the principal’s greed for profit.
I really couldn’t stand it anymore, so I led my classmates to overturn the food basins in the cafeteria.
The principal called my parents over and ordered me to apologize.
My parents were furious. “I pay so much for food every month, and this is what you feed my child?”
Then, my father threw the rice bowl in front of the principal. “You eat this clean today. If you dare to leave a single grain of rice, we’ll meet at the Education Bureau!”
1
The food in my high – school cafeteria had only one difference from excrement, and that was it was charged.
If you threw it to a dog, the dog would say that it would rather die than be humiliated, fear no destruction, and keep its integrity.
But the things that dogs won’t eat can be given to us to eat.
The meatballs, which were all fatty meat, were sold for eight yuan each.
The frozen chicken drumsticks were as old as my great – grandmother. If I didn’t kowtow three times before eating, I would be scolded for not respecting the elderly.
If you stewed this chicken drumstick with eggs, who knows, maybe this great – grandmother chicken and its great – great – grandson egg would reunite in which pot, with eight generations under one roof.
The braised pork was made from pig teats.
I didn’t expect that more than ten years after I was weaned, I could still find my childhood memories on a pig.
I’m really not picky about food. When I was a kid, my mom was on a business trip, and my dad brought back a bag of pig bran and lied to me that it was imported cereal.
I ate it happily for more than half a month without any complaints.
I mention this past event not to prove that my dad didn’t treat me as a human being, but to show that my acceptance ability is stronger than a pig’s.
But dishes like cucumber stir – fried with fried dough twists and pitaya stewed with century eggs, if you take these to feed a pig.
The pig would rebel, right?
Before, I thought the cafeteria chefs’ first choice was to be alchemists.
As a result, they were like matchmakers with chicken plague, randomly pairing things up.
Later, I found out that these dishes were all expired waste vegetables from the neighboring food factory.
A pot of stew, survival of the fittest, natural selection, the cafeteria rule.
You ask me how I know?
Hehe, I ate a trademark.
Let’s talk about the free soup that is standard in every cafeteria.
It was written on the blackboard that seaweed and egg drop soup was served today.
But when you look into the pot, where is it?
It was like staring into the abyss.
Maybe the technical guidance came from a certain big instant – noodle factory.
One egg is passed down through three generations, and the egg is still there after people die.
Finally, in a hidden corner, I found a wisp of floating seaweed.
I fished it out and took a look.
Hahaha, it was fucking hair.
Sometimes I also think that the school must have its reasons for doing this.
For example, now when I eat foreign objects in the vegetable leaves, I can distinguish the types by the taste.
The soft and elastic one is a worm, and the harder one is steel wire.
Once I ate a grain – like thing that was neither soft nor hard and had a rough surface.
I spat it out and studied it with my roommate.
It might be a bean pod, a moldy rice grain, or a cockroach egg.
Self – study biology, teaching through food.
The academic atmosphere is quite strong.
If I had been born a few hundred years earlier, the author of “The Insect Book” must have been my schoolmate.
What’s Fabre got to do with it?
2
We didn’t not raise our opinions.
But the person in charge of the cafeteria was a relative of the principal.
Complaint letters like snowflakes flew towards the suggestion box.
Forcing the principal to make two changes.
First, lock the suggestion box, blocking the way of loyal advice.
Then, give a lecture on the podium, promoting the spirit of enduring hardship.
He said that we came to school to endure hardship, not to enjoy.
One by one, we are all spoiled. When New China was just founded, how many people took steamed buns with pickles and still got into college!
Only by enduring hardship can one become an outstanding person!
Since we couldn’t afford to offend, we started to avoid.
Those of us who lived on campus either went outside to solve our meals or asked day – students to pack food for us.
Then, the school first drove away the street vendors at the school gate on the grounds of food hygiene, and then began to search the bags of every day – student. If they saw food, they would confiscate it.
We were forced to eat instant noodles for most of a month.
As a result, as soon as we smelled the smell of instant noodles, we would retch and feel nauseous.
…
Where there is oppression, there is resistance.
One night, I was so hungry that my stomach acid refluxed and my mouth was bitter.
I tossed and turned in bed and couldn’t fall asleep.
My mind was full of pork elbow, mushroom, and egg – fried rice.
I chewed the quilt full of saliva.
Finally, I gritted my teeth. Damn it, can a living person be suffocated by urine?
I woke up my roommates and asked them if they wanted to live hungry or die full.
As a result, none of them were asleep.
Everyone had long since had the will to die.
So, we decided that three people would stay in the dormitory to deal with the inspection, and three people would sneak out to buy food.
At around 11 p.m., my two roommates and I secretly climbed over the wall and went to the snack street.
There used to be quite a lot of street vendors in this area, but now they were all driven away.
One roommate squatted on the empty street, grabbed a plastic bag and took a deep breath, saying there was still the aroma of duck blood vermicelli soup, and asked us if we wanted to take a sip.
Another roommate stared at the trash can, his eyes green.
Even the stray cats thought they had encountered a competitor.
We had no choice but to keep looking, hoping to be lucky enough to find a restaurant that wasn’t closed.
As a result, on the way, we ran into our head teacher.
He thought we had sneaked out to surf the Internet.
He grabbed us and dragged us into the woods, telling us to go back to the dormitory quickly.
Here, I’ll add some background. Our school implemented a closed – management system. Boarders could only go home once a month.
The school was also in a remote place, with few houses around.
Several teams of security guards patrolled 24 hours a day. If they caught someone going to an Internet cafe, they would be directly expelled.
The school was almost like a prison, and the principal was the supreme emperor here.
I said, “Sir, you’ve got it wrong. We’re just too hungry and want to come out to get something to eat.”
The head teacher was a bit stunned until I staggered on my feet, lost my balance, and sat down on the ground.
3
So the head teacher took us to his home.
The teacher’s wife hadn’t gone to bed yet. She had made a bowl of noodles for the head teacher as a midnight snack.
The head teacher motioned for us to eat it.
No kidding, a bowl of noodles disappeared in three seconds.
The noodles slid in, and the scalding soup went straight down the throat.
The throat didn’t even have time to react, and the stomach protested from the heat. It sent the food back to the mouth, and finally, the brain enforced the highest command and forced it to be swallowed.
The head teacher had just taken off his clothes and told us to eat slowly.
Before the word “eat” was fully out, we had already finished.
Three pairs of eyes looked at the teacher’s wife eagerly.
The teacher’s wife chuckled, walked into the kitchen, and turned on the gas stove.
Then, as she served a dish, we ate it.
The chopsticks and bowls clattered, and the plates were licked clean without needing to be washed.
Halfway through, the head teacher rolled up his sleeves and also went into the kitchen.
Finally, the three of us were stuffed to the brim.
The head teacher wiped the sweat and gasped, “Your three families’ financial conditions aren’t such that you can’t afford to eat. What did you do with your living expenses? Be honest!”
I waved my hand again and again, slapped my meal card on the table. It’s all here, not a single cent spent.
It’s really not that we’re being picky. The food in the cafeteria isn’t fit for human consumption.
Lymph meat stir – fried with rotten peppers, sour Chinese cabbage stewed with rotten vermicelli, and even the rice was half – cooked.
The head teacher frowned as he listened.
He said he knew the cafeteria wasn’t doing well, but he didn’t know it had become this bad.
I said, “We’re lucky this time. Other classmates can only eat normal food once a month when they go home.”
The head teacher shook his head and sighed.
Before we left, the teacher’s wife packed several meals for us and told us to be careful not to be discovered by the security guards and dormitory administrators.
I was so touched that I almost shed tears.
4
The next day, during the big break after the morning reading.
The head teacher suddenly appeared and asked everyone to stay in the classroom, draw the curtains, and close the front and back doors.
Then, he mysteriously took out a schoolbag.
As soon as he opened it, the aroma of meat wafted out!
It was a schoolbag full of meat buns!
The whole class cheered!
The head teacher quickly shushed, “Don’t let the school leaders hear.”
Sixty fresh – meat buns, for thirty people, two for each person.
They were warm, oozing oil, the dough was delicate and chewy. When you took a bite, the delicious soup slid down the throat into the stomach. It was so delicious that you’d suck your fingers!
No one spoke.
Everyone treated this hard – won delicious food with great solemnity.
The head teacher leaned on the podium, smiling and watching us eat, his eyes full of kindness.
Later, the head teacher brought us food every now and then.
Often, in the last twenty minutes of evening self – study, we would draw the curtains, put the tables together, and eat the hot food the head teacher brought.
Then we would clean up, take the garbage away in batches, and throw it into different trash cans in the school.
The whole class tacitly kept a happy secret.
The head teacher said we were so cute when we ate, like a group of chirping little sparrows.
We said we would give the head teacher the food money. We couldn’t always let him pay out of his own pocket.
The head teacher waved his hand and said, “A few meals don’t cost much. If you can improve your grades, that’s enough to repay me.”
5
However, there’s no wall that doesn’t let in wind in this world.
That son – of – a – bitch cafeteria manager still found out about this.
At noon that day, the head teacher didn’t come for a long time.
He said in the morning that he would bring us food and asked us to go back to the classroom early and wait for him obediently.
But it was already twenty minutes past the appointed time, and there was still no sign of him.
I went out to look for him.
After looking around, I saw the head teacher at the school gate.
Under the scorching sun, he lowered his head and kept bowing.
In front of him stood the cafeteria manager, looking at him with contempt, shouting and scolding loudly, spitting everywhere.
My head teacher was almost fifty years old, but was being scolded by that fatso like a primary – school student.
My anger flared up.
As I got closer, I heard that fatso say, “I’ve never seen such a shameless head teacher. Instead of focusing on grasping students’ studies, you only think about giving students special treatment. If something goes wrong with the food, can you be responsible?”
The head teacher said in a low voice, “The kids are in the stage of growing up. They get hungry easily. They don’t have the energy to study if they don’t eat enough.”
He had given that fatso enough face and didn’t even mention that the cafeteria was not doing its job properly.
Unexpectedly, the fatso got even worse. “If they’re hungry, they’ll come to the cafeteria to eat by themselves. What do you care! Are you a head teacher or a cook?”
The teacher’s wife came over to mediate and said apologetically, “I’m sorry. We know we’re wrong. But look, the food is already made. Let them eat it this last time. I promise it’s the last time.”
“Eat your ass!”
The fatso snatched the bag from the teacher’s wife’s hand and threw it hard on the ground.
The white milk flowed all over the ground, and the hard – made food was covered with dust.
The teacher’s wife couldn’t help but exclaim, her face full of distress, and she squatted down to salvage it.
But the fatso stepped on the lunch box first and stomped hard. “Eat, eat, you can’t eat shit!”
The head teacher was stunned for a moment and said tremblingly, “You’re going too far. The kids just want to have a meal.”
The fatso flaunted his power. “So what?”
As he said that, he kicked a tangerine away.
“Fuck you!” I rushed over to punch that fatso, but the head teacher hugged me.
“Fatso, apologize to my head teacher!”
I struggled hard, but the head teacher and the teacher’s wife held me tightly.
“Is this the student you taught?” The fatso sneered. “Where does he look like a student? Truly, an outstanding teacher produces outstanding students!”
I pointed at him and cursed, “If you bark again, I’ll kill you!”
The fatso got angry, walked up to me, and said sinisterly, “Say that again?”
I was about to speak when the teacher’s wife covered my mouth and dragged me out.
The head teacher said, “He’s just a kid. Don’t argue with a kid.”
The fatso pointed at the head teacher’s nose. “Get out of my way!”
I was so frustrated that I said to the teacher’s wife, “Let me go. I have to knock out this villain’s teeth today!”
The teacher’s wife said, “He has the principal backing him. We can’t fight them.”
I said, “Whether we can fight them or not, are we just going to let them bully us like this?”
The teacher’s wife sighed. “Your head teacher is about to retire. Do you want him to be made things difficult for at this critical moment?”
I was stunned.
She added, “You’ll be in your senior year of high school next semester. Study hard and get into a good university. This is the only hope your head teacher has for you. Teacher’s wife knows you’re a good kid. Be obedient. You have a long way to go in the future. It’s okay to take a step back.”
Looking at the teacher’s wife’s tired look, my nose twitched.
The teacher’s wife was right. We had implicated the head teacher, and I couldn’t implicate him anymore.
So, even if I wanted to take revenge, I could only do it in my own name.
I made up my mind.
I said to the teacher’s wife, “I’ll listen to you and go back now.”
She watched me go back to the classroom.
A quarter of an hour later, I guessed she had left, and I immediately got up and went to the cafeteria.
The moment I stood up, the whole class stood up!
I was surprised. “What are you guys doing?”
The class monitor smiled and said, “I saw it too. The head teacher was scolded because of us. Now we need to get even. You can’t be the only one to take the lead.”
Everyone nodded. “That’s right.”
At that moment, I felt a rush of blood to my head.
Full of pride and towering spirit.
Fuck, what’s the big deal!
If I die, I’ll die heroically. I’m not afraid of him!
I raised my arm and shouted, “Smash the fucking cafeteria!”
Everyone shouted in unison, “Smash the fucking cafeteria!”
6
A group of people rushed angrily towards the cafeteria.
It was noon, and there were still many students eating. When they saw us gathering, they all looked over in surprise.
I took a step forward to the nearest window, swiped my meal card, and said, “One stir – fried green peppers with meat, one stir – fried tomatoes with eggs.”
The aunt at this window was chatting happily with the person next to her, holding a ladle.
Hearing me, without turning her head, she scooped a ladle of food, then shook it, and when there were only a few pieces of vegetables left, she put it on my plate.
The whole process took less than a minute. She didn’t even look at me.
Her mouth kept moving, spitting everywhere.
She didn’t even know to wear a mask.
I stood still, waiting to see when she would remember she was at work.
After a while, she finally noticed something was wrong and frowned. “
Why aren’t you leaving?”
I pointed at the plate. “What did you serve me?”
“Stir – fried green peppers with meat. Are you blind?”
I used my chopsticks to poke at the pitifully few green peppers. “Where’s the meat? Open your dog eyes and look. Where’s the meat!”
She was used to bullying students and never expected anyone to resist. She got excited at once. “How dare you talk like that, you little brat? Who’s your homeroom teacher? Which class are you from? Tell your homeroom teacher to come and see me!”
I sneered. “Who do you think you are? Do you deserve to see my homeroom teacher?”
The aunt pointed at me with the ladle. “Do you believe I’ll teach you a lesson on behalf of your homeroom teacher? You little thing, you have no respect for others.”
I stuck my head forward. “Come on, hit me here. Try moving me!”
The aunt froze.
After all, she was just a worker. Usually, she could act like a bully, but if it came to actually hitting a student, she wouldn’t dare, even if she had a hundred guts.
At this time, an uncle next to her came to mediate and snatched the ladle from the aunt. “Young man, why are you so hot – tempered? It’s just a few pieces of meat. It’s not worth it!”
As he spoke, he rummaged through the dish and finally found a few pieces of dried meat, served them to me, and waved his hand, as if shooing away a fly. “Go, go!”
I ignored him. With a raise of my hand, my deskmate behind me handed me another plate.
I swiped my card. “One stir – fried green peppers with meat.”
The two of them sensed that something was wrong and asked warily, “What are you up to?”
I forced a smile. “I’m having a meal. What else would I be doing!”
“You already got one serving.”
“Since when do you care how many servings I get?”
The uncle gritted his teeth and served me another portion. Maybe he was a bit scared, and his hand didn’t shake anymore. His long – standing problem was cured in one go.
This time, I didn’t care about the amount of meat. With another raise of my hand, a third plate was passed over.
I swiped my card. “Stir – fried green peppers with meat.”
The uncle finally realized that I was not here for good. This time, he refused to move and gave the aunt a look. The aunt trotted off to call someone.
I said, “Are you deaf? I want to get my meal!”
The uncle said through gritted teeth, “I’ve endured you for a long time!”
At this moment, the aunt came running back with the cafeteria manager, both of them out of breath.
“He’s the one causing trouble!”
7
As soon as the fat guy saw it was me, his brows knitted into a knot. “Why is it you again? What do you want?”
I said, “What else would I do in the cafeteria? I’m here to eat!”
He pointed at the three plates at the window. “Haven’t we given you your food? Take it and leave.”
I casually stirred the dish with my hand and quickly found an old ‘friend’. I picked it up and showed it to him. “What’s this? Tell me what this is!”
He lied through his teeth, mistaking a worm for meat. “This is shredded meat!”
“Fine, then you eat it. This piece of ‘meat’ is for you. Open your mouth! Open your fucking mouth!”
The fat guy didn’t expect me to come over and pinch his mouth. He pushed me hard. “Are you looking for death? Old Zhou really can’t teach good students. Teachers and students are all the same, a bunch of despicable people!”
My homeroom teacher’s surname was Zhou.
He was adding fuel to the fire at this moment.
I laughed. “What? You don’t even dare to eat what you made?”
Then I picked up the plate and slapped it in his face.
“Then what the hell are you barking for?!”
With a “whoosh”, the students who had been holding back for a long time suddenly erupted.
Some overturned the food basins, and some pushed the tables.
Our PE monitor even jumped onto the stage and shouted, “These bastards don’t treat students like human beings. I’ve had enough of this crap!”
As soon as he said this, many people responded.
Many students who weren’t from our class also stood up, grabbed their plates, and threw them at the window.
The food – serving window was quickly smashed to pieces.
We were at an age when hormones were raging, and we had long – standing grudges.
All the old and new grudges erupted at this moment!
The few food – serving aunts who usually gave us cold looks didn’t dare to resist the angry crowd.
They immediately fled, running faster than rabbits.
We advanced irresistibly and quickly took over the cafeteria.
We were throwing pots, basins, bowls, and smashing stoves.
The situation was in our favor.
The fat guy, who was slapped down by me, also went crazy.
He blushed and cursed, saying he would kill me and that my whole family would die a horrible death.
I grabbed his collar and slapped his chubby face left and right.
At sixteen, I was at the peak of both my physical strength and intelligence.
What flowed in my body was not blood but adrenaline.
I had endless strength and beat him so that he had no power to fight back.
Since he couldn’t beat me, he cursed even more fiercely and vulgarly.
I thought he was too noisy, so I casually grabbed a handful of some kind of dish and stuffed it into his mouth.
He refused to eat, so I held his head with both hands and forced it in.
“You don’t even want to eat the food you made. How can you have the nerve to serve it to us?”
The fat guy tried to gag and spat it all out.
Now I was even more curious about what kind of food they made.
At this time, someone called my name.
I looked up and saw the PE monitor and the class monitor running over, carrying a large soup pot, motioning for me to get out of the way.
I stood up, and they put the pot over the fat guy.
“Fatty, we’ve been wanting to deal with you for a long time!”
The class monitor took a ladle and knocked hard on the outside of the pot.
“Who do you think you are, just because you’re the principal’s relative?
“You’re so stingy when it comes to serving a little side dish.
“Think you’re so great? Call your principal ‘dad’ to save you!”
…
This fat guy had been inhumane, and now all his retribution had come.
Just as we lifted the pot, countless vegetable leaves were thrown at him from all directions.
If I hadn’t reacted quickly, I would have been hit.
The fat guy finally realized that he had provoked public anger and didn’t even dare to curse at us anymore.
He lay on the ground, hugging his head and begging for mercy.
8
The school reacted quickly.
More than a dozen security guards rushed into the cafeteria, holding loud – speakers and shouting to stop.
Several school leaders also hurried over.
The one in the lead was the principal, who was usually rarely seen.
After all, the students were still afraid of the principal.
They all stopped what they were doing.
The scene quieted down instantly.
The fat guy saw the principal and was like a dog seeing its master.
He crawled over, crying and shouting, “Rebellion! They’re rebelling!”
Looking at the fat guy covered in rotten vegetable leaves, the principal frowned and unconsciously took a half – step back. “What’s going on? Who led this? Stand up!”
I had already prepared to transfer schools, so I immediately raised my hand. “I did it!”
“Do you know what you’re doing?!” The principal stared at me.
I met his gaze and said calmly, “I know. I’m defending my right to eat.”
“What?”
I found an uneaten plate of food in the corner.
I scooped up a spoonful of stinky duck meat and held it in front of the principal.
“This is what he usually feeds us. Is this fit for human consumption?”
The principal was well aware of this but didn’t even bother to look into it. He put on a sanctimonious expression again. “So you’re rebelling? Do you treat my words as if they were just wind in your ears? If you can’t even endure this little bit of hardship, what are you going to do when you enter society in the future?!”
I laughed. “I can be the principal, making the students endure hardship while I make money.”
The principal was so angry that he was shaking. “Good, very good. Which class are you from? Who’s your homeroom teacher?”
I didn’t bother to answer him. The fat guy interrupted, “I know who his homeroom teacher is. I just scolded him this noon.”
Then they contacted my homeroom teacher.
I said, “They don’t serve edible food, so I smashed the cafeteria. I did all this. I’ll drop out of school. What does it have to do with my homeroom teacher?”
“You seem to care a lot about your homeroom teacher.” The principal sneered. “I’m really curious which outstanding teacher taught you, such an outstanding student.”
My homeroom teacher was quickly brought over.
“Mr. Zhou, look at what your student has done.”
My homeroom teacher was shocked by the mess on the ground. He pulled me aside and asked in a low voice, “What happened? What did you do?”
I said, “I did everything. It has nothing to do with others. Punish me if you have to.”
The principal didn’t respond to me. He said to my homeroom teacher, “Mr. Zhou, your students are really something. Today they smash the cafeteria. Tomorrow, will they smash the school?”
My homeroom teacher said, “There must be some misunderstanding. They’re not bad kids. There must be a reason for this.”
“Hmm, a reason. What a good reason!” The principal sneered. “Then if they smash the principal’s office in the future, can they also say there’s a reason?”
“Mr. Zhou, you’re an old teacher, and I usually respect you a lot.” He said maliciously, “You’ll retire in a few years. Don’t be confused at this time. You tell me, how should your student be punished for doing such a thing?”
He really knew how to threaten my homeroom teacher with this.
I didn’t want to make things difficult for my homeroom teacher, so I stepped forward. “You’re so talkative. I’ll drop out of school. You old thing, stop barking here. You’re so annoying!”
The principal’s face turned ashen, and his chest heaved violently. “Mr. Zhou, this is the student you taught!”
My homeroom teacher, who had been bowing and apologizing, suddenly straightened his back, looked the principal straight in the face, and said slowly and firmly, “I think he’s right.”
“What?!”
“Oh, I don’t mean the part where he said you were barking… Oh, that’s not what I meant… Principal, food is the paramount necessity of the people, especially for kids who are still growing. Not letting the children eat well is really an excessive thing.”
The homeroom teacher pointed at the fat guy. “You’ve seen it too. The food they make is really bad. To put it bluntly, even dogs wouldn’t eat it. So it’s normal for everyone to be angry.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yes, just now I gave it to the principal, and the principal didn’t eat it either.”
Everyone burst out laughing.
9
“Fine, fine.” The principal nodded fiercely. “Your days as a homeroom teacher are over. None of you poor students can get away. Who else is involved? Stand up. I’ll ask your parents to take you home. Don’t come to school anymore!”
“Me too!”
As soon as the words were out, the class monitor raised his hand. “As the principal of a school, you’re showing favoritism to relatives, failing to distinguish right from wrong, and can’t even achieve the most basic fairness and justice. What’s the point of staying in such a school?”
“Then I’ll leave too.”
The PE monitor raised his hand. “You two are in cahoots. You’re both the same kind of people!”
“The word is ‘háo’.” The class monitor whispered to remind him.
The PE monitor said, “Anyway, I’m going to repeat the grade. If this place doesn’t want me, there are plenty of others that will!”
“Me too!”
This time, the guy who raised his hand wasn’t from our class.
He said simply, “The food here is worse than what my dog eats. I don’t want to study here anymore!”
“Me too!”
“Me too!”
…
More hands were raised in unison, as far as the eye could see.
At that moment, I had an illusion.
It was as if I had come to a battlefield.
Dark clouds loomed over the city, and there were forests of swords and halberds.
The invincible great demon king in the legend was approaching the city.
We, the weak, held hands and formed a human wall.
Shouting in unison:
“Do we say we have no clothes? We share the same robe with you!”
…
Everyone’s faces were filled with expressions of excitement or anger.
In contrast, the principal’s face was extremely ugly.
He looked at us in disbelief.
After a long silence, he finally pointed at us, the first few who stood up, and said, “Now ask your parents to come and take you home!”
He didn’t dare to suspend so many students from school.
And rightfully so. If he really did that, his days as the principal would be over too.
10
My parents arrived first.
Before seeing them, I could hear my dad’s loud voice from afar. “Little brat, I heard you got into a fight. Did you win?”
My mom scolded him. “Can you be more serious?”
Then, I saw a tall figure rushing over like a gust of wind.
He grabbed my shoulders and looked me up and down. “Did you win? Are you hurt?”
Since I was a kid, my dad had taught me that if someone bullied me, I should fight back. A real man shouldn’t suffer immediate losses.
I shook my head. My dad relaxed a bit, and then his expression changed instantly.
As he was unbuckling his belt, he pointed at me and said, “You little rascal, I sent you to study, and you dare to fight? Do you have any thoughts on your studies?”
I was too familiar with this pre – action. I knew a beating was inevitable.
My homeroom teacher stood in front of me. “This can’t be entirely blamed on the child.”
My dad blinked. “Oh right, I haven’t even asked what happened yet. What did he do, teacher? Fall in love early? Skip class? Or fight with others? Forget it, it must not be anything good. A beating is definitely right… Come here!”
My dad’s words came so fast that my homeroom teacher didn’t have a chance to get a word in.
At this time, the principal coughed twice.
My dad glanced back at him, didn’t take him seriously, and was about to teach me a lesson again.
He didn’t know who the principal was.
My homeroom teacher said, “The food the school makes is too bad. The kids couldn’t eat it, so they gave some suggestions, and then…”
My homeroom teacher looked at the mess on the ground.
My dad looked at the ground, was stunned for a moment, and exclaimed, “Fuck, you smashed the cafeteria? Are you looking for death? If I don’t beat you for three days, you’ll tear down the house. Come here, I’ll skin you alive!”
I dodged the question and said, “Dad, it really doesn’t taste good.”
“How bad can it be? I think you’re just making excuses. Come here!”
The principal coughed twice again. My dad was already annoyed that he couldn’t catch me, so he turned around and shouted at him, “Which parent are you? Can’t you see I’m teaching my kid? So noisy!”
The fat guy said, “This is the principal.”
My mom: “…”
My dad: “…” “Principal, are you not feeling well? Have you caught a cold recently? Your throat seems dry. I have a folk remedy from my hometown. I’ll send it to you later…”
The principal looked at him coldly. “No need. I can’t afford your family’s ‘gifts’. I called you here to ask you to take your precious son home and choose another school. Our school is too small to accommodate this great god!”
My dad finally caught me and pressed my head hard. “Quickly apologize to the principal!”
My mom smiled apologetically. “We’ll pay for everything here. We really didn’t expect this to happen…”
The principal raised a hand to interrupt my mom.
I stuck out my neck. “I won’t apologize. He feeds us garbage. Why should I apologize?”
“Are you still talking back?!”
My mom became suspicious at this time. “How bad can it be? Can it be worse than the bran your dad fed you?”
Before, I had complained at home that the school cafeteria food was bad.
But he just thought I was trying to avoid going to school and didn’t believe a single word.
I said, “Then come with me.”
I led them into the cafeteria.
The fat guy and the principal saw that things were going wrong and stopped me. “Everyone has different tastes. The food not suiting your taste is not a reason to smash things…”
At this time, some parents came one after another. Hearing this, they said, “Then let us see if it’s the cafeteria’s problem or the students’ problem.”
The two of them still wanted to argue.
But the PE monitor and the class monitor came running over, each carrying a plate of food.
One plate was a black – colored eggplant that looked like cement.
The other plate was stir – fried green peppers with tofu skin. The green peppers were black, and the wormholes on them were clearly visible.
“What… What’s the difference between this and swill?”
My dad frowned and pushed aside the eggplant, and a fly corpse was revealed to the light. It was a decisive blow.
“The difference is that this isn’t in a bucket.” My mom sneered.
The fat guy quickly came out to explain. “This is a very rare case… Anyway, it’s wrong for them to waste food!”
“Who are you?”
“I’m the cafeteria manager.”
“Do you have the nerve to say the kids are wasting food?” My dad was so angry that the veins on his forehead were bulging. “You’re the one who’s desecrating food by making it like this!”
“This is even worse than the bran your dad fed you!” My mom was also furious. “Damn it, you feed my kid this kind of stuff?”
“No wonder the kids rebelled. Who can eat this?!”
“It’s already the 21st century, and kids are still being short – changed on food! It’s simply ridiculous, ridiculous!”
The parents were in an uproar.
Before, everyone might have been worried that their kids would be treated unfairly. But now, they didn’t care at all – if the school couldn’t even ensure basic food quality, how could they expect the school to treat the students well?
11
Suddenly, the PE monitor shouted, “Mom, I’m hungry!”
This 1.83 – meter – tall, dark – skinned hunk bent down, hugged his mom, and burst into tears. “I can’t eat or sleep well here. I miss home every day. I want to eat the braised pork you make. I drool in my dreams every day. I’m really hungry, mom!”
This shout awakened the motherly love of all the moms present.
My mom’s eyes turned red immediately.
So, we followed suit and poured out our hardships to our parents.
For a moment, the whole cafeteria echoed with plaintive cries:
“Mom, I’m hungry!”
Now, the parents were even more agitated.
They surrounded the principal, demanding an explanation.
The fat guy saw that the situation was bad and was about to sneak away.
I pointed at him and said, “Dad, it’s him who forced us to eat this and even hit me!”
My dad rushed over and kicked him. “You hit my son?!”
The fat guy slid more than a meter away.
Then, my dad jumped on him and slapped his face left and right.
No wonder he’s my real dad. We even hit people in the same way.
The other parents reacted and also surrounded him, punching and kicking.
…
Let’s talk about the principal.
He still stubbornly said, “This is all to cultivate students’ hard – working and endurance character. Being too pampered is not good in the long run…”
One parent said, “You’re talking nonsense. This is not endurance. This is eating shit!”
For a moment, it was hard to tell who was on which side.
Another parent said, “There must be something fishy going on here. It can’t be explained just by the so – called endurance… How about this? You make the cafeteria’s financial records public. Damn it, I don’t believe that with a monthly food fee of 1000 yuan, this kind of food can cost that much!”
“Right, we need to check the financial records. Otherwise, I’ll report to the Education Bureau!”
At the mention of the Education Bureau, the principal’s face changed visibly.
He no longer had his previous arrogant look. He put his hands together and kept bowing. “I’m sorry, parents of the students. It’s my fault for poor supervision. I’ll reflect on it. I’ll fire him right now. We’ll change the cafeteria staff in the future, and I’ll conduct regular spot – checks. I promise this won’t happen again…”
I was young at that time and didn’t know that the Education Bureau was so effective.
If I had known, I would have written a report letter earlier.
Truly, knowledge changes fate.
“Humph, you’re making promises now. What were you doing before?” My mom sneered. “Didn’t you say we should endure hardship? Fine, you take the lead! Eat this, and then I’ll consider forgiving you!”
The PE monitor was quick – witted and immediately brought a bowl of dusty rice and handed it to the principal.
“Why is it this color?” I asked in a low voice.
“I specially swept it from the ground.” He said. “Does he deserve to eat the food from the pot?”
The principal looked hesitant.
The parents slapped the table. “Eat! Hurry up and eat!”
The principal gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and took a bite.
He chewed and chewed.
It wouldn’t break down.
What was going on?
He spat it out and saw that it was a rag!
The students burst out laughing.
“You’ve got what you deserve today!”
**Ending**:
The parents jointly reported to the Education Bureau.
The leaders above attached great importance to it and established an investigation team.
It was found that the principal had indeed abused his power for personal gain. He was directly removed from his position and even imprisoned.
As for the fat guy, due to unqualified hygiene conditions, bribery, and false accounting, he was given the maximum penalty.
Later, the first thing the new principal did after taking office was to renovate the cafeteria.
He contracted each window to different distributors.
Let them compete on their own merits.
He would also conduct irregular surveys and ask students to select the most unsatisfactory window.
If a window was selected twice in a row, it would be eliminated.
This measure greatly improved our food.
I especially liked the Cantonese cuisine on the first floor of the cafeteria.
The price was affordable, and the flavor was excellent.
The first fifty people would get free turtle jelly.
The cafeteria aunties were enthusiastic in service and their hands didn’t shake.
Every time they saw me, they would call me “handsome guy”.
The only pity was that the special food prepared by the homeroom teacher was no longer needed.
But after this incident, our class became unprecedentedly united.
Even more than ten years after graduation, we still chat in the class group from time to time.
Every year, a group of people would return to our alma mater to have a meal and chat with the homeroom teacher.
Last year, I went back with the class monitor and the PE monitor.
The homeroom teacher said that our class was the bravest one he had ever taught.
Now, among the younger students, there is a saying passed down from mouth to mouth:
After the seniors and sisters left, they built a new cafeteria for us and improved our treatment. It wasn’t because their conscience suddenly woke up, but because the seniors and sisters had been here.
– End –
