Seeing that they were ready, Lu Ao asked Ye Zhiying, "Sister-in-law, have the two of them started school?"
"Yes, they've both been back for over a week." Ye Zhiying smiled. "The older one still boards at school. She has to leave for school tomorrow."
Lu Ao looked at Ye Zhiying's eldest daughter.
Her eldest daughter was thin and small, with slightly dark skin. She was quite shy and did not dare speak to Lu Ao or Song Zhou at all when she saw them.
Lu Ao casually asked, "If she boards, how does she eat?"
"She brings food with her," Ye Zhiying said. "The school steams rice and cooks meals for them. She brings some dishes herself, and it's barely enough to get by."
Her daughter lowered her head as she scrubbed the crabs and said softly, "It doesn't taste good."
Lu Ao asked, "Then what do you usually eat?"
"Stir-fried onions with meat, green peppers with tofu, green peppers with fried tofu puffs, and boiled eggplant. It's the same things every week."
Her younger son chimed in, "We eat those too. And steamed eggs."
Ye Zhiying looked at her children with pity. "Things are a little better now. The country has that Nutrition Lunch Program, so they get an egg every day and two cartons of milk every week. It's much better than before. Back then, we took turns eating dried radish, pickled mustard greens, chilies, and pan-fried fish. Our conditions were far worse than theirs."
Lu Ao glanced at the little boy and asked, "What grade do they start going into town for school now?"
"Fourth grade," Ye Zhiying said. "First through third grade are at the village school. From fourth grade onward, they go to the central primary school in town."
"Can children that young take care