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Li Jinman, a 17-year-old girl of Ruzhou city, and Yue Yue, her seven-year-old sister, share their life together after they lost their parents. Li goes to school and manages to find time tilling land. She rents a cold and tatty snail house with Yue Yue. To get free meals, she takes part-time work in a restaurant.
When schoolfellows go to the dining hall for meals, Li puts on disposable gloves and picks up a big stack of bowls to serve dishes. She wipes meal cards, fills dishes in bowls, and hands steamed buns. In 11 minutes, she serves 47 students. After half an hour, the peak time passes in the dining hall. The porridge has been sold, and dish basins have shown bottoms. Li looks anxiously towards the gate from time to time, unable to see Yue Yue.
"Time to have meal," the master worker calls. Li and other part-time workers crowd around the dining table. She rushes to finish eating a steamed bun, and holds soya-bean milk and steamed stuffed buns in both hands as she rushes through a lane outside the school gate.
Her home is in the lane, a 10 square meters rented room. The room is cold and simple, with a table, a desk lamp, a double bed, thin cotton quilts and yellowing bed sheet. Yue Yue has finished school assignments and curled up her thin body, asleep in bed.
The sisters have actually most of their meals in the school dining hall. The kind-hearted dining hall manager deposits 500 yuan into Yue Yue's meal card each month. It resolves her financial problems. On weekends, the dining hall does not cook meals, meaning the sisters have nowhere to eat their meals. Li usually buys some steamed buns in advance, and the sisters eat the buns with boiling water alone.
To Li's delight, Yue Yue has learned to wash bowls, sweep the floor, and wash clothes. A few days ago, she cleaned her own clothes and washed her sister’s coat. When she returned home, Li saw Yue Yue's tiny hands frozen red and swollen from washing. She was in tears and cuddled Yue Yue in her arms.
The sisters have kept each other company for two years. On Nov 27, 2009, their dad, a truck driver, died in a traffic collision when shipping fruits to Shaanxi province. The truck owner offered only 10,000 yuan funeral expenses after the event. Their mom, Sun Xia, was mentally unstable and ran away from home.
"I will never have Yue Yue drop out, though we have no dad and mom," said Li. In the spring of 2010, Li, a junior high school student in downtown Ruzhou, started to bring Yue Yue with her. She rented a small room near the school.
Last winter, the sisters ran out of coal balls. They had no money and nothing to eat. They survived for three days on just a few buns. Li would starve to feed her sister.
In July, Li enrolled to Ruzhou No 1 high school and received excellent scores. Then they rented a new room in a lane near the school.
Edited by Fu Bo and Rakhee
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