1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Seeing the fireworks blooming in the sky, Akina Nakamori suddenly didn't want to go back to her room so early.

She looked up at Zhou Yan, with fireworks in her eyes mixed with hope, "Teacher Zhou, can you walk with me?"

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. He didn't mind walking with Akina Nakamori, but his coat was still in Akina Nakamori's hand. If he wandered around outside, he would freeze to death.

If he asked Akina Nakamori to return the clothes to him, he felt that Akina Nakamori would freeze to death.

"How about I drive you around?"

"Okay." Akina Nakamori nodded and agreed to the proposal.

The two then returned to the car.

At this moment, the car was much warmer than before, and the seats were warm, but Akina Nakamori still held Zhou Yan's coat in her arms and did not return it to him.

Akina Nakamori didn't say where they were going, so Zhou Yan drove towards where the fireworks were rising. The fireworks had not stopped yet, so he could still see them from the car.

"It's so beautiful." Akina Nakamori looked at the fireworks through the car window with a smile on her face, "It's almost next year."

"Well, there are still a few hours left, and the fireworks will be even more beautiful then."

"Teacher Zhou, is there anything special here for New Year's Eve?"

Zhou Yan shook his head. "There's basically nothing special about New Year's Day here. It's mainly New Year's Eve and Spring Festival, and then there's the Little New Year."

"Little New Year?" Akina Nakamori asked.

"Where we are, Xiaonian means Lantern Festival. In some places, Xiaonian means the 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth lunar month."

"Oh, we have New Year's Eve, Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, but I have never heard of Little New Year."

"Will you celebrate New Year's Eve?"

"Some people probably celebrate it, but not in our family." Nakamori Akina shook her head. "Most families in our area regard the New Year as your New Year's Day. They attach as much importance to it as you do to the Spring Festival, and have many traditional customs."

Zhou Yan said with a smile, "You are so serious about your work that you came to China during the Chinese New Year."

After hearing what Zhou Yan said, Akina Nakamori lowered her head and said nothing.

Zhou Yan then realized that he seemed to have said something wrong. Akina Nakamori's mother passed away last year, and she seemed to have cut off ties with her family since then.

This means that for Akina Nakamori, she no longer has a home in Neon.

It was because she had no home that she could come to China to work when she was spending the New Year there.

"Ahem, when will your work in Yanjing start?" Zhou Yan asked about work, trying to ease the atmosphere.

"Tomorrow afternoon I will go to Yanjing TV Station to record a talk show. The day after tomorrow, I will go to Yanjing TV Station to sing a song."

Zhou Yan nodded and asked, "Is the work this time all in Yanjing?"

"No, I have to go to Shanghai in a while, and I have some activities to attend there."

"Then I will be staying in China for quite a long time this time."

"Well, it will take more than twenty days in total."

"It's almost New Year's Eve."

"I looked at the calendar and I will be back in Neon before New Year's Eve."

"That's a pity, otherwise you could feel the atmosphere of New Year's Eve here, which is definitely much more lively than New Year's Day."

Akina Nakamori turned to look at Zhou Yan, "Do you really think it's a pity?"

Zhou Yan was stunned for a moment, then realized that Akina Nakamori had misunderstood the word "what a pity". Her Chinese was still not good enough. She could only roughly understand some of the words, but the specific meaning was different from what she understood.

In fact, it can be said that Akina Nakamori has a problem with her understanding of the word "what a pity". After all, "what a pity" can originally mean regret, but in the context just now, the emotion is not so strong.

But at this time, Zhou Yan couldn't explain it seriously to Akina Nakamori. He could only follow Akina Nakamori's words, "Well, it's a pity. Although I have only celebrated the New Year in Yanjing once, I still know a lot about the customs here. There are also many activities before the New Year. For example, our studio has a dumpling-making competition before the New Year. Can you make dumplings?"

"I know a little."

Zhou Yan smiled. In his opinion, knowing a little bit means knowing nothing.

In fact, Zhou Yan’s family never eats dumplings during the Chinese New Year, but after all, he has been in Yanjing for so many years, and he eats a lot of dumplings every winter.

However, even though he had been in Yanjing for so many years, he still couldn't regard dumplings as a staple food. If he had dumplings as a side dish for a meal, he always felt that something was missing.

Of course, he couldn't eat dumplings as a dish with rice like the Japanese did.

The first time Zhou Yan saw people eating dumplings with rice in Neon, he felt so uncomfortable. But that’s not all. In Neon, in addition to eating dumplings with rice, people also eat noodles with rice.

……

After the car passed the Third Ring Road, the fireworks in the sky suddenly disappeared and the city fell into silence again.

However, Zhou Yan did not stop the car and continued driving forward.

After driving a few kilometers along the main road, the fireworks in the sky lit up again. Akina Nakamori looked up at the fireworks in the sky and smiled, "It seems that we are not far away."

Zhou Yan also looked up and saw the direction. The place where the fireworks were set off should be behind the Old Summer Palace.

They are now in front of the south gate of Tsinghua University.

This place is just past the Fourth Ring Road, but at this time, part of the road behind the Fourth Ring Road has been opened and has not yet been completely connected.

As for the Fifth Ring Road behind the Old Summer Palace, construction has not yet begun.

If the area outside the Third Ring Road still has a bit of the flavor of an urban-rural fringe, then the area outside the Fourth and Fifth Ring Roads has a complete rural feel.

Driving through here late at night, it felt very desolate, even the street lights were sometimes on and sometimes off.

If Yanda and Tsinghua University were not here, there would probably not be many people nearby.

Zhou Yan drove past the Old Summer Palace, just passed Qinghe River, and arrived at a small town behind.

There were a few kids on the roadside setting off fireworks, so Zhou Yan stopped the car, rolled down the window, and asked, "Kids, where did you buy your fireworks?"

One of the fat guys quickly ran over and said enthusiastically, "Boss, would you like to buy some fireworks? Sky rockets are one dollar each, magic bullets are ten dollars each, and the big ones with baby's breath are forty dollars a bucket."

Although Zhou Yan hadn't bought fireworks for a long time, he knew the price was expensive when he heard it.

The magic bullet that the fat boy mentioned is the handheld flower bullet, which is sold for four or five yuan each in many places, and even for two or three yuan.

There is also baby's breath, which is too expensive at 40 yuan per bucket. An ordinary worker can't buy a few buckets with a month's salary.

How many people can afford such expensive fireworks?

“This price is too high.”

"Boss, this price is not expensive. Fireworks are hard to buy this year... If you buy a lot, I can give you a discount."

"How do you get a discount?"

"If you buy 20 yuan worth of items at once, I'll give you a 10% discount. If you buy 50 yuan worth of items, I'll give you a 15% discount. If you buy 100 yuan worth of items, I'll give you a 20% discount. If you buy 200 yuan worth of items, I'll give you a 30% discount."

Zhou Yan smiled. This little fat boy is quite good at doing business.

He thought for a moment and asked, "What if I buy something worth 500 yuan? How much discount will you give me?"

The little fat boy smiled and said, "If you buy something worth 500 yuan, I'll give you a 50% discount, which means you can buy something worth 1,000 yuan. In addition, I'll also give you a 200 yuan rocket and magic bullet. If you want the Torpedo King or the Big Red Eagle, you can get those too." Zhou Yan couldn't help but sigh. Although this little fat boy is young, he has really seen the world.

An ordinary child wouldn't be able to chat with others so calmly about a 500-dollar business.

Five hundred yuan, many people don’t even earn that much in a month.

Zhou Yan nodded. "Then, help me get the goods worth 500 yuan, and I'll pay you later."

His original intention was to tease the little fat man, but he didn't expect the little fat man to not hesitate at all and nodded immediately, "Okay, boss, I'll get the goods for you right away."

After saying that, he ran away, leaving his friends standing there.

Zhou Yan looked at his friends and asked with a smile, "Does that fat boy's family sell fireworks?"

One of the kids nodded and said, "Yeah, Brother Xiang's family sells everything. All of our fireworks are from his house."

"Okay, let's play."

Zhou Yan rolled down the car window again, then drove the car to an open space nearby and stopped.

About five or six minutes later, the little fat boy came running over with an adult who was holding a baby's breath in his hands.

The fat boy walked straight to the car and knocked on the window, "Boss, open the window."

Zhou Yan opened the window, and the fat boy smiled and said, "Boss, this is my dad. We brought fireworks."

The little fat boy was holding a bundle of magic bullets in his hand and raised his hand to stuff them into the car window.

Zhou Yan quickly said, "Don't put it in there, just put it on the ground."

After saying that, he got out of the car.

The little fat boy's father is not fat at all, but rather looks thin.

Zhou Yan thought that since the little fat boy was so lively, his father must be very lively as well. However, he didn't expect that his father was very introverted and only knew how to smile with his teeth bared when they met.

Then Zhou Yan was very straightforward. He took out five hundred yuan and gave it to the fat boy’s father, asking them to send the fireworks over as soon as possible.

After getting the money, the fat boy and his son were very happy and ran back to prepare the goods.

When Zhou Yan was holding Chihua and was about to call Akina Nakamori, she had already gotten out of the car on her own initiative.

She was wearing very little, but after getting off the car, she consciously put on Zhou Yan's coat.

Zhou Yan handed her a magic bullet and lit it.

While the fuse was burning, Zhou Yan said to her, "This is called a shooting star in China. When it goes off, you can make a wish."

Akina Nakamori held the magic bullet very familiarly, pointed it at the sky, and said with a smile, "I heard it all. In your place, it's called a magic bullet, not a shooting star. And we have it over there, too, it's called a handheld firework."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It seems I can't fool you."

"certainly……"

As soon as she opened her mouth, a light bullet shot out from the tube, flew about ten meters, and exploded in the air.

This kind of handheld sparkler is difficult to make look good due to the small amount of gunpowder. Basically, it just looks bright and makes a noise.

But because it is handheld, it feels very interesting.

Akina Nakamori was braver than Zhou Yan had imagined. She held the firework tube in her hand as if it were a gun, constantly moving it in different directions to make the fireworks explode in different positions.

Zhou Yan originally thought that this magic bullet would be used up soon, and there would be quite a few duds, but he didn't expect that this magic bullet not only had few duds, but the total number was quite large. If he ignored the counting, there were about thirty-two of them.

This magic bullet is so good, no wonder the fat boy dared to ask for ten yuan per bullet at the beginning.

Zhou Yan accompanied Akina Nakamori to set off two or three magic bullets. The fat little father and son came again. This time they brought a two-wheeled cart filled with various fireworks.

"Boss, the goods are ready for you, please check them."

Zhou Yan was a little surprised when he looked at the fireworks on the cart, because according to the initial offer made by the fat boy, the price of these fireworks was already over one thousand.

There are five bundles of magic bullets here, each bundle has ten, which means they are worth five hundred dollars. There is also a bundle I took before, which is worth six hundred dollars.

There were ten buckets of that big firework, full of stars, plus the previous bucket, which cost a total of four hundred and forty yuan.

These two things combined have exceeded what was before.

In addition to these two, there are also various kinds of fireworks, such as the small fountains, there are about 20 to 30 of them, and there are also several bundles of sky rockets...

Zhou Yan laughed and said, "Isn't this too much? I only have 500 yuan."

The fat boy's father said embarrassedly, "Yufeng just reported the wrong price. The fireworks we brought here are about 500 yuan."

Zhou Yan didn't expect that this boss was quite honest.

He smiled and said, "There are so many fireworks, even the two of us can't set them off, how about this, let's all play together."

The little fat boy reacted quickly and said immediately, "Glad to help."

Then, at his call, other children also gathered around and started setting off fireworks together.

Akina Nakamori had a lot of fun. She liked playing with handheld magic bullets and sky rockets, but she had no interest in the most expensive and most beautiful baby's breath.

Although the baby's breath is beautiful, you need to view it from a distance. If you get too close, not only will you not be able to see the gorgeous fireworks clearly, but you also have to be careful not to be hit by the fireworks.

In the end, Akina Nakamori couldn't leave anymore, so she sat down on a stone pier by the Qing River with Zhou Yan.

Watching the children playing with fireworks with undiminished enthusiasm, Akina Nakamori rested her chin on her hand and said, "I really envy them."

"What's there to envy? Didn't you just play too?"

"But I'm no longer in the same mood as them." Nakamori Akina tightened her clothes and then smiled, "But at least just now, I was as happy as they were. Thank you, Teacher Zhou."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "You're welcome, it's just some fireworks."

"It's not just the fireworks, it's also because you're willing to come out with me. I haven't been so relaxed for a long time." Akina Nakamori looked at the sky and sighed slightly, "At this time, Neon should be about to celebrate the New Year."

Zhou Yan looked at his watch. It was already past ten o'clock. The time difference between Tokyo and Yanjing was one hour, so it should be past eleven o'clock in Tokyo. It was indeed almost New Year's Eve.

"Well, in just over half an hour, Tokyo will reach 1997. Here, it will take another hour and a half."

Akina Nakamori stared at the sky for a long time, and suddenly asked, "Teacher Zhou, do you miss home?"

"Do you miss home?" Zhou Yan smiled, "Actually, I'm fine."

The main reason is that he often calls his family. In a week, he calls his family at least three times. With this frequency, it is actually difficult for him to miss home.

Sometimes, Qing'er and the others called quite often, two or three times a day. Not only did Zhou Yan miss home, he even felt a little annoyed.

"There are many children in my family. I have two older brothers, two older sisters, and a younger sister. We are all very close. During that time, my mother gave birth to a child almost every year..."

Akina Nakamori suddenly talked about her family situation. She was born in a family with many brothers and sisters, and was destined not to receive much attention.

It was the first time that Zhou Yan heard about Akina Nakamori's family situation. He was also very surprised to learn that Akina Nakamori had six brothers and sisters.

Although Japan developed rapidly in the 1960s and the birth rate reached its peak, it was still very rare for a family to have six children. (End of this chapter)