Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

However, the eldest son of the old man, Wang Yong, only bought a 14-inch black and white TV.

The main reason is that the eldest brother, Wang Yong, used to live a very frugal life. Although he now has savings, the couple doesn't dare to be too extravagant. They say they are content with having a black and white TV to watch.

The second brother, Wang Shun, lived a much better life than the eldest brother, Wang Yong, thanks to the help of his second uncle and Wang Li. However, he didn't dare to buy a color TV and instead bought a 17-inch black and white TV.

When it came to installing the TV stand and setting up the TV, it was naturally the two brothers, Wang An and Wang Li, who helped out. However, because they didn't have an amplifier, no matter how they tried to set up the TVs, they all looked incredibly frustrating.

The screen was filled with either snowflakes, lines, or wavy lines, making it hard for anyone to see clearly.

What's most annoying is that along with these irritating scenes comes a constant "shh shh shh" sound, which is quite grating. I doubt anyone would be happy watching TV like that.

In fact, if you haven't seen the TVs in Wang Anjia's and Wang Lijia's homes, then the TVs in these three homes are actually watchable, albeit barely.

After all, television was a very rare and precious thing in those days, and people's spiritual life was extremely impoverished. So, as long as there were figures and voices on the television, it could arouse great interest among people.

Wang Anke remembered that when the village first got televisions, all the televisions in those few households looked like this, but people still watched them with great enthusiasm.

The main thing is that, no matter what, a TV can at least show a person's image. Occasionally, when the signal is good, you can even see a face fairly clearly, which is much better than a radio that can only play sounds.

Unfortunately, "everything is more difficult to compare" and "it's hard to go from extravagance to frugality," which is why these three families couldn't feel happy at all while watching TV.

The reason why Wang An did not help the three families make amplifiers was because Wang An did not have all the necessary parts for making amplifiers; some parts were even missing only one or two.

Of course, if Wang An could make very few mistakes, or even none at all, when making the amplifier, he could also make one, but he could only make one at most.

But if three families share one amplifier, there's simply no way to divide it among them.

As the saying goes, "It's not scarcity that's worrisome, but inequality." Giving to some and not giving to others would be very inappropriate, so Wang An simply used the excuse of not having any parts to just not make any.

The main reason is that these three families decided to buy the TV on a whim, and it was only after Wang An and his group of five returned from Harbin.

This led to Wang An and his four companions not even considering buying materials for making amplifiers when they went to Harbin to buy motorcycles.

However, Wang An promised them that when he went to Harbin again, he would buy the parts for making amplifiers and make an amplifier for each of the three families.

Just after Wang An used up all seven rolls of film, the eve of the Lunar New Year in 1983 arrived unhurriedly with the sound of firecrackers!
This year, Shen Wei and her daughter, Zhao Cuiyun and her daughter, and Huang Baoguo's family of five were all invited to Wang An's home to spend the New Year.

The main reason is that Wang An's family is not short of money, and the food is good enough. It's even more lively when a large group of people gather together.

So Zhao Cuiyun and her son, along with Huang Baoguo's family, all ate breakfast at home, put up couplets, and set off firecrackers before heading to Wang An's house to get busy.

As for Shen Wei and her sister Xiao Lai, they came over after setting off firecrackers and heating up the kang (a heated brick bed) at home in the morning, and even ate breakfast at Wang An's house.

Of course, this had become a regular habit for Shen Wei and her son. Aside from spending the night at their own home and Shen Wei occasionally returning during the day to feed and water her two donkeys, the two of them spent the entire day at Wang An's house.

Shen Wei doesn't put up couplets because there's a local custom that if an elderly person in the family has passed away, couplets shouldn't be put up for three years.

After breakfast and dinner, the whole family, including Shen Wei and Zhao Cuiyun, changed into new clothes and shoes, and carefully tidied their hair.

The reason for doing this was that Wang An wanted to take family photos for these families, mainly his own family members, on New Year's Eve.

Thanks to Wang An's constant guidance during these past few days, everyone already knows how to take photos.

Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan sat side by side on stools, with Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli standing on either side of them.

Behind these four people, from right to left, stood Wang Yi, Wang An, and Mu Xueqing, each holding happiness and joy in their arms.

After posing, Wang An took the camera and found the right spot and angle to take the picture before handing the camera to Huang Zhong. Then, he picked up his eldest daughter, Xingfu, and stood in his designated spot.

Although Huang Zhong had already learned how to take photos, Wang An took the "family portrait" very seriously and tried his best to make it perfect.

So Huang Zhong's role was actually just to help press the shutter.

Even so, once the family of nine was ready, Huang Zhong, holding his camera, said "1, 2, 3, cheese" three times in a row. After each time he said it, Huang Zhong pressed the shutter button, with a four or five-second interval between each time.

There was no other way; Wang An felt that taking only one photo wasn't enough, so he had Huang Zhong take three photos in a row.

Wang An believed that among the three films developed, at least one of them would be the most perfect.

The Seagull SLR camera only had a simple photo-taking function and didn't have a screen like later high-end cameras, allowing users to review the results of their shots.

Therefore, Wang An was very eager to have the photos developed as soon as possible.

To be honest, Wang An also developed photos, but at that time, developing photos was a very troublesome and tedious task, unlike in later times when you could simply print them out with a printer.

However, after thinking it over, Wang An decided to build a darkroom at home as soon as possible and then buy a complete set of photo developing equipment and chemicals.

The main problem is that Wang An harbors some very shameless, or rather, very dirty, thoughts.

Wang An wanted to take some portrait photos of Mu Xueqing, Shen Wei, and the other women while they were in the prime of their lives.

Of course, it's also possible that they might take some more subtle semi-nude photos.

There's no way around it; everyone gets old. If you don't take photos to record your youth, you won't remember anything when you're old! (End of Chapter)