Five years of marriage, always separated [1970s]

The next morning, Geng Zhihui accompanied his wife back to his mother-in-law's house. Yu Wentao and Geng Huihui did the laundry, Geng Benben helped, Geng Zhiqin probably went out on a date, Geng Leilei and Geng Zhiye went to the Children's Palace with Dabao and Erbao, and Ye Fan was alone in the main room thinking about Geng Zhiye's proposal.

Producing computers? Ye Fan couldn't help but admire Geng Zhiye for being bolder than her.

If I don't have to sell the house and only use the money I've earned in the past two years, it doesn't matter if it's all gone down the drain. I can just treat it as a lesson learned. Besides, if I fail, I can give up early and focus on other things.

Thinking of this, Ye Fan decided to talk to classmates in the Computer Science Department who shared the same values ​​as her when school started.

Now it’s more important to make money.

At around nine o'clock, Ye Fan drove a full truck to the popsicle factory. The factory staff laughed when they saw her, because her presence would reduce a large amount of inventory. It was also because Ye Fan drove to sell popsicles that the popsicle factory produced tens of thousands more popsicles and ice cream in the past two summers than in previous years.

The efficiency was improved, even if it was not much compared to the overall amount, the popsicle factory still received praise from its superiors.

Ye Fan still remembers that she had to help carry the popsicles when she first came. Now she parked the car, and the staff counted the popsicles and ice creams with boxes. Others would be delayed here for five to ten minutes for one box, and it would take her that long to carry ten boxes.

The car was piled high, so Ye Fan first went to the park to drop off a few boxes, and then went to Zhang Xiaoming's house. In the end, no matter how many boxes were left, she would sell them.

Zhang Xiaoming was in charge of the popsicles the next morning, while Ye Fan and Geng Zhiye took their children to the Palace Museum. Erbao covered his mouth when he saw the porcelain and whispered, "Mom, it's the same as ours."

Ye Fan smiled and shook his head: "My things are from the late Qing Dynasty, and this one is from the Kangxi period. There is a difference of more than a hundred years. My things are not valuable."

Dabao pointed at the vase and said, "Mom, that one looks good. It's better than the one you bought."

Ye Fan looked at the peacock blue porcelain vase: "It looks like Yongzheng's aesthetic."

Dabao: “Is it expensive?”

Ye Fan nodded.

Dabao and Erbao immediately came closer to take a look.

Geng Zhiye's forehead was full of black lines. He wished he could go somewhere cooler because he thought the two of them were bringing shame to him.

Ye Fan walked over, holding one in each hand: "Just take a look. Otherwise, we won't be able to finish the tour in half a morning."

Dabao asked: "Are there any more good things?"

Ye Fan: "Just take a look and you'll know."

When Dabao saw the exquisite watches, he suddenly felt that porcelain was just so-so.

Geng Zhiye saw the two children's eyes shining and wanted to cover his face. He must be mentally ill and had nothing better to do than to accompany two little kids who were obsessed with money to visit the Forbidden City.

Ye Fan wanted to say that the bricks on the ground were also antiques, and Geng Zhiye wondered if the two of them could lie on the ground to find out.

Since not many places in the Forbidden City are open, even though they were reluctant to leave after seeing all the shiny things, the family of four did not finish their tour until the afternoon. When they got home at around 12 o'clock, Yu Wentao had not yet made lunch.

Yu Wentao and Geng Leilei were at home, and they bought a small watermelon that weighed only 5-6 pounds. They each took half and ate it with a spoon. Yu Wentao was probably afraid that Ye Fan would scold her for eating too much and her blood sugar would go up, so when she saw Dabao and Erbao, she asked them if they wanted to eat some, and then she would cut another one.

Ye Fan asked: "When did you buy such a small melon?"

Yu Wentao said that it was given to her by her nephew.

Ye Fan couldn't help but ask, "Hasn't it been sold out yet? How many watermelons did Yujia Village grow this year?"

Yu Wentao was more curious than her, so she had asked long ago: "Except for the place where grain is grown, other places are used to grow vegetables, melons and fruit trees. But today's melons were collected from my niece's in-laws' house."

Ye Fan: "It's better than just giving money."

Yu Wentao nodded: "I didn't understand what Hongwei said about fish or fishing, just like you said, it's better than giving money. My niece's in-laws are all happy. This melon is delicious too. Look at how black the watermelon seeds are. You can tell they haven't been fertilized with phosphate fertilizers. They grew up little by little." As she spoke, she shook her head with a look of disdain: "Melons grown with chemical fertilizers don't taste good."

Ye Fan: "Then cut another one and we can eat it too."

Geng Zhiye said: "Let me cut it."

After eating the watermelon, Ye Fan went to cook. After the meal was ready, Ye Fan was not hungry, so he simply went to deliver the meal to Geng Huihui, and brought a piece of ice watermelon.

Geng Huihui saw the food and watermelon and chose to eat the watermelon. The watermelon made her stomach bloated, so she didn't want to eat after eating the watermelon and asked Ye Fan to take it back. Ye Fan said, "I'll stay here with you. Your uncle will go get popsicles later, and I'll take over when he gets here."

Geng Huihui closed the lunch box and asked, "Are my parents still at my grandma's house?"

Ye Fan nodded: "What's wrong?"

Geng Huihui: "My grandparents would definitely tell them that I was disobedient. I thought they would come back and scold me as soon as they heard about this at my grandma's house."

Ye Fan: "Your uncle and I are both at home, your parents don't dare to scold you in front of us. Besides, it's not like they don't know that you're selling popsicles in the park, so they would have scolded you yesterday if they wanted to."

Geng Zhihui and Chu Fenghe did not scold the child when they came back from the Chu family. It was only when the family finished their meal that Geng Zhihui and Ye Fan complained that some people become more stubborn as they get older, and the younger generations should be more responsible.

Upon hearing this, Ye Fan immediately understood what he meant and deliberately said, "Don't worry, second brother. As long as Aunt Yu doesn't go too far, I won't bother with her." Geng Zhihui almost bit his tongue. That's not what he meant.

Geng Zhiye wanted to laugh: "Second brother, your father-in-law and mother-in-law are not Fanfan's elders, what is she responsible for? Fanfan didn't run to the Chu family's door to say that they were too nosy. People come to our house to criticize Fanfan, and we don't allow Fanfan to talk back?"

Geng Dabao told his father everything, so it was no surprise to Geng Zhiye that Ye Fan had a fight with his second sister-in-law's parents. Geng Zhiye did not try to smooth things over, but directly told his son that Ye Fanfan was right.

If Geng Zhihui hadn't mentioned it, Geng Zhiye could have pretended that he didn't know about it. But he bumped into it himself, so don't blame Geng Zhiye for being rude, "Second sister-in-law, I really sympathize with you. How can you grow up healthy with parents like that?"

Chu Fenghe was so angry that he was speechless, "--Is the food cooked by Fanfan not delicious?" The implication was that eating can't shut your mouth.

Geng Zhiye: "Second brother, is the food that Fanfan cooked not tasty?"

Geng Zhihui opened his mouth, not knowing how to refute, so he simply took the bowl and went out to squat in the corner to eat.

The sun had set and the alley was no longer drenched in the sun. Aunt Li was sitting in the alley eating. Seeing this, she asked, "Why don't you move a stool?" Then she stood up, said she was done eating, and gave the small stool to Geng Zhihui.

Geng Zhihui opened his mouth and said: "Eating while squatting helps digestion faster."

"If you digest food quickly, don't you still need to eat before going to bed?" Aunt Li suspected that he had gone stupid from being busy at work, so she came over with a bowl in one hand and a stool in the other and handed them to him.

There was a bench in the corridor at the gate of the courtyard. Geng Zhihui rejected her kindness and went back to the courtyard to move a bench out.

Ye Fan heard the noise, glanced at him, and asked, "Second sister-in-law, did your mom and dad scold you and your second brother?"

Chu Fenghe: "What do you think?"

Ye Fan: "Then why not wait until Huihui goes back to school before taking a vacation? You can talk about it then. Why bring up the past now?"

Chu Fenghe thought, you think I want to take a vacation at this time. If Benben hadn't taken the college entrance examination this year, she would have waited until her parents were busy with classes and had no time to scold her before coming back.

Thinking of the college entrance examination, Chu Fenghe suddenly felt that the scolding she received at her parents' house was nothing. If she could get Geng Benben's admission letter, she could go there to be scolded every day.

Perhaps Chu Fenghe was too concerned about this matter and had talked about it countless times. The school was fed up with her nagging and the postman came to Ye Fan's house the next morning. Ye Fan had already arrived at the popsicle factory, Geng Huihui and her grandmother were in the park, Geng Zhiye and Geng Leilei were at the Children's Palace with Dabao and Erbao, Geng Zhiqin was at Zhang Xiaoming's house, and Chu Fenghe and Geng Zhihui were waiting for the notice at home.

As soon as Chu Fenghe saw the postman, he ran over and asked, "Is it the admission letter?"

The postman glanced at the sender and nodded: "Congratulations."

“Thank you, thank you.” Chu Fenghe wanted to open it, but when he thought that it was his son’s, he shouted to the neighbor next door, “Ben Ben!”

When the postman arrived at Zhang's door, Geng Benben came out of Zhang's house, followed by a younger brother of Zhang. When the younger brother saw the postman take out something, he asked, "My admission letter?"

Uncle Zhang hasn't been going anywhere lately. His room is as hot as a stove, and he always stands at the gate of the courtyard, just for fear of missing his son's admission letter. Hearing this, he came out leisurely, "Did you pass the exam?"

Zhang Xiaodi handed it to him, and Geng Benben asked his father to take it down. Then two exclamations were heard in the alley, which was unusually quiet in the mornings and afternoons every summer. Aunt Li, who was holding a small stool and preparing to go to the park to escape the heat, immediately ran out to watch the fun: "What's going on?"

Uncle Zhang pointed at his youngest son and asked, "Why is it a military school?"

Zhang Xiaodi: "My second choice is military school. I didn't get into the first choice. I said that normal universities are popular, and Capital Normal University is a key university. If you get in, you will have a stable job. There are many applicants, and I may not be able to get in. You still don't believe it."

Aunt Li couldn't help but nod her head. That's right. It's so easy to get into a normal university. It's impossible that only two girls from the Geng family in this alley were admitted.

Uncle Zhang held onto the door frame and sighed, "Aunt Li, how can a military academy be compared to a normal school? Besides, how can he go to a military academy with his small body?"

Zhang Xiaodi: "Forget it then? I'll repeat one more year."

Aunt Li disagreed: "Graduate a year earlier and you will get your salary a year earlier. Old Zhang, don't think military academy is dangerous. Defend your country and bring honor to your family. Besides, some people want to go but can't even get in even though they have enough grades. If you were my son, I would buy paper and firecrackers to comfort my ancestors."

Uncle Zhang thought that his youngest son would be with him, but he didn't expect this result. He waved his hand helplessly and turned back to the house.

Brother Zhang expected that his father would find it difficult to accept this for a while, so he was not surprised at all. He thanked Aunt Li and went back to the house to watch his father so that he would not faint from anger.

The news at the Zhang family's door reached Ye Fan's house. Geng Zhihui didn't believe that he didn't get into the normal school of his first choice, so he just slipped into the second choice. Geng Zhihui sat down in the house and asked his son to explain.

Geng Benben asked: "What do you want to explain?"

Geng Zhihui: "Who asked you to apply for a military school? Not to mention your aunt and uncle. Their attitude towards Dabao and Erbao is that they can learn whatever they like. They can't force you to apply for a military school. From what your uncle said these two days, you filled out your application before he was transferred to the army. You can't go to the Army Command School just because he joins the army."

Geng Benben nodded: "I filled out the application form myself. I wanted to discuss it with you guys when you came back, but I couldn't contact you, so I decided by drawing lots. Whoever I drew gets it."

Chu Fenghe subconsciously thought that her son had applied to a normal university because he didn't like engineering, so she didn't think of asking him which school he applied to. If she had known that he had "filled in the blanks randomly", she would have asked for leave to come back and accompany him to take the exam: "So it's our fault?"

Geng Benben: "I didn't fail the exam, I am worthy of your training, I am sure I am right."

(End of this chapter)