Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 174 Three Major Items

"Qinglan!" Yan Hui hadn't even gotten home when he saw Qinglan and two classmates jumping rope at the door, and he quickly called out.

"Brother! You're back!" As soon as Qinglan heard the voice, she immediately threw down the rope, ran towards Yan Hui, and hugged him tightly.

"Haha," Yan Hui laughed, "So excited to see me?"

"Brother, I haven't seen you for a year!" Qinglan took a step back and looked Yan Hui up and down. "Brother, you've become more handsome!"

"That's right," Yan Hui said. He had just gotten his hair done today and looked very neat. His whole demeanor was completely different from last year. He looked at his sister carefully and said, "You've grown so fast! You must be 1.6 meters tall by now, right?"

"Almost there!" Qinglan shrugged. "I'm the fourth tallest in the class now!"

"You don't need to save the money I give you. Remember to buy eggs and milk, okay?" Yan Hui instructed again.

During the years Yan Hui was growing, especially the two years he did manual labor in Fengtian, his diet was extremely malnourished, so he only reached a height of 1.74 meters as an adult. If he had received adequate nutrition during those two years, he would have been at least 1.77 meters tall. Therefore, he always paid close attention to his younger sister's nutrition, and every time he wrote a letter or sent money, he would urge Qinglan to eat more nutritious food.

"Don't worry, brother," Qinglan said, sensing that her older brother was being a bit nagging.

"Qinglan, your brother is back. We'll go back for dinner now." Qinglan's two classmates saw the siblings reunited and prepared to leave.

"No, come eat with us! My brother's back, and we're making chicken stew! Come eat with us!" Qinglan greeted her classmate warmly, pulling her inside.

Yan Hui was naturally happy to join in the fun. He followed his sister into the house, discussed it with her, and then went to the village to find someone to kill a chicken.

Grandpa and Grandma are both Buddhists, and they don't raise chickens anymore, let alone kill them, so Yan Hui has to go out and get one.

His parents hadn't returned yet, so Yan Hui exchanged a few pleasantries with his grandparents before heading out. The village wasn't big, so Yan Hui went to a small shop and asked the owner to help him buy a chicken. He paid the owner enough money and had the chicken stewed there; the owner would bring it over when it was ready.

That's how the village is; it can be inconvenient, but there aren't as many rules and regulations.

Back home, Yan Hui chatted with his grandmother about this year's harvest, while his grandfather listened in.

Since the beginning of this year, Grandpa's complexion has not been as good as before. Grandma said that Grandpa still occasionally goes to work in the fields, which makes Yan Hui a little worried: "Grandpa, let others do the work in the fields. Do you want to come and stay with me in Jianye for a while? The climate there is very nice."

“I’m 80 years old, I don’t travel around anymore,” Grandpa said with a smile and shook his head. “I’ve had a good year, you don’t need to worry about me.”

"Your grandpa has heard you've made something of yourself, and he tells everyone he meets! He's always so happy." Grandma carefully looked at her grandson, her heart filled with joy. Grandpa and Grandma only had one son, Dad. Yan Hui's aunts, uncles, and other relatives all belonged to his second uncle's family, meaning that Yan Hui was actually Grandpa's only legitimate grandson.

Qinglan and two classmates were playing in another room. Yan Hui stood up, went over to check that the door was closed, took out his bag, and then took out stacks of money from it.

As Yan Hui took out stacks of blue banknotes totaling 23 yuan, Grandma became increasingly pleased. She reached out to help Yan Hui stack the bills again and again, praising him continuously.

Back then, when my uncle came back with a bag of money, it was all 10-yuan bills. If Yan Hui had exchanged them for 10-yuan bills, he could have filled a whole bag. Of course, 20 yuan now is not comparable to the 20 yuan my uncle had back then.

"Tell Grandpa about your experiences." Grandpa leaned back in his chair, seemingly unconcerned about the money, and instead told Yan Hui to put it away.

"Mmm." Yan Hui told his story while tidying up the money.

The story of this year can be condensed into just a few moments, which Yan Hui finished telling in a little over half an hour. Then he went to cook with his grandmother.

While cooking, Grandma told Yan Hui, "Your grandpa really wants to hear you talk. When you have free time, spend more time chatting with him." "Grandma, I want to renovate the house this year," Yan Hui had always dreamed of.

"Your grandfather won't agree. Let's talk about it when you have more money. You worked so hard to earn this money, and now you want to use it to make more money?" Grandma could see through this.

Yan Hui's uncle's house was only rebuilt in recent years; they used to be worth millions and never considered this kind of thing, so Yan Hui certainly couldn't rush it. If they were to build a five-story house, two or three hundred thousand yuan wouldn't be enough at all.

"Then I'll install a phone at home, so I can contact you," Yan Hui said, choosing to settle for second best.

"This is good." Grandma nodded in satisfaction. A telephone costs three thousand yuan, and having a telephone at home can raise one's status in the village.

"Then I'll buy a refrigerator and a color TV too." Yan Hui thought for a moment. The three items together would cost around ten thousand yuan, which was no problem for him.

"No, we rarely watch TV."

“If you don’t want to see it, you can ask someone else to come and see it. It’s settled then.” Yan Hui didn’t give his grandmother a chance to object.

Grandma looked at Yan Hui, not wanting to embarrass him, and thought for a moment: "Then don't buy anything too expensive."

"Hmm!" Yan Hui was immediately delighted to receive the approval.

"Also, hurry up and deposit the money into the bank this afternoon. You can't just leave it at home," Grandma reminded her again.

"Grandma, when are my parents coming back? I still want to see them." Yan Hui earned his own money, so he wasn't afraid to go home.

"They should be back the day after tomorrow." Grandma thought for a moment, "Then let's wait until they come back to talk about it."

"Okay, then I'll leave the money at home first." Yan Hui nodded.

This is how people in southern Fujian understand villages and clans: home and clan are very safe. Ten years ago, my uncle came back with a sack of money and just dumped it on the table. Many people in the village knew about it, but no one dared to have any wicked thoughts. On the contrary, many people wanted to follow my uncle to get rich. So, my grandmother didn't think it was unsafe.

After cooking, the chicken they bought was also stewed, and Yan Hui, Qing Lan, and the other two ate it all up.

During dinner, Yan Hui mentioned wanting to buy a refrigerator, a color TV, and a telephone. Qing Lan was the first to stand up and agree. Qing Lan's two classmates were very envious and both said they wanted to watch TV.

There are only four or five color TVs in the village, and since children like my uncle's are never home, other children in the village are too embarrassed to come and play.

After getting a color TV, Qinglan will definitely have no shortage of friends; people from neighboring villages might even come over to watch. Black and white TVs aren't rare these days, but color TVs are still a luxury.

"Brother, let's go buy it this afternoon." Qinglan was quite impatient.

"I'll ask my cousin to come along; he can drive. I'll borrow my uncle's car." Yan Hui now felt confident enough to borrow his uncle's car without hesitation.

"Okay!" Qinglan said eagerly.

"Can you take us there?" Qinglan's classmates were all looking forward to it.

"One, two, three, four, five, five people, perfect, let's go together." Yan Hui agreed immediately.

(End of this chapter)