Back to my 1980s

Zhao Hua only wished that she would behave herself. It was almost lunchtime, so he called her over and started chatting about random things.

"Sold out, I'm going home now, goodbye!"

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't rush, don't rush!"

Old Xu went outside and saw that it was Zhao Hua. He walked back into the house, sat down at the counter, and looked outside.

Zhao Hua sighed and stopped turning the car around.

Seeing Zhao Hua stop moving, Xu Qian jumped down the steps in two steps, placed her hands on the front of the bicycle basket, and said with a grin, "What? In such a hurry to go home? Don't you like me?"

As she moved, a delicate fragrance wafted towards Zhao Hua's nose. He hummed in agreement for a moment, and seeing Xu Qian's smile slowly freeze, he finally smiled gently and said, "No? I'm hungry. Riding my bike back and forth for so long must have taken a toll on my energy, you know?"

Realizing Zhao Hua was teasing her, Xu Qian gave him a playful glare, pointed to the general store behind her, and raised her chin, saying, "You came here to buy canned goods last time. My grandpa owns it. You have to come here to buy things next time!"

Looking at Xu Qian in front of him, Zhao Hua felt a surge of amusement. He inexplicably thought of those salespeople handing out flyers on the street, desperately trying to sell fitness classes. The more he thought about it, the more amused he became. He bent down, rested his arms on the handlebars, and propped his chin up with his hands, laughing, "What's in it for me to buy something here?"

Startled by his sudden closeness, Xu Qian blushed slightly and withdrew her hand from the bicycle basket, stammering, "We're friends." She then raised her chin and added, "Does patronizing a friend's elder's business require a reward?"

Zhao Hua sat up straight, pursed his lips, and laughed, "Tch, I thought you'd give me a discount. Okay, I'll buy things here from now on. Is there anything else?"

Xu Qian snorted and said, "That's all. It's up to you whether you come or not. You don't have to come if you don't want to." She paused, then pouted and added, "Actually, I'm just a little bored. Jiang Yue doesn't want to come out, and I just got back and don't know many people, so I called you over. Do you know any fun places to go?"

That's why he wanted to pretend he didn't hear it.

Even a fool could tell that there was nothing of substance to it. He glanced to the side and noticed that Xu Qian and Jiang Yue had much fairer skin than the girls who did farm work year-round, because of their long-term studies.

At eighteen or nineteen, she was at the peak of her spirit and purity. Without makeup, she resembled a lotus emerging from the water in its natural state.

Zhao Hua coughed twice, looked away, shook his head and smiled, "I don't know. When we boys get together, we either drink or play cards. None of that suits you."

A gentle breeze blew by, and Xu Qian had already caught Zhao Hua's gaze on her face. She felt a little smug. Ever since their first interaction at the market, when she noticed Zhao Hua's indifference towards her, she had secretly made a mental note of this.

Thinking he was blind to her true nature, and innocent and harmless, she secretly thought, "This 'flower of accounting and statistics' can't even charm a naive young man? Once he falls for me, I'll treat him coldly in the same way and get my revenge!"

Recalling that setback and cold reception, Xu Qian felt a surge of anger again. She silently told herself, "A small act of impatience can ruin a big plan," and with a couple of snorts, gritted her teeth and laughed, "Fine! Are you going fishing this afternoon?"

Zhao Hua had no idea that the nineteen-year-old girl in front of him was secretly planning to play the "you ignore me today, but you'll regret it tomorrow" game. Without thinking, he nodded, turned the handlebars, and said, "Yeah, I'm going home for dinner now. I have to go fishing this afternoon. Let's chat sometime. Goodbye."

"Hey! You!" Xu Qian laughed angrily, quickly grabbing the bicycle basket and saying, "Is this how you treat your friends? Do you still want Jiang Yue and me to help you collect the fish? I'm an accounting and statistics major! If you want to get paid, I have to sign for you first!"

Would a man of Zhao Hua's iron will bow down for a mere three bushels of rice?

He straightened his back and said loudly, "My apologies! You're going to be an accountant? What about Jiang Yue?"

Seeing that he had stopped moving again, Xu Qian released her grip on the bicycle basket and said irritably, "Deputy Manager! In charge of logistics! She's the one who approves your fish purchases! I have to sign off on it before you can get paid! Hmph!"

Zhao Hua clicked his tongue in amazement. It's good to have connections in the family. He was directly parachuted in as a deputy manager. Ordinary people might not be able to get to that position even after three to five years of hard work. However, Jiang Yue's education level was sufficient.

He laughed heartily, "What are you talking about? I've always considered you guys proper friends! How good have I been to you? Giving you fish and canned food." After a pause, he changed the subject, saying, "Next time some thugs cause you trouble, I'll save you!"

Hearing him subtly hint at his help to her and Jiang Yue, Xu Qian rolled her eyes inwardly, but smiled and said, "We'll be starting work soon, and we won't have time to play anymore. Take us to see how you catch fish! Don't you have a boat? I want to ride it!"

"Can you even swim before you take a boat?" Zhao Hua didn't want to cause any trouble. These educated and worldly women were less bound by rules and regulations, but the people in Shuanghuai Village were uneducated. If she took them back on a boat, who knew what kind of rumors would spread about them.

Upon hearing this, Xu Qian frowned, her smile vanishing completely. Her lips pursed, and she looked at Zhao Hua with a dejected expression, saying, "You don't consider me a friend, do you?"

Seeing the hurt and questioning look in Xu Qian's eyes, Zhao Hua was speechless for a moment. He opened his mouth, then smiled and said, "You're overthinking it. Of course I consider you a friend. It's not that I don't want to take you with me, it's just that it's not appropriate for you to come to the village with me. It's not good for your reputation."

"After saying all that, you still won't agree, right?"

The wind is quite noisy today! Zhao Hua licked his lips, looked at Xu Qian's slightly red eyes, and his heart softened for a moment. He said, "If you're not afraid that a bad reputation will affect your future, then I'll take you."

"I can not swim."

"It's okay, I can." Zhao Hua's Adam's apple bobbed as he squeezed out a few words with difficulty.

"Okay, then wait here for me for a while."

"Okay." Actually, it's nothing. There are two girls, not just one. They both have government jobs and are daughters of township leaders. The villagers will only look up to them with envy and curiosity. How could they possibly gossip?

While Zhao Hua was secretly preparing himself, Xu Qian, who had turned to find Jiang Yue, completely lost her grievances. A hint of mockery flashed in her eyes as she quietly clenched her fist.

A moment later, Xu Qian appeared at the intersection arm in arm with Jiang Yue. Jiang Yue saw Zhao Hua's bitter face and burst out laughing.

Zhao Hua glanced at Jiang Yue with a puzzled look. He wondered how Jiang Yue could still be laughing at a time like this.

Seeing Zhao Hua glance at her, she stopped smiling, coughed lightly, and said gently, "You should go home and have dinner first."

Zhao Hua's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he looked at Jiang Yue in disbelief. In just a short while, she had persuaded Xu Qian to stop?

He glanced at Xu Qian and saw that she was expressionless, neither happy nor angry. He then turned to look at Jiang Yue and saw her nod with a smile.

Although he didn't know how she did it, this wasn't the time to ask. He turned the car around, smiled, and said, "Tsk, Xu Qian, I'll take you on a proper boat ride another time. I'm going back for dinner now."

Before leaving, he still had to say some nice words. In his mind, the next opportunity would probably be several years later, by which time they would all be married, so he wouldn't have to worry about his reputation, and most importantly, he wouldn't have to worry about being inexplicably punished.

When he arrived home, Zhao Ru was sitting expectantly in the main room. Her mother was washing vegetables and preparing dinner. He pushed the car inside, glanced at Zhao Ru, and smiled, "Why didn't you go out to play? How was your day? Did everything go smoothly?"

"Oh! They sold out faster than me, and after they finished, they waited for me for a while before coming back together.

She stood up, took out her purse, weighed it in her hand, and said sullenly, "What about you? I heard from Mother that you went to the county town. What's the county town like?"

When she got home today, she noticed that Zhao Hua hadn't returned yet, and she became worried. She couldn't help but mutter something under her breath. Just then, Zhao's mother happened to pass by and told her that Zhao Hua had gone to the county town. She was immediately struck dumb, secretly annoyed that Zhao Hua hadn't taken her with him. Her mind was filled with thoughts of where the county town was and what it looked like.

The place with the most people she had ever seen since she was a child was the market.

Zhao Ru's dull voice reached his ears. Zhao Hua turned his head, laughed, and coaxed, "What's wrong? Are you angry? What can you look like? It's about the same as the ones in town. The fish I sell at the kindergarten gate are like the ones in our town's primary school."

He didn't take it to heart after saying that. It was so far away, and with the fish basket on his back, it wouldn't be so convenient to take her with him. She's all grown up now, and it wouldn't be right to let her sit on the front of the cart.

He unloaded the fish basket that Song's mother had helped him clean and said with a smile, "Let's go! Let's see how much money we made today."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ru was immediately delighted, chuckled, and hurriedly followed him into the east wing.

"There are so many people selling fish at the market today. I'm worried I won't be able to sell them, so I've lowered the price by one cent per pound." After entering the house, Zhao Ru poured the money from her purse onto the table.

He didn't say anything because the streams and ditches were flooded during the rain, and they connected with the irrigation canals and ponds leading to the fields. Wild fish were spreading everywhere, and you could catch fish at any canal or field entrance.

He nodded casually, picked up the banknotes that Zhao Ru had spilled on the table, and started counting them. Zhao Ru then started counting the coins.

A few minutes later, the two cleaned up the money on the table. Zhao Hua shook the banknotes in his hand and said, "I have 26.8 yuan here, how much do you have?"

"I have 13.15 yuan here."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hua did some mental calculation. Today's amount was easier to calculate; he didn't need to borrow any money and could simply add and subtract within ten. After a moment's thought, he smiled and said, "It's 39.95 yuan in total. Here's four yuan for you."

Watching Zhao Hua start counting money from the pile, Zhao Ru had long forgotten about the county town thing. With a smile on her pretty face, she nodded subconsciously.

When Zhao Hua placed a bunch of one- or two-cent coins in her hand, she couldn't help but glare at him, ran back to her room to put the money away, and then went to the kitchen to help Zhao's mother cook.

Zhao Hua was alone in the room. He opened the drawer, took out the money on his person, and roughly calculated that the first total was 671 yuan. He then received an additional 229 yuan, plus today's 124.25 yuan. He spent 270 yuan on the car and 8.5 yuan on the lock. With some miscellaneous expenses, he had about 730 yuan left.

At this point, he couldn't help but sigh; locks these days are really expensive...

Soon after, Zhao's mother called him to dinner. He put the money away and enjoyed the meal. Now he not only had a boat and a car, but also savings. As for other people learning from him to build boats and go to deep water, he wasn't worried at all. At this stage, there were only three or four households in the whole village that could afford to build boats, which wouldn't affect him at all.

After the meal, he called Zhao Ru to go fishing in the river. He picked up the fishing gear and the lock from the basket, intending to lock the small boat when he returned from fishing. He didn't bring any wire or chains with him.

It was originally designed to deter honest people, not scoundrels. It's good enough that it prevents people from easily untying it. If someone really intends to steal it, welding it to the shore won't help.

The two had just stepped out of the gate when they saw a large group of people walking towards them. His eyesight was quite good, and he spotted two girls in the crowd at a glance. His eyes widened in shock, and a "Holy crap!" echoed in his mind. Since they were too far away to see clearly, he took a few steps forward.

Seeing Zhao Hua's expression, Zhao Ru curiously turned her head and looked over with him. They saw a group of people in the distance. She wondered why Zhao Hua wasn't leaving, and her starry eyes scanned back and forth between Zhao Hua and the group of people.

As they drew closer, Zhao Hua recognized the people approaching. He sniffed, put his fishing net down, and leaned on his carrying pole, waiting for them to arrive. Zhao Ru, seeing this, also put down her bucket and quietly poked Zhao Hua's lower back.

Zhao Hua ignored her little actions. The group had already reached them. The village secretary stepped forward, his face crinkling with smiles, and introduced, "Little Zhao, come, come, let me introduce you. This is Song Wenshu from the township."

As he spoke, he subtly nudged Zhao Hua with his elbow. Zhao Hua's heart skipped a beat, and he straightened up a bit, smiling as he said, "Song Wenshu." Expecting Zhao Hua to say hello was wishful thinking, and besides, it didn't seem like the common people would say hello either. So he simply smiled and repeated his title as a greeting.

After Song Wenshu smiled and nodded, the village party secretary continued, "This is Manager Jiang from the town's commune restaurant."

Zhao Hua was puzzled. Hadn't he already started working? He didn't have time to think about it now. He pulled himself together, smiled, and said, "Manager Jiang."

Jiang Yue smiled and nodded in response. The village secretary continued to introduce her, saying, "This is Accountant Xu, who is also from the commune."

Zhao Hua looked at Xu Qian, nodded slowly, and smiled, "Accountant Xu."

Xu Qian coughed lightly twice, put her hands behind her back, and nodded slowly as well.

After the introductions were finished, he ignored the villagers who had gathered around and the village officials who had come with him, pulled Zhao Hua aside, and said with a smile, "This is the young man in our village who owns a boat, his name is Zhao Hua."

As soon as he finished speaking, he looked at Zhao Hua and continued, "Manager Jiang and Accountant Xu want to open up an additional supply channel for wild fish for the commune restaurant. Song Wenshu accompanied them to investigate. They heard that the boat at the entrance of the village belongs to you, so they came here specifically to see it. That's why I brought them here to find you out about the situation."

After saying that, he moved closer to Zhao Hua and then quietly nudged Zhao Hua's waist with his elbow.