ebookslot Chapter 17 The Zhang Family
Chapter 17 The Zhang Family
Thanks to the great kindness of his counselor, Chen Che embarked on his journey home as scheduled on the last day of September.
Not everyone in dormitory 404 chose to go home. Xiao Hui chose to stay on campus to make it easier to find part-time work. Although the National Day holiday pays triple wages, who will pay college students the same wages as regular company employees when they do part-time jobs? At most, the price will be a little higher than usual.
After all, not everyone's youth is vibrant and exciting; for most people, youth is nothing more than a gray blur.
Wang Guangyu, on the other hand, wanted to play games to his heart's content without his parents nagging him. He would stay in the dormitory and go out to play during the second half of the week when he got tired of playing, even though the number of people at scenic spots during the National Day holiday was predictably high.
Zhao Zilong is a local, so whether he gets a holiday or not makes little difference to him; he can go back whenever he wants.
Ma Xu seemed conflicted, wanting to go back but not wanting to. Going home would take time and money for a train ticket, but staying at school would be quite boring.
Chen Che asked Brother Ma, "Elbow, do you want to come home with me?"
Ma Xu thought about it and decided against it. Although they had a good relationship, their parents were still there, so he felt a little embarrassed. Treating it as a vacation would be too expensive, so he decided against it.
Chen Che originally wanted to travel light, but he received the highest order from the head of the family to bring back some local specialties from Nanjing as gifts, so he could brag to his girlfriends that his son had been admitted to a university in the provincial capital.
So Chen Che's suitcase was filled to the brim with salted duck, pressed duck, braised duck, and instant duck blood vermicelli soup.
Therefore, he equally disliked every duck in Nanjing, and hated every piece of duck liver, gizzard, and intestine in the vermicelli soup.
Carrying so much luggage and being jostled shoulder to shoulder in the station made me regret not choosing my senior's hometown charter service.
Although driving from Nanjing back to Suzhou takes half a day and inevitably involves traffic jams, the high-speed rail is much faster, but considering the time it takes to get from the school to the station, the difference isn't that significant.
Once I was settled in my seat, my mother, Li Yan, called as expected.
"Hey, is Xiao Che in the car yet?"
"Here we are. Didn't I tell you this is the departure time? We'll be back around dinnertime."
"Hehe, what if it's a little late? I'll have to call you to check."
Chen Che originally wanted to say that high-speed trains are generally not delayed, and if they are, you can't just push the train around, so there's no need to worry about it.
But the words stuck in her throat, and she simply said, "I'm not late, I'll be home soon."
"I want to eat at the cooked food stall near my house."
"Okay~ I'll go buy it in a bit~"
The train starting with G only takes a little over an hour or two to get back. With a bad internet connection, I can read a book or take a nap, and time flies by.
The scenery outside the car window rushed past, with tall buildings and rural areas appearing and disappearing in turn, but the car remained as smooth as if it hadn't moved at all.
From the story of the two peaches that killed three warriors, the railway network of eight horizontal and eight vertical lines is unfolding in a grand yet silent manner. The convenience brought by the large-scale infrastructure construction is changing people's lives in a subtle and gradual way, and they arrive at their destination in no time.
As soon as I stepped off the high-speed train and onto the platform, a refreshing feeling washed over me.
It was partly because the air outside the carriage was fresher, and partly because I finally set foot on my hometown soil, which made me feel much more at ease.
A stranger is always a stranger, and a local tyrant is always a local tyrant.
Returning home in wealth and honor is like wearing fine clothes in the dark, but even without wealth and honor, one must return home.
When you're young, you're happy to think that you've finally grown up. You've been staying at home for over ten years and you're still not tired of it. The outside world is so much bigger. You have to take advantage of your youth to go out and travel the world.
Then, just like that, you turn around and find yourself becoming the uncle or aunt who does some mysterious job that your relatives talk about. When you see the younger generation looking at you with envy, yet smiling and taking out red envelopes to encourage them to study hard, what kind of feeling do you have?
However, since it's their own territory after all, they no longer bow their heads, stand up straight, and dare to speak loudly.
Chen Che strode forward with the flow of people exiting the station, humming smugly to himself:
"My buddy moved into a high-rise building without any effort."
In Litang, highways all start in fifth gear.
... "
Before he knew it, a little boy bumped into his leg. The boy looked at him with innocent eyes, and Chen Che quickly pulled him back and patted his head.
The child's mother quickly pulled her child back and said to her, "Sweetie, don't talk to strangers."
Then he gave him a wary look and said, "Gang Boning came to work here again."
They quickly walked away.
"Damn it, who are you calling an outsider! You country bumpkin!"
With only two subway stops left, Chen Che decided to take a walk and enjoy some time alone.
The row of camphor trees that I used to pay no attention to along the street are now majestic, with lush foliage and branches that spread out like umbrellas, providing dense shade everywhere. Suddenly, a wave of heat hits, causing the leaves to rustle and the branches to sway.
It's already past 5:30. The summer heat has dissipated, but the sun is still setting. The first group of elderly people who have finished eating have started taking a stroll. The Chu-Han Contention on the stone table at the intersection is just waiting for a spark to ignite it.
Just then, the elderly mother's phone rang again.
"Hey, Xiao Che."
"Hmm, what's wrong?"
"Ah, almost home?"
"Okay, almost there, we'll be there in ten minutes."
"Okay, I'm going to start stir-frying the vegetables now, hurry up and order."
"I'll be there soon, I'll hang up now."
As soon as I walked to the stairwell, the aroma of food from each household wafted into my nose.
Then, as the vegetables were being stir-fried, the crackling sound of the moisture on the leaves coming into contact with the hot oil, along with the clanging of bowls and plates, filled the air, sketching out the specific outline of home.
As I get older, I go home less and less often. Either I'm stationed at the project site right after I start working, or I'm working hard for a hundred days straight or it's just a light drizzle.
The beautiful woman never came during the typhoon power outage, and even complaints from neighbors were scarce.
Once they got into headquarters, they would write bidding proposals all night long, printing hundreds of pages, binding them, and stamping them with seals, making it seem like whoever had the most pages would definitely get the project.
Finally, they jumped out of the box. No more writing proposals or giving presentations. They just went to business dinners with this manager and that manager, either bragging themselves or listening to others brag. After that, they seamlessly transitioned to a one-stop shop for business massages.
Fortunately.
At least they didn't forget which floor and which household they lived on.
Seeing the familiar shoe rack outside the door, before Chen Che could even pound on the door and shout, "Mom, I'm home!", the door was gently pushed open.
A handsome young man from Zhongdeng who looked about 60% like Chen Che calmly looked at him and said, "Stop knocking, or the neighbors will complain. Change your shoes and come in quickly."
After finishing his speech, the elderly father, Chen Cheng, leisurely sat back down on the sofa, holding his thermos.