Back to 1988

Chapter 136: Steamed buns

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Bai Luochuan felt that he had suffered a great loss. He was busy with things, and Mi Yang didn't want to bother him too much. Before hanging up, Master Bai didn't forget to remind him again: "Remember to come back on the weekend, or I will come to find you."

Mi Yang had no choice but to accept it.

No matter what he says, he has become famous as a "parent".

After Mi Yang collected his belongings, he went to Professor Zhang's office before the military training.

When he returned to Shanhai Town during the summer vacation, Mi Hong gave him a manuscript, and this time he returned it in its original form.

Professor Zhang was wearing reading glasses and reading documents slowly. He didn't react when he saw him coming in with the wooden box. After opening it and seeing the books, he couldn't help but exclaimed "Ah!" and immediately took it in his hands and flipped through it. When the old man saw the book collection seal and some handwriting on it, he couldn't help but get excited and his hands trembled slightly. He looked up at him and said, "Where did you find these books?"

Mi Yang smiled and said, "This is what my grandfather asked me to bring to you. He also sent me a message, asking me to ask if you remember Mi Hong from the Third Hall? It's been so long, and he has lost the original bill. Please write another receipt, so that he can put aside the worry that he has been thinking about for so many years."

Old Zhang looked up at him for a while, and suddenly said, "It turned out to be him! Is Mi Hong your grandfather? This is really..." The old professor thought for a long time, and was so happy that he didn't know what to say. He patted Mi Yang's arm and said, "This is really fate. Not only did your grandfather return the book to me, but he also sent me a student who taught me so well. I should thank him."

Mr. Zhang took out a pen and paper and carefully wrote a receipt, following the format used in the early years, signed his name and stamped it with his personal seal.

Mi Yang carefully put the note away. With this he could go back and report to Mi Hong.

Mr. Zhang refused to let him go. He looked over his body and called Chen Baiwei, "Baiwei, where is my wallet?"

Chen Baiwei heard the old man's anxious tone, so he asked for the place and ran over to deliver it himself.

Old Zhang solemnly took out five hundred yuan from his wallet and gave it to Mi Yang, and said to him: "I only gave you fifty cents as a deposit at the beginning, and the rest has never been given. These are the repair fees. You can tell your grandfather later that you don't have to return the extra money to me. The extra money can be regarded as storage fee. I know he won't accept it no matter how much it is, but I sincerely thank him. This set of books was passed down from my father, and there are his words on it. To others, it is just a set of books, but to me, it is a priceless treasure..." The old man sighed when he said the last part, and he was excited and emotional.

Chen Baiwei was afraid that he was old and would get upset when excited, so he interrupted and said, "You're back now, aren't you? It's good to be back. You didn't tell me why you wanted the money on the phone. I was so scared that I just went downstairs to withdraw 5,000 yuan in one go, fearing that it wouldn't be enough." He smiled and coaxed the old man, "Old man, our junior brother has done such a great thing. Should we treat him to lunch at noon?"

Mr. Zhang nodded immediately and said, "Yes, that's right. Mi Yang, you didn't make an appointment with anyone for lunch, right? If you have friends, bring them along. Don't be polite to the teacher."

Mi Yang smiled and said, "If I have time, I can treat you. After all, my family just got paid and is a 'rich family'."

There was such a saying in the early years that one would always treat friends to a snack after receiving salary. When Mi Yang said this, Mr. Zhang and Chen Baiwei both laughed.

At noon, Chen Baiwei booked a Shandong cuisine restaurant and took Mi Yang there for a meal.

Chen Baiwei served him a bowl of shrimp and cabbage soup and said to him with a smile: "How is it? I remembered this place when I knew you were from Lu City. Is this taste authentic?"

Mi Yang nodded and said, "It's delicious, thank you, Senior Brother."

Chen Baiwei said, "You're welcome. My mother is also from Lu City and later moved here. So we are actually from the same hometown."

Zhang Lao also smiled and said, "Mi Yang, eat more."

Chen Baiwei said, "Yes, eat as much as you want. I'll go swipe the card later."

After Mi Yang finished his meal, Chen Baiwei went to the front to swipe the card. Mi Yang felt a little confused, but did not ask and followed them back to school.

After seeing off Elder Zhang, Chen Baiwei walked with him arm in arm, his words full of gratitude, "Junior brother, you have done a great job this time. I haven't been this happy for a long time. I will pay for your canteen this month. My meal card..."

When Mi Yang heard these two words, he immediately waved his hands and refused repeatedly: "No, brother, I have money in my meal card."

As if afraid that he would not believe it, he added: "It's a lot of money, enough to eat."

Chen Baiwei saw that his expression did not seem fake, so he smiled and said, "That's fine. If you need anything later, just call me. There are many delicious restaurants nearby. I'll take you to try them."

Mi Yang was familiar with him and joked, "Brother, have you become rich? It's different from what they said. You are not stingy at all."

Chen Bai smiled and said, "It's stingy, but this is public money, and I can find someone to reimburse me." He winked at Mi Yang and said, "Although the old man only gets a salary, the grandson can make money, so we can spend Ren Jingnian's money."

Mi Yang didn't understand: "Ah?"

"Xiao Ren is the only elder in his family. I don't know what to buy for him when I make money, so I just keep transferring money to this card." Chen Baiwei put his arm on his shoulder and walked slowly, saying to him, "The old man is old. Apart from the materials and documents he cares about, he has lost his things many times. He forgets where he put them after he passes them on. He blames himself for losing them so often, so he usually leaves them with me."

Mi Yang said: "No wonder Professor Zhang called you to ask for your wallet just now, so this is the case, you two have a really good relationship."

Chen Baiwei said proudly: "It's more thorough than what my own grandson did, right?"

Mi Yang smiled and nodded.

After returning the book, a good relationship was established.

Professor Zhang recognized talent and character, and took special care of Mi Yang. The old man loved Mi Yang, so Chen Baiwei naturally took care of him as much as possible. He would run over twice to do some things for Mi Yang, and even help him analyze courses when choosing courses. As Chen Baiwei came more often, Mi Yang learned from his classmates that Senior Brother Chen was a minor celebrity in the school, and had amazing skills. He was most famous for his imitations, which were indistinguishable to the naked eye. There were two times when he made imitations of cursive script, and even Professor Zhang couldn't tell the difference.

Mi Yang's calligraphy is not bad, and it can be improved enough, but it is still a long way from Chen Baiwei's.

One is good at calligraphy, and the other is good at all kinds of things. Both of them are loved by the professors in the school.

Mi Yang's attention to Chen Baiwei was just a moment of amazement, and then it passed. He focused more on Bai Luochuan.

Young Master Bai was not from the same courtyard as him. Although they met every few days, it was obvious that Young Master felt that was not enough, and he called him very frequently.

In 2005, the phone bill was still quite expensive. Roaming charges had not been abolished at that time. It was common to hear students calling "10086" to check their outstanding balances after making a phone call in the corridor. There was a landline phone installed in each male and female dormitory, and it was free to answer calls. Some students in Mi Yang's dormitory even bought a phone card to call their girlfriends who were out of town to relieve their longing for each other.

The military training time was the most difficult. Some students from the south had just arrived in the north and had not adapted to anything. After training every day, Mi Yang and his classmates returned to the dormitory, lay together and ate instant noodles secretly.

The boy who slept in the lower bunk of Mi Yang was from Northeast China. He sighed and said, "The rice in the cafeteria is not delicious. It's too hard and not fragrant at all."

A classmate from Sichuan also nodded and said while slurping noodles: "The same goes for steamed buns, they're not sweet at all."

"How can steamed buns be sweet?"

“All steamed buns are sweet!”

The people from Northeast China and Sichuan started arguing about whether steamed buns were sweet. Mi Yang looked at another classmate who was eating instant noodles silently. The other classmate was staring at the instant noodles bucket in front of him with a dull look and eating it bite by bite.

Mi Yang hesitated and asked, "What's wrong? Do you think this noodle is not delicious?"

The other person was about to cry, "I am from Suzhou and you ask me if this noodle is delicious... This can't even be called 'noodles' in Suzhou, it's just 'instant noodles'. I want to eat the fried eel noodles from Tong Dexing and Zhu Hongxing noodle houses. If that doesn't work, give me a bowl of Wan Changxing red soup noodles with steamed buns!"

The Northeastern student was very capable. While arguing with Sichuan, he still had the energy to turn around and ask in confusion: "Mantou? Are there small and large steamed buns?"

The other person gestured to him, and he understood: "Oh, I see, you are talking about Xiaolongbao."

The Suzhou student got angry and refused to eat instant noodles. He started talking to the Northeast student about steamed buns in a serious tone: "How can you say it's steamed buns? No, it's steamed buns!"

Mi Yang, who was born in Shandong, has eaten steamed buns for many years, but also studied in Shanghai for many years. He explained: "The kind with stuffing."

The Northeastern students were also confused for a moment: "There are steamed buns with stuffing? The stuffed ones are baozi, right?"

"No, the stuffed ones are steamed buns, steamed buns with fillings!"

"ah??"

The students from Sichuan and Northeast China also joined the melee, and in the end they couldn't distinguish between steamed buns and dumplings. Mi Yang accepted the southern steamed buns with stuffing with an open mind, but the students from Northeast China refused to give in. They believed that steamed buns with stuffing were an outlier, and in Northeast China all steamed buns with stuffing were collectively called dumplings.

The Suzhou student was not convinced: "What about Tangtuan? What do you think?"

The student from Northeast China thought for a moment and said, "Ah, you mean glutinous rice balls, right?"

"right!"

The boy from Northeast China smiled with his white teeth showing, and imitated him to speak in southern dialect: "I am not happy to talk about it, and I won't talk about it. What can you do about it!"

The soft and sticky southern dialect sounded like he was banging the table in a fight. Mi Yang and his Sichuan classmates were laughing so hard that they almost choked on their instant noodles.

They had a lot of fun and ate up all four boxes of instant noodles.

During the military training, Bai Luochuan's name was on the school forum for the first time, breaking a previous record. He was very physically fit and represented the department in an individual obstacle race. Someone secretly took two photos of him and posted them on the forum, which caused a small-scale discussion. At that time, the term "school hunk" had just become popular, and everyone talked about it with great interest. Especially among the group of literary young men, there was such a guy who suddenly appeared, with cold eyebrows and eyes, and he won the hearts of many girls with just his eyes.

Some people also protested: "He is so white, he is also a gigolo!"

Immediately, many people responded, "What do you know?", "Look at his good figure?", "Take a look at the results of the three physical training events, thank you", "Shut up and let us watch our junior brother quietly for a while"... Few people protested, but many responded, and soon the topic went off track and people started licking the screen again.

Mi Yang's college has few people, and they are only assigned to a remote corner. People in their major are a bit easy-going and don't fight or compete. Although they obey orders, it is really difficult for them to get a ranking in the big exercise. The instructor probably saw it, so he simply took them to train for half a day, and the rest of the half day they sat cross-legged there and sang songs together. The students of the Archaeological and Museum College are particularly content.

During the break, everyone went up to perform their talents. Most of the other classes performed singing and dancing, but students in Mi Yang's class looked at each other, and finally pushed two people up to talk about some basic knowledge on identifying antiques.

The instructor felt that these young people were not young enough.

He looked around the team, picked out a handsome guy, and shouted, "Mi Yang, come and perform!"

Mi Yang stood up and walked forward. He stood there and thought for a moment before saying, "Then can I tell you about some common problems in the restoration of ancient books?"

Instructor: “…”

Instructor: "Okay, come down."

During the military training exercise, Mi Yang and his team really got the last place, but they were also awarded a friendship encouragement award. Bai Luochuan from the School of Economics won an outstanding student award and gave a short speech on stage, performing as well as always.

Mi Yang sat in the audience, looking up at the people on the stage with countless classmates wearing camouflage uniforms. Bai Luochuan looked particularly energetic in the same clothes, standing with his hands behind his back and legs slightly apart, with an indifferent expression and clear voice, and his face was still handsome and eye-catching. It was as if some people were born without any special effort, and they could become the luminous body in the crowd just by standing there, making people unable to help but follow.

Mi Yang sat and watched for a long time, then laughed to himself.

After the military training, time became much more relaxed. Bai Luochuan even came over and invited Mi Yang and the people in his dormitory to have dinner together.

Bai Luochuan had been to Beijing many times before, sometimes to discuss business with his cousin, sometimes to meet people with Mi Yang, and sometimes to find some good restaurants. When the people in Mi Yang's dormitory followed him, they saw that he was familiar with the place and thought he was a local. Bai Luochuan was stunned for a moment, and then laughed and said, "No, Mi Yang and I are from the same hometown. We have moved to several places because of our parents' work."

The other person nodded and said, "No wonder you don't have an accent when you speak."

Another also laughed and said: "I saw your photo on the forum before, and I thought you were very cool. I didn't expect you could smile! You are easy to get along with."

Bai Luochuan smiled politely, took the menu and ordered food and beer. When he saw Mi Yang holding the cup, he held his hand and said, "Forget it. Don't drink if you can't drink well. What will you do if you get drunk?" He looked up and said to the waiter, "Order another dozen sour jujube juice."

The people in the dormitory saw it and patted their chests and said, "Mi Yang is drunk, I can take care of him!"

Bai Luochuan handed them the menu and asked them to order more, pretending not to hear the answer.

A thick tablecloth hung down on the dining table. He and Mi Yang sat side by side, holding hands under the cover of the tablecloth. He slid his thumb over the back of Mi Yang's hand twice, as if to comfort and express intimacy. How could he let Mi Yang get drunk in a place where he couldn't see him? He couldn't bear to do that.

The author has something to say: Someone in my family has caught a cold, and I am accompanying him in bed. Updates are a bit rare, and I will update more in a few days~