It was the winter solstice of 1997. A cold wave hit, and the temperature in Shanhai City dropped sharply.
Two days after this winter solstice will be Christmas Eve.
Christmas, a holiday imported from the West, is very popular among young people in China. In fact, it is just a reason for everyone to have fun and a lively atmosphere. Generally, high school students are in class at this time, but exchanging gifts is the most common thing.
Every year, the children of the Huatong Company compound have to engage in formalism and send gifts to each other. Of course, it may have to be renamed the Fulong Company Compound now.
The lights in the courtyard have already come on.
The winter solstice fell on a Monday, but there was no evening self-study. No. 1 High School was very humane and made an exception to let the students go home after school in the afternoon.
It is close to Christmas and New Year's Day. It is the most legitimate time to ask parents for money. It is more justified than asking for tuition fees. Of course, some parents will still snoop at this time, such as Yu Xiao's family.
"Mom, give me some money. I will give presents to my classmates on Christmas Day the day after tomorrow."
"What do you want to buy? How about I go to the supermarket to buy it for you? Buy it yourself... Did you receive the chocolates... Hey, hey, hey, I know, I won't ask you again in the future. Hey, let me ask you, why are you so irritable now..."
"How much? Sixty? That much? What's the gift? Just something random will do... Okay... Take it!"
When Yu Xiao's mother opened her wallet and took out a few bills, she looked suspicious and asked, "Are you going to buy flowers for a girl?"
In fact, Yu Xiao was just sending greeting cards, 30 cents, 50 cents a piece, a few dollars to get the people he wanted to send the cards to, and the rest of the money was pocketed. In this matter, Cheng Ran and Yu Xiao maintained a high degree of brotherly agreement.
Cheng Ran’s home.
Xu Lan served the mutton soup and finally put twenty yuan on Cheng Ran's table.
"It's almost the end of the year, aren't you going to give each other gifts? Use these to buy them..." Xu Lan said, "Why didn't you ask us for them in advance this year? Do you have money?"
Cheng Ran thought to himself about his mother's keen sense of smell. He smiled and said, "Last summer vacation, didn't we talk about using Cheng Xiang's shop to make printed chess and sell them? We made some money."
"Yes, yes, I heard about this from your second aunt. You must have made a lot of money from the sale. How can you have so many ideas in your head... Where's the money? How much did you earn?"
"That money has a cost. It's the New Year's money that we brothers have always received... Now we've barely made some money back... a few thousand yuan." Cheng Ran didn't know if Second Aunt would expose the store's sales amount at the next family gathering. The store naturally hired Sister Zhao to manage it. Second Aunt played mahjong most of the time. She would come to check when collecting the bills every day, and she probably wouldn't calculate their earnings and profits completely. But it's hard to say. Maybe Second Aunt knows all their income and expenditure. It doesn't matter. Just know it. Cheng Ran just needs to find a degree and not let the family get involved.
They can still accept the current profits, and may even praise their brothers for being good at doing business, but they will not intervene. However, if the profits are tens or hundreds of millions, the family members will be shocked and will probably make comments. This peaceful family structure will be disrupted.
That’s why Cheng Ran contacted the printing factory to do the work later, saving time and effort, and only needing to pay is enough. In fact, the production cost of a single copy of Three Kingdoms Killing has actually decreased.
Xu Lan said, "Oh... so... you make money if you want to. Save the money you make and plan it. Take this twenty dollars. It's from your mother. Let me tell you first, no matter what you do, don't let it affect your grades. Otherwise, your father will be the first one to come back and talk to you."
The post and telecommunications office in Bulu County has just started operation. Cheng Feiyang has been leading his team to garrison in the county for the past two days and has not been able to go home even during the winter solstice.
The post and telecommunications station in Bulu County is of great significance. From a geographical point of view, it is the throat of the connection between the two districts and ten places in the northwest of the province and the main cities to the north of the mountains and seas, and the hub of transportation and communication. Once the situation here is opened, the equipment update of the two districts and ten places in the northwest will be a natural process. Now is the time for Fulong to attack the city, and Cheng Feiyang has to run around.
Cheng Ran knew that his grades were the foundation of all this stability. If he really fell behind one day, the energy that supported Cheng Feiyang might also dissipate.
However, Dongzhi never saw Cheng Feiyang, and the house always felt a little empty.
After accepting the money from his mother, eating the mutton soup, and eating a full bowl of rice with the lamb belly and white radish dipped in water, Cheng Ran returned to his room.
There are some greeting cards on the table.
I bought them with Yu Xiao after school. I bought them wholesale and wrote "Merry Christmas" on them by hand. It saved time and effort. It was just for Jiang Hongshao, so under her slightly threatening "suggestion", I still attached some recent photos of myself.
The main reason was that Cheng Ran didn't know what to give Jiang Hongshao. Chocolates or something like that would be too common. He could only convince himself that for Lao Jiang, receiving greeting cards and photos might surpass other gifts.
Cheng Ran received two photos of Lao Jiang. In addition to the first photo of her next to a telephone booth abroad, the second photo was a photo of her drinking water from a cup in a classroom at Rongcheng No. 10 Middle School, which was attached to the letter. She was photographed by a friend in the classroom. She was holding the cup, and perhaps she noticed that she was being photographed. Her pretty eyes were wide open, and she glanced at the camera with her eyes wide open.
The background is a bulletin board behind the blackboard, there are lush green vines outside the window, and time seems to be drifting in through the windows.
If this photo were released in the future, Cheng Ran could almost imagine what kind of craze it would cause on the Internet. In an information age where people have seen enough artificial beauties and are aesthetically fatigued, this would be as destructive as a nuclear bomb.
The windows were frost-stained, warm light filtered through the room, and a song came from the radio, an old song recalling "Casablanca".
"… I thought our love story would never be adapted into a movie, but I felt the pain when I had to watch you go… Oh! The kiss in Casablanca is still there… But without your sigh, it is no longer a kiss… "
"Please come back to me in Casablanca... I love you more and more every day as time goes by..."
"I guess there are a lot of sad people in Casablanca... You know I've never been there..."
The song is accompanied by the light snow and sand in winter.
Echoing in this yellow room.
Cheng Ran has begun to look forward to receiving a letter from Lao Jiang in the New Year.
…
Yang Xia's home.
On the table, there are notebooks neatly stacked with cartoon patterns on the covers. Yes, Yang Xia plans to give notebooks to people around him.
On the cover of each notebook, she would write a paragraph of words, for example, for Yao Beibei, she wrote: "I hope your optimism and honesty will always be with you." For Liu Ying, she wrote a poem that girls would like, and for Yu Xiao, she wrote: "Don't be the leader of the barking next year!" For Zhang Xiaojia, for Zhang Xin, for Liu Kehong...
Many people’s are almost all written.
But they were all written for Cheng Ran, and several of them were ruined.
In the end, it was not finalized.
There was a song coming from the radio, it was "Casablanca".
Listening to this music, Yang Xia took a deep breath, picked up a pen, and as if she had made up her mind, she wrote down in beautiful handwriting on the cover of a dark blue notebook: "Everyone will insist on something, which others think is a waste of time, but to this person, it is very important. Maybe what this person is waiting for is just a... return?"
As soon as she finished writing, Yang Xia quickly closed the notebook. When she thought that the notebook would eventually be delivered to that person, she pressed it hard under her body with both hands. However, she was unwilling to tear it up no matter what, and she rested her head on her arms.
As the song played, Yang Xia bit her lips, her rosy cheeks looking bright and juicy.
(Thank you, C, for being another leader.)