Chapter 116 - Refrigerator

In the end, it was the Luo siblings who both "took the blame" for buying the refrigerator.

The next morning, Luo Hong returned from his childhood friend's car dealership. As soon as he entered the living room, he noticed that the atmosphere among the family of three eating breakfast was strange. He saw his father give him a meaningful look and slowly back away.

But Liu Yinfeng had already heard the footsteps, so she wasn't going to let him off the hook. She turned around and said, "And you too, you've got too much money to burn."

Even a second-hand refrigerator costs three or four hundred yuan. The family has some savings, but as parents, they have a lot on their minds. Thinking about their children's future weddings, they want to save every last penny.

They felt that they didn't need to use large items like refrigerators every day, since the weather would turn cold after September and who would want to turn on such an energy-consuming thing then?

Luo Hong knew he was going to be criticized, so he gestured for his sister to speak quickly.

Luo Yan pleaded to save the day: "Mom, just buy one."

"How old is your daughter?" Liu Yinfeng said to her daughter, unusually irritably, "Why are you twisting around like a candy twister?"

Luo Yan chuckled and twisted even more energetically.

Liu Yinfeng patted her hand and said helplessly, "Okay, okay."

Meaning they'd passed the test, Luo Hong secretly gave his sister a thumbs up, then grabbed a basin to wash up. Luo Yan raised an eyebrow at her brother, as if to say, "What problem can't I handle?"

The siblings made it clear they had planned this all along, but Liu Yinfeng shook her head: "They just knew how to deal with us."

Luo Yan took a bite of the fried dough stick: "You're the only one, you're the head of the family, my dad's word doesn't count."

There are more decisions she can make than others.

"This child," Liu Yinfeng laughed, "you can't tell the truth in front of your father; you have to save face for him."

Face? Luo Xinmin scraped his face: "It's useless, what's the point of having it?"

He added, "Now, do we need to register with the power station and the local street office to modify the electrical circuits?"

Liu Yinfeng: "It's our own house, we don't need to go through all that trouble."

Most residents in the hutongs live in dormitories allocated by their work units, and they don't own the property rights. Moreover, they often don't have their own electricity meters, so it's easy to say that a small change can have far-reaching consequences, and it can take a week just to go through the procedures.

However, the east wing where the Luo family lived was bought by Luo Xinmin years ago, which made things much simpler, but there was still a problem.

Liu Yinfeng: "In the summer, there are emergency power repairs everywhere, and you never know when someone will come."

The power outages have been relatively infrequent in the past two years. Luo Yan remembers that when she was a child, the power would trip more frequently than three meals a day.

She said, "More people are buying fans this year."

To put it another way, Liu Yinfeng said, "It's hot this year, look how strong the sun is."

Ever since weather forecasts started appearing on TV, she has paid extra attention to the temperature every day, watching them precisely on time.

Luo Yan felt it was hot every year, and glanced outside: "I'm sure I'll come back baked to a crisp today."

My daughter rarely goes out during holidays, and when she does, she only goes out with her two friends. Luo Xinmin asked, "Who are you going with and where are you going?"

Luo Yan: "Yingying and I are going to Xidan to eat egg roll ice cream."

Luo Xinmin could understand ice cream and figured it must be something similar to popsicles, but he couldn't understand how eggs could be put together with popsicles. He said, "How can this taste good?"

Just then, Luo Hong came in after washing up, his face still wet, and sat down opposite his sister. He took a sip of porridge and asked, "What do you want to eat again?"

Luo Yan repeated: "Egg roll ice cream."

What is this? Luo Hong had been busy day and night these past few days and hadn't kept up with the city's trends. His thinking was exactly the same as his father's: "Can it even taste good?"

Liu Yinfeng knew more than the father and son, and said, "How old-fashioned! It's just called 'egg roll,' not that it's just a fried egg rolled up."

The father and son suddenly realized, but they still couldn't figure out why it was named that way just by imagining it.

Luo Yan roughly understood, gesturing as she explained, "Anyway, it's a roll like this, into which you put ice cream. Making this roll isn't easy; it uses a machine specially imported from Austria."

Where is Austria? A family of three, who hadn't received much education, looked at each other and collectively referred to it as "foreign country."

These days, everyone thinks imported things are good. Liu Yinfeng, who doesn't usually eat cold things, became interested: "Let's try some sometime."

This "door" refers to the couple.

Upon hearing this, Luo Hong said, "Oh dear, I'm the only one who can't get a holiday."

When this was mentioned, Liu Yinfeng said, "Why don't you hire an apprentice or something? You can take care of all three parties, and you won't have to keep an eye on things every day. You can even go on long trips."

Luo Hong originally wanted to say, "The store doesn't earn that much yet," but then he remembered that his mother had just put the refrigerator purchase aside, so he found another reason: "Finding the right person isn't that easy."

That's true. Although there are plenty of unemployed young people returning to the city, many are still unwilling to work for self-employed individuals.

If it weren't for her own child running the business, Liu Yinfeng would feel that opening a shop is not a reliable thing to do, and said, "I'll also ask around for you."

Luo Hong showered him with praise: "You have such discerning eyes; if you think something is suitable, there's definitely no problem with it."

I don't know what kind of fancy words she used, but Liu Yinfeng said, "Your mother is illiterate, she doesn't understand."

Then he looked around and asked, "Where should we put this refrigerator?"

The house is only so big, and after living there for twenty or thirty years, it has accumulated a mountain of clutter. Adding anything is a huge undertaking for her.

Luo Yan suggested, "Put it next to the TV? The smaller cabinet can be moved to my brother's shop to serve as a bookshelf for me."

She's made some good arrangements. Luo Hong: "How many books do you plan to put in the store?"

Luo Yan drew a large circle with both hands: "The sea of ​​learning has no bounds."

Luo Hong: "I think it's the cliff where one must pull back from the brink."

Just looking at it made his head buzz.

Luo Yan didn't argue with him, she just said, "You still know that these two words are different."

Luo Hong clenched his fist slightly: "I'll punch you later."

The brother and sister bickered, something their parents were used to. Luo Xinmin ignored them, finished breakfast, and went to work. Liu Yinfeng tidied up the empty dishes and put them in a basin of water to soak, then pondered where to make room for them in the living room.

Seeing this, Luo Hong said, "Then you can clean up today. Keep the refrigerator in my shop for now."

He reached out to his sister under the table again.

Like a thief, Luo Yan stuffed the hundred yuan she had prepared beforehand into her brother's hand and asked, "Is this enough?"

Luo Hong said he had enough, put the money in his pocket, and left.

The mother and daughter were left at home. Luo Yan saw her mother was busy, so she washed the dishes and said, "Mom, I'm going out. I won't be back for lunch."

Liu Yinfeng replied with a "okay," and asked her, "Do you still have money to spend?"

Luo Yan said yes, and walked out while tying her hair up.

She pushed her bicycle across the courtyard gate and saw Li Hongyu squatting there. She asked, "Why are you squatting here?"

Li Hongyu cupped her face in her hands and said, "I'm waiting for my mother."

Luo Yan knew that Jianjun was going to find a temporary job for his wife, but she wasn't sure how it was going. She was just happy for the little girl and patted her head, saying, "Then you stay here and wait, don't run around."

Li Hongyu: "I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to wait for my mother here."

She was so well-behaved, yet it was also heartbreaking. I wonder when she and her mother will be able to stay together forever.

Luo Yan was powerless to do anything. She sighed silently, got on her bicycle, and went to Chen Yingying's house to call her name.

Chen Yingying rushed out and spun around first: "Look at my new dress!"

Luo Yan complimented her on her looks and said, "Then don't ride your bike, I'll give you a ride."

Chen Yingying: "No, we'll both fall into a ditch later."

The two rode their bikes side by side, and while the sun wasn't too strong, they found a shady spot in the park to sit down and chat.

Chen Yingying had been troubled by several things lately, and after rambling on for a while, she finally asked, "How have you been lately?"

Recently? Luo Yan felt that her life had actually been relatively uneventful, and after thinking for a moment, she said, "There is one thing."

When she mentioned Zhou Weifang to her friends, she stammered, unsure of how to describe him, and said, "We've known each other since we were little, and the thought that he likes me makes me feel really strange."

"What's strange?" Chen Yingying asked. "Isn't this just childhood sweethearts?"

Luo Yan felt that her relationship with Zhou Weifang when she was a child couldn't be described in such a way. She stammered and couldn't find another suitable word, so she compromised and said, "I guess so."

Her conflicted expression reminded Chen Yingying: "Wait a minute, you said he can fix cars, why does that sound so familiar?"

Luo Yan: "He and my brother are so close, they're practically inseparable. Maybe they've mentioned it before."

Not only that, but they would exchange tens of thousands of words every time they met, which Chen Yingying couldn't recall at the moment.

The more she tried to figure it out, the more anxious she became. She rubbed her hands together, wishing she could reach into her brain and stir it up. Suddenly, she slapped her thigh and exclaimed, "I know! He's Yu Rongrong's cousin!"

Yu Rongrong? Luo Yan found the name familiar: "Isn't she your high school classmate?"

Chen Yingying was excited to remember this, and said, "She always said that she had a cousin who was very handsome. Is he really that handsome?"

Zhou Weifang's face is so famous? Luo Yan thought for a moment: "You've seen his childhood photo, it's on my desk, the one you thought was my brother's."

That time, she and her brother were supposed to take a photo together to send to their parents-in-law in their hometown in southern Anhui. However, the two siblings had a rare argument and neither of them wanted to be near the other, which put Zhou Weifang, who had come out with them, in the middle.

Chen Yingying carefully examined her friend's face and remembered this incident, saying, "You two don't look alike, but you're both good-looking, so I thought you were from the same family."

Brother Luo is also good-looking, but when you put them together, you can see the contrast.

Luo Yan: "He looks almost exactly like he does in the photos now."

Chen Yingying: "That's what makes it beautiful."

Putting everything else aside, it's at least pleasing to the eye.

Luo Yan nodded subconsciously, then suddenly began to play with her soft, flowing hair that fell over her shoulders.

Adopting the mannerisms of a young girl, Chen Yingying asked, "Do you like him?"

Luo Yan sighed: "I'm already annoyed even before I've thought about it. Think about it, he and my brother are best friends since childhood. It's fine if we're dating, but what if it's like with Zhou Xiuhe? Besides, we live in the same alley. Even though he doesn't come back often, we still see each other all the time. I can avoid Zhou Xiuhe's classroom, but I can't possibly walk around his house every day when I go to the bathhouse."

Chen Yingying found it strange: "You two aren't even dating yet, why are you already thinking about breaking up?"

Luo Yan: "Practice makes perfect, but this time I need to think things through more clearly."

When she uttered the phrase "practice makes perfect" with her model student face, Chen Yingying couldn't help but laugh, but she also felt that what she said made sense, and nodded with her shoulders shaking.

Luo Yan pushed her away, saying, "I'm being serious."

Yes, yes, it's serious.

Chen Yingying suppressed her smile: "It's not wrong to be cautious, but if you have absolutely no feelings for him, there's no need to be so careful, right?"

Luo Yan was stunned, tugging at the seam of her trouser leg: "I can't say for sure, maybe."

She couldn't even figure it out herself, so she simply patted her pants and stood up: "Let's not talk about him anymore, let's go get some ice cream."

Chen Yingying naturally skipped that topic and changed the subject.

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Author's note: That's all for today, I'll aim for 10,000 words tomorrow!