Chapter 197

She didn't ask anyone to help her buy a sleeper ticket this time. As sleeper tickets were in short supply at the end of the year, it was already very good that she was able to buy a seat ticket.

For dinner, I went to a state-owned restaurant near the station and ordered a plate of braised pork. I ate a big bowl of rice and didn’t plan to eat anything else in the car in the middle of the night.

She bought a box of bottled coffee from the group, drank two bottles secretly before getting on the train, wrapped herself tightly, and squeezed onto the train at around ten o'clock in the evening.

She sat with her eyes open all night, and when she was bored she would browse her phone. In the eyes of outsiders, she would just look down and grope her palms from time to time, like she had climbed the tallest building ever. If she could find a bargain, she would do so. If not, she would just browse to pass the time.

I didn't feel sleepy when I got off the train this morning.

Her aunt's cousin Hong Ming came to pick her up: "Sister!"

Three years ago, her cousin was slightly taller than her, and now he is more than a head taller than her.

But the boy still looked shy.

Zhou Jiani smiled and said, "Hong Ming, when did you come back?"

"I arrived in Qiyang the day before yesterday." Hong Ming looked at her hands, his expression tense, "Sister, where is your luggage?"

Did Sister Jiani leave the luggage on the bus?

Zhou Jiani occasionally had to take the open route, so she chose to send her luggage by post. As for her bicycle, she found an opportunity to pretend to go to the transport team and ride the bicycle back.

"It was mailed back and may still be on the way." It will probably be after the New Year.

She only carried a backpack.

Hong Ming breathed a sigh of relief, took the bag and helped his cousin carry it, and the siblings left the station.

Hong Ming rode his uncle's 28-inch bicycle to pick her up, hung onto the handlebars, and rode back with Zhou Jiani. On the way, Zhou Jiani asked him, "You're going to take the college entrance exam this year, right?"

Hong Ming said: "Well, the college entrance examination will be held this summer."

Sister Jiani was admitted to Huazhong University through self-study. His mother had high hopes for him, and the young man was under a lot of pressure.

Zhou Jiani thought of her two cousins from her aunt's side who went to the countryside in the same year as Xiao Min. Zhou Jiani didn't ask where they went and didn't know whether they took the college entrance examination.

When she got home, she greeted the enthusiastic neighbors along the way. When she entered the house, she received a warm cheer from her aunt: "Our college student is back."

Zhou Jiani smiled and said, "Auntie." She went to tease her little cousin whom she hadn't seen for three years. The little cousin probably didn't remember her, but she still called her sister obediently.

She is more familiar with her two little cousins Jiaping and Jiaan than her sister. The three little heads are gathered together to read comic books.

Zhou Jiani looked around the room and didn't see Hong Guangwei, so she asked her aunt, "Where is my uncle?"

Zhou Peilan smiled and said, "Your aunt Hong had something going on, so he went to help her early in the morning."

Zhou Peilan was proud that her family had a student who graduated from Huazhong University. When she returned to Xiqi Lane this year, she was very confident and her elder sister-in-law, who had always had a grudge against her, smiled at her more.

But her elder sister-in-law's smiling face could not ease the conflicts on her own side of the husband's family. They had a quarrel during the New Year because of the unfair division of the family property. Now she remembered that she needed the support of her younger brother from her natal family. It was no longer the time to occupy their house and step on their heads to make a living like in the past few years.

The mother-in-law also asked her to go with her to support her elder sister-in-law, but she didn't want to get involved. Going to her elder sister-in-law's house was not as important as coming back to see her niece.

Zhou Peilan smiled and said to her mother, "Nini's honor isn't just mine. Her uncle walks around the office with a swagger, telling everyone that my mother-in-law's niece got into Huazhong University..."

Jiang Xinfeng laughed heartily. Her precious granddaughter had earned a lot of face for the family in the past few years, but all the face combined was not as great as this year's college entrance examination.

Among all the children of employees in the Second Spinning Factory who took the college entrance examination, her daughter Nini was the only one who was admitted to schools such as Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Huaqing University.

There are only four people in the whole Qiyang City, including her daughter Nini. Besides, strictly speaking, the honor earned by her daughter Nini cannot be counted as Qiyang's, but Bin County's.

Zhou Jiani has heard too much praise recently, so she has to remind herself to stay sober all the time, otherwise she will easily become complacent.

My parents hadn't had their holiday yet and had gone to work as usual. Zhou Peilan was at home helping Jiang Xinfeng prepare New Year's goods. The mother and daughter were preparing to fry radish balls. Zhou Jiani wanted to roll up her sleeves to help, but Zhou Peilan sent her off to rest, saying, "You've been squeezed on the train all night, go take a break..."

After saying that, he suddenly remembered something and said with a smile: "By the way, Nini, your uncle and I bought you a gift, come and take a look."

"What gift?" Jiaping and Jiaan over there no longer cared about reading the picture book and looked up.

Seeing her two nephews looking eagerly, Zhou Peilan said with a smile: "There is no gift for you two. I will buy it for you when you two get into college in the future."

Zhou Peilan bought Zhou Jiani a palm-sized semiconductor radio, a Changjiang brand.

"You guys are going to learn foreign languages when you go to college, so it would be convenient to have a small radio to listen to foreign language programs."

Zhou Jiani was really surprised.

The radio that the Qiu family bought when we got engaged was placed at home, but that radio was too big and it would definitely be inconvenient to bring to school. This small radio was perfect for us.

"Thank you, auntie. I love this gift so much." Zhou Jiani's joyful expression was genuine. Zhou Peilan knew that her niece really liked it, and she was happy too.

Jiaping and Jiaan were so jealous that they wanted to play with it a bit, but were ruthlessly rejected by their sister.

Zhou Jiani opened her backpack and took out two packets of snacks wrapped in brown paper. She said, "Let's go wash our hands and have some snacks with Sister Dandan."

Jiang Xinfeng asked eagerly, "Are we going to report to the school? Have you received the admission letter?"

"Wait until I show it to you."

She reached into her bag, took out the notice from the warehouse and showed it to her grandmother and aunt, and three little heads came over.

Zhou Peilan unfolded it carefully. Before reading it, she warned the three little ones that no one was allowed to reach out to take it, let alone pull it. The three little ones looked at it obediently. Jiaping and Jiaan knew many words and read the entire content of the notice seriously. Dandan didn't know many words and couldn't resonate with her cousin's honor. She took a look and thought that it was not as good-looking as the certificates that her two little cousins brought back this year. She retracted her head and continued to eat snacks.

Hong Ming also took a look, with envy and determination in his eyes.

I had only heard of Huazhong University before, but now the admission letter from Huazhong University is clearly placed in front of me. The impact is much stronger than just hearing about it.

Originally, he was just being pressured by his mother to go to the two good universities in the capital, but when he saw his cousin's admission letter, he became more nervous.

Zhou Peilan looked at it again and again, then carefully folded it and handed it to Jiani: "Please keep it carefully." She also reminded him thoughtfully, "It's ok for us to look at it among ourselves, but don't let anyone take it. What if someone doesn't have good intentions and tears it up?"

Jiang Xinfeng agreed deeply and nodded seriously: "Your aunt is right."

Zhou Jiani didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but she still accepted the advice.

Since her help was not needed at home, she did not go back to the house to rest. She took a bath ticket, took a bath, changed into clean clothes, wrapped her head tightly, and went back home.

At noon, her parents came back and there was bound to be another bustle. Her parents carefully looked over her notice again...

Yu Huifang said, "You'll report on the 27th or 28th of this month. Your father has already replaced your food coupons and prepared bedding. But Zeming's mother called that day and said she's prepared a set of bedding, an enamel basin, an enamel pot, an aluminum lunch box, and a thermos. Just bring a few changes of clothes."

Zhou Jiani didn't know that Aunt Du had prepared so carefully for her. In fact, it was not difficult for her to carry the luggage, and the things that were most in short supply in the warehouse were basins, pots, lunch boxes, etc.

But this was Aunt Du's intention, so Zhou Jiani nodded and said, "I'll thank Aunt Du when I get to the capital."

Zhou Peilan knew that she was her niece's future mother-in-law. She heard that before Jiani took the college entrance examination, she asked people everywhere to help Jiani find information. For a mother-in-law to do this, it was really amazing.

Some mothers-in-law would like to find ways to stop this kind of thing when they encounter it, for fear that their daughter-in-law will be admitted to university and become more capable than their own son and they will no longer be able to control her.

Zhou Peilan had just made this analogy in her mind when Li Yan came back from work in the afternoon. She heard that Zhou Jiani had returned and came to talk to her.

After returning to the city, Li Yan went to the Qi Yang Shoe Factory and started dating someone. Although they were not engaged, the two families had started to interact and had agreed to get married this year.

When they were discussing it, the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination had not been announced yet. Later, when the news was announced, she said she wanted to take the college entrance examination. Her mother was very willing, but her boyfriend's mother was not very happy. She felt that they both had formal jobs, and her son had just been rated as a second-level worker. His master was a relative of theirs, and with the master's care, he could be rated as a higher-level worker after one or two years of experience. She said that after the couple got married, she would help him apply for the third-level worker assessment... What a good future, but the daughter-in-law who had not yet married into the family wanted to give up her iron rice bowl and planned to go to university.

"Although Wang An and I were introduced by a matchmaker, we got along pretty well. We both applied, but I passed and he didn't. He said he supported my university education, but now his family is insisting we get married before we start." Li Yan looked conflicted and bewildered. "When we discussed this plan last year, I was ready to get married this year, and I was willing to marry him. But now his family is pushing it so hard... I can't explain why, but I just feel a little uncomfortable."

Li Yan was also worried that her own parents did not support her, saying that her in-laws valued her and wanted to tie her down by marrying her quickly. Her parents smiled when they talked about it, thinking that their daughter was very adorable.

Li Yan couldn't convince her parents. In fact, she herself didn't know how to explain it. Everyone joked that her in-laws were afraid that she would run away as a daughter-in-law, but she just felt very uncomfortable.

"Which university did you apply to?"

Li Yan: "When I applied for admission, I filled in three local schools, and the others were schools around Qiyang. In the end, it was Qiyang Teachers College that accepted me."

Li Yan took into consideration the thoughts of her in-laws at the time and did not enroll in a school that was too far away.

Zhou Jiani's heart moved, and she asked, "Sister Yan, what is your partner's attitude towards his family's proposal of marriage?"

Li Yan was stunned for a moment: "He, he didn't say anything."

Zhou Jiani: "So when he said he supported you going to college, did he say that before his family proposed marriage or after?"

Li Yan: "He said it before, when we were studying together. He even discussed with me that if we both got into university, we should focus on finishing university first and then get married. Now that his family has proposed marriage, he hasn't said anything. I guess he still thinks the same way..."

Zhou Jiani opened her mouth and said, "Even if he doesn't have a clear attitude, you still have to ask him what he thinks, and then discuss it with him as appropriate."

Li Yan seemed to be grasping at something, but she didn't catch it. After thinking for a moment, she nodded and said, "You're right. I'll go ask him."

After Li Yan left, Zhou Jiani also felt sleepy and took a nap. When she opened her eyes, it was dark. There was a bit of noise in the hall... not really a noise, but the tone of the people speaking was impatient and excited: "... No matter what, we are sisters. Even if our bones are broken, we are still connected. His uncle handed over this ladder, and the four of us sisters will be reunited and live happily from now on."

Then came her mother's sneer. "Just because he gives me a ladder, I have to get off? Earlier this year, we were riding our bikes on the opposite side of the road and he turned his head away. I was afraid he'd break his neck. If you want to drive the donkey downhill, you can do it yourself. I won't help you."

Zhou Jiani got up, packed up, opened the door and walked out.