Chapter 15: Monthly Ticket Eating, Taste Has Changed
After finishing a physics class, Xu Heye regained some confidence.
In her previous life, when she was preparing for the adult college entrance exam, she initially chose science. She had no trouble with Chinese, math, and English, but was tormented by physics and chemistry. After two months of training, she couldn't even figure out the direction of force, let alone the myriad reaction equations in chemistry.
Later, I decisively changed to liberal arts and started to study politics, geography and history again.
Hucheng Middle School Entrance Exam required chemistry and physics, and she was really worried that she wouldn't understand them. Fortunately, junior high school physics was quite simple, consisting of the most basic knowledge points, and it was not difficult to understand.
Xu Heye looked at the book, followed the teacher's ideas, and was able to understand it roughly.
However, she still had some issues that she hadn't caught up with, likely due to previous studies. So she decided to get her first-year physics textbook and systematically study it from the beginning.
As for Chinese, math, and English, you should also find the textbooks that you have not learned in the first and second year of junior high school, go through them carefully, check for omissions and fill in the gaps, so that you have a clear understanding of them.
As the bell rang, the students prepared to go to lunch.
Xu Heye stood up and, in line with the principle of actively breaking the ice, she took the initiative to look at her deskmate Kong Xiaoyue, "Xiaoyue, do you want to go to lunch together?"
Kong Xiaoyue touched the snacks and cakes in the cabinet and shook her head: "I brought lunch, you can go by yourself."
"Okay then." Xu Heye didn't force it. When she came out of the classroom, she saw her mother Dong Taohua standing at the stairs, looking over here.
"Mom." Xu Heye called out and quickly ran to Dong Taohua. "Didn't you go home?"
Dong Taohua shook her head, took her daughter's hand, and said with a smile: "Let's go, let's go eat."
The mother and daughter arrived at the cafeteria, which had two floors. The first floor served big pot meals, while the second floor served stir-fries and the teachers' cafeteria. The food tasted good, but the prices were a bit higher.
The first time she came, Dong Taohua took her daughter upstairs and ordered a twice-cooked pork, a fried egg with leeks and four taels of rice.
Dong Taohua picked up a piece of twice-cooked pork with chopsticks and frowned slightly after eating it. The twice-cooked pork was sweet.
She took another bite of the fried eggs with leeks, which was also sweet.
Dong Taohua took two bites and still felt a little uncomfortable. Hucheng people like to add sugar to their dishes, while Gan Province always adds spicy flavor to all dishes. Over time, the frying pan has a spicy smell.
When she first arrived in Gan Province, she couldn't eat anything, missing the light sweetness of Hucheng cuisine. But when she finally returned to the city where she was born and raised, eating the sweet Hucheng cuisine, Dong Taohua found herself more accustomed to the spiciness of Gan cuisine.
She looked at her daughter. Xu Heye was eating with a mouthful of rice, a mouthful of meat, and a mouthful of rice, a mouthful of leeks. She seemed to be enjoying the meal.
Dong Taohua didn't know that Xu Heye had lived in this city for more than ten years in her previous life, and had long been accustomed to the taste of Hucheng people who always added sugar to any dish they cooked.
Just like she has been in the countryside for more than 20 years, she has also become accustomed to the practice of adding two chili peppers when stir-frying green vegetables in Gan Province.
The traces of hometown and time left on people are clearly visible.
After lunch, Xu Heye returned to the classroom to take a nap and read, waiting for the afternoon class.
"Study hard in class. Mom will go back to buy some things and pick you up after class in the evening." Dong Taohua gave her instructions and watched her daughter walk into the classroom before leaving the school.
There is a small shop at the school gate, which also sells monthly bus passes.
A monthly bus ticket is for a designated bus route, and you can take two round trips a day for six dollars.
Dong Taohua thought about it and realized that the house they were renting was too far from the school, so He Ye still had to take a bus to and from school.
There are two trips a day, one day off a week, and classes are held between twenty-four and twenty-six days a month. The retail bus ticket costs twenty cents per trip, and forty cents for a round trip, which means at least nine yuan and sixty cents a month.
Even if you don't take the bus on weekends, buying a monthly ticket is still very cost-effective.
Dong Taohua bought a monthly ticket for May. As for April, today is April 13th, and there are only 14 days of classes left. It is only 5.6 yuan for two round trips. Buying tickets individually is less than the monthly ticket. It is not cost-effective to buy a monthly ticket, so she did not buy a ticket for April.
After buying the ticket, Dong Taohua went to the blacksmith shop recommended by the grocery store owner and bought a coal stove for cooking and boiling water. Then she went to the coal supply company to order honeycomb coal. After agreeing on having them deliver the coal to her door, she went to the nearby vegetable market to buy some vegetables and meat.
As for rice and flour, she ordered them from the grocery store with Liu Yumei. The rice in the grocery store was all new rice harvested last year, and the price was affordable, so she didn't buy it anywhere else.
After putting the things she bought in the rental house, Dong Taohua went to the steel plant’s staff quarters again.
She wants to invite Old Dong and her eldest brother's family to have lunch at the rental house this weekend.
No matter what the relationship between the two families was, she couldn't let outsiders know that He Ye and her uncle's family had a cold relationship. On the contrary, she had to let everyone know that although He Ye lived alone in a rented house, she had relatives in Hucheng and lived nearby.
This is the only way to protect her from some of the malice.
Dong Taohua only called Old Dong, her younger brother, and her eldest brother's family. As for her stepmother Wang Sumei and her stepson Liu Qiang's family, Dong Taohua simply ignored them.
Although Wang Sumei was a little unhappy that her adopted daughter didn't invite them to the dinner, when she thought that her adopted granddaughter didn't have to live at home, she just grumbled a few words and didn't say much.
It would be good if Old Dong and the eldest son's family went out to eat. Since there were no outsiders at home, she could just buy a roast duck that her grandson liked to eat and bring it back to nourish the whole family.
After leaving Dong's house, Dong Taohua went to the grocery store to borrow a phone and called the textile factory where her sister Dong Xinghua worked.
Dong Xinghua's home was in another district, and getting there required crossing a bridge, which was quite far and not very convenient. She had to pick up her daughter from school in the evening, so she decided to call her.
The two sisters have always had a good relationship. In the past 20 years since Dong Taohua went to the countryside, they have often exchanged letters.
Dong Xinghua worked in a textile factory and often came across defective cloth, which she would often mail to her sister, either by making it into clothing. Dong Taohua, on the other hand, would stock up on dried goods and wild delicacies, and for Chinese New Year, smoked fish and bacon, which she would also send to her sister.
Dong Xinghua was working in the workshop, and her phone was in the office. After explaining her purpose, Dong Taohua hung up. About half an hour later, she called again.
"Hello, sister?" This time it was Dong Xinghua who answered the phone.
"Is it apricot blossom?" Dong Taohua asked.
"It's me, big sister. What's up?" Interprovincial calls are extremely expensive, so the two sisters rarely talk, usually writing letters. Dong Taohua's sudden call made Dong Xinghua worry that something might have happened at her big sister's house.
"No, don't worry." Dong Taohua said hurriedly, "I just came to Hucheng recently and wanted to treat Dad, big brother, little brother, as well as you and your brother-in-law's family to dinner this weekend."
"Sister, why did you suddenly come to Hucheng?" Dong Xinghua said, thinking of the commotion in the family compound every day recently, she hurriedly asked, "Sister, has there been any change in the He Ye matter?"
After the policy was implemented, the two sisters spoke on the phone. She learned that her eldest sister wanted to send her niece back to Hucheng. She had planned to visit He Ye once she arrived in Hucheng. Unfortunately, her youngest son had a bad cold during that time, and then the factory received an urgent order and needed to rush to deliver the goods. Dong Xinghua was so busy that she had forgotten about the matter. She had assumed that the household registration had been completed long ago, but now that her eldest sister had rushed back, she was worried that something had happened.
Dong Taohua didn't want to say much about the open and covert struggles with Old Dong, saying only, "Don't overthink it, it's nothing. He Ye's household registration has been processed, and the enrollment procedures have also been completed. She is now attending school.
I invited you and your brother-in-law to dinner just to get you all to know each other. We've rented a small house outside. I'm fine now, but I'll be back in Gan Province soon, and He Ye will be living alone. I'd really appreciate it if you and your brother-in-law came over more often."
Dong Xinghua knew what her elder sister was thinking and said quickly, "Okay, I understand. Let's have dinner this weekend, right? Your brother-in-law and I will take the two kids with us then." She made up her mind to make time every month to visit her niece.
"Then it's settled. The call is expensive, so I'm hanging up." Dong Taohua said, and hung up the phone within two minutes.
After hanging up the phone, Dong Taohua paid the bill, chatted with the proprietress for a while, and estimated the time before rushing to school.
She walked there, and when she got there, the school bell rang. She picked up her daughter, and the mother and daughter took the bus back.
When they entered the compound, Lian's mother was washing vegetables. Seeing the mother and daughter, Lian's mother said, "The coal company staff just delivered honeycomb coal. Since you weren't here, I took the initiative to help you sign for it. The coal blocks are placed at your door. Go count them and see if you have the right number."
Lian Jiashu, who was helping to press the water pump, dropped the handle, ran in front of the two men, and stared at them.
Xu Heye didn't understand, and Lian's mother laughed and said, "Jiashu also helped move. He is just showing off to you and waiting for you to thank him."
Xu Heye: "...Well, thank you for your help?"
"You're welcome." Lian Jiashu was satisfied, turned around and ran back to the well to continue helping his mother pump water.
Xu Heye laughed, "Little boy, you're quite cute."
Dong Taohua counted the number of honeycomb coals and found them correct. Then she took out her key to open the door and gave Xu Heye two egg cakes. "Go and tell the landlord's wife that the number of coal blocks is correct, and then give these two egg cakes to the landlord's son."
"Okay." Xu Heye gave the egg cake to Lian Jiashu, said something to Lian's mother, and then came back to prepare dinner with her mother.
Honeycomb coal is difficult to ignite, but it will burn easily if there is a burning kindling. Xu Heye took a new piece of coal and went to the Wang family next door to exchange it for another one.
The red-hot honeycomb coal was placed in the stove, two more pieces of coal were added on top, and the iron pot was placed on top to start cooking. On the other side, Dong Taohua was preparing meat and vegetables. She bought peppers, pork, and Chinese cabbage today.
In the evening she planned to make some home-cooked stir-fried meat and some pickled cabbage.
The honeycomb coal burned up to a very high temperature, and soon the water in the pot boiled, and the popcorn rolled up and down with the boiling water. I scooped up half a spoonful of rice and took a look. It was about 80% cooked.
Xu Heye hurriedly picked up the iron can, poured out the rice soup, put it in a basin to drink, then spread the rice flat, inserted a few chopsticks to let it breathe, and put the iron can back on the fire, waiting for the rice to be steamed.
By the time the rice was cooked, Dong Taohua had finished washing her vegetables, making it a perfect time to continue. Eating the spicy stir-fried meat, Dong Taohua finally found it delicious. After dinner, she washed the dishes and started boiling water on the stove.
After simply washing themselves in a basin, the mother and daughter lay down on the bed. Dong Taohua gave the meal tickets and monthly bus passes she had bought to Xu Heye, and explained the location of the grocery store and vegetable market that she had just figured out today, then closed her eyes and began to sleep.
Xu Heye leaned into her mother's arms, hugged her arms, felt her warm body temperature, then closed her eyes and began to sleep.
It’s great that mom is still here.
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