Old Friend and Herself (4)
If you ask Zhao Shihua what her plans are for winter or summer vacation, her answer will probably be too boring.
When others excitedly talk about where to travel during the long vacation or complain miserably about what cram school their parents have enrolled them in, Zhao Shihua usually has little chance to join in the conversation, because her answers from elementary school to junior high school have always been "doing homework, reading novels, and watching TV." When talking to friends she is more familiar with, she would add "helping out in the store."
It’s not that she hasn’t expressed to her parents that she also wants to participate in activities like winter camp and summer camp, but when her parents saw her report card, they felt that being in the top ten in the grade was more than enough, so why spend more money to make it icing on the cake?
Winter break during her freshman year was no exception. Even though her ranking had plummeted from "top of the class" to "mid-table"—she barely made it into the top 500—she was a provincial key school after all, so her parents roughly added an equal sign to her grade ranking, rounding it off to the top 1,000 in the province, right? Why would she need tutoring?
An hour after her phone alarm rang, Zhao Shihua slowly emerged from bed. It would be a waste not to sleep in on the first day of winter vacation. But as she brushed her teeth, she remembered that Zhuo Siqi might have been in Gaokao sprint mode from day one, and she couldn't help but feel nervous. Her inner ambition suddenly solidified from a shaky foundation to a rock-hard steel. She'd thought about turning on the TV to see if it was this year's reruns of "Journey to the West" or "My Fair Princess," but after breakfast, she obediently took out a piece of A4 paper and drew a table, listing her homework schedule.
If she could have completed her plan on time, she wouldn't be stuck outside the top 30 in her class. The Spring Festival was just a few days away, so she had to help with the housework and New Year shopping for the past week. The homework she'd originally planned to finish before the Lunar New Year had to be pushed back to afterward.
The family would spend two days in the countryside on the first and second days of the Lunar New Year, and then return to the city to reopen the shop on the third. After all, small towns were seeing people returning from the big cities, making it a good time to make money. Zhao Shihua would often come down to help out at noon and in the evening, taking care of the food. In the afternoon, he would sometimes go home to read a book or watch a TV series.
The class chat group had been quiet for the past few days, presumably everyone enjoying their vacation. The bombardment of New Year's Eve messages seemed a distant memory. So when Zhao Shihua received another "Happy Spring Festival!" message on the afternoon of the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, she almost thought she'd lost track of time again. She clicked on it, and it was from her classmate, Pineapple Pancake. The next line was, "Are you in Meizhou?"
She didn't reply immediately because her hands were still wet from taking the vegetables out of the sink, shaking them dry, and then arranging them neatly. After a while, she opened her phone and found several more unread messages:
"Let me come play with you."
"Where is your home near?"
"[boring]"
"My mother took my sister to visit the Hakka Museum"
However, Zhao Shihua didn't want to pay any attention to him. It wasn't that she was unkind, but because her grandmother had gone home for lunch, her sister had gone to a reunion with her middle school classmates, and even her father was away. Only her mother was in the store, and she couldn't leave for the time being. If Shao Yifu wanted to come over, he could only come here, but she didn't want her mother to misunderstand anything.
Just as he was hesitating, the other party called him. The phone vibrated on the table for a long time, and even his mother noticed something was wrong. She reluctantly pressed the call button and pretended to walk out of the store.
"Hello?" Shao Yifu's excited energy came clearly through the receiver. Zhao Shihua moved the phone a little further away and listened to him repeating the question he had just sent like a tape recorder.
"I'm busy, and I'm not at home either." Zhao Shihua said, noticing a few seconds of silence on the other end. Feeling a little guilty, he replied, "Happy Chinese New Year."
"Did you go anywhere? Do you have any recommendations for fun places?"
"Fun places? The Hakka Museum is quite interesting." She turned back to glance at her mother who was still preparing the ingredients. "By the way, do you have nothing to do? I have a social practice project. Do you want to come?"
"What social practice? Never mind. My relatives playing mahjong at home are making so much noise. I'll be right there!"
While picking vegetables and waiting for the volunteers to arrive, Zhao Shihua had already thought of an excuse to deal with his mother. He would just pretend that a primary school classmate happened to pass by and stayed to help... His mother hadn't watched many TV dramas, so he hoped that she wouldn't be caught.
"Oh! Isn't that my elementary school classmate?" Zhao Shihua shouted to her mother when she saw Shao Yifu peeking out the door through the kitchen window. She waved her hand at him, but suddenly too hard, splashing a few drops of water on her face.
"Oh, what a coincidence?" Mom also stood up curiously and wiped her hands with a rag. "Then please invite him in and sit down."
Shao Yifu confirmed he had found the right place and parked his bike by the door. Zhao Shihua then realized he had brought a guitar with him. She didn't know if he was showing off to her or if he was going to perform on the street to earn some pocket money.
"Are you doing social practice here?" He looked around. "Do we have this assignment?"
"...This is my family's fast food restaurant." She pointed to the sign bearing her family's name. "Since you have so much free time, why don't you come and help out?"
"What nonsense are you talking about, kid?" Her mother rushed over and scolded her, then stuffed a red envelope into Shao Yifu's hand. "Hello, classmate. Are you Xiaohua's elementary school classmate? It's really fate that we meet after thousands of miles. Come on, take this. Auntie wishes you progress in your studies."
Shao Yifu was also a little surprised, but he still took it and immediately replied loudly: "Thank you, Auntie! Gong Xi Fa Cai!"
"Have you had lunch? If not, Auntie will treat you."
"It's already past two o'clock, who hasn't eaten yet?" Zhao Shihua retorted.
"Thank you, Auntie. I've already eaten." But Shao Yifu still glanced at the menu on the wall. "But it seems I'm a little hungry again. Can I have... a bowl of fish head noodles?"
"Fifty yuan a bowl." Zhao Shihua held out his hands to the other party. He had just wanted him to help out, but unexpectedly his plan didn't work out, and in the end he had to pay for his meal out of his own pocket.
Shao Yifu just reached into his pocket and was stunned when he heard the number: "Is it so expensive? Doesn't it say fifteen dollars on it?"
“Prices have increased during the Spring Festival.”
"How can you be so rude!" Mom glared at her, then turned away with a smile, "Okay, okay, no problem, just sit down and it will be ready in a while."
"Wow—it's so delicious!" Shao Yifu ate the rice noodles with a slurping sound as exaggerated as a vacuum cleaner. I don't know if he was deliberately performing a ramen commercial.
"How's it? My fish head noodles are pretty good, right?" Zhao Shihua had been a little annoyed that he was just freeloading, but when she saw his satisfied expression, her annoyance was instantly swept away by pride. In the blink of an eye, she became a warm and hospitable hostess. "Eat slowly, don't get your food stuck."
Shao Yifu ate with such concentration, barely speaking a word, that Zhao Shihua wondered if he'd actually finished lunch. Staring at someone eating was impolite, so she chose questions that could be answered with a nod or a shake of the head, avoiding the awkward silence. Without even turning around, she could tell her mother was eavesdropping in the kitchen.
"Are you back to visit relatives?" Nods.
"Do you come back every Spring Festival?" Shakes head.
"Have you really had lunch?" Another nod.
Zhao Shihua picked out a tiny vegetable stem from between his fingernails, then his eyes fell on the guitar backpack on the chair. "Huh? You made the top 500? I mean, your exam ranking."
Shao Yifu suddenly raised his index finger, startling Zhao Shihua. He didn't have the impression that his score was that high. "You made it into the top 100?! How come I haven't heard of it?"
"...Yes, there is still one hundred left."
"That's progress!" she breathed a sigh of relief. "But your mom still bought you a guitar?"
"Well," Shao Yifu swallowed a big mouthful of rice noodles, "I'll take care of the Spring Festival cleaning and take all the housekeeper's wages."
Zhao Shihua curled her lips. She didn't even get a penny for helping with housework, but the young master, who usually didn't touch water, could get a guitar just by cleaning glass and mopping the floor. What a bargain! Then she couldn't help but sarcastically said, "Do you get a reward for doing your homework?"
"Homework? Crack, crack!" Perhaps frightened by the question or because he ate too quickly, Shao Yifu coughed several times in succession, touched his throat and said, "I think there's a fishbone stuck in my throat..."
Zhao Shihua was speechless. She wasn't a child, how could she get a fish bone stuck in her throat? If she had known, she wouldn't have been such a pessimist. She stood up and patted Shao Yifu on the back. Seeing that he still couldn't cough, she ran to the kitchen to get half a bowl of rice. During this time, her mother scolded her, "Don't talk while eating fish." She retorted, "It's not me who got the fish bone stuck in my throat." She was then retorted, "You can't talk to someone who's eating fish." She was speechless and had no choice but to rush back to save the man.
"Hurry up and eat some rice!"
Shao Yifu continued to cough, but waved his hand to push the bowl away. Zhao Shihua grabbed the chopsticks and put the rice in front of him, but he still turned his face away.
"If that doesn't work, let's go to the hospital." Zhao Shihua saw that his face had turned red from coughing, and worried that the situation was getting serious. "There's a clinic across the street. I'll take you there!"
Shao Yifu still shook his head. After a while, he finally recovered and said in a pinched voice, "...It's okay."
My mother came over to check on him at some point. Seeing that he was fine, she brought him a bowl of fish soup and said, "Drink some water and then you can go back. The fish meal is cold, so don't eat it. Auntie will fry some rice cakes for you." In fact, she was afraid that he would get a bone stuck in his throat again, so she just took the rice cake away.
"Thank you, Auntie!" It seemed that Shao Yifu was planning to turn afternoon tea into a luxurious buffet. Zhao Shihua was no longer surprised by this shamelessness.
The freshly fried rice cakes were so golden, even Zhao Shihua couldn't resist picking up a piece. His mother, probably thinking he was a troublemaker, pulled up a chair and sat beside him, watching him to prevent him from getting burned or choking.
"Xiaohua said you and her were classmates in elementary school? What did you call her? Auntie has a bad memory and can't remember all of you."
"Auntie, it has nothing to do with you. I transferred schools after finishing the second grade."
"He's really amazing. He transferred to Canada with his parents."
"So amazing!" This was probably the first time Mom had seen an "international student" and she almost treated them as foreigners. "You are all talented! Xiaohua, you need to learn more from them!"
"Auntie, her grades are better than mine." Shao Yifu blew on the rice cake, but he still got burned when he took a bite.
"Oh, don't be so anxious, eat slowly!" Mom poured a cup of cold tea over. "Xiaohua is lucky to have her sister's help. Look how naughty she was when she was little. She learned martial arts and got into fights a lot. I was called to school several times because of this."
Zhao Shihua sighed. Her mother didn't have the same self-importance as her father. She remembered when she was in the top 20 in the city on the college entrance exam, her father wanted to hang a banner outside the store, but her mother told her not to be too ostentatious and that showing off wasn't good. Perhaps the self-repressed nature of her character was suppressed by her mother.
Shao Yifu was silent for a while, not sure if it was because he was too scalded to speak, or because he was the one who had called Zhao's mother to school to be scolded, so he felt guilty.
"Okay, Mom, let's not air our dirty laundry in public." Zhao Shihua picked up the last piece of rice cake with a bamboo stick and handed it to his mother.
"Auntie, Zhao Shihua is actually quite impressive in school. Like a female knight, she often helps those classmates who are bullied." Shao Yifu looked at the person opposite him and asked flatteringly, "What's the idiom called? 'Rob the rich and help the poor?'"
"That's called punishing evil and promoting good..."
"Right, right, right, punish evil and promote good!" Shao Yifu clapped his hands while holding a bamboo stick in his mouth. "I remember when I was a child——"
"Let me peel a pomelo for you!" Zhao Shihua was afraid that he would say "she beat me up" in the second half of the sentence, so she hurriedly turned and ran to the corner, "Mom, where are the pomeloes? Have you eaten all the ones we bought last time?"
"Fighting is always bad," the mother said. She seemed quite pleased to hear others praise her daughter's sense of justice, chuckling a few times. "Then wait a moment, I'll go across the street and buy some pomelos. This year's Shatian pomelos are extra sweet!"
"Auntie, you are so polite!" He nodded repeatedly while saying this.
"Can you still eat?" She turned around and asked him after her mother left.
Although Shao Yifu had just spoken well of her, Zhao Shihua still felt that the fact that he and her mother were getting along better and better wasn't a good thing. If he let something slip and brought up the gossip from their freshman year, it would be disastrous. She cleaned up the table, took out her bicycle keys from the drawer, and asked him, "Why don't you go for a walk later? If you don't, Mom will feed you like a pig."
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