97 Xiao Guan is here
"Huh! Yuehe, didn't you go to work?" Aunt Er was startled when she saw someone suddenly walk out of the backyard, thinking that the three houses in the backyard had been burgled.
Early in the morning, everyone who had to go to work went to work. The children in Compound No. 2, regardless of age, also went to the car factory with the adults going to work. There was no way anyone would be in the backyard.
Guan Yuehe also felt something was wrong. It was summer vacation, and even on a weekday, it shouldn't be this quiet.
"The factory has reopened the old club and even built a swimming pool. It's open to the factory workers' children for free these days," Auntie Er explained.
"No wonder." Guan Yuehe's next question was, "The car factory must be doing quite well now, right?"
The second auntie said happily, "I don't know how the business is doing, but it's true that this year's orders are more than the previous few years combined."
Guan Yuehe immediately thought of the Zhuoyue Garment Factory, which also had a car purchase plan this year. Just to buy a car, the purchasing department had to find connections everywhere and queue up to place an order.
"By the way, why did you take the day off today?"
"My work at the factory has stopped, and I'm going to school to report this afternoon."
The aunt exclaimed in surprise, "Your school starts so early?!"
He then pointed to the neighboring courtyard, "Teacher Xie and Teacher Zhang will both start school in September, and people come over every day to ask them for extra lessons."
Guan Yuehe thought to herself, "Now that they're so eager to find a tutor, no wonder Ding Xuewen and Chen Lizhong's tutoring classes are so profitable."
The second aunt didn't continue chatting with her and stood at the door urging the white aunt to leave quickly.
Where are you going?
The second aunt looked like she was about to take care of something important. "Isn't Xiang Hong's ex-boyfriend trying to get back together with her? His family goes to Xiang Hong's house every day to persuade him. We're going to try and persuade his family today too."
After saying that, Aunt Er ran to the gate and shouted to the other courtyards, "Old Huang! Old Liu! Have you finished cleaning up?"
"Yuehe, are you going?"
Guan Yuehe quickly shook her head, "I won't go, I'm afraid I'll hold you back."
She waited for a while at the main gate of Courtyard No. 2, and a group of elderly men and women arrived on time, all looking energetic.
"You..." Guan Yuehe knew she couldn't persuade them, so she kindly reminded them, "If you can win the argument, then argue; if you can't win the fight, then run away quickly."
They're all old bones, and they're not young anymore. If they get hurt in a fight, they'll definitely have to spend some time in the hospital.
But that's how neighbors in the compound are. They can argue fiercely over the smallest things, but when it comes to dealing with outsiders, they can band together to help each other fight.
In her mother's words: "I'll help you today, and you'll help me tomorrow. It's a give-and-take relationship; helping each other again won't be difficult."
"Yuehe, what are you saying? We're not the kind of people who fight at the drop of a hat."
Okay.
After the group had walked for a while, Aunt Xie hurriedly chased after them, shouting, "Wait for me, I'm coming too!"
Now, Courtyard No. 2 was completely quiet.
Guan Yuehe went out to buy things and didn't return until almost eleven o'clock. The courtyard was still quiet.
She was busy chopping filling and making steamed buns at home, the cutting board making a thumping sound. Later, while kneading the dough, she kept thinking about whether she had forgotten anything.
The group of people who went to the clothing factory's residential compound to yell at her hadn't returned yet, so Aunt Fang came to find her first. She was relieved to see that she had packed all her luggage.
"Tell me if there's anything else in the house that I haven't had time to tidy up, and I'll come and clean it up tomorrow."
Guan Yuehe shook her head, but handed Aunt Fang a key to the front door. "Lin Yiku might be staying at the military base. If he doesn't go home, you can come and visit whenever you have time. No need to tidy up."
The main reason is to prevent thieves, so that no one will think that she and Lin Yiku are not at home all day and start thinking about stealing things from her house.
Most of the money that hadn't yet been deposited in the family savings account was given to Lin Yiku, and she only brought two months' worth of living expenses with her.
She also had Lin Yiku take the large gold bracelet she had hidden to his office or dormitory to keep it safe.
"We'll eat at home later, I've already bought all the groceries." Aunt Fang washed her hands and came over to help wrap the buns, but she was puzzled as to why she was wrapping so many.
"I'll share some with you, take some to school, and give the rest to Lin Yiku for a midnight snack and breakfast tomorrow." She hadn't expected to be leaving for school so soon, yet she still had quite a few meat coupons left. Lin Yiku wouldn't even have time to go home to buy coupons and cook, so she took advantage of the spare time to buy meat and make steamed buns.
Aunt Fang looked at the two plates of fillings. There was more meat filling and less vegetable filling. Only Lin Yiku thought the vegetable filling was delicious.
Sure enough, Guan Yuehe said, "Lin Yiku likes vegetarian fillings, so this plate is for him."
This is a reward for him getting up before dawn to wash the sheets and clothes.
“He won’t starve in the army. Take more tickets to school and eat when you need to. It’s tiring to just use your brain.”
Aunt Fang mentioned Guan Yuehua, who had recently returned from vacation, saying, "Your sister wasn't that thin before. After a semester of school, she lost several pounds."
Guan Yuehe suppressed a laugh and didn't use Lin Sitian to refute her point of view. Lin Sitian also worked hard going to school, but she had even gained a little weight.
After steaming the buns, Aunt Fang went back to prepare lunch, reminding her to come over for lunch when it was almost time.
The two families ate together at noon.
But in reality, there were only three people: Aunt Fang, Guan Yuehe, and Jiang Guiying.
"Weiwei and Jingjing took Yangyang to the factory club to play. Your sister-in-law went to order furniture and won't be back for lunch." Only Jiang Guiying was left at home.
"Then why don't you go and join the fun?"
"Since you're going to school, your mom and I are planning to cook you a nice meal."
Guan Yuehe immediately smiled and said that they had worked hard.
Speaking of joining in the fun, Jiang Guiying felt that Bai Xianghong's ex-boyfriend's family was just asking for trouble and deserved to be scolded! If someone throws an abacus bead in someone's face, anyone would be cursing them out.
Aunt Fang especially dislikes families who treat perfectly good girls as backup options. "If they went at a different time, I would go and help them too. I would curse every single one of these people I see!"
Guan Yuehe knew that Aunt Fang must be thinking of Zhou Jinghang's family.
Seeing that Lin Sitian had returned from her studies and become a doctor, while Zhou Jinghang hadn't dated anyone all these years, Zhou Jinghang's parents thought they should let Zhou Jinghang and Lin Sitian continue dating.
It's a good thing they didn't find Ginkgo Alley, otherwise they would have been beaten and scolded too.
Jiang Guiying advised her old friend not to be angry, "Sitian has plenty of leaders who want to introduce her to potential partners. They think they're some kind of hot commodity, but our Sitian wouldn't even look at them."
Guan Yuehe also said, "Exactly! The outstanding men who want to pursue Sitian could line up from Ginkgo Alley all the way to the new residential compound of the automobile factory!"
Aunt Fang was amused by her words, "Let's not talk about unpleasant people anymore, let's eat!"
There were three people eating, and there were three meat dishes alone; this meal was quite lavish.
Guan Yuehe felt satisfied one moment and bitter the next: she couldn't eat as well as she did at school.
"You've rested from your hardship. Have him bring you food to school."
Suddenly it didn't feel so bitter anymore.
She divided the steamed buns into two plates and sent them to both families. When she returned to Courtyard No. 2, she happened to run into Aunt Bai and the others, so she casually asked about the situation.
"If the factory's security department hadn't come, we would have been back long ago."
Aunt Bai looked radiant, clearly having taken good care of the person and was in a good mood.
—
Seeing that it was almost time, Guan Yuehe tied the luggage bag and tape recorder to the back of the bicycle, and also hung two bags on the handlebars.
Having prior school experience makes all the difference; she's not as excited as she was when she first entered the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University.
When I got to the school, I went straight to the teacher's office.
Guan Yuehe had just raised her hand, but hadn't had time to knock on the door yet.
"Little Guan is here!" Teacher Ye, who had taught her before, came to the office specifically to wait for her today, and her eyes lit up as soon as she saw her.
This suddenly reminded Guan Yuehe of the year she worked in the factory office, when people from other departments would always have the same expression as Teacher Ye whenever they saw her going to help.
"It's great to be here." Teacher Ye rubbed her hands together happily and quickly pointed to the last empty seat in the office. "I cleaned it up the day before yesterday. You can work there from now on."
"Oh dear! I almost forgot about the important matter!" After the initial excitement subsided, Teacher Ye remembered to arrange accommodation for her and told her to bring her luggage and follow.
“I’ve applied for a dormitory with the student affairs office, so you can move in early. I’ll take you there.” Teacher Ye also took out the dormitory key from the drawer, as well as the canteen meal tickets she had exchanged in advance. “Your teacher Qin said you can eat a lot, so I’ll exchange some more tickets for you. If you need more, I’ll get you more.”
"What do you think is still missing?"
Guan Yuehe, who finally had a chance to speak, found herself speechless and shook her head. "It's not bad."
That's really impressive!
I called her the day before yesterday evening, and I had already prepared an empty seat for her.
But she still has to praise her teachers for being so thoughtful. They not only helped her with her dormitory and meal tickets, but also knew that she ate a lot and exchanged meal tickets for her.
If she wrote to Chunmei about these things, Chunmei would definitely laugh until she cried!
The dormitory that Teacher Ye applied for for her is on the second floor. This building is full of newly recruited graduate students from the school this year, and students from several different majors may live in one dormitory.
Many clothes were already hanging in the corridors in front of the dormitories, indicating that many graduate students, like her, had been called to the school in advance by their teachers to do chores.
Teacher Ye probably felt a little embarrassed to ask her to come back and help more than half a month in advance, so he insisted on helping her carry her luggage bag up to the dormitory building.
"Your bag... is quite heavy." Teacher Ye was quite embarrassed.
It would be strange if a pile of books wasn't heavy. Guan Yuehe still got two lighter bags for the teacher, and then carried her own duffel bag upstairs.
She was somewhat pleased that the dormitory she lived in as a graduate student was much better than the one she had when she was studying at the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University. There were only eight beds, which meant that she didn't have to remember the names and faces of more than a dozen roommates, greatly reducing the probability of calling the wrong person.
Of course, she thought that her future roommates wouldn't all have the same hairstyle and wear the same green military uniforms.
"You can choose any bed you like. Start getting ready. Teacher Qin said you're going to have dinner at her house tonight."
Teacher Ye glanced at the dormitory. Before the end of last semester, the school organized college students to do a thorough cleaning of all the empty dormitories. Now it's all in good condition, and there's nothing to clean up.
"I'm leaving now."
"Thank you, teacher." Guan Yuehe escorted the person to the stairwell before turning back.
When I got back to the dorm, I just casually greeted the girl next door. A little while later, she came over with a rag and broom to help. "Are you the only one in this dorm? Mine is too. We can talk to each other then. By the way, what's your major? We can study together."
"I'm a Spanish major."
"That's great!"
Guan Yuehe assumed she was also studying foreign languages, but the next second, the woman happily exclaimed, "I'm majoring in mathematics, so let's learn from each other in the future!"
Guan Yuehe gasped, realizing that they probably wouldn't be able to learn from each other!
But she was lucky; the classmates she met at the start of the semester were all quite enthusiastic.
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