Chapter 215
Jiang Bai heard his sister on the phone chuckle, a very crisp laugh, as if she was laughing at his naivety.
Jiang Bai had this kind of innocence in both of his lives. He didn't like dealing with people, but liked to tinker with various mechanical engines and make aerospace models. Whenever he finished, he would send them to her and Tong Jingang with great pride, explaining to them the production principles and how cool the modifications and settings were.
What he didn't know was that Tong Jingang and she felt overwhelmed every time they heard him talk to them about things they didn't understand. If he wasn't a good friend or a brother, they would have hung up the video long ago and would never have listened to him talk endlessly about the models he made.
Tong Jingang was better, he was always the most supportive one, exclaiming: "Holy crap! Awesome!"
"Brother, you are awesome!"
Jiang Ning always had the video on, busy with her own things, and listened to him talk. Sometimes she didn't even know when he finished talking or the video was hung up.
Why does Jiang Bai always like to talk to her? Because what makes her slightly better than Tong Jingang's "Fuck" is that sometimes when there are things she doesn't understand, after he explains them to her carefully, she can understand some of them. She will support and encourage him to continue his research, and will never discourage him. Instead, she always affirms him.
He is a world of his own, and his world is clean, pure, and deadly simple.
Jiang Bai didn't know why, but he felt as if his heart was blocked by a lump of dry mud, pressing down on it and making him feel suffocated and uncomfortable.
In fact, he has always understood and realized that he and his sister were in different situations. At least he had never worried about not being able to go to school, but his sister almost failed to finish high school.
Even though they were both beaten, his sister was beaten much more than him.
When they were all in deep trouble, the younger sister was still in the quagmire herself, but she was already trying to pull him out.
He always felt that as an older brother, it was his duty to take better care of his younger sister, but in reality, he was always the one being taken care of.
His eye sockets felt inexplicably sore. He was probably the only one in the family who inherited Grandpa Jiang's gene, being the one who loves to cry.
When I was a child, my grandfather was plowing the field. The ox pulling the plow suddenly went crazy and the sharp plow harrow suddenly embedded into my grandfather's calf. My eldest brother was playing and laughing as usual, while my sister squatted quietly by the side, watching with heartache as the doctor helped my grandfather treat the wound. Only he, seeing the bright red blood all over the ground, cried in fear.
He still remembers that when he was a child, he and his sister would go all over the mountains to pick chestnuts, wild hawthorns and wild persimmons. He would climb up the tree to pick them while his sister would stay under the tree to pick them. The two of them were so hungry that they would look for crabs in the cracks of the rocks in the mountain stream and roast them to eat. Those carefree childhood days, as they grew up, seemed to be gone forever.
He even had a premonition that perhaps his sister was far away in the capital and would never come back, either to her hometown or to Shanghai.
She is like a roc spreading its wings and flying high. One day, the roc rises with the wind and soars up to 90,000 miles. It moves forward courageously and never looks back!
He hung up the phone and sat on the small stool in silence.
He suddenly felt fortunate that his sister bought a house in Shanghai, a big villa. Such a big villa, decorated so well, warm in winter and cool in summer. His sister would always come back to live there.
His mind was in a mess, and he was thinking about how to build the yard of his sister's villa so that once his sister came back to live there, she would never want to leave. He had to make his sister's house always clean and comfortable, so that she would be willing to come back, right?
At this time, he no longer wanted his sister to return to the small mountain village where they came from, but wanted her to return to Shanghai more often.
He also bought a house in Shanghai, not far from his sister's villa!
It was not until then that he suddenly realized that he had been in such a state of debt collection for many years and dared not go home. The creditors pressed him to ask, "Are you Jiang Guoping's son?" He was too scared to say "yes". The days of hunger and cold seemed endless and were far away from him. It had been nearly three years since he had to endure the hunger, cold and hardship.
Life is always getting better.
By the time Jiang Ning finished the script, it was already December. Jiang Ning returned to the rental house and saw two red candles lit in the house. There were two fried steaks and a bunch of sunflowers on the dining table. Next to her was Song Peifeng, who was dressed handsomely and seemed to be here to seduce her.
Song Peifeng took the bag from her. She untied her scarf and changed her shoes while smiling and asking him, "Why did you want to eat Western food today?"
Western food and pizza are indeed very popular in this era, but Jiang Ning is good at Chinese food, and the two of them rarely eat Western food.
Song Peifeng naturally took the scarf she handed over, hung the scarf and bag on the bag rack, and said, "I can't make something too complicated, so I can only start with something simple."
For Song Peifeng, frying steak is really the simplest cooking skill.
She had already taken off her down jacket and hung it on the wooden rack. She looked at the candlelight dinner on the table and looked at him curiously: "What day is today? Why are we having a candlelight dinner?"
Jiang Ning thought about it and realized that it was not Christmas, nor was it an important holiday.
Song Peifeng held her shoulders, asked her to sit down first, and turned on the music on the phonograph.
This phonograph is an old item left by the landlord. Jiang Ning had never seen such an old item in his previous life, let alone used it. It has always been a display and decoration and has never been used. Unexpectedly, he would use it today.
In addition to steak and mushroom soup, Song Peifeng also prepared a bottle of red wine that he got from somewhere.
Seeing this, Jiang Ning looked at the boy opposite her meaningfully, thinking that he had finally come up with something she had wanted to try for a long time. He wanted to use this method to create some atmosphere and achieve a state of being slightly tipsy, and then what?
Secretary Song looked serious, but I didn't expect that there were times when beauty could seduce people.
Jiang Ning just watched his performance with a smile, to see what he was up to.
The two of them finished eating steak and drinking red wine. Jiang Ning's eyes were clear and not affected at all. However, Song Peifeng's face was slightly flushed. Under the candlelight, he was indeed very moving, a handsome young man with a good appearance that was a feast to the eyes.
Unexpectedly, he handed me a box.
"Are there any gifts?" Jiang Ning took the box with some surprise. When she opened it, she saw a bracelet inlaid with Yang Green Jadeite. Even though the jade egg-shaped surface on the bracelet was not very big, it should not be cheap with such quality and color, not to mention that it was inlaid with real gold.
She picked up the bracelet and examined it carefully in her hand: "You didn't take it from your home, did you? Can you just give this thing to anyone?"
It's strange to say, from what she has seen, girls brought up in patriarchal families are generally in two states. One is that they think it is their right to spend men's money, and the more they are asked to spend, the higher the cost of their silence and the lower the probability of their cheating. This type of girl usually spends men's money without hesitation, thinking that even if she is dumped one day in the future, at least she is financially guaranteed and has not lost out.
One type is the type that is flattered by the slightest benefit from others, returns the favor double, and never takes advantage of anyone.
This is why many people on the Internet say that daughters should be raised in wealth, because girls raised in poverty can easily be deceived by someone with the slightest benefit.
Jiang Ning probably belongs to the latter.
This was also one of the reasons why she had a flash marriage in her previous life.
Because I have never been loved and treated well, I am easily moved by the little kindness from others.
She smiled, took the bracelet out of the box and put it on her wrist.
Her wrist was slender and white, with bright green egg-shaped beads dotted on it, making her wrist look as beautiful and moving as fine white porcelain. And because it was not as expensive as the pigeon egg-shaped beads, it did not look too expensive for her at her age to wear them.
"Does it look good?" She stretched out her wrist and waved it in front of him, and he held her hand.
"nice."
Jiang Ning took back her hands, put her hands on her fair chin, and winked at him, "Tell me, what's the good news today? A candlelight dinner and gifts."
"It seems like you really don't remember." Song Peifeng was even more surprised than her and said with a smile: "Today is your birthday."
Jiang Ning was stunned for a moment.
It’s not like no one remembered her birthday.
I don’t know when it started in my previous life, but probably because Jiang’s father was getting older, he missed his children especially much. Every year, on everyone’s birthday, he was the first to send blessings, and in the family group, he kept shouting: “Today is my eldest son Jiang Song’s birthday. I wish him a happy birthday, a prosperous business, abundant financial resources, and peace and prosperity!”
It was the same when it came to Jiang Ning’s birthday: “Today is the birthday of my precious daughter Jiang Ning. I wish my precious daughter a happy birthday every year, a bright future, and a long and arduous journey!”
The same is true when it comes to the birthdays of grandchildren.
Oh, I seem to forgot Jiang Bai’s birthday.
He is a little transparent person who is always ignored.
In his previous life, Jiang Bai was really completely transparent, hahahahahahaha.
Thinking of this, Jiang Ning was happy.
She herself never remembered her birthday. It was only on her birthday that Jiang's father called to send her blessings and asked her when she would be free to go back. Only then did she suddenly remember from work that today was her birthday.
But it was no different from other days. I still worked, still ate, and was still alone and quiet.
She held her chin, her eyes bright and full of affection as she looked at Song Peifeng: "Thank you."
Perhaps because she drank some wine, her eyes seemed to be filled with spring water, and in the flickering candlelight, they were filled with his figure.
In Song Peifeng's eyes, it was beautiful to the extreme, just like what was sung in the song at this moment, as if in the dark night, a beautiful and fragrant flower belonging to it was quietly blooming.
She even stood up, walked around the wooden table, and like a gentleman, she bowed slightly to him and invited him: "Comrade Xiao Song, can I invite you to dance with me?"
Song Peifeng was amused by her tendency to always take the initiative to gain the upper hand. It seemed that she never knew what elegance was. She always wanted to act like a domineering president who pampered you and left you with no way out.
Naturally, he readily agreed.
The two faced each other and struck a standard pose.
Jiang Ning was very serious, repeating what teacher Zhao Lirong said: "Tango is all about walking, treading, and turning back every three steps!"
It's still standard Tangshan dialect.
It was obviously a very romantic atmosphere, but it made Song Peifeng laugh. Under the dim light, Comrade Xiao Song looked at her with smiles in his eyes, like tiny stars scattered all over the sky.
It was probably because the young comrade Xiao Song was not very drunk. After only half a bottle of red wine, he was already intoxicated. His red earlobes, cheeks, and eyes had lost their calmness and clarity.
Jiang Ning seemed to be in high spirits and danced with him one song after another. Finally, the two of them started to have fun while dancing. Jiang Ning seemed to think that the music on the gramophone was too tame and not passionate enough, so he asked him to change to some more unrestrained dance music.
Ever since she joined the drama club of Peking University, she has been letting herself go more and more, as if there is no one she cares about in the world. She acts weird and dances in any way she wants, treating Song Peifeng as a tool.
Song Peifeng cooperated with all her movements and manipulations, letting her have fun.
After the excitement, you still have to wash the dishes and clear the table.
Jiang Ning supported her head with the hand wearing the bracelet, and watched the handsome young man put on an apron, clean the table, go to the kitchen to clear the dishes, and come out with a small but exquisite cake in his hand.
There were eighteen thin candles on the cake.
Jiang Ning suddenly realized that this was her eighteenth birthday. She realized that it had been more than three years since she was reborn.
This was the first time someone celebrated her birthday so seriously.
She was a little dazed.
They don't have the habit of celebrating birthdays in their family.
In the past, Uncle Guotai would celebrate the birthdays of Grandpa Lao Zhonghua and his wife at the old shop at the entrance of the village next door every ninth day of the lunar year, because according to the custom in their hometown, they would not celebrate the tenth day but the ninth day.
But in the Jiang family, including Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang, it seems that no one has ever celebrated their birthday. Everyone is living a life of wasted effort.
When she was young, she picked a lot of raspberries from the mountains to please her mother. Rural children are not so delicate. She ran in the mountains in shorts and short sleeves. The thorns on the raspberries left bloody marks on her legs and arms, just like the marks of being scratched by chicken claws. At that time, she didn't feel any pain. She just arranged the golden red raspberries into a cake with full expectation, held it in front of her mother, and imitated the children on TV and said, "Mom, you have worked hard. Happy birthday."
In her imagination, it should be like what she saw on TV, with her mother's eyes softening and giving her a gentle smile, right?
In fact, he rolled his eyes at her, his tone full of impatience, "Don't you know how to sweep the floor? Don't you know how to wash clothes? The grass in the ground has grown so deep, don't you know how to pull it out? What's the point of doing these useless things? If you have the time, you can scrape back two bundles of pine needles for me!"
Since then, she never thought about celebrating her mother's birthday again.
It was also from that time that she realized that her mother didn't like celebrating her birthday.
It's strange to say, from childhood to adulthood, she only thought about pleasing Jiang's mother, but never thought about pleasing Jiang's father. Perhaps she subconsciously knew that Jiang's father had a gentler personality and would not beat or scold her, so she didn't need to please him.
She also didn't remember her grandfather's birthday, but only the anniversary of his death in his previous life. For some reason, she remembered that day particularly clearly. Even after many years, she still remembered it vividly. She even remembered clearly what she did that day and what she was thinking while walking on the road.
Only the eldest brother Jiang Song had a birthday celebration in the family. But it was not organized by Jiang's father and mother. Before his birthday came, he had already called many friends and invited them. He came back and said to Jiang's mother: "Mom, I'll invite a lot of people to come back on my birthday. Please help me cook a table of dishes!"
Even though the family was in financial difficulty, Jiang's mother always responded to her eldest son's requests. Even though she knew it would cost money, she did not refuse and even killed a chicken to entertain his friends.
So much so that from that year on, every year on his birthday, Jiang's dad and mom would attach great importance to it, inviting a bunch of friends to their home and cooking a table full of delicious food, just like a banquet.
Jiang Ning didn't remember anyone's birthday, but Jiang Song's birthday was clearly in her mind, because she had chicken to eat on his birthday.
Thinking of this, Jiang Ning was not thinking about his parents' favoritism, but the advantages of type E personality like Jiang Song in social situations.
For example, the issue of birthday was not brought up by Jiang's parents. He wanted to celebrate his birthday, so he took the initiative to invite his friends and asked Jiang's parents to prepare it for him. But in fact, if he didn't care about himself and didn't make such a request, Jiang's parents would not have celebrated his birthday at the beginning.
As a person, you must first value yourself and treat yourself as a human being, then others will value you and treat you as a human being.
Jiang Song is an obvious proactive and aggressive person. Perhaps it is because he has never been rejected by anyone since he was a child. Fear and rejection do not exist in his dictionary. He moves forward in his world, as if he can succeed as long as he wants.
Jiang Ning reflected on himself through this incident, wondering if he was too conservative and cautious when facing many things.
She blinked her eyes. The difference between a person who grew up in love and a person who grew up without love is that the former faces the world recklessly, while the latter is cautious, unconfident and afraid of being rejected.
"What are you thinking about?"
Jiang Ning did not hide it and said frankly: "This is the first time someone celebrated my birthday. I am very happy."
She took his hand and placed it on her chest. Although her mind was clear, her heart was filled with a strange and joyful... indescribable emotion.
It feels like soaking in a hot spring at just the right temperature, very comfortable.
She raised her head and smiled again, and the smile on her face deepened: "Very happy!"
As if teasing him, she grabbed his hand, placed it in front of her eyes, kissed his fingers, and asked him seriously, "It smells so good?" Then she pecked the back of his hand twice.
Comrade Xiao Song's face was already red, and after being teased by her, it became even redder. It was obvious that he was not as thick-skinned as Mr. Jiang, who was so happy that he laughed out loud.
He just smiled quietly as he watched her laugh heartily, wildly and ostentatiously.
That night, Comrade Xiao Song did not go back to his rental house to sleep, but was domineeringly kept by her and used as her pillow.
In the past, she always considered other people's feelings too much, and always wanted to consider things more carefully in order to achieve a win-win result and make everyone comfortable.
In this life, there is a kind of beauty that does not care about the life and death of others, and only seeks one's own comfort. She wants to hug Comrade Xiao Song, so she insists on keeping him to sleep with her, and she doesn't care whether Comrade Xiao Song, who comes out shyly in pajamas covered with a layer of mist after taking a shower, at this age full of vigor, keeps his eyes open until dawn while holding the girl he likes in his arms. She herself sleeps soundly.
When she woke up the next day, she looked radiant and energetic, as if she had taken some beauty treatments. Even when she went to the classroom for class, people couldn't help but look at her sideways.
She was the same as before, smiling back at everyone who looked at her.
But before, her smile seemed to be embedded in her face, but now her smile is indescribably bright and energetic, and one can feel Jiang's good mood from a distance.
Especially when the copyright fees for the two films that I collaborated with CCTV again finally arrived, I couldn't help but feel even better.
With the cooperation between "White Snake" and the central bank, many more physical copies of "White Snake" were printed. She invested the extra royalties from the additional print runs and the two sums of money in her passbook into the stock market.
Perhaps it was because Comrade Xiao Song reminded her that Jiang Ning, who had never remembered anyone's birthday in the past, suddenly remembered that Jiang Bai's birthday was just a few days after her own birthday.
What is Jiang Bai’s birthday? Was it sixteen, seventeen, twenty-six or twenty-seven?
Jiang Ning didn't remember, but it didn't matter, she called back to ask Tong Jingang.
Tong Jingang didn't know either. Although he and Jiang Bai had a good relationship during their three years of high school, at that time everyone was thinking about studying, which university to get into, what to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Who would remember a brother's birthday?
Besides, Jiang Bai never said that no one had ever celebrated his birthday for him, so naturally no one would remember to celebrate Jiang Bai’s birthday.
When he heard Jiang Ning's question, he realized, oh, his brother's birthday is coming soon.
He quickly looked up the ID number on the contract signed by Jiang Bai and the crew, only to find out that Jiang Bai’s birthday was not many days away.
He asked Jiang Ning in surprise: "Sister, do you want to celebrate Baizi's birthday?"
Birthday parties are so popular nowadays. The birthday party that Tong Jingang imagined is that a bunch of good friends, men and women, gather together to eat, drink and have fun all day long.
Thinking of that lively scene, Tong Jingang, who loved to gather with a bunch of friends to eat, drink and play, said excitedly: "Sister, it is inconvenient for you to arrange it in Beijing, so let me, Old Tong, arrange it! I guarantee to give Baizi a surprise!"
After Jiang Ning asked about Jiang Bai's birthday, she thought for a while, circled Jiang Bai's birthday on the calendar on the desk, and marked the words "Jiang Bai's" birthday on it. After thinking for a while, she called Grandpa Jiang and asked about his birthday.
She only remembered that Grandpa Jiang's birthday was in April, but she couldn't remember his exact birthday.
Unexpectedly, Grandpa Jiang was still very shy, and deliberately said with a fierce face: "I don't remember! Who still remembers that day!"
Being pestered by Jiang Ning, she acted like a spoiled child: "Just tell me, Grandpa, tell me. If you don't remember, just look at the ID card. It's all on it!"
Grandpa Jiang was really pestered and had no choice but to say loudly in dialect: "April 9th!"
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