Chapter 444 [Second update]
When Jiang Ning heard that he had to sign 3,000 books, he was surprisingly calm compared to the 5,000 books he had signed in his previous life.
She and Wang Yong worked well together. Every time she signed a book, Wang Yong would be responsible and stamp her newly carved private seal next to her name. The ink pad was given to him by the teacher who carved the seal.
The two of them spent most of the day signing a thousand books. After that, Jiang Ning had time to go to an Internet cafe and wrote another 10,000 words before returning to school.
The security guard looked at the sky, then looked at her, and said slowly, "Are you back?"
He had already remembered Jiang Ning and asked her to sign the entry and exit book.
Jiang Ning signed her name for the day today, and reflexively wrote the two words "Ning Meng" in a flamboyant style on the registration book, and then left.
He Xiaofang was the only one left in the dormitory.
He Xiaofang waited for Jiang Ning in the dormitory for a whole day. Finally, Jiang Ning came back. She jumped up from the bed, but she didn't control her strength well and her head hit the ceiling. She cried out in pain, covered her head and shouted happily: "Ningning, you're back!"
"Have you had dinner? Let's eat together?" Jiang Ning came to get her rice bowl.
He Xiaofang slid down from the upper bunk in a flash, her thick ponytail swung: "I've already got you some water, just go get some food."
Jiang Ning noticed that the shoes she had originally placed under the bed were also washed by He Xiaofang and hung on the balcony window to dry.
"Thank you, Xiaofang. Don't do this next time. I can brush it myself."
"It's okay. I was brushing my own shoes and I can help you with that too. It's not a big deal." He Xiaofang was very happy that she could do something to help Jiang Ning. If she was not allowed to do anything, she would be unhappy.
It was a pity that Jiang Ning’s daily clothes were washed right after she took a shower, leaving her no room to maneuver, otherwise she would have washed Jiang Ning’s clothes as well.
Jiang Ning still ordered braised pork. The lady who served the dishes was not always at the meat window, and Jiang Ning never went out of her way to see which window she was at. She only went to the window that determined the dish she wanted to eat. However, the lady would greet her and give her more every time she saw her.
Jiang Ning came back late today, and the cafeteria was empty again. The lady serving the food simply gave all the remaining dishes to Jiang Ning. One rice bowl couldn't hold all the food, so the lady asked her, "Do you have any more rice bowls? I'll give them to you. I'm off work too."
There was basically no one here at this time, and there were only a few vegetables left in the dish, and not much meat left.
Jiang Ning hurriedly took over He Xiaofang and Jiang Bai's rice bowls.
The young lady was quite partial. She put all the vegetables in He Xiaofang's rice bowl, and put the braised pork in the empty rice bowl that Jiang Ning handed over.
He Xiaofang was extremely envious. She had seen more than once that the food serving aunt favored Jiang Ning. Every time she saw Jiang Ning coming to serve food, she would give her more than others. Today, she was given more food because of Jiang Ning's help.
Jiang Ning went to get some rice into Jiang Bai's rice bowl, and the young lady simply closed the serving window and went off work.
Jiang Ning gave half of the braised pork to He Xiaofang, "If you help me get some water, I won't give you the meal ticket, but you can't refuse the meat."
A bottle of water was worth one tael of food coupons, and a serving of braised pork was eight taels. If she gave He Xiaofang meat every time, He Xiaofang would not accept it. Besides, that's not how friends get along. Now that she helped her get water, she gave her some meat, which made He Xiaofang more accepting.
But He Xiaofang, who felt that she had taken advantage, was still very embarrassed, "I... I just saw that you hadn't come back, and I was afraid that you wouldn't have hot water when you came back, so I just hit you."
Jiang Ning smiled and nodded: "I know, thank you."
The water-cooling place is usually empty at seven o'clock. Jiang Ning would sometimes come back from school at around seven o'clock on weekends and run to the water-cooling place. If he was lucky, the people who were there to get water were still there. If he was unlucky, the place would have been closed.
For example, the water dispenser next to the cafeteria was closed today.
After Jiang Ning finished her meal, she brought the prepared food to Jiang Bai.
As soon as Jiang Ning arrived at the back door of Class 8 of Senior Grade 3 on the fifth floor, Tong Jingang excitedly pushed Jiang Bai and said, "Jiang Bai, Jiang Bai, our sister is here. Is she bringing us food again?"
Jiang Bai, who was originally concentrating on doing the questions, turned around and actually saw the white enamel rice bowl in Jiang Ning's hand.
"Why are you here to deliver food again? No need to deliver food to me, I can get it myself when I go back." Jiang Bai said this, but there was an inexplicable warmth in his chest that he himself did not understand.
Jiang Ning stuffed the rice bowl into his hands: "The lady serving the food gave me the last few dishes. I couldn't finish them all by myself, so I put some rice on it for you as a midnight snack."
Among the three siblings, only Jiang Bai looks most like Jiang Ma.
It's not that he has a bad temper like her, but that he is very much like Jiang's mother in being thrifty and stingy. Even after more than ten or twenty years, Jiang Bai still keeps the habit of saving money.
He has little desire for other things and only has two hobbies: playing chess and making money.
Jiang Ning felt that even if he had an extra hundred kilograms of meal tickets, he would not be willing to eat meat.
She didn't want to hear him talk about how he often couldn't sleep at night in high school because of hunger, and when he fell asleep he was woken by growing pains.
After all the royalties from the publishing house were received, Jiang Ning's piggy bank became full again. He thought about finding a weekend to go to Shanghai again to finalize the house decoration, and also take a day off to get the real estate certificate.
It’s about taking leave. Unless it’s a sick leave, it’s very difficult to take leave in No. 1 Middle School.
When Grandpa Jiang returned to Jiangjia Village, it was already dark. There was no one under the big locust tree at the entrance of the village. Everyone had gone home to watch "Judge Bao". The song "There is a Justice Bao in Kaifeng" was playing from the television in every household.
Grandpa Jiang hurried up the mountain.
Uncle Jiang has lived in the mountain for two days. He can neither eat nor sleep well. The mountain is full of mosquitoes. Uncle Jiang feels that if Grandpa Jiang doesn't come back, he will be carried away by mosquitoes.
When he saw Grandpa Jiang coming back, he didn't stay for even a second. He immediately threw down the big palm-leaf fan in his hand and went down the mountain in the dark. Before he even got home, he shouted at the top of his voice: "Guixiang! Guixiang!" When he saw Aunt Jiang coming out of the house, he finally felt relieved and shouted: "Guixiang, hurry up and give me a bowl of noodles."
The neighbors nearby heard Uncle Jiang's shouting and came out to make fun of him: "Oh my God, they have been married for so many years, and they still can't live apart for a day?"
Uncle Jiang refused to admit that he couldn't live without Aunt Jiang, saying, "How can I not live without her? I just can't live without her cooking. You know how delicious your sister-in-law's cooking is, tsk tsk."
As he talked, he couldn't help showing off, which made his neighbors feel jealous.
Uncle Jiang added, "You don't understand."
When Mother Jiang saw Uncle Jiang coming down the mountain, she knew that Grandpa Jiang had returned, and her face was so gloomy that water seemed to drip out of it.
She already knew that Jiang Ning had come back and took Grandpa Jiang away. When she saw Uncle Jiang coming back, she asked coldly, "Grandpa is back?"
Because she couldn't find Jiang Song, she became much more haggard during this period.
"I'm back. If I didn't come back, I wouldn't be able to stay here any longer." Uncle Jiang went back to the house and brought out a pot of tea. He drank half of the cup in one gulp. Only then did he feel like he was alive again and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Did he tell me when Ningning would be back? Where did they go? What did they do?"
"How would I know?" Uncle Jiang looked puzzled: "Why don't you ask the old man about this? Why would I care about these things? I came downstairs as soon as the old man came back. I haven't eaten Guixiang's cooking for several days. I have been hungry these two days." Uncle Jiang touched his not-so-prominent belly.
Uncle Jiang suddenly thought of something: "I guess they went to pick up rags with Ningning? You didn't give Ningning money to go to school, so what else can they do besides picking up rags?" Uncle Jiang said as a matter of course.
He didn't mean to ask Jiang Ma to read to Jiang Ning, but it was a pure statement.
Mother Jiang thought about it and felt the same way. She felt uncomfortable again when she thought about how Grandpa Jiang gave all the money he earned from picking up scraps and hunting to Jiang Ning. Songzi didn't even go to school, but she, a girl, went to school. What was the point of her studying so much?
Songzi didn't want to repeat her senior year. Maybe she felt bad that her family had to support her and her three siblings to go to school and was afraid that they didn't have enough money. That was why she didn't want to come back to repeat her senior year and insisted on going to Shenzhen to work and earn money.
Thinking about how her eldest son was so sensible and filial, and knew how to feel sorry for her as a mother, while Jiang Ning didn't know how to feel sorry for his brother and her as a mother at all, she felt even more sorry for her eldest son's difficulties, and hated Jiang Ning for being ignorant, uncaring and unfilial.
Thinking of Jiang Song, Jiang's mother felt uncomfortable again, and went back to ask Jiang's father: "Haven't you found the pine nuts yet?"
Father Jiang was also depressed: "No, it's easier to find him in the provincial capital, but he ran to Shenzhen. Where can I find him? There is no news at all, and he didn't call back."
During this period, Jiang's father's hair turned a lot whiter, all because of Jiang Song.
But Jiang Song had long been accustomed by them to only think about himself, so how could he have thought that if he didn't contact his family, his parents would be worried? I guess he knew they would be worried but he didn't care, otherwise he wouldn't have not even told them his address and contact information, and he didn't call them for such a long time and just ran to Shenzhen without saying a word.
Jiang's mother couldn't help but say, "If Jiang Ning hadn't been clamoring to study every day, why would Songzi not come back to repeat her studies and go to work to earn money? Now, she's studying and Songzi's working, and you're happy now."
Father Jiang has also been getting anxious recently. Hearing this, he couldn't help but quarrel with her: "Can you stop talking about these nonsense every day? What does Ningning's study have to do with Songzi's unwillingness to repeat the year? Songzi went to the provincial capital after the college entrance examination. He refused to go to the cram school when I asked him to come back. He insisted on going to work."
Jiang's mother knew this truth very well, but she felt that it was Jiang Ning who insisted on studying, and Jiang Song was unwilling to study because he was afraid of the financial difficulties at home. If it were not for Jiang Ning, Jiang Song would definitely come back to repeat his studies, take the college entrance examination, and be employed by the government in the future to bring honor to the family.
Mother Jiang was so angry that she was wiping away tears.
When Jiang's father saw Jiang's mother crying, he was helpless and sat beside her and sighed: "Why didn't he call the brigade headquarters to at least tell us where he was and what he was doing?"
The three children are not at home now, and the house is cold and deserted. Dad Jiang doesn't even have the desire to cook. He just simply fried some rice. The couple ate a little and went to bed.
Grandpa Jiang patrolled the mountain for several days before someone finally came to the mountain with an old buffalo to graze.
The people here usually have two places to graze their cattle, one is on the mountains, and the other is on the banks of the rivers. They take turns grazing the cattle in the two places. Today they eat in the mountains for a few days, and tomorrow they eat on the banks of the rivers for a few days.
The cattle herders come in groups, the old men and children together, leading calves and old cows. The children will ride on big buffaloes, and drive the cattle to the valley. While the cattle are eating grass, they will find a big rock, watch the cattle, and chat and boast.
The children were too impatient to listen to them, so they ran to the valley and dug up something that was the size of a finger and looked like a tumor, but tasted sweet.
Grandpa Jiang came back from patrolling the mountains in the morning and saw them. He went downstairs happily and told them about his two-day trip to Shanghai a few days ago: "My eldest granddaughter won the first prize in the essay competition. When she went to receive the award, she specially took me there to play for two days. All the tickets, hotel accommodation and meals on the way were reimbursed by the organizer." He said exaggeratedly: "Wow, Shanghai is full of tall buildings and cars. This time I went to Shanghai with her and took a car. There was no sound at all. It was as stable as if I was not in a car."
"The lights in big cities are never turned off at night. When we arrived in Shanghai at midnight, the lights outside were still on. They were all colorful and flashing."
"We slept in the guesthouse at night. The toilet was as clean as if it had been licked by the tongue. After using the toilet, we just flushed it and everything was clean!"
The children who were digging wild sweet potatoes nearby had gathered around at some point, listening to Grandpa Jiang's stories about his trip to Shanghai. They were mesmerized and yearning: "Grandpa, is the city really as big and wonderful as you say?"
Grandpa Jiang said, "Why do all the educated youth want to go back to the city? Look at our team, apart from Teacher Xiao An, are there any other educated youth?"
This new generation of children didn’t even know what the educated youth were and they all shook their heads. When the old cattle-herding people talked about the educated youth, they couldn’t help but recall their youth. When they heard their stories, the children would run away to play games.
After showing off to his granddaughter and bragging, Grandpa Jiang returned to his cabin contentedly. He sat back in his rocking chair, brewed a pot of wild tea that he had roasted himself, and rocked slowly.
Time passed slowly. After Jiang Ning signed and mailed out another 2,000 autographed books, Jiang Ning's "The Great Song" was finally published. Because it was a joint promotion by the publishing house and the magazine, Director Li even put a big "gg" on "Wuxia" and used a page to promote the publication of "The Great Song".
When readers in Nanshi and Shanghai saw that "The Great Song" had actually been published as a book, they all rushed to buy it. Some of them simply liked "The Great Song" and wanted to collect it, while others thought there would be later plots and wanted to read them first.
As a result, the first volume of the book has only 160,000 words and only covers the first four cases. The book does not mention who the murderer of the new case serialized in this issue of "Wuxia" is.
But they bought it anyway, planning to re-watch it from beginning to end.
The feeling of following a serial in a weekly magazine is completely different from buying the book and reading it all at once.
"Wuxia" magazine has not yet spread to the north, but the publishing house they cooperated with has very good channels in the north. As soon as the book was released, it was quickly stocked in bookstores of all sizes in the north, and was placed in the most conspicuous position for emphasis.
Many people who like to read in libraries and bookstores, when they see the posters and books posted in the most conspicuous place at the entrance of the bookstore, will involuntarily go over to take a look to see if there are any new and interesting books.
When I read "The Years I Was a Constable in the Song Dynasty", I was first attracted by the book's unique name.
After all, most book titles these days are very formal, especially those of martial arts novels, which are mostly called "Biography of Something", "Record of Something", or "Record of Something". Among this group of formal names, a book so popular suddenly appeared, and they couldn't help but pick up the book and start reading it on the spot.
None of them have watched "Wuxia", let alone "The Song Dynasty".
I couldn't help but get drawn into the show, and I watched until the end and found that it was over?
I was suddenly hooked by the hook at the end and felt very uncomfortable.
They then look at the title of the book, "My Years as a Constable in the Song Dynasty: When I First Arrived in the Song Dynasty."
New to Song Dynasty? Is there anything else behind this? They couldn't help but ask the bookstore owner or manager: "Boss? It seems that the rest of this book is not finished? Where can I read the rest of the book?"
The bookstore owner pointed to the "Martial Arts" magazine that was recommended vertically in the magazine section and said, "It's serialized in that book, in every issue."
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