There were still important things to do, and Yang Niannian was too lazy to bother with Meng Ziyu about such trivial matters.
With four of us living in one dormitory, we've long been accustomed to these little quarrels. If we don't have an argument every few days, we'd feel like something's missing.
She put on her military coat, said hello to Zheng Xinyue, and left the dormitory.
When she arrived at the school gate, it was almost 7:15. There was no one lingering at the gate. Knowing that the other party had not arrived yet, she waited under a big tree on the side of the road, observing the people passing by.
Within a few minutes, a man in his forties or fifties arrived at the school gate. He was also wearing a military coat and a Lei Feng hat on his head.
Yang Niannian was not sure whether the man was Yu Sui’s relative, so she wanted to observe him more before saying hello.
The man looked around, his eyes stayed on her for two seconds, then he took out a piece of cardboard from his arms and held it above his head, with her name written on it.
Yang Nian Nian's scalp tingled and she was so embarrassed that she almost burst out of the campus. She hurried over.
"Uncle, I am Yang Niannian."
The man had a look of surprise on his face and looked her up and down in disbelief.
"You want to buy a house? You're still a student, right? Where are your parents?"
Yu Sui said on the phone that his classmate wanted to buy a house. The man directly substituted it as Yu Sui's classmate's parents wanting to buy a house. He really didn't expect that there was just a little girl standing here.
Yang Niannian smiled politely, "Uncle, my family is busy and couldn't come here, so let me handle the transfer procedures."
When the man heard this, he immediately became furious and started to yell at her.
"How do your family members do things? If you don't have time to come, why don't you notify me in advance? I came all the way from Chongqing, and it takes time, and the round-trip tickets cost a lot of money."
The more he spoke, the angrier he got. He pointed at Yang Niannian and said, "I think you have bad intentions."
Yang Niannian didn’t know why the man was so angry. Why did he have to meet the adults to sell the house?
She is an adult, and she can still do the real estate transaction without her parents showing up, right?
How does it involve bad intentions?
Is there any misunderstanding?
She could only patiently explain, "Uncle, I'm really sorry, it's true that my family didn't arrange this. But even if my family didn't come, you wouldn't have made a wasted trip. Since my family said they wanted to buy a house, they would definitely buy it."
The man was so angry that he was spinning in circles. "Is buying a house a matter of a word? Can you afford a few thousand dollars?"
The man's eyes were glaring and his voice was very loud. If it were another girl, she might have been scared to tears.
Yang Niannian was not afraid at all. The man just had a loud voice and looked a little fierce, but the pressure he exerted was far less than that of Lu Shishen.
She replied calmly, "Uncle, don't worry. Since my family is going to buy a house, we must have brought enough money."
The man was stunned for a moment, and his anger suddenly subsided a little. He asked uncertainly, "Did you bring all the money for buying a house?"
Yang Niannian nodded, "I brought everything. My family sent me the passbook in advance."
“…”
The man instantly showed a look of surprise. Who would leave such a huge sum of money to their daughter?
He has a bit of a patriarchal mentality. His daughters have grown up without ever touching even ten yuan, let alone several thousand yuan.
So, he naturally thought that Yang Niannian had no money and thought that her family was trying to get the house for nothing.
He realized that he had misunderstood and was very embarrassed. However, as a grown man, he couldn't bring himself to apologize to a little girl. He was speechless for a moment and didn't know what to say to ease the atmosphere.
Yang Niannian saw the man's embarrassment and spoke quickly.
"Uncle, let's go through the transfer procedures first? After that, I'll get the money for you in person."
When the man saw that Yang Niannian was so sensible like a little girl, he suddenly felt a little ashamed. He was already old, but was not as good as a little girl.
Thinking about it this way, it doesn't seem so difficult to say sorry.
"I'm sorry, I was a little emotional just now, please don't take it personally. I used to be a cultured person, but I've been in Chongqing for a long time in recent years, so my temper is a bit impetuous."
"It's okay, I don't take it to heart. Let's go and transfer the ownership quickly! The Housing Authority should be open for business." Yang Niannian said.
The man nodded, and suddenly remembered that he hadn't introduced himself yet. "By the way, my name is Yu Pinguo, and Yu Sui is my great-uncle's grandson."
Yang Niannian, "..."
My great-uncle’s grandson?
This generation gap is really far-fetched!
The Housing Authority was a bit far from here, so the two of them took the bus. The more Yu Pinguo thought about it, the more he felt that it was wrong for him to lose his temper with a little girl, so he refused to let her pay the fare.
Looking at the scenery passing by outside the car window, he kept sighing about the changes in Beijing in recent years.
Yang Niannian chatted with him casually, "Uncle Yu, how is the development in Yu City? Are you used to it there?"
When she asked about Chongqing, Yu Pinguo smiled and said, "Although Chongqing is not as good as Beijing, it is getting better and better. However, I went there as an educated youth when I was 16 years old. I have lived there for 20 to 30 years. I have become accustomed to the life there. My children have also started families there and have taken root there."
As he spoke, he began to reminisce and feel sad, "Alas! When my parents passed away, I was not able to return in time. I don't know if they resented me when they left."
Twenty or thirty years?
It seems that he was one of the educated youth during the experimental stage.
Yang Niannian comforted him, "Uncle Yu, don't think like that. I think your parents will definitely not blame you. They should feel sorry for you. You are only sixteen years old. You must have suffered a lot to go to such a far place far away from home at such a young age. As parents, they only feel sorry for you and miss you. How can they blame you?"
When Yu Pinguo heard this, his eyes suddenly became even redder, and tears kept flowing from the corners of his wrinkled eyes.
It was the first time that Yang Niannian saw a tough guy cry. She thought she had said something wrong and was about to say something to save the situation when she saw Yu Pinguo secretly wiping away his tears.
He choked up as he spoke of the hardships he experienced when he first went to the countryside as an educated youth.
"I was only 16 years old at that time. It was my first time away from my parents and hometown. I was very scared. I hid in my bed and cried secretly the night before I left. But I had no choice. I was the eldest in the family and my brothers and sisters were still young. I had to go."
"When I got there, I was the youngest and was bullied by other educated youth..."
After all these years, there is finally someone who can understand the bitterness he felt back then, and Yu Pinguo can't stop talking about it.
He first talked about how hard it was to be there, and then said that he had been away from his parents for many years. When he came back to visit, he found that although his parents said they missed him, they were actually not as good to him as they were to his younger siblings.
He felt like an outsider at home and felt more comfortable living in Chongqing.
Later, he had an argument with his younger brother, who said he shouldn't have come back. However, his parents did not scold him, but advised him not to argue with his younger brother.
His heart sank to the bottom of the valley. After tossing and turning all night, before dawn, he left a letter and bought a train ticket to Chongqing.