Chapter 38 (Catching Bugs)
38.
Even when Yi Hongxing and Yi Hanxing sent their parents to the cruise ship in Shanghai, Yi Hongxing still found it unbelievable.
"I never thought that you could convince them both to go to Shanghai for fun?" Yi Hongxing muttered to himself.
"What's so unexpected about this?" Yi Hanxing, who was standing next to Yi Hongxing, thought to himself, middle-aged and elderly people are one of the groups that love traveling the most in the future. How can they not be excited to have the opportunity to see Shanghai?
Thinking of this, Yi Hanxing asked Yi Hongxing: "Have you already informed Tian Guangqian?"
"The letter was delivered two days ago, so they should have received it yesterday at the latest." Yi Hongxing said, "If all else fails, the guide we hired will take Mom and Dad directly to the He Mansion."
Yi Hanxing felt relieved after hearing this and asked Yi Hongxing: "So, should we set off back to the base now?"
"Where else are you going?" Yi Hongxing asked back: "Let's walk!"
The two of them headed directly north to the Dabie Mountains base.
Han Xing's father and mother sat on the cruise ship, feeling quite curious: "Dad, have you ever been on a cruise ship like this when you were trying to make a living out there?"
"Where have you been on one?" Han Xing's father replied, "That was 20 or 30 years ago. Back then, they were still wooden boats."
"Then you're eating foreign food today, just like me." Han Xing's mother said.
"That's right." Han Xing's father said, "I didn't expect this cruise ship to be so fast and stable. There's even food and drinks."
The guide heard this and explained to the two of them, "You two have booked first-class tickets. Not only do you get food and drinks, but there will also be a Western band performing on stage later."
"Isn't this just like a theater?" Han Xingniang said, "except we're watching Western plays."
"This business model has been the same since ancient times, and it remains essentially the same despite all the changes." Han Xing's father said, stroking his mustache.
Just when Han Xing's parents were watching the fun and Han Xing's siblings were free and at ease, Tian Guangqian, who received a letter from his eldest brother, scolded Yi Hanxing eight hundred times.
"If you want to go out and play, you can persuade your family or run away secretly. Why bring trouble upon yourself?!" Tian Guangqian didn't know if he owed this sister money in his previous life, so he was cheated like this.
"What's wrong, Ji Jun? You don't look very well?" He Zhifeng just came back. Since he had won the recent bet with his biological father, He Zhifeng relaxed a lot and his mood remained sunny. Seeing the unhappy Tian Guangqian, he also had time to ask what the problem was.
"It's nothing, Zhifeng, it's just that my parents may come to Shanghai in the next two days, and I need to spend more time with them. Of course, if you feel it's inconvenient, you don't have to see them. It's up to you." Tian Guangqian said.
"Aunt and Uncle are coming to Shanghai?" He Zhifeng asked, "Did they tell me what they're coming for?"
"Come to Shanghai to have some fun." Tian Guangqian replied.
"Don't scare me." He Zhifeng didn't believe Tian Guangqian's reason: "Tell me, are your parents thinking about seeing a daughter-in-law, so they came here?" He Zhifeng got a headache just thinking about having to deal with another couple of old people.
"No." Tian Guangqian found an excuse from the letter: "My sister asked me to send my mother here and ask me to persuade her to release her bound feet."
"This..." He Zhifeng still had some common sense: "I think for some of them, putting their feet down would actually hurt more?"
"My mother and her family started binding their feet early. We didn't use the northern method that broke the bones. Instead, we used the method where girls were tightly wrapped with cloth strips when they were young to prevent them from growing." Tian Guangqian explained: "Although there was some pain when you first put your feet down after this method, after rehabilitation, you can walk or run for a short time without any problems."
Yi Hanxing's excuse was that it was the Republic of China now, the country no longer allowed foot binding, and it was also harmful to the body. He asked Tian Guangqian to take his mother out more often and it would be best to buy her some modified cheongsams and high heels so that his mother could unbind her feet for the sake of beauty.
In fact, Han Xing knew that the war was coming, and he was afraid that if his mother did not unbind her feet, she would not be able to run when she needed to escape in the future, so he asked Yi Hongxing to write in great detail about the issue of unbinding the feet in the letter.
"If you're here to have your feet untied, I can help." He Zhifeng has always been fond of people who accept new ideas and can be self-reliant. When he heard that Han Xing had thought of letting her own mother have her feet untied, he immediately felt that he should lend her a hand: "I can ask someone to find a doctor who is good at this."
"I'm afraid my mother wouldn't want a male doctor to check her feet," Tian Guangqian reminded.
"Don't worry." He Zhifeng said, "Shanghai is so big, there are many female doctors and nurses."
At the same time, Yi Hanxing was following Yi Hongxing on the road.
"I've only been away for about half a year, right? The base's defenses have all changed." Yi Hanxing sighed, "If I come back on my own, I'm afraid I'll be caught before I even reach the second floor."
"That's perfectly normal," Yi Hongxing replied. "If the base hadn't been diligent in changing its defenses, the Nanjing government would have already taken over our home base!"
Yi Hanxing just casually complained, but he didn't expect his brother to reply. He could only helplessly say, "Am I complaining about the quick deployment? I'm complaining about how long I've been away! I left home young and returned old, but my accent remains the same and my hair has turned gray!"
As soon as Yi Hanxing finished speaking, the auntie not far away laughed out loud: "Hanxing! You're back?"
"Yeah, I'm back."
"I heard from your brother that you went to live with your parents. How are you doing? If your parents still think the same way, you can come back to our base.
"Oh?" the aunt greeted warmly.
"Okay, okay." Han Xing agreed readily: "If my parents still bind my feet and arrange for me to get married, I will run away to the base."
After exchanging pleasantries with the aunt, Yi Hanxing whispered to Yi Hongxing, "Didn't you tell me I was going out to study?"
"You're already out on a mission, aren't you aware of the confidentiality regulations?" Yi Hongxing squinted at Yi Hanxing. "Alright, I need to get back to work later. If you have nothing to do during your vacation, go play with your friends. Leave your stuff at my place. You're familiar with the area and have only been away for half a year, so you don't need me to send someone to lead the way, right?"
"No need, you can retire now!" Yi Hanxing waved his hand: "Isn't I more familiar with the base than you?"
Yi Hongxing often stays at home to study, so he is not as familiar with the place as Yi Hanxing who runs around with his friends.
Yi Hanxing went to Yi Hongxing's house and just started packing up when his friends came over after hearing the news.
"Han Xing! I heard your brother sent you away to live with your parents?" the friend asked, "Did they force you to get married?"
"Were you forced to come back again this time? Are you going to stay here?"
"Where did you hear that?" Han Xing felt at a loss for words. "Didn't I tell you I was going to middle school before I left? It's summer vacation now, so I came to see you."
"There's a middle school in the base area, why do you have to go to school outside?"
"Because students from middle schools outside can apply to universities." Yi Hanxing explained. In fact, this was mainly for the purpose of verifying their identities when applying to universities in the future, so that they would not be barred from certain majors due to background issues. "The academic certificates of our middle school students are not recognized outside, so we can only apply to Yan'an."
"It would be great to go to Yan'an!" My friends were puzzled: "Why don't you want to go to Yan'an?!"
"Because the major I want to study is not available in Yan'an University." Yi Hanxing couldn't say that the organization sent him to learn from them.
"Hey, Han Xing finally came back. Stop talking about middle school and college all the time. I saw the snakes in the woods are all red. Do you want to pick some and eat them?"
"Yes, yes, yes! Where is it?"
"Hurry up and go! Otherwise, you don't know which little animal's mouth it will end up in!"
"Wait! Let me change my clothes!" Yi Hanxing said, "I'm going to wear this dress outside to meet people! It can't be torn."
"Okay, okay, hurry up."
Yi Hanxing changed into the coarse cloth clothes that had been left in the house, picked up a branch as thick as his wrist, and followed his friends up the mountain.
A group of young boys rushed into the mountains. Without Yi Hanxing noticing, he ran past Sun Cheng, who had become several shades darker. An adult's roar came from the roadside: "Be careful of traps!"
"Got it!--" the children responded in a long voice while running.
"This..." Sun Cheng had been to many places before and had just arrived at the Dabie Mountain base not long ago, so he was still not used to it. "They are obviously going into the mountains. Teacher Wang, aren't you going to stop them? It's so dangerous!"
"What's dangerous?" Teacher Wang said nonchalantly, "These kids all grew up in the mountains. To be frank, if adults from outside get into trouble in the mountains, these kids won't have any problems."
"And with so many of them gathered together, the small animals in the mountains were probably scared away. The big ones are staying in the deep mountains and won't come out, so what's there to be afraid of?" Teacher Wang added.
"It's better to be safe than sorry." Sun Cheng was still worried: "What if they encounter a ferocious beast that they can't handle?"
If Yi Hanxing heard what Sun Cheng said, he would definitely thank him for his bad mouth.
It was obvious that Yi Hanxing had lived in the base for two years and had not encountered any large creatures other than humans. Some of his friends had not seen any in their lives for more than ten years. But thanks to Sun Cheng's bad luck, everyone was now either sitting on tree branches or hugging the tree with their limbs and slowly moving upwards. Under the tree where several of them were standing, there was a wild boar that kept banging its body against the tree.
"I suddenly remembered the idiom 'waiting for the rabbit by the tree stump.'" The friend laughed bitterly. "A rabbit would have died if it had just hit the tree stump, but this wild boar has been ramming into our tree for about ten minutes now? How come nothing has happened?"
"It wasn't until today that I understood the power of the Wolf Run Beast Tu."
"This clearly proves that wild boars have much harder skulls than rabbits." My friend even joked, "Hold on tight! Hold on tight! When our family notices we haven't come home to look for them for so long, the wild boar will be our snack. If you can't wait and get knocked off, you'll be their meal."
The friend who didn't pick a good tree because he ran in a hurry didn't think it was a joke at all when he heard this: "If it hits me again, I won't be able to hold it!" This was the friend who was holding a tree with few branches.
"What are you going to do?" The friends started to worry.
"It would be great if I had a rope. I can make rope buckles and put it on another tree." Han Xing said as he looked at the structure of the surrounding trees.
"He's so heavy, can you pull it?"
"Why not? It's time to show you my true skills." "Do you know about fixed pulleys and movable pulleys?" Han Xing thought.
"But there's no rope!"
"Han Xing! Hold on! My belt!"
"And mine!"
"I'm going to die! Could you please tell me in advance when you take off your belts?" The screams of the girls among the group resounded through the sky.
Feeling her friend's decibels and lung capacity, Han Xing thought: With that kind of voice, it won't be long before someone comes to rescue her! It's no exaggeration to say she's the top soprano in the base!
The soprano almost caused Yi Hanxing to suffer from temporary deafness. Yi Hanxing thought that these boys were all wearing underwear and would not see anything they should not see, so instead of comforting them, he started to tie a knot in his belt to make it easier for him to use.
Meanwhile, Yi Hongxing returned to work, where his boss asked him, "I heard Han Xing is back?"
In the woods, facing Yi Hanxing whose muscles were tense, his friends cheered: "Come on, Hanxing! The branches above haven't broken yet, you're almost there!"
Yi Hanxing: "This tree can break branches even with a belt wrapped around it. Is it just some fancy, useless, little-used ornament? How many times can it withstand a wild boar's attack? I'm done for! I never expected that the first person to be saved by the belt would be me!"
Taiyi, the ape, hugged the tree trunk tightly with all four limbs and looked around, feeling a little sad.
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