Chapter 279 Zhuang Tunan's Family
【University】
When Xie Zheyu and Tunan arrived at the school gate to meet up with their fellow Jiangsu natives, they realized that Gu Xingyan was among them. There were only three of them as freshmen.
Tuanan didn't think there was anything wrong with it. This was normal, as many people didn't go home as soon as they had a holiday.
When Huang Ling was returning from Beijing, she told Tuanan the contact information of a friend who could help him buy a sleeper ticket, but he did not contact the other party because Xie Zheyu and other fellow villagers were all taking hard seats back to Suzhou, so he bought hard seat tickets with everyone.
The tickets were bought together by a group of seniors from the third year. The seats were connected, so everyone could sit together. The girls sat together chatting and eating melon seeds, while the boys sat together playing poker.
When playing cards in front of this group of highly intelligent students, it is not just a game, it is a real competition of intelligence.
With the girls present, the boys worked even harder.
Tunan did not participate and lowered his head to read.
A senior student wanted to watch the game up close, so she switched seats with him.
He sat at the outermost seat of the row, and Gu Xingyan was sitting in the middle of the row, so he moved his body and tried to make some space for Gu Xingyan.
"How can you still read in this environment?" Gu Xingyan asked.
"Yes." Tunan nodded.
"What book?"
Tunan showed Gu Xingyan the book cover. It was a copy of "A Complete Collection of Ancient Chinese Architecture." He returned to the page he was reading and introduced it:
"The mortise and tenon structure doesn't require nails. This is the through-beam type, and this is the raised-beam type."
Gu Xingyan exclaimed: "It's amazing, it fits perfectly."
“If there’s an earthquake, and there’s a shake…” Tunan put his ten fingers together, and then made a movement of fitting, separating, and returning to the fitting state.
"It can return to its original position!" Gu Xingyan understood immediately.
Tunan nodded appreciatively.
"Can I watch it with you?" Gu Xingyan asked, obviously interested.
"Of course." Tunan held the book between them.
When the train reached a track joint, Tuanan had already adjusted his posture and raised his head in advance, but Gu Xingyan didn't know that because the train body shook and hit Tuanan.
Only then did she realize that Tunan had already sat up straight and raised his head.
Gu Xingyan looked inquiringly.
Tunan explained, "Just now I looked up at the railway tracks and saw... well... there's a junction."
"Student Zhuang, this is not right. You should move around with everyone and bump into others to appear sociable." Gu Xingyan joked.
"Okay, then wait for the next one!"
Gu Xingyan looked at him joking seriously and laughed too.
At this time, the senior student opposite was from Suzhou. She invited Gu Xingyan:
"Xingyan, let's go buy a coat together in a couple of days, okay? I've been eating coarse food, copying manuscripts, and with my brother's sponsorship, I've finally saved enough money for a coat after a whole semester."
Hearing Nishang, Tuanan raised his head.
"Okay! When I called my mother, she said that a new department store had opened, and the Nishang branch was on the second floor. It was so big. Let's go there and take a look," Gu Xingyan agreed happily.
"Yes, I heard that too. Let's go there."
Several girls began to chatter about clothes.
Tuanan thought that Yuesheng seemed to be doing good business and had a great reputation, so much so that parents in Suzhou would talk about it when they called their children.
He smiled and returned his attention to the book.
As the girls chatted, they started to exchange contact information with each other.
Gu Xingyan took note of her senior sister's phone number and handed the notebook to Tunan.
"Student Zhuang, please give me your phone number too!"
As Tunan took the notebook, he heard Chang Hongwei, who was playing cards next door, say in a sarcastic tone:
"Student Gu, that depends on which family's number you want. Zhuang Tunan has many families and many phone numbers. Every time he calls, he has to wait in line several times. You know how many families he has!"
Everyone stopped playing cards and looked at the two in surprise.
Chang Hongwei's father is the vice principal of No. 1 Middle School. He knows Huang Ling and has some understanding of their situation.
"Pay attention to your cards. You've lost eight out of ten. You're such a stupid teammate!" Xie Zheyu kicked Chang Hongwei under the table.
Tunan smiled and said generously, "Yes, I might spend half of my time at my mom's house and half at my dad's house. I'll write down both their phone numbers for you."
"Okay!" Gu Xingyan rolled her eyes at Chang Hongwei, then responded with a smile.
Chang Hongwei threw the cards in his hand when he saw Gu Xingyan's performance, and then said:
"Guess why Mr. Zhuang kept his head down and didn't say anything when you were talking about buying clothes."
"Why?" the senior student wondered.
"When we girls are chatting, it's polite for boys to automatically avoid us." Gu Xingyan rolled her eyes again.
"No! Because Nishang is the store opened by classmate Zhuang's mother. If he takes over, what will you do if he asks you to deliver one each?" Chang Hongwei said with a strange smile.
The female classmates all looked at Tunan.
Tunan closed the book and was about to speak when Xie Zheyu threw a handful of cards in Chang Hongwei's face.
"You're not done yet." Xie Zheyu scolded.
"Xie Zheyu! What's this got to do with you?" Chang Hongwei said angrily.
"Zheyu." Tunan patted Xie Zheyu across the corridor, shook his head at him, and then said to Chang Hongwei:
"Senior Chang, it doesn't matter if you have low quality, but don't bring the seniors with you. It's okay to give it to them, but even if I interrupted you just now, ask the seniors if they would mention it and if they would accept it."
In this era, clothes are still considered very private gifts, and people of the same age, especially unmarried men and women, generally do not choose to give clothes to each other.
"That's right. Even if Zhuang accepted the call, we can't ask him to send us off! Who do you think we are?" the senior student said angrily.
"That's right." Everyone agreed.
"Maybe he is surrounded by people like this, so he thinks everyone is like this!" Tuanan said lightly.
"A parent came to the vice-principal's house and asked what he did. If he sold pork, he would probably have to skim off two ounces of oil from his hands!" Xie Zheyu continued.
"Zhuang Tunan, Xie Zheyu!" Chang Hongwei stood up and pointed at the two of them.
Others rushed to stop him:
"Oh, just kidding, everyone is just kidding."
"We were just joking. Senior Chang will definitely not be angry. He is not that narrow-minded." Tuanan made another attack and ended the fight.
Chang Hongwei was bored, so he moved with others to the innermost seat to sleep, while the others continued playing cards.
The girls asked about "Nichang" with great interest.
Tunan gave a brief introduction.
"So your mother, a regular worker at a cotton mill, took a leave of absence to open a shop."
Tunan nodded proudly: "She is in the cotton mill, that is a bird in a cage."
He didn't care that others looked at his parents' divorce or his mother's "rebellion" in a strange way.
"Tsk tsk tsk, how brave."
“That’s amazing.”
What he didn't expect was that they all praised their mother.
Gu Xingyan didn't say anything, but twirled the pink and white checkered handkerchief in her hand. It was a gift from "Nichang".
Tunan glanced at her and then his eyes returned to the book.
It was during their casual conversation that Tuanan learned about Gu Xingyan's family. Her parents were both professors at Soochow University, and she was the only daughter in the family.
Along the way, Tuanan showed very little hesitation.
He wanted time to go faster because he missed home, but he also wanted time to go slower because he missed home.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
