Chapter 230
Ji Wanmei first carried one of the lighter boxes up the steps, and then carried the other box over to join it.
She repeated this process several times before she was able to move the two boxes a few dozen meters.
Unfortunately, their school's playground is huge. Normally, it doesn't feel that way when walking, but now, dragging two suitcases, and with a considerable distance to the dormitory building, Ji Wanmei felt that the distance was incredibly long!
"Excuse me, do you need any help?"
Just then, a questioning voice came from behind.
Ji Wanmei turned around and saw a young man. He was very young, but his clothes didn't look like those of a student.
Ji Wanmei hesitated for a moment, and the other person smiled and said, "Don't worry, classmate, I'm a student teacher at the school."
"Oh, hello teacher." Ji Wanmei nodded quickly.
"Do you need to take your luggage to your dorm?" the intern teacher asked. "It looks quite heavy, let me help you carry it over."
"Uh, thank you then," Ji Wanmei said.
The intern teacher helped Ji Wanmei carry her luggage to the bottom of their dormitory building before saying, "You'll have to carry it upstairs yourself."
This is the girls' dormitory; even male teachers are not allowed to go up here.
Ji Wanmei was extremely grateful.
Fortunately, their dormitory was on the third floor, which wasn't too high, so she could carry her luggage up in two trips.
Finally back in the dormitory, Ji Wanmei was covered in sweat despite the cold winter weather.
She took off her coat, then quickly opened her suitcase, took out all her clothes, and hung them in her small wardrobe.
She specially prepared a cashmere coat to wear to Grandma Song's birthday celebration tomorrow.
She also took out the cured meat, sausages, and New Year's goods that Ji Xingguo had packed for her, intending to take them to Lei Tingjun when she went to Pingdong City the day after tomorrow.
After tidying up, Ji Wanmei prepared to go out first and find a public payphone to call Lei Tingjun.
When she went down to the dormitory building, she tried to look at the mailbox and found that there was still a letter of her own.
Lei Tingjun sent it to her; it was probably written before the Lunar New Year holiday, but she had already left school and returned to Pingdong by then, so she didn't receive it.
Ji Wanmei took out the letter and walked out of the school while reading it.
There is a payphone booth outside the school; you need to insert coins yourself.
Ji Wanmei put a 50-cent coin in and tried to call the landline on Lei Tingjun's work site, but it was afternoon and Lei Tingjun wasn't there. The person who answered the phone was one of his coworkers from the construction site.
"Hello, who are you looking for?" A rough male voice came from the other end of the phone.
Ji Wanmei knew immediately that it wasn't Lei Tingjun. She asked, "Is Lei Tingjun in the workshop?"
"You're looking for Brother Lei? He's out on business," the voice on the other end said.
Ji Wanmei then asked, "Is A-Qiang here?"
"A-Qiang and Brother Lei went out together, driving a truck to haul goods. The brick factory is busy at the end of the year."
“If he’s coming back tonight, have him call this number at nine o’clock and come over. Tell him I’ll be here waiting for him on time,” Ji Wanmei said.
The coworker who answered the phone, hearing Ji Wanmei's light voice, figured she must be a young woman. He replied with an "okay," and then hurriedly said, "Hey, you haven't said who you are yet, otherwise how can I pass on your message?"
Ji Wanmei smiled silently: "Just say it's a girl, he'll know who it is."
She hung up the phone after saying that.
The coworker was completely baffled, looking at the telephone receiver and saying, "This is really strange... it's like a riddle."
Someone nearby asked, "Who's looking for Brother Lei?"
The man said, "A young woman, but she doesn't want to reveal her name."
The person next to him laughed: "Hey! Don't you understand? It must be Brother Lei's mysterious girlfriend!"
Lei Tingjun wrote letters to his girlfriend every day, and whenever the postman delivered mail to the factory, Lei Tingjun never allowed anyone to touch his letters.
Everyone guessed that the letters must have been sent by Lei Ge's girlfriend, which is why he treasured them so much.
They then asked Ah Qiang, an insider, but his answer was ambiguous, which made everyone even more certain.
Everyone privately knows that Brother Lei has a mysterious love interest who has never shown his face.
He secretly hid it away, not letting anyone know.
Now a young woman is calling the factory looking for Lei Tingjun. If she's not his mysterious lover, who could she be?
Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly realized what was going on.
The workers who weren't driving today gathered together to discuss what kind of girl their boss, Lei, would date, what she did, and what she looked like.
Don't assume that only women gossip; men enjoy gossip just the same, especially when it comes to matters of love and sex. When men discuss these things in private, there are sometimes no boundaries whatsoever.
As they talked, they started to get frivolous.
Fortunately, Lei Tingjun wasn't in the workshop at the moment. If he had known that these guys dared to make fun of him like that, he would have skinned them alive.
After asking the person on the other end of the phone to transfer the call, Ji Wanmei went to a small restaurant and ate something first.
Even though it was already the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, like Ji Wanmei, some students gradually returned after the holiday and wanted to take advantage of the quiet time in the library to study.
After finishing her meal, Ji Wanmei returned to her dormitory and took out the clothes she would wear to the Lu family's birthday banquet the next day to prepare them.
Winters in East China are very cold, around zero degrees Celsius. Ji Wanmei, relying on her youth and good physical resistance, chose a double-sided cashmere coat.
The coat is light gray, about the same length as the coat, and has a simple and elegant style. It looks very high-quality. There is a belt of the same color at the waist, which can be tied up if it is cold.
Then she paired it with a pair of black lambskin chunky-heeled boots, five centimeters high. Wearing a coat in winter, they perfectly accentuated her figure, making her look tall and energetic.
Wearing all dark colors, Ji Wanmei added a red knitted scarf around her neck to brighten her complexion.
Wearing two layers around your waist is both warm and stylish.
Ji Wanmei tried on the outfit in her dorm room, and when she looked at her watch, she realized it was almost nine o'clock.
She didn't even have time to change her clothes before rushing downstairs to wait for Lei Tingjun's call outside the school.
Since school hasn't started yet, there are no curfews in the dormitories, so Ji Wanmei can go out at night.
She ran to the shared phone booth against the cold night wind, breathed on her hands to warm them, and gently stomped her feet.
It was nine o'clock, but Lei Tingjun's call hadn't come through.
Ji Wanmei stared intently at the shared phone, her eyes unblinking.
Time passed, second by second.
Ji Wanmei glanced at her watch again; five minutes had passed, and the phone booth still hadn't rung.
Why didn't he call?
Could it be that he hasn't returned by this time yet, or that the worker who answered the phone simply didn't relay the message?
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