Chapter Thirty-Nine
With her father's support, Ji Wanmei felt much more relaxed.
Next, we just have to wait for news from Luo Chunyan.
Two days have passed, and she should have said everything she needed to say, but Chunyan still hasn't replied to her message.
Ji Wanmei thought, maybe I should go ask Chunyan tomorrow. After all, she only has these two months of summer vacation at home.
Every day that is delayed brings her one day closer to going to university in the provincial capital.
Before going to sleep that night, Ji Wanmei wrote down all the details she needed to prepare for opening the shop in her notebook. She felt that nothing was missing before she went to wash up and prepare for bed.
The bathroom in the house is an old-fashioned squat toilet. There was no running water for several years. It was only when Ji Wanmei was about to enter junior high school that the entire staff compound was connected to running water.
Having running water makes things much more convenient.
Ji Xingguo couldn't bear to see his daughter take cold showers in the dead of winter. At that time, electric water heaters were very expensive, so he bought one and installed it in the kitchen.
After installing an electric water heater, hot water is available whether you are taking a shower, washing dishes, or washing your hands in winter.
But now it's summer, June or July, and Pingquan County in the south is already quite hot.
Ji Wanmei needed to keep the electric fan on at night to fall asleep.
Ji Wanmei went to the bathroom, turned the water heater down very low, took a warm shower, and washed her hair as well.
Ji Wanmei's hair is a bit long, reaching her waist. It's soft and black, with no dry or split ends, and feels exceptionally smooth to the touch.
She didn't use any conditioner or anything like that; those things didn't exist back then. She just used regular shampoo, applied a little to her hair, lathered it up, and rinsed it twice.
There was no hairdryer at home, so after washing her hair, Ji Wanmei wrapped her long hair in a dry towel and sat in the yard for a while.
She twisted her hair while fanning herself with a fan.
Among the flowers and plants in the yard, cicadas and crickets, who knows where they came from, chirped under the night sky.
In 1988, industrial pollution wasn't as severe. When you looked up, you could see the sky full of twinkling stars, and the air was very fresh.
When her hair was almost dry, Ji Wanmei got up and went back to her room to sleep.
It was only 10:30 p.m. at this time.
But Ji Wanmei thought about going out the next morning, so she went to bed early.
After her rebirth, she slept very well almost every day.
Thinking that everything she was about to do would go smoothly, Ji Wanmei's lips curved slightly even as she fell asleep.
*****
Meanwhile, Lei Tingjun stayed up all night reading.
He devoured Ji Wanmei's handwritten notes.
It was as if by simply looking at these notes, he could gain a deeper understanding of her past and participate in the aspects of her adolescence that he had never been a part of.
When dawn broke, around six or seven in the morning, Lao Xiao was the first to wake up and found that Lei Tingjun was still in the same position as last night, with his legs crossed, reading his notes.
Old Xiao was surprised: "Brother Lei, didn't you sleep last night?"
Lei Tingjun didn't even lift his eyelids: "I dozed off for a while, I'm not sleepy."
But Lao Xiao noticed that his voice had become lower, and he had put down the ashtray on the ground and stubbed out four or five cigarette butts.
This is clearly the look of someone staying up all night studying.
Lei, the boss, really put in a lot of effort to gain the approval of Director Ji's daughter, even more so than the bookworm himself when he was studying.
It seems that Boss Lei is serious this time.
A little while later, Zhou Peng and Sun Xiaojun also got up. Everyone was working the day shift again today, starting at eight o'clock.
But these rough, big men aren't the type to get ready, wash their faces, and go out; they usually compete to get up at 7:45.
After getting up, I spend ten minutes taking care of going to the toilet and washing my face, and five minutes going downstairs to the workshop.
Lei Tingjun usually pays more attention to personal hygiene than the others. The others don't like to brush their teeth in the morning, but Lei Tingjun does.
Because he smokes regularly and doesn't like to brush his teeth, even he himself finds it disgusting.
Moreover, he's about to have a girlfriend, so he needs to be even more careful.
Ji Wanmei smelled wonderful, even her hair smelled sweet. Sometimes when Lei Tingjun saw her preparing to smoke, she would frown and cover her nose, knowing that she didn't like the smell of smoke, so he would never smoke in front of her.
Seeing that the other people in the dormitory had also gotten up, Lei Tingjun put away his notebook, sat up, and walked to the window to stretch.
Even though he only managed a short nap last night, he's still full of energy. That's the good thing about young men in their twenties—they seem to have inexhaustible strength and spirit.
He raised his hands, took off the short-sleeved shirt he had been wearing for two days, and changed into a black one. He still wore the faded jeans and a pair of Warrior sneakers.
Lei Tingjun has a rather cold and aloof appearance, with a very deep jawline and brow bone. He doesn't look so bad in white, but once he wears black, his imposing and dashing aura is impossible to hide.
Old Xiao saw him changing clothes: "Boss, aren't you going out instead of resting?"
"Hmm," Lei Tingjun said, "I have something to take care of outside."
He switched shifts with another coworker in the workshop yesterday and will make up for it when he gets back tonight.
He planned to go out, and his friends in the county helped Ji Wanmei look at shop fronts.
It wouldn't be convenient for her, a girl, to go looking for these things, and she probably wouldn't know the market prices either. Lei Tingjun was afraid that she would be taken advantage of, so he decided to go and make the trip himself.
He didn't tell his roommates about this yet. In any case, he only wanted to keep things about Ji Wanmei to himself and didn't want to share them with anyone.
Perhaps deep down, Lei Tingjun still has some possessiveness towards people he likes.
He himself did not realize it.
After coming down from the workers' dormitory building, Lei Tingjun went to the canteen, bought a few steamed buns, ate them, and then left the factory.
Perhaps the timing of his departure was just unfortunate.
Lei Tingjun paused instinctively as he looked at the figure approaching from the front.
Ji Xingguo comes to work at the factory on time every day. This time it's around 7:50. He walks in with his briefcase and sees a group of employees going into the factory following the flow of people. However, there is a tall man in black who is going against the flow of people towards the factory gate.
Ji Xingguo frowned, thinking that Lei Tingjun was running out right before work hours, and that he was up to something again.
He then called out to Lei Tingjun in a deep voice, "Lei Tingjun, it's almost time for work, where are you going?"
Lei Tingjun sighed silently, only to be caught by Ji Wanmei's father again.
How should he answer to salvage his future father-in-law's impression of him?
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