Everyone had lunch at the Chen family's house. Around 1 p.m., Chen Feng and Chen Yue went back to school for classes. Chen Ruiqing and his wife accompanied Sheng Xiping and the others to Northeast Normal University to register.
Chen Ruiqing's home is about two subway stops away from Northeast Normal University, which is neither far nor close.
Chen Ruiqing suggested that they walk there, and let Zhou Qinglan familiarize herself with the route.
Fortunately, both Chen Ruiqing and his wife had bicycles, so they tied their luggage to the bicycles and pushed them, so they didn't get tired walking empty-handed.
Sheng Xiping and his friends have lived in remote mountain villages for many years, and they always travel on foot, so this short distance is no problem for them.
The group arrived at Northeast Normal University, and before they even stepped onto the campus, Sheng Xi'an and Zhou Qinglan were immediately stunned by the sight before them.
"This is a university? My goodness, it's so much bigger than our forest farm!" Sheng Xi'an exclaimed.
"You'll see when you go to Harbin Institute of Technology; it's much bigger than this," Chen Ruiqing said with a smile, seeing Sheng Xi'an's amazed expression. "It's several times bigger than this place."
"Huh? Several times the size of this? How big must that be?"
Sheng Xi'an was completely dumbfounded; the school in front of him was beyond his imagination.
Harbin Institute of Technology is several times bigger than this? My God, what must it be like? As a kid who just left this remote mountain village, it's truly unimaginable.
"The outside world is vast. When you have the chance in the future, you can go to the capital and Shanghai to take a look. It's bigger and more prosperous there."
"Study hard, you'll definitely have opportunities in the future." Sheng Xiping patted his second brother on the shoulder and smiled.
Holding their admission notices, the group found the new student registration area and completed the enrollment procedures according to regulations.
These days, university tuition is free, and you get a monthly stipend of about twenty yuan. For most people, that's enough for normal food and drink.
If you're frugal with your daily expenses, you can still save some money to supplement your household income.
Otherwise, everyone would be happy to go to university, because once you get into university, the state will take care of everything.
New students register, receive meal tickets, food tickets, and subsidies, and are then assigned dormitories according to their departments.
Chen Ruiqing seemed to be very familiar with the school, and quickly led everyone to the dormitory building.
Since it was inconvenient for the boys to go up to the girls' dormitory, Sheng Xiping and the others put their luggage and other items at the entrance of the dormitory building. Then Zhou Qinglan and Shao Minzhi made two trips back and forth to finally get everything upstairs.
The dormitory was quite nice and spacious. Zhou Qinglan was the third student to arrive and found a bed she liked.
Shao Minzhi helped Zhou Qinglan clean the bed, laying a mattress underneath, a wolfskin rug on top, and then a sheet on top of that.
"If you're used to sleeping on a kang (heated brick bed) at home, you might not be used to sleeping on a regular bed. At this time of year, you can put a wolfskin rug on top to keep out the cold."
"When summer comes, you can replace the wolfskin rug at the bottom to keep out the moisture," Shao Minzhi instructed Zhou Qinglan as she helped make the bed.
The two of them quickly made the bed, folded the quilt neatly and placed it on the bed, put clothes and other items in the closet, and stuffed basins, thermos flasks and other odds and ends under the bed.
After they had packed everything, the two of them came downstairs and met up with Sheng Xiping and the others.
After Zhou Qinglan registered and completed the enrollment procedures, she had nothing else to do in the afternoon.
Chen Ruiqing was worried that Zhou Qinglan might not have brought enough supplies, so he suggested that he take everyone to various places to look around and buy some supplies along the way.
In fact, when Zhou Qinglan and the others left home, they brought almost all the daily necessities they had with them.
Most people these days are like this; they always feel that what they buy at home is cheap, and that buying things outside is too expensive.
So if it's something you have at home and can use, no matter how cheap or expensive it is, you should bring it from home and never buy it outside.
It was Zhou Qinglan and her group's first time in the provincial capital. They were completely disoriented once they stepped outside, so they really should go out and explore. At least they could find out what was around the school.
So, led by Chen Ruiqing and his wife, the group took a walk around the area around the school.
As they walked, Chen Ruiqing and his wife explained to him what each place was and what it was used for.
This stroll lasted quite a while, and by the time everyone returned to the Chen family home, it was already past four in the afternoon.
Chen Ruiqing said he would take Sheng Xiping and the others out for dinner that evening, so Shao Minzhi didn't rush to cook; she just lit a fire to heat the kang (a traditional heated brick bed).
After waiting for Chen Feng and his sister to return, everyone went out together and found a decent restaurant nearby. They ordered six dishes and two bottles of wine, and sat down to eat, drink, and chat.
In the evening, Zhou Qinglan went back to her school dormitory, while Sheng Xiping and Sheng Xi'an stayed at the Chen family's house.
Chen Feng insisted on sleeping on the same kang (heated brick bed) as Sheng Xiping and his brother, and Chen Ruiqing and his wife had no choice but to agree.
On the morning of the 4th, Sheng Xiping and his brother did not need Chen Ruiqing to send them off; they went directly from the Chen family home to the train station by car.
There are more trains from Changchun to Bingcheng. Sheng Xiping bought a ticket for the train that departs around 10:00 AM. He boarded the train at the appointed time and the train left Changchun, heading straight for Bingcheng.
The journey from Changchun to Harbin is relatively quick, taking just over three hours.
As soon as she got out of the car, Sheng Xi'an stared in astonishment at the exotic architecture before her, her mouth agape.
"Brother, why does this Ice City feel different from our provincial capital?"
"Yes, that's right. Harbin has a much longer history than our provincial capital. It's close to Russia and full of exotic charm."
People say that Harbin is also known as the "Oriental Moscow" or "Oriental Little Paris." When you have time in the future, you can go out and explore more; there are many places to visit here.
In his past life, Sheng Xiping had visited Harbin a few times and knew a little about it.
"Brother, you don't think you've ever been to Ice City before, have you? How do you know all this?"
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