Chapter 42 Installing a Telephone
Wu Yuhong sniffed her clothes and frowned. "I just changed my clothes at noon, and they're already smelling bad from being soaked in sweat."
Shen Xuewei sniffed the air, then said nonchalantly, "It's okay, the car will only pick us up around six o'clock anyway. We can shower around five and then go to school, we'll have enough time."
After the road was built, there were designated vans that used this route.
Grandpa Chen had already made an appointment with a van driver he knew.
Have the van driver pick them up here every Sunday afternoon around 6 p.m.
The two looked around several loquat trees and finally stood under a tree with a thick trunk that bore the most loquats.
Shen Xuewei threw the basket on the ground, spat twice into her palm, rubbed it, and then prepared to climb the tree.
Wu Yuhong said worriedly, "Why don't we use a bamboo pole to knock it down? What if you fall?"
"It's okay, I'm not heavy, I won't fall. Wouldn't the pieces that fall be broken? Didn't Shiqi and Meiling say they wanted to eat some last time? Let's pick more and share some with them at school later."
"Okay, be careful then. I'll hand you the basket later."
Shen Xuewei nodded and was about to jump up with a push of her legs.
When Big Yellow, who had followed her, saw that she was about to climb the tree, it whimpered and barked at her twice, trying to stop her from climbing up.
Shen Xuewei waved her hand to slap the annoying Big Yellow away, "Big Yellow, go away, I'm doing serious business, I don't have time to play with you."
Seeing that Dahuang was biting her trouser leg and wouldn't let go, Shen Xuewei forced its mouth open and freed her trouser leg.
She quickly jumped up and used all four limbs to cling to the tree.
Just as she was about to continue climbing, Big Yellow saw that she was already up in the tree, and in a panic, it jumped up and bit her pants on the butt...
A gust of hot wind blew by, and Shen Xuewei's buttocks felt both hot and cold.
Wu Yuhong, standing to the side, stared in disbelief at Shen Xuewei's exposed buttocks.
After realizing what had happened, he burst out laughing, clutching his stomach.
“Weiwei, you…you get down from the tree! Big Yellow…hahaha, Big Yellow bit your pants off…”
Shen Xuewei, perched on the tree, had a face that was a mixture of red and blue.
He slid down from the tree, quickly pulled up his pants, and then looked at Big Yellow with a gloomy expression.
She gritted her teeth and said, "Big—Rhubarb—"
She bent down to pick up a branch from the side and chased after Big Yellow to hit it.
"Don't you dare run! I'll beat your mouth until it's swollen! I've never suffered such humiliation before, and I will never let you get away with this!"
Enraged, Shen Xuewei chased after Da Huang while cursing him.
Big Yellow ran away as fast as it could with its tail between its legs, but in the end, it was still whipped several times by Shen Xuewei and hurriedly fled back home.
Shen Xuewei, panting heavily, only put down the branch in her hand after she saw Da Huang being driven home.
She glanced at the road instinctively.
There weren't many pedestrians or vehicles passing by, so apart from her and Wu Yuhong, no one else should have seen what happened.
She touched her bottom, even thinking with relief: Big Yellow was careful not to bite her, it only bit her pants...
Without Dahuang causing trouble, she successfully climbed the tree and picked many loquats from it.
The loquats on this tree were on the sweeter side, so she picked two handfuls of the more sour ones from another tree. With her bountiful harvest, she went home with Wu Yuhong.
Before she left home, she had already boiled hot water and prepared mineral water bottles.
I measured it with my finger, and the hot water was still too hot to pour into a mineral water bottle for the time being.
She left the hot water to cool, washed the handful of sour loquats with clean water, and then slowly peeled off the skins.
She discarded the loquat pits and stuffed the prepared loquat flesh into the mineral water bottles next to her.
After processing the sour loquats, she took out some white sugar and put some into each bottle.
The hot water had cooled down considerably by now, and was just warm enough to be poured into the bottle.
After filling the bottle with water, she tightened the cap and shook it vigorously to ensure the loquat pulp and sugar were thoroughly mixed together.
This is how she's eaten since she was a child.
Mix sour loquats and white sugar, then soak them in hot water.
After soaking for several hours, the water will become both sour and sweet, and the fruit flesh will also be both sour and sweet, which she likes to eat.
She made four bottles in total, and after taking a shower and changing her clothes, she drank one of them.
The remaining three bottles were shared with three other people at school, and they all said they were delicious.
She and Wu Yuhong brought a lot of loquats from school, so they simply shared some with everyone in the dormitory.
In an instant, everyone's relationship became even closer.
To make it easier to contact his children, Grandpa Chen asked someone to install a telephone at home and also gave his home phone number to relatives and friends in the neighborhood.
There weren't many phone calls. Occasionally, a good friend would call, and although Grandpa Chen didn't show it on his face, he surprisingly cut a piece of cured meat for an extra meal, proving that he was happy inside.
Whenever she had free time, Grandma Xi would sit by the phone, waiting for her children to call.
Even Chen Fangli, who was closest to her, made a special phone call to cheer her up.
The only person Grandma Xi missed the most, Chen Fangmin, never received a single phone call.
When Shen Xuewei returned home on Friday, her maternal grandmother came over with a string of phone numbers and asked her about it.
"Weiwei, can you check for your grandma if there's something wrong with our phone? Otherwise, why can't your mom call?"
Shen Xuewei looked at the string of phone numbers in her hand, paused for a moment, and said:
"The phone is fine, and the number is correct. Maybe...maybe my mom is just busy. Maybe she'll call you back in a while."
Grandma Xi was so anxious that tears were about to fall.
"The phone isn't broken, and the number is correct. Has your mother not received the letter from home yet...?"
Shen Xuewei's throat felt constricted, and she asked in a hoarse voice, "Grandma, do you miss my mom?"
Grandma Xi nodded with tears in her eyes, her gaze filled with longing.
“I haven’t seen your mother in a long time, maybe seven or eight years. I wonder what she looks like now, if her voice has changed, if she has suffered…”
She kept talking incessantly, clutching the note tightly in her hand.
Shen Xuewei stood there staring at the newly installed telephone for a long time.
She didn't want to contact her parents, and it's likely they didn't want to either.
Her mother doesn't have a cell phone yet, but her father has had one for the past two years.
She always remembered her father's phone number.
Grandma Xi wiped away her tears, her face full of disappointment. Looking at her aged face, Shen Xuewei's heart softened instantly.
"Grandma, don't cry. I know my dad's phone number. I'll call him for you and let my mom talk to you, okay?"
Grandma Xi nodded in delight, “Okay, okay, I want to talk to her.”
Shen Xuewei stood in front of the phone and dialed that familiar number.
While waiting, Grandma Xi's tense and rapid breathing sprayed behind Shen Xuewei's ear.
Beep, beep, beep, beep...
The call was answered, and a familiar voice came from the other end.
Hello! Who is this?
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