Chapter 24 (Third update, now VIP)
The villagers who had packages of letters swarmed forward, surrounding Cheng Ying who was standing by the table, and asked, "Comrade Cheng, do you have a letter from my family's Zhuzi?"
"My eldest daughter said last month that she would send me some canned food and malted milk powder that are rare in the city. Has she sent them back yet?"
"Comrade Cheng, my son Da Niu works at a steel factory in the city. He sends me a remittance slip every month, but this month it's quite late. Could you please check if you can find my Da Niu's remittance slip?"
“My second son subscribed to the newspaper for me, and your dad used to deliver it to me on time every month. But now that your dad has had an accident, the newspaper hasn’t been delivered to me on time.”
......
Cheng Ying wiped the fine sweat from her forehead and carefully took out the parcels of letters belonging to Aimen Village from the heavy green mailbag. She distributed them one by one to the dozen or so villagers surrounding her: "Aunt Li, this is a letter from your son Zhuzi. Chunfen's father, this is something Chunfen mailed to you. Inside are two cans of malted milk powder, a can of beef, and a can of yellow peaches. Please open the package and check if there is any damage. If there are no problems, please sign my form to indicate that you have received the items. If you are illiterate, just put your fingerprint on the form. Aunt Xu, this is a money order from your son Daniu. You will have to go to the post office in town to collect the money yourself. Cao Shi's family, this is your registered letter. It seems to contain a document. Please take a closer look at what it is about. Accountant Huang, Secretary Ge, this is the newspaper you subscribed to. There is also another newspaper from your village's Teacher Deng..."
Surrounded and clamoring with so many people, Cheng Ying remained calm and composed. She handled matters efficiently and effectively, distributing all the pre-organized letters and packages from Aimen Village to the relevant villagers. She also explained to those who had not received their letters or packages that the town's post office had not received them and asked them to wait a little longer.
Finally, she took out a post office receipt and a red clay stamp, had Chunfen's father press his fingerprint on it, then tidied everything up and said to the villagers, "Fellow villagers, we only have three postmen in the whole town, who have to cover twenty-five brigades and more than fifty villages. Each postman is on the road every day except for weekends and rest days, and they are really too busy. This time, because my father fell down the mountain, and our branch manager is quite old and not familiar with my father's postal route, some mail and packages were delayed because of this. I am really sorry. From now on, I will deliver the mail to everyone on time, rain or shine, so please rest assured."
"I see, then we're relieved." The villagers all expressed their understanding. The job of a postman may seem like a government cadre position with a good salary, but in reality it is a very hard job.
Regardless of the season, how far the journey is, or whether it's windy or rainy, postmen have to trek through mountains and rivers to deliver mail to recipients on time. There are very few cases of lost mail or late deliveries, and the villagers know how difficult it is for postmen to do this job.
Holding the letter in her hand, Li Zhuzi's mother came forward and warmly took Cheng Ying's hand, saying, "Thank you so much, Comrade Cheng. You must be tired and thirsty after walking for so long. Come to my house, have some tea, and rest your feet. Your father always sits at my house for a while after delivering my letters. My house is right by the roadside on the mountaintop, not far from here. You can have some tea and then continue on your way without delaying your journey."
Cheng Ying instinctively wanted to refuse, but she saw Da Huang follow Li Zhuzi's mother directly towards a mud house on the mountaintop. She was stunned for a moment, then turned around and helplessly put the mailbag back on her back and followed Li Zhuzi's mother.
Before leaving, an old woman said to Cheng Ying, "Comrade Cheng, when you finish your mail delivery, remember to come to the village and find our secretary. Ask him to call me. I want to send some dried bamboo shoots, dried sweet potatoes, and some grain and eggs to my grandson and granddaughter-in-law who work in the city."
Cheng Ying paused, turned around, and asked, "How heavy are all these things combined?"
The old lady smiled and said, "It's not heavy, only about a hundred pounds."
Cheng Ying: ......
She's a postwoman, not an animal. Is this old lady serious about carrying such heavy things down the mountain to mail them?
A fifteen-year-old girl with braided pigtails immediately grabbed the old woman's hand and said, "Grandma, what nonsense are you talking about? How can you let the postman deliver all this stuff to you? Comrade Cheng has no obligation to carry such heavy things to town for you. She's just a mail carrier, not a delivery person! I've told you so many times, if you really want to mail grain to my brother and the others, it should be my dad and I who carry it to the post office in town to mail it. Don't keep thinking about having the postman deliver it for you."
The old woman scoffed, "She's going to pass through our village on her way back to town anyway. What's wrong with her helping me carry some things to the post office? She's so young, she can't even carry this little bit, what kind of postwoman is she? Back in my day, when I was young, I could do any job, I could easily carry two or three hundred pounds..."
Cheng Ying was completely at a loss for words. She knew that there were countless oddballs in the world, especially in the countryside, where the elderly women and men who had not received any education were the oddballs among oddballs. She had thought that she would encounter some difficult oddballs at work, but she never expected to meet such a person in just half a day.
Cheng Ying looked at the old lady and said with a forced smile, "Excuse me, ma'am, my job is a postman. My duty is to deliver mail. Please listen carefully, it's 'deliver,' not 'collect.' We postmen are not obligated to collect packages and deliver them to the post office. If you have anything light and doesn't involve money, like a letter, a piece of clothing, or a few pounds of dried goods, and it's inconvenient for you to go to the town's post office, we can help collect the mail and deliver it to town if you're kind to us. But for anything else, forget it! Please remember, we are postmen, not your personal servants. We won't deliver whatever you want to mail."
"What kind of attitude is this?!" The old woman's face immediately changed, and she pointed at her with a trembling hand. "Your father used to help me deliver things to the mail whenever he passed through our village. Why can't he do it with you? How can someone as lazy and good-for-nothing as you be qualified to be a postman?! I'm going to complain to your post office and have your boss fire you so you can't be a postman anymore and they can replace you with someone else."
Cheng Ying laughed. "Go ahead and complain. My dad is my dad, and I am me. He's a pushover at work, but a completely different person at home. I'm not like him. I've always been consistent inside and out. I won't accept any more letters or packages from your house anymore. You'll have to mail them yourself at the town's post office."
"You, you, you, you..." The old lady was so angry that her hands were trembling. When she saw Cheng Ying lift her foot to leave, she angrily reached out to hit her.
Seeing this, Ge Shengli quickly grabbed her hand and shouted at the middle-aged couple standing behind her, "Tian Laoda, control your mother! Stop causing trouble and acting like a tyrant all day long. Do you really think the postman is your family's servant? Just because you want to mail something, does he have to take it to town for you? Old Cheng used to help you out because we're all neighbors, but your mother thinks it's her due after all these years of his free help. She expects a postman like Comrade Cheng to carry such heavy things to town for you, and when he refuses, she threatens to complain to the post office and make him lose his job. All the good Cheng Jiantong has done for you over the years, has it all been for nothing? Your mother is so ungrateful, treating his daughter like this! Let me tell you, even if you get a different postman, if he doesn't want to carry your mail, no amount of complaining or tantrums will work!"
The couple, Mr. and Mrs. Tian, came out feeling embarrassed and ashamed. They said to the old lady, "Mom, why are you using your old ways to bully others again? If you want to mail something to your grandson, we can just carry it to town and mail it. Why are you making a fool of yourself here?"
He bowed his head and apologized to Cheng Ying, saying, "Comrade Cheng, I'm really sorry. My mother is old and a little senile. Please don't take her words to heart. We will mail the things we need ourselves from the town. We won't trouble you."
Cheng Ying glanced at Ge Shengli and thought to herself that this village party secretary was a reasonable person who stepped in to resolve the conflict in time; he was a good cadre.
She didn't argue with Old Lady Tian, said it was nothing, and left with Li Zhuzi's mother.
The two people and the dog walked for about half an hour and arrived at the top of the mountain. The Li family's house was behind a huge banyan tree at the entrance to the mountain. It was a large house built of mud, with a flat courtyard near the road.
As soon as the two arrived under the banyan tree, a cool mountain breeze, carrying the unique and charming fragrance of banyan orchids, blew away the summer heat.
Cheng Ying couldn't help but stop and stand under the banyan tree to enjoy the cool breeze.
It was already August, and the weather was very hot. The sun was high in the sky, and the scorching sunlight made her sweat profusely.
Seeing her standing motionless under the tree, Li Zhuzi's mother smiled and said to her, "This banyan tree in front of my house is over a hundred years old. It blooms every year from April to September. It's also located at the windy spot at the top of the mountain. In the summer, people in the village like to come to my banyan tree to cool off. In the evening, my doorstep is very lively."
Under the banyan tree were several bamboo chairs, their green outer skin faded and turned gray and worn. They looked like they were placed there by the Li family for passersby and villagers to sit and cool off.
The dog, Dahuang, was so hot that it ran straight to the yellow privet tree and lay down in a shady corner, its pink tongue lolling out as it panted to cool itself off.
Its actions clearly indicate that whenever Cheng Jiantong passed by this place on his mail route, he would sit on a bamboo chair under this banyan tree to rest. The dog would stop to catch its breath only when Cheng Jiantong rested.
Cheng Ying resisted the urge to sit on the bamboo chair, and with her hands gripping the straps of the mailbag on her shoulders, she asked, "Aunt Li, you invited me to your house for tea because you want me to read your letter, right?"
Li Zhuzi's mother nodded with a smile: "Yes, I can't read, and I don't want the village secretary and accountant to read the letters to me, so I have to ask the postman to read them to me. Every time your father came to deliver the letters to me, I would ask him to read them to me, and then have a cup of tea and rest my feet."
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