"Xiao Yun went to buy picture magazines again?"
"Yes." Zheng Yun responded with a smile, rode his bike through the narrow alley, stopped at the gate of the innermost courtyard, and pushed the bike in.
After locking the bicycle, Zheng Yun picked up the picture magazine in the basket and walked upstairs with brisk steps.
This is an old house. Originally, it was occupied by one family. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the house was nationalized and later used as a worker's workshop for a state-owned factory. More than ten families were crammed into the original three-story house.
Zheng Yun's family was divided up in the late 1950s. She and her brother were both young at the time, and they were only given two rooms, which were suites inside and outside.
Over the years, her parents renovated the house twice, and the one-bedroom and one-living room house became a three-bedroom and one-living room house. However, each room was very small, and there was not much space left after putting a bed and a small closet.
This house was big enough before, but as her brother got married and had children, the already small room became even more crowded.
So in the year after her nephew was born, her sister-in-law had been introducing her to potential partners, hoping that she would get married and move out soon so that she could free up a room, which would be useful for storing things or as a cheap place for the child to live in in the future.
As soon as Zheng Yun entered the room, she ran into her sister-in-law, who asked, "Where have you been? I was looking for you. I'm going to meet Comrade Xu at noon today. The place for lunch is Xiangyun Hotel. Don't forget it."
"Yes, I haven't forgotten."
Zheng Yun sounded a little impatient and hurried into the house holding the picture magazine.
When her sister-in-law saw her like this, she was so angry that her chest kept heaving, but in the end she didn't dare to quarrel with her. She just whispered, "I think you've been stupid from reading the magazines!"
I was stunned by the picture magazine.
As she gets older, people always say this to her. Zheng Yun has gotten used to it and it no longer hurts her.
Zheng Yundang didn't hear what his sister-in-law said. He went into the room, locked the door, and then lay on the bed, opened the "Comic Book", and turned directly to the last page to look at the catalog.
This is a habit she has developed in the past two years.
At first, she was just a loyal reader of "Comic Book". She didn't have any favorite authors, so she would read the magazine from the beginning whenever she got it.
But in the past two years, she has become fond of the comic strips by an author named A Durian.
Because the only two works of Yike Durian are medium-length serials, she gradually developed the habit of looking at the catalog first after receiving the illustrated magazine in order to see her favorite story first.
Although the second work of A Durian has been completed for half a year, Zheng Yun has not changed this habit, because she wants to be the first to know whether A Durian has any new stories to be serialized.
As in the past six months, the answer is no.
Zheng Yun was a little disappointed. She thought that if there was still no new work by Yiguo Durian in the next issue, she would write a letter to the publishing house to ask whether the author had stopped writing.
With this thought in mind, Zheng Yun turned the comic book to the first page and started reading from the beginning.
As a loyal fan of comics, Zheng Yun has already seen from experience that when he opens a comic book, he can basically guess the ending of the story after reading the beginning.
Therefore, in the past two years, Zheng Yun could clearly feel that his enthusiasm for comics was fading.
This is also the main reason why Zheng Yun likes a durian. The author's plot development is easy to surprise people, but it makes sense if you think about it carefully.
If she didn't want to see Yikui Durian's new work, she might not buy "Comic Book" again.
Zheng Yun felt somewhat bored and flipped through the magazine faster and faster. He had been planning to finish flipping through the pages and close them, but his eyes were attracted by a few pictures.
This painting style is different from what she has seen before.
The comic strips she had read before were all realistic, and the people looked exactly as they were on paper. But the people in these pictures didn't look like real people, they were very simple, but they weren't ugly either, they were quite cute.
Zheng Yun also noticed that this story has no script, only the first picture has a brief background introduction, and the rest is dialogue. The dialogue is not long, and is directly printed in the picture, framed by a square or circle, making it look like two people are talking.
Because the dialogue was concise and very colloquial, Zheng Yun didn't read it carefully. She understood the previous situation at a glance, which made her somewhat interested in the story, so she lowered her head and read on.
The story begins with the teacher announcing that a female student in the class has dropped out of school. The teacher's tone is very heavy, but the children are very naive and think that their classmate can go home and play freely. Every word they say is full of envy for the female classmate.
The protagonist Sanhuo is one of the children who envy his female classmates.
After returning home, Sanhuo told his parents about this and revealed his envy in his eyes and tone. His parents looked at each other and asked him if he also wanted to drop out of school.
He denied it hesitantly, but in his heart he nodded wildly.
After reading this, Zheng Yun felt that this author must have an interesting personality. He smiled knowingly and continued reading.
Although the painting style seemed a bit strange at first, the story flowed smoothly overall, and since it was all dialogue, one could understand it at a glance, so Zheng Yun read it very quickly.
She finished looking through forty pictures in just two or three minutes.
When he turned to the back and saw that it was a new story, Zheng Yun was still a little unwilling. He flipped the page back and forth several times, and finally fixed his eyes on the four words "To be continued".
Alas, it seems I can only wait for the next issue.
Realizing this thought, Zheng Yun was stunned.
Ever since "The Educated Youth" was finished, she has read "Comic Book" again in the past six months. No matter if it was just one issue or a serialized story, she has never had a strong desire to read the sequel.
Zheng Yun lowered his head and silently flipped forward to read "Sanhuo's Working Diary" from beginning to end again.
There are not many people who read "Sanhuo's Working Diary" over and over again like this, but there are many readers who can't help but smile after reading this story.
And because the first issue was published on the eve of the third fire, many people wanted to see the sequel. Some of those who were good at expressing themselves, after reading the new issue of "Comic Book", began to urge for updates and ask about the sequel.
Looking at the readers' letters sent in like snowflakes from all over the country, Wang Jingfang finally felt relieved after being worried for half a month since the publication of "Sanhuo Working Diary".
Apart from anything else, the serialization of "Sanhuo's Working Diary" is definitely stable.
…
In mid-March, Su Ting received the final remittance slip for the royalties from the publication of The Educated Youth. Also sent was a delivery note with important notes and she was to ride a tricycle to pick it up.
After working with "Lianhuan Pictorial" for almost two years, Su Ting is already very familiar with the habits of the publishing house. If the delivery note states that the parcels should be picked up by tricycle, then the mail must be letters from readers, and usually there is at least one snakeskin bag, and sometimes there are three or four snakeskin bags.
So on Sunday, Su Ting and He Dongchuan rode their bicycles out after dinner.
Because there might be a lot of mail to pick up, the two of them did not bring their child. Su Ting talked to Yu Xiaofang in advance and asked her to help look after the child for the whole morning. She also gave He Yan a morning off and let him do his homework in the afternoon.
Riding a bicycle is convenient. You don’t have to walk from the family compound to the pier, and you don’t have to squeeze into the bus after getting off the boat. As for whether riding a bicycle is tiring... Su Ting believes in He Dongchuan's health.
When they arrived in the city, the two of them went to the department store first as usual. It was a rare trip, and Su Ting didn't want to go back with only the reader's letter.
After March, the temperature in Pingchuan Island would rise again, and she and He Dongchuan said that the two children needed to buy new clothes. So after arriving at the department store, the two went straight to the children's clothing counter and bought two sets of clothes and two pairs of shoes for each of the children.
In addition, Su Ting bought He Dongchuan a white shirt. Although he always wore military uniform all year round, he would often wear the white shirt he bought two years ago during holidays or after taking a shower at night.
Although Dacron is cool to wear, it is not a good material. It has shrunk a lot in two years. Although He Dongchuan said nothing, Su Ting felt guilty every time she saw it, as if she had wronged He Dongchuan.
In order to clear up this emotion and to make He Dongchuan look more handsome in the shirt, before coming to the city this time, Su Ting made up her mind that she must spend a huge amount of money to buy him a better shirt.
Well, because the fabrics for clothes were limited at that time, and the best fabric for summer was Dacron, He Dongchuan only spent a quarter of the hundred yuan he had prepared.
After buying clothes for the three people in the family except herself, Su Ting went downstairs with He Dongchuan.
It's not that she decided to suffer for them and not buy new clothes this summer, but the new clothes at this time will not be released too early in advance. The summer clothes on display in the department store are all last year's old styles. She didn't like these styles last year, and of course she couldn't buy them this year. Anyway, she didn't need clothes, so she could wait.
Although she didn't buy any clothes, Su Ting bought herself a bottle of vanishing cream, an eyebrow pencil and a lipstick.
After getting pregnant with Manman, Su Ting rarely used facial cream unless her skin was very dry in winter. Before giving birth, she was worried that using too many chemical products during pregnancy would be bad for the baby, and after giving birth, she was afraid that Manman would swallow them.
But after she learned to speak, not only her comprehension ability improved, but her memory also became much stronger. After Su Ting told her for three consecutive days that licking the face was bad, she remembered it deeply.
So much so that when He Yan kissed her on the face, she would start crying at the top of her lungs.
He Yan was very hurt. He felt that his sister was no longer close to him. He did not feel happy until Su Ting told him the reason why this happened.
But He Yan soon had a new question: "Is kissing on the face bad?"
Su Ting felt that this brother and sister really knew how to grasp the key points. She clearly said that licking the face was not good, but they seemed to automatically replace "lick" with "kiss".
He Yan has his own thoughts on this: "Aren't licking and kissing almost the same?"
Okay.
Su Ting gave up on correcting He Yan and explained, "Because there is a lot of dust in the air, the skin will get dirty if it comes into direct contact with dust. Also, like my mother, sometimes she will apply vanishing cream, which is full of chemical products. It may be okay to apply it on the face, but children have weak spleen and stomach, and eating too much may not be good, so I told Manman not to lick her face."
He Yan suddenly realized: "Then I won't kiss anyone's face anymore."
Su Ting thought, as long as your wife agrees to it in the future that will be enough.
But then again, although He Yan successfully established his own business empire in the original novel, his life-long affairs were still unsettled at the end. Will he be able to find a wife in this life?
Thinking of this, Su Ting said meaningfully: "It may be too early for you to think about these things now."
He Yan not only pondered over it, but also, like Man Man, kept it in mind. Once, when he saw He Dongchuan kissing Su Ting, he jumped out to stop them and said, "Dad can't kiss Mom's face!"
He Dongchuan, who was cooking, almost dropped the meat in the pot because of his shaking hands. He turned around and asked sternly, "Where did you come from?"
"I came in from outside!" He Yan puffed out his chest and explained to his father, "There is dust in the air, and Mom's face will be dirty. Mom also puts on cold cream, which can't be eaten. It's bad for the body, so Dad, you can't kiss Mom!"
He Dongchuan looked at Su Ting while cooking and asked in a low voice, "Who taught him?"
"I'll tell you later."
He Dongchuan hummed, turned sideways and looked at He Yan and said, "I don't mind your mother's face getting dirty, and I'm not afraid that it's bad for her health, so your words are useless to me."
He Yan didn't expect this to happen and his eyes widened instantly.
What really opened his eyes was yet to come. His father lowered his head, rubbed his mother's cheek with incense, and asked, "Do you have any other opinions?"
He Yan covered his eyes and wrinkled his nose: "Dad is unhygienic."
Su Ting: “…”
Although it was He Dongchuan who was accused of being unhygienic, why did she feel that she was swept up?
That night, Su Ting went over the whole matter with He Dongchuan, and then gave him a task: to explain clearly to He Yan and let him know that his mother's face was not that dirty!
Back to the topic, now that she has basically changed her habit of licking randomly, Su Ting feels that she can start dressing up.
Of course, there was only so much she could do to dress up at that time. At most, she could put on some face cream and lipstick and draw her eyebrows. She couldn't even braid her hair in a very distinctive way.
But this is all temporary. The big movement will end this year, and the atmosphere will be more relaxed. By next year, they will be able to perm their hair and put on lipstick.
The two of them walked downstairs, and when they reached the first floor, Su Ting bought some miscellaneous daily necessities, some biscuits and snacks, and a bag of White Rabbit milk candy.
Both brother and sister like to eat sweet food, and their favorite is naturally White Rabbit.
This toffee is indeed delicious. Su Ting also liked it when she was in her teens. Even now, although she doesn’t like candy that much, she doesn’t feel sick of it after putting one in her mouth.
But eating too much sugar is bad for the body, so Su Ting doesn't dare to let her two children eat too much. She usually only feeds them one pack a month, which means that on average each child can eat one sugar every two or three days, just to satisfy their cravings.
After buying things, they went to the post office to pick up and send parcels, and also called He Dongchuan's home.
The package he picked up was naturally from the publishing house, and the one he sent was a letter to Su Ting's family.
A few days ago, Su's father and mother wrote to me and mentioned something. They said that my cousin from my eldest aunt's family had graduated from high school. Because there were no quotas for him to go to the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University in the brigade, and his family had no connections to arrange a job for him, he could only go home to farm according to the policy.
But Aunt Su was proud and did not want her son to return to his hometown to farm, so she found her eldest brother and his wife, asking them to help her nephew's husband get a place in the army.
My original grandmother gave birth to six children in total, but people were poor at that time and it was not easy to raise children. Only three of the six brothers and sisters survived. In addition, my original second uncle also served in the army when he was young and left for decades without any news.
Therefore, although Su's father had six brothers and sisters, in the end he only had one sister left.
Aunt Su had a miserable life. Her husband died in an accident just a few years after they got married. She was afraid that her children would be bullied if she remarried, so she remained single all these years and raised her son alone.
It was only because Su's father was doing well that Aunt Su was able to make ends meet. Otherwise, as an orphan and a widow, they would definitely be bullied by those people in the brigade.
She knew that her eldest brother was able to become the team leader and later the secretary because he had attended school for several years and knew how to read. So although Su Dagu herself could not read, she admired educated people very much and was eager to find her son.
After the great movement began, intellectuals were labeled and sent down to the countryside, and educated youth were sent to work in the countryside. Many people in the brigade saw this and no longer thought that studying was a good thing.
But Aunt Su's idea has never changed. She just wants her son to study hard and make a name for himself.
But the college entrance examination has been suspended for so many years, and you can't go to school just because you want to. The management of elementary and junior high schools is loose, so you can go there if you want to. As for high schools, thanks to Su's father's reputation and the child's good academic performance, they can also squeeze him into high school.
But if I want to go to Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University, Su's father's face is not enough.
If he had this ability, his original body would not have only a junior high school education.
Over the years that she paid for her son's schooling, Aunt Su heard a lot of gossip. Some said she was narrow-minded, while others said she was too proud. In short, everyone thought that it was a wrong decision for her to pay for her son's education.
Aunt Su was indeed very proud and could not stand hearing these remarks, so she once again turned to her eldest brother and his wife for help.
What could Su's father do when his sister came to him for his only nephew? He had no choice but to agree and write to his daughter and son-in-law, asking them for help.
But less than two lines later, there was another paragraph telling her that if it could be done, then do it, but if it couldn't, then forget it, and told them not to force themselves and not to worry too much about their parents.
Su Ting was quite puzzled after reading it. She wondered why they were told to try their best to think of a solution at the beginning, but then were told to do things within their capabilities at the end?
When she turned the page again, Su Ting saw a paragraph written on the blank page at the back. Judging from the tone, it was written by Su Ting's second brother.
It turned out that after Su's eldest aunt left, Su's father and mother had a quarrel over this matter.
Mother Su felt very sorry for her husband's only sister, so she had turned a blind eye to her husband's help with their mother and son all these years. But her daughter had just had a good life, and she did not want her sister-in-law to cause any conflict between her daughter and her son-in-law.
So when she saw her husband agree to help right away, Su's mother was very angry.
But after the argument, neither of them changed their minds, so there was this letter and the words attached to it.
The letter was written by Su's father, and the enclosed words were secretly added by Su's mother without her husband's knowledge.
Second brother Su was caught in the middle. If he didn't write this paragraph, his mother would be unhappy. If he wrote this paragraph, his father would definitely beat him with his shoe when he found out.
In order to avoid future trouble, he opened the envelope before sending the letter, explained the whole story at the end of the letter, and begged Su Ting that no matter what decision she made, she must not tell Su's father what he had done.
When Su Ting saw these pitiful words, she couldn't help laughing out loud. He Dongchuan heard it and asked about it, so she gave him the letter.
After reading the letter, He Dongchuan said, "Your second brother is an interesting person."
The relationship between the three siblings of the Su family has always been good. The eldest brother Su is honest and simple. Although the second brother Su likes to be lazy and always makes Su's father angry, he has nothing to say about the original body.
In fact, given the original body's family situation, as long as she didn't do anything stupid, normally her life should not be bad.
But sometimes it's just like that, people's brains can't turn around, and no one can stop them from committing suicide.
Su Ting smiled and said, "That's just his personality."
He Dongchuan nodded and changed the subject to the content of the letter, asking, "How is your relationship with your aunt's cousin?"
"What? You want to help him get this spot?"
He Dongchuan said, "I can't reach that far to get a quota, but if you have a good relationship with them, I can contact my comrades serving in Hu Province to learn about the local conscription policy. Normally, as long as his family is fine and he is in good health, he will be admitted. But I'm not sure what unit he will be assigned to."
According to the original body's memory, Aunt Su was very kind to her nephews and nieces. Although her family didn't have much money, she would bring them food every time she went to the Su family, and would also bring cloth to make shoes for them.
Of course there was a reason for relying on her brother's help, and Aunt Su must have been somewhat sincere when she did these things. But the original person only saw the former, and he never liked this poor relative in his heart, so his relationship with his aunt and cousin was average.
If Aunt Su wanted He Dongchuan to help her son get a good job, Su Ting would definitely not be willing to help, but this was not mentioned in the letter.
Moreover, although the solution proposed by He Dongchuan will require favors, it is not too troublesome and it is probably easy to repay the favors.
Su Ting thought about it and asked deliberately, "Is this convenient?"
"It's just a phone call. It's not inconvenient."
Su Ting said, "Okay, I'll write a letter back to explain the situation to my family. If they are willing, they may ask you for help."
…
Although their main purpose of going to the post office was to pick up mail, the letters sent by the publishing house were all packed in snakeskin bags, which were not convenient to pick up, so after entering, the two of them lined up to make a phone call.
After the call, Su Ting handed the pick-up slip to He Dongchuan and asked him to pick up the package, while she went to the mail counter to mail the letter.
After she sent the letter, the staff came out carrying the snakeskin bags.
The snakeskin bag didn't look big, and when placed upright it was only slightly higher than an adult's knee, but it was really heavy to carry. When the staff put the bag down, they couldn't help but ask, "What do you do? Why do you send us large items every now and then?"
Over the past year or so, Su Ting has received a reader's letter from the publishing house on average once a month, and sometimes even two packages a month.
Moreover, the publishing house’s packages are always packed in snakeskin bags, which is very unique.
In addition, the two of them were good-looking and always came together. After a long time, the staff at the post office knew them. The fact that the employee at the pickup counter could wait until now to ask them what their jobs were showed that he really had no curiosity.
Although Su Ting was reluctant to expose her comic strip drawing to her neighbors, she didn't care in front of strangers.
She was also worried that the other party would regard them as criminals and report them. Well, the probability of this happening was not very high, after all, He Dongchuan often went out in military uniform.
But since the other party didn't know her, it wouldn't matter if she told him. So Su Ting didn't hide it and said, "I usually write something and submit it when I have nothing to do. These are readers' letters sent by the publishing house."
The staff immediately stood in awe: "So you are a great writer!"
Su Ting: “…” It’s not to everyone else’s level.
Su Ting thought this was just an episode. Postal and Telecommunications Bureau staff have to meet and talk to so many people every day. Maybe the next time they come, they will forget what she said today.
It turned out that the staff had a good memory, and I don’t know whether it was because he was stupid or because he had great respect for intellectuals. The next time Su Ting came to the post office to do business, before she even reached the counter, she heard him shout, “Great writer, you are here!”
The staff in the post office, who were all there to do business, looked towards the door when they heard this.
Seeing this, Su Ting hurriedly took a step back and hid behind He Dongchuan.
He Dongchuan was not wearing a military uniform that day. He was wearing a white shirt that his wife had just bought for him, and black straight pants, with matching 765 leather shoes.
Oh, in order to make himself look more refined, He Dongchuan also wore the glasses frame he bought last year when he went out.
Because he was afraid of being seen by people he knew, He Dongchuan kept his glasses in his pocket all the way from the Navy Compound to the city pier. Only after he left the pier and separated from the people he knew, and while riding his bike, did he slowly take out his glasses and put them on his nose.
Su Ting: “…” He still has a heavy idol burden.
Because Su Ting hid behind He Dongchuan, when the people in the post office raised their heads, they all presumed that he was the great writer that the staff had been talking about.
Judging from the way this guy is dressed, he looks like a writer, but his temperament doesn't look like a scholar at all. No wonder they say you can't judge a book by its cover.