In Beijing, Zhang Guoqing was just as Zhou Jiao had predicted. He woke up at dawn, lying in bed, looking in the dark at the small figure beside him, unwilling to part until it was almost four o’clock, when he gently pulled the light switch.
Under the glow of the light, seeing his son’s soundly sleeping face, Zhang Guoqing couldn’t help but kiss the child’s hair. This time, it’ll probably be several days before he can come home from school again.
Zhang Guoqing carefully covered his son’s stomach with a towel blanket, tucked in the mosquito net, and after washing up in the side room, took another look at his son on the kang before finally picking up his luggage and closing the door to leave.
Aunt Chen, as always, prepared breakfast at four in the morning every Monday for him to eat before going back to school. Once he left, she had to watch whether the child woke up.
Zhang Guoqing quickly finished the noodles, looked at the yawning Aunt Chen, and hurriedly said, "Auntie, go sleep for a while, Ping’an won’t wake up until six o’clock at least."
"No need, I can’t sleep even if I lie down, you better head to school."
Zhang Guoqing reassured her, "We’re not short of food at home, please eat something first."
"Hurry up, it’s almost half-past four, if you leave later you’ll run into people again."
Zhang Guoqing chuckled and nodded, pushed his bicycle, and walked briskly out of the house. Aunt Chen’s worries were justified; if he ran into someone and exchanged a few words, it would not only delay him but be quite awkward if someone asked whether he was going to the Lin Family.
Riding his bicycle in the night, Zhang Guoqing pondered that the summer vacation was more than halfway over, and whether the teachers would give people some breathing room at school.
Glancing at the tall crops in the outskirts fields, if there was no break, he would immediately be heading to the countryside to assist in agriculture again. The summer busy period could really exhaust a person; would he still have to work when his wife returned?
Arriving at the dormitory downstairs at school, the sky had already turned bright. This was summer, in winter it would still be pitch dark when he arrived.
Back in the dormitory, after putting away his luggage, Zhang Guoqing carried a basin and his toiletries to the communal bathroom, and before he returned to the room after the shower, he heard Wan Dayong’s loud voice.
When he went out with the basin, he saw that everyone was standing in front of his dormitory door, chuckling, "Why are you all up so early today?"
Wan Dayong looked at his expression, "You know about it, right?"
Zhang Guoqing knew he was asking about the Lin Family. He nodded towards them, opened the door, "Come in first and we’ll talk. Is there any trouble with my class?"
After Wan Dayong and the others entered and closed the door, they shook their heads, "With Old Fan here, nothing much has happened. By the way, what does Da Yi mean? And who’s this great-grandmother of his?"
Zhang Guoqing earnestly replied, "An old lady picked up on the way."
Everyone, knowing the various family matters, could only hold back their laughter. This was not something they could talk about with others, only laugh secretly about.
Ding Datou cheerfully said, "Just as we expected, when we heard he also took leave to go back to his hometown, we knew he definitely went with you. When is he showing up now?"
Zhang Guoqing waved them over, and when they huddled together, he whispered, "He’s coming over tonight, we agreed to act separately. If there’s nothing tonight, let’s have a gathering, he’s ready to be bled dry, brothers, sharpen your knives!"
Everyone laughed heartily.
Ding Datou craftily rolled his eyes, "How about we tell him to come over the day after tomorrow?"
Wan Dayong and Geng Dasheng laughed even louder when they heard this.
Zhang Guoqing suddenly had a flash of inspiration, "Damn~ Are they on break the day after tomorrow?"
"Smart!"
Zhang Guoqing immediately changed his mind, "Then let’s wait to have the gathering at home. Ouch, I should have stayed a few more days away. By the way, we don’t have any internship tasks for our class, right?"
"No! I checked, we have free time next. What should we do next? How about traveling? What do you all think?"
Geng Dasheng laughed, "I’m easygoing, just let me know wherever you decide to go."
VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space