Chapter 74: Returning Home (1)

  The days of the Teacher's University Wind Band flew by like this. On the day they returned to their dormitory to rest, Qiu Ye suddenly came up with another big idea. She asked Zhao Shuyan to go to the nearby post office and ask if it was possible to send packages from here to Oil City. So, during the few days of rest, they took advantage of the opportunity to buy a lot of things, buying everything they saw that they wanted, then packing them up and mailing them back to Oil City. Although there is no EMS now and the mail will be much slower, what they mailed were all non-perishable goods like nuts and dried fruits, which wouldn't spoil or break easily, so it didn't matter when they arrived.

  Happy days are always so fast, they have been in Xinjiang for 20 days and it's time to go home. Everyone is reluctant to leave the beautiful scenery of Xinjiang, even on the train, they still can't bear to part with it.

  Chen Jianjun and his team had recently received a task from their superiors, so they were extremely busy. However, he still managed to find time to see off Zhao Shuyan and the others. The scene at the platform was also one of chaos, with many people passing luggage through the windows. Qiu Ye poked her head out of the window and said, "Uncle Chen, don't forget what you promised me, I'll send you the money as soon as I get back."

  "Alright, I've remembered. You should study hard too and try to make your aunt happy. During the New Year, you can go back to Beijing by yourself and get all your things back." Chen Jianjun smiled as he looked at this worried little girl.

  "Alright, don't worry, during the winter break I'll definitely have my aunt bring me back to Beijing to see Uncle Chen. You should also prepare a red envelope for me." Qiu Ye was also somewhat reluctant to part with this People's Liberation Army uncle she had just gotten familiar with.

  At this time, the train had slowly started to move, and finally Qiu Ye saw that green figure on the platform getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

  Qiu Ye sat back down and let out a big sigh, wiping the virtual sweat from his forehead, saying: "I can finally go home."

  "I thought you'd want to stay here and have some more fun. You're always so happy, like a flower fairy, don't you want to go home?" Zhao Shuyan said with a smile.

  Since Qiu Ye slept in the flower cluster on Nan Shan and became a model for everyone, someone gave her the nickname "Flower Fairy". Qiu Ye didn't get angry when she heard it. In fact, when she was in school, some classmates teased her name, saying that autumn leaves would fall and wither, and eventually become a foil for fresh flowers. She never thought that in this life, she could also be a flower, so she took the nickname as an honor rather than shame.

  "No matter how good it is here, it's not my home. My dad, mom, and godfather are not here." A golden nest or a silver nest is not as good as one's own doghouse. This was what Qiu Ye wanted to say the most.

  "Heh heh, you still have a bit of conscience." Zhao Shuyan said, and then began to help pack their luggage. This time, the three of them had brought back the most luggage among everyone, and they couldn't even carry it themselves. In the end, it was the male students from the university who helped them carry it up. Chen Jianjun had already called Fang Haibo in Oil City yesterday to inform him of Qiu Ye's train number and arrival time, and Fang Haibo would be responsible for picking them up when they arrived.

  Qiu Ye and Zhao Shuyan worked together to tidy up the luggage, putting the three valuable bamboo baskets under their berths. It was too scary to put them on the luggage rack. If the train made an emergency stop, it would be disastrous. Not to mention whether the jade stones would break or not, but they might fall and hit someone. They couldn't eat while walking around with them, so it was safer for everyone to keep them under their berths.

  After swaying on the train for another ten days, Master Da and his party finally returned to the provincial capital railway station. As soon as they came out of the station exit, they saw Master Da's old big car, and everyone felt very familiar.

  What Qiu Ye and others did not expect was that Fang Haibo got off the bus. It turned out that after receiving Chen Jianjun's phone call, he had been calculating the time in his heart. This morning, he went to the university's car team early and came to the provincial capital with a large bus to pick up his daughter-in-law personally.

  It was another busy and chaotic scene, with everyone's belongings safely loaded onto the large bus heading to Oil City. Fang Haibo sat next to Zhao Shuyan on the bus and looked at all the luggage in the back row, quietly asking her: "Xiao Yan, are you guys going on a trip or shopping? Why did you bring so many things with the kids?"

  Zhao Shuyan wasn't going out for the first time, but she had never bought so many things back before. She usually just buys some local specialties with a thought that it's the thought that counts.

  "This isn't taking the kids out, accidentally buying too much, but they're all useful, and your daughter will like them." Zhao Shuyan felt a bit embarrassed, being such a big person already, yet still unable to control her shopping desire. But when she was buying, it didn't seem like too much, who knew that putting them together would be so frightening.

  "Is that so, what good things did you buy?" With his understanding of Xiaoye, it's not something special, she wouldn't spend money on it. She always says the money she earns is hard-earned and not easy to come by.

  Zhao Shuyan glanced around, although everyone was sleepy and raised their heads, she still said cautiously: "Don't ask me, wait until we get back, let Xiaoye take it out for you to see." Those jade stones, she didn't know if they would appreciate in value like Xiaoye said, but at the current price, it was already frightening, nearly 10,000 yuan. In the entire university, there wasn't anyone who had heard of a family being a "wan yuan hu" (a household with over 10,000 yuan), although no one would show off their wealth, households with that much money were still very rare, like phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

  Fang Haibo deliberately changed the subject and said, "How did you guys mail back so many dates and jujubes from Xinjiang? What's the point of buying so many?"

  "It's not just you, my daughter-in-law said that she saw it in your magazines, eating dates and wolfberries can nourish the blood and energy, increase the body's immunity, and people won't get sick easily. And walnuts, they say that children who eat them will have a healthy brain, the more they eat, the smarter they'll be, the better they'll learn, and for older people, eating them can prevent and delay senile dementia. And that pecan...". Along the way, Zhao Shuyan was like a mother, repeating what her child had said to her husband, fortunately, she had good memory, and she remembered almost everything Qiu Ye had said, it seemed like finally someone had listened, and she poured out everything to Fang Haibo.

  Fang Haibo also experienced this parental feeling for the first time, and all the way he listened with relish, occasionally nodding his head and adding a few words.

  And so, the old and worn-out bus of Shida carried a car full of tired people towards the direction of home.

  It was after 7 pm when the bus finally stopped in front of the dormitory building of the university. The passengers, still sleepy, got off the bus with their luggage. Qiu Ye and Qiu Feng saw their parents standing under the dim streetlights as soon as the bus stopped. As soon as the bus came to a complete stop, Qiu Ye rushed down from the bus, leaving her luggage behind, and ran to her parents, hugging her mother tightly and shouting: "Mom, mom, I miss you so much."

  Qiu's mother hugged her daughter, whom she hadn't seen for over a month, with some excitement. "I thought I wouldn't have to follow you around anymore," she said. "You've been gone for so long, and I thought I was finally done taking care of you two useless kids."

  Qiu's father saw that the two women were stuck together and didn't have his place. He walked over to take their luggage from the window.

  Qiu's mother hugged her own daughter, feeling that something was off, and carefully examined her under the streetlight. She scolded: "You naughty child, you said you missed home. You've been out for over a month and instead of losing weight, you've gained some. And how did you get darker? Did you go crazy playing outside?"

  Qiu's mother scolded in her mouth, but the hand that hugged the girl couldn't bear to let go. She had never been separated from the children for so long, and this month she was alone with Old Qiu at home. It felt like something was missing, although in the past the children would also go downstairs to their godfather's house to study after dinner. But it still wasn't the same in her heart. Anyway, she just missed the kids. Old Qiu was the same, he just didn't say anything.

  "Alright, you two don't stick together now, wait till we get home to chat." Qiu Dad took down all their luggage from the big trunk. It was a huge pile on the side of the road.

  Later, the six members of the family, except for Qiu Ye, carried their brother's backpack. Both hands were tied to Qiu Ma and Zhao Shuyan, and others were either carrying or holding on to something, as there was really too much luggage. The three bamboo baskets were relatively light, so Qiu Ma, Zhao Shuyan, and Qiu Feng each carried one, while Qiu Dad and Fang Haibo both held one on their shoulders, with one hand still grasping another.

  After many stops and starts, I finally managed to transport all the things back home.

  Everyone put their things at Zhao Shuyan's home, then went to Qiu's house for dinner. Just now, Mrs. Qiu had already prepared dinner, and it was all being kept warm in a thermos.

  At the dinner table, Mrs. Qiu asked about their itinerary this time, and Qiu Feng became enthusiastic, explaining their Xinjiang trip to everyone from start to finish, from mutton skewers to Tianchi Lake, and from Hami melons to camel and sheep on the mountain. Qiu Ye was amazed that his brother had so many vivid descriptions, making the experiences they had been through seem so real.

  After Qiu Feng finished speaking, Fang Haibo gave an evaluation, "It seems that this time you followed him out was right, not to mention what you saw or experienced, just say that Xiaofeng's eloquence has been honed and his thinking is active, in the future writing Chinese composition will definitely be worry-free."

  Qiu's father burst out laughing, "Indeed, my son has really learned a lot, more than I've seen before. When we have the chance in the future, I'll let you guys go out and travel more. It seems that old saying is true: reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles." After finishing speaking, he still clinked wine cups with Fang Haibo, both of them feeling greatly comforted by their child's progress, and they downed their drinks in one gulp.

  Qiu's mother saw the two men who were only boasting about their children, drinking and chatting, and rolled her eyes, saying: "Let's go, let's go, this has delayed our trip for over a month now, I don't know if we can catch up when we get back. You guys just enjoy yourselves."

  This time, without waiting for Old Man Qiu to refute, Fang Haibo said calmly: "Younger sister, you can rest assured, I won't say anything else, but about these two children's studies, you can be 120% at ease. Although Qiu Feng can't skip grades now, it's because his foundation isn't solid, but he definitely has no problem with his current studies. As for Little Ye, there's even less need to worry, she and Little Peak were taught by me together, her level is the same as Little Peak's, completely capable of entering junior high school, so you don't have to worry about her studies at all."

  Qiu's mother loved to hear others praise her two children, even if they were refuting her.

  Qiu Ye sat next to her father after going home and quietly had dinner, having just listened to her godfather's words, she was overjoyed in her heart. A good student indeed has privileges! If it were her and her brother who didn't study well, no matter what their parents said, they wouldn't be allowed to waste so much time on classes.

  But before Qiu Ye could finish rejoicing, Fang Haibo's tone suddenly changed. "Although they must have caught up on their studies by now, since they're back, there's no reason not to go to school. Let them rest at home for two days and then hurry off to school."