RESLW Chapter 19

Chapter 19 YONGJIU Bicycle

After lunch, Mei Zhonghua rushed out happily with the children.

When he returned home, he rode a brand-new YONGJIU* bicycle, with Mei Xiaoran on the front beam and Mei Xiaolei on the back seat. The family of three came back happily.

(TN : a bicycle brand in China, which translates as Forever.)

“Really a show off!”

When Li Mingyun saw that her husband had bought a YONGJIU bicycle, her heart shivered for a while. The best and most expensive bicycles on the market now are YONGJIU and FENGHUANG*. This kind of bicycle, afraid one can only get them with a price not lower than one hundred and sixty to one hundred and seventy Yuan. Happiness aside, she feels more distressed. These days, the situation at home has only slightly improved, but Mei Zhonghua dares to extravagantly spend so much money. She must curb this style of wealthy treat.

(TN : another brand of bike, translated as Phoenix.)

“Mom, look at how beautiful the bicycle is!”

Mei Xiaolei is really so happy. He jumps off the bike and pulls his mother to check it out. The brand new bicycle was shining under the sun, which attracted the neighbors to come and watch.

“Zhonghua, you buy a bicycle?”

“Brother Mei, did you buy a YONGJIU bicycle?”

“Zhonghua, this bicycle is not cheap. How much did you spend?”

The neighbors, some of them held admiration, some held jealousy and some even held envy, but most of them were only onlookers that were there only to watch the fun.

A group of people packed so tightly and surrounded the courtyard.

Mei Zhonghua was also very proud. He went to touch the bicycle’s body, rang the bell, and finally patted the seat. “This bicycle is sturdy. I run back and forth between the city and the countryside every day. If I don’t have a bicycle, I’m afraid my legs will break from too much running.”

Seeing so many people, Li Mingyun feels that it was not good to expose Mei Zhonghua’s shortcomings directly. She didn’t dare to scold Mei Zhonghua until her neighbors were all scattered and they also went back into the house. “What a show off! Is there anyone who buys a bicycle and behaves ostentatiously like us? You only have a little spare money but already can’t wait to burn it! “

“Mingyun, our family really needs to buy a bicycle. Just think about it. Usually when we went back to my hometown, even though it’s only five li away, is there a time where you did not complain that your leg hurts?”

Mei Xiaoran turns towards her mom, “Mom, we have already bought the bicycle. Don’t complain anymore. It’s as if you’re not happy……Come on, give us a smile! “

Li Mingyun could not help smiling and reach out to give her a hand. “Only your mouth is smart. If it was not for your encouragement, I’m afraid your dad wouldn’t have bought the bike so early, right?” Then he turned to Mei Zhonghua and asked, “Go ahead and tell me, how much did it cost to buy this bicycle?”

Mei Zhonghua laughed. First, he takes out all the money that was with him, and only after that he dares to announce the price. “The bicycle cost nearly one hundred and seventy Yuan. These days running the watermelon business have earned us about three hundred Yuan. Deducting the cost etc, there is still more than one hundred and thirty Yuan left. Just count them.”

“One can make so much money only by selling watermelons?” Li Mingyun is really stunned. Although she knows that Mei Zhonghua recently made more money by selling watermelon than by selling grain, isn’t this too fast? In the past, at most he earned twenty to thirty Yuan in one month. Now, it has only been half a month but he already earned ten times more than before. This really scared her witless.

“What? You don’t believe in your husband’s ability?”

Mei Zhonghua earned the money and is full of confidence. “I have already thought about it. With this bicycle, it will be easier for me to make money in the future. You and the children just need to wait to live a good life.”

“You are shameless. The watermelon is out of season now, let’s see what else can you sell?” Li Mingyun is also very anxious. His family is from the countryside and he is not from a worker’s family. Without a fixed job, there is no fixed income. Just depending on buying and selling things, whether the outcome is good or bad, it just made her feel worried.

“Mom, look at what you made my dad into. He is already this age, how can he not have any concerns at all?”

Mei Xiaoran remembers very clearly that since 1980, her father has started buying and selling clothes. It was also from this clothing business that their family’s wealth accumulated bit by bit. Later, they bought a storefront in the county and opened a clothing store……Although her father is a man who dares to work hard and take risks, he lacks plans. He can start a business but can’t maintain it. The business failure is really due to his lack of setup.

But she dare not say this now, nor can she say that. If through her efforts, her father can change his thinking, with her father’s ability, it will definitely have a better development.

“Dad, can my older sister and I learn to ride the bicycle?” Mei Xiaolei’s attention is actually not here. He wants to learn how to ride a bicycle. This kind of good-looking and big YONGJIU, it must be really flashy to ride one.

Mei Zhonghua looked at his son and muttered, “Yes, you can but not now. Your stature is small but the bicycle is big. If you fall, even I am not distressed over you, but I will be distressed over my new bicycle!”

These words made Mei Xiaolei’s face redden. It’s not his fault that his stature is small. He has been weak since birth. Now that he entered junior high school, most of the boys in the class are taller than him. He also wants a tall stature, but right now he is not tall. He is also anxious.

“Leilei, let’s learn to ride the bicycle together during the winter vacation.” Of course, Mei Xiaoran can’t expose the fact that she can ride a bicycle. She can only comfort Mei Xiaolei in this way.

Although Mei Xiaolei is not tall now, it’s because he is a late bloomer. He didn’t grow taller until he was in senior high school. He grew to 1.8 meters at once. He was still growing until his late teen years. At last, he grew to 1.87 meters. He was the tallest in the whole family’s clan, but he never grew meat at all. When he had become an adult, even with that tall stature, his weight was only one hundred and thirty something jin. He was always thin and bony!

Anyway, the family are happy to have bought a new bicycle .

Mei Zhonghua also has a new plan. He plans to go back to his hometown and get some grain to sell tomorrow. Although the risk of selling grain is big and the income is small, the whole family only has a little over one hundred Yuan. They can’t afford to sit and eat on an empty mountain*.

(TN : nibble their wealth away and do nothing.)

The next day, Mei Xiaoran and her younger brother went to the morning self-study very early.

After a week of adaptation, the students have also adapted to the rhythm of junior high school life.

Mei Xiaoran has no idea about how the others’ studies are, but for her, English is still a big problem. Although she has two life experiences, she still finds it hard to memorize the words, let alone the text……Now, the lesson they learnt is still a simple dialogue. Using the whole morning self-study time, she still remembered stutteringly. However, Lu Xia, her seatmate, who at first was afraid that she herself won’t be able to learn it, remembered the words faster than she (MXR) could.

But Mei Xiaoran is not without any strength. Besides English, she is good at Chinese Language and Literature, and Mathematics. As for politics, history, geography and biology, although they are all secondary subjects, because those are about liberal arts, she learned them well too.

Monday morning is the time for English morning self-study. Mei Xiaoran memorized English for the whole morning, remembering them until her head became dizzy.

It was right at this time, the English teacher, Teacher Gu beckoned to her, “Mei Xiaoran, please come to the office.”

It wouldn’t be a random endorsement, right?

Mei Xiaoran was a little afraid.

It took her a whole morning to hardly manage to recite the dialogue, but she still couldn’t read and memorize.

When she finally arrived at the teacher’s office after she deliberately slowed down her pace, Teacher Wang, the Chinese Language and Literature teacher, asked her happily, “Mei Xiaoran, do you still remember the composition you wrote in the last placement test?”

Mei Xiaoran remembered that it was an ordinary narrative prose and it seems like she developed it quite nicely, so she nodded.

Teacher Wang smiled, “I think the composition you wrote is very good, so I recommend it to the weekly composition newspaper. After reading it, the teacher there decided to publish it in the weekly composition newspaper.”

What does it mean?

Published composition?

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