Chapter 229: Leave the Most Beautiful Memory ⑥
Huang Yan smiled and said, “Nie Qiu, you don’t know, I never thought that if I did well on the exam, my parents would reward me with so many things. When I was in elementary school, my mom and dad always said they would reward me for scoring this or that, but I never reached those scores. In junior high, my parents stopped saying such things. This is the first time I’ve received a reward from my parents! Originally, my mom only gave me a hundred yuan today, but when I left home this morning, my dad quietly slipped me another two hundred yuan, saying it was my pocket money for this holiday! I never had pocket money during holidays before…”
Huang Yan was overly excited. As she said, she had never received rewards from her parents, nor had she ever known that rewards from parents could be so delightful.
Zhang Haiyang carried Huang Yan’s large schoolbag for her, placed his hand on her shoulder with a smile, and said to Nie Qiu, “Don’t just look at Huang Yan’s happiness. I believe more than half of the students in our class were also happy when they went home yesterday. Many people might have received rewards from their parents! My dad also promised to buy me a Fruit 6 tomorrow, haha… Nie Qiu, what about you? Did your mom buy you anything?”
Nie Qiu nodded and pointed at the bag Li Kai was carrying, smiling, “My mom bought me a tent and a sleeping bag, as well as a desk.” This was also the first time she had received a reward from her parents. To be honest, she was just as happy and excited as Huang Yan. If she hadn’t been so self-controlled, she might have jumped for joy like Huang Yan.
Tents, sleeping bags, and desks are common items in the homes of everyone present. After hearing Nie Qiu talk about her reward, they stopped discussing the topic. Nie Qiu took the hiking backpack that Li Kai had been carrying for her and put it on her back. The group then headed towards the market.
Since Nie Qiu had said the night before that they would buy things at her family’s market, Nie Aifang had already prepared some good vegetables early in the morning. She packed them into plastic bags, calculated the prices, and set them aside. As soon as Nie Qiu and the others arrived at the market, Nie Aifang brought out the vegetables.
Zhang Haiyang was carrying two bags, one of his own and one for Huang Yan. Huang Yan took out a dragon fruit from her bag, placed it on the vegetable stand with a smile, and then carried the remaining vegetables in her hand. She smiled at Nie Aifang and said, “Auntie, this dragon fruit is for you to eat. My mom bought it.”
Nie Aifang had indeed only seen dragon fruit before and never eaten it. She had eaten common fruits like oranges, apples, bananas, and pears, but she had never eaten dragon fruit. Nie Aifang was frugal, and this was usually reflected in her habits; she would rather eat less well than indulge in luxury. Dragon fruit might not be expensive for many people, but for Nie Aifang, it was considered expensive. When she first came to the city and ate red sugarcane for the first time, she was amazed that sugarcane could be red. The sugarcane in her hometown was white.
She picked up the dragon fruit Huang Yan had placed on the vegetable stand, knowing that even this one would cost several yuan, perhaps over ten yuan. But since it was Huang Yan’s gesture, she wouldn’t refuse it, only thinking of asking Nie Qiu to invite Huang Yan over for a meal sometime. “Thank you, Huang Yan.”
Huang Yan smiled, “You’re welcome, you’re Nie Qiu’s mom, so you’re my aunt.”
“You child, you can’t just give things to everyone you meet. If you give away what you have, you won’t have anything to eat.” Nie Aifang chided her playfully, then smiled at Nie Qiu and said, “Qiu Qiu, I’ve packed the slip you gave me yesterday. These are the vegetables you wanted.” Seeing everyone carrying large bags, Nie Aifang knew they were all going, and she finally felt at ease.
Li Kai took money out of his purse and asked with a smile, “Auntie, how much are all these vegetables?”
Nie Aifang smiled and said, “It’s fifty-nine yuan in total. I heard from Qiu Qiu that everyone is bringing something. You’re bringing vegetables with Qiu Qiu, right? Just give me twenty-nine yuan, and we’ll cover the rest.” Although she still didn’t have a very good impression of Li Kai, this was a group activity, and Li Kai was Qiu Qiu’s classmate, so she said this. While she was frugal, she would never take advantage of others.
Hearing Nie Aifang’s words, Li Kai took out fifty yuan from his bag and handed it to Nie Aifang. “Auntie, here you go.”
Nie Aifang took it and quickly reached into the iron box to get twenty-one yuan to give to Li Kai. Unexpectedly, Li Kai had already called Zhang Haiyang and the others to carry the vegetables and leave. They had already reached the doorway of the market. Nie Aifang couldn’t open the vegetable stand and chase after them. Business was about to start, so she could only hand the money to Nie Qiu and say, “Qiu Qiu, when you have time later, return this twenty-one yuan to Li Kai. We are all students. We can owe anything, but we cannot owe favors. Since you are sharing the cost of the vegetables with them, you must share them equally and not take advantage of anyone.” There’s a saying that one is beholden to those who give them things, and she didn’t want her daughter to be at a disadvantage because of this small amount of money.
Nie Qiu picked up a bag of potatoes and nodded, “I understand, Mom. We’ll be going now.” With that, she walked towards Li Kai and the others who had already reached the doorway.
After Nie Qiu and the others bought everything they wanted, it was getting close to the meeting time. The market was still some distance from the school. As they were the initiators of this activity, they naturally had to maintain some order and give instructions. So, the few of them hailed a few tricycles on the road and rushed to the school gate.
When they arrived at the school gate, most people had already arrived, all carrying large bags. Some people had threaded folding stools through ropes, looking like a tour group on an excursion. Li Kai loudly explained the precautions, while Zhang Haiyang went to call for buses. Soon, three buses arrived; two of them were chartered for them.
After forty-nine people boarded two buses, the vehicles started moving.
Inside the bus, the classmates were exceptionally excited and chattering. Most of them were talking about their parents’ reactions after they told them their grades yesterday, and their parents’ reactions were enough to make them proud.
Shuanglonggou Reservoir is a large reservoir located outside the suburbs, or rather, at the junction of the town and the countryside. No matter how prosperous a city is, it still has rural areas.
People in the city, accustomed to the hustle and bustle and tall buildings, were not drawn to the scenery outside the window. So, they sat in the bus, chatting happily, but as they felt the scenery outside gradually change, the bus began to quiet down.
The former tall buildings turned into small two-story or three-story residential houses. Around the houses, there were continuous mountains, big and small. On the mountains were neatly arranged plots of land, and below the mountains were neat fields. It was winter, and there was nothing in the fields except for unknown weeds growing tall. In the lotus fields, yellowed lotus leaves drooped their heads, and fish could be vaguely seen swimming in the water.
