Starting a new chapter in life

Chapter 201 Returning Home

Jingyan patted his hand: "Don't be angry anymore. We won't be coming back in the future. It's best if he's doing well, at least he won't be a burden to you two brothers in the future. If he's not doing well... without your contact information, it won't be so easy for him to find you."

Rong Qiang was amused by her words: "Yes, I'll listen to my aunt. By the way, aunt, I wonder when my admission notice will arrive. I want to go back now."

"We can't rush this. We're not just waiting for the admission notice here; our main goal is to transfer your household registration to the university. So, we need to wait until we receive the admission notice before going to the police station to get the transfer certificate."

"Once you start school, submit these documents to the student records office so your household registration can be transferred to Shanghai. Since you're back, let's get it done all at once to avoid having to come back again later and having to go through all that trouble." Jingyan explained the rest of the process to him.

Knowing that he still had things to do, Rongqiang could only suppress his desire to leave. During the days of waiting, the aunt and nephew stayed in the hotel room, both of them engrossed in the world of novels.

The undergraduate admission notice from her first choice arrived quickly. In late July, Jingyan was called down by the hotel owner. The contact number Rongqiang had given the school was the hotel's phone number. The admission notice had arrived, and the student was asked to go to the school to pick it up.

Jingyan followed Rongqiang happily to the Academic Affairs Office. Rongqiang, holding the Tongji University admission notice, was so excited that he was about to cry, but he still held back his tears. Yes, for other students, the admission notice is very important, but it is not enough to make them so emotional.

Ke Rongqiang failed his college entrance exam once when his parents' marriage broke down. You can imagine the pressure he was under that year. Now, he has finally been admitted to a good school and will have more choices in his future life. How could he not be excited?

Jingyan carried a bag of candy and handed it out to the teachers in the Academic Affairs Office one by one: "Rongqiang will be going to Shanghai with me soon, so the graduation banquet won't be held here. Here's some candy as a token of our appreciation. Please don't mind, teachers."

The teachers happily accepted the candy, offering their congratulations repeatedly. Before leaving, Jingyan gave the remaining candy and the bag to the teacher who had been kind to Rongqiang, saying, "Please help me distribute the rest. I'm taking the children home now."

After receiving the admission notice, Jingyan took Rongqiang and his household registration book and ID card to the police station that afternoon to apply for a migration certificate. Since it was not yet time for the start of the semester, there were not many people in the household registration department, and the two of them completed the process quickly.

Jingyan returned to the hotel and called home right on time. Sure enough, He Zhijun answered the phone. Knowing that his wife was coming back, he knew he had to take the ticket purchase seriously. The next morning, he went to his workplace early to ask the logistics department for help in buying tickets.

With the network of connections he had built up over the years, plus the fact that He Zhijun's position had been promoted several levels in recent years, buying a few tickets for his family members was a small matter, both in terms of personal relationships and due benefits.

The two sleeper tickets were picked up at the Harbin Railway Station master's office as usual, and the process was quick. After receiving the call confirming the tickets, Jingyan took Rongqiang on the train to Harbin that afternoon. They couldn't get sleeper tickets for this leg of the journey, only hard seats.

However, since it wasn't the start of the school season, there weren't many people on the train, and the journey of more than ten hours wasn't too bad. Jingyan even took a nap in the empty seat of the three-seater in the middle of the night, and she was still in good spirits.

Upon arriving in Harbin, Rong Qiang led her smoothly to the stationmaster's office. She gave He Zhijun's name, signed the form, and received her ticket. Looking at the train number on the ticket, wow, it was departing this afternoon! Thank goodness she hadn't been at home, or she would have missed it. No wonder He Zhijun told her to go to Harbin to get the ticket as soon as possible.

"He didn't even mention that the tickets were for today. If we hadn't left yesterday and had delayed by a day, these tickets would have been a waste." Although Jingyan was happy that we hadn't missed our chance to get home, she still couldn't help but complain.

Rong Qiang smiled and comforted him, "Uncle must miss you too. You've been here with me for two months, it's normal for your family to miss you. They must have been looking forward to our return for a long time. Don't you also miss An'an and Zhizhi a lot? Of course, you miss your uncle the most, right?"

Jingyan glared at him: "You're such a chatterbox. Come to think of it, it seems like half a month apart is considered a long time since I married your uncle. Two months apart is really the first time."

Time was a bit tight, so the two of them quickly ate lunch at a small shop outside the train station. They each had a serving of pork and cabbage dumplings. After finishing the dumplings, Jingyan saw that there were still a lot of tea eggs in the pot on the stove at the entrance of the shop, so she bought ten and put them in a bag to take with her. There wasn't much else to prepare, so she took her luggage, her train tickets, and went straight to the hall to sit and wait.

There were still more than two hours until departure time. The station was empty except for a small shop. Rongqiang had a bunch of books and test papers, which he had mailed home before leaving. Jingyan had brought a set of martial arts novels with her, "The Sword of the Third Young Master." Since she had nothing to do, Jingyan handed the first volume to Rongqiang to read, while she flipped through the second volume herself.

Rong Qiang took the book, his face full of shock: "Auntie, you took the book from the bookstore? Didn't you return it?"

Jingyan glared at him: "I just finished reading one of these books, and I haven't had time to read the rest yet. So I went to the bookstore and bought this set of used books. It was half the price of the new books. Anyway, the bookstore sells more than one copy of the same set of books, so the owner only sold me one set. Don't worry about reading it. Your aunt wouldn't steal books. Besides, you have to pay a deposit to rent books, so the owner won't lose money."

Rong Qiang smiled sheepishly, quieted down, and started reading. Time flies when you're reading. When she heard the announcement that the train she was supposed to take needed to have its tickets checked, Jing Yan almost didn't react. But Rong Qiang was quick to react and snatched the book from her hands: "Auntie, our train is about to have its tickets checked. We should go."

Jingyan glanced at her watch: "There's still time. Take your time packing and don't forget anything."

The ticket gate opened, and Jingyan and Rongqiang had their tickets checked and followed the flow of people to the platform. It was great that it was the starting station; the train was already waiting by the platform. They found the sleeper car, showed their tickets to the conductor, and boarded the train. They found their room, and the two berths, one up and one down, were on the same side. Jingyan was reading a book and was engrossed in it, so she climbed up to the upper berth and continued reading.

Rong Qiang shook his head helplessly, took out the water cup and tea eggs from his bag, put his luggage under the bed, and said to Jing Yan after he had tidied everything up, "Auntie, can I look at that book I was reading earlier again? I haven't finished reading it yet."

Jingyan handed him the book, and the two began studying. A little while later, the passengers from the bunk opposite them came in. The two didn't know each other, and after they tidied themselves up, the room became quiet.

After the train started moving, Jingyan's reading speed slowed down considerably. Although the swaying and shaking wasn't too bad, she still felt her eyes were getting blurry. Rongqiang, on the other hand, wasn't affected at all and was engrossed in reading despite wearing his glasses.

It was almost evening, and Jingyan rubbed her stomach; she was a little hungry. But Rongqiang was still engrossed in his book and didn't seem to notice his aunt's needs. Seeing that he didn't react, Jingyan could only sigh and climb down from the top bunk. As she was putting on her shoes, Rongqiang finally pulled his head out of his book for a moment: "Auntie, are you going to the toilet?"

"I'm not going to the toilet, I'm going to find something to eat. I'm hungry, are you hungry?"

“A little bit, Auntie, don’t go to the dining car for meals. The boxed lunches are not only not good, but also expensive. The instant noodles we ate on the train last time were delicious. Why don’t we buy some instant noodles to eat?” Rongqiang finally pulled his thoughts out of his mind when food was mentioned.

"Okay, I'll go find it. You can stay here and read. How many boxes do you want to eat?" Jingyan asked casually after putting on her shoes.

"I can eat two boxes."

Jing Yan nodded, turned around and left the room towards the dining car. There were no vending carts near the dining car, so Jing Yan could only go to the hard-seat carriage. Fortunately, the hard-seat carriage was full but not crowded, so the vending carts were circulating more frequently.

After passing two carriages, they encountered a vendor's cart coming from the opposite direction. Jingyan stopped it and said, "Comrade, I'd like to buy three boxes of instant noodles. Um, could you please help me make them?"

The flight attendant looked at her and said, "You can't carry three boxes of instant noodles with hot water by yourself. Which carriage are you in? Take them back first, and I'll get you the water when I get there."

"I'm in the sleeper car."

"...Oh, it's lunchtime now. I'll go through the sleeper cars in this order, and it should take about fifteen minutes. What do you think?" The flight attendant couldn't bear to let her carry three boxes of instant noodles with hot water by herself, so she could only promise to make the trip.

Jing Yan had just received the instant noodles when she glanced up and saw the bottled cola and sausages on the upper shelf of the vending cart, and her eyes lit up: "How much is a bottle of cola? How much is a sausage?"

"A bottle of Coke costs two yuan. We need to recycle these bottles, but since you're on the train, you can just leave them on your seat after you finish drinking. Our staff will collect them every day, so there's no need for a deposit. A sausage costs one yuan and fifty cents. Do you need one?" The flight attendant's attitude was quite friendly.

"Two bottles of Coke and two sausages, please." Jingyan paid the money and carried the bag containing instant noodles, Coke, and sausages back to her seat. Rongqiang looked up and saw that it was her. He changed from lying on his side to sitting upright and left the bedside seat by the car window for Jingyan.

Jingyan placed her things on the small table by the window and began unpacking the instant noodles, putting out all the seasonings. After she finished, she turned to look at the scenery outside the window, waiting for the attendant to push the sales cart over.

When she heard that familiar call, Jingyan turned her attention back to the vendor's cart and saw it had arrived at the door. She called out, "Comrade, please help me heat up some water."

The flight attendant turned around and saw it was her, so she stopped the train, came over with a thermos to add water, made instant noodles, and also refilled her water bottle. "Would you like to open the Coke?"

Jing Yan nodded with a smile.

The flight attendant used a bottle opener to open the cap and put it back on the small table: "Well, I'll come back again tomorrow morning. If you want to buy something, just wait here. You don't need to go out and look for me. It's tiring for you to come back and forth."

Jingyan couldn't help but laugh: "That's troublesome. We definitely need to eat breakfast tomorrow morning."

After the flight attendant left, Jingyan took the tea eggs she had bought earlier, peeled two, and threw in two boxes of instant noodles to soak. When it was almost time, the aunt and nephew started eating. The aroma was really strong.

The two people opposite each other had taken out their own rice balls, but after taking a couple of bites, they felt that the ones with soup and water would taste better. They asked Jingyan about the price, and when the flight attendant walked back, they each bought a box to eat with the rice balls.

Jingyan and Rongqiang had finished eating and were each enjoying a sausage, occasionally taking a sip of cola. The bubbles rushed down their throats, and they let out a burp. The aroma of the sausage still lingered on their lips and teeth. The sausage tasted really good at this moment, far superior to the starchy sausage that came later.

After eating and drinking her fill, Jingyan didn't feel like reading. The train was swaying, and reading made her eyes dizzy, so she simply climbed back into the shop and closed her eyes to rest. The two people opposite her actually wanted to chat with them, but one was getting sleepy and the other was a man of few words, both of them were mood killers, so this chance encounter... was not meant to be.

These past two days, every mealtime, the flight attendants would push their sales cart around here. Jingyan and her husband really made the trip worthwhile; as soon as they arrived, they would serve them instant noodles. Jingyan was also quite addicted to the ham sausages, having one with every meal. Rongqiang wasn't picky about food; he would eat whatever was given to him and was easy to feed.

Finally arriving at the station, Jingyan carried a backpack while Rongqiang carried the rest of the items. After getting off the bus, Jingyan quickly stretched her back and loosened her muscles. It felt so good to be on solid ground.

As expected, today happened to be the last day of July, which was also a weekend. He Zhijun came to pick her up from the station. He saw Jingyan from afar, not because Jingyan was exceptionally beautiful, but because...

It's true that her height is not shorter than most men in Haishi, and she is even taller among women. Coupled with Rong Qiang's tall and slender 1.83 meters, it's impossible for her not to stand out in a crowd.

He walked over and took the two canvas bags from Rong Qiang's hands, carrying them with his left hand. He then turned around and naturally took Jing Yan's hand with his right hand, saying as he walked out of the station, "You've suffered a lot these past few days, haven't you? Look how thin you both are."

Jingyan touched her stomach in confusion: "Why do I feel like I've gained a lot of weight on my stomach? Rongqiang, on the other hand, has definitely lost weight. He studies very hard, while I just eat and sleep, and I've gained several pounds."

He Zhijun... He let go of Jing Yan's hand, put his right hand to his mouth, and cleared his throat: "Ahem, anyway, I just think you've lost weight. When we get home, ask Sister Wang to make some good food to help you get better."

Jingyan then realized that the man was expressing his longing for her. Unfortunately, she hadn't realized it at the time and thought he genuinely thought she had lost weight. However, it's never too late to correct a mistake. Jingyan quickly hugged his arm and whispered coquettishly, "I'm still feeling dizzy after sitting on the train for several days. You must be exhausted."

Rong Qiang silently took two steps back, widening the distance between himself and the two of them. "Ew~, Auntie's coquettishness is too deliberate, so fake."