Chapter 9: The Thermos
After the New Year, little Bai Luochuan began to learn to speak.
He started with simple repetitive sounds, which gradually became smoother. He was a fast learner, and within a few days, he could blurt out many single words. He was very sensitive to the sound of adults calling his name and would try to babble along with whatever was said to him. Mi Yang, who was always with the little young master Bai, was also practicing in secret. His control was much stronger, so he could speak a little earlier than little Bai Luochuan, but he didn’t dare to show it. Mi Yang waited until after Bai Luochuan had started calling out, and then, after a while, he also began to try calling “Daddy” and “Mommy,” learning to talk.
By the time spring arrived, Mi Yang could already call his parents fluently.
Mi Yang couldn’t remember when children started to speak in short sentences, so he diligently followed Bai Luochuan’s lead.
When little Bai Luochuan started calling people, he would wait a few days before trying to say a couple of words himself. When little Bai Luochuan started talking, he would talk along with him. If the little young master Bai blurted out a single word, he would absolutely not say two.
As a result, years later, all the adults praised Bai Luochuan for teaching Mi Yang how to speak.
Mi Yang could have coughed up three liters of blood, but he had no choice but to swallow this silent grievance.
Cheng Qing stayed at home with the child, sometimes making a couple of small outfits. Mi Zehai, a man of iron will outside, would come home covered in mud from training, then hug his wife and son, grinning from ear to ear.
Mi Yang was used to this contrast and couldn’t even be bothered to roll his little white eyes anymore.
Recently, Mi Zehai had been busy with the military district’s major drill. He had even specifically sought out Bai Jingrong for this, and the two of them had gone to the operations room to work on the sand table, acting all mysterious.
Compared to studying and reviewing, Mi Zehai, a veteran who had been tempered in the military for years and had earned his position in the field army through actual military merit, clearly preferred to speak with force. Working on a sand table energized him a hundred times more than holding a book and studying.
Cheng Qing saw all of this. At first, she was a bit anxious and would push him to study at home. This made Deputy Company Commander Mi run out whenever he had free time, eagerly heading to the operations room to work on the sand table with a few soldiers. His addiction was like that of a retired old man playing chess by the lake. Cheng Qing had caught him a couple of times, and he had stood there, clutching a red and blue pencil, at a loss for words, too tense to speak for a long time.
Cheng Qing was very considerate of his pride in front of others. She would just say she had something to discuss with him and ask him to come home for dinner first.
Deputy Company Commander Mi would immediately get the hint, straighten his back, and say, “Ahem, you go ahead. I still have some work to do.”
Cheng Qing would agree, leave obediently, and then turn around, holding Mi Yang, and grit her teeth. “When you grow up, you must study hard. Don’t be like your dad, feigning compliance!”
Mi Yang was also a bit curious. How did his dad manage to get into military academy like this?
Soon, Mi Zehai returned. After entering the house, he mumbled a few explanations in the outer room. Mi Yang pricked up his ears to listen, but the voice was too low, and he couldn’t hear clearly what was said.
Cheng Qing’s voice wasn’t loud either. She said lightly, “Done with your work?”
Mi Zehai said in a panic, “Done, done!”
Cheng Qing remained cool. “Then go inside and read. Same old rule.”
Mi Yang was bored on the bed, practicing rolling over, when he saw his dad walk in with a washboard. First, he drew the curtains in the room tightly, then he knelt on it and began to study obediently, looking incredibly serious.
Mi Yang blew a bubble of laughter, giggling nonstop. So that’s how it is, he thought. Studying with such dedication, like “suspending one’s head from a beam and pricking one’s thigh with an awl”? No wonder he managed to pass.
Mi Zehai shot his son a sour look, feeling that the little brat was laughing at his old man. But he didn’t dare to get off the washboard under his knees. He knelt and recited his books for over half an hour. Finally, Cheng Qing came in to quiz him, as serious as a teacher.
Mi Zehai answered quite well, getting almost everything right.
“That’s more like it. You can go.” Cheng Qing closed the book, letting him get up and ending the punishment. Mi Zehai looked relieved. Kneeling for a while was no big deal; in fact, he felt that he had reported to his wife and the matter was over. Seeing his smiling face, which clearly showed he had a short memory for pain, Cheng Qing became a little unhappy again. “With your cleverness, you could have gotten into university if you had worked hard back then. You just didn’t study seriously.”
Mi Zehai said placatingly, “I’ll start working hard now. Don’t be angry.”
Cheng Qing looked up at him.
Mi Zehai pledged his loyalty again. “Really. It’s okay if we have it a bit tough. Yangyang and the others will have good times and good lives in the future!”
No, you have no idea how tough Yangyang’s future will be.
Mi Yang thought with a solemn little face.
All that money I saved for so many years, I finally paid off the mortgage on that apartment, and I didn’t even get to live in it for a single day!
The closer the time came for Mi Yang and his mother to leave, the more reluctant Mi Zehai became. He would often hug his son and then his wife. There wasn’t much he could do, so he did what he could.
One weekend, Mi Zehai took the 182 yuan salary he had just received and specially took Cheng Qing by bus to the city to go shopping.
It was also Mi Yang’s first time leaving the military camp. His eyes darted left and right, full of curiosity.
The closest city to the military camp was an old industrial city. The streets were rather old, and the buildings were relatively low. Even the department store in the city center was only a few stories high, standing there squat and solid. But compared to the surrounding tube-shaped apartment buildings, it was already grand enough. The few glittering gold characters in front of the store were very eye-catching.
Mi Zehai first took Cheng Qing to the women’s clothing section. They looked at several woolen dresses through the glass counter. The prices were all very expensive. Cheng Qing repeatedly said she didn’t want any and instead pulled him to the general merchandise section.
Cheng Qing still remembered the slender thermos from the Bai family’s home. She walked around the general merchandise section several times, and by a stroke of luck, she found an identical one. When she asked for the price, it was 43 yuan. The salesclerk told them, “This is a new product from Shanghai. We only have two of these. If you don’t buy it today, they’ll both be sold out.”
Cheng Qing gritted her teeth and said to her, “Please wrap it up for us. We’ll take this one.”
Mi Yang’s gaze fell on the red thermos, thinking, So this is how our family’s old antique came to be.
In his previous life, Bai Luochuan had mentioned it to him once or twice. It was likely that Mrs. Bai had told him a few times about the interesting stories of their childhood. He didn’t remember any of it and had thought the young master Bai was deliberately teasing him. He had acted uninterested, and after a few attempts, Bai Luochuan had become angry and embarrassed and refused to speak of it again.
It was no wonder that a person as guarded as Bai Luochuan would be particularly affectionate and caring towards him.
He had thought they were just from the same hometown, but Bai Luochuan had considered him a childhood friend who had grown up sharing the same pair of pants.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard Cheng Qing’s smiling voice. “This size is just right, and it keeps things warm well. It’ll be perfect for use on the train.”
