Back to 1988 68p1

Chapter 68 p1: Electronic Pet

Cheng Qing made the meal and brought it out for Mi Yang to eat first. Mi Yang glanced at the time and said, “Let’s wait. My dad will be back in a bit.”

Cheng Qing said, “No need to wait for him. He’s been very busy lately. He can’t delay going out even with a mask on, but he’s not going to crowded places, so it’s fine. You guys eat first.”

Only then did Mi Yang pick up his chopsticks. He hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in a long time, and he had been sick for a few days, only drinking congee. Now, eating the home-cooked food, he found it particularly fragrant and ate two bowls of rice before he stopped.

The little girl’s appetite also opened up, and she ate a full small bowl of rice. Sometimes, she would just look up at her brother and eat plain rice, forgetting to pick up the vegetables. It was Cheng Qing who put them in her bowl.

Mi Yang ate whatever she gave him, without even needing to be coaxed. He had even eaten a lot more of the green vegetables that he would usually only eat three chopsticks of after negotiating the quantity. He was very obedient.

After the meal, Mi Yang took the little girl to wash the dishes. After he washed one, he would hand it to the little girl to put away. As he washed, he talked to Cheng Qing, “Mom, did you get more of the 84 disinfectant and Banlangen granules for the pharmacy as I said before?”

Cheng Qing said, “I did. I’ve sold some these past few days. What, is it very serious in Beijing?”

Mi Yang nodded. “It’s quite serious. You should get more disinfectant and Banlangen granules, and also masks and white vinegar. By the way, also call Grandma and have her prepare some in advance.”

Cheng Qing nodded in agreement. “Alright. Your grandma has some. Didn’t I go home at the beginning of the year? I brought them a lot. They definitely haven’t used it all up.”

Mi Yang said, “Then call my aunts and let them know.”

Cheng Qing nodded in agreement, puzzled. “Such a big thing, how come it’s not on TV?”

Mi Yang said, “It will be in a while.” He remembered clearly the scene of a shortage of medicine. It had spread throughout the country like a panic. It was unknown where it started, but everyone was drinking Banlangen granules to prevent it. It was unknown if it was useful, but even if it was just for peace of mind, it was good. It was only March now. It would be at least until July before normal work and life would slowly resume.

Mi Yang chatted with Cheng Qing for a while. The little girl was watching them from the side, very eager to help.

Mi Zehai only came home after nine in the evening. When he came back and saw his wife and children in the living room, the expression on his face softened a lot. “Yangyang is back? I feel much more at ease with you at home. I’ve been running around the construction site for a while and haven’t had time to go to Beijing to see you. I was always worried…” He changed his shoes and looked up at the little girl in Mi Yang’s arms. “Xiaoxue is not asleep yet?”

Cheng Qing lowered her voice. “She’s asleep. She insisted on waiting for you to come home in the living room. Yangyang is holding her and doesn’t dare to move.”

Mi Zehai went over and took the little girl. The child’s face was flushed from sleep, and she was covered with a small blanket. He gave his daughter a kiss and took her and the blanket to her small bedroom. After settling his daughter, he came out and sat there, talking to Mi Yang in a low voice, asking about the situation in Beijing and Mi Yang’s health.

When Cheng Qing brought him his meal, she happened to hear Mi Zehai talking to Mi Yang.

“…We’ve been doing the statistics on this since the year before last. I’ve taken people to look at more than 130 unfinished buildings, and we’ve compared and selected them one by one. I originally thought this one was more stable and wouldn’t have too much risk, but who knew we would run into this situation this year. The city has issued a notice to prevent the flu, and the project might be slowed down a bit. We’ll see.” Mi Zehai took the bowl and chopsticks from Cheng Qing’s hand. He was also very hungry and ate half a small bowl in two mouthfuls.

Cheng Qing said, “Is it still that building? I remember it’s in the Xujiahui area?”

Mi Zehai ate and said, “Yes, the total area in Xujiahui alone is 80,000 square meters.”

Cheng Qing said, “It’s an old building from more than ten years ago. Didn’t someone take it on halfway and then run away? Sister Luo is too bold this time.”

Mi Zehai said, “CEO Luo has a very unique vision. I believe in her.”

Cheng Qing said, “Hey, I don’t know about these things. Anyway, I’ll be happy if it can be sold.”

Mi Yang: “…”

Not just sold, it was a business that had multiplied several times over. That was a prosperous commercial area in Shanghai. To have circled such a large piece of land, he couldn’t even imagine it. A rough calculation would be at least a billion yuan.

Cheng Qing had already started to talk to Mi Zehai about other topics. She was at home, watching the shop and the children. Her world was small, and she was talking about the lively and trivial matters around her, a smile on her face.

Mi Zehai was now dressed in a suit, but he would come home for dinner every night, and even if he had to socialize late, he would never be later than 12 at night. His perspective was different from Cheng Qing’s, but in his heart, he always put this small family first. When he looked at Cheng Qing, he was still like the young man in Shanhai Town who was in love. When he saw Cheng Qing smile, he would also smile. Whatever Cheng Qing said, he would listen with relish, and when he talked to her, he could always add a sentence or two. He remembered the neighbors in the neighborhood clearly.

The family sat in the small living room and talked for a while longer. Mi Zehai then urged Mi Yang to go and rest. He said to him, “I’ve already asked for leave for you from school. Don’t worry about anything. It’s the same if you read and review at home. Even if you don’t do well on the test when you go back to school in a while, it’s fine. Our Yangyang is smart. Dad will be happy no matter which school you go to. We’re not competing for rankings. It’s meaningless.”

Mi Yang knew that he was comforting him, afraid that he would be sad if he couldn’t keep up after being quarantined at home for a month, so he nodded in agreement.

After he went back to his room, Mi Yang lay in bed and thought for a while, then couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh.

This year, most students probably wouldn’t do very well on the test. The school holiday was the longest. One or two months was short. The longest was even three months, connecting directly to the summer vacation. But they were a graduating class, so it should be a little special.

As he was thinking, his phone flashed twice with a text message. He opened it and saw that it was from Bai Luochuan.

He hadn’t looked at his phone since dinner. When he opened it, there were already five or six unread messages. The first was a notification that his phone was out of credit. The second was a record of a payment. The next few messages were from the young master Bai. You could tell his tone just from the words.

“Why is your phone off?”

“I’ve topped it up for you. Answer the phone.”

“Why aren’t you answering my call?”

“Where are you?!”

…

Mi Yang called him back. The other side answered in a second. His tone was a little better than expected. “I was just about to send you a text. You called. What were you doing just now?”

Mi Yang said, “I was tidying up at home and then had dinner.”

Bai Luochuan was dissatisfied. “You ate until 9:30? Is it because your little sister was being a picky eater again? How old is she? She still needs you to feed her. Does she really think she’s a child?”

Mi Yang: “…She’s only six. She is a child.”

Bai Luochuan sneered, noncommittal.

Mi Yang tried to defend his little sister, but Bai Luochuan was too lazy to mention it. He said to him, “I called to ask you if you want to stay at my house for this month. Don’t we have a family doctor here? It’s more convenient for check-ups. Otherwise, you’ll have to go to the hospital for a check-up every two days. It was already an exception for my mom to get that health certificate for us to come back. Originally, according to the regulations, we were supposed to stay in Beijing…”

Mi Yang immediately understood and nodded. “Alright then. I’ll pack my things, tell my mom, and go over tomorrow morning.”

Bai Luochuan agreed and didn’t hang up. After a while, he asked him, “Are you tired? You don’t have a low fever anymore, do you?”

Mi Yang chuckled. “No, Auntie Luo took good care of me.” He thought for a moment and added, “You also took good care of me on the way.”

The other side snorted softly. “It’s nothing. I’m hanging up.”

The next morning, Mi Yang told Cheng Qing. Cheng Qing understood and helped Mi Yang pack another backpack. She said to him, “Alright, go on. I wouldn’t have been able to see you if it weren’t for your Auntie Luo. Luochuan’s house is not far. Mom will be at ease knowing you’re nearby.”

The little girl had been holding back two bags of tears since Mi Yang started packing, on the verge of crying. When she lay by the window and saw the familiar car from the Bai family downstairs, she wailed. Mi Yang felt sorry for her, but even a few milk candies couldn’t soothe her. The child’s nose was red from crying. In the end, it was Cheng Qing who picked her up. “No more crying. If your throat hurts, you’ll have to drink medicine and get a shot.”

The little girl hiccupped and managed to stop crying, but a string of tears still rolled down.

Cheng Qing held her and saw Mi Yang off. As Mi Yang was getting in the car, he still heard them talking. He didn’t hear clearly what the little girl said with a mask on her face, but he heard Cheng Qing’s sentence clearly.

Cheng Qing warned, “That’s not polite. Don’t say ‘bad guy.’ That’s also a brother, you know?”

The little girl was probably in a huff. She hugged Cheng Qing’s neck and turned her head away, refusing to look at the car.

Mi Yang chuckled and coughed lightly into his fist to cover it up.

When he arrived at the Bai’s house, he took his backpack and went straight to the second floor.

The Bai’s house was large, and a separate floor was reserved for them. Auntie Wu would deliver their meals to the door every day. Besides not being able to go out, there was no difference from before. On Sundays before, whenever Mi Yang came to find Bai Luochuan, they would mostly play games in the room, and then he would go to the study to do his own little handicrafts.

Luo Jiangjing was worried that they wouldn’t be used to it on the first day and specially stayed at home with them for a while. After confirming that there were no problems, she also relaxed and said, “You just have to bear with it for a little longer. If there’s anything you need, just tell the driver, and he’ll go and buy it for you. After a month… oh, you still have to go to school. Then we’ll wait until the summer vacation and send you abroad to play as compensation.”

Mi Yang repeatedly waved his hands in refusal. Bai Luochuan, on the other hand, was quite indifferent. He stood on the second floor and said, “We’ll see. There’s nothing much to do outside.”

Although they were in the same house, seeing that her son could not go in and out freely, Luo Jiangjing still felt a little sad. She looked up at the second floor and really wanted to say, “I’ll stay and be with you,” but she couldn’t stay now. She had barely managed to make a trip to Beijing before, and that was her limit. There was a large pile of things at the company waiting for her to solve, and she could only say with a sour tone, “Mom will come home more often to see you.”

Bai Luochuan stood on the second floor, his elbows propped on the stairs, and nodded at her. “Okay.”

The study and other things on the second floor were the same as usual, and the two bedrooms were also next to each other.

The two of them were not sleeping together now. Bai Luochuan had been very interested in bunk beds for the past two years and had installed one in the guest room. Sometimes, he would sleep on the bunk beds with Mi Yang. This time, since they were staying for a month, Auntie Wu had also tidied up the bunk beds for Mi Yang in advance. The pillows and quilts were all new and had been sun-dried until they were soft.

Mi Yang took his pajamas out of his backpack and also placed two books on the table on the side. Bai Luochuan had been looking at his backpack all this time. Mi Yang also noticed and asked him, “What’s wrong?”

Bai Luochuan looked up at him. “Don’t you feel that something is missing?”

Mi Yang looked at it, puzzled. “What’s missing?”

Bai Luochuan looked at him with an even stranger expression, but he kept his mouth shut and refused to tell him.

Mi Yang thought it was strange but didn’t take it to heart. Although he and Bai Luochuan had taken leave from school, they had not fallen behind in their schoolwork. Mr. Wei would call them at a set time to tutor them individually. The old gentleman had even learned to go online and had tried every means to explain the problems to them.

After Mi Yang finished his homework, he would send it to Mr. Wei with his Penguin number to have a look. Mr. Wei would then send a smiley face emoji to praise him. Mi Yang hadn’t seen the first-generation emojis in a long time and was a little nostalgic when he saw them.

The Penguin number he was using now was registered with Bai Luochuan. Tencent had just launched the “pretty number” service, and the young master Bai had chosen their two birthdays as their account numbers, which were very easy to remember. There were other classmates in the class who used UC to chat. Mi Yang was used to his Penguin number and didn’t register for any more. He also rarely went online. He preferred to quietly do his own little handicrafts most of the time. Occasionally, when he was free, he would write, draw, and read books, and also help Cheng Qing with the pharmacy. The rest of the time, he had to take care of Mi Xue.

In those years, the kindergarten homework for children was also quite a lot. Cheng Qing was too busy, and most of the handicraft homework was done by Mi Yang with his little sister. This was also one of the reasons why the brother and sister had a good relationship. The little girl especially admired her older brother and thought that Mi Yang was omnipotent and could do anything.

After finishing his lessons with Wei Xian during the day, Mi Yang would go to the guest room to sleep at night.

Just as he lay down, he felt that something was wrong.

He had forgotten to bring his pillow.

He had just come back from Beijing yesterday, and Cheng Qing had taken it to wash for him. It was probably not dry yet and was still hanging at home.

Mi Yang tossed and turned, then closed his eyes and recited a text for a while. Just as he was on the second time, he heard two knocks on the door. Then, Bai Luochuan pushed the door open, sat down next to him, and touched his pillow. “Can you sleep? I knew you had forgotten something. The bag you were carrying today was just big enough to fit a pillow.”

Mi Yang lifted the quilt a little and let him in. He shivered from the coldness of Bai Luochuan’s arm. “It’s fine. I can sleep without it now.”

Bai Luochuan chuckled. “You’re lying. You’ll have dark circles under your eyes again tomorrow.” He fumbled in the dark and touched Mi Yang’s face, his thumb gently rubbing his eyes as he murmured, “So delicate since you were little.”

Mi Yang said, “Am I?” He thought he was quite capable of enduring hardship.

Bai Luochuan held him, his chin resting on his shoulder. “You catch a cold when the seasons change in spring, you refuse to eat in the summer because it’s too hot, your throat always hurts in the fall, and once you start coughing, it repeats all winter… Am I wrong about any of that?”

Mi Yang said, “It’s not that exaggerated. Everyone gets sick.”

Bai Luochuan pinched his cheek and snorted. “You’re also a picky eater. You can’t even finish a bottle of milk.”

Mi Yang: “…”

Mi Yang really wanted to protest this point. It was related to his stomach capacity. He had already tried his best to drink it. The bottle of fresh milk at the Bai’s house every morning was equivalent to two or three bottles sold in the store. It was completely different, okay!

Bai Luochuan patted his shoulder, pulled the quilt up a little, and wrapped them both tightly. He yawned. “It’s fine if you forgot your little pillow. I’ll sleep with you. Just be good and close your eyes, and you’ll fall asleep in a bit.”

Mi Yang was so angry he was wide awake in the middle of the night!

Bai Luochuan saw him moving around and said again, “Should I recite the text for you?” He recited in a low voice, and after two times, he fell asleep himself. Mi Yang had already recited it a few times in his heart just now. Hearing it now, he also felt his eyelids grow heavy. It was unclear whether it was because of the text or because he had been with the person beside him for so long that he was as familiar as his little pillow. In the soft and warm new quilt, Mi Yang also slowly fell asleep.