Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 717 - 716: What is this beating for?

Chapter 717: Chapter 716: What is this beating for?

Lin Nianhe seriously corrected their perspective—she was definitely not the first to measure gold by the ton.

"Alright, alright, you are the first one I’ve met, okay?"

"Exactly, we need to be precise."

Lin Nianhe, while cracking sunflower seeds, asked: "So do you guys really want to buy a house? If so, I can ask my dad if there’s a suitable one."

Wen Lan, finishing her last bite of food, said: "Compared to a house, I really need a bicycle right now."

"Good point, I need one too."

"I also need a heated brick bed table."

"I want a bookshelf, I really need one."

"Don’t you feel that we just don’t have enough cabinets?"

"I want..."

"Ah, if only Second Uncle Li were here, he could make anything..."

Somehow, the house buying discussion evolved into a discussion of buying everything and missing Second Uncle Li.

Nine o’clock at night.

The phone at Ten Miles Team suddenly rang.

Li Dahe happened to be doing accounts with Accountant Zhao and casually answered the phone: "Hello, Ten Miles Team."

"Uncle Team Leader!"

An abrupt shout made Li Dahe’s hair nearly stand on end.

"What’s wrong? Who stepped on your tail?"

"No, that’s not it, we just want to ask you to convey our sincerest missing feelings to Second Uncle Li."

Li Dahe: "..."

Isn’t university supposed to be a good place for cultivating talents?

Why have these three little bastards gone mad so soon?

...

After being scolded by Uncle Team Leader and feeling better, Lin Nianhe made a call to Mr. Lin to make sure there were bicycle tickets at home, and then the trio each returned to their rooms.

First day meeting the roommates, everyone was very polite.

They turned off the lights at 9:30 and went to bed.

At ten o’clock, Zhao Haimei quietly got out of bed, groped around to light the kerosene lamp, and placed it on the table by the door.

"Aren’t you sleeping?"

Zhou Li asked in a low voice from the opposite bed.

Startled, Zhao Haimei shook her head: "Can’t sleep."

Zhou Li also got out of bed, took some paper, and chuckled: "Let me borrow the light."

"Come."

Zhao Haimei quietly moved over to make space.

Before Zhou Li even finished the first line of her letter, Zheng Xiaoyan and Feng Yajing also got out of bed.

Before they settled down, Chen Wenjie also got up.

Lin Nianhe: "..."

Indeed, she wasn’t the only one unable to sleep.

She didn’t sleep last night and had been busy all day; she was actually very tired, but the more so, the less she could sleep.

She simply grabbed a book and sneaked down, squeezing into the last available seat.

The girls glanced at each other and all burst into laughter.

The flickering firelight reflected on their young faces. The scratching of pen tips and the occasional turning of pages intertwined, stretching the time.

Lin Nianhe: "I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"Why don’t we turn on the lights?"

"That..."

Zhou Li turned back to pull the light switch, yanked it twice, but there was no response.

"There’s your answer. The power’s off."

"Ha ha ha..."

"I can handle this."

Lin Nianhe said this while picking up a flashlight from beside her pillow and skillfully hanging it above the table with a rope.

The flashlight was much brighter than an oil lamp, especially since this one had its bulb changed by Lin Nianhe.

"Ah?"

"This is good!"

The girls were pleasantly surprised and asked her, "How are you so skilled at this?"

Lin Nianhe sat back down at the table and replied casually, "I did this before when I went to the countryside; back then, I hung it directly on the beam."

Mention of going to the countryside led to more conversation.

Feng Yajing was writing a letter home and said, "I really envy the Educated youth in the Northeast; they get to rest for so long in the winter... We have endless work to do all year round."

She was from Zhejiang Province, and had been sent to a local rural area. There were two planting seasons a year, and hardly any time for rest.

"But your winters are not cold," Lin Nianhe kindly consoled, "In our place, the snow could cover half a door."

"Who says winters in the south aren’t cold?" Feng Yajing’s eyes widened as she put down her pen and stretched her hands under the flashlight, "Look, the frostbite scars on my hands haven’t even faded yet!"

"I can’t stand looking at that; whenever I do, my own hands start itching too." Zheng Xiaoyan unconsciously scratched the back of her own hands, which bore similar scars.

"Ah, who doesn’t have them..."

The only one who went to the countryside in the Northeast, didn’t have any.

Lin Nianhe consciously kept her mouth shut, not joining in the talk about frostbite.

Room 208 had no recent graduates; everyone was an Educated youth or had been one.

The eldest, Chen Wenjie, was 23 years old this year from Shanghai, had previously been in the Mongolian Province battalion. After falling sick three years into her rural stint, she returned to the city to recover for two years. If it hadn’t been for the restoration of the college entrance exam, she would have been married off.

She still had to cough from time to time.

"I think you just left when I went to the Mongolian Province battalion," Zhao Haimei said, "I went there in March 1976."

"Haimei, where are you from?" Chen Wenjie asked before turning away to cough.

"From Qing City," Zhao Haimei responded with a smile, her eyes curling into crescents, "Back home, I always hated the smell of seaweed on the roof, but in the battalion, I started to miss it."

This comment sparked homesickness in the girls.

Zheng Xiaoyan no longer had the mind to scratch her hand, holding her chin with one hand, looking melancholic like lilac.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she unconsciously slipped into her dialect, "Dad took me to the train when I was home for just three days, and he cried so hard..."

The melancholic lilac abruptly turned into searing hot pepper, prompting a burst of crying.

Lin Nianhe couldn’t join in with this atmosphere and met Zhou Li’s equally puzzled gaze.

"What’s this about? You guys, is the glory of Beijing unable to brighten your hearts? Listen to me, sisters, let’s go to Tiananmen tomorrow. Our country is like our parents..."

"Stop crying now, or else we’ll summon the dormitory supervisor, thinking we’re up to some mischief here..."

Perhaps it was the communicative power of the Jin City dialect, but Zhou Li’s rapid chatter finally turned the tear-wipers into laughter.

Lin Nianhe gave her a thumbs up.

Impressive.

She always managed to only make people cry when she tried to console them.

Zhou Li flashed a brilliant smile at Lin Nianhe, her round face featuring two small dimples.

Seizing the moment, Lin Nianhe changed the subject: "Should we go to Tiananmen tomorrow? I can take you guys by bus?"

She was planning to go back to the headquarters to get her bike anyway; it was on the way.

"You’ll take us there?" The girls’ eyes lit up.

Looking at the swaying flashlight above and recalling Lin Nianhe’s words, they suddenly felt she wasn’t so distant.

Lin Nianhe nodded, "Yes, we’ll go by bus."

"Great!"

Now, the girls really stopped crying, excitedly discussing the plans for tomorrow.

Close to eleven o’clock, they finally ended their discussion and went to bed.

Lin Nianhe thought she was doomed to insomnia that night, but as soon as her head hit the pillow, she fell sound asleep.

The next day.

Lin Nianhe got out of bed yawning, still unstable on her feet when Wang Shumei and Wen Lan came to find her.

"You... what’s up?" Lin Nianhe was a bit confused. "Didn’t we agree to leave at eight? Why did you get up so early?"

She had thought about waking them up, but it turned out she was the last to rise.

"Our dormitory mates are going to Tiananmen to see the flag-raising!"

The two of them said in unison.

Lin Nianhe: "Get me a small red flag, I’ll be the tour guide."