Chapter 56

Su Youfu finally bought a cheap mobile phone at the urging of his daughter.

In his opinion, mobile phones were not that expensive - being able to make calls and send text messages only cost a few hundred yuan. Installing a landline phone had cost hundreds of yuan in the past as well, but the monthly fees made him feel distressed.

Su Xiaoqi also knew her dad's distress. After buying a phone and a China Mobile SIM card, she got the cheapest plan that only cost 19 yuan per month. It did not include mobile data, but allowed 60 minutes of free calls. The network in Gumula Village was not very good. China Unicom signals were completely unavailable and you had to find a tall mountain to get any signals.

Su Youfu felt it was good enough and happily saved his daughter's phone number.

But the first thing he hurriedly did was to call Boss Huang who bought winnowing baskets to ask her to record his phone number, so she could directly call him when needed in the future.

Su Youfu spoke very loudly, and had a bit of an accent. Passersby on both sides could not help but look over. Su Xiaoqi stood beside him and did not shy away in embarrassment. If it had been before the Gaokao, she might still feel uneasy and vain. But her experiences over this period, including the setback in the Gaokao, made her re-examine herself and suddenly become much more mentally mature.

Avoiding her father would not make others look highly upon her. On the contrary, people might think she had issues.

After making what he believed was the most important phone call for now, Su Youfu heaved a sigh of relief. He had some petty shrewdness common of small farmers, but was still an ordinary person at heart and did not consider whether his hurried call might make Boss Huang feel he was too anxious or something.

Today Su Youfu had bought some things and also planned to go to his cousin Su Simei’s place to take a look, since his daughter had been troubling her for some time. This time Su Youfu carried the sack himself, unwilling to let his daughter handle it.

Su Xiaoqi could not snatch it from him either. But when they got to auntie’s place, it was still Su Xiaoqi who cooked lunch.

Her dad had brought a home-made smoked duck - a duck they raised themselves, smoked with rice bran. It was very fragrant. Cut into pieces and briefly boiled with some garlic sprouts, it tasted great.

There was also a big cabbage grown in their home garden. Each cabbage was very big and could feed them for several meals.

The cauliflowers also grew rather sparsely, unlike the compact flower heads sold in the market. Each plant had several stalks with many branches, but they still tasted especially sweet when stir-fried.

These homegrown vegetables were quite rare. Most vegetables sold in the market would have been heavily sprayed with pesticides and chemicals. But the vegetables they grew and ate themselves would not contain those... Anyway, that was the current situation, because large-scale planting for sale would require too much manual effort without pesticides.

Finding the cabbage a bit too much, Su Xiaoqi took another head over to the Lin Min Family’s place. Last time Lin Min’s Mother had taken some vegetables from them, she had been very polite. Now she also seemed warmer towards auntie.

Su Youfu also knew how to cook at home, but was not comfortable doing so in other people’s homes. However, seeing his daughter’s adeptness in cooking, he felt gratified and sorrowful at the same time.

He did not quite blame his cousin. It was only right to help out with some chores while living at someone else’s place. He just suddenly felt his daughter had grown up, which made him feel wistful.

Busy with work in the morning, Su Simei only came down to rest at noon. Su Xiaoqi had already prepared all the dishes by then - smoked duck, braised tofu with cabbage, stir-fried cauliflower, plus some cold dishes auntie had bought - pig ear slices and pork lung slices that went very well with beer. She had also opened a bottle of beer.

Serving wine was considered standard hospitality for guests in Lvshan City.

Su Youfu’s alcohol tolerance was just so-so. One bottle of beer was his limit, and half a bottle would be enough.

Su Simei could drink quite a lot. Downing a kilogram of liquor, she could drink beer like water. But she had to go back to work and did not have too much.

Not expecting his daughter's cooking skills to be so good, Su Youfu could not help drinking a bit more beyond his limit. He finished over half a bottle of beer himself and his face turned red.

He could no longer catch the afternoon bus. Today’s bus would not be making a second trip either. Su Youfu planned to take a bus to Huanghe Town first, then walk home to the village from there.

In the earliest days before the roads were built, this was how people from Gumula Village traveled to town - relying solely on their feet. The mountain path was truly long, taking almost three hours on foot. And although there was a highway now, fewer people used that path so it was no longer well-maintained. Still, some elders would be willing to walk the whole way to save those few yuan in bus fare. Young people no longer did that these days, unless they had missed the bus. Su Xiaoqi had taken that road too.

Before submitting her college preferences, she had carelessly left the forms at home. That time she took a day off to walk back home alone through the big mountain. The vast empty space did not make her feel scared at all. She did not remember what she had been thinking about on the road either. Looking back now, Su Xiaoqi felt she must have quite ambitious aspirations deep down. That road was truly very long and walking it alone felt endless. Yet she had no idea what might suddenly jump out from the mountain and simply walked through it all by herself that time.

After lunch, seeing her dad was clearly a little tipsy, probably from being too happy today and drinking a bit more than his limit, Su Xiaoqi said nothing.

She had not drunk any alcohol, but still felt speechless looking at the empty beer bottle that had put her old dad flat. Letting dad rest in the room for a bit, she went to wash the dishes and tidy up, while auntie also returned to the ward.

Today Su Xiaoqi’s high efficiency memory buff had expired. She had accompanied her dad all morning and not done any studying. After finishing the chores, seeing dad asleep, she did not want to disturb him. Sitting at the table nearby, she put on her earphones and started her daily practice of copying texts.

She still had not finished Book 4 of the New Concept English series, having memorized only half the book so far.

Her efficiency going forward would definitely decrease compared to before. But having memorized the first three New Concept English textbooks made Su Xiaoqi feel like she had gained the overbearing aura of ruling the realm with half the Analects. Indeed, she had felt extremely relaxed and capable during her recent tutoring jobs.

Still she did not want to give up.

Dad’s snores were a little loud. Su Xiaoqi felt very assured taking a glance back at the middle-aged man lying comfortably on the bed. Even half-drunk, he was still concerned about dirtying the bed with his clothes and had taken off his outer jacket, revealing the worn shirt inside.

His legs tilted casually off the bedside. Su Xiaoqi covered him with a blanket as he slept soundly.

Having to get up before dawn when it was still dark outside to leave home carrying winnowing baskets to sell was truly exhausting work. Some days they had to rise even earlier to pick the vegetables at first light when they were freshest.

Then came lugging the heavy shoulder poles with loads of winnowing baskets and walking half across Lvshan City.

Su Youfu was not a strong man to begin with. Short and troubled by foot problems, such was still life for him. Yet at this moment he slept very contently, because he felt life had given him very well. He had new hopes - hopes he did not tell those around him about. He was very happy, truly very happy.

Even a short noon break seemed to have brought beautiful dreams, with his sleeping face still bearing a smile.

Taking another look, Su Xiaoqi put her earphones back on and continued copying English texts, her pen swiftly darting across the blank notebook. Words flowed from the tip of her steel pen onto the snowy pages in fluent rows and paragraphs before she flipped the page to proceed.