On the third day of the road trip, Zhang Fan drove all along the X River. There were five cities in succession as if they were a series of pearls on a necklace. These five cities were all really important cities in S Province, and had changed owners.h.i.+p several times over the centuries. In the end, Chinese Han culture reigned here, and this place became one of China"s most famous vacation spots.For lunch, they stopped at a service area along the highway to eat something. The next stop would be Lan City, Zhang Fan"s hometown. He became more and more excited, while Shao Hua became more and more worried!
Perhaps this would always be quite common for anyone meeting their romantic partner"s parents for the first time. Would the other person"s parents be easy to get along with? Would you be accepted by their parents?
Zhang Fan held onto Shao Hua"s hand as they slowly walked together around the service area.
The weather wasn"t very cooperative about setting the mood. On the first time that Zhang Fan took Shao Hua to his hometown, they met with a sandstorm that covered the entire sky in sand. Although Chasu City was farther northwest, there were far more trees there as water was more plentiful, with many birds and flowers. Sandstorms were never seen there.
"No wonder you"re a bit dark-skinned. It"s only normal to be dark-skinned from being blown by this type of wind all day every day!" Shao Hua spoke in quite a sympathetic tone as she glanced at all the sand in the sky.
"It"s not like this happens every day. Maybe this is a cold air front from Siberia! It even brought nutrition from the desert, which is why the land here is especially fertile~!" Zhang Fan was no longer able to make anything else up. He felt that this sky filled with sand was a bit too much for him to handle on his first time bringing his girlfriend home!
"Haha! Continue! You"re not even embarra.s.sed?" Shao Hua had fun squeezing Zhang Fan"s cheeks. She then said, "Sigh! I really don"t know how you managed to grow so tall. If you were slightly shorter, I"d be taller than you!"
"Ridiculous! Let"s compare!" Zhang Fan was about to embrace Shao Hua who was right across from him, but Shao Hua managed to escape.
Zhang Fan drove south through Wushaoling and its numerous mountain tunnels until he finally reached the outskirts of Lan City.
"We"re almost there!" Zhang Fan muttered to himself. Two years ago, he had been uneasy as he left here for the border province, but now, he was returning with a girlfriend. He kept glancing at all the familiar scenery around him, which he had dreamed of countless times already over the past two years.
"The Yindaruqin Great Hydraulic Engineering Project," Zhang Fan introduced the cement ca.n.a.l in midair to Shao Hua. "This is the largest ca.n.a.l in all of Asia. The first time that I ever saw a foreigner was because he came here to help fix this ca.n.a.l. He was really rich as he gave me one U.S. dollar after asking for some directions!"
"Oh, you pitiful baby!"
"Hey, isn"t it important that he gave me U.S. currency!?"
"Haha, there are plenty of foreigners in the border province. There used to be so many in the import/export business. But, the foreigners then slowly decreased in number. A lot of Chinese people who lacked morals would trade only the lowest-quality goods to the foreigners to scam them. The end result was that the foreigners refused to do business with Chinese people anymore."
100 kilometers later. "We"re here at the Yellow River! I grew up right along the Yellow River! The water here is much cleaner now!" Zhang Fan"s eyes were getting rather wet. At this moment, the radio started playing a famous song by Fei Xiang, "Clouds of My Hometown".
"Oh, you"re home now, so you should be happier! Your family will surely want to see you being happy," Shao Hua told Zhang Fan.
"Yeah, I know. I just couldn"t help myself. Shao Hua, thank you for coming with me. For real! I truly want to make my parents happy and not worry about me."
"Yeah! I understand! Didn"t I come with you without hesitation regardless of what might happen? I just wonder if your parents and younger sister will like me or not."
"Haha, you"re the best person in the world! n.o.body else is better than you! They"ll definitely love you!"
Zhang Fan crossed the Yellow River. There were still two more days left before his younger sister would take the annual college entrance examination. She was currently at home studying, making some final cramming sessions. Zhang Fan"s parents knew that he was bringing his girlfriend along, so they had long since cleaned up the entire house, and even thrown out some h.o.a.rded items that they hadn"t been willing to throw away before.
Back when Zhang Fan"s younger sister was born, Zhang Fan"s parents were the most successful in life. But after that success, there had been nothing but failure, with each year being worse than the previous.
Zhang Fan"s mother wasn"t cla.s.sified as an official employee, but rather the family member of an employee. She had also paid a large fine to the government for giving birth to Zhang Fan"s younger sister. But at the time, the factory that Zhang Fan"s parents worked at was still rather profitable, and his younger sister received much better treatment that he had at birth. Zhang Fan had been named by his paternal grandfather, but his parents spent two yuan on hiring a seer who worked near the Iron Bridge on the Yellow River to come up with his younger sister"s name, Zhang Jingshu!
Later that night, as the sunset was reflected on the waters of the Yellow River and scattered over mountains and rivers, Zhang Fan reached his home. He finally reached his home by driving on a sand-encrusted road. His father was at the entrance of the neighborhood, constantly pacing around, continuously looking at the street in the distance.
Zhang Fan stuck his head outside the car window while looking at his father"s slightly hunchbacked figure, and shouted, "Dad!"
"Ah! Little Rock!" Zhang Fan had been born here. Back when he was born, the midwife had announced right after his birth that "It"s a dark-skinned little boy who"s as heavy as a little rock!" Ever since then, his family had addressed him as Little Rock!
Zhang Fan parked his car, and instantly jumped off to grab his father"s hand. "Dad! I"ve returned. I also brought Shao Hua back with me."
Shao Hua was incredibly nervous as she shyly got off from the pa.s.senger side and greeted Zhang Fan"s father with a "h.e.l.lo, Sir!".
"Okay, okay, okay! You must be exhausted, dear girl. We"ve been waiting for you to arrive since noon. My wife has already finished cooking noodles for you guys. Hurry and come in. Here, let me help you with that!" Zhang Fan"s father took the bag that Shao Hua was holding.
Zhang Fan started taking many things out from his car"s trunk. There were big bags as well as small bags. Some had been gifts from friends, and Zhang Fan and Shao Hua had also purchased many things in Raptor City. Zhang Fan"s family lived on the first floor of an apartment. They had transformed the window facing the neighborhood into a small door, opening up their own small supermarket in their home.
Inside the home, Zhang Fan"s mother was busy cooking many, many delicious things in the kitchen.
Zhang Jingshu was in the small bedroom. Although she was having her college entrance examination soon, she couldn"t concentrate on studying at all. Her older brother was returning! He was supposed to be returning today, but it was already evening, so why wasn"t he here yet!? She had constantly been listening for his arrival.
Then, there was the sound of the front door opening. "Brother is here!" Zhang Jingshu put down the pen in her hand and ran out of her room.
"Bro!" Zhang Fan hadn"t even put down his things when his younger sister pounced on him.
"Little Rock!" Zhang Fan"s mother exited the kitchen. She immediately started tearing up, and used her ap.r.o.n to wipe her eyes.
"This is Little Rock"s girlfriend. Hurry and prepare some water for her to wash up after such a long journey. Hurry and get off your brother, how old do you think you are already!" Zhang Fan"s father hurriedly pulled Zhang Jingshu off of Zhang Fan.
"Dear girl! You must be exhausted. You seem so elegant. Hurry and come wash up, you must have suffered much wind and sand on the way. How is your family doing?" Zhang Fan"s mother held Shao Hua"s hand and started making conversation.
"Sister-in-law! You"re so beautiful!" Zhang Jingshu acted quite familiar with Shao Hua, greeting the latter while holding onto Shao Hua"s other hand.
"h.e.l.lo, Ma"am. Jingshu, you"re also quite beautiful." Shao Hua"s nervousness was completely erased by this. She felt that Zhang Fan"s family was truly nice, with no sense of being distant or picky with her. They were warm and kind. Also, her potential future sister-in-law seemed to be easy to get along with.
"Mom! I"m back." Zhang Jingshu took Shao Hua to the restroom to wash up from the journey, while Zhang Fan greeted his mom.
"It"s good that you"re back. My son has really grown. Are you used to things out there in the border province? You must have had a hard time!" Zhang Fan"s mother wiped away her remaining tears and came closer to have a good look at her own son.
"Stop crying! What difficulties could he possibly have! Don"t you see that he"s gotten significantly fatter? This brat"s not bad, he hasn"t done bad at all—he has a car to drive back and a girlfriend to show us. What difficulties would he have? He"s more skilled than I am." Although Zhang Fan"s father was happy, his voice was also slightly choked up.
"You want to lecture me? Aren"t you the same? Hurry, don"t let Shao Hua see how you"re about to cry. Little Rock, go wash up as well. It"s almost time to eat dinner."
"Sister-in-law, this is a brand-new towel and new slippers that we prepared for you. Are you tired? I was really happy when my brother phoned us and said that he was bringing you along. You"re even prettier than I imagined!" Zhang Jingshu followed Shao Hua around like a little bee.
Zhang Jingshu had good emotional intelligence, and knew that she shouldn"t make Shao Hua feel uncomfortable on her first visit to Zhang Fan"s home.ED/N: Yes, that"s what the author said. He used both "aqueduct" and "ca.n.a.l" (google them to see the difference if you don"t know). So, I a.s.sume that it"s a ca.n.a.l whose part goes along an aqueduct-like bridge, crossing over some river or whatever hole in the ground below. Perhaps it"s like Lancaster Ca.n.a.l (if you google it, you"ll see a bridge with water over a river on some pictures)TL/N: Due to China"s one-child policy at the time.