Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 138 Wang Ting
Guangqumen Inner Street, downstairs from the tenement building.

Now that the weather is cold and there's a big temperature difference between day and night, Grandpa Song only goes out to exercise when the weather is warm.

Around 10 a.m., Grandpa Song took a stroll around the neighborhood and did some stretching in the open space downstairs. Despite his age, he is more flexible than young people because he exercises regularly.

Suddenly, a green Jiefang truck pulled up downstairs. Grandpa Song looked over curiously, as he had never seen any of his neighbors ride in such a vehicle.

He stopped exercising and walked over curiously. He saw a young man get out of the passenger seat. The man was wearing a black wool coat, a black sweater, dress pants, and black leather shoes.

Grandpa Song asked with a smile, "Young man, which unit do you work for? Are you here to see someone or to visit relatives?"

Li Zhe looked at the old man in front of him and thought he looked familiar: "Uncle Song, don't you recognize me?"

"You look familiar..." Grandpa Song looked Li Zhe up and down. The young man was quite tall and had a decent appearance. If he had seen him before, he should remember him...

Li Zhe reminded him, "Li Zhenguo is my uncle."

Grandpa Song smacked his lips and clicked his tongue in amazement. "Oh my, I remember now, it's the young man from Daying Village! Heh, I was wondering why he looked familiar. Who did you learn from? Why are you dressed like this? This outfit must be expensive. I almost didn't recognize you."

"It's alright, it cost me almost two months' salary." Li Zhe thought that this way the old man would be more accepting.

“You young people, you spend every penny you earn, you don’t know how to be frugal at all. You’re not as good at managing your money as we were when we were young.” Grandpa Song said with a knowing look, “Go on upstairs. I saw your uncle back then. I guess he’s resting at home today and didn’t go to the factory.”

"Beep beep..." Li Zhe's pager went off at just the right time. He took the pager off his belt and looked at it.

Grandpa Song was a knowledgeable man; he knew this was a good thing, so he immediately came over and asked, "Young man, how many months' salary did you spend on this pager?"

Li Zhe was somewhat amused and exasperated: "Uncle, this... it has to be calculated on an annual basis."

Grandpa Song: "..."

……

The apartment building, second floor.

The windows of the Chen family's house were covered in frost flowers, obscuring the view outside, but the small house was warm and cozy inside.

The old lady was still sitting on the bed knitting, but today she had changed to a dark red color, and it didn't look like a sweater, but more like a scarf.

The old lady would occasionally glance up at the desk opposite her. The chubby boy sat in the middle of the desk, next to a pretty girl with a long, fair neck, quiet demeanor, and an air of scholarly refinement.

The chubby boy held a ballpoint pen in his right hand, put the pen cap in his mouth, and faced an English workbook, looking like he was deep in thought.

The girl scribbled a few marks on the workbook with a pencil: "This question is wrong, third-person singular verbs need to add 's'..."

This Chinese-to-English translation question, "Will it rain tomorrow?", is a future question. Did you translate it correctly?
And what about the error correction questions? Did you look at them carefully? You could change all the correct answers to wrong ones…

The girl's voice was clear and pleasant, but to the chubby boy it sounded like Tang Sanzang chanting scriptures. He glanced at his cousin and muttered, "Second sister, our teacher said there's no problem with this translation; I just misread the error."

"Where did all this carelessness come from? In the end, it's because you haven't mastered the skills." The girl glared at him, slightly dissatisfied. "With your attitude towards studying, forget about getting into Peking University, you won't even be able to pass the tractor license test in the Great Northern Wilderness!"

"Pfft..." Grandma Chen laughed out loud. When she saw her grandson turn his head and glare at her, she quickly stopped laughing: "Xiao Hui, your second sister wore out three desk lamps from memorizing vocabulary words back then. You have to study hard too."

"Hmph..." The chubby boy snorted, his lips pouting high, looking quite unconvinced.

Suddenly, Grandpa Song's voice rang out from outside: "Old Chen's..." He stopped halfway through his sentence, and after a while, he continued, "We have a guest."

Old Mrs. Chen was a little puzzled and muttered, "This loudmouth Song usually speaks very fluently, why is he stammering today?"

The chubby boy jumped up from the stool: "It must be Second Brother! I'll go open the door!"

The chubby boy walked to the door and opened it. A young man was standing outside and said with a smile, "Second Brother, you're here. Come in quickly."

Li Zhe entered the house carrying two vegetable baskets and greeted Old Mrs. Chen, "Hello, ma'am, I've come to deliver vegetables today."

Grandma Chen was much more enthusiastic than usual, saying, "Come in and sit down, it's cold outside. Your uncle went out to buy groceries, he'll be back soon."

Li Zhe put down the vegetable basket and saw a slender girl in the house. She had a black ponytail, wore a pink turtleneck sweater, dark blue jeans, and brown ankle boots, looking youthful and fashionable.

Grandma Chen introduced, "This is Xiaohui's aunt's second daughter. She's a sophomore at Beijing Foreign Studies University, a year younger than you. Just call her 'little sister.' Tingting, this is Xiaohui's second cousin. Your dad asked him to help buy groceries."

Li Zhe sized up the girl: "My name is Li Zhe."

The girl nodded and said with a smile, "I am Wang Ting, and I was sent by Director Wang to make contact. Something came up at the factory today, so he will be here later."

"Second Brother, what dishes did you bring today?" The chubby boy moved a chair over and came closer.

Li Zhe took the chair and sat down. "Open it and see for yourself."

The chubby boy lifted the cotton blanket on top of the vegetable basket: "Cucumbers, spinach, broccoli, lettuce, green peppers, mushrooms... and strawberries! This is delicious! Second sister, didn't you just say you wanted to eat strawberries?" He turned to look at Wang Ting.

Wang Ting also squatted down, looking curiously at the vegetables in the basket: "Were these grown in a greenhouse?"

Li Zhe said, "It's different from traditional greenhouses; it's a new type of vegetable greenhouse." The vegetables still had dew on them, looking very fresh. Wang Ting stood up and said, "Second Brother Li, how much are these vegetables? I'll settle the bill for you first."

Li Zhe said politely, "We're not strangers, so there's no need to give money. Just let Uncle Wang take it."

"No, that won't do. My dad said it's already a lot of work for you to help find the groceries, I can't accept it for nothing." Wang Ting politely declined, taking a red wallet out of her bag on the desk. "How much is it? I'll pay you."

Li Zhe was just being polite; if the other party wanted to give, there was no reason not to accept: "Cucumbers are eight yuan a pound; spinach is six yuan a pound; mushrooms are five yuan a pound. The other vegetables are only supplied to restaurants catering to foreigners, and they are paid in foreign exchange certificates: broccoli and green peppers are five yuan a pound; lettuce is four yuan a pound; strawberries are ten yuan a pound. Except for strawberries, which are only two pounds, the others are four pounds each."

Upon hearing the price of the vegetables, Wang Ting's fair fingers stopped reaching for her money. She thought to herself, "You, Director Wang, said you wouldn't let me make a wasted trip and would give me the rest of the money for spending money? Forget about leaving me any money, I'll have to pay for it myself!"
Grandma Chen was also shocked. She thought cucumbers were the most expensive, but when she heard that strawberries were selling for ten foreign exchange certificates per pound, she was so frightened that she shuddered. She had eaten two strawberries that day, so what was the difference between that and eating foreign exchange certificates?

Her gaze towards Li Zhe was different again; this boy was a genuine person.

“我来算钱！”小胖子拿来纸和笔，一项项加起来：“黄瓜，32元；菠菜，24元；蘑菇20元。总共是76元。其他的都是外汇券：西蓝花20外汇券；青椒20外汇券；生菜16外汇券；草莓20外汇券。也是76外汇券！”

Wang Ting took out some money from her wallet and handed it to Li Zhe: "Second Brother Li, count it."

Li Zhe glanced at it, it was pretty much the same, and stuffed it into his pocket. Then, he squatted down and took out a paper bag: "I brought extra strawberries, you can have them as snacks."

The chubby boy smiled and immediately took the strawberry, saying, "I'll go wash it!" He only looked at these vegetables with interest; he didn't really like eating them except for the mushrooms, but he really loved strawberries.

The old lady came over and took the strawberries from the chubby boy's hand: "What can you wash? I'll wash them. You play with your second brother for a while."

The old lady went out, and Wang Ting originally wanted to continue teaching the chubby boy his homework, but she couldn't leave Li Zhe alone, so she asked, "Second Brother Li, you deliver food to restaurants that cater to foreigners. Do you often meet foreigners? Do you communicate with them?"

"We see each other often, but we rarely communicate. I don't speak English very well, but I can understand about 70-80% of everyday phrases." Li Zhe's ability to understand foreign languages ​​has little to do with meeting foreigners; it's mainly because he enjoys watching American blockbusters and TV series in his later years.

He can spend half a day drinking alone, with a bottle of wine, an American TV series, and four small dishes; this is one of his few pleasures.

He still remembers how he was blown away by The Walking Dead when he first watched it, and how he couldn't put it down.

Wang Ting was somewhat surprised; she had only asked casually, but she hadn't expected such an unexpected reward. She was a sophomore in college this year and didn't have many opportunities to interact with foreigners, so she had always wanted to practice her spoken English but hadn't had the chance.

"Brother Li, I majored in English. How about I say a few words in English for you to hear?"

"sure."

Wang Ting blinked her big eyes and said clearly in English, "Would you like tea or coffee?"
Li Zhe replied in Chinese: "I just had tea this morning, how about a cup of coffee?"

Wang Ting continued in English, "How old are you?"
Li Zhe replied in Chinese: "20 years old."

Wang Ting asked, "What time is it now?"
Li Zhe glanced at his watch: "11 a.m.

Wang Ting was somewhat surprised, not expecting that Li Zhe could actually understand her English. She asked, "Second Brother Li, what do you think of my spoken English?"

Li Zhe said very seriously, "It's alright."

Wang Ting pressed further, "What's wrong with it? Didn't you understand everything?"

"Just because I understood it, I felt something was off. When foreigners speak, I have to react for a moment, and sometimes they speak too fast, so I can only understand the gist of it. But I can understand all the English you speak."

The chubby boy understood and laughed heartily, "Second sister, that's Chinglish. Foreigners can't understand it, so it's only for Chinese people, haha..."

Wang Ting glanced at the chubby boy and said, "If you're so capable, you tell me."

“I’ll say it, cough…” The chubby boy cleared his throat and said in English, “Nice to meet you, welcome to my home.” Without waiting for Li Zhe’s reply, he asked, “Second brother, how was my answer?”

Li Zhe commented with a smile: "Yours is even more endearing, with a Beijing accent mixed with a Jizhou accent. I don't know if foreigners will like it, but I like it."

"Haha..." Wang Ting laughed too.

"Squeak..."

With a thud, the door opened from the outside, and Li Zhenguo entered, bringing in a gust of cold wind. "Goodness, the three of you are quite the handful!"

"Second uncle."

"Uncle."

"Dad, we're speaking English, and my second brother said my English sounds friendly!" The chubby boy immediately started to flatter himself.

"Okay, okay, you can continue. I'll go cook and make you something delicious for lunch." Li Zhenguo put down what he was holding and busied himself with cooking.

"Second Uncle, let me help you."

"No need, you play with Xiaohui, it'll be over in a bit." Li Zhenguo took some ingredients and went outside to cook.

He didn't go far, chopping vegetables in the hallway while listening to the three children chatting inside, a bittersweet feeling welling up inside him...

(End of this chapter)