74: Chapter 74: Father 74: Chapter 74: Father The next morning, Chen Hai and Sun Jinzhong visited several electronics stores in Liuyuan County.
At that time, televisions were considered luxury goods.
Sun Jinzhong bought a twelve-inch Golden Star television for nearly seven hundred yuan.
Chen Hai himself indulged a bit more and bought a fourteen-inch model from the same brand.
He handed out ten banknotes and received two yuan in change.
Although it was painful to spend that much money, Chen Hai was quite happy.
In Chenjiaping Village, there were still less than ten households that owned a television.
Occasionally, Chen Zhonghua and Jiang Meixian, a couple, would find some free time to walk a mile or two to a friend’s house to watch their television.
They greatly envied others who had televisions in their homes.
Chen Hai could already imagine the excitement and joy on his parents’ faces when they saw the television.
After buying the television, Sun Jinzhong was already happily heading back home to Yanbei Village.
Chen Hai had already checked out of the room at the Garden Hotel.
After all, the task of finding Li Dajiang’s grave had been completed successfully, and he couldn’t occupy the room indefinitely.
In a backpack he had specially purchased, stuffed with a few towels, he placed the various pots and bottles he had picked up from the cave.
Although Li Dajiang said the most valuable items in those pots and bottles were the two intact Qianlong Year snuff bottles, he didn’t know much about antiques.
Those two pen holders, as well as the slightly damaged snuff bottles, might also be of great value!
Now that he had confirmed these items were genuine antiques with some age, Chen Hai was determined to carefully preserve them, regardless of their value!
The only frustrating part was that, after buying the electronics, he had to transport them himself since the store did not offer delivery.
Fortunately, the fourteen-inch television was just a big cardboard box, and there was no need to call for a truck; he could easily load it onto the bus himself.
Backpack on his shoulders and holding the box with the television, Chen Hai arrived in Wuyang Town just after one in the afternoon.
The weather in June was already very hot.
A lazy old dog lay under a shade tree, its tongue hanging out too far as it panted heavily.
Wuyang Town was only about ten to twenty kilometers from Liuyuan County, with no dedicated bus station.
Most vehicles passing through were simply traveling along the road.
After getting off the bus by the bridge at the entrance to the town, Chen Hai looked around.
This bridgehead, where vehicles picked up and dropped off passengers, was bustling, and those who pulled rickshaws for a living liked to linger here because of the heavy foot traffic.
In Chenjiaping Village, every household had their own fields, predominantly planted with rice.
Like others, Chen Hai’s family did the same.
Apart from the busiest farming periods, there wasn’t much work in the fields on regular days.
Chen Zhonghua, Chen Hai’s father, would also pull a rickshaw to earn extra when there wasn’t much to do in the fields.
Since it was hard to get in touch, Chen Hai didn’t know whether his father had come out with his rickshaw that day.
Fortunately, after scanning his surroundings for a short while, he spotted his father Chen Zhonghua under the shadow of an old building about twenty to thirty meters away.
He wore a tank top; the parts of his body that were not covered by clothes were exposed to the burning sun and had turned dark and shiny.
Crouching beside his own cart, Chen Zhonghua squinted his eyes as he pulled out a perfectly square piece of white paper and picked some tobacco from the pouch he carried, rolling it up and lighting it.
Though just over forty, he looked somber and aged, almost like a little old man!
His sun-darkened face showed little vitality, only countless hardships and the ravages of time.
“Pa…” Carrying the TV, Chen Hai weakly greeted as he approached Chen Zhonghua.
Even in front of Li Dajiang, the Tai Island boss, where he could joke and banter freely, he always felt timid in front of his father, Chen Zhonghua.
“Brat, you disappeared right after the exams; nearly ten days out, and now you show up.
Do you even remember your way home?”
The moment he clearly saw Chen Hai, Chen Zhonghua’s face had already darkened.
“Dad, didn’t I ask someone to tell you that I went to my aunt’s house in the county city?”
After placing the TV on Chen Zhonghua’s cart, Chen Hai wiped the sweat off his forehead and hurriedly explained.
“Stay with your aunt in the county city for ten days?”
“Hai, you don’t need to lie to yourself.
As I see it, you must have performed poorly in the college entrance exams and were too scared to see your mother and me, right?”
“You really didn’t need to do that; with your grades, your mom and I never expected you to actually get into college.”
Or maybe learn a trade while you’re still young?”
“As long as you reduce our worries, we would be more than satisfied!”
With a bitter face, Chen Zhonghua sighed and earnestly spoke to Chen Hai.
At the mention of these, Chen Hai suddenly fell silent.
Though he estimated a score of around 580, believing that getting into university wouldn’t be a problem,
he knew that claiming so to his father, without the actual results, would only make him seem boastful and unbelievable.
Not only would they not feel reassured, but they would also be utterly disappointed!
Considering this, the current Chen Hai, when his parents brought up the topic of exams, seemingly had nothing to do but remain silent.
“Just wait another four or five days; the exam results should be out!”
“I’ll go ask at the school then, and once I know my actual score, mom and dad will understand that their son has indeed honored them and has not let them down.”
“Since the reinstatement of college entrance exams, our Chenjiaping Village has produced only one other college student before me!”
“When I become the second one from our village to get into a university, I’ll be the village’s hope.
When my parents talk about me, they will have something to boast about instead of sighing as they used to.”
Outwardly silent, Chen Hai began thinking to himself.
Being a rural kid like him, checking scores meant having to ask at school.
In big cities, phones might be more common, but in Wuyang Town, although public phones were available in small shops, private phone installation was still very rare.
For a rural student who had never made a phone call, it never even occurred to him to check his exam results by phone.
When it came down to it, being able to check scores at school was still somewhat of a luxury.
Some said that in the years before, even the process of estimating scores by comparing answers didn’t exist.
A student’s performance depended solely on whether an acceptance letter would arrive after they had submitted their university choices!