Chapter 88
Qiao Wei had a Sunday to work on her manuscript, as her time in the office was mainly spent reviewing materials.
As a newcomer, one shouldn’t rashly try to be unconventional or carry out drastic reforms; it’s best to first observe how things were done before. Following the established path is the safest bet.
When she picked up Yan Xiang after work, several teachers waved to him: “Xiangxiang, see you next week.”
Yan Xiang waved back: “Goodbye Teacher Xia, goodbye Teacher Wang, goodbye Li…”
After saying goodbye to the teachers, he said goodbye to his friends: “Goodbye Xinxin, Qiangqiang, Jun Jun, Jun Jun, Jun Jun, Guoguo, Guoguo, Lanlan, Qiangqiang.”
It seemed he had made some friends.
Qiao Wei felt happy; she hadn’t expected such a reward upon coming to the county.
Just for this alone, it was worth it.
On the way home, she rode like the wind, asking Yan Xiang as she pedaled: “What did you do today?”
“The teacher shared peach pastries with us and said Mom bought them,” Yan Xiang said. “We played games and listened to stories. Mom, listening to stories is very interesting.”
“As long as you’re happy, I’m happy too. The county is pretty good, isn’t it?”
“Mm, it’s pretty good.”
“Look, a flock of sheep~”
“Wow~”
All the way back, she was thinking about how to write her manuscript.
Little did she know, she would find a surprise at home.
In the yard, there was actually a brand-new 26-inch women’s bicycle.
It was brand new.
Moreover, there was a child seat installed on the back rack of the bike!
Yan Xiang: “Wow~”
Qiao Wei circled around the bike.
Yan Lei emerged from the kitchen with a smile on his face: “You’re back.”
Today was Saturday, and Yan Lei and the others could return early.
“What’s this about?” Qiao Wei asked, pointing at the new bike.
Yan Lei smiled: “Logistics snatched a batch from the Shanghai bicycle factory, thirty in total, and two of them were women’s bikes. We waited for several days, and they finally arrived today.”
Qiao Wei was surprised: “How come I didn’t hear a word about this?”
“There were only thirty. With so many people, whoever knew kept their mouth shut.” Yan Lei left one thing unsaid: those who couldn’t keep a secret weren’t qualified to know anyway.
By the time others found out, the thirty bikes had already been snatched up.
The soldiers were fast, accurate, and ruthless when it came to getting things.
Furthermore, Yan Lei was among the first to know; he had received the news before the logistics team went and specifically asked someone to secure a women’s bike for him.
The women’s bike had a slanted top tube, which had the advantage of allowing one to mount it easily. You could just extend your right leg over, step on the right pedal, and push off to get going.
In the future, this was the standard way of riding.
The 28-inch heavy-duty bikes weren’t like that; they had a horizontal top tube, and only tall men like Yan Lei could swing a leg over them.
Others, even men, had to slide onto the bike.
They would step on the left pedal with their left foot, push off the ground with their right foot to get moving, and once the bike was rolling, they would swing their right leg over from the back to mount the bike.
Some careless parents would forget their child was sitting on the back. They’d push off, swing their leg over, and accidentally sweep the child off.
Many middle-aged people in the future had such bittersweet childhood memories.
“Do you like it?”
“Of course I do!”
But more than the new bike, Qiao Wei liked the child seat even more.
“This is amazing.” She praised him, “I didn’t expect this, truly didn’t. How did you manage to get this done?”
Compared to mass-produced child seats of the future, it was clearly handmade.
The main structure was welded steel pipe, and the seat was a wooden board. The whole thing had a raw, industrial, rugged feel, but it had everything necessary: a seat, a backrest, armrests, footrests, and a leg protection net.
Especially that leg protection net. Three steel pipes were welded into a triangle, with a thick wire mesh in the middle. Although the gaps were quite large, Yan Xiang’s feet couldn’t pass through them, effectively protecting his legs and feet from getting caught in the spokes.
It had only been two days; she drew the seat diagram for Yan Lei on Thursday, and today, Saturday, it was already finished.
Yan Lei said: “If you really want to get something done, it’s just a matter of getting it done quickly. I needed it urgently, so I asked for a favor, and it was finished in two days.”
Many things don’t actually take that long to do. If a luxury shop makes you wait a year for a bag, does it really take a year to make one? Not at all.
“Where did you go to get this made?” Qiao Wei asked curiously.
Yan Lei said: “Guess.”
He bet that Qiao Wei definitely couldn’t guess.
But his attitude alone already gave Qiao Wei a clue.
Qiao Wei stuck her finger into the steel pipe and ran her fingertip around inside to feel it. She was 80% sure: “Military industry.”
Yan Lei was surprised.
“This is… steel pipe used for making gun barrels.” Seeing his surprised expression, Qiao Wei tapped the main body of the child seat, 100% certain.
Yan Lei was truly shocked: “How did you know?”
“I felt the thing inside, um, what is it called? Xiangxiang, what is that pattern inside a gun barrel?” Qiao Wei turned to ask Yan Xiang.
Yan Xiang said: “Rifling! Mom, I want to touch it too, I want to touch it!”
He was too short, even on tiptoes he couldn’t reach.
Yan Lei was even more surprised: “You know it too?”
Qiao Wei picked up Yan Xiang and placed him in the child seat: “Tell Dad, what book did we read? That one, the one you really like.”
Yan Xiang told his dad: “The militia training manual.”
“Good heavens,” Yan Lei laughed, “You two actually read that.”
In reality, Yan Xiang knew about rifling from the militia training manual.
But Qiao Wei was able to guess it was gun barrel steel because she had seen jokes about it on the internet in the future.
Someone on Taobao asked a hardware store owner if they had a certain type of steel pipe, and after providing the specifications, the owner called the police directly—people in the industry knew immediately that it was for making gun barrels.
That day, after Yan Lei heard Qiao Wei mention the “child seat,” he insisted she draw it out. He took the measurements and went directly to the military industry contacts to ask for a favor.
This thing was attached to the back rack with several finger-thick bolts and could be detached. He had originally planned to install it on the women’s bike at the Town Committee, but he hadn’t expected the batch of bikes logistics snatched to arrive today.
It worked out perfectly; he just installed it on the new bike and brought it back.
Yan Xiang sat on it: “Wow~”
It was just right; his feet were very comfortable resting there, much better than letting them dangle. There was a backrest behind him and armrests on both sides, so he didn’t need to hold onto Mom’s belt anymore. He wasn’t afraid of falling off.
It’s so great.
Before he had sat enough, Qiao Wei picked him down again.
She touched it with her hand; the wooden board used for the seat had been sanded down, so there were no splinters, but it was hard. Right now, it was just a hard wooden chair. The backrest was also a rectangular wooden board attached to two upright steel pipes.
The armrests were just steel pipes.
“It still needs some finishing touches to make it comfortable for Xiangxiang to sit.”
The couple studied it carefully for a long time.
Hearing that Qiao Wei had taken on work from Secretary Meng, after dinner, Yan Lei said: “You go do your work, I’ll handle this.”
He took apart the old clothes that were previously wrapped around the back seat to cushion Yan Xiang’s bottom and continued cutting them into cloth strips.
Qiao Wei was writing her manuscript in the study. She looked up out the window and saw the child’s father very carefully wrapping the steel armrests with the cloth strips.
Yan Xiang was watching from the side, full of anticipation.
Qiao Wei smiled and lowered her head to write.
She had already checked the materials, and her thoughts had been organized all the way back; everything was clear.
The words flowed as if guided by a spirit.
By the time Yan Lei finished the finishing touches on the child seat, Qiao Wei had also finished writing her manuscript.
Yan Lei wiped his hands and came over: “Are you going to take care of the seat cushion and back cushion tomorrow?”
“Mm, I’ll go to the tailor. My new clothes should be ready to pick up too.”
“Finished writing?”
“Mm.”
“Let me see.”
Yan Lei picked it up and read it through.
Qiao Wei felt his gaze was a bit off: “Is there a problem?”
She trusted Yan Lei quite a bit; Yan Lei’s ideology was as upright as it could be in this era.
Yan Lei returned it to her: “No, it’s quite good.”
Qiao Wei: “?”
Qiao Wei tidied up the desk, and when she looked up after finishing, Yan Lei was already washing up with Yan Xiang in the yard.
“Children need to sleep early,” he said to Yan Xiang, “Didn’t Mom say that children grow by sleeping? If you want to grow up fast, then sleep early. If you sleep early, you sleep longer, and you’ll grow more and faster than other children.”
Qiao Wei: “…”
When Qiao Wei was washing up, Yan Lei had already coaxed Yan Xiang back into the room and onto the heated brick bed.
After applying her face cream, Qiao Wei prepared to go tell Yan Xiang a story. Yan Xiang loved listening to stories.
Yan Lei closed the door to the east room and blocked her: “He’s asleep.”
Qiao Wei didn’t believe it: “So early, he just got into bed, how can he be asleep? He’s waiting for me to tell him a story.”
Yan Lei said: “A boy shouldn’t be listening to stories every single day. He’s not listening today.”
Qiao Wei: “?”
Yan Lei gripped her waist and lifted her up, carrying her away: “Come on, tell me a story instead.”
…
The autumn night was slightly cool.
The room was filled with heat.
Qiao Wei tilted her head back, ran her hands through her hair to pull it back, and let out a long breath.
Looking down at him again: “Are you…”
Her voice was hoarse as she asked her guess: “Yan Lei, do you like reading the articles I write?”
Yan Lei’s breathing was still erratic, but he admitted: “Mm.”
He liked watching her sit at the desk, holding a pen.
When he read those good words and wonderful sentences, thinking that she wrote them made his body heat up.
Qiao Wei smiled, a mischievous look in her eyes.
Yan Lei knew he had been handled by her.
But there was nothing to be done about it.
Resentful, yet resigned; he was helpless against her for the rest of his life.
He moved rhythmically.
She was the boat, he was the wave.
Rising and falling, tossing and turning.
The boat almost capsized; she bit her lip, bracing against him to steady herself…
“Slow down.” She couldn’t catch her breath.
“You don’t like it?” He didn’t listen.
“…”
“Tell me, do you like it or not?”
That waist movement was going to be the death of Qiao Wei.
Who was handling whom?
Her voice was broken.
“I like it…”
On Sunday, Qiao Wei went to the tailor shop, radiant.
The Old Tailor lived alone, without children or a wife. For him, there was no distinction between workdays and weekends. He was at the shop even on Sunday.
He lived in a small bungalow behind the shop; it was a shop in the front and a home in the back.
The Lenin suit made of autumn and winter military uniform fabric was ready. Qiao Wei tried it on; it fit perfectly and looked very spirited.
“Being a military dependent is good, right?” The Old Tailor said, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose, “Whenever young women come to me to have clothes made, I always advise them to find a soldier.”
“It’s so good; high salary, good benefits.” The old man looked at Qiao Wei’s lotus-like, glowing face, “…and they are in good shape.”
Ahem! The old man really knows a lot!
