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墨書 Inktalez
"Crack, crack..." A series of crisp sounds echoed in Jiang Xiaoya's bedroom as the porcelain pig was smashed to pieces, revealing dozens of one-yuan coins with peony patterns inside. She picked up the scattered coins one by one from the floor.
Next, Jiang Xiaoya dumped everything from her pencil case onto the table, stuffed the coins and some letter paper inside, and walked over to where her bicycle was parked, placing them in the basket.
"Er Ya, where are you going?" Gao Qingzhen heard the noise and looked over, only to find her daughter pushing her bike, ready to leave.
"I'm... I'm going to buy a bottle of soy sauce and take care of some things. I might be back a bit late!" The petite Jiang Xiaoya pedaled hard on her bicycle, riding towards the town.
"Hey, Er Ya, what exactly are you doing? Be clear!"
Jiang Xiaoya didn't look back. "It's none of your business~~"
"Why is it so expensive?" An elderly woman, after being taught how to make a phone call by the vendor, felt that the price quoted was too high.
"Aunt, you're making a long-distance call; it's not cheap! If you think it's too expensive, you can send a letter instead!"
In the end, the old woman took out a lot of change from her pocket—one-cent coins, five-cent coins, ten-cent coins, and even one-yuan coins—to gather enough for this phone call.
Having waited by the store entrance for a long time, she finally heard someone come in to make a call. After learning the price, she timidly approached the counter but stammered for a long time without saying anything.
"Miss, I see you've been waiting at the door for quite a while. Just tell me what you want!" The vendor was a bald man in his thirties with a plump figure. His shop was conveniently located across from the high school and mainly sold snacks and toys that students liked.
There was also this phone; the local high school was considered quite good. Most middle school students from the county either aimed for the county city or came here. There were quite a few people making calls, and the vendor had seen many timid girls like this who had never used a phone before and were at a loss.
"How do you use this?" Jiang Xiaoya pointed at the most conspicuous red phone on the glass counter and asked.
"For local calls—if the other party is still in our city—it costs fifty cents per minute. For long-distance calls—if it's far away—it costs two yuan per minute. If someone calls you and you answer, I also have to charge for that; it's twenty cents per minute."
The bald man felt that this price was relatively low around here since students didn't have much money. If he set it too high, no one would come.
"I want to call this number!" She had written down her lines on paper and memorized the phone number attached to her brother's letter; now it was finally coming in handy.
"Oh~ Beijing? That's a long-distance call! Do you have enough money? Have you thought it through?" The man often encountered people who kept talking but ended up not having enough money to pay. Now he always asked for payment upfront to prevent anyone from running off.
Jiang Xiaoya opened the pencil case she was holding, took out the coins, and neatly stacked them on the counter. The man estimated the quantity and said, "I'll help you with that!"
“Beep~~ Beep~~ Beep~~”
“Ahhh~~” Qin Yi yawned. It was summer vacation, her last bit of leisure time. As a counselor, her main job was to manage students from specific majors within her authority. With a month and a half left before the students she was responsible for would arrive, she was in a period of having graduated but not yet officially started working. Aside from some proactive tasks, she had plenty of free time.
Qin Yi lay on the sofa, enjoying the breeze from the fan for a moment, only to be awakened by the ringing of the phone. “Hello, who are you looking for?”
In the past, she would have asked, “Who is this?”
Since sharing an apartment, she received quite a few calls that weren’t meant for her, so it had changed to this.
“Huh?” Jiang Xiaoya suddenly felt confused; why was an older sister answering the phone?
“Hello, sister! I’m looking for Jiang Yizhou. I’m his sister Jiang Xiaoya!”
Qin Yi put down the phone and hurriedly ran to Jiang Yizhou's room to confirm he hadn’t sneaked back while she was asleep. She quickly returned and said, “Your brother doesn’t seem to be here, but he should be back before dinner! I’ll have him call you back then.”
Today was Saturday. As roommates, they often shared meals together to avoid the awkwardness of being just ten meters apart yet still strangers. They had already planned to have lunch together in the afternoon.
“Oh, I see!” Jiang Xiaoya hung up the phone feeling a bit disappointed. She thought about it; he usually came back after lunch or dinner. It was already past one in the afternoon; he must have gone out to work by now!
“Click~” The man took the receiver from the dazed girl’s hand and hung up the phone for her. “Long-distance calls are expensive; you know that’s a waste of money!”
He took four dollars from the money she had given him for the call and turned to attend to other customers.
Jiang Xiaoya put away her coins, held onto her pencil case and stationery, and walked over to the bicycle parked outside. She sat on the back seat, waiting for a response from the woman on the other end of the line.
……
“Your college entrance exam results should be out by now. Which school were you able to get into?” Jiang Yizhou sat in a pavilion chatting with Fang Chang. The reason was simple: he had a father working at the Telecommunications Bureau. In this era, the Telecommunications Bureau was practically cashing in; internet fees were more expensive than phone calls. Although prices were slowly decreasing, they were still hard to bear.
"What are you talking about? I just finished my exams two weeks ago. How could the results come out so quickly? They probably haven't even finished grading the papers yet!" Fang Chang was quite speechless at this ignorant teacher and friend; isn't it common knowledge that the college entrance examination is in July?
"Huh?" Jiang Yizhou finally realized that the college entrance examination had been moved to June starting in 2003. "I got confused. But with your skills, you shouldn't be afraid of not getting in. By the way, what do you think of the software I copied for you?"
He looked at Fang Chang with great anticipation, making Fang Chang a bit uncomfortable under his gaze. "That app, well, it feels really useful, but the name is just terrible. 'K' always makes me think of 'ha', 'he', 'f**k'. Why did you give it such a bad name?"
Jiang Yizhou suppressed the urge to twitch his face. "That's just a phonetic spelling of 'ealk'!"
"I think that name sounds more like my guess. If you don't believe me, ask others what their first reaction was!" Fang Chang complained. "My dad tried it too and thought it was pretty good; he's never seen a software product like this! He wants to meet you!"
"Really? Really?" Jiang Yizhou became excited all of a sudden. "What else did your father say?"
"That's all he said; what else do you want?" Fang Chang looked at him oddly.
In the end, Jiang Yizhou stubbornly insisted on visiting Fang Chang's house next time, not giving Fang Chang a chance to refuse.
"Oh, you're back!" Qin Yi said while lying sideways on the sofa, watching TV. "It seems like you had a call from your sister, but it's been three hours since then. I wrote down the number in the phone book!"
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