Chapter 111

Extra: “Yan Xiang’s Daily Routine at the Broadcasting Station”

Mom didn’t have a watch, but Yan Xiang could tell the time for this stretch by intuition.

When he first told his mom, she was surprised, then patted his head and chuckled, “Ah, a genius indeed.”

Genius Yan Xiang understood.

But what did “a genius being full” mean? Did it mean being too full from eating?

Every day, he and his mom walked hand in hand along that stretch.

Humming songs.

The sunshine was bright, and the morning breeze was clear.

Mom would loudly greet people she knew, calling them “sister-in-law” or “big sister.”

Everyone had a smile on their faces. Some hurried along, but would turn back and call to Mom, “The Li family said they have pork elbows today! Hurry up! I’ll go ahead and save your spot in line!”

Mom would quickly pick him up and jog to catch up.

Pork elbows were hard to come by.

You had to fight for them.

Mom was very happy when she managed to get some pork elbows. That night, they had braised pork elbows for dinner at home.

Mom even cut a bowl to take to the Zhao family.

Yan Xiang kindly reminded Jun Jun to brush his teeth after dinner, but Jun Jun stuck his tongue out at him and made a face.

Later, Jun Jun’s teeth decayed, and he cried in pain. Yan Xiang wasn’t surprised at all.

Hmph.

After buying groceries every day, they leisurely walked back home under the sunshine. After tidying up the house, Mom would take him to work at the broadcasting station.

Mom praised, more than once, “Working like immortals.”

Yan Xiang: “?”

He didn’t quite understand.

But Yan Xiang really liked the broadcasting station.

Starting from the entrance of the town committee compound, he would begin his day of greetings: “Hello, uncle!”

The uncle in the transmission room would then wave to him with a smile and say, “Yan Xiang is here.”

Along this way, he would politely greet every uncle and aunt he knew.

Even if someone heard his voice, they would deliberately open the window and call out to him, “Hey! Little Yan Xiang! You haven’t greeted me yet!”

Yan Xiang would politely stop and earnestly greet them.

He didn’t understand why those adults laughed heartily. But those laughs sounded cheerful and lifted his mood.

Moreover, they would often pull out candies from their pockets and say, “Here you go.”

The town committee compound was a great place to earn candies!

As long as kids were polite, they could have candies!

What Yan Xiang was most proud of was having his own desk at the broadcasting station.

But unfortunately, neither Brother Gangzi, Brother Huazi, Sister Yingzi, nor Jun Jun believed him. They said he was bragging.

This made Yan Xiang very annoyed, but he couldn’t prove it. He also couldn’t bring them to work.

Yan Xiang could only diligently do his own job.

A serious day started with selecting books from the library.

The library was simply a treasure trove.

It’s just that the librarian was a bit lazy. He always lay on the table half-asleep and often couldn’t be found.

He only cared about keeping the library clean, but was often careless about organizing books and classification.

Yan Xiang had no choice. As a very big kid who also worked at the town committee, Yan Xiang took it upon himself to classify the books.

Many books could be classified at a glance.

For those he couldn’t figure out, he would ask Mom.

He quietly put back misplaced books where they belonged. Even when he left the broadcasting station with Mom to go to the county, not a single adult noticed.

Many years later, Yan Xiang told Mom about this.

Dad didn’t believe it; he said, “You were so young back then, don’t brag.”

Mom was surprised, but not astonished. She wasn’t astonished at all.

Yes, she was never astonished by anything he did.

She would just pat his head and smile.

But she stopped mentioning the term “being full of genius” afterwards.

Choosing a book from the library was the start of Yan Xiang’s day.

His favorite books were those with both text and illustrations.

Because many of the terms in the text represented things he hadn’t seen before. The illustrations helped him better understand what those terms meant and how those principles were realized in reality.

Among all the books, what fascinated him most was the series of “Militia Training Manuals” because it used very simple and straightforward language, supplemented by a lot of pictures to explain, starting from the most rudimentary conditions and gradually explaining all the way to the imperialist missiles piercing through the sky.

It was so fascinating.

This series of books was so important in Yan Xiang’s childhood.

During his time at the broadcasting station, he read it over and over again.

His serious reading often made the uncles and aunts at the broadcasting station laugh.

Uncle Tianming also loved reading. According to Yan Xiang’s understanding, his job at the broadcasting station was to read and water flowers.

Every day when he arrived at the broadcasting station, he would carry a kettle to boil water and make tea. Then he would go water his precious flowers.

Everyone had a pot of flowers on their windowsill or desk, and later, Mom also had one, which she didn’t take with her when she left.

She thought she would come back.

But she never returned to the broadcasting station.

That pot of flowers went to Uncle Tianming, and it’s said that Uncle Tianming took good care of it.

After watering the flowers, Tianming Uncle would start his day’s work – reading.

He would read books all day, from the beginning of work until the end.

Yan Xiang thought this job was great.

He also wanted to have a job like this when he grew up, a job specifically for reading.

Aunt Hu’s job was cleaning.

Aunt Hu was a diligent person. She wiped every table exceptionally clean, and there were no dead corners in the office.

But whenever she thought about going to the broadcasting room, everyone’s expression changed.

The broadcasting station locked its doors after broadcasting ended.

This rule had always been there, but Uncle Tianming said that before, everyone was too lazy to lock it. The serious implementation started only after Aunt Hu started working at the broadcasting station.

But Aunt Hu’s roasted melon seeds were particularly delicious.

Sometimes, when Aunt Man and Mom finished their afternoon work, they wouldn’t leave immediately. Instead, they gathered to eat melon seeds together.

Usually, they only started eating melon seeds in the afternoon because the station manager said, in the morning, they should act like it’s morning, and melon seeds should only be eaten in the afternoon. Starting to eat them early in the morning was improper.

So, in the afternoon, everyone would gather to eat melon seeds and drink tea.

Aunt Hu always had endless stories about the compound.

Everyone listened with relish.

During these times, Mom would also join in, crossing her legs and eating melon seeds just like everyone else.

The afternoon sunlight streamed through the glass window, bathing her face. Her features relaxed, and a smile played on her lips.

Sometimes, Yan Xiang would see this and suddenly understand the word “contentment.” The dictionary’s definition became tangible on Mom’s face.

The switchboard room was another world altogether.

It was a magical place where you could hear voices from faraway places.

The aunties’ daily work was eavesdropping.

Sometimes, they would come over in a hurry and shout, “Hurry up!”

The station manager and Uncle Tianming felt a bit awkward about going over because they said, “They’re all lady comrades.”

Although they wanted to, they could only watch eagerly.

Mom and the aunties, on the other hand, had no reservations. They would rush over without hesitation. They eagerly listened in on conversations that were not meant to be heard.

At that time, many people didn’t even know that their phone calls were being fully monitored by the switchboard operators. They would talk about many things over the phone, thinking no one else knew.

Only those who had been in the switchboard room knew how things really worked.

Every time Mom and the aunties came out of the switchboard room, they had satisfied looks on their faces, then they would relay what they heard to the station manager and Uncle Tianming.

They also listened with relish.

Mom once told everyone a very scary story:

There was a man who, when making a call, was mistakenly connected to another line by the operator. As a result, he overheard a conversation between two people.

One was “Section Chief Wang,” who said he had already bought train tickets for a certain day and would soon be going from A to B and then to C. After finishing those tasks, he could return.

Section Chief Wang also mentioned “payment,” and the number “ten thousand.”

At that moment, the man didn’t react and hung up the phone. But then he suddenly realized that there was a “Section Chief Wang” carrying a large sum of money from A to B.

This man was tempted by the huge sum of money. So, he stayed in A.

Based on the information he overheard from the phone call, he found out that there was only one train to B on that day.

He managed to apply for a business trip to B and bought a train ticket for the same day.

On the train, he observed and struck up a conversation until he found the “Section Chief Wang.”

He gained Section Chief Wang’s trust, and the two quickly became acquainted. They got off the train together in B and checked into the same guesthouse.

This man quietly killed Section Chief Wang, intending to steal the “ten thousand” from him.

But what he found in Section Chief Wang’s briefcase was only a document stamped with an official seal, stating that Company A in A owed Section Chief Wang’s unit a sum of money, which was to be directly transferred to Company B in B.

He became a murderer for a nonexistent “ten thousand.”

He sat on the ground, stupefied.

Yan Xiang found this story very scary.

Even Aunt Hu and Aunt Man, as well as UncleTianming, felt the same.

But the station manager, drawing on his broad life experience, raised many doubts, pointing out the loopholes and illogical aspects of the story.

Finally, Mom exclaimed in frustration, “I said it’s a story, a fiction, not real!”

The station chief said, “Hey, this author didn’t do it well. If it were me, I would have written it like this and that…”

He even started to write.

But until the end of the workday, he hadn’t finished it, scratching his head while staring at the blank paper.

For several days after that, he kept muttering, “This is hard to fix, hard to fix…”

Mom quietly told Dad that she never expected the station manager to have a literary dream.

Dad asked what the story was, and Mom told it again. After hearing the story, Dad also raised many doubts, similar to those of the station manager.

Mom said, “It’s a story! Fiction! Not real! Made-up things naturally have loopholes!”

Dad took the opportunity to educate me, saying, “You see, as long as something is fake, it will definitely be found out by others. So, can children tell lies?”

In the broadcasting station, Yan Xiang was especially proud of two things: besides having his own desk, he actually had work to do.

Previously, when the station manager needed someone to run errands, he would randomly assign anyone in the office.

But one day, after writing a slip of paper, the station manager suddenly pushed his glasses up, looked at Yan Xiang, and decided to give him a task.

“Yan Xiang, I have a task for you. Take this to the Logistics Department. Do you know where the Logistics Department is?”

It was the first time Yan Xiang received a task, and he was extremely excited, standing up straight and saying, “I know!”

“Deliver this to Director Sun in the Logistics Department, and tell him it’s from the broadcasting station. It must be handed to him in person,” the station manager said. “If he’s not there, you can give it to someone else, but make sure to get the item back on the spot. If you can’t get the item back immediately, be sure to ask who took it, and when you come back, tell me who you gave it to. It saves trouble if we can’t find the responsible person later.”

Yan Xiang promised to do it, so the station manager handed him the slip of paper.

Looking back, it was probably about applying for a few folders and bottles of ink for the broadcasting station. But for Yan Xiang at that time, it was even more precious than an imperial decree.

He carried it all the way there, cradling it carefully.

Once again, he carefully returned, carrying the items. The Logistics Department’s aunties warned him, “Don’t run; if the ink bottle breaks, it will be troublesome.”

How could Yan Xiang make the common mistake that ordinary children might make?

He was a genius who could tell the time by intuition! He was a child who ate a lot and had a lot of strength!

He safely and successfully completed the task given to him by the station chief.

After the first time, he gained the trust of the station chief.

Subsequently, all the errands at the broadcasting station were entrusted to Yan Xiang.

Later, when he went to the county with his mom, Yan Xiang couldn’t continue his “work” at the broadcasting station. He still fondly remembered the time at the broadcasting station.

But it didn’t matter; talent should shine wherever it goes.

Yan Xiang later successfully became an assistant teacher at the county government’s kindergarten.

Assistant Teacher Yan had a lot of prestige.

His words were more effective than the teacher’s.

When Yan Xiang later wrote about these memories, a smile couldn’t help but appear on his lips.

【My childhood seems different from others, yet it seems the same as every child’s.】

【I am different from other children but, like other children, I have a happy childhood.】