Chapter 148

The post office wasn’t too far away from the government-operated restaurant and was only a 15-minute walk.

After Tong Xuelu had placed the call, it was still the cold, female voice from last time that picked up the phone. “The Research Center, who are you calling for?”“Hi, I am looking for Comrade Wen.”The other side paused a little before she said to Tong Xuelu, “Hang on, I’ll get him for you right now.”Tong Xuelu quickly shouted after her, “I’ll call back in 5 minutes.”Her call last time cost her 70 cents. 70 cents was enough for 1 jin of eggs. That hurt.An Yuemei was so excited that her cheeks were flushed after she had hung up the phone.She recognized the voice. It was the same person who had called for Comrade Wen before!What she didn’t know was their relationship with each other.She had just stood up and was just about to fetch Wen Rugui from the office when Wen Rugui walked past the other end of the hallway.She ran up quickly. “Hang on, Comrade Wen!”Wen Rugui stopped when he heard someone calling out to him.An Yuemei ran over there and, panting, said, “Comrade Wen, you have a call.”Having said that, she looked at Wen Rugui and added, “It’s the same girl as last time.”Wen Rugui’s stirred and said expressionlessly, “I’ll go right now.”Having said that, he walked over to the phone on his long legs.An Yuemei hadn’t expected him to just turn and walk away and ran after him quickly.Wen Rugui was tall with long legs and she needed to jog to be able to catch up to him. She wasn’t sure whether he was imaging it or not but she felt that Research Wen was walking faster and faster and, toward the end, she wasn’t even to keep up with him even when she was jogging!Wen Rugui walked over to the phone, saw that it was hung up, and frowned instantly. “What’s going on?”An Yuemei looked into his eyes, her heart shuddered and she said, “The female comrade said she would call back in 5 minutes.”Wen Rugui finally looked more relaxed after he heard that.Seeing how important the call was to him, An Yuemei became even more curious. She felt that her heart was crawling with ants and was indescribably itchy.The two, however, didn’t know each other well and Wen Rugui had always looked solemn. She dared out ask her thoughts out loudly.Wen Rugui would look at his watch every minute.An Yuemei felt her heart shuddered with each look at his watch.Luckily, the phone finally ran again after a few minutes. Both Wen Rugui and An Yuemei let out a sigh of relief.Luckily, the phone finally ran again after a few minutes had passed.Wen Rugui snatched the phone up right away as though he worried that someone would fight him for it.“This is Wen Rugui.” He said.Tong Xuelu, “Hi, Comrade Wen, this is Tong Xuelu.“Hi, how come you are calling me?”“Comrade Wen, do you have any textbooks for junior and senior high school?”“Would you like to borrow them?”Tong Xuelu, “Yes, I would like to borrow them. You know the adage that one should never stop learning? There are no university entrance examinations right now but I felt that more knowledge would always be useful.”Wen Rugui, “My textbooks are still here. When would you like to have them? I can have…… I will drop them off before then.”He was going to say that he would have Uncle Zong drop them off but, right before he said that out loud, an idea suddenly occurred to him and he said he would be dropping them off.Having said that, he felt that An Yuemei was looking at him more fervently. The tips of his ears turned red and he turned away.Tong Xuelu, “Anytime will work. You can just drop them off whenever you have time.”Wen Rugui thought about it some. “Then I will drop them off the next time I am over there. But we are probably looking at next month.”He had already taken 3 days off this month. He probably should not take more.Tong Xuelu, “It’s alright. There is no rush. Thank you Comrade Wen, I shall no keep you any longer.”Wen Rugui, “No.”But, before he could finish his sentence, he could already hear the dial tone from the receiver.