Returning home, Fang Bai handed the soy sauce and salt to his father and tucked the remaining one mao into his pants pocket.
The family prepared dinner: a dish of stir-fried lettuce with some meat slices, a large bowl of tomato and egg soup, and a side of pickled vegetables.
When Fang Shi saw his son return, he immediately went to buy pork. Normally, he wouldn't be so willing to spend money on meat.
Fang Bai picked only the lettuce, not the meat, as he had no interest in eating meat.
His mother saw him eating only vegetables and put two slices of meat on his plate: "Eat more, it's good for your health."
"Mom, I'm not interested in eating meat right now; I've had enough at the hospital.
Both of you have worked hard; earning money isn't easy. Little sister is malnourished, so you two should eat more. You don't need to put food on my plate."
His parents were stunned to hear their son's words. He had never said such things before, and hearing them now filled them with relief. Perhaps the accident had truly made him grow up.
Fang Shi pursed his lips and sighed, "Alas, Dad is useless; I can't earn money."
"Dad, I'm not blaming you. It's already hard enough for you to raise us. Every family is struggling like this right now.
Don't worry, we'll get better. I guarantee we'll eat meat every day until we're sick of it." Fang Bai chewed his food, chuckled, and nudged his sister's foot with his own.
This brat, she's usually so quick-witted, but she was just focused on the delicious food.
His sister paused for a moment, but quickly became alert: "Brother is right, Mom and Dad are already very tired, we will get better."
She wore a wide smile, even though she herself couldn't quite believe it—eating meat every day, even until she was sick of it?
Brother, you really know how to joke.
However, though she was young, she understood that her brother was comforting their parents, so she could only echo his words.
"Yes, things will get better."
Fang Shi had intended to comfort his son, but ended up being comforted himself, and smiled with satisfaction.
After dinner, Fang Bai finally brought up the matter of his uncle and aunt's family.
"Dad, Mom, you should interact less with my second uncle's family. As soon as they saw me in trouble, they avoided me, as if afraid of catching bad luck from me."
"You child, why are you speaking so strangely?"
"I didn't say anything wrong. We're putting on a warm face for a cold shoulder, and still being looked down upon."
Fang Bai spoke bluntly. Fang Shi felt a bit uncomfortable hearing his son say this, but he also knew it wasn't wrong.
Seeing his parents fall silent, Fang Bai took 80 ten-yuan banknotes from the bag he brought back: "This is the compensation I got from the boss. I spent over two hundred to buy a bicycle for easy travel."
His father's eyes widened, somewhat disbelieving: "Your boss is that good?
Bosses in Wen City can be a bit stingy, you know."
He had seen his son ride home on a new bike today and thought it was borrowed. He hadn't had a chance to ask about it yet.
His sister and mother were also curious about how he got the money.
"It's alright. I explained some legal knowledge to him; otherwise, he wouldn't have been so quick to pay." Fang Bai pursed his lips and smiled, "Don't worry, I got the money legitimately."
With that explanation, the family was relieved, fearing he might have taken a dark path.
"Haha, studying is still useful."
Fang Shi happily took the money, counted it, kept six hundred yuan, and then pushed two hundred yuan back to his son, "My son has grown up too; he understands that earning money isn't easy. You save this two hundred; you'll need to buy study materials for re-admission, right?"
"I still have over a hundred yuan, which is enough for living expenses. I've already decided to re-enroll at Oubei No. 1 Middle School, where re-admission is free. Dad, you can use this for emergencies first." Fang Bai said, in reality, he still had about 1200 yuan, but it would be spent quickly.
"Alright then, we father and son won't be sentimental."
Fang Shi readily accepted the eight hundred yuan, still fearing his son might impulsively squander money, having just bought a bicycle as soon as he got the money.
Buying such a large item without discussing it with the family, Fang Shi was somewhat displeased.
Fang Bai chatted with his family for over half an hour, then took a hot bath.
In this era, there were no water heaters; one could only heat water with firewood.
After heating the water, Fang Bai scooped one-third of a bucket of hot water into a simple iron bucket, carried it to the makeshift bathroom, then scooped cold water from the water Cylinder to mix with the hot water, feeling the temperature with his hand until it was just right.
With just one simple bucket of warm water, he had to be economical with his bathing water, or it would be embarrassing if the warm water ran out before he could rinse off the soap.
He closed the simple wooden door of the bathroom and began to bathe.
Through a hole in the bathroom ceiling, Fang Bai saw the brilliant starry sky and felt a gentle breeze blowing into the bathroom, making him shiver.
After showering, he took more hot water to wash his hair in the courtyard, and his mother brought him a dry towel to dry his hair.
After all that, Fang Bai sat under the eaves lamp, enjoying the tranquility and cool breeze of the countryside.
In this era, people went to bed early and woke up early, unlike later generations who would stay up playing with their phones until the middle of the night, unable to get out of bed the next morning, feeling groggy and lightheaded all morning.
Fang Bai's severed finger incident added more worries for his parents.
He remembered that in the past, after dinner, his parents often went to a neighbor's house to watch TV series.
His family had a 14-inch black and white television, but color televisions were already popular now.
Of course, not many families could afford a color TV; its purchasing power was equivalent to buying a small car in later generations.
There weren't many TV series available in this era either. "Journey to the West" aired in 1986 and was replayed countless times, accompanying countless people born in the 70s and 80s.
Every holiday, Fang Bai and his sister would monopolize the family's black-and-white TV, watching reruns of "Journey to the West," having watched it at least three times.
After sitting for a while, Fang Bai went back into the house to organize his old books.
He had tested the Golden Finger's function in the hospital; it only activated when his right index finger touched newspapers, magazines, or books.
He used a newspaper to test it. After a while, he had probably read about a hundred characters.
Then, he closed his eyes and recalled.
Fang Bai could roughly memorize the first thirty or forty characters at the time; the later content was relatively clear, but he couldn't recite it.
His current memory and comprehension abilities are a fusion of his current 18-year-old self and his experiences and abilities from his previous life.
If only his soul had transmigrated, his memory from his previous life, in his dozens of years, would have already declined, making it difficult to remember sentences and formulas. To want to memorize the first twenty or thirty characters after just one read would be impossible.
However, his comprehension ability in his dozens of years was certainly stronger than when he was younger.
This situation meant that if he were to repeat a year, he wouldn't need to start mastering knowledge from junior high. He still retained his memory ability from after the college entrance exam, and also possessed the experience from his previous life.
If he were to take mock exams again, his reading comprehension would be much stronger.
Fang Bai compared his memory ability before acquiring the Golden Finger and felt that it had been significantly enhanced.
He opened his eyes and read it again.
Recalling it again, he found he could memorize the first fifty or sixty characters.
After reading it a few more times, he could almost memorize it completely.
Of course, it was hard to say how much he would remember after some time passed.
But no matter what, this temporary doubling of memory and comprehension ability made Fang Bai extremely surprised at the time.
Even if it wasn't a permanent enhancement, his overall learning ability improved by more than just double.
For example, some English words, no matter how hard you tried to memorize them, you just couldn't;
Some formulas, no matter how the teacher explained them, were difficult to understand, or even impossible to fully grasp.
This was equivalent to setting a learning threshold; once the ability was reached, learning became twice as effective with half the effort.
It could also be understood as temporarily boosting a person's partial IQ.
Therefore, Fang Bai had more confidence in repeating a year.
Before going to bed, Fang Bai told his parents that he would be reporting to Oubei No. 1 Middle School.
During this period, Fang Bai would not be returning home at night. Traveling back and forth every day was too much of a hassle. He wanted to seize every moment to review at night, and studying at home was also inconvenient.
On the other hand, this would save his parents some trouble. Once he earned more money, Fang Bai would tell his parents about his earnings, and by then, it would be more convincing to persuade them to start a business, even a small one, which would be better than working for others.
People from Wen City, when doing business, prefer to have father and son fighting together, which is why most enterprises in Jiangnan Province are family businesses.
Fang Bai, when doing business, couldn't possibly go it alone without his family; that would be too exhausting. It would be even better if his family could help out.
That night, after organizing his old books and luggage, Fang Bai rested after nine o'clock, enjoying a rare peaceful sleep.
He even had a beautiful dream: a grand villa was built at home, and his family lived a good life.