Three or Two Things about Rebirth

The Russian Song and Dance Troupe stayed at the Friendship Hotel and the Grain Hotel. Qiu Luming was assigned to the Grain Hotel to do miscellaneous translation for the Foreign Trade Bureau, under the euphemistic name of assistant translator.

Only four people were selected to help in this TVU class. There was no need to involve everyone, and there was no need for so many translators at all.

That evening, the county held a grand welcome dinner for the song and dance troupe. It was in the Grain Hotel restaurant where Qiu Luming and his friends had gathered a few days ago. The restaurant was now filled with blond-haired and blue-eyed men and women, who were toasting each other and making themselves at home.

Qiu Luming and four others were not qualified to be seated, and they all sat on the sofas in the lobby, ready to serve at any time. For example, if a Russian friend came out of the lobby and wanted to go to the toilet or something, they would need to give them directions.

For the first half hour, the atmosphere in the hall was quite solemn.

Qiu Luming listened carefully to the words of the female translator with curly hair who was following behind the county leader, and made a few notes in his notebook from time to time.

A male classmate kept circling around her anxiously. His name was Lv Jianjun and he was a classmate of Qiu Luming in the TV University. He was definitely one of the best in written answers and he remembered the words well, but he was afraid of oral conversations. You have to know that conversations and interpretation are both real-time and require extremely fast reaction skills, unlike when answering papers, where there is no time to think and no opportunity to make revisions.

Lu Jianjun was in charge of the reception work at the Friendship Hotel. He was well aware of his own shortcomings and knew even better that another classmate, Ma Wei, had even worse spoken English. So he was very nervous. As soon as he got off the boat from the song and dance troupe, his hands and feet started to feel cold. Now he was walking around non-stop, and the back of his shirt was already wet.

A secretary came out to make a phone call. Lv Jianjun took the opportunity to look inside the door, then quickly walked over and whispered to Qiu Luming, "I heard that the translator is from Harbin. Is her name Jiang Danni?"

This is purely for the sake of making conversation. Everyone in the TVU class knows this.

"Hmm." Qiu Luming only hummed. She was paying attention to the noisy environment, trying to catch the voices of the leader of the song and dance troupe and the Russian translator.

Lu Jianjun continued to spin around on the ground.

Half an hour later, the atmosphere gradually became more lively. From time to time, there were singing performances from both China and Russia to liven up the atmosphere. They also sang "Katyusha" and "Evenings on the outskirts of Moscow" together.

The members of the chorus, especially the men, were very satisfied with the white wine at the dinner. There was no need to urge them to drink. They had already held a bottle each and drank by themselves.

The door to the hall opened again, and three or five beautiful women came out of the hall chatting and laughing. They ran straight to the front desk and asked where the bathroom was.

The receptionist looked panicked, and Qiu Luming quickly stepped forward and took them to the bathroom.

Today's bathroom had more soap and toilet paper than the previous few days, and a cleaner was standing at the corner of the corridor, ready to go in and clean at any time. It seemed that the county's hospitality work was really attentive.

The dinner lasted from 5pm to 10:30pm. Qiu Luming and the other three just ate a few snacks. During the dinner, Qiu Luming gave directions to more than 30 people, all of which were bathrooms. Ma Wei also rushed up to talk to him and said a few words. She was so excited that her mouth was grinning from ear to ear.

After the banquet, Lu Jianjun and Ma Wei followed half of the troupe members to the Friendship Hotel. Qiu Luming and Li Wei stayed behind to accompany several government secretaries until everyone went upstairs to rest before returning home.

Qiu Jiashu and Fang Yuan came to pick us up at nine o'clock and waited outside for more than two hours.

"Thank you for your hard work, Brother Wang!" Qiu Jiashu greeted a familiar secretary and pointed at Qiu Luming, "Pick up my sister."

"Your sister is pretty good. I think she will have no problem talking to the old...Russian friends."

"Oh, what's so great about that? That's what she studied." Qiu Jiashu smiled proudly.

Qiu Luming took the bicycle and pushed it over. Secretary Wang had already walked away. Qiu Jiashu was scratching his arm hard. Fang Yuan stopped him and stretched out his hand to make a cross on the mosquito bite with his fingernails. "Does it still itch?"

"Huh? It doesn't itch anymore!" Qiu Jiashu exclaimed in surprise.

Qiu Luming sneered in her heart, secretly despising him. You know, she had no idea how many crosses she had pinched on her second brother since he was a child, at least eighty if not a hundred. Yet, he pretended that he never knew!

The situation today was special, so the Qiu siblings first sent Fang Yuan back to the border defense brigade cadre dormitory, and then the two went home together.

After sending Fang Yuan off, they turned a corner and were greeted by bright lights and roaring engines. Qiu Luming was dazzled and couldn't see anything. He had to get off the car and wait for the motorcycle to pass before riding again.

Then I heard a familiar voice saying, "Brother Qiu, you are sending my sister-in-law back to the dormitory again!"

"Oh, Xiao Xie, come pick up your wife from get off work."

"Yes, isn't their hotel hosting a dance troupe today? Everyone has been working overtime until now. Brother, my house is right in front, come in and sit for a while?"

"No, I'm going home to sleep."

After a simple greeting, the motorcycle refueled and drove past. Qiu Jiashu also turned on the flashlight again, "Yoyo, you are in the front, I'll be behind to light the way for you."

"Policemen carry guns every day, but you carry a stun baton in your pocket every day." It is just for the convenience of giving it to his girlfriend.

"By the way, the furniture has all arrived. You can go and have a look after you have a rest. Also, we are going to Harbin on the 11th to buy clothes and take photos. You can come with us!"

"I don't want to be that light bulb!"

"Don't you want to be a light bulb? You can go or not. If you miss this opportunity, you will never get the chance again. Also, what if no one comes to pick you up after class? I originally planned to get married next Spring Festival, and you will graduate, but they have decided on a wedding date, and I can't change them."

"There are so many girls who study in the evening at school, I can do it too. Second brother, please don't delay your lifelong event for me. Next year, it will be Sister Fang Yuan's zodiac year. It is said that everything is unlucky in the zodiac year. Her parents are not happy about their daughter marrying in our small county. It would be unreasonable to argue about the wedding date.

You guys are only going for a week, right? I go home with my classmates after school, but I have no one to accompany me from the department store to home. But there are street lights, so maybe my dad can pick me up then."

Two months ago, Fang Yuan’s parents came to Jiayang, and the two families finally had a "friendly meeting" and agreed on the wedding date.

Fang Yuan's father is a very serious man who never smiles, and her mother looks like a gentle leader's wife at first glance, but after spending half an hour with her, you can tell that she is an extremely picky person.

Qiu Luming is worried about his second brother. How come such a good brother can’t find a wife-in-law who appreciates him?

Later, Fang Yuan confided in her privately, "I don't like the atmosphere in my home either. I like Aunt He and the atmosphere in your home, so I went home and made a big scene, and they agreed, hehe."

The second brother is a dedicated person, especially taking care of his younger sister. He never cares about gains and losses at home. In the past few years, most of his salary was given to his mother, and only this year did he give it to Fang Yuan.

The eldest and third brothers left their hometown first for their own future, but he never complained about his parents' idea of ​​"devoting their youth to their children and grandchildren". He only half-jokingly complained to his mother once when he found that his younger sister was growing up and Jiayang could not find someone to entrust his sister to for life.

Fang Yuan is really a blessed man.

***

The next afternoon, a performance by the Russian Song and Dance Ensemble was held at the county cinema.

Qiu Luming glanced down secretly from the side of the stage. Wow, the movie theater was so crowded that even the aisles were packed with people. It was a performance or something. They were all "Little Kesi".

As the lights in the auditorium went out, the crowd fell silent.

Following the beautiful female announcer of the song and dance troupe onto the stage was the announcer from the county TV station. One spoke Russian and the other Chinese, and they worked together very well.

The first program was a large-scale song and dance. It seemed as if each actor had springs under his feet. The bearded actor, who was drunk last night, was not affected at all today. He was still jumping around with a heavy accordion on his back.