Chapter 362 - 364 Mass Telegraph
Xia Xiao, Yang Xuehua, a group of people, and almost everyone from the production team came to see off Secretary Li and Ning Hui. Everybody felt a strong reluctance in their hearts. Secretary Li was a good leader, who worked alongside everyone without the delicateness and arrogance of city folk, and was very approachable. Over the years, everyone had grown fond of him.
"Xia Xiao, when it’s time for you to give birth, I’ll come back to see you," Ning Hui said, holding Xia Xiao’s hand.
Xia Xiao nodded, replying okay.
Ning Hui chuckled, "Stop crying now."
"I’m not going to," Xia Xiao said, scrunching up her nose. She wasn’t going to cry.
Ning Hui continued, "Take good care of Xuehua. Now that I’m here, it’s just the two of you sisters. I hope you’re both doing well."
Yang Xuehua smiled and said, "Enough, go on. Don’t keep Secretary Li waiting. Take care of yourself too. When we’re free, we’ll come see you."
"I love to hear that, Xuehua. You must come visit. I will write to you with the address when the time comes."
With that, Ning Hui and Li Zhenchuan waved their hands, said their goodbyes to everyone, and were sent off by Gao Jiazhi driving the ox cart.
As soon as Mr. Cheng arrived at the Guangming Production Team, he started working with everyone and quickly integrated into the collective. Everyone found it easier to accept Mr. Cheng.
Meanwhile, over at the Red Star Production Team, Wang Xueyong had come over as the original secretary was transferred.
Before coming over, Mr. Wang had strictly ordered Wang Xueyong to work well at the Red Star Production Team and make a mark for himself.
Liu Haihua was very happy about Wang Xueyong’s arrival, but upon seeing that Gao Guihua had also followed, her mood soured.
Gao Guihua originally did not want to come. Having stayed in the city for so long, she was reluctant to return to the countryside. But now that Wang Xueyong was in the Red Star Production Team, with Liu Haihua there and so many young female educated youth around, Gao Guihua could not feel at ease.
Wang Xueyong naturally had no objections. Mrs. Wang, on the other hand, didn’t quite agree. She wanted Gao Guihua to stay home and take care of her health until after the baby was born before going to the Red Star Production Team. But Gao Guihua did not want to be separated from Wang Xueyong.
And because of Liu Haihua, it was also better for Wang Xueyong if Gao Guihua went with him to the Red Star Production Team—at least that way Liu Haihua wouldn’t dare to approach him so blatantly.
Time ticked by, and Xia Xiao remained in touch with her family and Xia Fei and Xia Hong through letters. But one day, Xia Xiao received a telegram from Xia Wei, who was getting married.
It should have been a happy occasion, but the telegram was personally delivered by Wang Yuncai, which disgusted Xia Xiao. With Wang Xueyong gone to the Red Star Production Team, Wang Yuncai had taken the initiative to visit the Gao family. What’s more, she had a keen interest in getting on good terms with Xia Xiao.
Thinking of Wang Yuncai’s job at the post office, particularly her responsibility for telegrams, Xia Xiao felt uncomfortable.
That morning, Xia Xiao used sleep as an excuse, greeted Zheng Xianghong, and then shut herself in her room. She took the opportunity to visit the post office from her space. Originally wanting to confirm Wang Yuncai’s position and cause some mischief, she even thought about getting Wang Yuncai fired from her job.
Unexpectedly found there, Xia Xiao listened to Wang Yuncai murmuring to herself: "Can’t Gao Jiaxing receive my telegrams? Why is he ignoring me? Is it because of that Xia Xiao? What’s so good about her? She’s just a bit prettier, that’s all."
Without listening carefully, one wouldn’t catch what Wang Yuncai was muttering.
At that moment, Wang Yuncai regretted not pursuing Gao Jiaxing earlier. If she had, she could be with him now.
Wang Yuncai wrote Xia Xiao’s name on a piece of paper and, holding a pen, whispered to the name, "I hear that pregnant women can have trouble giving birth, and accidents can lead to death for both mother and child, right? If that happens, can I be with Gao Jiaxing?"
Xia Xiao began to feel angry. So Wang Yuncai was harboring this idea: hoping for her to die during childbirth, thinking that might give her a chance?
After disposing of the scraps, Wang Yuncai moved to the telegraph machine, intending to send a telegram to Gao Jiaxing. She didn’t know that Gao Jiaxing was no longer in Lixian, assuming he was still with the military there, so she wanted to send a telegram to the Lixian post office in case Gao Jiaxing sent a telegram to his family, so they could receive hers as well.
Xia Xiao was utterly speechless. Wang Yuncai was really trying to send a telegram to Gao Jiaxing, and it seemed this wasn’t the first time.
Xia Xiao stood next to Wang Yuncai. She didn’t quite understand how to send a telegram. Despite being proficient with computers, the telegraph machine was foreign to Xia Xiao.
She didn’t even know how to type the characters or operate it, but at this moment, Xia Xiao wanted to disrupt Wang Yuncai’s attempts to send telegrams to Gao Jiaxing, even sabotaging the power supply.
Now Xia Xiao found a new task. Every day, she would spend half an hour at the post office, learning how to operate the telegraph machine. After half a month of study, she finally understood the dots and dashes for numbers.
Even though the computers of the later eras were far more advanced, at this time, Xia Xiao still admired human wisdom, especially at the beginning when she found it all utterly confusing, and those codes and numbers had to be memorized.
A month later, Xia Xiao knew how to operate the machine. If only there had been electricity in her space, she would’ve liked to have a telegraph machine to play with.
Currently, Xia Xiao could only stealthily observe others working at the post office and learn on the side. Occasionally, she interfered with Wang Yuncai’s work.
No matter how strong Wang Yuncai’s backing was, with a growing number of mistakes, the leadership was dissatisfied. After being criticized several times, Wang Yuncai was very disheartened, and because she was arrogant when she first arrived, there weren’t many who were close to her. Now, feeling despondent with no one to confide in, she once again thought of sending a telegram to Gao Jiaxing.
Xia Xiao was completely speechless. This girl was still fixated on Gao Jiaxing, desiring to send him telegrams even after being reprimanded and making mistakes.
Xia Xiao couldn’t understand. Even if she were gone, it wasn’t certain that Wang Yuncai could be with Gao Jiaxing. Where was this confidence coming from?
After watching Wang Yuncai for some time, Xia Xiao understood that Wang Yuncai had painted Gao Jiaxing as a prince charming in her mind, always fantasizing about being with him—almost to a pathological extent.
She was in her twenties, not a young girl anymore. Wang Yuncai must have been beyond help.
Thus, Xia Xiao watched silently every day, as a woman daydreamed and pined for her husband as if he were a distant lover, even frequently writing love letters to Gao Jiaxing, which Xia Xiao stumbled upon by chance. There were several letters, but none had been sent.
Xia Xiao took the love letters and decided it was time to no longer tolerate Wang Yuncai’s behavior. Therefore, at the post office, when the leader asked Wang Yuncai to send a telegram, Xia Xiao helped her broadcast it instead.
As one might expect, the leader was furious and told Wang Yuncai to get lost.