Rebirth and the Beautiful Soaring

Zhou Meihua has a naturally beautiful voice, and her melodious singing sounds to Yu Fei like a beautiful celestial melody.

After so many years, he heard her singing again, and this time with those slightly immature notes.

His excitement and joy were fully expressed through the sound of the ukulele.

Although no camera could capture this beautiful scene, his painting "Remembering the Fairy on the Fairy Terrace" had already preserved it in advance.

After finishing the song, Zhou Meihua felt great, which was completely different from when she sang on the school radio station, where she was a little reserved.

She didn't know if it was because she was singing in a place full of spiritual miracles, like Fairy Terrace, or because of the boy's ukulele accompaniment.

Her confidence was greatly boosted on Fairy Terrace.

Yu Fei had told her before that this was the first big stage for her to sing on in her life, and that her singing dream would begin here.

"Zhou Meihua, you sang so well!" Yu Fei's praise rang out at the right time.

Zhou Meihua felt a surge of joy and replied, "You played very well too, you don't seem like a beginner at all."

Yu Fei laughed heartily and said, "Really? Then I must be a genius. By the way, this is our first collaboration, let's give each other a high five to celebrate our successful first collaboration! Yay!"

Yu Fei stretched out his hands, and Zhou Meihua, infected by his excitement, also reached out her hands involuntarily.

With a "snap" sound, the two men's palms gently collided in the air.

At that moment, both of them felt a subtle sensation, as if a feeling was being conveyed to the deepest part of each other's hearts through the collision of emotions.

Such a scene is beautiful, and even years later, the two of them will feel particularly romantic every time they recall it.

The summer weather was hot, and since Zhou Meihua had sneaked out, the two didn't linger at Fairy Terrace for long. After collaborating on a song called "Lupin Flower," they went down the mountain together.

When Yu Fei returned to the pavilion, he checked the time: 7:05. Fortunately, it wasn't too late, and Zhou Meihua shouldn't get scolded when she got back.

They arranged a time to meet again, and Yu Fei also got Zhou Meihua's home phone number.

Although Zhou Meihua repeatedly reminded Yu Fei not to call her unless it was something important, Yu Fei was still secretly delighted.

……

As Yu Fei walked briskly back to her grandmother's house, a beautiful joy radiated from her face.

Yu Fei had just stepped into his room and hadn't even put down his bag when his aunt walked in with a disgruntled look on her face. "Feifei, why didn't you call me when you went hiking?"

Yu Fei quickly explained with a smile, "Auntie, when I got up there was no sound from your room, so you were sleeping soundly. I didn't want to disturb you, so I didn't wake you."

Fang Yi looked at her suspiciously and said, "Really? You looked so happy just now, did something wonderful happen?"

Was it his aunt's sharp eye or his own overt expression? Yu Fei said somewhat guiltily, "It's nothing, I just feel like I've improved at playing the ukulele, so I'm especially happy."

Fang Yi seemed skeptical: "Then play it for me, and I'll see if you've really improved or if you're just pretending."

Yu Fei said speechlessly, "Auntie, my face is covered in sweat. Let me go wash my face first."

Fang Yi seemed to smell the sweat and said in a cute voice, "You brat, hurry up!"

"Okay!" Yu Fei hurriedly ran to wash his face.

While Feifei was washing her face, her grandmother Chen Mei called out, "Feifei, you must be exhausted from climbing the mountain. Come and have breakfast after you finish washing your face."

While washing his face, Yu Fei replied with a smile, "Grandma, I didn't climb to the top of the mountain, so I'm not very tired. But it's just too hot, and I'm all sweaty. I'll eat later; my aunt said she wants to hear me play the little guitar."

Chen Mei smiled kindly and said, "Alright then."

After washing his face, Yu Fei dashed back to the east wing, where his aunt was playing with her ukulele, waiting to see how he was doing.

"Hurry up and play, then we'll have breakfast." Fang Yi handed the ukulele she had been playing with to Yu Fei.

“Auntie, Teacher, Feifei obeys.” After taking it, Yu Fei immediately began to play. He played the chord version of “Let Us Row Our Boats” that he had played before.

Fang Yi was increasingly surprised as she listened. Her nephew was simply a genius, making such great progress in such a short time.

After he finished playing, Yu Fei saw the surprise on his aunt's face. He wondered if he had overdone it, but there was nothing to worry about. Did his aunt really suspect that he had been reborn? That would be too ridiculous.

He deliberately asked in a low voice, "Auntie, have I made progress?"

Fang Yi stared at him for a few moments and said, "You little rascal, are you dreaming about playing this at night? You've made great progress, but don't be arrogant. You're still a long way from being a true master."

Yu Fei quickly replied, "That's right, I will definitely stay humble and work hard to reach the level of an expert in your mind, Auntie."

Fang Yi nodded in satisfaction and said, "Good, that's the right attitude. Let's go have breakfast."

For breakfast, we had congee, along with Yu Fei's favorite pickled cucumbers and pickled radishes, and steamed vegetable buns.

There are two kinds of fillings for vegetable buns: one is shredded potatoes, and the other is cowpeas.

Yu Fei liked both, and ate two bowls of porridge and four steamed buns in one go.

His maternal grandparents and aunt laughed happily when they saw him wolfing down his food.

It's perfectly normal for a teenager to eat a little during their growth spurt. Moreover, Yu Fei knows that the next six months will be the period when he grows the fastest, and like Zhou Meihua, he seems to be growing like crazy.

Otherwise, given his current height, he would probably fall behind Zhou Meihua very quickly.

During dinner, my grandparents talked about Yu Fei's uncle.

My aunt's husband's surname is Xie, and his name is Xie Changting. He is a key technical staff member at the Linxian County Pharmaceutical Factory.

Linxian County Pharmaceutical Factory is a state-owned enterprise, and its benefits were quite good in previous years, so many people were eager to get in.

However, with the reform of state-owned enterprises in 1993, many state-owned employees who originally had secure jobs began to be laid off and re-employed.

By 1996, this situation had escalated to the point that it had spread throughout the country.

The Linxian County Pharmaceutical Factory also faced the problem of restructuring and layoffs.

In Yu Fei's memory, the pharmaceutical factory seemed to have gone bankrupt when he was in his third year of junior high school, and his uncle, who had chosen to stay at the factory instead of accepting the one-time compensation, naturally regretted it.

Right now, my maternal grandparents and my aunt are talking about my aunt's husband.

At that time, ordinary people did not have a deep understanding of the nature of state-owned enterprises. They always felt that state-owned enterprises were a secure job, that they were eating the food of the state, and that no matter what, they were better than private enterprises or individual businesses.

Yu Fei's aunt, Fang Min, runs a grocery store in the county town. She does quite well and earns a lot of money each year.

However, she was often too busy to manage everything on her own, so her idea was for her husband to take a one-time compensation and run the grocery store together, and then expand the business.

Xie Changting, however, was somewhat reluctant to let go of his pride as an intellectual and was unwilling to work with Fang Min.

In fact, Yu Fei greatly admired his aunt Fang Min. Although she was not well-educated, she was daring and enterprising. Later, she opened chain supermarkets all over the towns and villages of Linxian and became a successful woman that the villagers talked about.

Yu Fei felt that although his uncle regretted it, he only lost a little money, which was nothing compared to their family's later prosperity.

On the contrary, the change might trigger unexpected chain reactions.

So even if he knew what the outcome would be, he wasn't going to do anything.