As soon as Wang Xiaoli finished speaking, everyone in the room burst into laughter.
Only Wang Xiaomei and Miss Wang Xiaoli didn't laugh; instead, they looked at everyone with faces full of curiosity.
It had to be said that the phrase "the innocence of children" was perfectly embodied by these two young misses.
After the laughter subsided, the two girls were clearly not satisfied with their curiosity—or rather, their "thirst for knowledge" had grown. Like a living version of "100,000 Whys," they continuously peppered Wang An with questions about the relationship between the sun and the earth.
Unfortunately, Wang An himself was essentially semi-illiterate, and the things he knew were truly limited. Eventually, he simply couldn't keep up.
However, as their eldest brother, Wang An absolutely could not say that he didn't know or "didn't understand," because in the eyes of his two little sisters, their big brother was omniscient and omnipotent.
If Wang An were to say such a thing, it would be a genuine collapse of faith for the two girls.
Thus, Wang An said to his little sisters
"You have to study hard; you'll be able to learn all these things in the future. You're still too small right now, and if I tell you too much, you won't even be able to remember it. Go turn off the light; it's a waste of electricity to have the lights on in broad daylight."
The two little sisters still listened to Wang An. They nodded obediently and ran over to pull the light cord.
Ever since Wang An installed the pull-switch box, the two little girls often played by tugging the cord; they said they liked listening to the "clack-clack" sound coming from the box.
Because of this, the two girls had once received a harsh scolding from Liu Guilan. If Wang An hadn't stepped in, the two of them would have certainly been beaten.
After settling the two girls, the group continued eating and chatting. Wang Dazhu said
"It's great to have electricity. That big loudspeaker was installed a long time ago, but it never made a sound. Now that there's power, the loudspeaker can just notify us directly. Otherwise, for something as small as what just happened, the village chief would have had to ring the bell to call everyone to a meeting, hahahaha..."
Liu Guilan chimed in
"That's for sure. It's just a matter of one sentence. Without the loudspeaker, people would definitely be swarming over to the village headquarters again."
Wang An said with a smile
"Now you don't have to worry about the batteries when you listen to the radio or the tape recorder. Listen as much as you want, whenever you want, hahahaha..."
It had to be admitted that although Wang An had brought the radio and tape recorder home, because of the batteries, Wang Dazhu and his wife only listened to the radio at scheduled times. Aside from the news and the occasional storytelling performance, the radio remained off the rest of the time.
As for using the tape recorder to listen to songs, unless Wang An or Mu Xueqing took the initiative to turn it on, Wang Dazhu and his wife would never do so on their own.
There was no helping it; although Wang An bought batteries by the box, the old couple remained stingy and reluctant to use them.
As soon as Wang An finished speaking, Wang Dazhu immediately said
"That's right! Quick, quick, Xiao An, turn on the tape recorder. Let's listen to some songs and enjoy ourselves, hahahaha..."
Liu Guilan also said with a face full of smiles
"I want to hear that song 'Tian Mi Mi.' I feel like that song is so beautiful. 'The Moon Represents My Heart' would be good too."
Wang An laughed, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and plugged the tape recorder into the socket. After rummaging through the cassettes, he found the one with "Tian Mi Mi," put it in the machine, and pressed the play button.
Immediately, the voice of Goddess Deng echoed from the tape recorder... *Tian mi mi, you smile so sweetly, it seems...*
One had to admit that this song was truly a classic, mainly because Goddess Deng sang it so beautifully.
Of course, the sound quality of the tape recorder at this time was also quite impressive.
When the song ended, Huang Zhong curiously pointed at the tape recorder and asked Wang An
"Big brother, when did the person singing crawl inside? That thing is so small, how did she crawl in there?"
Huang Zhong's question instantly left Wang An completely bewildered.
Mainly because Wang An himself had never seen when Goddess Deng crawled into the tape recorder!
While Wang An blinked, wondering how to explain this, Huang Li couldn't help but speak up
"Nobody crawled in there. That's a tape recorder; it uses a cassette tape and the speakers on both sides to sing."
One could tell that Huang Li's understanding of the tape recorder was also very superficial; after all, these were things Mu Xueqing had casually told her while she had been staying at Wang An's house these past few days.
After hearing this, Huang Zhong only let out an "oh," but the look in his eyes as he stared at the tape recorder remained confused.
Wang An explained with a smile
"This thing is just a machine. That thing I just took is called a cassette tape; the songs are all recorded on it. Then, inside the tape recorder, there's something called a magnetic head. When it rubs against the tape, the song on the tape is 'rubbed' out..."
In this manner, Wang An tried his best to use simple language to explain the tape recorder, though it was obvious that Huang Zhong didn't understand at all, or perhaps only understood a tiny fraction.
However, once Wang An finished explaining, he stopped. Mainly because explaining further was useless.
To be honest, although Wang An knew how to repair tape recorders and understood the working principles, asking him to explain it in a way that an illiterate person could understand was truly asking too much of him, because he genuinely didn't know how.
After lunch, Huang Li was responsible for clearing the table and washing the dishes, and everyone rested for a short while.
Huang Li's quarters were in the west room of the house where Wang An and Mu Xueqing lived, as staying there made it convenient for her to take care of the heavily pregnant Mu Xueqing.
As for Huang Baoguo and his son and Er Gangzi, Wang An had arranged for them to stay in the old house.
Wang An had installed electric lights in the old house as well, and the bedding and luggage inside were already available. Although they were old items used by Wang An's family, Liu Guilan had dismantled and washed everything after they moved.
Moreover, since Wang An had hired them to work, providing them with such conditions was already very good. Even so, these conditions were far superior to the dugout shelters where drifting vagrants lived.
As for the vacant rooms in the new house, although they could be lived in just by laying down some bedding, to be honest, if Huang Baoguo and the others stayed there, Wang An would feel more or less a bit repulsed.
Mainly because these vagrants not only rarely bathed, but their clothes were also filthy. Although Huang Baoguo and the others had likely cleaned themselves up before arriving, the smell on them was still quite strong.
There was no helping it; this was the normal thinking of a normal person. Everyone is human, but it must be admitted that there are truly differences between people.
Huang Li was a young girl; once she washed up and changed her clothes, Wang An could accept her. But as for Huang Baoguo and the others, Wang An really couldn't quite stomach it.
However, it was clear that Huang Baoguo and the others were extremely satisfied with Wang An's arrangements.
(End of Chapter)