In the morning, Wang An woke up early to practice his martial arts as usual, though he did so in the backyard of the guest house.
There was no other way; practicing martial arts was a matter of perseverance. Once you slackened, it became very difficult to pick up where you left off. Therefore, unless an extremely special situation arose, Wang An insisted on practicing every single day.
When Wang An finished his practice and returned to the room, Wang Li and Mu Xueli were staring blankly at a television screen full of static. As soon as they saw Wang An enter, Mu Xueli spoke up impatiently
"Brother-in-law, this TV didn't fix itself. I remember the TVs sold at the county supply and marketing cooperative are about 450 yuan. Maybe the two of us should just pay them back."
Wang Li chimed in
"Yeah, it's not like we broke this thing on purpose. Paying them the price of a new TV should be fair enough, right?"
It was clear that the two of them were genuinely distressed.
And for good reason; for them, the idea of having to pay over 200 yuan each just because they watched TV for half the night was, no matter how you looked at it, quite a miserable situation.
Wang An looked at the screen full of static and frowned at the two of them.
"Pay for what? The TV isn't broken. It's just not the right time yet; the people at the TV station haven't started work, so they aren't broadcasting any programs. That's why you can't see anything. Understand?"
Televisions were very rare items in this era, so it was perfectly normal that Wang Li and Mu Xueli didn't understand how they worked.
After Wang An spoke, Mu Xueli and Wang Li looked at each other. Then, Mu Xueli said, sounding a bit confused
"Brother-in-law, what do you mean? The TV is just sitting right here; what does it have to do with the TV station? It's not like the TV station broke it."
Wang Li added
"Yeah, Fourth Brother, you don't have to try and comfort us. If we broke it, we'll accept the cost."
Before Wang Li could finish, Wang An interrupted him with great impatience
"Oh for fuck's sake, you two are seriously delusional. I said it's not broken, so it's not broken. Got it?"
Under their bewildered gazes, Wang An continued
"A TV is similar to a radio. A radio has stations, and a TV has television stations. A radio makes sound because the station is transmitting a signal. If you want people to appear on the TV, the television station has to transmit a signal first..."
And so, Wang An rambled on for a long while until Wang Li and Mu Xueli finally understood. Once they realized what was happening, the miserable expressions they had worn since waking up finally broke into smiles.
Wang Li looked at the TV, his eyes gleaming, and said
"Fourth Brother, your relationship with Brother Wu and Big Sister is so strong—could you, I don't know, ask them to find some connections and help us get a TV coupon?"
As soon as Wang Li finished, Mu Xueli hurriedly added
"Two! Get two! I want to buy one too!"
Wang An looked at the two of them with a smile.
"What's this? You two have become addicted to watching TV?"
The two nodded in unison. Mu Xueli said with a face full of anticipation
"Yeah! This thing is just too great. I was thinking that if I could have a TV before I get married, I'd have so much face in our village."
Wang An said with a chuckle
"Getting a TV coupon is easy, and the TV itself isn't hard to find. But there's one thing you two need to be mentally prepared for."
Wang Li looked at Wang An in confusion and asked
"Fourth Brother, what is it?"
Wang An replied
"The moment you install a TV, everyone in the whole village will come to your house to watch. Your place will be packed with people inside and out every single day.
If you find it annoying and don't let the villagers come over, you won't be able to live in that village anymore. Even for something as simple as finding hired help, no one will come."
Pausing for a moment, Wang An added
"But if you do let them watch, setting aside everything else, just the smell of the cigarettes and the sour stench of people who haven't bathed in years will choke you to death.
Within half a month, your pristine white walls will be smoked a scorched yellow. Even the luggage and pillows on the kang will smell foul."
Seeing Wang Li and Mu Xueli's brows furrow deeply, Wang An continued laughing
"Besides that, you have to worry about the assholes in the village—especially those lazy bastards who do nothing but pick apart other people's flaws. They'll definitely gossip about your family behind your backs, and they won't have a single good word to say."
What Wang An was saying wasn't alarmism or wild guessing; these were things that had actually happened in Kaoshan Village in his previous life.
Of course, it wasn't just Kaoshan Village; other villages were the same.
In short, the first family in a village to buy a TV inevitably suffered through the things Wang An described.
The key was that there was no good solution to this problem.
Wang An remembered clearly that in his previous life, the first person in Kaoshan Village to buy a TV was Village Chief Niu Yiqun. However, because he was the village chief, many people didn't dare offend him, so his house remained relatively quiet after the installation.
But the second family to buy a TV, the mason Sun Xiangyang's family, suffered terribly.
From the moment they bought the TV, their kang, their floor, their outer room, and the area outside their windows were packed with people every night. It was absolutely more crowded than a bus during rush hour in later generations.
Mainly, people in this era weren't very mindful. They trashed the house, leaving sunflower seed shells, nut shells, cigarette butts, ash, and candy wrappers all over the floor and the kang.
The most disgusting part was that because most houses had south-facing kangs, some people sitting on the kang would spit on the windowsills. The quilts and mattresses placed on the kang became "snot-wiping tools" for those assholes.
Seriously, who wouldn't lose their temper in that situation?
So, after enduring it for over a month, Sun Xiangyang's family simply stopped turning on the TV. Later, they even sold it.
But because they sold the TV, those assholes started gossiping about them behind their backs and even did things to sabotage them.
It had to be said that when people act on their desires, they can be as shameless as possible—absolutely devoid of any shame.
In fact, this was the primary reason why Wang An had never bought a TV for his home after the village got electricity.
After Wang An finished speaking, Mu Xueli frowned and said
"Then what do we do? Fourth Brother, based on what you're saying, does that mean we shouldn't buy a TV?"
Wang An shook his head.
"It's up to you. Anyway, if you want to buy a TV these days, you really have to be cautious—extremely cautious."
Seeing that their expressions were not great, Wang An suggested
"Alright, alright, stop thinking about it. Let's go down and eat first."
(End of Chapter)