ECG -Chapter 5 In the Past, Horses and Carriages Were Slow, Letters Traveled Far

This shout drew everyone’s attention. They saw that the girl who had just been throwing a tantrum at her father had already pushed through the crowd and run away.

Lin Hao’s song was something she still couldn’t quite comprehend, and it hadn’t moved her much either. But his final words had made her think of so many, many things…

She remembered the spring of her childhood, when her father had taken her out to fly kites in the fields, and the laughter they shared.

She remembered every summer night, when her father would sit by the edge of the heated brick bed, dozing off as he fanned her with a palm-leaf fan.

She remembered that autumn when she had a high fever that wouldn’t go down, and her father had carried her on his back and run for more than half an hour to get her to the hospital.

She remembered the winters when she was in primary school. Every morning, her father would put her cotton-padded jacket and pants inside his own quilt first to warm them up, afraid that she would feel cold when she put them on…

There were so many people here. She didn’t want to, and couldn’t, lower her head and admit her mistake. There were so many people watching—what if they criticized her?

She couldn’t stay here any longer. At this moment, all she wanted was to escape!

The middle-aged man stood there with his mouth open, staring dumbfounded at his daughter’s retreating figure. He raised his pair of hands covered in calluses, wanting to say something more, but his daughter had already run far away…

The crowd immediately began murmuring among themselves, all of them criticizing the girl. Some parents even used this as an example to lecture their own children beside them.

Zhang Sisi, Wu Xiaozhou, and Li Yibo all sighed as well. This girl really was too inconsiderate!

Lin Hao was carrying his guitar and was just about to leave when the long-haired young man who had been singing earlier suddenly grabbed him.

“Brother, you wrote this song?”

Lin Hao nodded.

The young man looked extremely surprised. After hesitating for a moment, he asked, “Can I sing it?”

Lin Hao smiled and nodded. “No problem. Do you need me to write down the score and lyrics for you?”

The young man shook his head. He reached out and shook Lin Hao’s hand.

“My name is Sun Xiaowei. No need to write the score for me. When you were singing, I recorded everything!”

After saying that, he raised the cassette player in his hand.

“What’s your name? In the future, if I sing it and someone asks, I need to be able to tell them who wrote the lyrics and composed the music!”

“Lin Hao!”

“Alright, thank you! Thank you!”

Sun Xiaowei’s face was full of gratitude, and he kept thanking him repeatedly.

It was only after Lin Hao walked back that he suddenly remembered something very important.

He had already sung three songs: Gardenia Blossom, Childhood, and Father. He didn’t know what the process for registering music copyrights was in this world. Looks like he would have to find some time to go online at an internet café and check.

Then he remembered the cassette player Sun Xiaowei had been holding, and he became a little puzzled.

Why was someone still using a cassette recorder? Could it be that this world didn’t have smartphones yet?

He searched through his memories, and sure enough, there were none.

He carefully looked at the customers eating around him. There were very few mobile phones placed on the tables. Most of the men had their phones tucked into various leather cases attached to their belts. A few women even had small phones hanging around their necks.

Everything was so familiar.

Several girls had earphones in their ears and were holding small devices in their hands. He couldn’t tell whether they were MD players or MP3 players.

He shook his head and thought:

No wonder during the school performance, not a single person recorded it with a phone. Turns out this world hasn’t developed smartphones yet!

That was actually good.

In the era he had lived in before, everyone carried a phone and stared at it all day. Many traditional industries had been severely affected.

People on buses and subways no longer read newspapers. The sales of physical books had also been declining. Information became faster and communication methods became more convenient, but family bonds, friendships, and love gradually became more distant.

He especially liked a poem by Mu Xin called The Slow Way of the Past.

The poem said:

“In the past, horses and carriages were slow, letters traveled far, and a lifetime was only enough to love one person…”

What a beautiful image.

Wasn’t this exactly the kind of world he liked?

To be able to experience it once more was truly wonderful!

“Hello!”

A woman’s voice interrupted Lin Hao’s thoughts.

He looked up and saw a short-haired, big-eyed woman standing in front of him. She appeared to be around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old. She looked energetic, capable, and very beautiful.

“Ah, hello!” Lin Hao was stunned, not understanding what she wanted.

“My name is Chu Yu. I’m a host for Spring River City TV Station’s Stories of the People. May I ask what your name is?”

“My name is Lin Hao.”

“I think this song is especially good. The theme of fatherly love is also excellent. Could I broadcast it on our program?” Chu Yu asked.

Lin Hao felt it didn’t really matter. The speed of communication nowadays was slow, especially in a small city like Spring River, so he simply nodded.

Chu Yu was extremely excited. This was an excellent topic. It was currently graduation season, and conflicts between teenagers and their parents were becoming more and more common…

There were so many parents and children at the scene, and everyone had a different understanding of fatherly love. She had already recorded the footage of that girl covering her face and crying as she ran away. Combined with this song, what wonderful material for a program!

Her thoughts were no longer on Lin Hao.

She thanked him and quickly went to interview that father.

In this era, nobody really cared about things like copyright or not. Her greeting to Lin Hao was purely out of politeness.

However, whether that father and the other parents with children were willing to show their faces on her program was something that required the consent of the people involved. If it really wasn’t possible, she would have to blur their faces.

When Lin Hao returned to the table, he was greeted by Wu Xiaozhou’s exaggerated applause. Li Yibo, however, was in low spirits. After they had eaten and drunk their fill, he took the initiative to pay the bill.

The four of them got on their bicycles. Li Yibo’s home was farther away, and he wasn’t going in the same direction as them.

Watching Li Yibo’s back disappear into the distance with the guitar strapped to him, Wu Xiaozhou narrowed his eyes and said, “That guy is still holding a grudge against you!”

Zhang Sisi rolled her eyes at him, looking displeased.

Lin Hao chuckled. “Let’s go! Head home!”

On the way back, Wu Xiaozhou and Zhang Sisi kept pestering Lin Hao, asking him how he suddenly knew how to play guitar and why he no longer sang off-key.

Lin Hao could only laugh awkwardly and make up nonsense, saying that he had secretly practiced hard all this time, just waiting for today to amaze everyone and so on.

Wu Xiaozhou and Zhang Sisi were completely fooled by him. Although they didn’t really believe it, it seemed like this was the only explanation that made sense.

The two of them had forgotten one thing: practicing hard also required equipment.

Lin Hao’s family didn’t even have a harmonica!

The only thing that could barely be considered a musical instrument was his own mouth, because he had always been pretty good at whistling since childhood. Of course, it was only loud—he was never actually on tune.

Wu Xiaozhou and the other two lived in the same building entrance. His family lived on the fifth floor.

Just as the three of them turned around the corner of the building, they saw a police car parked by the roadside. Wu Xiaozhou immediately grabbed the brakes, and before Lin Hao and Zhang Sisi could react, he turned around and ran.

Lin Hao and Zhang Sisi looked at each other, not understanding what had happened.

“Wu Xiaozhou! You little bastard!”

With a loud shout, Wu Xiaozhou’s father, Wu Yongheng, rushed out from the building entrance wearing only a pair of shorts and holding a cigarette in his mouth.

Looking again at Wu Xiaozhou, he was already long gone.

A tall police officer in his early thirties also walked out from the entrance. Wu Yongheng looked apologetic, nodding and bowing as he took out a cigarette and offered it to him, but the officer raised his hand to stop him.

Wu Yongheng’s face darkened as he gritted his teeth.

“Officer Zhou, just wait until that little brat comes back. I’ll beat some sense into him!”

The officer surnamed Zhou said, “The child is older now. Don’t always resort to hitting him. In the future, try not to let him hang around with Erfei and those people. Bring him to the station as soon as possible to make a statement. That’s all. I’ll head back first.”

“Ah, ah! Don’t worry, don’t worry. Officer Zhou, take care…”

After the car drove away, Wu Yongheng still stood there staring into the dark distance.

“Uncle Wu, what happened?” Lin Hao pushed his bicycle over.

“Ah!” Wu Yongheng sighed. “Isn’t it because of that bunch with Erfei? They got into a group fight and stabbed someone. The police said this brat went along with them too!”

Lin Hao’s heart jumped, and he hurriedly asked, “It wasn’t Xiaowu who did it, right?”

Wu Yongheng shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. But it’s still troublesome. Sigh!”

After saying that, he walked back with his hands behind his back, still muttering angrily, “Stupid kid. Just wait until you come back. I’ll skin you alive…”

Worried about Wu Xiaozhou, Lin Hao told Zhang Sisi to go home first. He rode around on his bicycle searching for him, but he couldn’t find him anywhere. With no other choice, he returned home.

“Son, your fever’s gone? Why did you only come back now?”

As soon as Lin Hao pushed open the door, he heard his father Lin Qingsheng’s voice.

After all, deep inside, he was a person in his forties. Even though he had inherited the memories of this body, hearing that word “son” still felt strange to him—extremely awkward, even.

In his previous life, his greatest regret was missing out on family affection.

Looking at the man under the dim yellow light, his eyes gradually became blurry. The tall figure who had left in his memories seemed to overlap with the middle-aged man in front of him, whose temples were already turning gray…

His nose suddenly turned sour, and he still called out:

“Dad!”

That single word “Dad” carried emotions that were impossible to describe. It was incredibly complicated—there was regret for his previous life, as well as the family affection contained in the memories of this life.

“Ah! Come eat. I’ll heat it up for you again!”

Lin Qingsheng crushed his cigarette butt into an ashtray made from an empty soda can on the table.

Lin Hao quickly said, “No need. After the performance, I ate lamb skewers outside with a few classmates.”

“I see the medicine is all finished. Your fever is gone now?”

After saying that, Lin Qingsheng reached out to touch his forehead.

Lin Hao instinctively stepped back.

He understood.

He also remembered the two medicine boxes on the table. It seemed that after this body had fallen ill with a fever, his own soul had taken advantage of its weakness and attached itself to it…

But where had the original “him” gone?

“You brat!”

Seeing that his son had actually dodged away from him, Lin Qingsheng couldn’t help but laugh and scold him.

“As long as you’re better, that’s fine. Go to bed early.”

After saying that, he began cleaning up the dishes.

“Dad!”

Lin Hao called out again.

“Hm?” Lin Qingsheng was stunned. “What is it?”

Lin Hao quickly turned his head away, hiding his emotions.

“Nothing, nothing… You’ve lost weight…”

Lin Qingsheng chuckled.

“Silly boy!”