The next day, in the afternoon.
At three in the afternoon, after checking the time and deciding it was about right, Grandpa Liu noted that the sun was no longer as fierce as it had been at noon.
He climbed into the Jiuzhou Mini, which had spent the night charging and was now fully powered.
Grandpa Liu turned on the air conditioning first. Once the car had cooled down, he called to his wife.
"Come on, let's go pick up our grandson!"
The Jiuzhou Mini deftly pulled out of their little courtyard and headed toward the urban area, more than ten kilometers away.
"Isn't it a little late to be leaving now?" Aunt Chen asked anxiously.
"It's fine. I checked the time. Our grandson gets out of school at four fifty, and it's only three thirty now.
"It'll take half an hour to get there, which is plenty of time. We'll still have to wait outside the school for a while before he gets out."
"Mm. It's our first time driving this route, so it's better to leave ourselves extra time."
"By the way, did you tell our son that we're going to pick up our grandson?" Aunt Chen asked.
Grandpa Liu shook his head. "Not yet. Give them a call. They definitely haven't left home at this hour."
The car drove smoothly out of the village. Grandpa Liu sighed with feeling. "Phones, cars... Life is so much more convenient now than it used to be."
Beside him, Aunt Chen had already dialed the number on her Nokia.
Beep, beep—
The phone rang twice before someone answered.
Aunt Chen got straight to the point. "Hello, Qiangzi. We're going to pick up our grandson today."
The familiar voice on the other end sounded surprised. "Mom, what brings you here?"
Aunt Chen