Chapter 110
The previous year was just a prelude; with the cancellation of the Spring Festival, this year was when Qiao Wei truly began to feel that sensation of “Ah, it has begun…”
Qiao Wei read the newspaper every day, not daring to miss a single piece of news.
Because her meager and limited understanding of this phase came largely from period novels, period dramas, and Weibo. It was not only extremely limited and vague, but much of it might even be wrong.
For a few days, her sleep was particularly terrible. Yan Lei held her and asked softly, “What is actually wrong?”
Qiao Wei sighed and said, “I’m scared.”
Yan Lei said, “You don’t need to be afraid. You are a military dependent.”
At this moment, Qiao Wei was truly so thankful for her status as a military dependent.
She finally relaxed.
Moreover, besides being a military dependent, she remembered she had another identity—the male lead’s wife.
She stroked the muscles on Yan Lei’s arm and squeezed them; they were firm and resilient.
It felt very secure.
Ah, in over a year, living a plain and happy life every day, working a stable and rhythmic job—perhaps because everything felt so real, she had actually forgotten that she had transmigrated into a book.
Never forget the power of the male lead’s halo.
Qiao Wei hugged Yan Lei and fell into a sound sleep.
But what must come will eventually come—Secretary Meng had lost his position.
Huang Zengyue had betrayed him.
…
…
The meeting ended.
Suddenly, the noisy and bustling auditorium fell silent; everyone who needed to leave had left.
Qiao Wei stretched her legs out far and looked at her round-toed Liberation shoes.
Another pair of Liberation shoes appeared in her field of vision, standing right next to her feet.
Qiao Wei raised her eyes.
Huang Zengyue looked down at her.
After a long while, he sighed, “As expected of you.”
The auditorium was empty, and his sigh seemed to echo.
[Extra]: Yan Xiang’s Daily Life at the Broadcasting Station
Yan Xiang woke up early in the morning.
He sat up with a tumble and put on his clothes by himself.
His clothes were always very clean. Mom said that one should not wear the same piece of clothing for more than two days. But he knew many people could wear the same clothes for three or four days.
His mom was particularly fond of cleanliness.
But Yan Xiang was also fond of cleanliness, because if clothes were worn for too long, they would really smell bad. Yan Xiang couldn’t stand that smell.
Yan Xiang slid down from the kang, his little feet steadily stepping onto the small stool, and then he stretched his feet down to put on his shoes.
He could complete all of this by himself. He was already a very, very big little kid!
Very capable!
Walking out of the room, it was another sunny day. The sunlight shone into the courtyard, and the pebbles on the small path sparkled.
Mom said that in some special places, there would be special pebbles, transparent and shiny, like gemstones, called Rain Flower Stones.
Mom said that if there was a chance in the future, she wanted to take him to that place to pick up Rain Flower Stones. But he had to wait until he grew up.
But Yan Xiang was very worried that by the time he grew up, those beautiful Rain Flower Stones would all have been picked up by others.
He had seen in a geography book in the Library that it mentioned,
many rocks take tens of thousands or even millions of years to form. Yan Xiang himself was only four years old; millions of years was simply too long for Yan Xiang.
If they were all picked up, he wouldn’t be able to wait for the next batch of new stones to form.
Anxious!
“Xiangxiang, go wash your face and eat breakfast!”
Mom was also wearing a clean white shirt today, with a smile.
Yan Xiang’s mom always spoke to him with a smile, and she never slapped the back of his head, kicked him, or twisted his arms and pinched his inner thighs.
Yan Xiang didn’t quite understand the parents of other children. But he would compare, and after comparing, he felt his own mom and dad were better.
In the summer, the washbasin stand was placed right next to the hand-pump well. Mom went over and scooped a ladle of water from the bucket into the basin.
The water pumped out by the hand-pump well was groundwater. According to Yan Xiang’s understanding from the geography books he read, groundwater was filtered through rock layers and soil, making it cleaner than pond or river water. After all, no one bathed or washed their feet in it, no one washed clothes or vegetables in it, and no one dumped chamber pots in it.
After reading the relevant content, Yan Xiang became very worried about the water usage problems of the town residents.
For a few days, he was so worried he couldn’t eat.
Later, when Mom asked him why he was always frowning, he told her what he was worried about.
Mom stroked his head and said, “There is no way around this.”
“But we Chinese people are also very smart. Since ancient times, we have advocated drinking boiled water, because high-temperature boiling is a process of disinfecting the water, purifying the dirty water.”
“And look, although the people in town wash clothes and dump chamber pots, if you observe, you will find that everyone draws river water from the upstream section, washes clothes and vegetables in the middle stream, and dumps dirty things in the downstream. Also, if anyone dares to go swimming in the upstream section, their parents will chase them down and beat them.”
“See, this is human wisdom under limited conditions.”
So that was it.
Yan Xiang understood. It wasn’t that people couldn’t think of it, but that objective conditions were limited. Smart people have existed from ancient times to the present.
Moreover, Mom told him the real solution: “Tap water.”
“Clean water that meets standards, filtered and disinfected by the water plant, is sent to every household through pipes from the water plant’s clean water tank.”
“Hmm… it can’t reach inside every household yet. Look, the Residential Compound only has a public tap water pool; it can’t reach everyone’s home yet.”
“But in the future, it will definitely be possible. In the future, everyone will have their own tap water faucet at home. Just turn it on, and clean water will flow out.”
“Even when washing your face, you won’t need a basin; you can use running water, which is cleaner.”
“Every household will be able to take a bath in their own home in the future, without needing to go to a public bathhouse.”
When Yan Xiang had questions about certain things in life, Mom could always tell him the solution. Although she said these methods might not exist now, she firmly believed they would in the future.
Mom’s attitude also infected Yan Xiang.
Yan Xiang believed in that “future” that Mom talked about.
Breakfast was refreshing plain noodle soup, served with pickled vegetables and a poached egg.
Yan Xiang brushed his teeth after eating.
This was different from the habit many people had of brushing their teeth before eating.
But Mom said, “You brushed your teeth before going to bed at night, and you didn’t eat anything during the night, so your oral cavity wasn’t contaminated. Therefore, when you wake up in the morning, your mouth is actually clean.”
“Eating is what contaminates the oral cavity.”
“If you brush your teeth before eating breakfast, it means your oral cavity is only clean for a few minutes before being contaminated by food. You carry food residue between your teeth, fermenting for the whole morning.”
“But if you eat breakfast first and then brush your teeth, at least until you eat lunch, for this whole morning, your oral cavity and your teeth will be in a clean state, reducing bacterial reproduction and keeping your breath fresh.”
Dad said that what Mom said was twisted logic; he had never heard of brushing teeth after eating breakfast.
But Dad still obediently followed it. Every day after eating breakfast, he brushed his teeth, and only then did he go to work.
Yan Xiang specifically went to ask Jun Jun how he brushed his teeth.
Jun Jun was very surprised: “You actually brush your teeth?”
Yan Xiang: “…”
Alright then.
Yan Xiang was really helpless.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to play with the children of Dad’s comrades. But first of all, the older big brothers and sisters wouldn’t play with a child as small as him at all. They took one step that covered three of his; to keep up with their speed, he would have to run after them.
But with children about his age, Yan Xiang sometimes felt that their heads seemed empty.
Sometimes it was so hard to communicate.
Especially those who could come out to play were all children who hadn’t entered Kindergarten yet. These children had no idea how to listen to requirements or follow instructions; it was so hard.
Plus the various screams and noises made by the children, so all along, Yan Xiang preferred playing by himself at home.
He had read his limited picture books I don’t know how many times, and he had long since learned the characters through Mom’s repeated storytelling.
The sandbox was also very interesting, with infinite possibilities for shaping.
True happiness actually started after Mom discovered he knew how to read.
Yan Xiang actually couldn’t quite remember which day that was later on. In any case, that year, Mom seemed to care more about him, and she became more interesting, too.
She would tell him many, many stories he had never heard before; her stories seemed endless.
Later, he went to the county and told those stories to the children at Kindergarten. Not only the children, but even the teachers loved to listen.
They exclaimed: “Xiangxiang, how do you know so many stories?”
Yan Xiang said: “It was my mom who told them to me.”
The teachers seemed to think this was very natural: “Xiangxiang’s mom is a writer, after all. How many books must she have read?”
“Between her and Secretary Huang, whose writing is better?”
“That, I don’t know.”
“They are both excellent.”
Yan Xiang vaguely remembered that year, suddenly, Mom seemed to completely understand him.
Before, Mom would say he was strange, wondering why he was different from other children. From that year on, Mom never said it again.
She tried every way to find him more books to read—text-based, picture-based, and with all kinds of symbols.
It didn’t matter if he couldn’t understand them, and it didn’t matter if he didn’t know the meaning of a large number of nouns. She said: “Just read them.”
From that year on, he and Mom had their own little secrets.
He was different from other children—the more Yan Xiang read, the more he had this self-awareness. And the more he knew why Mom didn’t let him talk too much outside.
Even Dad didn’t know their secrets.
Mom said: “This way, everyone will be a little happier.”
This point was something Yan Xiang could only fully understand after growing up.
Mom not only found books for him to read and told him various stories, but she also loved taking him outdoors.
The river beach of the small town held many, many memories for Yan Xiang.
The stones in the shallows were shiny in the water.
Their rounded shapes were due to the never-ending erosion of the river water, which smoothed away their sharp edges.
Mom would always tell him many, many things bit by bit in daily life.
To her and him, those things were called common sense.
But after Yan Xiang grew up and came into contact with many people, he realized that not everyone understood common sense.
In that era when transportation and communication were not developed, people’s understanding of not just knowledge, but even common sense, was pitifully scarce.
And his mom—why did she know so many things?
It was only a long, long time later that Yan Xiang realized this was a very strange thing.
But when he was little, he thought it was a matter of course.
The small river rippled.
Little fish swam in the shallows.
Mom told him he could swim, but it must be with Dad. All of a child’s activities must be carried out under the premise of safety.
Yan Xiang also told other children this, but the children didn’t listen at all and even mocked him.
It was really helpless.
Mom’s restrictions did not affect his happiness.
Because Dad would also often take him swimming. An obedient child didn’t need to go into the river alone without adult supervision.
Why weren’t other children’s parents like this?
An unsolved mystery.
Childhood passed by very quickly.
When Yan Xiang recalled it later, he was surprised to find that his happiest childhood actually overlapped with an important period in history.
He had also read many literary works and was surprised to find that they were so different from his memories.
Accompanied by his mom and dad, it was as if he had always lived in a happy paradise.
The sunlight in the courtyard, those nap times, the cool groundwater from the hand-pump well washing his feet after waking up.
The small green vegetables with dew in their own courtyard.
The rushing wind on the back seat of the bicycle.
The straight poplar trees on both sides of the road, the Tyndall effect of the sunlight shining in.
Yan Xiang later wrote in his memoirs:
[Every child should have such a childhood, regardless of whether he is different from ordinary people. When he is at that age, he is just a child.]
