Chapter 151: Arrival at the Family Courtyard
With dinner finished, they set out on the final leg of their journey back to the military base.
Sheng Wanyan pressed her lips together, catching a faint whiff of her own skin. It wasn’t an overwhelming odor, just the unmistakable, slightly sour scent of sweat.
She was reaching the absolute limit of her patience. Throughout the grueling week-long train ride, she had sneaked into her pocket dimension every single time she went to the restroom just to wash up with warm water. Even then, she hadn’t dared to use scented shower gel. Gu Tingxiao’s hearing, sight, and sense of smell were all exceptionally sharp, and she refused to risk him noticing anything unusual. A simple rinse had been her only option.
Yet no matter how meticulously she tried to clean herself, spending days on end trapped in a suffocating, un-air-conditioned train carriage took its toll. She still counted herself incredibly lucky; at least she had a private space to wash up daily.
Gu Tingxiao smelled much stronger than she did. He had been running around, hauling heavy luggage, and keeping watch over her for the entire trip, so it would have been a miracle if he didn’t have a distinct musk about him.
As the car rattled away from the bustling center of Bing City, the surrounding landscape grew increasingly desolate. Wanyan had always known that military bases were usually stationed in remote areas, but she hadn’t expected it to be quite this isolated.
The dirt road was pitted with endless potholes. Every few seconds, the vehicle would jar violently, causing Sheng Wanyan’s lower back and hips to ache intensely. It was her first time enduring such a long drive, let alone over a bumpy, muddy track.
Along the way, they rattled past a supply and marketing cooperative. From what she could see, it appeared to be the only formal place to buy daily necessities anywhere near the base.
“How much further do we have?” Wanyan asked, her voice tight as she tried to cushion herself against another jolt. Sitting for so long was painful enough, but the relentless bouncing was unbearable. She felt as though she were being shaken to pieces.
“Just another half hour, sister-in-law,” the young soldier at the wheel called back enthusiastically. He pointed out the window as they passed the store. “That’s the local cooperative. Most folks head there when they need supplies.”
He eagerly shared a few more details about life on the base, wanting to help her acclimate. “But honestly, most of the wives in the family compound prefer to go straight to the nearby villages to trade goods directly with the locals.”
The young soldier knew the routine well, having seen the other military wives do it constantly. In the staff housing estate, it was an open secret and a completely normal part of daily life.
Initially, the local villagers had been deeply hesitant to participate in these under-the-table trades, terrified of being caught engaging in illicit capitalist transactions. However, once they realized their customers were respectable military wives, their anxieties vanished. What was there to fear when doing business with the military?
The base leadership was well aware of the bartering, but they chose to turn a blind eye. After all, every household needed food to survive, and every family’s daughter-in-law participated. Cracking down on it would only cause unnecessary trouble for their own men.
“Are there any schools nearby?” Wanyan inquired, shifting her focus to the essentials. She wasn’t opposed to having children and preferred to let nature take its course. Given Gu Tingxiao’s rank, they would likely be stationed here for the next few years. If they did have a child, education would be a primary concern.
“There’s a primary school over in the village,” the soldier explained. “The classes are taught by the educated youths who were sent down there.”
“And what about middle school and high school?”
“For junior high and high school, the kids have to travel all the way into the city.”
Wanyan nodded thoughtfully, though the mention of the educated youth teaching the children made her a bit uneasy. Education during this era was notoriously lagging, and the sent-down youth were usually just high school graduates themselves. With limited resources and a lack of formal training, the depth of knowledge they could pass on to the children was bound to be restricted. Still, in these times, simply holding a high school diploma was considered a massive achievement.
Ultimately, she realized she didn’t need to stress over it too much. In three years, she planned to return to the Capital to take the resumed college entrance exams. She would be spending at least four years at a university there, and if she had a child by then, she would absolutely keep them by her side. She would rather endure a bit of extra fatigue than miss out on her child’s formative years. Once they were back in the Capital, she could easily secure a spot for them in a top-tier school.
To her, a proper education was paramount; coming from the future, she understood better than anyone that knowledge truly had the power to reshape a person’s destiny. But since those milestones were still a few years away, she had plenty of time to plan.
After a final, bone-rattling stretch of road, the car finally crossed into the military base. Sentries stood at the gates, their expressions sharp. Seeing an incoming vehicle, a guard stepped forward for a routine inspection, but upon recognizing Gu Tingxiao in the passenger seat, he quickly saluted and waved them through.
The young soldier drove directly to their assigned quarters, pulling up beside a freestanding courtyard house. Sheng Wanyan stepped out of the vehicle and took a slow look around.
The property spanned roughly two hundred square meters, which explained why Gu Tingxiao had emphasized how spacious it was. The courtyard floor was laid with old red bricks, though previous occupants had clearly lived there for years, wearing away the bright red color until the surface looked weathered and grey. Fortunately, Gu Tingxiao had scrubbed the entire place meticulously, leaving it looking clean, orderly, and charmingly rustic.
Passing through the main gate, she found herself in an open front yard fitted with a sturdy wooden clothes drying rack—one of the many details Tingxiao had built before traveling back to the Capital for the wedding.
Beyond the yard lay the main structure. The combined living and dining area was quite generous, measuring about thirty square meters, though it currently stood completely bare. The only pieces of furniture were a few mismatched stools and a battered, rickety old table. They were clearly temporary; once their new furniture was delivered, these pieces would swiftly be chopped up for firewood.
A wooden door at the back of the living room opened directly into a large rear courtyard, offering a seamless transition between the spaces.
To the left of the main living area were two smaller rooms, each about fifteen square meters. While modest in size, they were more than adequate for their needs. At the moment, they were completely empty. Since they didn’t require the extra space right away, Wanyan decided they could leave them alone and decorate them down the road as needed.
To the right lay a massive forty-square-meter room designated as the master bedroom. Instead of a traditional western frame, the room featured a traditional northern kang—a large, brick platform bed. In a place as brutally cold as Bing City, sleeping on a heated kang during the winter was an absolute necessity; without one, the bitter chill would seep into your bones and wake you up freezing throughout the night.
Arranged neatly near the platform bed was a spacious wardrobe, flanked by a sturdy writing desk and a storage cabinet. Gu Tingxiao had also arranged for her custom dressing table to be transported all the way from the Capital. He knew that if they left it behind in the city house, there was no telling which relative might eventually try to claim it. Women of this era rarely possessed a dedicated vanity—even owning a decent mirror was considered a luxury. Since Tingxiao had paid for the dressing table with his own money, it was only natural that he brought it to their new home.
The bedroom already had all the essentials, thanks to Tingxiao’s foresight. Once her vanity arrived, the room would be completely perfect.
The kitchen was situated out in the backyard, equipped with a traditional brick stove and a massive iron wok. They would still need to purchase smaller items like bowls, plates, and chopsticks. Looking at the setup, Wanyan could already foresee how brutally difficult it would be to cook out here during the depths of winter. She made a mental note to have Tingxiao hire someone to properly weather-proof and enclose the kitchen area before the first freeze set in, otherwise surviving the winter would be a nightmare.
Tucked away in a far corner of the backyard was the latrine. Constructed from packed mud walls, it was exactly the type of high-pit outhouse she despised most.
Sheng Wanyan stared at it, her expression blanking out for a moment. …
While she knew this was simply the reality of rural life in the 1970s, she genuinely loathed it. The primitive setup terrified her.
The backyard also featured a deep root cellar, a standard fixture for every northern household to store winter vegetables and grain. In contrast, the military wives living in the modern tube buildings didn’t enjoy the luxury of a private cellar or a heated kang; they had to rely entirely on stacking extra thick quilts to survive the winter cold.
“Captain, sister-in-law, I’ll be heading out now,” the young soldier said, breaking into her thoughts. After helping them carry the last of the heavy bundles inside, he politely saluted and prepared to leave.
Gu Tingxiao and Sheng Wanyan didn’t press him to stay. The house was currently a chaotic mess of unpacked bags and bare floors, making it impossible to host anyone properly. They didn’t even have a decent dining table yet; keeping him would have felt unhospitable. Once the house was fully organized, they planned to invite all of Tingxiao’s close comrades over for a proper housewarming feast.
The moment they were left alone, the couple immediately fell into a rhythm of packing and organizing. Wanyan took charge of wiping down the master bedroom and making the bed, while Gu Tingxiao headed out to get a fire going and boil a fresh pot of water.
