Chapter 46
“I must say, this really saves effort,” said the carpenter, who was having a great time playing with it.
Another one stood with his hands behind his back, leaning over to look: “Can this actually wash things clean?”
“Just about,” Qiao Wei said. “I soaked them beforehand. I used a rasp to shave off soap flakes and dissolved them in hot water to soak the clothes.”
But many of the original residents of the small town were just like those in the rural villages; they couldn’t bear to use soap.
Seeing the expressions on the two carpenters’ faces, Qiao Wei changed her tune: “I’ll try soap pods another day. I’ve been thinking, if I use a garlic mortar to crush the soap pods first, then dissolve them in hot water to soak the clothes, it should have a similar effect to soap. That way, I can save the soap.”
At this time, the things that were truly hard to come by weren’t food, but industrial products.
Many families couldn’t bear to use something like soap. But as soon as Qiao Wei switched to soap pods, the carpenters immediately felt that this thing was no longer out of reach.
They even suggested to her: “Soaking clothes in stove ash works too.”
Stove fires generally burned wood and dried grass, so the stove ash was essentially plant ash, which also had cleaning properties. It was a method passed down by ancestors for thousands of years.
“Right!” Qiao Wei said. “This is actually just changing the act of beating clothes to spinning them. Isn’t beating clothes just to make sure the soap pods mix evenly with the clothes? The principle is the same; it’s just the form of expression that’s different.”
Her choice of words sounded like that of an educated person. Her manner of speaking and her temperament were also very different; she was particularly generous and natural, looking at first glance like someone from a big city.
Both carpenters looked at her with newfound respect, and one even asked: “Did you draw that diagram?”
“I drew the diagram, but the idea wasn’t mine,” Qiao Wei laughed. “I saw it somewhere else before and wanted to learn it to save some effort.”
One carpenter gave her a thumbs up. Qiao Wei smiled brightly.
The two carpenters left The Yan Household, pushed their flatbed cart, and chatted as they walked.
“This cadre’s home isn’t as wealthy as I thought,” one said. “It’s quite shabby. Did you see? They even had straw sandals hanging up.”
The other said: “I don’t know what those things on the daybed were, backrests? They were all made of homespun cloth. And only one was dyed.”
Among Qiao Wei’s three cushions, two were the natural color, and one was indigo. Homespun cloth wasn’t expensive to begin with, and the natural color was even cheaper than the indigo one because it didn’t need dyeing.
Regimental Commander Yan’s spouse didn’t even bear to make three indigo ones; she only made one indigo one and used the natural color for the other two. Did she not buy enough cloth or what? This is a bit… shabby.
“How can you call it shabby?” one carpenter said. “Look at how generous they were with the sugar in the mung bean soup, and they were generous with the cigarettes too. They aren’t, they aren’t that…”
The other one also said: “Right, right, right, not shabby, not shabby, um… it is, um…” “Hardworking and thrifty!” “Right, well said, hardworking and thrifty, never forgetting one’s roots.”
How was Qiao Wei to know that the two carpenters were discussing her pastoral style behind her back? She happily washed a basin of clothes.
Just then, Yan Xiang woke up from his nap, so she called him over to help her wring them out; it was mainly because there were long pants that were hard to wring. Although Yan Xiang was small and weak, he just had to hold on tight and not let go. It was much easier for two people.
Yan Xiang also played with the “washing machine” for a while and had a lot of fun.
Monday was the day for Yan Lei’s meeting. After the routine matters were discussed, Yan Lei submitted a “Proposal on Raising Cows for Milk to Improve Nutritional Supplements for Children of Military Unit Families” to the leadership.
Who were the children of the Military Unit families? They were the wives and children of the leaders and cadres at this table.
Especially since Yan Lei had been educated by Qiao Wei about growth and calcium supplementation, he gave everyone a round of education on the topic as well.
The leadership thought: “This is good. Let’s do it, let’s get it started!”
The Military Unit already raised pigs and sheep, and they had cows, but they were beef cattle. Cows can be very different from other cows.
Furthermore, if they wanted to guarantee milk for all, or at least most, of the cadre families’ children, that wasn’t something one or two cows could solve. This matter had to be handed over to the logistics department for discussion and planning. It was officially put on the agenda.
With the Military Unit’s capabilities, it would be realized very soon.
After the meeting in the morning, Yan Lei asked for leave from the Political Commissar and left early in the afternoon. After he left, the Political Commissar, while holding his enamel mug and drinking tea, said to others: “Why does Yan look so energetic today? Is there some happy event?” Others: “I don’t think so…” Strange.
Because the cadres rode home in a jeep together, Yan Lei’s time for getting home was basically very stable every day. Qiao Wei would time it perfectly to prepare dinner.
But today, at that time, she didn’t see Yan Lei return. Just as she was wondering, Yingzi from Regimental Commander Zhao’s family came over: “Aunt, my dad asked me to come and say that Uncle Yan had something to do today and took leave to take care of it. He said he might be back late and asked you to save him some food.”
“Oh, alright. Thank you. Yingzi, don’t go~” Qiao Wei called out to Yingzi, opened a jar, and took out two biscuits for her: “Here.”
Yingzi took the biscuits and went back happily. She ate one on the way, took the remaining one home, broke it into two pieces, gave half to Junzi, and half to Wu Nier.
The two little ones immediately stuffed them into their mouths, fearing that if they were a step too slow, their older brothers would snatch them away. In a family with many children, eating is a practice of hand speed.
“Where did that come from?” Sister Yang asked when she saw it. “Aunt Qiao gave it to me.” “You little brat, I told you not to ask people for food!”
“I didn’t ask! I was already leaving when Aunt Qiao called me back and gave it to me on purpose.” Yingzi stiffened her neck. “Aunt Qiao is so generous. Those are high-grade biscuits; people don’t even bear to buy them. And she was willing to open them to eat.”
Sister Yang glared: “Whose family can compare to hers? They only have one child. Look at how many mouths I have to feed here.”
Yingzi: “Pfft. Then don’t have so many.” It was visible to the naked eye that Yan Xiang’s life was much better than theirs. A few days ago, Wu Nier said she ate canned yellow peaches at The Yan Household. It made her so jealous. She asked her mom to go buy some, and went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to ask, but where would there be any? They were long gone.
Sister Yang gave her a swat. “However,” Sister Yang praised, “your Aunt Qiao is truly generous. Others can’t compare to that.”
Yan Xiang came back a bit later, and he was bringing someone with him, a villager. “Come, come, come, just put it here.” He carried a sack himself and led the villager into the courtyard. The villager was carrying a huge roll of dried grass on his shoulder.
Qiao Wei came out of the room and saw it, immediately understanding: “Did you go buy dried grass?” “Didn’t buy it, didn’t buy it.” The villager hurriedly waved his hand. “I’m giving it to him, a gift.”
Qiao Wei stuck out her tongue: “Right, right, right, a gift.” Private individuals couldn’t engage in buying and selling.
Yan Lei gestured at her vaguely and went inside. Soon he came out, took money and grain coupons to give to the villager. Coupons were unique to cities; farmers didn’t have grain coupons. But for various reasons, farmers still had some demand for grain coupons.
In the Spring Festival Gala of the 1990s, there was a skit about a farmer pushing a bicycle to “trade grain coupons for rice.” Farmers used rice to trade with city residents for grain coupons.
The villager took the agreed-upon money and grain coupons, hesitated for a moment, and wanted the sack back. In these times, people couldn’t bear to throw away even a piece of scrap paper; they wanted to reuse everything until it fell apart.
Yan Lei didn’t quibble with him, poured the dried grass from the sack onto the daybed, and returned the tattered sack to the villager. He was so generous that the villager was very happy, and before leaving, he urged: “If you have anything else, come find me; I live nearby.”
Yan Lei closed the door and turned around. Qiao Wei was twisting the dried grass with her hands: “Why is there loose grass and a grass mat?” It turned out the dried grass in the sack was loose, and the large roll the villager carried in, when unrolled, was a tied grass mat.
“This is for you to stuff the cushions,” Yan Lei said. “This one is to spread on the bed.” “This thickness is enough; it won’t make your knees hurt anymore.” He pinched the brim of his hat, with a glint in his eyes.
Comrade, please don’t talk about this while wearing that uniform. Qiao Wei felt immense pressure, a sense of guilt for having corrupted a decent person, and hurriedly pushed him: “Go change your clothes, change and then eat.”
Yan Lei took the grass mat inside. He first lifted the mat on the kang, rolled up the mattress, revealing the brick kang underneath. He spread the thick grass mat, then spread the mattress, then covered it with the mat, and pressed it with his hand—fluffy and soft!
He changed his clothes and came into the courtyard, seeing the manual washing machine next to the hand-pump well: “You installed it? How is it? Does it work well?”
“It works well. I’ve already washed a basin of clothes,” Qiao Wei said. “From now on, I’ll wash the clothes; you don’t need to worry about it. You just need to take care of the dishes.” She sat on the daybed and tried stuffing the dried grass into the cushion.
The first time she failed, so she simply took out all the regenerated cloth strips, mixed them evenly with the dried grass, and stuffed them back in together. This time it was a success. All three cushions were stuffed. Qiao Wei leaned back on them, pleasantly surprised: “It really doesn’t collapse anymore.”
The mixture of dried grass and cloth strips was able to support the cushions. The fullness was basically the same as the backrest of a fabric sofa. Yan Lei watched her with a smile while eating.
Qiao Wei leaned back comfortably against the cushions: “What are you looking at?” Yan Lei said: “Looking at you.” Qiao Wei: “?” Yan Lei said: “Looking at you because you’re beautiful.” There was a smile in his eyes.
It’s over, the serious old cadre has really been corrupted by her. He actually took leave today just to buy that grass mat. That’s the Military Unit, after all. This ulterior motive was too obvious. Qiao Wei turned her face away to laugh.
Yan Xiang was confused, not knowing what his mom and dad were laughing about. The child had already packed his things and urged: “Dad, eat quickly, let’s go take a bath!”
On Wednesday morning, Qiao Wei opened her eyes and felt intense regret. After putting on the grass mat, the kang had indeed become much softer, and her knees wouldn’t hurt from the hardness. But she had released a tiger from its cage. The man’s already decent self-learning ability was finally used in the right place. This man had boundless energy and a strong desire to explore. He clearly had an ascetic persona before opening the floodgates, but now he was completely out of character.
As far as Qiao Wei was concerned, she thought two or three times a week was a very good frequency for a young person in his thirties. Why two or three times? Because you need to rest in between. Yan Lei didn’t rest and tossed her around until midnight for two consecutive nights; her bones felt like they were about to fall apart. Her fitness plan of running in the morning was disrupted by him. She had brought this upon herself, and Qiao Wei hated it so much she thumped the bed while whimpering.
“Mom, are you awake?” Yan Xiang heard the sound and ran in. “Dad left a note for you.” He ran out again to bring the note in: “Here!” Qiao Wei took it and looked; the handwriting was a bit messy, obviously written by Yan Lei on a whim: [There are no vegetables at home. If you really can’t get up to buy vegetables, go eat at the Cafeteria.]
Of course Qiao Wei knew there were no vegetables at home. She hadn’t been able to get up yesterday morning. The Farmers Market here was a morning market; if you went late, there would be nothing left. She hadn’t gone to buy vegetables yesterday because she was too exhausted by him to get up. Today, there were absolutely no vegetables at home.
“Have you eaten?” “I ate biscuits.” Damn it, that bad father had caused his son to eat biscuits for breakfast for two days in a row. “Bring me a piece too, I’ll have a bite, and let’s hurry to buy vegetables!”
Who would have known, just a few steps out of the courtyard gate with her woven basket, Sister Yang came over with an ugly expression. “Xiao Qiao!” She grabbed Qiao Wei, “Xiao Qiao!”
Qiao Wei was surprised: “Sister-in-law, what’s wrong?” Sister Yang was also carrying a vegetable basket, which still had meat and eggs in it; apparently, she had just returned from the Farmers Market and hadn’t gone home yet. She was gripping her arm very hard and was trembling slightly. She was emotionally unstable right now, either angry, terrified, or both. Sister Yang’s lips moved.
Qiao Wei took her arm: “Let’s go, let’s talk at home.” She took Sister Yang back home, let Yan Xiang go play by himself, and pulled Sister Yang to sit on the daybed: “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Sister Yang’s chest heaved. She calmed down a bit, and her eyes instantly turned red: “I heard them at the market, they said… our Old Zhao, he’s been messing around with a female soldier.”
At first, she was completely stunned. She was a traditional woman; her whole life was about having children and raising the family. Her husband had become successful, and she lived a good life with him. Every time she returned to her hometown, she was looked up to by her relatives. Hearing suddenly that her husband was having an affair with another woman, she was completely dumbfounded. But Qiao Wei lowered her eyes to think for a moment, then asserted: “Impossible.”
