Chapter 54
Qiao Wei took the bus back to town.
She first returned home and put away the several white shirts she had bought for herself.
Then, carrying a mesh bag, she took the books, the clothes bought for Lin Xixi, peach blossom cakes, and other items to Regimental Commander Zhao’s home.
“Sister-in-law~” she called out, standing at the courtyard gate.
Yan Xiang was the first to run over happily: “Mom!”
“Oh my, I can’t carry you, I can’t, Mom has so many things!” Qiao Wei ruffled Yan Xiang’s hair.
Lin Xixi stood up and called out: “Aunt.”
Then she fell silent.
Compared to before, she clearly lacked energy.
Sister Yang came over, wiping her hands on her apron with a smile: “You’re back? Was the bus crowded? Did you have a seat?”
“Yes, I had a seat both ways.”
Qiao Wei and Sister Yang went inside to talk.
“Whoa, you bought so many books.” Sister Yang felt a sense of awe as soon as she saw the books.
In her house, all the books, besides the red-covered treasured books, were just the children’s textbooks.
Because the older ones used them and then passed them down to the younger ones, the covers were almost falling off.
Qiao Wei had bought so many just by going to the city once.
Qiao Wei patted the mesh bag: “These are for Xiangxiang, they are all comic books.”
She took out the clothes and pants bought for Lin Xixi: “Take a look and see if they fit; she wears the same size as me.”
Sister Yang picked them up and looked: “Good, I think there’s no problem. This is quite nice.”
She got up and took the money and coupons to give to Qiao Wei.
Qiao Wei accepted the money and coupons for the clothes, then took out one of the two bags of peach blossom cakes: “I bought some peach blossom cakes for the children to eat.”
Sister Yang wanted to give her money, but Qiao Wei firmly pushed it back to her: “I’m her aunt. Why are you being so polite with me?”
After a few rounds of pushing back and forth, Sister Yang accepted it with a smile.
Qiao Wei led Yan Xiang home.
Sister Yang called Lin Xixi into the room and gave her the new clothes: “Here, change into these.”
Lin Xixi hugged the new clothes and rubbed them.
To be honest, this was the first time someone had voluntarily bought her clothes.
Before, she always had to ask for them herself, and she might not even get them.
When she was little, she had to pester her parents, and she might not get the clothes, and might even get beaten.
Later, when she was with a man, she could still get things when she reached out to ask while she was young and pretty, but later on, it was very difficult.
Life was lived very frugally.
Sister Yang took out three yuan and gave it to her: “From now on, I’ll give you three yuan every month as pocket money.”
At this time, when children asked adults for money, they were usually given three or five cents.
Giving one or two dimes was considered very generous.
Because red bean popsicles were only three cents, cream popsicles were only five cents, and ice cream bars were only one dime.
On Saturday night, while eating with Yan Lei and his wife, Qiao Wei suggested that they should arrange work for Lin Xixi so she could earn a wage.
Sister Yang, of course, was unhappy about losing a labor helper, and instead having an extra person to serve.
But Qiao Wei’s words reminded her.
She was also a person who did housework all day; now that it was suddenly so easy, it was of course because Lin Xixi had taken on a lot.
Although she was provided with food and shelter, she couldn’t really just let the child work for nothing.
She wouldn’t dare to ask her parents for money like her own biological children would.
She couldn’t wait for the child to speak up herself, so Sister Yang decided to give the child some pocket money every month.
To buy some snacks or something.
As for big items like clothes, Sister Yang would buy them for her; she didn’t need to worry about it herself.
In her previous life, Lin Xixi hadn’t come to her uncle’s house to be a nanny.
But the life she had spent at her uncle’s house this past half month was actually about the same as her previous life—it was all washing clothes, cooking, and doing housework.
But here, there was her aunt working with her.
Occasionally, if there were issues, she wouldn’t scold her, and certainly wouldn’t be like her mother-in-law, who would put her feet up and watch her work while enjoying leisure.
Washing clothes was still done by hand, but that was because of the conditions of this era.
Unlike her previous life, when they bought a washing machine in the late eighties, her mother-in-law wouldn’t let her use it, still making her wash everything by hand.
The washing machine was just a decoration.
So although the work done was about the same, the experience and feelings were completely different.
Lin Xixi was currently lost in life; holding the new clothes, pants, and pocket money her aunt had bought her, she actually thought, since women have to work their whole lives anyway, she might as well just stay at her uncle and aunt’s place and work for the rest of her life.
But she also knew that this wouldn’t work.
Ultimately, she still had to find a man to marry and have a child to support her in her old age.
But she was both afraid of choosing the wrong person and not making it through ten years, and afraid of making it through ten years only to be crushed into powder by the birth pains of the era.
She was fearful of everything.
She couldn’t get out of it.
Deep down, she always felt that being reborn didn’t have any meaning.
She lived in a daze every day; the ambition and sense of superiority she had at the beginning of her rebirth had dissipated, and she just followed her body’s instincts every day, living as she had in the past.
In Sister Yang’s eyes, her niece was just stubborn and didn’t like the person her uncle had picked out for her.
But the good thing was that she didn’t cry or make a fuss, didn’t cause trouble, and every day she just worked, worked, and worked; she couldn’t stop working, and she was very attentive to tasks.
She was truly a good girl.
Yingzi really should learn a thing or two.
If Qiao Wei could have more contact with her and understand her more deeply, she might have discovered that Lin Xixi’s symptoms at this time were the common depression of later generations.
But depression didn’t exist in this era; it didn’t exist.
When Yan Lei returned, he asked: “What books did you buy?”
Before Qiao Wei could answer, Yan Xiang, sitting on the bamboo mat bed and sunken into a large cushion, held up the comic book in his hand: “It’s a comic book!”
Qiao Wei pursed her lips: “They are all over there.”
On the bamboo mat bed, they were piled up next to Yan Xiang’s short little legs.
Yan Lei went over and ignored the pile of comic books, looking at the text books first.
Seeing two books with red plastic covers containing the Great Man’s quotations, he was very happy: “Study more; this is the red sun guiding our direction, this is the lighthouse for sailing in the vast sea.”
Education at this time was like this; these kinds of phrases came in sets.
Cadres like Yan Lei heard them every day, and even though they didn’t have much education or culture, they could rattle off these words immediately.
But Qiao Wei didn’t feel it was excessive or cheesy.
Many years later, many middle-aged people would suddenly realize the truth after misunderstanding him for many years, feeling ashamed and breaking out in a cold sweat.
More young people of the new generation would still be shocked by the shining brilliance of his thoughts.
He was a true lonely hero, with only time as his companion, immortal forever.
“Of course, we must study hard,” Qiao Wei said.
Yan Lei’s heart instantly relaxed by half.
The Great Man’s thoughts were bright and brilliant; they would certainly be able to cleanse the rotten remnants of petty-bourgeois thinking from her.
He rummaged through the comic books with his hand, made a “whoa” sound, and ruffled Yan Xiang’s hair: “You have plenty to read now.
Mom went all the way to the county town to buy these for you.”
Yan Xiang said sweetly: “I thank Mom.”
Comic books were considered children’s reading material and were relatively safe.
Even if a few of them were about ancient stories, it wasn’t a big problem.
The main thing was that those literary books had all been piled in the kitchen to start fires.
Yan Lei looked at the remaining books again: “Huh?”
He felt curious: “There are special books for farming and raising pigs?”
“Of course.
We are a great agricultural country.
As for people, as long as they are alive and breathing, they all want to eat meat.
Agriculture and animal husbandry, just like guns and artillery, are the foundation of the nation, so the country will naturally attach importance to them.”
These books were bought for Yan Xiang.
Before Yan Lei returned, Qiao Wei had already let Yan Xiang read these books.
When Yan Xiang read these kinds of books, his bright eyes would become dark and deep.
There was absolutely no need for Qiao Wei to “teach” him.
After supplementing his vocabulary through little cloth dolls adventure, he could already extract knowledge from books on his own.
At these times, his buff was explicitly manifested.
But Qiao Wei, estimating that Yan Lei was about to return, put away the technical books and shoved a comic book with pictures into his hand.
The darkness in his eyes disappeared, and they became bright and clear again; the buff became implicit, and he turned into an ordinary, happy child.
Qiao Wei had already realized that Yan Xiang’s buff needed to be fed with knowledge.
It could also be toggled, on or off.
This way, he could hide his talent attributes and act like an ordinary child.
“This is… a dictionary?” Yan Lei asked.
He picked up the brand-new Xinhua Dictionary and flipped through it; just as the thought “I need this” appeared in his heart, Qiao Wei said: “That one is for you.”
Yan Lei turned his head, stunned.
Qiao Wei said: “The literacy level in the literacy class is limited.
Although you are smart and can guess the meaning by linking the context, you have to read the correct pronunciation.
Otherwise, if you mispronounce characters, others will laugh at you.”
This kind of thing had indeed happened before.
Yan Lei chuckled.
Holding the small dictionary and stroking it with his large hand, then looking at Qiao Wei’s smiling eyes, he felt an indescribable happiness.
She went to the county town and remembered to buy him something.
Qiao Wei, however, was thinking about having Yan Xiang go through the Xinhua Dictionary first.
Once he finished, his vocabulary would be complete, and extracting knowledge automatically would be even smoother in the future.
It was a pity there was no “Modern Comprehensive Chinese Dictionary”; that vocabulary database was the most complete.
Even the people at the bookstore hadn’t heard of it; it probably hadn’t been published yet.
But theoretically, it shouldn’t be too many years away from being published; when that time came, she would buy it for the father and son.
“Dad.” Yan Xiang covered half his face with the comic book, revealing a pair of round, bright, sparkling eyes, and said temptingly, “Mom bought peach blossom cakes; do you want…”
“Dad won’t eat!” Qiao Wei glared at him, “Dad is a good child; eat dinner first, finish your dinner properly, and when your stomach has room, then you can eat the snacks.”
The scheming child was exposed; he put down the comic book, let out a long “sigh,” and pursed his lips.
Yan Lei laughed out loud.
While eating, Qiao Wei asked Yan Lei again: “Where can one buy the fabric for your kind of military uniform?”
“Why buy this?”
“I saw some people in the county town wearing it.
I think it’s quite nice, and I want to wear it too.”
“Military casual wear?”
“Is that it?”
“Then there’s no need to buy fabric,” Yan Lei laughed, “As a military dependent, if there’s anything the Military Unit has, how could we not have it?
Just tell me what you want.”
Qiao Wei thought for a moment: “I want two pairs of pants first.
The green kind, don’t get the blue ones.”
Because she had bought a pile of white shirts.
Qiao Wei had traveled to this world as an unmarried woman, had a husband and became a married woman, painlessly upgraded to a mom, but her mindset, for some reason, was actually getting younger and younger.
White shirt, green military pants; it was like a pure era novel, so pure!
Hehehe!
“I want a green military satchel.”
Actually, there weren’t many ordinary people wearing green military uniforms in the county town right now.
But Qiao Wei knew that green military uniforms would become the mainstream fashion.
Military supplies were even more of a fashion item.
“I want a canteen.”
“Doesn’t the house have one?”
“Isn’t that Xiangxiang’s?
We can’t share drinks; if someone gets a contagious disease, it could be transmitted through the canteen.
One for each person, everyone must have one.”
Qiao Wei had suffered from not bringing a canteen today.
The habits from later generations were too strong; if not for the intense demand for coupons in this era, she might not always remember to bring a wallet.
But she really hadn’t thought of the canteen, even though it was sitting right in the room, next to the table clock.
But the vending machines and convenience stores that were everywhere in later generations had strongly overwritten the original owner’s daily habit of “bringing a canteen when going out.”
Qiao Wei had been thirsty all morning in the county, and only when she got to the restaurant did she gulp down several glasses of plain water.
Yan Lei: “Alright.”
The two most time-consuming parts of the courtyard renovation—the vegetable patch and the small path—were both completed.
Next, Qiao Wei thought for a while and decided to paint the interior walls white.
Actually, their bedroom was fine, but the main thing was that the wall in Yan Xiang’s room was really too dirty; to cover up the dirty wall, the calendar posted later was also very ugly.
Moreover, the calendar paper was only pasted in a circle around the kang; the walls in other places off the kang were also dirty.
Qiao Wei had wiped it with a rag, but it was useless; it just peeled off the white layer and exposed the base.
It had to be repainted.
Yan Lei wasn’t afraid of spending money; he didn’t mind spending money on his own home.
But he didn’t have that much time; he only had one day off every week.
So his idea was to hire someone to do the painting.
But Qiao Wei said: “I’ll do it.”
He felt he could trust her with other things, but this matter… Yan Lei’s gaze showed distrust.
“What do you mean?” Qiao Wei was dissatisfied.
“It’s tiring,” Yan Lei said, “You haven’t done it before and think it’s very easy, but in reality, it’s especially tiring.
This is all manual labor.”
“Didn’t you just say I lack exercise?” Qiao Wei clicked her tongue, “Just consider it exercise.”
“I’ll try it first; if I really can’t do it, it won’t be too late to hire someone.”
“At worst, I’ll just be teased by you.”
“How could I tease you?” Yan Lei said with a straight face, “Actively participating in labor construction, this kind of positive attitude should be encouraged.
The result doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter.”
Qiao Wei reached out and pulled his cheeks: “Then why has your mouth been curling backward the whole time?”
Yan Lei couldn’t hold it anymore and laughed out loud.
Qiao Wei had thin arms and legs and couldn’t do heavy work; she even had to rig up a wooden stand just to wash clothes.
He actually didn’t really believe she could paint the walls herself.
But… she was so proactive, and Yan Lei was happy to see it.
No more nonsense, just do it.
If she couldn’t finish it, he would continue.
