Chapter 15 Chapter 15 It's a real treat to watch

Some people like Chen Moer returned with a full load, while others like Fu Mingze returned empty-handed.

On the way back to Yangliu Brigade, Yang Qingqing asked Fu Mingze several times in a roundabout way what he did at the commune and why he didn't buy anything. Fu Mingze always ignored her, so Yang Qingqing's eyes became red again.

This time, even the team leader Zhou Mancang couldn't help but look at Fu Mingze a few times. He probably thought that this young man was handsome, but had a bad temper and was too cold towards female comrades.

Shen Moer looked at Fu Mingze sympathetically.

When they met at Qiaojie's house, they exchanged a few words of greeting. Although Fu Zhiqing was not a warm-hearted person, he was not cold and arrogant either.

Shen Moer even thought that he looked a little cute when he held a few buns and awkwardly explained that he exchanged the eggs he earned from writing letters for buns.

His handsome face, which never gets tanned even though he works every day, is slightly flushed, which is really pleasing to the eye.

So when Yang Qingqing found an excuse to talk to Fu Mingze again, Shen Moer looked curious: "Yang Zhiqing, so you have been following Fu Zhiqing just to know why he went to the commune? In fact, when he went to the commune, he just went to do business or buy things. What's there to be curious about?"

After connecting the two, Shen Moer actually understood why Fu Mingze didn't like to pay attention to Yang Qingqing. If it were her, she wouldn't pay attention to someone staring at her all day long.

Yang Qingqing's face changed slightly, and she laughed dryly: "Comrade Shen Moer, you misunderstood. I didn't follow Fu Zhiqing. We are both educated youth, and I just thought that we should care about each other and help each other. I didn't mean anything else."

Shen Moer disagreed: "Yang Zhiqing, you seem to be too alienated from us members when you say that. Zhiqing are also part of our team. Caring and helping cannot be limited to Zhiqing. We should all care and help each other."

Aunt Chen was the first to agree: "That's right. We all live in the same brigade, so there's no need to be so distant."

Zhou Mancang also nodded and said, "Moer is right. Since you have come here to work in the countryside, you are part of the team. There is no need to distinguish between you and me, and you must not have small group thinking." What he feared most was that these educated youth would form a group and go against the team.

Yang Qingqing said with a look of grievance that she really didn't mean that. She shut up with red eyes and didn't say anything else afterwards.

Fu Mingze didn't say anything the whole time. He only raised his eyes when Shen Moli said that Yang Qingqing had been following him. Then, when Shen Moli said that we should all care about and help each other, he couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth.

*

The commune kiln factory was eager to recruit talents, so Xu Weiguo asked Shen Shaoyuan to go there tomorrow. It happened that he had grabbed ten feet of defective cloth today, which was off-white, so Shen Moer was thinking about making a shirt for her father like Xu Weiguo's.

After returning home, she first cooked a pot of porridge, then fried a small bowl of cowpeas. After eating the small bowl of porridge with cowpeas, Shen Moer went to Aunt Chen's house to borrow scissors and a chalk line for cutting cloth.

Chen Mo'er learned the art of embroidery from the best embroiderer in Daliang. She started learning at the age of ten and studied for six years.

It’s not because all the ladies from wealthy families have to learn it, so she has to learn it too. Shen Moer has followed several princes since she was a child. As soon as she learned to walk, she learned boxing, archery, and she was originally impatient to learn needlework.

But her Ninth Uncle was jealous all day long, envious that her Uncle was better to her father than his other brothers. He always showed off in front of her father how deep his love for the Ninth Aunt was. He could show off a purse embroidered by the Ninth Aunt for half a year.

Wasn't it just poking at her father's feelings, mocking her father for being a widower whose even his personal purse was embroidered by a maid?

Chen Moer, who was only a child at the time, entered the palace with a group of palace servants in a grand manner, hugged her uncle's thigh and cried bitterly. Her uncle was furious and fined her ninth uncle half a year's salary, and by the way, gave her the best embroiderer in the palace.

After that, her Ninth Uncle turned away whenever he saw her for several months, and told everyone he met that Shen Moer was a sesame-filled glutinous rice dumpling, who looked soft and sticky, but was very dark inside, just like Shen Shaoyuan.

Compared with the clothes in Daliang, the clothes in this world are simple, even crude. For Shen Moli, making a short-sleeved shirt is naturally a piece of cake and she finished it in an afternoon.

Shen Shaoyuan tried it on and was very satisfied: "It fits well and is crisp, better than the ready-made clothes hanging in the supply and marketing cooperative."

Shen Moer herself was also quite satisfied. It is said that Buddha relies on gold and people rely on clothes. Once she put on the new clothes, didn’t her father’s elegant temperament return?

Before it got dark, Shen Shaoyuan took a washbasin to the well to wash his shirts. When they were half dry, he took them back to the house to hang them. Their house had no walls, so if they hung new clothes outside overnight, they would be gone the next day.

For dinner, they had the leftover porridge and cowpeas from lunch. After dinner, the father and daughter sat down to discuss building a new house.

Shen Shaoyuan was going to work in the kiln factory, so Shen Moer had to do the drawing and collecting materials.

However, these did not pose any difficulty for Shen Moer. The only thing that made her a little puzzled was how to build this room.

Because the original owner remembered that the houses in the city are now built very well, with electricity, running water, and most importantly, a very convenient and clean bathroom.

Electric lights and running water were not installed in their village yet, so they didn't think about it. Shen Moer really wanted to have a convenient and clean bathroom. Unfortunately, the original owner only heard about it from others and had never seen it with his own eyes, let alone know how to build it.

Shen Shaoyuan: "Let's ask the educated youth. It seems that many of the educated youth in our brigade are from big cities."

He thought that there were many female educated youth in the brigade, and with his daughter Moer's personality, it would be easy to find an opportunity to talk to her. Forget about Yang Qingqing, a grown-up girl who followed the young man furtively and spoke and acted in a roundabout way. She was not worth associating with.

Shen Moer remembered that Fu Zhiqing was from the capital. Since she wanted to ask, she should ask someone from the largest city, so she readily agreed.

The father and daughter reached a consensus and were very satisfied. After chatting for a while, they went to bed.

The next day after breakfast, Shen Shaoyuan wore a brand new shirt and went to the commune kiln factory, while Shen Moer went to Aunt Chen's house to borrow scissors and chalk. She also brought more than two feet of fabric left over from making shirts and exchanged them with Aunt Chen for eggs and vegetables.

The two feet of cloth were the ones with dyeing defects, which were of little use to Chen Moli, but Aunt Chen was extremely happy about it.

As for money, two feet of cloth only cost a little over one dollar, but supplies were in short supply these days, and each person was only allocated a few feet of cloth per year. Cloth coupons were really hard to get, so these two feet of cloth were very useful in Aunt Chen's eyes.

Aunt Chen picked up twelve eggs and put them into the basket brought by Chen Moer with a smile, and took two handfuls of vegetables from the kitchen: "These are freshly picked this morning, you can eat them first, and I will send you some more in two days. These vegetables must be picked and eaten right away to be fresh, otherwise they will become old in two days."

After these two days of contact, Aunt Chen knew that Shen Moer was not the kind of person who could not figure things out, so she helped Shen Moer to make plans. Otherwise, it would be more convenient for her to give you enough vegetables at once, regardless of whether you would eat them for a few days or whether you would get tired of them.

Before Shen Moer left, the old lady put another pickled vegetable into her basket: "The weather is hot, and frying some pickled vegetables to go with the porridge is the most refreshing."

With these eggs, vegetables and pickles, the problem of food is temporarily solved.

Chen Moer took the basket home, took two eggs and was about to go out again. After thinking for a while, she turned back, made a fire, boiled water and cooked the two eggs. Then she put the eggs in her hands and went to the educated youth site.

The male educated youth were just coming back from work. Shen Moer saw Fu Mingze standing at the back of the crowd from afar. He was wearing a white shirt and black pants, with his back straight. Even though his clothes and pants were covered with patches and his trouser legs were rolled up one high and one low, his outstanding temperament was not diminished at all.

Fu Mingze walked slowly, with no expression on his handsome face. However, Zheng Jiamin next to him kept talking to him.

As they got closer, Zheng Jiamin saw Shen Moer first and greeted her in a very familiar manner: "Comrade Shen Moer!"

Fu Mingze turned his head and looked over.

Shen Moer remembered Zheng Jiamin's name and nodded with a smile: "Hello, Zheng Zhiqing."

Then she added, "I need to talk to Fu Zhiqing about something."

Zheng Jiamin was surprised: "You are looking for Fu Mingze... Oh, okay, then I'll go back first, you guys talk slowly." From an angle that Shen Moer couldn't see, he winked at Fu Mingze and made some exaggerated expressions.

Fu Mingze ignored him, stopped, and asked, "What does Comrade Shen want to see me about?"

Shen Moer then briefly told him that her family was going to build a new house and that she also wanted to build a bathroom. Fu Mingze looked a little surprised: "Your family is going to build a new house?"

In fact, Fu Mingze felt something strange at the commune that day. The man who had almost starved to death two days ago suddenly spent a lot of things lavishly, and now he was even talking about building a new house?

Probably because the news of her family getting back the 300 yuan had not yet reached the educated youth point, so Shen Moer explained it again.

After listening to her, Fu Mingze suddenly understood what was going on. After thinking for a few seconds, he readily agreed: "Generally speaking, there are more buildings in cities with independent bathrooms, and relatively fewer bungalows. But my family, uh, a distant relative of mine has had a similar renovation in their yard, so I roughly know what it is. I'll draw a blueprint for you later and give it to you in a couple of days."

Shen Moer didn't notice his brief pause. When she heard him agree readily, she said happily, "Great. I'll trouble Fu Zhiqing then." The most difficult problem was solved.

She handed over the eggs in her hand with a smile, "Fu Zhiqing, keep these two eggs for breakfast."

Fu Mingze was slightly stunned and said, "No need to be so polite."

Shen Moer stuffed the egg directly into his hand: "When asking for help, you always have to bring some souvenirs, Fu Zhiqing, don't be polite. I'm afraid it's inconvenient for you. The eggs are already cooked. Remember to eat them today, otherwise they will go bad later."

The sun was already quite strong, and even though he was standing in the shade, Fu Mingze was sweating on his forehead. His skin, oozing with sweat, glowed in the sunlight, making his facial features look even more beautiful.

Shen Moer couldn't help but look at him twice more before saying goodbye with a smile on her face: "Fu Zhiqing, I'll come see you again in a few days."