Chapter 41 The little princess couldn't hold back anymore.

After tidying up the house, we decided to put the fire on the stove since people were living there. We lit the coal stove, burned honeycomb briquettes, and put a big pot on top to boil water. In the evening, the whole family took a bath.

Qin Xiangxiang sat in the living room drying her hair. A light bulb hung in the living room. Li Jianzhi sat in the living room teaching the chubby boy to do math problems. He even timed it, making the child get up and jump twice every twenty minutes.

"Take the questions seriously and try to memorize more."

"Look at all these kids in the yard. When you've learned a lot, you can show off to them."

"We should strive to be the kids who do the most math problems."

The chubby boy: "..."

Qin Xiangxiang suppressed a laugh, finding the father and son quite amusing. From the moment she was born and had memories, she had lived in an old apartment building and had never experienced having a living room at home. Now, the living room at home was only the size of a palm, but it actually felt pretty good.

The living room is also secluded, serving as a shared public space for the whole family to live and interact together. With the front door closed, the family can snuggle up in the living room in a cozy atmosphere.

There are three faucets in the house: one at the washbasin by the door, one in the kitchen, and one in the toilet. From now on, there will be no need to queue for water or fight with others, and there will be no more petty squabbles like in the Xu family.

These private bathrooms are also very clean!

Qin Xiangxiang couldn't stand the shared bathroom in the old apartment building the most. Some of the men in the Xu family smoked and liked to smoke in the toilet. After they finished, the smell of smoke lingered for a long time. The stench of the toilet and the smell of smoke mixed together, making people dizzy.

From now on, she will keep the toilet in the house clean at all times, and no one will be allowed to smoke in her bathroom.

Qin Xiangxiang was fairly satisfied with her living environment for the next year or two.

Meanwhile, Li Jianzhi, who was sitting next to her, felt like he was participating in a "metamorphosis". He looked at the future living environment with a critical eye, not to mention the size, the apartment design was too "abstract".

The actual usable area of ​​this house is about 65 square meters. In the future, many 90-square-meter houses, after deducting the common area, will only be about 60 square meters. However, in the future, 60-square-meter houses can be made into three bedrooms and one living room.

The living room in front of me is too small, probably only a few square meters, while the bedroom is ridiculously large.

"Think about it, the current living conditions are a bit harsh, and I'm sorry you've suffered."

Qin Xiangxiang nodded.

"The living room is too small, the bathroom is too small, I can't even move around in the bathroom by myself, and the kitchen is too small too."

Qin thought for a moment: "It's not that bad."

Previously in Shanghai, all she wanted was to move to a one-bedroom apartment with a separate kitchen and bathroom.

“You don’t need to comfort me like that. I know you’re wronged, and I’m wronged too. I’ve let my wife suffer so much.”

“I’m such a scumbag for tricking you into coming here.”

"This living room is so small! It's so cramped that you have to squeeze in a refrigerator and a table."

Qin Xiangxiang: "..."

"And this refrigerator is too small. It can't hold much stuff at all, yet it consumes so much electricity every month."

Li Jianzhi initially thought that a 65-square-meter two-bedroom apartment would be the standard size in the future. But now that he saw this bizarre apartment layout, he felt a bit embarrassed at night. Making the living room so small, wasn't this a joke?

Without natural gas, my wife has to make do with burning honeycomb briquettes.

As for the refrigerator, it's even more hopeless. It's the size of a "dormitory refrigerator." The upper refrigerator compartment can barely fit a watermelon before there's no extra space, and the lower freezer compartment can only hold a few things.

That's bad enough, but the electricity bill is so high every month!

Moreover, among the children in the yard, those playing in the sand are alright, but some secretly play with coal. If they get covered in coal and then come to his house to play, Li Jianzhi will practically be in trouble.

This is far from the sweet little house he had imagined with his wife.

They couldn't hold it in any longer.

When he was alone, it was one thing to have less than ideal conditions, but after so many years of hard work, he finally managed to get married, yet he couldn't provide his wife with better conditions, leaving him heartbroken.

“Son, you have to be good to your mother. Do more chores around the house and don’t let your mother lift a finger. Otherwise, if your mother runs away, it will just be the two of us left here.”

Chubby boy: "Can I run with Mommy?"

Li Jianzhi's mentality collapsed even more: "You are my son, you can't run away. After your mother runs away, you will... you will just have to wait for your stepmother."

"If you have a stepmother, she'll make sure you're never fed or clothed, and you'll have to work like an ox every day."

The chubby boy: "..."

"Mom, don't run away."

Qin Xiangxiang rubbed her forehead. This time, she hadn't broken down despite accompanying the army, but she felt that her husband was emotionally devastated, even more so than she had been in her dreams.

She had initially considered having a breakdown, but then she realized that returning to Shanghai meant working all night as a textile worker, and she felt that her current situation was not so bad.

She's become incredibly wealthy this time! She gets 110 yuan a month in pocket money, and her parents and Xiaomai can even bring her things from Shanghai... She can't even cry.

Haha, seeing the father and son almost "crying together" made her laugh so hard.

As a truly exceptional person, she finds joy in seeing others suffer.

"Is this refrigerator working now?" Qin Xiangxiang asked curiously, circling around the refrigerator in the living room.

Li Jianzhi: "It's not plugged in yet. It needs to sit for a while before it can be powered on tomorrow."

Qin Xiangxiang responded. Even though she had seen refrigerators in her dreams, this was the first time she had ever experienced having one at home. In the summer, she could make popsicles and put watermelons in the refrigerator.

"Refrigerator on top, freezer on the bottom? Fresh meat can last for several days if you put it on top?"

"Yes, four or five days should be fine."

"Can prepared toppings be left to sit for a while?"

"Of course, freezing will keep it for even longer."

That's really great; our living standards have even improved.

Seeing Qin Xiangxiang so curious about the refrigerator, touching it here and there like a kitten, Li Jianzhi felt even more anxious. After a long while, he blurted out:

"Wife, you've really been through a lot of hardship."

Qin Xiangxiang: "..."

Li Qingfeng: "Dad, I'm the one who's been through a lot of hardship."

“Look at all this fat on you. It’s all because of your mother. She’s suffered so much for you.”

After a while, Li Jianzhi regained his composure and pieced together his shattered heart. His serious expression made him seem reliable and dependable. If Qin Xiangxiang hadn't witnessed him break down, she would never have imagined that the person she had just spoken to was him.

“I’ve moved in. I’m going to treat my comrades to a home-cooked meal in a few days. The house isn’t very big, so I just need a few people to have some fun. Don’t bother with this, I’ll take care of it.”

Qin Xiangxiang: "You're going to take care of everything? You're going to cook?"

"Well, I can't let you do it."

"That's fine." Qin Xiangxiang nodded, thinking that after eating this, no one would come to her door to freeload in the future, which was excellent.

Qin Xiangxiang rubbed her face. Great! She was radiating the joy of not having to go to work.

"Honey, should we display the gift I bought you in the living room or hide it in the bedroom?"

What gift?

When Qin Xiangxiang finally saw the title "Self-study of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry...", she secretly rolled her eyes. However, this set of books was very effective at scaring children when placed in the living room, so Qin Xiangxiang said, "Let's get a bookshelf in the living room and put these books there."

Li Jianzhi: "I knew you'd like it, my wife!"

Qin Xiangxiang couldn't hold back this time and reached out to pinch his ear.

"Li Jianzhi, my legs are sore, can you pour me some water to soak my feet?"

"My back and waist are sore from sitting on the boat, could you give me a massage?"

At this moment, in a hospital, Lin Xiuqin returned to her single dormitory, exhausted. She was wearing a nurse's uniform, looking haggard, and the harsh scolding of the head nurse seemed to still echo in her ears.

She transmigrated! She transmigrated into a hospital to become a nurse, and even became the female protagonist of the novel she wrote. But she really couldn't stand the character setting. Why did she set her to be a nurse in the first place? Nurses are supposed to do dirty work and be exhausted.

Before Lin Xiuqin transmigrated, she studied at a university in Shanghai, majoring in the now-defunct textile industry. The once glorious textile industry had lost its luster after a few decades, and most people who entered this major wanted to transfer out.

The employment situation after graduation is not bad. Although there is no worry about not finding a job, it has to be in a factory, the salary is low, and the working environment is also a cause for sighing.

With high housing prices and high living costs in Shanghai, it's very difficult to stay in Shanghai after graduation. Everyone is thinking about changing careers or going back to their hometown to take the civil service exam.

Back in school, Lin Xiuqin had a roommate named Qin Xiangxiang, a local from Shanghai. She was beautiful, spoiled, and naive. As an only child, she spent a lot of money each month. Many rich second-generation boys liked her, but she insisted on dating handsome men. She wouldn't accept rich but ugly men. She would spend tens of thousands of yuan on idol concerts and spend six or seven hundred yuan on game top-ups without batting an eye. She had no sense of saving.

Qin Xiangxiang would often mention her wealthy relatives overseas, saying that they had sent her various gifts, such as designer bags worth tens of thousands of yuan from her great-aunt's family, or coats with fur collars worth several thousand yuan.

At first, she thought Qin Xiangxiang's family was very rich, but later she found out that they lived in a dilapidated old apartment building. It was said to be a house left by her family from the textile factory. The house had only two rooms, totaling 30 or 40 square meters. They said it was going to be demolished, but it was never demolished. The dilapidated house was not even as good as the apartment in her hometown county. The living conditions were extremely poor.

Lin Xiuqin initially envied Qin Xiangxiang, but later, after discovering how poorly her family lived, her envy turned into contempt. She felt that Qin Xiangxiang's family had no future and that after all these years, they still lived in that dilapidated house.

After graduation, Lin Xiuqin stayed in Shanghai to work temporarily, while Qin Xiangxiang used her skills to become a training teacher at a music store. In Lin Xiuqin's opinion, it was not a proper job. She earned more than 10,000 yuan a month, and her family bought her a car. She went to get off work and lived a carefree life, but she still lived in her family's dilapidated house.

She's practically a "little princess" in a dilapidated house. This family spends so much on food, drink, and entertainment every day, don't they ever think about saving some money to buy a bigger and better house?

Later, Lin Xiuqin met a naval officer named Chen Ruifeng. She thought he was an officer, while he thought she had a Shanghai hukou (household registration). The two chatted enthusiastically online, each believing they had met their destined one.

Lin Xiuqin complained to Chen Ruifeng about Qin Xiangxiang, saying that the whole family of this native woman was out of their minds, raising such a troublesome child.

Chen Ruifeng then complained to her about his superior, Li Jianzhi, who was handsome and a military officer, but was almost forty years old and still couldn't get married, either because he was sexually frigid or just a liar.

Later, Lin Xiuqin wrote a novel set in the 1970s and 1980s, using herself and Chen Ruifeng as the prototypes for the male and female protagonists, and portraying Li Jianzhi and Qin Xiangxiang as the perfect contrasting characters next to the main characters.

However, before the book was finished, Lin Xiuqin broke up with Chen Ruifeng. The man was admitted to a military academy and found a wealthy young woman with a local household registration, a house, and a car as his girlfriend.

Later she learned that every time Chen Ruifeng looked for a girlfriend, he would inquire about her family background, household registration, family conditions, house, and car. If the conditions were suitable, he would pursue her relentlessly with sweet words and be very considerate.

If you find someone with better family conditions, dump the previous one.

But now she's transmigrated into the female protagonist of her own story, and the male protagonist is Chen Ruifeng?

What should we do?

On one hand, she thought Chen Ruifeng was a scumbag, but the male protagonist she wrote was quite nice. Moreover, she married the male protagonist, moved to the military family compound, and had Qin Xiangxiang and Li Jianzhi, the perfect couple in the comparison group, as their neighbors.

Lin Xiuqin really wanted to see Qin Xiangxiang suffer, to see this "little princess" raised in such a dilapidated house suffer misfortune.