After bringing the grain back to the educated youth compound, Xie Yuyao, covered in dust and sweat, wanted to take a shower. Only then did she realize that the compound didn't have a bathroom!
The female educated youths brought water inside to wash themselves, which made Xie Yuyao, who used to wash herself clean and smell fragrant every day, think: ...
"Don't the other villagers' homes have bathrooms either?"
Wu Lihong, who was knitting a sweater, said: "There is no habit of taking a shower here, but some people do take baths in large wooden tubs."
Xie Yuyao continued to inquire about buying the wooden bucket.
Upon hearing this, Wu Lihong said directly, "There's a carpenter in the village. Everyone asks him to make whatever they want. You can go and take a look this afternoon."
After learning that the distance was not far, Xie Yuyao simply set off.
She returned to the east room, opened the canvas bag and rummaged through it. She found a cloth bag inside, which contained 30 yuan given by the original owner's mother and a few yuan given by the original owner's older brother at the station, plus a few cents that the original owner had saved up on weekdays, totaling about 35 yuan.
As for the ration coupons needed to buy things these days, her family didn't give her a single one. According to her mother, if she brought everything she could—pots, pans, clothes, blankets, etc.—she wouldn't need to buy anything.
Most of the time, money is a person's greatest asset. It seems she needs to find a way to get some money and ration coupons as soon as possible.
When Ren Fei saw that she was going to the carpenter's house, she offered to go and take a look together.
When they arrived at the place Wu Lihong had described, the door was wide open. The two knocked on the door from the outside, but after waiting for a while, there was no response.
Xie Yuyao glanced around, guessing that the people inside hadn't heard her, so she called out directly, "Is anyone home?"
An old woman came out, saw the two girls, and asked, "Young girls, who are you looking for?"
Xie Yuyao said enthusiastically, "Are you Grandma Zhao? We are new educated youth. We heard that Grandpa Zhao can make wooden products, and we would like a bath tub."
Upon hearing her say that, Grandma Zhao understood.
The couple were too old to work, but Grandpa Li was a carpenter, so the village chief had him make wooden products for the villagers. This was only allowed within the village; they weren't allowed to sell them outside.
Grandma Zhao led them to the backyard, where Grandpa Zhao was working with wood using a planer. After learning why they had come, he stopped what he was doing and led the two to the storage room next door.
Xie Yuyao saw a large bathtub and immediately exclaimed excitedly, "I want this tub!"
Besides the bath tub, the storeroom also contained several wooden items of varying sizes, such as cabinets, boxes, and basins, some of which had been painted with a layer of brown paint that had already dried.
The style looks rather ordinary, but the workmanship is good. Xie Yuyao, adapting to local customs, doesn't have high requirements; practicality is all that matters.
Finally, the two of them picked directly from the finished products. Xie Yuyao bought a large bath tub, two large boxes and two locks, and also a wooden basin for soaking her feet, which cost 1.7 yuan.
Ren Fei bought a large suitcase. She looked at Xie Yuyao's several large items with a bit of envy, thinking about her two big canvas bags of luggage, guessing that she must be quite pampered at home.
Xie Yuyao, who had been misunderstood, was hesitating about how to move back when Grandma Zhao said directly, "Don't worry, I'll have my nephew deliver it to you later."
Xie Yuyao breathed a sigh of relief. She then asked about the delivery time and learned that it would be delivered after she finished work in the evening.
"Is there any way to move the bathtub back first?" She wanted to take a bath quickly while the other educated youths were going out to work in the afternoon.
Grandma Zhao's family had a delivery cart, and several people worked together to tie the wooden buckets to the cart with hemp rope.
After paying, the two pushed the cart away.
Grandma Zhao was overjoyed to have secured this big order. As she saw them off, she added that she could do anything else they needed and was always ready to come over.
The two smiled and nodded in agreement. After awkwardly pushing the cart back to the educated youth settlement, Xie Yuyao clumsily started a fire to boil water.
As it was almost time to start work, both male and female educated youth came out of the house.
Upon seeing the large wooden tub, Bei Xiao shouted, "You have to fetch water to replenish the bathwater you used!"
"Okay." Xie Yuyao glanced at her and continued stuffing firewood into the stove.
The water was finally boiled. After moving the large bathtub to the east room, she adjusted the water temperature and poured it into the large bathtub bucket by bucket.
Seeing that Ren Fei had already fallen asleep in the room, she bolted the door, took off her clothes, and climbed into the bathtub.
After a comfortable 20-minute soak, washing away all the grime, she felt ready again.
Feeling refreshed and in a good mood, I didn't feel tired at all as I poured out buckets of bathwater. I simply carried the water back in one go.
Xie Yuyao picked up a carrying pole and buckets and went to the hand-operated well a hundred meters away from the educated youth compound to fetch water.
Having the original owner's memories, he was able to use it skillfully and quickly filled the two buckets with water.
She hooked the buckets onto the hooks at both ends of the carrying pole, squatted down to adjust her posture, and then straightened up—oh no, it was too heavy to lift.
After emptying half a bucket of water, she shakily carried it back to the large water vat in the main room. After several trips, she finally replenished the used water.
Xie Yuyao, who is unable to carry heavy loads, experienced the hardships of rural life for the first time.
She secretly ate two large meat buns from the space to fill her stomach, and then rinsed her mouth to get rid of the odor.
The space warehouse was about the size of a basketball court, divided into three floors. Time inside was frozen; items were taken out exactly as they were taken in. Because of this function, she stocked up on a lot of food from her favorite restaurants, as well as milk tea and drinks.
She climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed) in her room, and, exhausted, fell asleep within seconds.
***
At Zhao Honghui's home, not far from the educated youth settlement, Zhao Honghui's mother, Yang Chunhua, greeted the visiting matchmaker, Li, with a beaming smile.
Matchmaker Li took a sip of brown sugar water, her mouth agape with delight, and said, "Chunhua, I've told you everything. This girl is truly wonderful; she's the perfect match for our Honghui!"
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