Chapter 19 019 New Home
Ma Ersao is reliable and straightforward. On Monday afternoon, she brought the certificate from the car factory's housing management department and the stamped housing exchange agreement to the clothing factory to find Guan Yuehe.
After confirming that there were no problems, Guan Yuehe went to the housing management department to find Section Chief Mo and asked him to issue a certificate and affix an official seal to the housing exchange agreement.
Section Chief Mo was efficient; after checking the agreement and finding no problems, he stamped it with the official seal. At the same time, he reminded Guan Yuehe to also register the situation with the street office where Ginkgo Hutong is located.
Each person received a copy of the certificate and agreement, and the employer also kept a copy on file. In the presence of several colleagues from the housing management department, Guan Yuehe presented Ma Ersao with twelve ten-thousand-yuan bills.
Initially, the price was reduced by 15, but later, because Ma's older sister-in-law gossiped outside, Ma's second sister-in-law was afraid she would change her mind, and her mother and older sister-in-law took the opportunity to bargain, so the price was reduced by another 15. Since a 50 deposit had already been paid, only 120 was needed.
The money was given out, and in return, I received only two thin pieces of paper.
With that, the matter of changing houses was completely settled.
Ma Ersao counted the money twice, clutching it tightly in her hand, and said with a smile, "Our family has also exchanged apartments with others, in rooms 108 and 107 of building number one. We're having dinner with relatives and friends downstairs this Sunday, Yuehe, you should come too."
Guan Yuehe agreed and made a mental note: On Sunday, the guests for dinner include: Sister Guo, Sister Zhu... and Sister-in-law Ma.
"When does Xiao Guan plan to move?" Wang Congxin, the busy office worker, suddenly asked her.
Moving has been the biggest topic of conversation at the factory these past few days. Everywhere you go, you can hear people discussing: who is moving to their new house on which day, and who is hosting a banquet.
Comrade Xiao Guan was so quiet she seemed not to exist, but the people in the office didn't ignore her.
“They’re already moving,” Guan Yuehe replied.
The house was cleaned up on Sunday and left to air out for two days. Yesterday after get off work, she went to the logistics department to borrow a tricycle and moved the things she didn't use often over. She also changed the locks at the house.
Tuogu Mannian exchanged the defective fabric for a new year, and she asked Xu Chengcai for help. After get off work, she borrowed the factory's sewing machine to make curtains and tablecloths.
I also ordered a sofa and a wardrobe from the purchasing department. The rest of the desk, dining table, chairs and chest of drawers were bought from the scrap yard by my neighbor, Aunt Zhao.
She doesn't get to find the good stuff, but everything is usable. Since it's going to be covered with a tablecloth anyway, a slightly worn one won't affect the overall look.
You don't know how much it costs until you're in charge of the household; money comes in everywhere. She has to prepare pots, pans, and utensils, because there will inevitably be times when we'll be cooking at home.
She was just checking the items she wanted to buy in her notebook, figuring out which tickets she needed to exchange for. She was also calculating how much money she had left.
Oh right, Dad said that for convenience, she should find time to transfer her household registration out of the family home and have her own separate household registration.
This is also for the sake of my elder brother. There are many people and few houses in the car factory, and the competition is fierce, unlike the clothing factory, where as long as you don't own any property, you can get a house if you meet the housing allocation criteria.
If her household registration is still at home, outsiders would consider her house part of the family's property. Since the family home is spacious, it would be even more difficult for her older brother to apply for housing from his work unit.
Things have to be done one step at a time.
There's something important I need to do first.
Taking advantage of the free time in the office, Guan Yuehe hurried upstairs to find Xie Dongxue.
"So? Did you find out anything?"
Xie Dongxue confirmed with her, "When you said you had a friend, you really weren't talking about yourself?"
Guan Yuehe raised three fingers and swore, "It absolutely couldn't be me!"
She's just about to move into her own house, why would she be thinking about finding a boyfriend?!
"It's good that it's not you." Xie Dongxue breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I didn't find out anything about his character. His parents and two brothers all work in the shoe factory and don't live with him. He made it clear that he wants to find a female colleague from the same factory so that he'll have an advantage in housing allocation later, and both of them can work together to take care of the children. Is the friend you mentioned from our factory?"
“…No.” Guan Yuehe sighed.
They have a clear goal and have expressed their thoughts, so they are unlikely to waver easily.
"Then tell your friend to stop thinking about it," Xie the matchmaker said, as if it were commonplace. "Ask your friend what kind of person she's looking for, and I'll keep an eye out for her. There are plenty of fish in the sea, and one crop of grass will always grow back. Tell her not to lose heart."
That's what she said, but she had only ever seen the factory flowers bloom one after another, while the grass was always "cut down and then nothing grows back."
That's strange. Why is it that none of the people who came to her to inquire about the situation were able to get through to her?
Gu Mannian is one, and Lin Sitian is another.
Putting that matter aside for the time being, Guan Yuehe asked Xie Dongxue if she could exchange her money for a watch ticket.
She asked not only Xie Dongxue, but also her family, her two childhood friends, Gu Mannian, and the older colleagues in the factory office. It's always better to cast a wide net than to rely entirely on one person.
Living alone from now on will make it harder to manage my time like I did in a dormitory. Buying a watch will definitely be necessary.
—
She went to see Lin Sitian that evening and went home for dinner, but the comforting words she had prepared for a long time were not used.
As soon as she mentioned Huang Wenlin, Lin Sitian actually asked her, "Who is Huang Wenlin?"
Guan Yuehe was shocked: !
He shook Lin Sitian, telling her to think it over carefully.
"Oh! The announcer from the May Day gala!" Lin Sitian smiled sheepishly. "I'd almost forgotten about her. What did you find out?"
After Guan Yuehe finished recounting what she had found out, Lin Sitian waved her hand and said, "It's clear that Comrade Huang Wenlin and I are not destined to be together. You should ask Comrade Xie Dongxue to keep an eye out for me. If there are any suitable candidates, we can get to know each other and become friends."
Guan Yuehe felt that it wasn't that Lin Sitian and Huang Wenlin were not destined to be together, but rather that Lin Sitian simply didn't have that kind of understanding!
In Lin Sitian's opinion, nothing is more important than her childhood friend moving. The sooner she moves in, the more they can hang out together again!
—
After two more busy days, she gradually added things to her new home, like an ant carrying grains of rice.
A secondhand stove, coal briquettes piled up against half the wall of the storage room, a new pot, three sets of bowls and chopsticks...
Big and small items were gradually moved into the house, and her mother and sister-in-law came over every day to sweep and dust, and the new home gradually became more lively.
On Friday noon, taking advantage of Song Gong's free time, she and her mother went to the police station to transfer her household registration. The receiving unit was Zhuoyue Garment Factory.
Comrade Guan Yuehe is now the head of the family!
Before leaving get off work on Saturday, she first went to the housing management department to cancel her dormitory reservation, and then took the receipt to the purchasing department to pick up the wardrobe and sofa she had ordered.
The wardrobe and sofa were chosen for her by Gu Mannian, who said he had checked them and there were no bumps or scratches.
The extra wooden box was a gift that Gu Mannian had sent in advance.
She felt guilty accepting the gift and planned to give him a little more when he got married.
A security guard patrolled by, turned back, and called two other men to help. They borrowed a tricycle from the logistics department and took the rest of her luggage with them, transporting it all back to Ginkgo Alley.
She was thinking of putting it aside for now and getting help when she got back. Luckily, her colleagues from the security department were a great help.
Guan Jianguo was on his way to the garment factory with Ding Laoda and Ding Laoer when he saw his younger sister sitting on the back of a tricycle, calling him to go home.
So the three of them turned back.
It was around the time when everyone was getting off work, and the tricycle could barely make it into the alley, but the people in front were all looking forward to join in the fun, so they wouldn't move forward and the tricycle couldn't get in either.
Thankfully, her father came to help with the evacuation.
The wardrobe and sofa she ordered were of average price, but because they were new, everyone found them novel and unusual.
The older brother brought people to move the things inside, and the security guards went back when they realized they didn't need their help.
Guan Yuehe and her parents were chatting with people at the door.
It's not that they're stingy and won't let their neighbors in for a visit, but the house isn't tidy and there are lots of odds and ends. If something goes missing, they won't know who to ask for it back.
Aunt Hu managed to find a crack and peek her head in, and the first thing she said was something Guan Yuehe didn't want to hear.
"Yuehe's house is spacious enough that there's enough room for Yuehua to partition off a section."
"Is this house registered in your name?"
As soon as Aunt Hu turned around, she met Guan Yuehua's sour face and said awkwardly, "Why is Yuehe's house registered in my name?"
"You didn't even put your name on the deed, yet you're already arranging rooms for other people." Guan Yuehua pressed on, "Your house is spacious enough, why don't you partition off a room for your youngest son too?"
Aunt Hu shouted, "Isn't this the same thing?"
"We're all human, aren't you? Isn't your youngest son human?" Guan Yuehe, like a firecracker, approached step by step. "You probably spent all your money on salt, didn't you? I think you've been idle the whole time!"
Aunt Hu couldn't win the argument, so she tried to use her old tricks, but she couldn't get them to work.
Guan Yuehe stopped them.
This girl's meal wasn't for nothing; if she hadn't been held back so tightly that she couldn't move, she would never have imagined that Guan Yuehe had such a strong grip.
The two sisters, one verbally and the other physically, made Aunt Hu so angry that her face turned red.
After finally being released, Jiang Guiying, the mother, gave her a push from behind, and she was pushed out of the crowd.
If she tries to reason with them, she's in the wrong. If she tries to throw a tantrum, everyone around her has had conflicts with her before, and they're happy to see her get her comeuppance; they all act like she doesn't exist.
With Aunt Hu's example in mind, anyone else who wanted to deliberately say something provocative was stopped.
The eldest daughter of the Guan family, she could scold anyone she could get her hands on.
On the first day after moving into her new home, Guan Yuehe did not cook at home.
After having dinner at her parents' house, she came back to continue tidying up.
There were curtains hanging on all three windows, and a tablecloth was laid on the table, which was placed against the wall.
She bought the furniture cheaply from the junkyard, so she only bought two tables. One rectangular table went into the bedroom, next to the front window. It was the brightest spot for reading and writing. The other round table went in the middle of the living room as a dining table, and the sofa was placed next to the living room window. To the left of the sofa was a five-drawer chest she'd found online…
"Stop humming, it sounds awful." Guan Yuehua interrupted her off-key tune as soon as she entered the room.
Guan Yuehe secretly glanced at her eldest sister's expression.
She didn't know if her older sister had ever thought about moving in with her, but she had never considered it at all.
She didn't like living with her older sister.
Although my eldest sister has a fiery temper, she has always been praised as a smart girl since childhood. She almost got into university on her first attempt at the college entrance examination. If the college entrance examination had not been canceled the following year, she might have actually gotten into university.
My older sister is so smart, she should have guessed that she didn't want her to come and stay.
The college entrance examination was abolished in 1966. With the increasing encouragement of educated youth to go to the countryside, her family worried about unforeseen circumstances. That July, they had her eldest sister take over her job at the guesthouse. At the same time, they discussed with her sister-in-law that if forced relocation to the countryside ever happened, they would transfer her job at the daily chemical factory to her. Hearing her sister-in-law and Lin Yuzhen's plans, she busied herself finding a way out. In August of 1966, Lin Yuzhen and she entered the daily chemical factory and the garment factory, respectively.
At that time, she ran all over the city, trying to find out which companies might be hiring.
She faced countless rejections and setbacks, and was filled with anger and resentment. Her mother's job went to her eldest sister, her sister-in-law's job was going to her own younger sister, and the family's expenses mainly relied on her father's salary. Would the family transfer her father's job to her? She didn't think so. What if it was her turn to be forced to go to the frontier for construction work? Why should she be the only one without a job to take over?
When people are angry, they tend to think about many unpleasant and unpleasant things from the past.
For example, she and her older sister are three years apart, but her sister, who was always good at whining and crying, could eat a little more than her. Before she started working, she always wore her sister's hand-me-downs, slept in the same room, and had to put up with her sister's sudden bad temper...
Many things don't just disappear once they've passed; it's just that she's doing well now, so she hasn't dwelled on those unpleasant experiences.
But she cannot accept sharing the results she has earned through her own efforts.
Therefore, no matter who mentions that her house is spacious, she never responds by suggesting that other family members come to stay.
You can't prevent her from taking over her job from her older brother and sister-in-law's family.
An older sister you don't get along with is not an option.
Even younger brothers who have parents who have prepared a way out are not allowed.
Oh, second brother can come and stay for a few days occasionally.
Guan Yuehe wasn't particularly eloquent, and she had absolutely no confidence that she could hold her own against Sister Paozhang. So she pursed her lips, busily arranging the odds and ends according to her own whims, while occasionally glancing at Sister Paozhang's movements.
Guan Yuehua had no idea that her sister's thoughts would wander through the alley several times. Silently, she helped her smooth out the fabric covering the sofa and moved the dresser inward so that it fit snugly against the wall.
When Guan Yuehe glanced discreetly in her elder sister's direction again, she noticed an extra ticket on the round table that had been moved back a small step.
It's a ticket for a watch.
Seeing her gasp in surprise, Guan Yuehua said calmly, "The watch is too expensive. You should buy it yourself."
"Oh." Guan Yuehe carefully put away the palm-sized ticket; exchanging it for a watch ticket would cost quite a bit. Suddenly, she felt a little embarrassed. The people outside weren't wrong; she was a cheapskate.
He hesitated for a moment, then quickly glanced at his older sister and whispered, "Thank you, older sister."
Guan Yuehua hummed in agreement and asked her if there was anything else to tidy up, urging her to hurry up and finish so she could go to sleep.
After a few minutes of silence in the room, Guan Yuehua suddenly scoffed, "One work uniform, two work uniforms, and a sports uniform... We're not short of money or fabric, can't you make yourself a couple of outfits?"
Guan Yuehe's slight unease vanished instantly, thinking to herself that her sister was just arrogant and looked down on everything.
She tugged at her clothes, "Aren't I wearing this?!"
"You've ruined such a fine piece of fabric, you're even better at making clothes than Xu Cheng!"
She didn't agree that the fabric was wasted, but she admitted that Xu Chengcai had a better talent for operating a sewing machine than she did.
"Mind your own business!" Guan Yuehe was glad that she was strong, and she quickly pulled the person out and closed the door.
The room is quiet now.
When Guan Yuehua came to her senses, she was already locked outside. Her temper flared up instantly, and she was about to pound on the door when Aunt Zhao from the main courtyard happened to come out to empty the foot-washing water, and her temper subsided.
"Aunt Zhao".
Aunt Zhao agreed and asked if she was coming to keep Yuehe company while she slept.
"No, I just got her some things and I'm about to go back." Guan Yuehua said and walked quickly outside. As she passed the front yard, she saw Sun Dashan leaning against his door, staring intently at her.
"If you don't want your eyeballs anymore, I'll gouge them out right now."
Sun Dashan: "......"
Enraged by Guan Yuehua's glare, he turned and went back into the house, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.
—
This is the first time in Guan Yuehe's life that she has slept in a room by herself.
No matter how she rolls around on the three-meter-wide kang (heated brick bed), she won't fall off. Unless she accidentally turns herself upside down while sleeping.
The windows at both the front and back were locked tightly, and the blue curtains blocked out all the moonlight, making the room pitch black.
In the area where Ginkgo Hutong is located, apart from factories and mines, the residential areas only have electricity from 6 pm to 10 pm. Therefore, every household has to keep kerosene lamps, candles, or flashlights in their homes.
There was a flashlight next to her pillow, which she bought after moving into the dormitory.
Having found the flashlight, his excitement gradually subsided. After a while, a short laugh suddenly broke the silence of the room.
She quickly covered her mouth, then lifted the blanket and hid herself under it, giggling several times.
Although she had already known for two months that she had been allocated a house, she still felt more excited than ever before when she actually moved into her own house.
She slept until after nine o'clock, and would have continued sleeping if Guan Aiguo hadn't come to knock on the door.
Guan Aiguo brought her a bowl of dumplings.
"Are you not making a living at home?" Why are you making dumplings when it's not a holiday?
"Thanks to you, Second Sister, Mom got up early this morning to make these; they're vegetarian fillings."
Vegetable dumplings are also dumplings, and they're all just as delicious.
"You didn't sneak a bite halfway through, did you?" Guan Yuehe covered the whole bowl of dumplings and went inside to find toothpaste and a toothbrush.
"I didn't!" Guan Aiguo snorted. He was envious of the dumplings his second sister got, but he wasn't tempted to steal any of her dumplings.
Besides, he was wearing the sneakers his second sister had bought for him!
Guan Yuehe glanced at his new shoes and asked smugly, "Aren't our factory's sports shoes comfortable? They're no worse than the sneakers outside, are they?"
Guan Aiguo's words were insincere: "It's alright."
"If you don't like it, take off your shoes..."
"I won't smack!" Guan Aiguo made a face, then, afraid of being caught and beaten by his second sister, ran away in a flash. She could hear him calling his friends from home; without a doubt, he was showing off his new shoes.
Guan Yuehe squatted at the door of her house, brushing her teeth while keeping an eye on her surroundings.
Of the three houses in the backyard, hers was the cleanest. Grandpa Chang's and Officer Song's houses had piles of miscellaneous items in front of them: firewood collected from outside, replaced roof tiles, large water vats, and large and small jars containing sauerkraut or sauce.
She also bought a large water tank. This way, she wouldn't have to constantly fill the tap in the front yard, as the water pipes might freeze in winter, and every household would have to store water for later use.
But when she went to buy it, the large vat was temporarily out of stock and would have to be transported back in two days.
However, her mother said that she would pickle several more jars of sauerkraut this fall, and then she would leave them with her.
If you're worried about things being stolen if you leave them outside, you can move them to her small storage room, put a wooden shelf there, and the storage room can hold even more things.
Song Angong's youngest daughter, Song Xinan, came out yawning and stared blankly at the older girl across the street. It wasn't until her brother, Song Xibei, told her to greet her that she remembered that Yuehe, the older sister, had moved in across the street.
Song Xinan wasn't shy at all. After greeting her, she rushed over and squatted down next to her, tilting her head to look at her, and asked, "Mom said that it's amazing that you live alone, sister. Are you scared?"
With her mouth full of foam, Guan Yuehe couldn't speak, so she could only shake her head.
"Wow! Sister, you're amazing!" After praising her, Song Xinan hurriedly reached out to her brother to carry her out, saying that she couldn't hold it in anymore and needed to go to the toilet.
Song Xibei was so angry he wanted to hit her. "If you do this again, I won't care about you! You can just poop in your pants pocket!"
I was very angry, but I resigned myself to my fate and carried my sister to the public toilet.
Guan Yuehe found the brother and sister quite interesting.
Just after I finished eating the last dumpling, Aunt Zhao from next door came over for a visit and took me to see the cellar location she had been assigned.
The entire courtyard shared a cellar, which was divided into several small rooms, one for each family, mainly used to store Chinese cabbages for the winter.
If you live in a small house, you might store some infrequently used items in the cellar. Families with spacious houses like Guan Yuehe's don't have these worries.
The cellar areas of each house were all securely locked. Perfect timing; the old locks that had been replaced at home could be used to lock her little cellar.
Aunt Zhao politely invited her to come to her house whenever she had time, and told her to contact her if she wanted to buy furniture, as she could help her keep an eye out for good options.
Guan Yuehe thanked her repeatedly before returning home to prepare the gifts she would give out when she went out for dinner later.
The older women who invited her had all given her advice and help at work, so she planned to treat them all equally, giving each of them a bag of white sugar.
We can't afford to give away too many.
She now only has 133.45 yuan left in her savings. The major items in her house are all in place, but there are definitely a lot of small things that she needs to gradually add.
Most importantly, she also needs to buy a watch!
After buying the watch, I'll have to use the remaining money to treat people to meals...
I can't think about it any further.
Guan Yuehe put the gift bag she was going to give away into the bag, and also took the bowl back to Courtyard No. 3.
"I'm having dinner with everyone next Sunday. Do you think that's a good time?" Jiang Guiying asked her, taking the bowl from her.
Now that superstitions are no longer allowed, families try to accommodate Sundays or public holidays when holding celebrations, so that everyone has time to participate and it doesn't interfere with work.
Guan Yuehe had never done it before; she only said that she would follow her and her father's arrangements and that she would be responsible for paying for it.
When it came to money, Guan Yuehe asked, suppressing her heartache, how much it would cost.
Jiang Guiying listed the people she was to invite; the neighbors from courtyards two and three were expected to fill four tables. These days, when people come to eat at someone's house, unless they are very close relatives or have specifically invited their whole family, it's assumed that two adults will come as representatives or one adult will bring a child.
Besides the neighbors, her own family and her uncle's and aunt's families would share a table, her maternal grandparents' family would squeeze into another table, her close colleagues and friends would also have to be seated at a separate table, her sister-in-law's family and her father's old friends would be seated at yet another table... Just in case, an extra table of food would have to be prepared.
Guan Yuehe's head was spinning from hearing all this.
She even thought, why not just skip it? What's the point of wasting this money?
But her mother repeated the reasons why it was absolutely necessary to invite her: First, at her age, getting an apartment was a unique privilege in the entire Ginkgo Hutong, so she had to host a party! Second, it was to unite the neighbors in Courtyard No. 3 and intimidate the neighbors in Courtyard No. 2, so they wouldn't think she was easy to bully just because she was a young woman living alone. Finally, the family hadn't had a happy occasion in a long time, and they had to recoup the favors they had given out.
Guan Yuehe couldn't find a reason to refute it, so she could only nod.
It's only because life is a bit better now that we can afford to host a banquet for nine tables of people.
Although many people were invited, the dishes served could not be prepared in a very good way.
"I'll have someone send a message to your aunt, asking her to trade chickens, ducks, and vegetables with people in the village. We also have some meat coupons saved up, so that should be enough for a couple of meat dishes. For staple food, we'll make cornbread."
Guan Yuehe took out fifty yuan, but ten yuan was returned to her. Jiang Guiying said, "We'll return the rest to you. If it's not enough, your father and I will make up the difference."
Jiang Guiying put the money away and said, "Your father said this morning that you don't need to pay any living expenses to the family anymore. Your brother and sister-in-law know this and have no objections. We'll talk about retirement money after we retire."
Of course, we have to keep our opinions to ourselves. Our second daughter has already moved out and is living independently; it's not appropriate for her to continue paying for our meals.
Guan Yuehe had no objections.
If we stop giving her living expenses, and she still goes home to eat for free, we'll have to bring her food rations there, or give her mother extra money to help her out.
“Unlike your older sister, you don’t spend money recklessly as soon as you have it, which I don’t worry about. But there’s one thing: when you’re dating, you have to tell the family. Let your dad and me approve before you bring her home, understand?”
Guan Yuehe nodded perfunctorily, "It's still far from certain, so you'd better save your trouble and go and appraise my sister."
After saying that, Guan Yuehe glanced at her sister's room, the door was locked, "Out on a date again?"
Jiang Guiying angrily flung the rag aside. "She's got her own ideas, I can't control her! You don't even know who she's dating?"
"My dad drives her to and from get off work every day and I didn't even know. How was I supposed to know?"
Guan Yuehe could understand her mother's anxiety about keeping it a secret from her family for so long.
The slogan of "gender equality" is loudly proclaimed outside, but when it comes to matters between men and women, women always seem to suffer. What if her sister makes a mistake and finds an unreliable man? Wouldn't she be miserable from then on?
Having stayed at home for a while, she set off for the garment factory's residential area.
She met a colleague riding a bicycle halfway there, and hitched a ride on his bike, saving herself the effort of walking.
Many people chose to host dinners today, and dozens of tables were set up in the open space downstairs. She couldn't tell which table belonged to which family.
Upon seeing the person, she went up to present the gift and then went to Sister Zhu's banquet.
There's no other reason than that Sister Zhu's family served the most delicious food.
Xie Dongxue, who came over, thought the same way: having good friends around makes the food taste even better when competing with others for food.
They ate quickly and left just as fast, probably afraid that the older women at the table would try to introduce them to men again.
What's it like living alone?
"I wake up laughing from my dreams." If I'm not asleep, I laugh so hard my mouth stretches to the back of my ears.
Xie Dongxue is looking forward to her future house even more.
Instead of going home, the two took a bus to the department store.
There is a big difference between a department store and a department store. Department stores have a wider variety of goods and a larger selection.
The two also have similarities, namely that sales clerks often ignore customers, and customers and sales clerks often argue.
There are also salespeople with good attitudes, but you have to observe and find them yourself.
They didn't want anything else to buy, so they went straight to the watch counter.
Imported watches are out of the question; they're too expensive, I simply can't afford them.
Shanghai brand watches are the most famous, with prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan. She only has less than a hundred yuan left, and there are still two weeks until next month's paycheck. She can't afford one for the time being.
Despite the salesperson's disapproving looks, Guan Yuehe looked at the models several times, comparing them one by one. She finally decided that she wanted the Shanghai brand 1120 the most, and the price was barely acceptable at 120 yuan.
A watch is a big purchase; one can last for over a decade, so she figured she should buy herself one she liked. Since the receipt for the watch was still a while away from expiring, she decided to save up a bit more and try to buy it within three months.
Seeing her hesitation, Xie Dongxue said, "Why don't you use my money first? You can pay me back when you get your salary."
"No, I'll save it myself." She always avoids borrowing money if possible, whether it's borrowing from others or lending to others. "Spend as much as you can afford. It's okay, I'll save enough soon."
They didn't buy a watch, but they couldn't go home empty-handed, so they bought some fruit candies that didn't require coupons.
At this moment, Guan Yuehe's mind was completely focused on saving money to buy a Shanghai brand watch, and as soon as Monday arrived, she clamored to buy the watch immediately. Not knowing the time made her prone to procrastination, and she was terrified of being late for work.
Including the six months she worked as a temporary worker, she has been working for three years and nine months, and has never taken a day off or been late for work!
Just like Comrade Lao Guan wanted to earn ten years' worth of advanced worker awards, Comrade Xiao Guan also wanted to receive his full salary every year and not have his salary deducted for any reason!
People going to work at the car factory had already left, so the public restrooms were the least crowded. She tidied up at home, then went out to use the restroom and went to work on her way.
Her mother told her to put a urinal in the bathroom, but she complained about the smell and refused to allow such a thing in her house.
When she arrived at the factory gate, she ran into a group of colleagues who were chatting and laughing as they came from the residential area, and she knew that she was not late today.
She's planning to buy a watch, while her colleagues who've moved to new homes are thinking about buying bicycles. People are everywhere in the factory borrowing industrial tickets.
Guan Yuehe had used all her industrial ration coupons to buy pots and pans, so she couldn't borrow any more. She even took Xu Chengcai's and Lin Sitian's industrial ration coupons and used them.
So everyone started talking about how they hoped this month would end quickly so they could receive their wages and the various tickets for next month.
Before she received her salary and the tickets, she was greeted by her eldest uncle, aunt, and second brother.
My uncle Guan Donglin and aunt Chen Huijun both have smiling faces, which makes them very approachable.
It's said that children resemble their parents, and my second brother is starting to look more and more like my aunt.
My uncle and aunt brought not only chickens, ducks, and vegetables that they had traded with others, but also a chest of drawers and a stack of bamboo baskets that they had made for her.
Everything was tailored to her needs.
Before, our house wasn't spacious enough, so my uncle and aunt never stayed overnight here. Now it's much better; I can stay at her place.
But her place was only spacious; there was only one kang (a heated brick bed) for sleeping. They moved their own cot there and borrowed another cot from Uncle Chang's house for their eldest uncle and second brother to sleep on at night.
She placed the newly made dresser in the bedroom, connecting it to the desk and placing it against the front window.
Another day I'll go to the recycling center and find a couple more bottles, then fill them with bright flowers and plants... I learned this from her sister; it makes the room look more pleasing to the eye.
The second brother looked around the house, inside and out, and casually pulled up the weeds behind it. He then put his hands on his hips with satisfaction and said, "This house is great!"
He couldn't stay idle for a moment. He picked up a bucket and went to the front yard to fetch water, filling the large water vat in front of the door. Then he went to the kitchen to start a fire.
I'm going to cook at her place tonight; the chicken, duck, and vegetables I brought are all piled up in her kitchen.
Her aunt was in charge of cooking, and she and her second brother sat in front of the stove to help, but they were soon chased out by her mother. The sisters-in-law had something to talk about and thought they were in the way.
The prepared roasted melon seeds and fruit candies were poured into a new bamboo basket and then stuffed into the bottom drawer of the living room cabinet.
Weiwei and Jingjing were given handfuls of candy and melon seeds by their aunt. If their mother hadn't stopped them, they would have run back to courtyard number three to show off to their friends.
Guan Canghai and his brother went to visit someone, to invite them again, and also to borrow tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks.
No family was wealthy enough to own dozens of sets of bowls and chopsticks; when entertaining guests, they would borrow from their neighbors. There were even cases where relatives came from afar and had nowhere to stay, so they would ask a neighbor to let them stay for a night or two.
"Brother and sister-in-law rarely come all this way, shall I have a drink with you?" Guan Canghai stared longingly at the white wine on the drawer, which was to be bought for tomorrow's guests.
Guan Yuehe pushed her bowl forward as well, "It's rare for my uncle to come, my dad is happy too. Mom, I'll have a drink with them. Second brother, have a drink too."
The father and daughter looked so alike, their craving for wine was so obvious, it made everyone laugh.
In the end, only the eldest uncle's bowl had half a bowl left, while the others only had a few bites.
These few bites actually gave her the illusion of being drunk.
The spacious kang (heated brick bed) suddenly felt crowded. Her mother came over with pillows and blankets and chatted with her aunt about village gossip for half the night. She rolled over in her sleep and her mother patted her bottom twice.
"Just like her sister, when she's asleep she either leans against people or kicks them with her legs."
The next day, as soon as it was light, the house was bustling with activity. Tables and chairs were set up in the courtyard of No. 2, and a group of children, with roasted sunflower seeds in their pockets, cheered and ran outside.
Both kitchens were used, boiling water to pluck the chickens and ducks and make bone broth...
Guan Canghai specially invited his old partner, Uncle Ming, to take charge of the cooking. Uncle Ming was the head chef at the car factory; if the two hadn't been close, they really wouldn't have been able to hire him.
Guan Yuehe only cared about entertaining her colleagues and friends. She had only a so-so relationship with her maternal grandparents and aunt's family, and her parents took care of them, so she didn't need to worry about them.
"Brother Gu, are you running a fever?" Xu Cheng asked Gu Mannian, who was sitting right across from him, wanting to offer to take him to the factory clinic if he wasn't feeling well.
The others at the table all looked at Gu Mannian, whose face was flushed, as if he had a fever or was drunk.
Gu Mannian quickly looked up, then quickly looked down again, her face turning even redder. Only one thought filled her mind: She remembers my name!
Only Guan Yuehe knew the reason, and rolled her eyes speechlessly.
She had just finished flipping through it when a woman passing by slapped her on the head, saying, "It looks awful! Don't roll your eyes!"
The men were all blushing and staring at her, but she was completely oblivious and rolled her eyes at them!
Guan Yuehua was disappointed in him.
—
Grandpa Ming truly lives up to his reputation as a master chef; even the vegetarian dishes were incredibly fragrant. The meal consisted of five dishes and a soup, with the meat mixed in with the vegetables and divided into nine portions, giving each person a piece or two. The bone broth was glistening with oil, and a bite of cornbread followed by a sip of soup was quite delicious!
The meal was enjoyed by both the host and guests.
The courtyard was lively all morning, but gradually returned to calm.
The borrowed bowls, chopsticks, tables and chairs were returned, and all that was left at home were gifts from family members and guests.
Guan Yuehe yawned widely, thinking to herself that one such lavish dinner party was enough.
The busiest person today is the most energetic. Look, I'm urging her to take stock of all the gifts she received today.
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