After Qiao Baozhu comforted Gao Liman, she exchanged a few words with Ji Hehua and then returned to the family compound.
As soon as she entered the house, she took off her military coat and put on the rag apron she usually wore when working.
Scoop three scoops of cold water with ice chips from the water tank and pour them into the pot, put the steaming rack on it, and put seven or eight washed potatoes on the steaming rack.
The stove is connected to the kang, and when the kang is heated, the house will become warm. The kang is easy to burn but it requires a certain method, but Qiao Baozhu doesn't know how to read the wind direction.
When the north wind blows, if the wind is just right, the fire will be very strong and the kang will heat up quickly. Similarly, the wind would take away the heat from the kang, causing the indoor temperature to drop. Qiao Baozhu couldn't remember to pull the baffle hanging on the chimney. Often, even after burning a basket of wood, the house was still cold.
When the south wind blew, Qiao Baozhu was even more miserable. People here call the south wind the "front wind" or the "head wind". When the wind is strong, the outdoor pressure is much higher than the indoor pressure. The smoke cannot be discharged from the flue and will bulge out from the cracks in the kang.
Experienced people usually don't heat the kang for the time being, but light a brazier in the house to deal with it, and then heat the kang again when the wind direction changes.
But Qiao Baozhu couldn't figure out the wind direction, and after she filled her house with smoke for the second time, the smoke couldn't dissipate.
Shen Xiao suspected that Qiao Baozhu would be suffocated to death by smoke, so he asked someone to install a radiator in the house. The stove burned coal to drive the heating, and the flue led directly to the outdoors, which would not affect Qiao Baozhu's safety.
Most families in the compound will set up a stove in winter even if they don’t have radiators. The spirit of comparison exists in every era. Since they can live in the family compound, their conditions must be better than those of ordinary people outside.
Your family burns coal for heating in winter, and my family doesn't want to be outdone. Even if the family is reluctant to burn a pound of coal in the whole winter, they will still put a pile of black lumps in the yard. No one will laugh at you if you don't burn coal, but if your family can't afford coal, you will be ridiculed.
Qiao Baozhu really dislikes this kind of secretly competitive spirit. Even though she dislikes him, she will not create a clear personality to highlight that she is different from others. Living in such a complex compound, the most taboo thing is to go against others.
Just as Qiao Baozhu shoveled some coal into the stove, she heard the bell on the door ring.
She looked sideways and saw Wu Meili walking in with a basket on her arm and smiling.
"When did this jingle-dong sound appear on the door? What is it? It sounds pretty nice."
Wu Meili looked at the egg-sized copper bell hanging on the door with curiosity, and couldn't help but reach out to grab the bell and pull it.
Listening to the pleasant tinkling sound of the bells, Wu Meili giggled like a child.
"This thing is really fun. It makes a sound when you move it. Sister Baozhu, what is it used for?"
Qiao Baozhu did not explain the use of this thing. She smiled and said, "This is called a bell. I don't know what it is used for. When I lived in the city, many people hung a bell on their doors. As long as the bell rang, the people in the house would know that someone had entered the yard."
I thought Wu Meili wouldn't understand, but she laughed out loud after listening to me: "If you're afraid that someone might break into your house, it would be great to have a guard dog. What's the point of having this thing? It can't guard your house if it jingles when the wind blows."
Wu Meili had seen Lingling for a long time, and walked into the inner room while joking as if she was at home.
After entering the house, Wu Meili touched the head of the kang. Feeling a hint of warmth on the kang, Wu Meili nodded and smiled at Qiao Baozhu who was working in the kitchen.
"After lunch, I came to your front door two or three times. The first time I came, the door was locked, and the second time I came, the door was still locked. I thought that since Hehua went to work on her first day, you should have gone to her place."
"I just came out to relieve myself and saw smoke coming out of your chimney, so I knew you were back."
Wu Meili leaned against the door frame and watched Qiao Baozhu fill the kettle with water and place it on the stove.
He raised his eyebrows and looked surprised: "Why do you use the stove to heat water every day? It wastes so much coal. When you heat the kang, why don't you just heat two thermoses of hot water?"
"I've told you several times, but you didn't listen. You burn coal so early, and by the time Shen Xiao gets off work, half the bucket of coal will be gone. Aren't you really afraid that he will get angry with you?"
Qiao Baozhu said disapprovingly: "He won't get angry with me over such a small matter."
Wu Meili looked anxious when she saw that Qiao Baozhu was not interested.
"You two just got married, so he's embarrassed to get anxious with you. Once you use up half of the coal in your yard, he'll get anxious."
After Qiao Baozhu finished lighting the fire, she entered the house and found that Wu Meili had already moved the small kang table onto the kang.
She slowly took off her hat, took off her long apron and hung them on the hanger. He poured them both a cup of hot water, then asked Wu Meili slowly.
"Which do you think is warmer, my house or yours?"
Wu Meili held the cup and said without thinking: "Of course your home is warmer."
"In your house, I can take off my cotton-padded jacket to work. I don't know what's going on in my house. The kang is so hot that my butt is burned and my head is frozen on it."
"I am willing to come to your house to do needlework because your house is warm. You see, you are not cold even if you wear a sweater in your house. I have to put my hands on the kang to warm them up after I sew shoes for a while."
As Wu Meili spoke, she opened her cotton jacket, took out four pairs of shoe soles from it and placed them on the table.
"My home is warm because I burn coal shovel by shovel. If we only rely on this kang, my bottom will be hot and my forehead will be cold."
Wu Meili was stunned, looked at the radiator hanging under the north window in the room and stopped talking.
It was only after she came to the staff quarters that she learned about the existence of radiators in the world. It was an iron box about 60 cm long and 50 cm wide, filled with water. When the stove is burning outside, there is no kang in the house, so you can keep warm by relying on the radiator.
Although the stove is good, it needs to burn coal. How could she afford to burn coal with the meager allowance her husband gave her?
Her family didn't have the money to install a radiator, but they still installed a stove in the house. She would only light the stove when there were guests or when it was snowing heavily outside and it was too cold. When there are no guests, we never burn coal, we only burn bamboo shoots.
"Hey... I wish I could work and earn a salary like you. I'd also install a radiator at home so my son's hands won't get cold when he's doing his homework."
Wu Meili touched the radiator, feeling the heat from her fingertips, her eyes full of envy.
"Sister Wu, the mutual aid society needs a literate family member for this vacancy. I'm sorry I can't help you."
Hearing Qiao Baozhu apologizing to her, Wu Meili quickly turned around, smiled and waved her hands: "What is there to be sorry about! You have helped me a lot, I will remember it in my heart."
"It's because I'm uneducated that I can't be selected. Besides, even if I could be selected, I have so many children at home and so much work to do, I can't go."
Wu Meili spoke very frankly. She herself didn't care and instead advised Qiao Baozhu not to worry too much.
"Did you hear the nonsense that people in the courtyard say? Did you think that I was alienated from you because of this?"
Qiao Baozhu was stunned: "You know all this?"
When Wu Meili saw Qiao Baozhu's expression, she thought someone was really gossiping about her.
Wu Meili was so angry that she slammed the table and said, "These old ladies have nothing to do all day, so they like to gossip about other people. They see that we have a good relationship and you have a way to make money, so they are jealous."
Wu Meili's fist hit the table like a block of iron. Qiao Baozhu watched the water cup in front of her being shaken into the air and was shocked again by her strength.
She didn't care about the rumors in the family compound, but Qiao Baozhu felt that Wu Meili, this strong woman, should be put to good use.
But what kind of job should I find for her?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
