After Xuemei and the others finished scrubbing their bodies, they went to the shower area to rinse again, dried themselves with towels, and then returned to their lockers to put on their clothes.
As soon as she came out of the bathhouse, she saw Han Chen waiting in front. Xuemei ran over and asked, "How long have you been out? My brother-in-law and the others haven't come out yet!"
Han Chen looked at Xuemei's red face, thinking it was from the heat in the bathhouse. He then looked at Xuemei's half-dried hair and reached out to pull her scarf up, covering her hair until it was almost covered. Then Han Chen replied, "I asked my brother-in-law to take Xiaochen and the others back first. It's so windy and cold outside!"
"Then why don't you go back with them? It's so cold waiting here!" Xuemei said coquettishly.
Before Han Chen could think of a good reason, he heard Lin Ziying, who was walking behind Xuemei, jokingly say, "Are you afraid that your sister-in-law and I will lose your wife?"
"No, second sister. I just got out not long ago, and I thought you would be out soon, so I went together!" Han Chen scratched his head and said. Han Chen's hair had not been trimmed for several months, and now it had grown to the tips of his ears. His thick black hair still had two or three points of moisture, and the ends of his hair were curly.
Xuemei looked at the heat on Han Chen's hair and said with a bit of heartache: "Your hair isn't dry yet, what are you waiting for outside? Aren't you afraid of getting a headache?"
Xuemei turned around and looked at Feng Ru and the other two behind her and said, "Sister-in-law, Second Sister, our hair isn't dry yet, let's go home quickly!"
Feng Ru replied, "Okay, let's go!"
When Feng Ru walked behind Han Chen, she quietly joked to him, "Xiao Chen, you are so lucky. You must treat Xuemei well in the future!"
Han Chen thought Feng Ru meant what she said literally and nodded without hesitation. Feng Ru looked at Han Chen's silly look and laughed with Lin Ziying behind Han Chen, covering her mouth.
Lin Ziying took Wu Ruotong back to Wu's house halfway. When Xuemei and the other two returned home, the two brothers Xiaojin and Xiaoren were playing with new toys in the living room. Lin Songguo went back to the house to rest, Yu Qing went back to the unit to deal with things, and Juan was preparing dinner for today in the kitchen.
As Lin Songguo's bodyguard, Juan needs to be responsible for Lin Songguo's three meals and housekeeping, etc. However, now that Lin Songguo has retired to the second line, there are not so many things to do. Generally, Juan is only responsible for the three meals. Juan feels that his daily life is too easy, so when Yu Qing and the others are not free, he will cook for them.
After Feng Ru put the clothes back in the room, she went to the kitchen to help Juan with dinner. Xuemei wanted to help, but Feng Ru refused, telling her to go back to the house to dry her hair. Before entering the kitchen, Feng Ru warned Xiaojin and Xiaoren to play with their toys properly and not to argue or fight.
As soon as she entered the room, Xuemei let her hair down, took out a wooden comb from her schoolbag and began to comb her hair. After Xuemei straightened her hair, she took off her shoes and sat on the kang to dry her hair.
Han Chen's hair was almost dry now. He took the cloth bag that Xuemei had put her clothes in and asked, "Xuemei, are these the clothes you just changed into?"
Xuemei nodded and replied, "Yes, what's wrong?"
Han Chen said, "It'll take a while before we eat. I'm going to the shower room to wash my clothes."
Xuemei thought for a moment and said, "Isn't it a bit inappropriate for you to wash my clothes here? Why don't you just leave them there? I'll wash them myself later!"
"What's wrong with that? I've washed your clothes before at home. It's the same here. Don't do anything. Your period is coming in the next two days, isn't it?" Han Chen said as he put their dirty clothes together.
"Then add some hot water from the kitchen to wash, the tap water is very cold!" Xuemei reminded.
In the north, people are afraid that the tap pipes will freeze at night in winter, so the faucets are not turned off tightly and water is dripping every day, and a water tank is used to collect the water.
The kitchen behind the Lin family's living room is about 25 square meters and is divided into two compartments. The small room of 10 square meters facing the backyard is filled with coal balls and coal blocks, while the room facing the living room has a cupboard, two coal stoves, several large vats, a square table, two chairs and several baskets.
Next to the kitchen is a shower room of about ten square meters. The Lin family takes a bath here in summer and autumn, and also washes here on a daily basis.
Next to the shower room is the staircase leading to the second floor. Two bicycles are parked at the bottom of the stairs. Yu Qing and Feng Ru usually ride their bicycles, each carrying one child. On their way to work, they drop off the two brothers, Xiaojin and Xiaoren, at school and the Yuhong class. Xiaojin is in the first grade at the primary school where Feng Ru works.
There is a door behind the stairs. When you push the door open, there is a stone path leading to the toilet in the backyard. The toilet is a flush type, and there is a wooden bucket and a wooden spoon inside for flushing the toilet.
There is a large vat under the wall connecting the backyard to the kitchen. It is used to store frozen things in winter. The large vat can be seen from the window in the kitchen.
After Han Chen finished washing the clothes and wrung them out as much as he could, he hung them on a rack placed on the ground in front of the window inside the house to dry. In the winter in Beijing, the house has floor heating, so clothes dry much faster when hung indoors.
Xuemei saw Han Chen had hung up the clothes and quickly called out, "Han Chen, take off your shoes and come up to warm yourself up."
"No, I'm fine. Xuemei, please put on your shoes and come down! My aunt just came back, and my sister-in-law asked me to hang up the clothes and then called you out for dinner!" Han Chen replied.
For dinner, we had sauerkraut fish stewed with tofu soup and multi-grain steamed buns. Xuemei had almost never eaten this dish before. At home, she usually put a piece of tofu in the stewed fish, and the sauerkraut was different from the one at home, but stewing them together was both appetizing and delicious, and Xuemei enjoyed it very much.
Juan is from Lin Province and is good at making sauerkraut. Sauerkraut fish with tofu is a local dish from his hometown.
In the evening, Han Chen and Xuemei chatted with everyone in the living room for more than an hour, mostly with Yu Qing asking them about their time in Liujia Village.
At around eight o'clock in the evening, Xuemei and Han Chen finished washing up and went back to their room to sleep. Although they had already made up for almost two hours of sleep in the afternoon, they still felt a little tired.
Just a few minutes after getting on the kang, Xuemei and Han Chen fell asleep in each other's arms.
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