Yan Jing'an was already awake inside the room. He was sitting at the table drinking water, wearing a thick sweater.
She was already thin, but this illness made her even thinner. She coughed constantly at night and stayed up all night. Even wearing the thick sweater crocheted by Jiang Xi, you could still see how thin she was.
Hearing the noise, he turned around and greeted, "Everyone's back."
Yan Zheng grunted in agreement. He unloaded the basket of red dates next to the stove and asked, "Are you feeling any better? Your cough sounded lighter last night than it did the day before."
Yan Jing'an said, "That's how it is. I'm used to it. Every time I have an attack, I have to rest for about ten days."
Yan Zheng poured himself and Jiang Xi a cup of hot water, and also added some for Yan Jing'an.
It's still warm inside. After being frozen outside for half a day, I can finally warm up for a while.
Yan Jing'an chuckled self-deprecatingly: "This disease won't kill you, but it won't make you feel any better either. My mom thought that if I learned martial arts, it would help me get better. But after seven or eight years, I'm still the same."
"Later, I met a doctor who knew a little more about this. He said it was determined by my constitution, that I was born with weak lungs, and that it couldn't be cured completely. So you don't need to be too worried about me, it's just an old problem."
Coughing, he drank the hot water and sat back down on the bed.
Jiang Xi's hands were so frozen that she couldn't feel them. She sat in front of the fire and put her hands to the stove to warm them.
Yan Jing'an's words were so pessimistic that they sent a chill down Jiang Xi's spine.
Yan Zheng, who had been silent, spoke up. He took a sip of water and said, "I was thinking that people in the Northwest would build fire walls. They would make the wall into a cavity and use the heat and smoke from the fire to heat the entire wall, making it a huge heat source that would raise the temperature inside the room."
"The stove for the fireplace is usually placed in another room, so there won't be any air pollution problems. We'll build one in the new house later. As long as you take care of your illness and it doesn't relapse frequently, you'll be fine."
His frequent relapses are probably partly due to the weather; it's too cold, and no matter how many layers you wear, you can't keep out the biting chill. Plus, he's been really tired lately.
On the other hand, it should also be related to the air quality in the cave and the house. With the earthen stove burning, there was a lot of dust in the house.
Jiang Xi added, "Don't give up either. The air in the mountains is fresh, and the food is clean. Now that we have fertile land with geothermal energy, we can plant more crops next year, and in the summer and autumn, we can store up more grain and pay attention to a balanced diet."
"We'll repair the house properly in the spring. Just like Yan Zheng said, as long as we take it easy, even if it can't be cured, it'll be fine as long as it doesn't relapse often."
Yan Jing'an had been feeling somewhat disheartened about his health due to his frequent illnesses. However, after listening to their story, he suddenly felt a renewed sense of hope for the future.
Yes, what's the big deal? If we're not afraid of death, why should we be afraid of living well? They've already tried so hard, so we shouldn't give up.
After mid-December, the weather will start to warm up. When spring arrives and flowers bloom, my illness will be under control; that's how I've managed for so many years.
Thinking this way, the tension in his heart eased considerably.
Yan Zheng rested for a while, put down his water glass, took two warm sweet potatoes from the pot and said, "I'm leaving now. I'll be done in a bit, and I can go back earlier this afternoon."
As he walked to the door, he glanced at Jiang Xi again and instructed her, "If you're going to pick red dates, wear more clothes. Yan Jing'an won't need them in the house, so wear his cloak too."
Jiang Xi nodded. She had eaten a lot in the morning and wasn't very hungry yet, so she made two cups of honey water, one for him and one for Yan Jin'an. Considering that he was a patient, she also heated up two sweet potatoes and a few steamed red dates for him to eat.
In the afternoon, as Yan Zheng had instructed, he put on two layers of cloaks and went out to pick red dates.
Before they had finished picking the red dates, Yan Zheng returned early as expected, with a smile on his face. Jiang Xi thought it was because something good had happened.
"What's making you so happy?"
Yan Zheng walked up to her and asked in a low voice, "Do you want to take a shower?"
Jiang Xi was stunned: "Take a shower?"
Of course I want to, but I was too busy moving to think about it. Now Yan Jing'an is sick, and there are people everywhere in the house. Even cleaning has become a luxury.
Yan Zheng looked at her mysteriously and said, "Go and bring your change of clothes and toiletries."
Jiang Xi looked at him with a puzzled expression, confused: "Where are we going?"
Yan Zheng didn't explain, but pushed her shoulder and urged her in a low voice, "You'll find out in a bit."
Jiang Xi was even more confused now, but the thought of taking a bath made her feel a little excited.
"Then I'll go pack the clothes, and you can pick up the remaining red dates."
Upon entering the house, she found Yan Jing'an still asleep. She tiptoed and packed her toiletries and change of clothes into a basket.
After they went outside, Yan Zheng took her things and led her to the kitchen in the yellow brick courtyard.
Jiang Xi remembered that the kitchen was not small; it used to have an earthen stove and a large iron pot.
Yan Zheng pushed open the kitchen door, and Jiang Xi felt a wave of warmth greet her. Outside it was freezing cold, but inside it was as warm as spring. A cast iron pot was heating up on the stove, with steam rising from it.
The entire kitchen had been cleaned spotlessly, with not a single weed or piece of dirt on the floor. Even the cobwebs that used to be on the walls were gone.
There were two chairs against the wall, the same two round-backed chairs she had seen in the main house. The chairs had been cleaned, and the mottled paint marks on them were clearly visible.
Yan Zheng gestured for her to come in.
Jiang Xi bit her lip and said, "So that's what you've been busy with all afternoon."
What surprised Jiang Xi the most was a water vat placed in the middle of the room. The vat wasn't big, only about half a person's height and a meter wide, filled with half a vat of hot water, with wisps of steam rising from it.
She walked inside and touched the water vat: "Isn't it a waste to use such a nice water vat for bathing?"
Yan Zheng closed the door again, and Jiang Xi saw it, her face flushing even more.
Yan Zheng said, "There are still water tanks. Besides, what's the use of having more water tanks if they can't even meet your basic bathing needs?"
Jiang Xi felt a sweet feeling in her heart after hearing this.
Yan Zheng added some more firewood to the stove before saying, "This house has been burning all afternoon, and it's warm right now. The water in the pot is for you. There's a clean basin on the shelf; if you feel the water is too cold, just scoop some hot water from the pot and add it yourself."
Jiang Xi is good at grasping the key points; the word "self" immediately caught her attention.
She glanced awkwardly at the two chairs by the wall: "Aren't you coming along?"
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