Just as Zong Shao said, the new house is indeed a two-story brick house. After so many years of wind and sun, the bricks of the house have different shades of dark and light in color, and there are cracks and traces of repairs on the side walls, which looks quite old.
Although it looks a bit old from the outside, the house is quite new inside. The walls upstairs and downstairs are snow-white, and the window glass is translucent. You can tell at a glance that it is newly replaced.
The furniture is a mix of new and old. For example, the dining table and chest of drawers in the dining room were left by the previous owner, but there are a few new benches. There was also a coffee table in the living room, which looked a bit old, but the wood was good, so Zong Shao did not throw it away. He also made two wooden sofas, one long and one short, and placed them next to it.
All the furniture in the main house upstairs is new. Zong Shao asked someone to make the bed. It is not painted, but has a natural wood color. The wardrobe and dressing table are also in the same color scheme, but he asked someone to bring them back from the county supply and marketing cooperative.
Hearing this, Lin Wei asked: "Is the county town big? How far is it from here?"
"It's much smaller than Shicheng, and there's only one road to walk around. But there's a movie theater in the county, I'll take you there when I have time." As for how far it is, Zong Shao thought for a moment and said, "It's probably a bit far to walk, but if you ride a bike faster, you can get there in more than 20 minutes."
Lin Wei sighed and said, "I sold my bicycle before I came here."
Nowadays, weddings require three things and one ring, but you don't have to have all of them, just one or two will be enough.
The Zong family was quite sincere in this regard. They had prepared the money and tickets to buy a radio, but Lin Wei felt that the radio was not very necessary as she didn't listen to it much. As for the sewing machine, it was owned by Zong's mother, and it would be a waste of money to buy two. So they only let her buy a Shanghai watch and a Forever bicycle.
The watch they bought was a ladies' watch, and Lin Wei wore it on her hand after they got married. Bicycles were used equally by both men and women, but since Zong Shao was in the army, she was the one who basically rode it.
But Lin Wei had to follow the army, and no matter whether her job was sold or given to someone else, she would no longer be an employee of the cotton mill, and she could no longer live in the house that the cotton mill originally allocated to her mother-in-law. After all, there are so many people waiting for housing allocation, and the company cannot leave the house empty for her.
Therefore, before joining the army, Lin Wei sold all the large furniture, pots, pans, and utensils that could be sold, and gave away those that could not be sold. The bicycle was the last item to be sold, and the buyer was none other than her sister-in-law from her natal family.
But it couldn't be anyone else, and after the payment was made, the bicycle no longer belonged to her.
Speaking of this, Lin Wei felt a little regretful. After all, it was the thing she got married with, and it accompanied her for four years.
Zong Shao was silent for a moment and said, "I'll accompany you to the county supply and marketing cooperative in a few days to buy you a bicycle."
A cheap bicycle costs just over a hundred yuan, and a bigger brand like Fei Ge or Forever will cost at least over two hundred yuan. She had just come here with the army and hadn't secured a job yet. She probably wouldn't go out much, so there was really no need to waste that money.
And if this world was really a novel, and she couldn't change her fate, she might have to sell her new bicycle before she could ride it for a year. So she shook her head and said, "There's no rush. Let's talk about it later."
Zong Shao didn't know what Lin Wei was thinking. He thought it would just be a matter of time, so he nodded and turned to go to the next room to look for the two children.
Lin Wei walked to the window alone and looked out, and what she saw was a scenery completely different from that of Shicheng.
Shicheng is a heavy industrial city. The chimneys of steel mills, cement plants and glass factories emit thick black smoke all year round, causing the sky to be gray for a long time.
But the sky outside the window is a blue washed by water, dotted with white and soft clouds, which makes people feel good just by looking at it.
Under the blue sky, there is only the boundless blue sea. The sea surface is not calm. The sea breeze brings up layers of waves, passing over the swaying fishing boats and heading straight towards the golden beach.
When the waves hit the beach, the newly gathered sea water quickly disintegrated and retreated into the sea, leaving only the crabs that did not keep up with the main group, crawling helplessly on the beach.
A row of palm trees on the beach shook their long leaves, as if laughing at the crab's stupidity.
Lin Wei's lips curled up and she looked downstairs.
What catches your eye is a not very big yard. On the right hand side of the yard is the newly built kitchen with white walls and a flat roof surrounded by bricks. Inside is the balcony.
From Lin Wei's perspective, she could clearly see the two clotheslines that Zong Shaola had pulled, as well as the two wooden sticks that were cut into Y shapes and fixed on the low wall to support the clotheslines.
Moving your eyes to the opposite side of the kitchen, there is a small vegetable patch, but the house has been empty for half a year and there are no vegetables in the patch. The weeds were growing lushly, but Zong Shao had already removed them, so the ground looked a bit bare now.
The toilet was built in the backyard, with a small door next to the back door.
When Lin Wei first entered the house, she went in to take a look. The squat toilet was made of tiles, and the toilet window was quite large. If you kept the ventilation good and flushed the toilet promptly after using it, there shouldn't be any smell.
Just looking at this toilet, the money spent on renovating the house is worth it.
Of course, you can't think too much about this matter, as it will hurt if you think too much.
Just as Lin Wei was thinking about it, she heard Mingming running in from the next room and asked excitedly, "Mom! Will I really have my own room from now on?"
Lin Wei came back to her senses and said, "You and your brother sleep in the same room."
In Mingming's opinion, there is no distinction between him and his brother. Sharing a room means he has his own room. He immediately cheered: "I have my own room! I am an adult now!"
Housing is tight in the city, so children live with their parents. Only when they reach a certain age will their families find ways to set aside space for them to sleep by themselves.
Therefore, in the minds of the children living in the cotton mill’s staff quarters, having their own room was equivalent to growing up.
Children of Mingming's age all long to become adults, as if they can do whatever they want. But Lin Wei never let the two brothers sleep by themselves. Firstly, there was no extra room in the house, and secondly, she was afraid that they would catch a cold if they didn’t cover themselves with blankets at night. After all, they were still young.
Now Lin Wei was still worried about letting the two children sleep alone, but Zong Shao had already divided the rooms and was obviously in high spirits, so she didn't object and followed him out of the master bedroom.
The second floor is an L-shaped structure. The long part is the master bedroom, which has windows from front to back. The short part is the second bedroom, which is half the size of the master bedroom.
At the door of the room is a corridor that can accommodate two people walking side by side. At the end of the corridor there is a door that opens into a small balcony. There is a rusty washbasin on the balcony, filled with soil. It should be used to plant flowers, but no one has taken care of it since the previous tenant moved out. The flowers in the basin have long withered and the balcony is bare.
Next to the balcony door is a staircase with two floors. The back door is at the bottom of the top floor, and the toilet door also opens from here. Next to the stairs on the lower floor is the kitchen, well, the kitchen has now been converted into a bathroom.
Back on the second floor, the doors of the master bedroom and the second bedroom were almost next to each other. When Lin Wei walked out of the master bedroom door, she saw the appearance of the second bedroom.
Unlike the master bedroom which is fully furnished with new furniture, the furniture in the second bedroom is mostly left over from the previous owner.
When the houses in the family quarters are first allocated, the army will prepare basic furniture, such as beds for the master and secondary bedrooms, wardrobes, desks, dining tables, etc. These furniture cannot be taken away by the owners after they move out.
However, furniture is more susceptible to deterioration than houses, so the residents who move in will gradually replace the furniture. In any case, when Zong Shao got the key, the furniture originally prepared by the army was no longer in the house.
But even the furniture that the previous owner had replaced was not much good.
It’s not that the previous owner didn’t take good care of it, but the seaside is humid, so it’s better if there’s someone living at home. If you open the windows for ventilation frequently and maintain the furniture carefully, the furniture can be used for more than ten years. But this house has been empty for more than half a year, the windows have been closed all the time, and there is no air circulation, so the furniture will get moldy faster.
After Zong Shao got the key, he chopped up all the broken furniture and piled them in the corner of the kitchen. He only repaired those with broken arms and legs and put them in the kitchen or bathroom to use as tables and cabinets. The better things, such as the bed and wardrobe in the master bedroom, were cleaned and moved to the second bedroom.
Both pieces of furniture are made of good wood. Although they look a bit old, they are free of mold and insects, and they still look pretty good after cleaning.
The bed and wardrobe were bought according to the size of the master bedroom. After moving them to the second bedroom, they take up some space and it is difficult to turn around when there are too many people in the room.
But Lin Wei changed her mind and realized that it was uncertain whether the two brothers would have so many friends to bring to the room in the future, so it was too early for her to worry about these things now.
Overall, the second bedroom is pretty good, except that the curtains are too old and are covered in dust when you touch them. The curtains in the master bedroom are similar, and there are two holes on them. I really want to replace them.
Seeing the dust on Lin Wei's hands, Zong Shao said, "I'll take down the curtains and wash them later."
Lin Wei said, "Just change the curtains. I bought a lot of defective fabrics from the factory before I came here. There were a few large pieces that can be used to make curtains."
There were several shelves of defective cloth piled up in the cotton mill's warehouse, and the management had not yet figured out how to deal with them. Lin Wei was willing to spend money to buy them, and the factory was happy to do so even without giving her cloth coupons.
In fact, these fabrics are said to be defective fabrics, but in fact, there are no big problems. Basically, there are two problems: picking up silk and color smudging after getting wet.
The former kind of fabric is usually not large, and is not very useful unless it is cut up to make shoe uppers. But if you are not so particular, it can also be used to make trousers for children. The problem with the latter is basically uneven color. It will not look good when made into clothes to wear out, but it is very good for making pillowcases, sofa covers and other things for home use. Of course, it can also be made into curtains.
It’s just that curtains are big items and it takes a long time to sew them by hand. Plus, they might be busy as they just moved in, so changing the curtains will probably have to be postponed.
Thinking that the curtains would still need to be used for a while, Lin Wei changed her mind and said, "You can take them down and wash them first, and then replace them when the new curtains are ready."
Oh, if only the sewing machine hadn’t been sold, at her speed, she could have made three curtains in less than an afternoon.
But she also knew that even if she hadn't sold the sewing machine, she probably wouldn't be able to use it now. The journey was too long and the sewing machine was too heavy to carry, so she might as well sew by hand.
"Okay, then I'll take down the curtains now." Zong Shao said as he walked to the window and started to take down the curtains.
Lin Wei didn't expect him to act so quickly. She was stunned for a moment and then stepped forward and said, "Let me help you."
"No, the curtains are dirty, and I can do it alone."
Zong Shao used his arm to push Lin Wei away, easily removed the curtains and threw them outside into the corridor, then went into the master bedroom to continue removing them. Although Lin Wei couldn't help, she felt embarrassed to let him do it alone, so she decided to follow him.
But just as she entered the master bedroom, she heard a woman's voice outside: "Is anyone home?"
"have!"
Lin Wei responded and walked to the window. When she looked down, she saw three women standing in the yard. They probably heard her voice, so they looked over.
Then Lin Wei saw the young woman in the floral shirt with her eyes lit up. She smiled and said, "Are you the wife of Deputy Battalion Commander Zong? We were just chatting next door, and when we heard the sound of the car, we guessed that you might have arrived, so we came to see you."
Although I don’t know the three people downstairs, this is the base’s officers’ family area, and their identities are obvious.
Since they were neighbors, it would be bad for them to just stand there and do nothing. Lin Wei said to Zong Shao, "I'll go greet the guests," and went downstairs.
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