Chapter 18 Living Spring Water

An old man and two children were happily eating dumplings here, but the Youth Institute had not yet opened for dinner.

Usually, the female educated youth were responsible for cooking, while the male educated youth were responsible for fetching water and picking up firewood. They would go to the mountains to pick up some firewood after work, enough for one or two days.

In the rainy days, the firewood in the kitchen was quickly burned out, and the firewood that the male educated youth went out in the rain to pick up was also wet, which was difficult to light, so cooking became a problem.

Wang Yanhong cursed the sky and Shen Jiale at the same time.

Shen Jiale picked up so much firewood and covered it with a straw curtain, so she didn't get wet.

But after she moved away, she and Tang Xiaotian moved the firewood to Grandma Zhou's house.

Li Mei said, "Why don't we go to the villagers' house and borrow some firewood?"

Wang Yanhong said unhappily, "Then go and borrow it."

Li Mei went out to borrow firewood, but didn't get any.

After thinking about it, she walked towards Grandma Zhou's house.

It was unknown when the rain would stop, and no one was willing to lend firewood.

Li Mei could understand that the villagers were not very familiar with the educated youth. If they lent her firewood, what would they do if the rain lasted for a long time and they ran out of firewood?

...

Shen Jiale and the other two had just finished their meal, and there were still some unfinished dumplings on the table.

Tang Xiaotian saw Li Mei coming over and whispered to Shen Jiale, "Does she want to come and live with us?"

Shen Jiale said, "Wait until she finishes talking."

When Li Mei said she wanted to borrow firewood, Tang Xiaotian breathed a sigh of relief.

Shen Jiale led Li Mei to the kitchen, brought her some firewood, and said, "Grandma Zhou doesn't have much firewood, so I can only give you this much."

Li Mei took the firewood and opened her mouth to say something, but seeing Tang Xiaotian looking at her warily, she didn't say anything. She just said thank you and left with the firewood.

With the firewood, the educated youth institute began to cook.

After dinner, several people leaned against the wall of the kitchen to rest.

Li Mei asked everyone, "In fact, if we go to rent a house together, it will cost less than 20 cents per person. Why don't we go with Shen Jiale to rent a house?"

Wu Li said, "When the rain stops, the village chief will repair the house, and we won't live here for more than a month."

Sun Xiaoqin also said that it would be fine after a few more days.

Wang Yanhong said sarcastically, "These villagers are too stingy. They're just asking for a temporary stay, but they still make demands. And Shen Jiale is so selfish. The house has been rented, and we all came here together. What's wrong with letting us all live together? They just think they're comfortable."

Li Mei looked at the sky outside and said, "We don't know when the rain will stop. Even if it stops, it will take several days to repair the house, and we'll have to live in the kitchen all the time."

Wang Yanhong said unhappily, "If you can't stand it, go find Shen Jiale. Don't you have a good relationship? Maybe he won't even ask you to pay rent."

In fact, when she went to find Shen Jiale today and saw how leisurely they were at Grandma Zhou's house, she really wanted to ask if she could move in with them, but seeing Tang Xiaotian's vigilant look, she was embarrassed to ask.

…

On rainy days, Shen Jiale had nothing to do, so he would lie in bed to rest during the day, and then go into the space to stroll around at night to get familiar with the shops on the commercial street.

There is also a place in the center of the commercial street, which Shen Jiale reserved for his family.

Because his parents-in-law were old, Shen Jiale stayed there to build a health club for himself and his family to relax and recuperate.

During the construction, a spring with a sweet taste was dug out.

All other decoration facilities in the health club were ready, but Shen Jiale had not figured out how to make reasonable use of the spring, so he just built it around with stones to block the spring.

Later, he fell ill and never visited the health club again.

When he came here today, Shen Jiale went in to take a look.

Looking at the health club he had carefully built, Shen Jiale walked in before he could enjoy it properly.

Pull out the plug on the spring, and the spring water gurgles out.

Shen Jiale scoops out a basin of water to wash his face. After washing his face, looking at his fair and tender face in the mirror, Shen Jiale sighed, "It's good to be young. You can be so tender without any makeup."

He put on a facial mask and rested on the massage chair.

Fifteen minutes later, he took off the mask and washed it with spring water.

After washing, his face felt smoother.

Thinking that it was inconvenient to fetch water on rainy days, Shen Jiale got up and went outside to fill the water tank with spring water.

...

In the morning, Grandma Zhou got up to cook. Seeing that the water tank was full of water, she thought that these two educated youth were quite sensible.

While eating, Grandma Zhou asked Shen Jiale, "Do you think the meal I cooked today is delicious?"

Shen Jiale nodded seriously, "It's delicious."

Grandma Zhou said proudly, "I also think my cooking skills have improved."

Shen Jiale said, "Grandma Zhou's cooking is always delicious."

Grandma Zhou was very happy to be praised.

Tang Xiaotian also cooked a meal. She held the rice bowl and ate the mixed grain porridge. She thought that today's meal was extremely delicious. If she didn't want to save food, she would have made another bowl.

It's good to move out! I

have never eaten such delicious meals in the Youth Educated Youth Institute.

When Tang Xiaotian thought that she would have to go back to the Youth Educated Youth Institute to live in a month, she cherished the present days very much.

...

On rainy days, Shen Jiale didn't have to work, so he wrote a letter to his family, and took a disposable facial mask from the space and put it in an empty bottle, and then sent it to his mother.

While writing the letter, Shen Jiale carefully recalled what her parents looked like. She

was so absorbed in thinking that she didn't even notice when Tang Xiaotian poured her a cup of water and placed it on the table.

After she finished writing the letter, she was about to put it in the envelope when she accidentally knocked over the cup.

"Ah..."

The water was very hot and Shen Jiale cried out.

"What's wrong! What's wrong!" Tang Xiaotian ran over and saw that the back of Shen Jiale's hand was red from the heat and she was panicking.

Grandma Zhou heard the noise, came over to see what was going on, and quickly scooped a bucket of water from the water tank and asked Shen Jiale to put her hand in to cool it down.

After her hand touched the cool water, Shen Jiale felt that the pain in her hand was reduced a little.

Seeing Tang Xiaotian's nervous look, Shen Jiale comforted her and said, "It's okay, it doesn't hurt at all."

Tang Xiaotian blamed herself and said, "It's all my fault. If I had let the water cool down a little before giving it to you, it would have been better."

"It's not your fault. I was so engrossed in writing the letter that I didn't see the water cup."

"Are you really not in pain anymore?"

After soaking in the cool water for a while, the back of her hand didn't hurt anymore, and it wasn't as red as before.

Grandma Zhou said to change another bucket of water for her, and Shen Jiale said, "Grandma Zhou, there's no need to change the water. It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Really?" Tang Xiaotian confirmed again and again.

Shen Jiale stretched out her hand to show her: "Really."

Grandma Zhou said: "Fortunately the water is not hot, otherwise blisters would appear."

In fact, Shen Jiale was also surprised. When she was just scalded, she felt a piercing pain, but it was much better when she put her hand into the cool water.

After taking her hand out, although there was still a slight numbness, it really didn't hurt.

Something was unusual. Shen Jiale looked at the water in Grandma Zhou's water scoop and had a vague idea in his mind.

While thinking about it, there was a noise outside.

I heard some villagers saying that something happened at the Youth Institute.