Lu Jiaguang hummed and said, "Xinxin has become more assertive now and knows how to speak out when she is wronged. From now on, that mother and daughter will never bully her again."

He felt that things had changed for the better and that all the suffering he had endured was not in vain.

When Lu Jiaxin and Xue Mao were cleaning the house, someone knocked on the door. When they opened the door, they saw it was an old lady. It turned out that the other party came over after hearing the noise.

The old lady said, "My last name is Li, and I work for the neighborhood committee. Girl, is this house yours?"

After looking at the other party's work ID, Lu Jiaxin said, "This house was left to me by my mother. I was too young to come here before because I was afraid that my stepmother would find out and take it away. Now I can't survive under my stepmother's control, so I have no choice but to move here."

She didn't think that family disgrace should not be made public. Moreover, these aunts were well-informed, and even if she didn't tell them, they would be able to find out everything about her in a few days.

The aunt had seen many such things in the neighborhood committee, and she reminded her: "My daughter, you should transfer your household registration as soon as possible, so that your stepmother can't use marriage to control you."

Lu Jiaxin felt that the old lady was really kind-hearted. She thanked her and said, "I will transfer my household registration when I am settled."

Aunt Li looked at Xue Mao and asked, "Are you two going to live here from now on?"

Lu Jiaxin explained Xue Mao's identity: "Aunt, I have already recognized him as my younger brother, and he will live here with me from now on."

Aunt Li recorded the two people's information and said with a smile: "There are only two rooms between you and me. If you have any problems in the future, you can always come to me."

Lu Jiaxin thanked them and sent the person away before continuing to clean up with Xue Mao.

After working for more than an hour, they were both hungry. There were no pots and pans in the kitchen, so they had to go out to eat. There were many small restaurants in Sijiu City now, and they quickly found one.

Lu Jiaxin ordered braised fish, water spinach with oil, and tomato egg drop soup. She didn't eat much, but Xue Mao had a big appetite and he finished all the dishes after eating three bowls of rice.

After leaving the restaurant, Xue Mao said, "The food in this restaurant is too expensive. It's not worth it. Sister, let's cook for ourselves tonight!"

"I'll start the fire tomorrow after I buy the pots and pans."

Cleaning is the most tiring. After cleaning the east and west wing rooms, Lu Jiaxin slumped in a chair and said, "Let's just clean the kitchen, and we can clean the three rooms in the back house when we have time."

Xue Mao didn't feel tired at all. This was his sister's own house, and he could live here until his sister got married. "Sister, go back to your room and have a rest. I'll take care of it."

The master bedroom has a bed, wardrobe, dressing table, table and chairs, and is fully furnished. She will move the furniture in her room to Xue Mao later, so there is no need to buy extra furniture.

Lu Jiaxin knew that he would be uncomfortable if he was not allowed to work, so she nodded and said, "I'm going to sleep first. If you are tired, just take a rest. This is our own house, so there is no rush."

Her body had not fully recovered yet, and she felt tired after doing a little work. She thought it was because she had not taken good care of her body, so she had to find a doctor to treat it.

There were no beddings in the room, but luckily she brought some old clothes with her. She wanted to throw them away but Xue Mao said to keep them as rags, so now these old clothes came in handy.

They had been riding trains for three days in a row. Nowadays, all trains are green-skinned, which are not only noisy but also have a bad environment. They bought hard seats and could not rest well. After getting off the train, they went straight to the family compound. Lu Jiaxin was nervous because she was afraid of being discovered that she was not her original body. Now she relaxed and fell asleep as soon as she lay down.

Xue Mao stopped what he was doing, wiped his sweat and said, "No. My brother wanted to borrow a car, but he may not have been able to get one!"

Lu Jiaxin was worried that if she didn't move her things today, she would have to sleep on a wooden bed, while Xue Mao didn't even have a wooden bed to sleep on. She felt sore in her back after just a nap, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to get up after sleeping all night.

Xue Mao talked about a problem he found: "Sister, there is no toilet here. I just had to pee urgently and couldn't find a place, so I had to go outside to solve it."

Afraid that Lu Jiaxin would misunderstand, he added: "There is a public toilet outside, but it's too dirty. You must not be used to it."

Lu Jiaxin really didn't pay attention to this. She said, "Then we have to buy two bowls, otherwise it will be too troublesome to go to the toilet outside at night."

Xue Mao had lived with her for more than a month and knew that she loved cleanliness: "Sister, we can't keep doing this. Let's set up a stall early and hire someone to build a toilet when we make money."

After deducting the car fare and the expenses on the road, they still had more than 200 yuan in hand, which was enough to buy the equipment for the stall. As for Lu Jiaxin's money, he had not thought about it.

As the two were talking, Lu Jiajie's loud voice rang out from outside: "Xinxin, Xue Mao, open the door. I want to move some things in."

Xue Mao was so tired that he fell asleep on the bed and forgot to lock the door. As a result, the pot and half a bag of grain he bought disappeared. From then on, he developed the habit of locking the door at home.

Lu Jiajie came in carrying a bed board. When he saw Lu Jiaxin was about to go out, he stopped her and said, "Xinxin, you haven't recovered yet, so you need to take good care of yourself. There aren't many things, so my two brothers and I can just run two or three times."

Lu Jiaxin was indeed feeling weak now, so she didn't try to be brave.

Xue Mao quickly came in carrying two wooden barrels filled with pots, pans, knives and other kitchen utensils. He said cheerfully, "Sister, we can buy rice and flour tomorrow and cook for ourselves."

Lu Jiaxin was a little surprised. When Lu Jiajie came in with the bedding, she asked, "Fifth brother, did you buy these things?"

Lu Jiajie smiled and said, "No, Uncle San got them from the department store. These are defective items, and they are very cost-effective."

Lu Jiaxin just looked at the things in the bucket. Although she didn't look very carefully to make sure that they were all new, she was not a novice. She knew everything she should know after years of working in the workplace.

What surprised her was that in addition to kitchen items, there were also two sets of summer quilts, thermos, kettles, cups, toothbrushes, towels and other daily necessities.

Lu Jiajie smiled and said, "Xinxin, these things were bought for you by your uncle."

"He's so nice?"

Lu Jiajie smiled and said, "Even if my brother and I want to buy it for you, we don't have that much money. Xinxin, that woman is good at acting, and Uncle San will inevitably be deceived by her. But you are his only daughter, and his money and property will definitely be left to you in the future."

He and his elder brother had to hand in their wages as soon as they received them, leaving them with only one or two yuan at most. These things added up to several hundred yuan, which he and his elder brother could not even get together by selling blood.

(End of this chapter)