Today was their day off, and Li Chu and Ding Qiunan got up early in the morning. They had already planned to go to the trust store to buy furniture.
Ding Qiunan agreed to replace all the old-fashioned furniture in the yard with the same type, as they had always used this kind of furniture at home.
Li Chu specifically asked Fu Lao Er to accompany them.
Although he understands wood, he doesn't know anything about carpentry. He asked Fu Lao Er to help him check the quality of the furniture.
The three of them basically toured all the trust shops in Beijing, looking at furniture made of rosewood and sandalwood. By the end of the day, they had bought all the furniture except for the bed. The second rich man, being a carpenter, knew all about these things.
Li Chu and Ding Qiunan discussed it and decided to install heated kang beds in the house. Winters in Beijing are still very cold, and although the house has central heating, it would be more comfortable to sleep on a kang at night.
He told Fu Lao Er about his plans and asked him to go back and tell his brother to take some time to go over and make a kang (heated brick bed). It just so happens that they still have the key to the courtyard over there.
The rich second son readily agreed, even though it was a small job, it was better than staying at home idle.
In the past two years, far fewer people have asked them for work. Everyone is struggling to make ends meet, so who has the spare money to clean houses? They just do whatever they can themselves if there are any problems.
Fu Lao Er didn't eat dinner with Li Chu and the other two. He was in charge of taking the purchased furniture back and arranging it properly.
The young couple had just finished eating out when they got home. As soon as they arrived, the girl lay down on the sofa, not wanting to move at all. She was exhausted from running around all day.
Li Chu poured a glass of water, sat down next to his wife, put her legs on his own, and began to massage her.
Ding Qiunan closed her eyes and lay there enjoying her husband's massage.
After a while, he opened his eyes again and asked, "Li Chu, aren't you tired after running around all day? You don't need to give me a massage."
"I'm not tired, I feel fine. Just lie down and don't worry about anything else."
Ding Qiunan chuckled, sat up, hugged Li Chu's neck, kissed him, and then lay back down.
Before long, he heard the girl's calm breathing. Li Chu looked up and saw that she was asleep. He carefully put her legs on the sofa and went upstairs to get her a pillow.
After getting down, I carefully lifted the girl down a bit and let her head rest on the pillow. The sofa armrest was a bit high, and if she slept with it on, her neck would hurt.
I moved the fan a little further away; it's not good to keep it too close for too long.
Li Chu draped a coat over her before entering the study to continue his own work.
——————
Friday, September 15, 1961
11:00 a.m.
Li Chu stood at the main entrance of the ministry, looking at the office building in front of him. He had just come out of it.
Just now, in the conference room on the third floor, in front of all the organization members in the department, Li Chu solemnly took the oath of joining the organization along with a high-ranking official from the committee.
From this day forward, he is a proud member of the probationary organization.
To put it in a rather... inappropriate way, his life is about to begin a new chapter starting today.
Humming a little tune, I hopped on my bicycle and rode off to the hospital in a good mood.
As soon as he arrived at the hospital entrance, he saw his third uncle, Yan Bugui, pacing back and forth with his head down.
Li Chu rode his bike up to him and called out, "Third Uncle, what are you doing?"
Yan Bugui looked up and saw it was Li Chu, so he quickly said, "Oh, Chu, I've been waiting for you here. Can you go back now? Something happened to the Jia family."
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Li Chu's heart skipped a beat. Something happened to the Jia family? Could it be Jia Dongxu?
"Third Uncle, what happened to the Jia family?"
Yan Bugui lowered his voice and said, "It was Jia Dongxu who had the accident. He had just arrived at work this morning when people from the factory came to tell him that there had been an accident and he died on the spot."
Li Chu felt his heart pounding wildly. Even with all the changes in the courtyard, how could something have happened to him?
"What happened? Everything was fine when I went to work this morning."
Yan Bugui added, "I don't know the specifics either; I only found out when I got back. Old Liu and Da Mao took the factory workers directly to his hometown to find someone to dig a grave."
He paused for a moment and then continued, "The factory bought the coffin. When Lao Yi and Zhu Zi came back, they reattached the coffin, and a few other people escorted it back to his hometown."
Li Chu found it a bit strange and asked, "So fast? Shouldn't it have been parked for three days?"
"Sigh, Dongxu is a young man with elderly parents, so it can't be parked at home."
Is this kind of custom even possible?
"Let's go, Uncle San. Let's go back and take a look now. I'll give you a ride on my bike."
We're from the same compound, so you should at least show your face when something like this happens.
Back in the courtyard, Li Chu found the girl's bicycle parked in front of the house, but no one was home; she must be at the Jia family's house.
He parked the car and went to the Intermediate People's Court with the Third Uncle.
Everyone who was at home in the courtyard is now at the Jia family's house, and Li Chu can't even get in from the gate.
It was an older woman holding her son who saw the two of them and helped us invite Li Chu and the third uncle inside.
Ding Qiunan heard the commotion outside from inside the room, came out and saw Li Chu, and hurriedly asked him to go in and check on Qin Huairu first.
After all, this woman is pregnant. She fainted immediately upon hearing the news in the morning and had only just woken up. The young woman was afraid that something else might happen to her.
Li Chu took her pulse and found that there was nothing seriously wrong, just that she was a little traumatized and was now leaning against the pile of blankets, crying silently.
Two-year-old Dang nestled beside her, looking blankly at the people in the room. Clearly, she was too young to understand what had happened.
Seeing that Qin Huairu was alright, Li Chu didn't stay in the inner room any longer. Ding Qiunan and several women from the courtyard stayed with her in the inner room.
Grandma Jia sat blankly on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), clutching Jia Dongxu's photo. An old woman from the backyard sat beside her, offering words of comfort.
Li Chu sighed inwardly. This Aunt Jia's life was just too unfortunate. Her husband died a few years ago, and the family's life had just started to improve a little this year. Now her son was gone too. It's normal for her temperament to change afterward.
Li Chu didn't stay in the house for long; his third uncle and his aunt followed him out.
Seeing that the older woman was a little tired from holding her child, Li Chu reached out and took her son from her.
The old man's son, Yi Ping'an, was seven months old. He was chubby-cheeked and very cute. He wasn't shy at all and didn't cry or fuss when Li Chu held him.
Seeing her child behaving well in Li Chu's arms, the old woman went back into the Jia family's house.
Li Chu carried the child to the gate of the courtyard. He really didn't like the oppressive atmosphere in the courtyard.
Yan Bugui brought two small stools from his house, and the two sat at the gate of the courtyard, chatting idly. The child in his arms stared wide-eyed at them.
Yan Bugui only found out about this when he came back after the first two classes in the morning.
The other men in the compound all worked in the factory, and they went to Jia Dongxu's hometown to help out.
The reason he ran over to find Li Chu was because he simply couldn't stand being alone in the courtyard.
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