Chapter 14

It is easy to light a fire on a clay stove

, but difficult to cool it down. If there is too much firewood, you can put it out with water. If there is not too much, just let it burn and boil water in the pot. When the fire goes out naturally after dinner, the water will be hot, just right for washing dishes.

Use hot water to dissolve the oil, and then use a loofah to brush it. Although there is no detergent, Qiao Wei looks carefully and thinks it is quite clean.

Yan Xiang is still so diligent.

He is small and can't take too much at a time, but he will run back and forth to bring the washed dishes and chopsticks to the table under the eaves to dry.

The sun is high, Qiao Wei cleaned the kitchen and wiped her hands, and saw the fine beads of sweat on Yan Xiang's forehead.

"Change your clothes." She called Yan Xiang.

She rummaged around in Yan Xiang's room, found a cross-rail vest and gave it to him: "Wear this."

In the middle of summer, it would be so uncomfortable for such a young child to wear a shirt with sleeves and a collar. The soldier from Captain Zhao's family wore a torn cross-rail vest. Although it was a bit dirty, it looked cool and not restrictive.

Yan Xiang was very happy.

He unbuttoned the buttons one by one without Qiao Wei's help.

Thank God, Qiao Wei thought. She knew that raising a child was tiring. The original owner's memory still had that kind of irritability and fatigue of raising a child, but fortunately, the most tiring stage had passed when she took over.

Look, Yan Xiang can eat, pee, pull up his pants, dress, and help with housework. How worry-free!

Yan Xiang quickly changed into a vest and was in a good mood. He patted his belly with his two chubby hands: "Comfortable!"

Qiao Wei couldn't help laughing and said, "Xiang Xiang likes to wear a vest?"

"Yes!"

"Then why don't you wear it?"

Wasn't it Yan Xiang who wore the clothes herself this morning?

Yan Xiang raised his dark eyes and said innocently: "Mom doesn't like it."

"Mom doesn't like me wearing a vest."

"Mom doesn't like me playing with Junjun and the others."

Qiao Wei paused.

The memory was triggered, and when I looked back, it was true.

Alas.

Qiao Wei rubbed her forehead and put down her hands: "Xiangxiang can wear whatever she wants in the future. As long as we feel comfortable, we can wear it."

Yan Xiang was very happy: "Okay!"

Compared with clothes that look high-end or beautiful, such a young child certainly prefers to wear comfortable clothes.

Qiao Wei stood up and put her hands on her hips and looked around.

The clothes were washed, the dishes were washed, and the room was cleaned. The child has grown up and can play quietly by himself.

It seems that there is nothing more that can be done.

Qiao Wei returned to the study, and the small bookshelf was tightly packed with books, with no space. She scanned it and found that the books she had read or had not read but knew the titles could be counted on one hand. The others were basically books she had never read or even heard of.

But just by looking at the titles of these books, you can tell that even if they are considered popular reading materials in this era, any one of them would be considered serious literature in later generations.

The original owner seemed to spend a lot of time reading these books.

In an era without the Internet or even television, Qiao Wei had to randomly pick out a book from the books, sit outside under the eaves, and read it slowly.

Occasionally looking up, I saw Yan Xiang, dressed comfortably and coolly, having fun and quietly playing under the shade of the trees in the yard.

It is difficult for young people in later generations to calm down and read the literary works of this era. Not to mention reading, people in later generations even watch TV series at double speed, and what's more, watching the cut is considered watching the series.

But Qiao Wei had experienced illness and death, and her mind had long been tortured or worn by pain that even medical morphine could not suppress.

She was a person who could calm down. Cicadas

kept chirping.

Yan Xiang was sleepy and went back to the house to take a nap.

He woke up again, got up to pee, drink water, and then continued to play.

Occasionally looking up, she saw her mother sitting under the eaves reading.

Qiao Wei had been reading until a shadow enveloped her.

It suddenly got dark in front of her, and she naturally raised her head and saw Yan Lei's face.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking down from above.

It was already high, and he was standing while Qiao Wei was sitting.

If only Qiao Wei had a book in her hand, Yan Lei would not ask this seemingly nonsense question. But he glanced at the table next to him, where a thick pile of books was piled.

They were all books on her bookshelf. Although she would read them over and over again, she used to spend several days reading one book. Why did she suddenly move out so many books?

Qiao Wei's eyes were sore. She stood up and pinched the inner corners of her eyes hard: "Nothing, just tidying up the books. What time is it? Why did you come back so early?"

"The bathhouse is open today, did you forget?" Yan Lei put a net bag on the table and said stiffly: "They said peaches are nutritious."

After that, he turned around and went into the house.

Qiao Wei took a second to react - the doctor at the hospital said she was malnourished yesterday.

So he brought back peaches today.

What, did he calculate that she couldn't buy fruit today?

Qiao Wei's lips curled up.

Yan Xiang was taking toys from the house, and when he saw him, he was happy: "Dad is back!"

A man's voice came from the house: "Take the things and let's go take a bath."

Yan Xiang shouted happily: "Let's take a bath!"

Although you can take a bath in the basin at home, it is so much more interesting to hear the running water in the bathhouse.

Yan Lei changed his uniform and only wore a tank top. It's hot in summer, and many men wear this.

He came out to find a basin, but saw that there was no one in the yard. The books on the small table were half less than before.

Suddenly, Qiao Wei came out of the kitchen with swift steps, picked up all the remaining books, and left only a few on the table, then turned around and went back to the kitchen.

Yan Lei was puzzled. He followed her and stood at the kitchen door. He saw that all the books that Qiao Wei had taken away were piled up on the kitchen floor, next to the pile of firewood.

Yan Lei frowned: "Why?"

Qiao Wei said: "We don't want these books anymore. "

Yan Lei was stunned. Because these books are her treasures, if he flipped through them casually, she would be in a bad mood for the whole day.

Why did she suddenly not want them anymore?

"If you don't want them, just sell them." He said.

Bookstores recycle old books, and at the very least, they can be sold to waste collectors. Why are they piled in the kitchen?

Qiao Wei pondered for a moment and decided to explain it to him.

"The ideological content in these books is not very good. I don't want people to see them." She said, "I feel that they will be more and more strict in the future. You are a soldier, and the army will be more strict. I am afraid that if people see it, it will have a bad impact on you."

It's really annoying.

Qiao Wei originally wanted to kill time in the afternoon, so she picked up a random book and sat under the eaves to read slowly and leisurely.

But she didn't know that the original owner's thoughts were very clear about what she yearned for. So it was obvious what kind of books she liked to read, which was really not in line with the mainstream thinking of this era.

Qiao Wei noticed that something was wrong, and quickly flipped through the whole book. She was sure that the content of this book might be problematic in this era.

It's okay now, but when more severe times come, something might go wrong.

But why didn't Yan Lei get into trouble because of this in the original text?

Qiao Wei suddenly remembered that in the original text, after Lin Xixi got married, she said to Yan Lei that since he had married her, she hoped he would not always miss the past.

Yan Lei also wanted to start a new life, so he disposed of his deceased wife's things. He didn't go into detail about how he disposed of them, just "everything was disposed of cleanly".

Now, there is no such plot, Qiao Wei has replaced the original owner, so she has to deal with it.

"So, I think I'll burn it." She said, "It's just right to use it as a fire starter when cooking."

Yan Lei was silent for a moment and asked, "How bad is it?"

"It's okay when it's okay." Qiao Wei said, "Right now, if the leaders know about it, I think they will just criticize me."

She looked at Yan Lei: "I'm afraid that when something happens..."

Yan Lei was able to reach such a high position later, he couldn't be a fool, nor could he be without political sense.

On the contrary, although he was not well educated, he was smart and very sensitive politically.

That is to say, the original owner had always forbidden him to touch her precious books. If he had known what was in those books, he would have disposed of them earlier.

In fact, Yan Lei noticed the changing trend of the atmosphere earlier than others in the army. He just didn't expect that when his lamp was dark, there were inappropriate books on his wife's bookcase under his nose.

Fortunately, she woke up by herself.

Yan Lei glanced at Qiao Wei and said seriously: "Then burn it."

He asked again: "Is that all?" There are

still many books on the bookcase, he needs to know whether the others are safe and reliable.

"Not sure. I have to look through them all to confirm." Qiao Wei said.

Physical printing in later generations often has one sentence and one paragraph, and the line spacing is large.

The publications at that time were different. The text of one paragraph was enough for two pages in later generations. There were many words and they were dense, and the paragraphs were very long.

Even though Qiao Wei had developed the ability to read ten lines at a glance in the era of information explosion, her eyes were almost blinded after reading for an entire afternoon.

She saw Yan Lei frowning and realized that there was something wrong with what she said - these books all belonged to the original owners, and in an era when materials and books were scarce, each one was almost worn out by the original owner.

But she said she had to look through them again to confirm.

Qiao Wei was not afraid either. She told him calmly, "Before you found me, I actually had a high fever for almost two days and one night. I was lucky not to die. When I woke up, my mind was fuzzy. No, it wasn't fuzzy, but it felt different from before. I can't remember some things, and some of my thoughts have changed."

"Yan Lei, you promised me yesterday that I was dead before."

The two looked at each other for a moment, and her eyes were clear.

Yan Lei nodded, "Okay. You hurry up and finish it."

He turned around and went out, picked up a basin from the wall, and went into the house. There

were two basins for the family of three, one for the couple, and they went out to take a bath.

There were towels, soap flakes and clean clothes in the basin.

Yan Lei held the basin in his hand, while Qiao Wei held it on her hip. Yan Xiang was tied between the two of them.

Not long after they walked out of the door, they ran into Captain Zhao's family.

It was Qiao Wei's first time to see Captain Zhao, of course, seeing him in the original owner's memory didn't count.

Captain Zhao had dark skin, and was not as tall as Yan Lei, but very strong, a man like a black iron tower. Captain

Zhao and his wife were particularly fertile.

A large group of people went out to bathe: the eldest son Gangzi was 14 years old, the second daughter Yingzi was 11 years old, and the third son Huazi was 9 years old. The fourth son Junzi was 5 years old, and he was the little boy who wanted to play with Yan Xiang today. The youngest one, Wu Ni'er, didn't have a real name yet, she was only two years old.

Today the bathhouse is open, and his whole family went to take a bath.

The army issued bath tickets, which are free. If you take a bath at home, you have to heat water, which costs firewood and coal. His family has many people, so it costs more. The whole family goes out to take a bath on the bathhouse's open day, and rarely heats water at home.

The two families greeted each other: "Let's take a bath."

Hecheng walked together. There were other families in groups of three or two on the road. They were all military dependents who still lived in the old district, and they went to the compound together.

Someone on the road muttered: "It would be nice if we lived in the compound too."

Yan Lei heard it and couldn't help but glance at Qiao Wei.

This is something his wife has always been worried about. If she heard this in the past, she would pull her face down and not give him a good look.

But today, she seemed not to hear it. He held Yan Xiang's little fleshy hand and swung it.

"Xiangxiang, come here!" Qiao Wei raised her arms and exerted force.

Yan Lei followed suit. The two lifted up together, and Yan Xiang retracted her feet and hung in the air. She hung in the air for a while before letting go, giggling.

Yan Lei glanced at Qiao Wei again.

The sun was setting, and her smile was brighter than the sun.

Yan Lei looked away after a while.

The Zhao family watched happily.

There were more of them and it was more lively. Junzi insisted that his eldest brother and second sister also hang him up. But Gangzi and Yingzi were not as strong as the adults, and they could not lift him up after just two steps.

Junzi yelled in dissatisfaction. Yingzi, as the elder sister, slapped him on the back of the head and said, "It's good enough to lift you two steps."

The blood suppressed the annoying brother.

Sister Yang scolded her, "Be gentle, don't let Junjun beat you silly, you are not smart to begin with."

Junzi jumped up and yelled again, "I'm smart!"

Yan Lei and Qiao Wei also turned around to see the Zhao family, who were so noisy and noisy, and they all laughed.

There was only a young girl following behind the Zhao family. She was pretty and graceful, but she didn't smile. Her eyes were staring at Yan Lei and Qiao Wei through the gaps between the people.

It was Lin Xixi.