Chapter 33 The Refrigerator: My wife, you really know how to manage a household. ...
After having that dream, Qin Xiangxiang never thought of going to the island with the army again. She wanted to be as far away from the original female lead, Lin Xiuqin, as possible. She also disliked the unpleasant life of being forced to go to the island, living next to Lin Xiuqin, and being constantly compared to her.
However, times change.
She actually felt a subtle flutter in her heart. Could this damn flutter have come from working the night shift at the textile factory?
Qin Xiangxiang was actually considering agreeing to Li Jianzhi's request, because she suddenly realized that going with the army at this time would perfectly solve the problem she was currently facing.
She wanted to take a leave of absence without pay at the textile factory, ideally for two or three years before resuming work and switching to a long-day shift. However, if she agreed to go to the island with the military, she could perfectly secure a leave of absence without pay!
The little drama queen's heart skipped a beat.
Isn't this much smarter than pretending to be lame?
Brilliant! She could easily "live a life of leisure" on the island for two years, then act crazy and disruptive until this damned man can't stand her anymore, at which point she can divorce him and return to Shanghai.
If a military wife gets divorced and wants to return to her hometown, or if she no longer wants to follow her husband to the military, she can also return to her hometown. Her parents are there, and she can go back to the textile factory and be given a new job. It would be perfectly justifiable for her to do so.
After a year or two, her mother became a leader in the textile factory, and she happily clung to her mother's leg, becoming a mama's girl.
Besides, why should she be afraid of the female lead, Lin Xiuqin? At this point, would Qin Xiangxiang still be outshone by Lin Xiuqin? Not necessarily, because her parents were not sent to a farm and remained in Shanghai, and she was not forced to go to the island with the army in a sorry state.
Anyway, she's going there to laze around, live a carefree life, and just wait to get divorced and return to Shanghai to be a mama's girl. She now passively earns seventy yuan a month, which is enough for her to eat and drink well. She doesn't care about the little troubles outside, and she doesn't even need to look for a job. She just stays at home playing the piano, listening to the radio, and living a carefree life day by day.
Lin Xiuqin's ascension to heaven has nothing to do with her.
Since she's already come up with the foolish idea of pretending to be lame, why would she be afraid to go to the island to join the army?
In her dream, she didn't stay at the textile factory. Instead, she swapped jobs with her aunt's niece for a temporary position as a piano teacher at the cultural center, earning a meager twenty-odd yuan a month—barely enough to support herself. Furthermore, in that era, pianists had a very "low" social status. Indeed, instruments like the piano had a very low status; the most popular instruments at the time were the accordion and harmonica, revered as music for the masses. Even the cultural center only hired temporary piano teachers, offering meager pay—a low-level position. They had only recently resumed hiring in the last two years; before that, pianos had been destroyed countless times. It was only because Qin Xiangxiang came from a respectable background, being a worker, that she was allowed to play the piano. Those who had repaired and sold pianos for generations were now cleaning toilets. Even Xu Ruwei, playing the piano in the orchestra, wasn't a significant figure and had to be extremely careful.
Now she stays at the textile factory, only to discover... that she is actually a textile genius? Master Li has high hopes for her, hoping every day that she will be evaluated for excellence and promoted to become a workshop director, or even a "factory manager".
This is terrifying! Luckily, Ms. Li hasn't married her mother yet. Her mother, Zhou Aodong, only wanted her to be promoted to a managerial position. If Ms. Li were to boast to Zhou Aodong every day in the future, "Your daughter is a textile genius! Urge her to work hard in the workshop! Work like her life depends on it! Become an Iron Man like XXX! Become a model worker like you were back then! Become a workshop director! Become a manager!"
If her mother believed it, she was finished. Qin Xiangxiang shuddered.
This is a truly terrifying ghost story.
She had to leave quickly. While Master Li was on the night shift and didn't have time to chat with Zhou Aodong, she had to thwart their "ambitions."
"Think about it, there are currently vacant rooms in the family compound on the island. They are two-bedroom apartments with a living room, about 60 or 70 square meters, and each has its own bathroom and kitchen. If you go there, you won't have to share the kitchen and bathroom with other people."
"This house was just built this year, and the living conditions are quite good."
Qin wanted to know which building the man was referring to. In her dream, she also lived in this building, but a year earlier, and could choose to stay in different rooms. The building had three floors, divided into east and west units, which everyone called "East Building" and "West Building." They used different staircases, with three households per floor. The entire building had eighteen households, with each unit sharing a corridor. The east and west units had doors facing each other on both sides, while the middle unit was next to the staircase. The design was very cramped and narrow, but the light was bright and good. The master bedroom was very large and spacious, with a large balcony that was almost the size of a small room.
In the dream, Qin Xiangxiang and the female lead Lin Xiuqin lived on the second floor of the East Building. To make it easier for everyone to understand, each floor had three households, which were divided into "corner households", "middle households" and "long-corner households". The long-corner household was the one closest to the middle of the building. To reach the door of the house, you had to go through a corridor. One side of the corridor had a bright, large window, and the other side had the door and living room window of the middle household.
Qin Xiangxiang chose the middle unit because she disliked the two end units facing each other, where both doors could be seen into each other's homes when opened, and if the doors were open, everyone going up the stairs could see into both units when turning a corner. The middle unit, on the other hand, allowed her to draw the curtains, and the front door faced the corridor window, making it refreshing to open the door and avoiding the annoyance of seeing each other across the hall. However, after moving in, she discovered that the middle unit was incredibly noisy! People going up the stairs made a thumping noise, and people from the end units coming home always had to pass by the middle unit's door and window, which was extremely annoying.
If she had to choose again, she would choose the long side unit. Although she would have to walk through a corridor and pass by the door and windows of the middle unit to get home, she could close the door and ignore everyone, which would be perfect for her to lie down and take a long nap!
Moreover, these houses are all said to be 60 or 70 square meters, but the longer side units always seem to be slightly larger. There is a corridor in front of the house, which can also store more things, such as piling up miscellaneous items at the door, making them very suitable for casual homebuyers.
As long as she doesn't open the door on weekdays, it doesn't matter whether she lives across the hall or not.
Li Jianzhi said that this building for regimental-level cadres was newly built this year, which is true. It will not be fully occupied until next year. If you go with the army this year, there should be several rooms to choose from.
Anyway, she won't live on the first floor; she can choose the second or third floor. Once the door is closed, she won't talk to anyone and will just live a life of idleness and waiting to die.
"Does it have a separate kitchen and bathroom?"
“Yes.” Li Jianzhi nodded quickly. He knew that Qin Xiangxiang had lived in the old apartment for so many years and hated sharing the kitchen and toilet with the Xu family next door. Every time she used water or gas, she was watched, which was extremely annoying.
This design is criticized, so families living in old apartments built in the 1950s all yearn to move into new apartments with independent bathrooms and no longer want to share kitchens and bathrooms with their neighbors, which would save them a lot of arguments.
“I recently contacted an engineer at the shipyard to try and get a small refrigerator. That way, we can store more things at home. As for the extra electricity bill, we'll just pay for it.”
"With a refrigerator, you can buy pork once and divide it into portions to eat over four or five days without it spoiling. Frozen ribs can be stored for half a year."
“Our warships all have freezers and refrigerators. Although vegetables will dehydrate if refrigerated for a long time, they can be preserved for a long time.” When Li Jianzhi arrived at his wife’s house, he felt that it was too difficult to live without a refrigerator in this day and age. He had to eat the pork he bought within two days, otherwise it would go bad.
It's like everyone will have a refrigerator in the future. Those food bloggers on Xiaodigua only buy groceries once a week. Some single people will buy a pound of pork and eat it for several days.
Li Jian knew he could only go home two or three times a week. There were only his wife and children at home. It was unrealistic for the mother and son to buy groceries every day, and he couldn't bear to let his wife eat salted fish every day. After getting a refrigerator, a pound of meat would be enough to last for several days.
In the most difficult situation, the mother and son were rationed to a little over three catties of pork per month. They bought pork once every ten days. The rest of the time they could eat in the canteen or eat fresh fish and seafood. Seafood did not need to be rationed, or even bought. When the tide went out, they would go beachcombing and collect more seafood than they could eat. They especially couldn't finish cheap fish like ribbonfish.
An adult's monthly pork ration is about 2.2 jin (1 kg) and 1.2 liang (1 kg). During holidays such as New Year's Day, Spring Festival, and National Day, the ration increases by 1.2 jin (0.5 kg), but the total annual pork ration is only about 20 jin (10 kg).
...More than 20 kilograms of pork, his wife is really pitiful.
However, if you want to eat pork at other times, you can go to the collective canteen. Meat dishes in the canteen do not require meat coupons. There is a special canteen quota, but there are very few pieces of meat in the dishes. Generally, 25 catties of grain coupons are used to get 1.5 catties of pork. Since one person has 1 catty of grain coupons per day, that is to say, 25 people in the canteen share 1.5 catties of pork for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and there are only one or two pieces of meat in the dishes.
Qin Xiangxiang was now really tempted: "There's a refrigerator too?"
She knew what a refrigerator was because their textile factory had air conditioning and refrigerators, but these were currently only available in factories and hospitals; very few individuals had them, and getting one was a difficult task.
Even in 1977 or 1978, getting a refrigerator coupon was not an easy thing. By 1978, there were only about 70,000 to 80,000 refrigerators in the whole country.
If that damned man could get his hands on a refrigerator, even an old one, it wouldn't matter. Leftovers stored in the refrigerator could be kept for several days—making it even more suitable for a lazy bum like her to settle down.
She can buy enough pork to last several days! She won't have to pitifully buy just an ounce of meat!
Qin Xiangxiang grabbed the man's arm: "Can you really get a refrigerator?"
"Since you've said so, of course I'll get it for you. But I heard from an engineer that opening a refrigerator uses about 1.8 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, let's say 2 kilowatt-hours. At 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, the electricity bill for opening the refrigerator alone will cost eight to nine yuan a month."
"Our electricity bill will be at least ten yuan a month from now on."
You wouldn't believe it until you calculate it. In an era where most people in the country earn only thirty-odd yuan a month, an electricity bill of eight yuan a month is a terrifying figure. Refrigerators are a high-end luxury item. Even if you gave an ordinary family a refrigerator, they couldn't afford to maintain it. The electricity bill for a refrigerator is higher than the monthly rent for a house.
In Shanghai, housing is now allocated, and workers are only charged a symbolic rent. Qin Xiangxiang's family has three rooms, and the monthly rent for each room is more than two yuan, totaling nearly seven yuan for all three rooms.
However, the houses in the military family compound are different from those in workers' housing; the rent is waived, which saves money.
"You don't need that much; you've miscalculated the electricity bill."
Li Jianzhi: "?"
"The workers' quarters we built this year have their own individual electricity meters, and the electricity cost is 15 cents. But your family compound should have a separate subsidy, so the electricity cost shouldn't be that high. I heard from a military family member that it's about 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour." Qin Xiangxiang almost bit her tongue. Actually, she was lying because the heroine in her dream also had a refrigerator. Their family building, built in the 1970s, had its own water and electricity meters, and there were no longer any restrictions on electricity use. The refrigerator's monthly electricity cost was about five or six yuan, plus other things like light bulbs and a radio, it wouldn't reach ten yuan unless she listened to the radio at home every day.
"Really? You really know how to manage a household, wife." Li Jianzhi didn't notice this detail at all.
However, he could still afford the few dollars for electricity. He remembered that when he was a child, probably in the 1980s or 1990s, refrigerators were common in cities. Many families were reluctant to use electricity because they thought refrigerators consumed too much power. Many people would leave the refrigerator on during the day and turn it off at night—which was both funny and absurd.
Frequently opening and closing the refrigerator can actually damage it, making it a completely useless attempt at saving money.
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