Chapter 20
Lin Yao is a man of action. If she says she will wait for something, she will wait for it.
These days, ordinary people don’t have many entertainment activities, and the compound has no electricity. At 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening, everyone in the family will wash up and go to bed.
After Lin Yao came here, she also developed the good habit of going to bed early and getting up late. When her biological clock rings, she will lie on the bed obediently and have a date without anyone urging her.
Since Gu Shian entered the Public Security Bureau, it is common for him to work overtime until eleven or twelve o’clock.
In order not to delay waiting for something, Lin Yao specially took out the "Golden Rooster" brand alarm clock used by Gu Shian, set the time to eleven o'clock in the evening, and went to bed with peace of mind.
——She was not sleepy, she just wanted to take a nap first to conserve her energy and be ready to catch Gu Shian.
At eleven o'clock in the evening, the alarm clock on the five-piece cabinet turned on the radar mode and kept buzzing.
Lin Yao came out of the mosquito net with vigor, stretched her waist, and turned off the alarm clock with a "click".
The big courtyard was quiet at midnight, and the heat of the day had receded. The bamboo forest outside the window swayed in the wind, and the rustling sound of bamboo was accompanied by the chirping of insects in the grass and the cicadas on the trees.
Lin Yao sprinkled floral water in the house and fumigated it with wormwood, and the mosquitoes in the room immediately disappeared.
She sat in front of the window, holding her chin and waiting for a while.
Gu Shian hadn't come back yet, so Lin Yao was bored and took out her knitting needles to start knitting woolen gloves.
It was mid-August now, and time was passing by so fast. In the blink of an eye, it was autumn, and after autumn, it was winter.
The winter in Yunshui County was terribly cold, especially in the past two years. Last year, before December, there were two heavy snowfalls. It was the coldest time of the year, and water turned into ice. Many people in the county got frostbite, with frozen feet and hands. Their hands were as red as radishes, and frostbite cream didn't work very well.
Aunt Cuilan has had frozen hands for several years. The compound does not have running water, so she has to boil water for cooking. The city is not like the countryside, where you can go out to collect firewood and wheat straw to make a fire. The Gu family uses honeycomb coal to boil water in winter. Honeycomb coal is particularly scarce in winter. For a family of five like the Gu family, the government only provides a hundred or so pieces of honeycomb coal a month, which is not enough for the family to eat, drink and wash their faces.
Aunt Cuilan has been washing dishes and pots with cold water for years, so it would be strange if her hands were not frozen.
Lin Yao took precautions and discussed with Gu Chunmei. The two sisters collected a few kilograms of wool tickets and bought a few kilograms of wool at the internal price of the supply and marketing cooperative.
Gu Chunmei was busy at work, and she was not good at knitting sweaters, so she was as slow as a turtle crawling. Lin Yao took all the big bags and bought them all.
She planned to knit a pair of wool gloves for Aunt Cuilan and Uncle Mancang . The old couple used to wear labor protection gloves issued by the factory. Those gloves were not warm. They were okay in autumn, but in winter, they would be penetrated by the cold wind after walking a few steps outside.
As for Gu Shian's three siblings, naturally everyone got a share.
Lin Yao had a complete set of warm clothes, down jackets, sweaters and woolen pants as many as she wanted, but she couldn't wear them openly. She could only take them apart, mix them with the wool that Gu Chunmei brought back, and knit them into the popular "grandma" sweaters.
The candlelight flickered in the house. Gu Shian, who had returned home late, walked into the house with a tired look on his face. He was about to fetch water to wash his face when he raised his eyebrows and accidentally discovered the candlelight in the east room.
The window of the room was open in the night, and the moonlight was like a veil. A small floral nightgown set off Lin Yao's beautiful face. The little girl was working hard to knit a sweater stitch by stitch.
It's so late, why hasn't Yaoyao slept yet?
Gu Shian was silent for a moment, wondering if he should knock on the door to let the little girl go to bed early.
He also thought that Lin Yao has always been a girl with her own opinions. If she didn't sleep at night, she might be busy with other things. If he went to disturb her, would he make her unhappy?
Gu Shidong, the naughty boy, got up to pee in the middle of the night. When he saw this scene, he grinned and laughed. It turned out that his brother also had a day of emotional troubles.
You see, falling in love is not that simple.
Gu Shidong acted as a dog-headed military advisor again and helped his brother. He ran to the east room and knocked on the door, "Sister-in-law, my brother is back, won't you cook him a bowl of snack?"
Lin Yao woke up as if from a dream. When she looked up, Oh my God, it was already half past eleven, and she was so busy knitting a sweater that she almost forgot about Gu Shian.
She quickly dropped the knitting needles in her hand, poked her little face out of the window and greeted Gu Shian with a smile, "You're back. Didn't you have anything to eat for dinner? Are you hungry? I'll make you a bowl of noodles."
After that, Lin Yao tied on an apron and went to the kitchen.
Gu Shian's mouth curled up, Yaoyao was concerned about him.
It was the first time that Gu Shidong saw his brother smiling so much, he clicked his tongue and slipped back into the house.
*
There was not much rice and noodles left in the Gu family's small kitchen, but fortunately there were still two handfuls of homemade dried noodles left. Lin Yao went to the vegetable garden to pick a handful of green onions, threw them to Gu Shian to wash, and went to the kitchen to busy herself.
What a joke. If she serves Gu Shian, this guy can forget about being a hands-off manager and just wait for noodles.
She is not Gu Shian's mother.
Lin Yao is a lazy and coquettish girl. She said she served Gu Shian, but in fact, Deputy Director Gu did all the picking of vegetables, washing the pot, and preparing the seasonings.
When everything was ready, Lin Yao drove Gu Shian out and slid a bowl of salted pork noodles with her bare hands.
The salted pork was the pig offal that Zhang Cuilan brought home. Cuilan's aunt originally planned to hang the pig offal in the well and send it to her mother's house to eat tomorrow.
Seeing this, Lin Yao suggested washing the pig offal, salting it into fat intestines, and sending it to her grandmother with the soup.
Zhang Cuilan was surprised, "Pig offal is not easy to stir, Yaoyao, can you salve pig intestines?"
Lin Yao of course can. Grandpa Lin loved salved pig intestines when he was young. He liked to eat it. Lin Yao didn't like it much, but he learned how to salve pig intestines from Grandpa Lin.
Grandpa Lin often said that more skills do not suppress people.
Perhaps it was God's will, Lin Yao suddenly traveled to the 1950s, and the skill of salved pig intestines was put to use.
It's just that pig intestines are smelly, and Lin Yao is not happy to clean them up.
Gu Shidong jumped out to help his sister-in-law. In fact, the stinky boy is greedy and wants to be the first to eat the delicious pig intestines salved by his sister-in-law.
Recently, the food cooked in the commune canteen tastes pretty good, but the steamed buns and wo wo tou are not enough to eat. When it's time to eat, you have to go early to queue up, otherwise you won't get anything to eat if you go too late.
Neighbors have complained several times, and Director Ge also has his own difficulties. This year, there was a flood in the north, and the grain production in many places has decreased.
The weather in Yunshui County was relatively good, so most of the grain in the county was transported to the north.
It had to be transported there, because the disaster victims in the north would starve to death if they had no food to eat.
The county committee was also very worried about this. The higher-ups said that they should deal with it for now, and then talk about other things after the disaster was over.
The commune cafeteria did not have enough food, so the members could only go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy snacks to fill their stomachs.
Those who had no money could steam a pot of wild vegetable nests at home, eat some nests when their stomachs growled at night, and drink a bellyful of water to get by.
Lin Yao saw it all, and it was impossible for him to say that he was not anxious.
You have to know that in the three-year famine in Chinese history, countless people starved to death.
Lin Yao, living in this era, is like a grain of sand in the desert, being carried forward by fate.
She thought that when she finds a suitable opportunity, she will mention it to Sister Cuilan and store some food in her hometown for emergency use.
There are five families living in the big compound, and they are always close to each other.
It is a fantasy to want to store food in the big compound.
Not to mention anything else, Wang Shengcai's family in the front yard and Zheng Dacheng and his wife are keeping a close eye on them. If there is any movement in the big compound, they will come over like a thief smelling fishy smell and may give you a fatal blow at any time.
There is a cause for everything, so we must be on guard.
The old Gu family has a courtyard in the countryside, which is quite remote. The original owner went there once with Aunt Cuilan when he was a child. Lin Yao asked Gu Chunmei about it.
The old courtyard of the Gu family is an old courtyard passed down by the Gu family. It is the most common adobe wall and thatched house in the countryside. It is surrounded by a large bamboo forest. There is a mountain ravine in the south. The nearest village is also 500 to 600 meters away. There is a valley behind it. Going deeper, there are ancient trees and tall, impenetrable mountains.
Lin Yao was very happy when he heard it. The old courtyard cannot be lived in, but it is a good place to store food.
Lin Yao cooked noodles and brought them to Gu Shian.
The homemade noodles were thick and thin, chewy and had absorbed the oil from the salt, giving off a glossy color. Gu Shian ate a large bowl of noodles without even raising his head.
In a few minutes, only the soup base was left in the large bowl of noodles.
Lin Yao held her face and watched him eat with a smile.
Gu Shian didn't know this, and when he raised his head, he realized that the little girl had been staring at him. His handsome face flushed, "Are you full?"
Gu Shian nodded.
That's good, Lin Yao cleared his throat, sat over seriously, and was about to talk to Gu Shian.
Gu Shian spoke first, "Yaoyao, I have something for you."
After that, he turned around and went back to the ear room.
Lin Yao slightly widened her almond eyes, got something for her?
What is it?
After Gu Shidong finished peeing, the cat went back to the bed and listened for a few minutes with its ears raised. Now it was already sleeping soundly with its legs kicked up.
Gu Shian went back to the room and took out a sandalwood box from the suitcase he brought with him. Inside was a thick velvet bag. He took it out and handed it to Lin Yao.
"Open it and have a look."
Lin Yao didn't understand, so he took it. Inside the velvet bag was a current account passbook, several thick bundles of paper, and several bundles of bills.
She touched the passbook curiously, opened it and took a look. Wow, there was actually a thousand yuan in the deposit. The date filled in was "1958" and the owner was Gu Shian. In those days, banks had fixed deposits and withdrawals, and every entry was written by hand by the staff.
It seemed that this was Gu Shian's allowance and salary for his ten years of military service, but...if he didn't give the passbook to Aunt Cuilan, what was the point of giving it to her?
Gu Shian seemed to know what Lin Yao was thinking. He laughed softly, "Yaoyao, a man's private money should be given to his wife, so, Yaoyao, are you willing to be my real wife?"
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