Lu Yan was very shy when she saw Qin Xiaozhou naked and didn't dare to look at her. Qin Xiaozhou, who was originally calm, also felt a little ashamed when she saw it and turned her back. "Quickly wipe my back, rub it with soap to make lather."
The cloth Qin Xiaozhou used to wash herself was cut from her patched clothes; that was all she could do. As soon as she finished wiping herself, the little girl ran out the door.
Qin Xiaozhou raised his arm and sniffed, then sniffed his armpit. There was the smell of soapberry and a slight stench of raw pork. Fortunately, there was no body odor. The meaty smell was simply from the original owner's years of slaughtering pigs and meat. He could wash it more often, and in three to five months, the smell on his body would change due to the environment and the things he used.
These soapberries are fine for washing clothes and hands, but they're a bit too harsh for bathing and washing hair. I need to find a way to get some barley soap to use as soon as possible.
And this body of fat jiggles when she walks, with a three-fold waistline, and wrists thicker than Lu Yan's thighs. She's strong, but today in the bamboo forest, she had difficulty walking and moved clumsily. She really should lose some weight, otherwise, with her going in and out of this door so many times a day, she'll tear this wall down sooner or later.
After washing her body, Qin Xiaozhou started messing with her hair. It lay on her scalp like a dirty rag, greasy and smelly, long and thin. In ancient times, people believed that the body was a gift from one's parents and were reluctant to cut their hair. Now, her hair had grown to her waist and was covered with several layers of oil. Every time she combed her hair, a large clump would fall out. Qin Xiaozhou was horrified and hurriedly touched her hairline carefully. Holy crap, both temples were bald.
Who could stand this? I found some scissors and parted my hair into two sections from the back of my head. I cut each section to the side and below my collarbone with two snips. I gathered all my hair together and washed it three times with soap until the water cleared up. A whole pot of hot water was used up just like that, and I still wasn't clean.
After washing her hair, Qin Xiaozhou realized how ugly it was. It was coarse, dry, and not smooth at all. Her body still felt sticky, but her scalp felt much better.
Qin Xiaozhou sighed. Once it got warmer, she would definitely jump into the river behind the house and wash for two hours. She would take apart her patched old clothes to make towels, dry her hair, change into clothes she had just taken down from the fence, and then take the dirty water out to pour it away.
Wang Lan nearly fainted when she saw the woman's hair in the firelight in the kitchen. "What, what do you want to do? You cut my hair as soon as you walk into my house! Are you trying to become a nun?"
It wasn't spring yet, and the nights were still cold. The women of the Lu family huddled around the brazier in the kitchen, talking and mending clothes. Wang Lan held two handfuls of straw in her thin hands, weaving straw sandals so they could wear them when it warmed up in a few days.
"My hair is long and dirty. It'll feel so much better to cut it off and wash it. Besides, I'm only eighteen. It'll grow back in a year." Qin Xiaozhou didn't care at all. When she was young, her hair grew quickly and was quite long even when it was shoulder-length. When she went into the kitchen, she would take the dirty hair that she cut off and burn it. In this day and age, unless you became a monk, no one would cut their hair. If the hair quality was bad, you couldn't sell it.
Wang Lan cried and made a scene, "Where are you going to take this again? Why don't you put it away carefully? What a terrible thing to do! A new bride cutting her hair upon entering the family, how can our Lu family be so miserable? What will people say about our family?"
Qin Xiaozhou didn't want to confront Wang Lan directly, so she went back inside and found a rag to wrap her hair up and put it away.
Wang Lan kept nagging on and on, and Qin Xiaozhou got annoyed by her nagging. "Can't I just wrap my head with a headscarf? No one will be able to see that I cut my hair."
Wearing a headscarf is so nice. You can wear it for two months while it's cold. After two months, you can braid it into two braids or tie it into a bun with a wooden hairpin. Few women in the countryside wear flowers or silver ornaments. Young women wear simple buns and use hair ties and wooden hairpins, while older women wear headscarves.
Lu Yu braided her hair with brown hair ties, while Lu Yan, being younger, had her hair tied into two small buns.
Hearing this, Wang Lan choked up. What young girl doesn't like to dress up and look pretty? No one would wrap their head with a headscarf unless they were sick. This Qin Xiaozhou is someone who doesn't care about these things. That's good, she's honest and dutiful.
Zhao Fen changed Si Lang's clothes. Si Lang had drunk fish soup several times today, and now that he was dressed in clean clothes, he finally stopped crying. Zhao Fen gently patted him to sleep, saying, "These past two years I've been sick, and A Feng has been running around raising money every day. A Xing, at such a young age, has been carrying water and chopping firewood. Xiao Yan has been cooking and digging for wild vegetables. I can't even wash Si Lang's diapers anymore... Waaah!"
Wang Lan sighed, got up and went inside to spread the bed sheet on the withered grass. "Don't cry, life goes on." She also told Qin Xiaozhou not to sleep in late in the morning.
Qin Xiaozhou nodded repeatedly. She wasn't a heavy sleeper. This morning was an accident. She had just transmigrated and was lying in bed to adjust and sort out the original owner's memories. Besides, with so many mouths to feed in this family, she couldn't sleep soundly. Wang Lan, Zhao Fen, Lu Yan, Lu Yu, Shen Xiaosi, and Qin Xiaozhou were all crammed into one room to sleep. How could she possibly sleep?
The bed was only big enough for her and Lu Yan, so Lu Yunfeng had to build a makeshift bed out of bamboo overnight and sleep in the next room with Lu Yunxing. Before dawn, Qin Xiaozhou quietly got up, and Lu Yunfeng was already boiling water in the stove. She drank a bowl of hot water to dispel the chill.
Today, Qin Xiaozhou was wearing an old khaki-colored dress that she used to wear at the Qin family home. She took out a pair of old shoes with relatively thick soles. It was a long walk to the county town, and although the shoes were dirty and old with holes in the toes, at least they didn't hurt her feet.
It's closer to the town, but it's easier to sell in the county seat. Besides, she has some other ideas and definitely wants to make a trip to the county seat.
Lu Yunfeng carried the baskets he had woven over the past two days, while Qin Xiaozhou carried half a basket of bamboo shoots she had painstakingly dug up yesterday. Originally, Lu Yunxing wanted to sell the bamboo shoots, but it would take two hours to walk to the county town, and Qin Xiaozhou was strong and fast, so she was the only one who could go.
It's about ten miles north of Wangjia Village to the county town, not to mention the bamboo shoots weighing over forty kilograms on my back.
The two walked through the village to the east, then turned onto the main road at the village entrance and headed north. On the left were some fields, and on the right was the river flowing out of the village. It was the dry season now, and there had been droughts in the previous two years, so the water flow was very small.
There is a small boat at the village ferry that can take you all the way to the county town in less than an hour. It costs three coins per person and it departs at 7:30 every morning. It is still early now, and the only sounds in the village are roosters crowing. People going to the county town haven't gotten up yet, and the ferry is empty. Only Lu Yunfeng and Qin Xiaozhou can't afford to take the boat and are setting off early in the morning.
The fields are not flooded this season, even before spring arrives. Every household's fields are covered with wheat seedlings, broad beans, and rapeseed flowers, all still lush and green. In just over a month, the rapeseed flowers will gradually bloom, turning the fields a vibrant yellow.
Before she had gone halfway, Qin Xiaozhou's back and legs ached and she stopped to rest by leaning her basket against a roadside stone. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and her hands. Luckily, she was strong and healthy; no ordinary woman could walk as fast as her.
The two walked quite a distance before dawn. Owls were calling in the mountains outside the village. The flat land between the mountains was the farmland on which people depended for survival. Every piece of land was being used, and now it was completely silent.
Lu Yunfeng, who was walking ahead, turned back without saying a word, picked up Qin Xiaozhou's basket, and left.
Qin Xiaozhou admired him; he was indeed a strong and robust man with great strength.
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