Daily Life in the 70s-Chapter 150: Stumbling

No one around made it all the more comfortable.

Yang PeiMin bent over and got down to hard work, cleaning the clothes that Shen Yiguang and the others wore for outdoor training, which were covered with a layer of mud on the outside and soaked with sweat on the inside. Clothes stained with mud were difficult to rinse. If the rinsing water wasn’t clear, the clothes would still have mud stuck to them, and once dry, there would be noticeable patches of dirt.

In the past few months, she had adapted to life without a washing machine.

Back in the winter, she would lug hot water for washing, using scented soap. She found pounding with a stick and scrubbing on a washboard too strenuous, so she asked Guang Erniu to help make a small cleaning brush out of thin bamboo strips. Only then did she feel that the clothes were getting properly cleaned, though it also made it easier to fray the fabric. But for those thick clothes that were tough to wash, this was the method she had to use.

So now, she found herself quite missing that little brush, especially since Shen Yiguang’s military uniforms were durable.

After scrubbing through once, she rinsed the clothes three times until the water seemed less dirty. Then she carefully lifted the clothes to inspect them for any spots she might have missed.

The process had been lengthy, and squatting had made her legs numb. She shifted her feet from side to side to relieve the numbness, and suddenly something hit her behind. It didn’t really hurt, but when she turned to look, she saw an empty tin can. Looking beyond, she noticed Du Juanjuan holding a trash scoop and walking by nonchalantly, as if she were taking out the trash.

Yang PeiMin quickly called out to her, "Sister-in-law Shao, you dropped something here."

Du Juanjuan stopped walking and looked down at her with a slight frown, "Do me a favor and pick it up for me."

Yang PeiMin gauged the distance between them, just four or five meters, yet Du Juanjuan stubbornly stood there waiting for her to pick it up, leaving her somewhat baffled.

Feeling the numbness in her feet, she tried to stand up and moved her legs a bit before saying to Du Juanjuan, "Sister, just give me a moment, my feet are quite numb. I need to wait for it to pass, or you can come over and pick it up yourself."

Du Juanjuan was getting impatient, "There’s a puddle by you, and I can’t get my leather shoes wet. Hurry up and bring it here, I don’t have time to dawdle with you."

Yang PeiMin looked down at her own feet following Du Juanjuan’s gaze, and not only did she see the laundry water, but she also noticed orange juice seeping from the empty can. It appeared that the fruit inside hadn’t been completely eaten. With that thought, she quickly turned her body to check the back of her trousers, and sure enough, there was a dark stain.

Fruit juice on clothes was a hassle to wash out.

Du Juanjuan saw what she was doing but appeared dismissive and even more impatient, taking a step to leave.

Yang PeiMin still called out to stop her.

Du Juanjuan turned around and took a couple of steps in her direction, her face flashing with disdain, "I asked you to pick it up, and you won’t. What’s wrong with a villager like you picking up a bottle? Isn’t that something you always do? Stop putting on airs! I don’t even need to throw away this fruit can, it’s yours to keep. Don’t you country folk love to use these to hold chopsticks?"

"I had always thought city-dwellers like Mr. Du would be keen on hygiene and civility, but seeing is believing; I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person," Yang PeiMin said sarcastically, not even looking at her, but continued to lift and wring out the clothes.

Du Juanjuan hadn’t anticipated being mocked by her and scanned her in disbelief, her face flashing red and then pale, "Who do you say lacks civility?"

Yang PeiMin spoke indifferently, "There’s no need for Mr. Du to get worked up, I don’t need you to pick up the can. I’ll throw it out later myself. It’s a minor issue, but it’s quite revealing about a person, which is worth it."

Du Juanjuan’s face went through a flush of colors, "Villagers will always be villagers, with not a shred of class. What rubbish! I was elevating you by letting you pick it up. This is the thanks I get!" she said and was about to storm off.

"Brother Shao, have you arrived?"

Du Juanjuan spun around quickly, "Shao Hui I—"

But there was no sign of Shao Hui.

"Did you trick me?"

Yang Peimin burst into laughter, "So you don’t want your lover to see you in this state, huh? Actually, deep down you know what you did was wrong, don’t you? Look how guilty you are! Sweating bullets! Are you sure you don’t want to pick it up?"

Du Juanjuan, even more mortified and enraged, pointed her finger at her, gritting her teeth, "You just wait!"

After uttering her threat, she stomped her foot and left.

Yang Peimin also wrung out her clothes and put them all into a bucket.

Then she bent down to pick up the jar from the ground, intending to throw it away as she had said. She had merely been angry at Du Juanjuan’s imperious behavior and the fact that she had dirtied her pants, which had infuriated her to the point of feeling sick. It was quite satisfying.

Back in the dormitory, after changing into a pair of pants and washing again, she hung up all the clothes to dry before she felt she could take a breather. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

Before Shen Yiguang returned, she reorganized the room again. Although there wasn’t much stuff, she still liked to arrange it to her specifications and knew exactly where everything she tidied away was located.

She took down the set of pots and washed them clean. She had intended to boil some water to sterilize them, but that required lighting the coal, and Yang Peimin admitted to herself that she had no clue how to do it.

It was indeed a headache. Even if she ate in the cafeteria for the next few days and didn’t need to cook her own meals, she’d still have to boil water for drinking and bathing, right? Dealing with this honeycomb coal was not an easy task, something she had seen in her previous life when she was younger, and she had spent quite a while without figuring out how to use it, so she just left it aside.

The entire afternoon was spent washing and scrubbing. She was so tired that she couldn’t even remember what else she had to do until she heard the cafeteria bell ring. A Red Army wife came over to remind her, "Sister-in-law, it’s time to go to the cafeteria for dinner. You can go now; if you’re late, you’ll have to stand in a long line."

Yang Peimin thanked her and quickly grabbed her meal box, heading downstairs.

However, she hadn’t quite finished going down the stairs when she ran into Shen Yiguang, who was returning from training.

He was back quite early.

Yang Peimin said happily, "You’re back. Go home first; I’ll go get the food."

Shen Yiguang smiled slightly and shook the bag in his hand, "I’ve already got it. Let’s go home."

Yang Peimin was even more delighted.

Dinner was tomato and egg stir-fry, with cabbage. Perhaps it was the after-effect of labor, but Yang Peimin found her appetite had improved, and she ate most of the rice in her meal box.

Shen Yiguang seemed very pleased and stroked her head, as if to reward her.

After dinner, Yang Peimin immediately asked for his help to figure out how to light the coal.

She had assumed that Shen Yiguang would have no idea how to do it either, since he had been a single man in the military before, and where would he have cooked or heated water? It was already good enough if he could wash his own clothes cleanly. In that era, boys were typically the treasures of the home, and housework, thought to be a woman’s domain, was something they hardly ever touched.

It was only when Shen Yiguang taught her step by step how to light the honeycomb coal that Yang Peimin felt she had perhaps misjudged him; he seemed like a man who wasn’t easily defeated by anything.