Chapter 37

“Where’s Aunt Liu’s vegetable garden?” Lin Yonggang asked.

“Why do we even care about her vegetable garden? Our house is already in this state and you’re still thinking about her garden. Why don’t you just move into her house?” Lin Yonggang shrank back at the harsh words and didn’t dare say another word.

“Mom, should we consider rebuilding our house?”

Lin Yun suddenly spoke up: “We should first confirm with the village how the land here is divided. Every time this place comes up, you and Aunt Liu end up arguing.”

“You really don’t understand the costs of running a household. Do you know how much it costs to build a new house? If she dares dig into my land again, I’ll rip up everything she planted. Otherwise, she’ll really think I’m afraid of her.”

Lin Yun didn’t get angry at her words. After all, confronting Zhao Lanxiu wouldn’t help achieve her goal. It would be better to try and reason with her. “You can just ask around. You’re still the head of the house, after all—I don’t know the cost of these things. But if we build a one-story house with brick and tile, three rooms or so, how much would that cost? I have some money, I can contribute. And have you seen how badly the roof is leaking now? Even if we don’t build a new house, we still need to renovate. Otherwise, when the heavy rains come, we won’t even be able to live here.”

Lin Yun had only recently discovered how bad the leaks were. It wasn’t that it hadn’t rained since she arrived—it had rained quite a lot during the hot summer. But because of the busy farming season, she was rarely at home. Summer storms come and go quickly, followed by blazing sun. Lin Yun had just thought the house was damp due to humidity—she hadn’t considered rain leakage.

Until one night when she was home and trying to sleep, she kept hearing a repetitive “drip drip drip” near her ear. She couldn’t stand it and was about to get up and check when Lin Yumei spoke: “It’s raining. I forgot to put something out to catch the water.” Then she got out of bed, and soon after, Lin Yun heard the sound of water dripping into an enamel basin.

From that night on, Lin Yun started thinking about rebuilding the house. Even if they couldn’t afford a new house, at least replacing the thatched roof with tiles would be a big improvement.

Lin Yonggang and Lin Yumei nodded quickly after hearing Lin Yun’s suggestion. “Mom, we’ve got money too. We can contribute to the house. Please ask around.”

Seeing how cooperative they were, Lin Yun became even more enthusiastic: “And it’s not like if we don’t build now, we won’t ever have to. We’ll have to build eventually—so why not now while we still have some money? It might even be cheaper than you expect. If we delay, the costs will only go up, and we won’t be able to afford it later.”

Lin Yun pressed the issue while the momentum was there, hoping Zhao Lanxiu would agree to build the house that very day. These kinds of things require striking while the iron is hot.

Seeing the eager expressions on the kids’ faces, and recalling the disdain she’d suffered all these years due to their poor living conditions, Zhao Lanxiu finally relented: “Alright, in a few days I’ll ask around about the price of red bricks.”

The three siblings exchanged glances and broke into smiles. But what Lin Yun didn’t expect was just how cunning adults could be—Zhao Lanxiu kept delaying until the siblings’ winter break started, and still hadn’t figured out the cost of red bricks.

The day the teacher announced the official start of winter break, Lin Yun was actually a little happy. It wasn’t that she disliked school, but the dorm conditions were just too terrible—especially in winter when the wind howled through the room. The air in the dorm was stuffy, and washing up became even more of a hassle. At times like this, dorm life was far from enjoyable.

As they returned home, each person carried large bags. During winter and summer break, students brought all their belongings home—partly because the school would be nearly empty, attracting petty thieves who liked to sneak in, and partly because some students wouldn’t return at all and preferred to take everything at once.

Lin Yonggang’s middle school released earlier than the high school, so he came specifically to help his two sisters carry their things. Zhao Baozhu’s older brother also came as usual to pick her up.

As winter break arrived, it was now February 1983. Lin Yun had been in this world for more than half a year. She often marveled at how adaptable humans could be. Many things she couldn’t accept when she first arrived had now become part of her daily life.

The atmosphere of the New Year was strong. Although it was still about ten days away, everyone’s faces were already filled with anticipation. Life had been a bit better this year than the past few, giving people hope for the future.

When Zhao Lanxiu brought out three brand new cotton-padded jackets, all three siblings were shocked. This was a major splurge for Zhao Lanxiu. In the past, the most they got for New Year was a new pair of socks—if they were lucky. Most of the time, there was nothing, maybe just some steamed flour buns to mark the occasion.

But this year, each of them had a brand-new cotton coat. Lin Yun looked at the jackets—which seemed old-fashioned by modern standards—but she was deeply moved. Getting a padded jacket at this time felt completely different from buying a new outfit in the modern era. Maybe because it was so hard to come by, it felt that much more precious.

Lin Yonggang was so excited he put his on immediately and even wanted to go outside and show it off. In the past, a new pair of socks was enough for him to brag for days, let alone a whole new coat.

But Zhao Lanxiu shut that down: “You dare wear it out today?! If you wear it now, it won’t be new for the New Year!” Her tone was harsh at first, but when she saw the kids all looking at her, she softened.

“Yeah, Gangzi, if you wear it now, you won’t have anything new to show off during New Year when everyone else does,” Lin Yumei chimed in, for once siding with their mom.

Lin Yonggang thought about it—it did make sense. He took the jacket off: “You’re right. I’ll save it and surprise them when we visit houses during New Year.”

It was in these moments that Lin Yun was reminded: Lin Yonggang really was just a young boy in the second year of middle school—still at that age where getting something nice made you want to brag to your friends.