Actually, when Lin Weidong brought Chen Fang back the first time, Zhang Xiumei didn’t like her very much. As soon as this girl entered the door, her eyes were darting around, and although she didn’t say it directly, her eyes still revealed dissatisfaction with the narrowness of the Lin family’s house. 

Therefore, when Lin Weidong said he wanted to marry Chen Fang, Zhang Xiumei was not very supportive, and she told her son her concerns. But young people in love obviously couldn’t listen to their parents’ advice, and Zhang Xiumei didn’t want to create a rift between mother and son because of this, so she had to nod and agree. 

The process of discussing marriage was not smooth either. Although the Lin family had three workers, Lin Weidong had only been officially employed for half a year at that time, and Lin Jing was still studying, so the family was really not wealthy. The Chen family wanted both a bride price and the “three major items” (sewing machine, bicycle, and radio), and the family really couldn’t afford the money. 

Although the final bride price was negotiated down to 188 yuan, and only a watch was bought as one of the three major items, the expenses, including the wedding banquet, were still not small for the Lin family. For this reason, Lin Guowen even advanced his salary for more than half a year. 

Despite the unpleasant pre-marital negotiations, Zhang Xiumei was not the kind of mother-in-law who liked to make things difficult for people, and although Chen Fang had some minor problems, there were no major issues to speak of. Therefore, over time, the relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was considered harmonious. 

But today, Chen Fang’s words really touched Zhang Xiumei’s bottom line. 

Outsiders introducing a match for her daughter would know to choose a healthy person, but Chen Fang was good, opening her mouth to introduce a hunchback to her daughter. Those who knew them would know that this was her sister-in-law, but those who didn’t would think Chen Fang had a grudge against her! 

But Chen Fang didn’t think she was wrong, and said aggrievedly, “He is a bit of a hunchback, but that’s not a big problem, is it? It doesn’t affect his walking, and he still works in an office. His family conditions are also good, and his parents are both cadres. Don’t you always say that Jingjing’s academic performance is good? If the college entrance examination hadn’t been canceled, she might be a college student now. Why would she only be able to go to the front line as a worker? But now it’s good, as long as Jingjing is willing, transferring her job is just a matter of their words, isn’t it?” 

“Who’s transferring jobs? I think you want to transfer jobs, right?” Zhang Xiumei rolled her eyes in anger and said, “People’s parents are capable, they can live in a three-bedroom, two-living room house, and they can transfer jobs. You must be very envious, right? In my opinion, don’t be hypocritical and introduce him to Jingjing. While you’re still young, quickly get a divorce and remarry into their family!” 

Parents all hope that their children have harmonious relationships, so that they can support each other after their parents pass away. But now she was still alive, and Chen Fang dared to treat her younger sister-in-law like this. If her daughter had no support after she died, could she have a good life under her sister-in-law? 

Zhang Xiumei really regretted it. If she had known that Chen Fang was this kind of person, she would not have agreed to let Lin Weidong marry Chen Fang, even if it caused a rift between mother and son! 

Chen Fang’s expression stiffened from the scolding, and she forced a smile and said, “Look at what you’re saying, I’m doing well with Weidong, why would I get a divorce and remarry! Besides, I’m only mentioning this for Jingjing’s sake. She’s so old, she has to find a partner, right? Don’t just look at the surface of people, our director’s son’s conditions are really good…” 

“You can shut your mouth!” Zhang Xiumei interrupted Chen Fang rudely, “Other sister-in-laws, if they don’t treat their younger sister-in-law as their own sister, at least they won’t harm her. You’re good, directly introducing a hunchback to Jingjing! Do you think I’m old and easy to fool, or do you think that’s all Jingjing deserves? You say you’re doing it for Jingjing’s good, I think you can’t stand to see her doing well!” 

“Mom, you really misunderstood me. I also treat Jingjing as my own sister, how could I want to harm her?” Although Chen Fang hoped that this marriage would succeed, she didn’t want to really offend her mother-in-law. After calling out her grievance, she quickly begged for forgiveness, “I just thought their family conditions were good and the job was also good, so I didn’t think so much… Okay, if you don’t want to, I’ll never mention this matter again, okay?” 

Zhang Xiumei sneered and said, “It’s not that you didn’t think so much, it’s that you know clearly what you’re thinking in your heart.” 

Obviously, Chen Fang’s explanation failed to convince Zhang Xiumei, so after sneering, she still wanted to retort to Chen Fang a few words. But before she could say anything, she heard her daughter, who had been silent for a long time because it was not easy to interrupt, say, “Mom, forget it, Sister-in-law definitely didn’t mean it.” 

“You’re just too kind!” Zhang Xiumei scolded her daughter, but the anger in her heart subsided a lot. However, she still didn’t have a good face when she looked up at Chen Fang, “Since Jingjing is speaking for you, let’s forget about this matter, but there’s one thing I have to make clear to you. As long as your dad and I are alive, it’s not your turn to make decisions about Jingjing’s important life events. If you dare to have any crooked ideas in the future, don’t stay in my house anymore, pack your things and get out as soon as possible!” 

Originally, Chen Fang was still a little guilty, but after hearing Zhang Xiumei’s unceremonious words, she couldn’t help but feel aggrieved. 

She really didn’t think there was anything wrong with introducing her workshop director’s son to Lin Jing. Yes, Director Wang’s son was a bit of a hunchback, but his family conditions were good, and since the other party had this defect, wouldn’t he have to dote on Lin Jing for the rest of his life? Looking at her, she married a healthy person, but what’s the use? They’ve been married for two years, and they still can’t get their own house, still squeezing in the small room that’s been partitioned off. 

As a result, she was planning so much for Lin Jing, but her mother-in-law not only didn’t appreciate it, but also warned her not to interfere in Lin Jing’s important life events in the future! 

It was simply biting the hand that feeds you, not recognizing a good heart! 

Chen Fang was furious in her heart, but facing Zhang Xiumei’s serious expression, she finally gritted her teeth and said, “I won’t interfere then!” 

She wanted to see what kind of man Lin Jing could marry in the end without her intervention! Anyway, she had made up her mind that if Lin Jing still had the nerve to live at home after getting married, she would definitely not agree! 

… 

The houses in the family compound had public bathrooms, in the leftmost room of each building, with two separate rooms inside, with the words “men” and “women” written on the door. 

Lin Jing rarely went to the bathroom, because there was only one bathroom, and there were many people queuing up to take a bath during peak hours. Women took a long time to bathe, so waiting one or two hours was common. When she finally got in line, people would always knock on the door to urge her while she was washing, and she couldn’t even scrub properly. 

If she wanted to stagger the peak hours, it would be better to work the night shift, anyway, she would come back the next day during the day. But if she worked the day shift, it would be dark when she got off work and waited for others to finish washing, and there were no electric lights in the public bathroom, so she had to take a bath in the dark or bring candles and flashlights, which was very inconvenient. 

Therefore, Lin Jing usually took a bath at home. 

Actually, it was not very convenient to take a bath at home either, because she was now sleeping in the same room with her parents. It was okay to have a wardrobe in the middle at night, but it was inconvenient to have someone in the room when she was taking a bath, so if her parents were at home, they had to avoid going out when she was taking a bath. 

In this way, it was more convenient when she lived in the small room before. Although the room was small, there was still space to put a bathtub. 

But Lin Jing didn’t often recall the time when she lived alone in the small room. 

It wasn’t because she thought it was better to squeeze in a big room with her parents than to live in a small room, but because she knew clearly that unless she applied for her own house, she would not be able to have her own independent space again. But given her seniority and the tight housing situation for garment factory employees, the possibility of her applying for her own house was very slim. 

Of course, she could also get her own room through marriage, but on the one hand, this room was obtained through another person and needed to be shared with others, so it couldn’t be considered an independent space; on the other hand, it wasn’t just the garment factory that had a tight housing problem. In some families with large populations, the houses were almost cut into tofu blocks, and there was only a thin layer of wood between the rooms, so any disturbance could be heard clearly next door. 

For Lin Jing, if she could only live in such a house after marriage, it would be better to maintain the status quo and continue to squeeze in a room with her parents. 

And this was also an important reason why she had been on blind dates for more than half a year, but still hadn’t been able to settle on a marriage. She didn’t know whether marriage would make her life better or worse. 

After taking a bath, Lin Jing stood up from the bathtub, wiped the water droplets off her body, and put on the pajamas she had placed aside. 

The so-called pajamas were actually her old clothes, which had turned white due to being worn for several years, and had many patches on them. Because they were no longer suitable to be worn outside, Lin Jing used them as pajamas. 

After putting on her clothes, Lin Jing opened the door and carried the bathtub out with her mother to pour out the water, and then took a basin to carry the dirty clothes out to wash. 

As early as 1960, Anping City began to lay tap water pipes. Although Huyang was a suburb, tap water pipes were also laid the following spring because there were large units such as machine tool factories and textile factories, as well as troops stationed there. The employees of the garment factory also benefited from this, and faucets were installed outside the bathroom, so they no longer had to live in the days of (qiang – fight over) a water pump faucet in the full family compound. 

However, the light was not good at night, and the whole basin was dark after filling it with water, and she couldn’t even see which one was a shirt and which one was a skirt. So after scrubbing twice, Lin Jing gave up, carried the basin back home, and sat in the hallway to scrub her clothes. 

But the indoor environment was not much better than the outdoor environment. One was because the wattage of the electric light in the room was not bright enough, and the color was yellowish-orange, and the other was because when the shirt was dry, the tea stains looked quite obvious, but when the clothes were wetted, the brownish-yellow marks disappeared. 

Although the marks disappeared, Lin Jing always felt that the tea stains were not so easy to wash off, so she kept scrubbing the clothes until Zhang Xiumei came out and saw it and said, “Don’t wash it, if you scrub it like this, these clothes will be ruined in less than two months.” 

“If the tea stains are not washed clean, it will be even harder to wash them after they are dried.” This was a white shirt, if the tea stains couldn’t be washed off, how conspicuous would it be when she wore it? 

Zhang Xiumei also felt sorry, and said, “Then let’s soak it first, I’ll wash it tomorrow. The light is dim at night and I can’t see clearly, it’s useless no matter how hard you scrub.” 

Lin Jing thought for a while and said, “Then I’ll wash the other clothes.” 

This time Zhang Xiumei didn’t stop Lin Jing, responded, and turned around and went back to the room. Lin Jing then scrubbed the other clothes clean, and was too lazy to find another basin. She just wrung them dry and took them to the faucet to rinse them clean. 

After hanging up the clothes, Lin Jing returned home and bolted the front door. Her dad and her brother were both on the night shift these days and wouldn’t be back until six or seven o’clock tomorrow morning. 

After bolting the front door, Lin Jing turned around and walked into the main room. 

On the right-hand side of the main room entrance was a double bed. Past the double bed, there was a three-door wardrobe in a person-wide space. A rope was diagonally pulled from the top of the wardrobe to the window to hang a straw curtain. Behind the curtain was the single bed where Lin Jing slept. 

However, Lin Jing didn’t go back to her bed after entering the room, but climbed onto the double bed and took the shoe sole from Zhang Xiumei’s hand and said, “Let me do it.” 

Zhang Xiumei hmm’d, handed the work in her hand to her daughter, and then rubbed her eyes with her hand, self-deprecatingly saying, “I’m getting old, my eyes are getting worse and worse.” 

“You should do less needlework, your eyes will definitely be better than anyone else’s.” Lin Jing had wanted to persuade Zhang Xiumei for a long time, and started talking while sewing the shoe sole, “Buying a pair of insoles only costs three cents, they’re comfortable to wear and don’t require cloth coupons. You, you have to make your own even when you buy them.” 

“It’s easy for you to say, aren’t three cents money?” Zhang Xiumei had different ideas from her daughter, “You don’t know what the situation is at home, we can save a little if we can.” 

Lin Jing listened and fell silent. The Lin family had indeed been having a difficult time in the past two years. The year before last, in order for her brother to get married, her dad had advanced his salary for a year. Originally, 40 yuan was deducted every month, and it would be paid off by the end of last year. As a result, her mother had a fracture and was hospitalized in the middle of the year. The condition was not serious, but the surgery also cost a lot of money. In addition to the reimbursement from the factory, her dad advanced his salary for another half a year and borrowed some from relatives and friends. 

It was not easy to wait for Zhang Xiumei to be discharged from the hospital, but Lin Jing had another problem. The street organized junior and senior high school graduates to support the frontier, and all those who were unemployed had to go to the countryside. 

Originally, this matter was simple. It just so happened that Zhang Xiumei was in poor health, so Lin Jing could take over her job. The problem was that after the start of the Great Movement, normal retirement could be slandered as “half-hearted revolution,” and Lin Jing was on the list to go to the countryside. If it was not handled well, let alone taking over the job, she might be labeled with a low ideological awareness. 

In the end, Zhang Xiumei used the reason that she was in poor health and could not continue working to give the job to a leader’s relative, so that Lin Jing could be exchanged for a spot as an apprentice worker. 

Zhang Xiumei was an old employee of the garment factory, with a basic monthly salary of nearly 40 yuan, while Lin Jing’s salary was not even half of hers. 

With debts owed outside and a sharp decrease in family income, the Lin family naturally had to tighten their belts and live frugally. This was also why Lin Weiguo and Lin Weidong were still working overtime today, even though it was Sunday. Although they were fixed-wage workers, on the basis of working 26 days, they could earn an extra day’s overtime pay for every extra day they worked. 

Actually, if it wasn’t for participating in the social event, Lin Jing would have had to work today as well. Although apprentice workers didn’t get much money for overtime, it was better than nothing. 

Thinking about these things, Lin Jing swallowed the words that came to her mouth, only adjusted her direction, and continued to work towards the electric light.