Chapter 16: Start of Married Life

In the end, Baoni didn’t even get to eat.

She was exhausted from the morning exercise, and fell asleep again.

Gu Ye, on the other hand, left the house full of energy to visit his big brother in the dormitory.

“Yo, just getting up?” Gu Ze looked at Gu Ye, noticing how much he had changed.

This big boy had truly transformed into a real man.

“So, uh, have you eaten?” Gu Ye felt a little embarrassed, being teased by his big brother.

“I’ve eaten already. You haven’t?” Gu Ze looked at his younger brother, now a bit more lively, and felt reassured.

“I’m not hungry. When are you leaving?” Gu Ye was hoping his brother would leave soon; he couldn’t stand the weird look his brother kept giving him.

“I’m taking a boat to the city this afternoon and a train back to Beijing tonight.” Gu Ze said. He had barely found time for this visit, but now he was busy with his own things.

“You’re in such a rush. I still haven’t bought anything for Sister-in-law and Xuan Yu!” Gu Ye was particularly fond of his nephew.

“You can take a leave at the end of the year and bring them gifts then. Grandpa misses you, and you have to let your new wife meet him.” Gu Ze had already thought of all the reasons.

“Since you came here, you haven’t gone back even once. You didn’t care about what others said before, but now you have a wife, and you’ll probably have kids soon. They’re not going to not care, right?” Gu Ze explained, with the ultimate goal of convincing Gu Ye to go back home.

“Let’s talk about it later. I’ll ask Lin Baoni when the time comes, I’ll see if she wants to go.” Gu Ye didn’t immediately reject it like before, nor did he agree outright. He mentioned consulting his wife, which was progress.

Gu Ze stopped pushing. Change needed to come step by step, and it couldn’t be rushed.

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After sending his brother off, Gu Ye returned to the Family Residential Compound.

He had three days off, and the day after tomorrow, he’d accompany Lin Baoni to visit her family before going back to work.

The house was quiet.

Lin Baoni was still asleep.

Gu Ye picked up the lunchbox and went to the canteen. He took two servings of rice, worried that it wouldn’t be enough, so he added an extra serving of vegetables. He still had some steamed buns from breakfast that he hadn’t eaten.

After placing the food in the kitchen, Gu Ye entered the room. “Lin Baoni, wake up, it’s time to eat.”

Lin Baoni buried her head deeper into the quilt, not wanting to get up.

Gu Ye lifted the quilt.

Lin Baoni opened her eyes, glared at him, and angrily got out of bed to wash up.

Lin Baoni rarely slept in. She had been trained by Old Jiang, which had formed a biological clock in her, making her wake up at the same time every day.

“Eat first. Are you hungry?” Gu Ye asked, as he was already feeling hungry.

“Do you think I’m hungry? Comrade Gu Ye, you can’t do this. Everything needs to have its limits, or it’ll break down easily.” Baoni said seriously.

Gu Ye replied sincerely: “No problem, I’ll definitely pay attention, for a lifetime!”

Baoni was truly hungry and didn’t have time to banter with him.

Eating was the most important thing.

The two of them quickly finished the meal, eating every last bit of food, even finishing the portion from the morning.

“What are you staring at me for?” Lin Baoni glared at Gu Ye, who had been watching her. “Are you sick or something?”

“I was wondering where you put all the food. You’re so small, how did you manage to eat so much?” Mother Lin had once said that Lin Baoni had a big appetite, but Gu Ye hadn’t expected it to be this much, nearly as much as his own.

“Where do you think it went? Into my stomach!” Baoni didn’t care about his comment. Eating her fill was the main thing.

The two of them cleaned up the kitchen together and returned to the living room.

“What do you want to do this afternoon?” Gu Ye asked Lin Baoni. He didn’t really know how to interact with her.

“I’m not doing anything. Just sorting out the clothes and stuff.” Lin Baoni replied, not really sure what to do. She suddenly had free time and wasn’t quite used to it.

“Is there a lot to do? Do you need me to help?” Gu Ye was quite good at tidying things up.

“By the way, this is for you.” Gu Ye said as he took a box from the cabinet.

He opened it to reveal two passbooks inside.

It was the first time Baoni had seen passbooks like these. She thought they didn’t exist anymore at this point in time.

“What’s this? Your savings?” Lin Baoni asked as she held the two old-fashioned, antique-style passbooks.

“One is my salary savings, and the other is the money my mother left for each of us.” Gu Ye said.

When he thought about his mother, his mood immediately lowered. Just thinking about his mom brought a surge of resentment.

“Are you handing over the financial authority?” Baoni noticed that something was off with Gu Ye, probably because he was thinking of something unpleasant.

“Yeah, I handed it all over. It’s all yours now!” Gu Ye said, looking at Lin Baoni’s round, glistening eyes, and with her smile, his anger slowly dissipated.

“Don’t regret it! I have to see if Comrade Gu Ye has enough assets to feed me!” Baoni jokingly muttered.

“Wow! Gu Ye, you’re really a money-saving box!” Baoni exclaimed, seeing the amount displayed on the passbook: 4900. This guy had hardly spent any money over the years!

“Really, no big deal. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, and I’m at the Military Unit every day. There’s nothing to spend money on. Besides sending a little money to some comrades in need, the rest is all here.” Gu Ye said, amused by Baoni’s exaggerated reaction.

“Ah! Gu Ye, are you sure this is the money your mother left for you, not for you three siblings?” Baoni looked at the other passbook, unsure. She counted the zeros carefully again, and still, it was the same large amount. She wasn’t seeing things or counting wrong.

“Yes, this was left for me. There’s more to the story, but I’ll tell you when the time’s right. Today’s a day of celebration, and I don’t want to bring up those despicable people.” Gu Ye replied.

Gu Ye didn’t want to mention Gu Xiangdong and that woman at all. It was just disgusting.

Baoni didn’t press him for more information. She knew that if he wanted to talk about it, he would.

She wasn’t a tabloid reporter, living off gossip.

“Alright, let’s put this money aside for now. What about the tickets?” Lin Baoni only saw two passbooks, but no tickets.

“Oh, they’re right here.” Gu Ye replied as he pulled out a pile of colorful tickets from another cabinet, along with ration books for grain, oil, and various other provisions, plus a bunch of loose change.

Baoni was more interested in the tickets.

In this era, life couldn’t go on without all these different tickets, though money wasn’t spent as much.

She began counting the tickets: grain tickets, oil tickets, sugar tickets, meat tickets, soap tickets, shoe tickets… Lin Baoni was now convinced. These tickets covered everything.

She sorted out the ones that were close to expiring, planning to use them before they became invalid.

Then she counted the loose change—ten yuan, five yuan, one yuan, five cents… After all these days, Baoni still hadn’t quite gotten used to the small values of one and two cents.

Once she was done sorting, Baoni put the passbooks away and placed the change in a separate box for everyday use.

“Here, this is my little savings box.”

Baoni then took out her own metal box, which was bigger in size.

Gu Ye hadn’t expected Baoni to have money, nor had he expected her to actually bring it out.

“What are you staring for? Though my money isn’t as much as yours, it’s still what I’ve saved little by little since I was a child.” Baoni said as she opened the lid and poured the contents out.

Roll after roll of bills came out first, followed by five-yuan and ten-yuan notes at the bottom.

“Put it away, don’t spill it. You’ll have to pack it up again, and it’s such a hassle.” Gu Ye said as he carefully rolled the money back into place. His attentiveness was endearing.

On their first day of marriage, the two of them had shared their finances.

They were going to live together from now on, raise children, and honesty was important.

It was a good start, and Baoni was confident that the future days would go smoothly.

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