Chapter 31

A few boys stepped forward, took the rope and water buckets, and began helping the students behind them—mainly girls—fetch water. With their help, the line shortened quickly, and before long, all the students who were waiting in line had gone back.

Lin Yun and Zhao Baozhu’s buckets were also full. The three of them had brought two buckets in total, and together, they carried them back to the dormitory. The school had designated a specific room as a student bathhouse.

As soon as Lin Yun stepped inside, she wanted to back out. The place was filled with naked bodies, and having never been to a public bathhouse before, Lin Yun found the scene a bit hard to accept.

“Xiaoyun, why aren’t you going in?” Lin Yumei, who was behind her, saw her stop at the door and asked curiously.

After arriving at school, everyone had stopped calling Lin Yun “Er Ya” and started using her name.

“It’s nothing,” Lin Yun said, taking a deep breath. This wasn’t something she could avoid—she’d have to face it sooner or later.

But once she was inside, it wasn’t too bad. No one really paid attention to others—maybe because the water was so cold. That’s right, they had no hot water, so everyone bathed with cold water.

“Baozhu, do you know where we can get hot water?” Lin Yun asked while trying to get used to the water temperature.

“I’m not really sure, but there’s definitely no hot water at school. I heard last time that a student got sick and needed to take medicine with hot water, and they had to ask a canteen staff member for just a small amount of hot water,” Baozhu said, gesturing to show how little it was.

“Is there anywhere outside that sells hot water? We can’t keep bathing in cold water forever. It’s fine in summer, but what about winter?”

“In winter, just bathe when we go home. Besides, it’s hard to wash clothes at school anyway. I heard from my brother that some schools have tap water, so students don’t even need to fetch water. They can just use the tap. If only our school had that kind of setup.”

“It will, eventually. I’m sure it will,” Lin Yun comforted her. “Baozhu, Sis, let’s try fetching water earlier in the day. We can leave the buckets out in the sun in the afternoon, and then use that water for our baths in the evening. It should be better than this freshly drawn well water.”

“Good idea. I actually think this water is way too cold. It’s really uncomfortable to bathe in,” Zhao Baozhu agreed immediately.

“Should we buy a thermos together? We could go outside and get some water to drink. Bathwater is one thing, but I’m really worried the drinking water isn’t clean. Didn’t the team leader say we should try to drink hot water?”

Actually, the habit of drinking hot water was something the country had consciously encouraged. Lin Yun had learned a bit about it before—originally, there wasn’t such a custom, but during a time of national turmoil and frequent biological warfare from other countries, people often got sick.

Medical resources were extremely scarce and couldn’t meet everyone’s needs. Since many diseases were transmitted orally, especially through water, people started advocating for drinking hot water. Boiling did kill a lot of microorganisms—not all of them, but it did reduce the chance of illness significantly.

Especially after arriving here, Lin Yun saw how underdeveloped the infrastructure was. Even something as basic as toilets was a mess, so she insisted on boiling water before drinking it.

But she noticed that most of the students at school were drinking directly from the well. Although everyone knew it might contain parasites or other harmful things, they had no other option.

Lin Yun couldn’t change what others did, so she could only try to make life better for the people around her.

Lin Yumei had money now—an amount she’d never even imagined having before. And when Zhao Baozhu came to school, her family and elders had been worried she’d suffer, so they gave her money and ration coupons so she could improve her meals now and then. She had no objections either.

“I wonder how much a thermos costs. My family actually has one—my parents bought it when they got married. It’s even older than me,” Zhao Baozhu said, getting nostalgic.

“Let’s find time to go out and check. We’ll probably need a coupon to buy a thermos too. I think we have enough money between the three of us, but getting a coupon might be hard. I wonder if anyone here sells those,” Lin Yun said with concern.

“But even if we want to go out, we’ll have to wait till next week. The school doesn’t allow students to go out freely anymore,” Lin Yumei reminded them.

“Then we’ll think of a way next week. Let’s see if we can find someone to sell us a thermos coupon. Most households probably only need one thermos, so maybe we can check around. When the time comes, we’ll go together,” Lin Yun said. The other two had no objections.

Lin Yumei was also in the same dorm as them. The last dormitory with 32 beds wasn’t completely full. When the three of them returned to their dorm, it was lit by a kerosene lamp. Lin Yun thought it was dangerous, but didn’t say anything—this was just the reality of their situation. The kerosene lamp had actually been provided by the school.

The dorms had no electricity at night, but they couldn’t leave students in total darkness, so each dorm got one lamp. The light was barely enough, and close to 10 PM, a teacher would come by to collect the lamps, worried something might happen if they were left unattended overnight.

Back in the dorm, Lin Yun noticed that out of the eight beds, only hers and Baozhu’s had mosquito nets. The others only had sheets and quilts.

Lin Yun hung her freshly washed clothes on the clothesline outside the dorm, then lay on her bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.

While Lin Yun slept soundly, the schoolteachers were tossing and turning over her recent exam. After she finished the test, all the papers had been distributed to the respective subject teachers. For combined subjects like arts and science, the teachers had to wait their turn to grade them.

Since school had just started, all the teachers were busy, so Lin Yun’s papers weren’t graded immediately—except for her math paper, which went straight to Mr. Yang.

As soon as he heard that Lin Yun had chosen to take the comprehensive arts and science exam, he burst into the office, exclaiming, “Quick, quick, let me see Lin Yun’s math paper! This kid used to be the best in math—hope she didn’t forget everything over summer break!”

Even though he said that, Mr. Yang couldn’t help but brag a little about her math performance first.