Chapter 52: Winter Solstice Rice Balls

Late autumn seemed to pass in just a few days. In the blink of an eye, the leaves on the trees fell one after another, and winter had arrived.

Although Wen Jiajia prefers cold to heat, she has to admit that working in winter is indeed much more painful than working in summer.

Every morning when she was about to get up, she wanted to quit her job immediately.

There was no way; the bed was so warm that she was reluctant to leave.

For Wen Jiajia, this was more painful than getting up at 8 a.m. in college. After all, she could get up at 7:30 a.m. for an 8 a.m. class, but now she had to get up at 7 a.m. at the latest.

Recently, Wen Jiajia had developed a new routine. She skipped breakfast, getting dressed and washed up right after getting up. After washing up, she would put on a scarf and hat and go out.

Wei Dai couldn’t stand this.

It’s okay to skip lunch or dinner, but skipping breakfast was simply too much.

However, he couldn’t win the argument with Wen Jiajia. You can’t force a cow to drink water if it doesn’t want to, or force a person to eat if they don’t want to.

So he could only remind Wen Jiajia to buy some steamed buns or other food to fill her stomach when she passed by a state-owned restaurant on her way to work. Otherwise, she would eventually feel the effects of skipping breakfast.

Wen Jiajia often said that she upset her stomach by eating too fast, and now she was upsetting her stomach by skipping breakfast every now and then. It shows that people are always double-standard.

This day was the day before the winter solstice. The cold wind was howling outside the window, and the aloe vera on the windowsill was almost blown down by the strong wind.

Wen Jiajia quickly opened the window and brought in the aloe vera. This was one of the few plants she had grown successfully, and it couldn’t die in the wind.

She brought in the aloe vera, watered it, and placed it on the table.

Rubbing her hands that had turned cold from the wind, she always felt that it was going to snow soon.

It was already cold, and snow would only make it colder.

Wei Dai had not lied to her. The winter here was much colder than in his hometown, with the temperature at least 6 or 7 degrees lower.

Dark clouds unknowingly occupied the sky, the sun had disappeared, and there was no trace of sunset over the Tianshan Mountains in the west.

“Oh!” Wen Jiajia sighed. It was only four o’clock, and she still had an hour before she could get off work.

Sha Yue came in with a cup of hot water. When the door opened, cold wind rushed into the room, and the other three people in the office shivered.

Sha Yue was almost three months pregnant, but Wen Jiajia couldn’t see it at all, and couldn’t even feel it. Her belly was obviously very flat, but there was a child inside.

Wen Jiajia asked her, “Is your family member Feng Yu coming to pick you up today, or are you staying at your parents’ house?”

Sha Yue put the cup down heavily, with a helpless look on her face. “Don’t mention it, I’m going home with Feng Yu today.”

Wen Jiajia remembered that Sha Yue had been living at her mother’s house these days, and it seemed that something bad had happened there.

She didn’t ask any more questions, only said to Sha Yue, “The weather is getting colder day by day, and it gets dark so early. Your belly will continue to grow bigger day by day. Why don’t you go and apply to Director Xue? See if you can also leave work early at five o’clock.”

Sha Yue sighed. “Director Xue will let me apply for a dormitory in the factory to stay temporarily or live with my parents.”

“How would you know it would be like this if you didn’t ask?” Wen Jiajia frowned.

Sha Yue said, “Forget it. After all, we can finish it by the end of the year. After the New Year, I plan to hire someone to take over my shift.”

Her reaction during pregnancy was too severe. Some time ago, she would vomit if she smelled any strange odors.

As it happened to be winter, the doors and windows of the office were tightly closed, so there was always a strange smell in the room throughout the day.

For example, the smell of Li Haifeng’s hair wax and the smell of onions and garlic in his mouth.

Li Haifeng had to use hair wax every day, and he didn’t know where he got so much hair wax. Before December was over, the can of Panda brand hair wax in his drawer was almost empty.

That was fine, but he also had to eat garlic or green onions with almost every lunch.

The smell was strong. Sha Yue would vomit after smelling it. She had just vomited so much that she ran out of water in her cup and had to go to the water room to get more.

Qiao He actually paid more attention to his image, but recently, for some reason, he started tinkering with ink and practicing calligraphy every day.

The smell of ink was light, but for a pregnant woman, even the slightest smell could be magnified by her nose.

So when the smell of hair wax, onion, garlic, and ink blended together, Sha Yue felt the darkness of life.

Wen Jiajia moved her nose, opened a small crack in Sha Yue’s window, and handed her the hand warmer. “I just filled it with hot water. It’s still warm. Use it first. When you get off work, put it in the drawer and give it to me tomorrow.”

Sha Yue took the hand warmer without hesitation.

“Where did you buy this? I can’t afford it.” Sha Yue placed her hands tightly on the hand warmer.

The hand warmer was actually the most common plastic hand warmer. Wen Jiajia had specially made a cotton cover to wrap it so that the water in the hand warmer cooled down slowly and the hands would not be burned.

Don’t underestimate these hand warmers because they are common. They were actually very hard to buy. Not to mention the supply and marketing cooperatives, they were basically sold out in seconds. If you wanted to buy one, you had to queue up.

The department store’s internal staff would even take all the stock before they put it on sale, so Wen Jiajia having a hand warmer, a bright red one at that, was really enviable.

Where did Wen Jiajia get it?

She didn’t buy it; she made it out of rubber.

Where did the rubber come from? Waste rubber from chemical plants.

One dime could buy hundreds of old and useless discarded rubber joints and pipe seals. Wen Jiajia had gradually used these rubber products to synthesize three hand warmers, two green and one red. Recently, she was going to try to synthesize a fourth one. After all, it was cold in the winter, so of course, the more of these things, the better.

The synthetic hand warmers were no different from those sold outside; even the patterns on the surface were exactly the same. Wen Jiajia was not afraid of being discovered, so she also came up with the idea of selling hand warmers.

After all, now was the best time. The weather was cold, the raw materials were available, and they were cheap. If you don’t take what heaven gives you, you will suffer the consequences!

Wen Jiajia thought for a moment and whispered, “I bought this from my friend. If I have extra in the future, I’ll save one for you.”

Sha Yue was pleasantly surprised and quickly said, “Two or three wouldn’t be too much for me.”

“…Two or three, really?” Wen Jiajia was speechless. “Okay, if I have them, I’ll definitely save some for you.”

Sha Yue was satisfied then. She took a deep breath of the fresh air coming in through the window, touched the warm hand warmer, and felt better.

It was almost five o’clock, and Wen Jiajia packed up and prepared to leave. She put the forms she hadn’t finished today into her backpack, ready to take them home. Before leaving, she put more than 10 kilograms of coal, which she had asked Hao Qingying to buy, on the back seat of her bicycle. This was fruit charcoal, suitable for barbecue. She bought it specially from Hao Qingying’s father.

It was already dark, but fortunately, many people were leaving the city. Wen Jiajia rode slowly and wasn’t in a hurry to overtake anyone. She just followed the wheel tracks made by the people in front of her.

It took her nearly an hour to ride home. It was completely dark now, and she even needed to use a flashlight to guide the way.

Wei Dai had not been busy recently, and Wen Jiajia had a hot dinner every night when she came home.

“What should we eat today?” She ran to the kitchen to wash her hands, soaked them in hot water, and sighed comfortably. “Oh, it feels so good; my hands are finally alive.”

It was cold at work and cold after work. There was still a howling evening breeze when she got off work. The road out of the city and back home happened to be a windy place. There was a large plain in front of her, and no tall mountains blocked it, so the north wind prevailed. Even with gloves, a hat, and a scarf, she couldn’t completely block the biting cold wind.

Her head and neck were fine, as the body temperature of these two places was quite high. But her hands were terrible; they were frozen like chicken feet and almost stiff.

“Let’s eat chopped pepper fish head,” Wei Dai said.

Wen Jiajia exclaimed, “Again! This is the sixth, no, seventh time I’ve eaten chopped pepper fish head. You guys just love it so much.”

Wei Dai went into the kitchen, touched her face, and felt relieved when he felt that it was still quite hot. Then he opened the lid of the wooden barrel to reveal the chopped pepper fish head inside. After lifting the chopped pepper fish head, you could see the snow-white rice underneath. The old rice at home had finally been eaten up, and today they were steaming new rice, which Wen Jiajia could smell at once.

“It must be new rice. It smells so good,” Wen Jiajia said after sniffing.

“Yes, we just bought new rice a few days ago. The rice here tastes better than the one back home,” Wei Dai said. He was serving rice and asked Wen Jiajia, “Are you hungry today? I’ll fill a bowl for you.”

Wen Jiajia snorted, “You’re making chopped pepper fish head, so of course, I want a full bowl of rice.”

This is a famous dish that goes well with rice.

Wei Dai laughed out loud and put another spoonful of rice into the bowl, which immediately filled up the bowl.

The chopped pepper fish head is really delicious. After removing the red chopped pepper on top, the fish meat underneath is revealed. The fish meat is tender, like garlic cloves. When you eat it, you can taste the freshness of the fish meat and the spiciness of the chopped pepper.

Chopped pepper is also delicious. Wen Jiajia likes to mix it with rice. The steamed, chopped pepper is shiny and oily. When mixing it with rice, she scoops two spoonfuls of soup. The taste is even better than rice with meat.

In addition to the chopped pepper fish head, there is also a plate of vegetables. Although it is colder here than in her hometown, vegetables can still be grown here, though the variety is not as many as in her hometown. However, precisely because of the cold weather, the vegetables grown here taste better.

After dinner, Wen Jiajia hid in her room and didn’t even listen to the radio. Wei Dai was washing dishes while listening to the news. When the news was over, Wen Chun quickly switched to the storytelling channel. The two sisters really loved listening to stories. They had told the story of the Three Kingdoms several times. Wen Jiajia’s ears were callused from listening to it, but they still enjoyed it very much.

“Want to take a shower?” Wei Dai asked as he pushed the door open.

Wen Jiajia was working on a spreadsheet. She nodded and said, “Sure! Help me carry the water to the bathroom. I’ll come out and wash right away.”

After a while, Wei Dai shouted in the yard, “It’s ready, come quickly.”

Wen Jiajia tied her hair up, took off her coat, leaving only her tight-fitting autumn clothes on, and ran out holding her pajamas. Seeing her like this, Wei Dai hurriedly pulled her into the bathroom. It’s really not his fault that he always talked about her. It’s just that his wife’s behavior tested his patience.

The temperature was only two or three degrees, and the cold wind almost made the jujube trees shake to 90 degrees, but she actually ran out wearing only thin autumn clothes and long trousers.

She complains about being cold all day long. How can she not be cold?

Wei Dai was furious, “Don’t brush your teeth after taking a bath. I’ll make you two bowls of ginger soup. Drink it before brushing your teeth.”

Wen Jiajia hung her clothes on the wall and shivered as she took them off, “No, why would I drink ginger soup for no reason?” She didn’t have a cold. After drinking that stuff, her mouth would be bitter and spicy all night.

“Then why did you take off your clothes and run out for no reason? Why didn’t you come here and take them off?” Wei Dai glared at her while the flashlight in the bathroom was not turned on and it was still pitch black.

When Wen Jiajia turned on the flashlight and the light illuminated the small bathroom, he quickly looked away.

Wen Jiajia ignored him because it was convenient. Besides, it’s just a short distance, and it wouldn’t be that cold if the wind blew on her.

After she took off her clothes, Wei Dai also took off his.

The two of them were in no mood to have a bathroom party. There was no heater or bathroom heater. What was the point of having a party? They were too cold. It was so cold that they couldn’t take a shower for long. The bathroom was filled with mist, and soon, the two finished their bath.

Wen Jiajia began to wipe her body and put on her clothes tremblingly. At that moment, she just wished she had a bath towel so that she could wrap herself up and go back to her room.

“In my opinion, the bathroom should have been built next to our bedroom,” Wen Jiajia said as she got dressed. “Then we could open a door and go directly into the bedroom after taking a shower.”

Wei Dai put on his clothes before her and then wrapped his coat around her. The moment he opened the door, the mist rushed into the darkness and dissipated completely in less than three seconds.

“It’s hard to drain there.”

He had thought about it at the time, but the drain was too close to the bedroom and attracted mosquitoes, so he gave up.

Wen Jiajia thought about it and agreed.

The couple went outside. Wei Dai turned the bucket upside down at the door to dry, while Wen Jiajia hurried back to the room. 

After running back to the house, she put on Wei Dai’s old coat. The cotton coat was really warm, and it felt like a quilt when she put it on. She sighed and rubbed her hands. After her hands were warm, she turned on the desk lamp and continued working.

Wei Dai washed clothes outside. In winter, he only changed his underwear, and since he changed clothes every day, it wasn’t difficult to wash them. The washed clothes were hung in the yard, and then the cold clothes from the day before were brought into the house and placed on the brazier to dry.