Diary of the Army in the 1970s
Diary of the Army in the 1970s Chapter 76.1

Chapter 76: Obtaining a Yard

The next day.

Wen Jiajia took the money and went to work. After lunch, Sister Lu’s husband came to see her. The two of them went to the Housing Authority to transfer the house. Looking at the real estate deed in her hand, she was very happy.

Hey, the total area is 128 square meters. She originally thought it was only 108 square meters. She had planned to build an 88-square-meter room and have 20 square meters left for the yard.

Who would have thought that the house behind it was also his? It was only at this time that Sister Lu’s husband remembered this.

Wen Jiajia found a secluded place, took out the money, and handed it to him. “Please count it. I have inquired that the market price of this uninhabitable house is about 800. You said yesterday that it is 600, so after a 30% discount, it is 420. Because you still have some bricks and wooden beams in there, but they have been stripped away and are of no use. Cleaning it up is also a costly and troublesome job, so how about I give you 400 as a round number?”

800 is just the market price, but it is very difficult to buy a house there for 800. Because there are many families living together, you have to coordinate with several families, which is very troublesome.

Besides, the sudden extra 20 square meters was enough to make Wen Jiajia very happy.

Sister Lu’s husband was so moved at this moment. He sold the house with the mentality of giving it away for free, but he didn’t expect to get 400 yuan in return.

For him, 400 yuan is a huge sum of money.

Oh no, to be precise, it is a huge sum of money for everyone.

“Okay, okay!” He nodded, and after counting the items, he took out the contract that had been written long ago, wrote the price on it first, and then the two of them signed separately.

The contract was in two copies, one for each person, so that even if a dispute arose, Wen Jiajia would be able to produce the contract.

Before leaving, Wen Jiajia asked, “I heard from Sister Lu that you have another yard like this?”

“Yes! Mine is similar to my great uncle’s, and even bigger.” It was also in an alley, but he didn’t like living there, so he lent it to his uncle’s family.

Wen Jiajia sincerely suggested, “I think you should not sell that house.”

He laughed, carefully put the money into the pocket inside his clothes, and said, “No! Definitely not. That’s my family’s ancestral home. My father will beat me if I sell it.”

Beat the hell up! His father wanted to live in a clean and bright building without stagnant water or mud, otherwise, he would not agree to lend the house to his uncle’s family.

This time, when he heard that someone had taken over the bungalow, he wished that Wen Jiajia could buy the other yard as well.

He just thought that he had to prepare a way out for himself. When his son grew up and got married, if he couldn’t get along with his son’s family, he could live in the yard.

Wen Jiajia said, “That’s great.” It will only get better in the future.

Wen Jiajia was a little excited that day. With a deed for a piece of land in her pocket, she kept taking it out and checking it over and over again.

How wonderful.

In the evening, when she got home, Wei Dai hadn’t come back yet. Wen Jiajia was a little disappointed. She wanted to show him the land deed as soon as possible.

The two children were not in the living room either. When Wen Jiajia heard noise in the room, she realized that one was doing homework and the other was listening to the radio.

After a period of encouragement from Wen Jiajia, Wen Chun began to develop the habit of reading and writing every day.

Now, Wen Chun could write numbers up to 100, do addition and subtraction within 100, and even read some common words.

Though she wasn’t very good at writing yet, she could recognize “one, two, three” and some simple and important words like her name.

This led to a strong interest in picture books with words. In the past, she only looked at the pictures and often couldn’t understand them at all. Now she could simply read the stories and sometimes tell them to Wen Xuan.

She took out all the picture books at home from the box and looked through them from new to old.

“What are you doing?” Wen Jiajia asked Wen Chun.

Wen Chun shook her head. “I’m writing a story.”

“…Wow, writing a story? What story?” Wen Jiajia couldn’t help laughing out loud.

Wen Chun turned to look at her and said seriously, “Aunt, don’t laugh. I’m writing Uncle Xie’s story! He’s like Little Soldier Zhang Ga. Zhang Ga has someone else’s story, but he doesn’t. I have to write it for him.”

Wen Jiajia understood that Xie Yang was trying to fool the kid again. His life story had to be kept secret, so there was no way he could tell a kid like Wen Chun.

“Okay, then you write well. After you finish, your aunt will also read your masterpiece carefully.” After saying that, Wen Jiajia went to cook.

Wen Chun didn’t think her aunt was teasing her at all. She just agreed and decided to have everyone in the army read her masterpiece!

There was no flour left at home, so Wen Jiajia couldn’t make instant pancakes. She could only cook steamed rice.

The Chinese cabbages planted in the yard a few days ago were just ready to be eaten. They grew tender and dense, so she picked a few and stir-fried a plate of juicy cabbages.

Then, she used the lard residue to stew the tofu.

She had ground the tofu the previous evening and made two slabs of it. She gave one slab away that morning, so there was still quite a bit left at home.

Homemade tofu has a strong bean flavor and is just the right amount of softness and hardness. After stewing, small holes of varying sizes appear on the tofu, filled with soup, making it really tasty.

Finally, she steamed a bowl of egg custard, putting it in the rice cooker to steam along with the rice. When the rice was ready, the egg custard would be too.

She took out the egg custard, opened the oil tank lid, used chopsticks to pick up a little white lard boiled two days ago, and dissolved it in the egg custard. Then she poured half a spoonful of soy sauce, so the tender yellow egg custard was stained with soy sauce color and sprinkled with a little oil, making it very appetizing.

Wei Dai came back at the right time. Wen Jiajia had just put the food on the table and laid out the dishes when he got home.

Seeing his wife humming a tune with the corners of her mouth slightly raised, he knew that there was good news.

Wei Dai took off his coat and hung it on the hanger. “Did the house transfer go through?”

Wen Jiajia put her hands on her hips. “Of course.”

Wei Dai smiled. “I’m so happy. It’s a bungalow, isn’t it?”

Wen Jiajia rolled her eyes. “You don’t know what’s good. A bungalow is better. I won’t argue with you now. You’ll know later.”

Wei Dai said, “A bungalow like ours with a mountain behind and water in front is good, but the bungalows in the alleys are average. You have to be mentally prepared. And the bungalows in the alleys are not like those on Qingshui Lane. Most of them are mixed and only have public toilets.”

Wen Jiajia reassured him, “Don’t worry, I don’t plan to live there now.” She just bought a piece of land. Who would be willing to live there now?

“Oh, stop talking, wash your hands, and eat!” Wen Jiajia urged him, pushing him to the kitchen to wash his hands.

Wei Dai had gone on a mission a while ago and had become darker and thinner. Wen Jiajia now had to watch him eat every day.

The aroma of the pork lard stewed with tofu filled the house. A large bowl of it was eaten up by the family of four.

After dinner, Wen Jiajia began to think about her courtyard. She was still excited and wanted to plan for it even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to live there for the next few years.

She painted and drew, adding ponds and rockery, but in the end, it was too complicated and she wanted too much, so she couldn’t fit it all in 128 square meters.

Wei Dai picked up the blueprint and looked at it for a few seconds. “If we build it this way, there will be no place to stand.”

Wen Jiajia sighed. “If only there were 228, oh no, 328 square meters, then it would be great. Then I’m sure all the paintings I’ve drawn would fit in there.”

Wei Dai said, “When I have 328, I’ll think about 528. I might as well buy a garden.”

Don’t say it, Wen Jiajia had really thought about it.

But there was no need to think about those famous gardens. Perhaps it would be more reliable to buy a suitable piece of land to build a garden.

As a time traveler, she definitely dreamed of buying a courtyard house. But after living here for a long time, she still liked the gentle and elegant Jiangnan, and forgot about the extremely expensive courtyard houses for the time being.

That night, the sun had shone brightly during the day, so before going out, Wen Jiajia had moved the thick quilt to the yard to dry in the sun, asking Sister Bao to bring it back to the house before evening.

The quilt, which had been exposed to the sun all day, became extremely soft. Wen Jiajia rolled around on the bed several times before she could rest.

Wen Jiajia suddenly said, “I plan to go to Sha Yue’s house to visit this weekend. Her child is already a few months old. I heard he’s very cute. I have to go and see him.”

Wei Dai replied, “About five months old.”

Wen Jiajia sighed, “That’s right! It’s good now. There are nurseries in the workplace. After five months, babies can be sent to nurseries. Sha Yue has been much more relaxed recently.”

Even after becoming a mother, she always missed her son. Every time she had lunch with her, she would wonder whether her son had eaten or had defecated.

Wei Dai climbed onto the bed and placed her cold feet on his abdomen to warm them. With a smile, she asked, “Do you want to bring a gift?”

“Of course. I’ve prepared a bottle,” Wen Jiajia replied. “Actually, I’ve prepared two. I’ll send one home later.”

Earlier in the month, I corresponded with Wei Xiaomei, who mentioned that my sister-in-law’s condition wasn’t very good and sometimes she had to rely on acupuncture to protect the fetus.

“My older brother and his wife insist on having the baby,” Wen Jiajia said softly after a pause. “If I were in this situation, you shouldn’t insist on keeping it.”

After another pause, she added, “Even if I insisted, you should try to persuade me more.”

She had never been pregnant or a mother, so she couldn’t fully understand that feeling. Maybe a mother would naturally protect the baby in her womb, but right now, Wen Jiajia only thought of herself first.

Wei Dai covered her mouth and said, “Nonsense. We’re both in such good health, how could the baby not be?”

“I’m just considering what if…”

“It’s just a possibility. If that were the case, we wouldn’t have decided to have it. We already have Chun’er and Xuanxuan,” Wei Dai said as he hugged her tightly.

Wen Jiajia laughed and looked at him with sparkling eyes. “Why don’t we try next year?”

Wei Dai was puzzled. “Can we still try this? If it doesn’t work, should we just return it?”

Then he realized what was happening and asked in disbelief, “Next year?”

Wen Jiajia patted him lightly. “What’s wrong with next year? Is it a bad year?”

Wei Dai explained, “No, I just thought you might want to wait a few years before making this plan.”

Wen Jiajia replied, “No. So you’d better start taking care of your health from the beginning of next spring. You’ll be fully responsible if anything happens.”

“Sure! Anything is fine.”

Wei Dai couldn’t help but wonder what their child would look like.

He worried that the child might be ugly. Although neither he nor his wife was unattractive, heredity could be unpredictable. What if the child inherited traits from his father… that would be very sad.

His father had inherited his great-grandfather’s big nose and small eyes. Wei Dai felt that his mother had made a great contribution to improving his appearance. Without her, his family would have big noses and small eyes.

He was also concerned that his child might not be smart. He hadn’t been very talented academically when he was younger. Wei Dai hoped the child would inherit his mother’s intelligence.

Vyl[Translator]

~Thank you soo much for the support! Love yaa~ ⋆.❤︎

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