Chapter 29

Qiao Changhai pulled open his sleeves and glared at Qiao Baozhu: “Nonsense, how can you let the bride’s parents stay in the bridal chamber?”

“Oh, what kind of new house is this if Shen Xiao doesn’t come back?”

Qiao Baozhu pointed at the yellow mud wall, pouted and looked disdainful: “Look, the newspapers on the wall are all old. Can you stay and help me paste the wall?”

Qiao Baozhu said that the wallpaper in the house was too old and she wanted to re-paste the walls.

This reason made Qiao Changhai unable to refuse.

He walked back and forth in the house several times, thought for a long time, and then looked at Qiao Baozhu.

“I’m going to the scrapyard to pick up some recycled newspapers. Tomorrow morning, ask your mother to get some glue, and the three of us will paste the wall.”

Qiao Baozhu shook her head and said, “Dad, I don’t want to use newspapers to cover the walls. Look at my house, it’s smaller than other houses, and it won’t look bright inside if I use newspapers to cover the walls.”

“Look, this window only has one layer of glass. When winter comes, paper on the window won’t keep you warm at all. You have to use plastic sheeting and nail it up inside and outside. But then, there will be no light in the room.”

Qiao Baozhu pointed at the roof pitifully and said, “Dad, you haven’t noticed yet. There’s no electricity in such a large family compound!”

Qiao Changhai looked up at the ceiling, but didn’t see any light bulbs nor did he find any electrical wires in the house.

“There are no electric wires in the family compound?”

At that time, the electricity used by the Corps was still generated by diesel engines. The farm had electric wires, but the educated youth dormitories did not have them. Ordinary people’s homes, let alone them.

Qiao Changhai has been in the city for ten years. Although he lives in a shack, he has long had access to electric light bulbs and running water.

Without electricity, life is really inconvenient.

“I didn’t expect that the family compound had no electricity. I went to buy a few kilograms of kerosene while the service center was still open.”

“Dad, I’ll go with you.”

Qiao Baozhu took the wallet and moved closer to Qiao Changhai.

“I want to buy some whitewash and paint the walls of the house tomorrow. Isn’t the village primary school also painted with a layer of white walls? With white walls in the house, the light seems to be much brighter.”

Qiao Changhai thought for a few seconds, then nodded: “Okay, let’s go buy some lime.”

When they were at the service center, Qiao Baozhu refused to let Qiao Changhai spend money no matter what.

Qiao Changhai did not refuse. The father and daughter carried 30 kilograms of lime and bought a ten-kilogram kerosene lamp.

The total cost was less than ten yuan, and Qiao Baozhu secretly sighed in her heart that prices in this era are really cheap.

When the father and daughter returned home, they started to do their own things.

Qiao Changhai went to sift the lime, then put it in a bucket with water. After soaking it overnight, he could paint the wall the next day.

Qiao Baozhu went into the house and put the dowry away, stuffing the bedding into the kangqin, the cloth into the cabinet, and some daily necessities, which she sorted out one by one.

“Hey, isn’t this the malted milk I bought for you? Why did you bring it all over?”

Qiao Baozhu took out the malted milk and looked at her adoptive mother helplessly. Bao Huihua smiled silently and lowered her head to continue mending things.

My adoptive parents have been frugal all their lives, and getting them to eat some nutritious food is harder than climbing Mount Everest.

“Mom, what are you sewing?”

Qiao Baozhu saw Bao Huihua cut a piece of work cloth and was sewing something with needle and thread.

When I walked over, I found that she was sewing the edge of the kang mat.

It was obvious that this new kang mat was bought by Shen Xiao for his wedding.

Bao Huihua pointed at the edge of the kang mat, and then at Qiao Baozhu’s pants. She meant that the edges of the new kang mat were relatively hard and would easily scratch the pants.

She used the cheapest and most wear-resistant work cloth to sew a edge on the kang mat so that it would not rub her pants.

Qiao Baozhu looked at the string in her adoptive mother’s hand, jumping up and down like a flower, her movements were graceful and beautiful.

She glanced at the edge of the kang mat and sighed secretly.

This kang mat woven with reeds is wear-resistant and cool, but it is too hard. When you wake up, your body is covered with marks from the mat, and the mat also gets stuck in your hair.

Not knowing when floor coverings came out, Qiao Baozhu guessed that at that time, floor coverings were not yet popular for laying kangs. Even if Shen Xiao didn’t buy it, her spoiled parent would buy it.

It is said that it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury to frugality. Qiao Baozhu has lived a good life that ordinary people have never enjoyed for decades, and she really can’t adapt to the loess house and hard kang mat in front of her.

“It’s a pity that cotton is too expensive. It would be great if I could use scraps of cloth and cotton to sew a quilt.”

In her previous life, she had never seen such a thing as a kang quilt in the rural areas of the Great Northern Wilderness. It was not until she traveled to the northwest that she saw a soft kang quilt on the kang in a cave with very regional characteristics.

After she was reborn, she couldn’t sleep well because she tossed and turned on the kang. She thought that when she had money in her pocket, she must make a big kang quilt weighing ten kilograms.

However, Qiao Baozhu couldn’t sit up at this time, and she hadn’t made cotton-padded clothes and trousers for her adoptive parents to wear during the winter. She had to wait until she thought of a way to make money before she could make a soft and thick quilt.

Early the next morning, after finishing breakfast, the three of them prepared to scrape white lime on the wall.

“Girl, you can’t do this job.”

Qiao Changhai found it funny to see Qiao Baozhu eager to try: “You should go back to the farm to go through the procedures for your marriage leave.”

“I’ll do this job slowly by myself.”

Qiao Baozhu thought about it and realized that she had never done the job of scraping whitewash. Plastering the wall with a trowel looked simple, but it was not that easy to do.

Rather than not being able to help and causing more trouble, it would be better to go out and do something else. Qiao Baozhu cleaned up the dishes neatly and left the family compound with a small cloth bag.

Go out from the family compound gate and cross the road to the farm hospital. Go around the hospital and walk for 15 minutes to the farm office.

The procedure is not complicated. First, you need to go to the field office to get the application form, then go to the cafeteria to ask the leader to sign, and finally go to the field office to stamp it.

After receiving the marriage leave note, Qiao Baozhu went straight to the educated youth dormitory to pack her luggage.

Besides, there was also a joyous atmosphere among Qiao Xifeng and Zhao Haiyang.

After Zhao Haiyang got up in the morning, he went outside and picked up half a bundle of firewood without even having time to wash his face.

Qiao Xifeng lay in the bed, her cheeks flushed, her eyes tender, and she looked relaxed from head to toe.

After living two lifetimes, she finally tasted what it was like to be a woman.

“Ocean, why don’t you get some more sleep?”

When Qiao Xifeng opened her mouth, her lazy voice was a little hoarse.

Zhao Haiyang was squatting on the ground. When he heard Qiao Xifeng’s words, he raised his head with a gentle look on his face.

“Wife, our kang is completely cold. Wrap yourself tightly in the quilt to prevent the cold wind from getting in. Wait until I heat up the kang, then you can get up.”

“You don’t have to go to work today, and you don’t have to go home. If you don’t feel well and don’t want to get up, just stay on the kang and rest. When I finish heating the kang, I’ll cook you a bowl of noodles and an egg.”

Qiao Xifeng looked at Zhao Haiyang, who was busy inside and outside the house, and couldn’t help smiling.

She really made the right choice in picking this husband.

She knew that Zhao Haiyang was a man who loved his wife to the core.

On the second day after his wedding, he, a grown man, got up to heat the kang for his wife and cook for her.

If this were Shen Xiao, hum…

When she thought of Shen Xiao, Qiao Xifeng was filled with resentment. She and Shen Xiao had been married for a lifetime, but that scumbag didn’t even touch her.

Qiao Xifeng still remembers the look in Shen Xiao’s eyes when she suppressed her shyness and stripped naked in front of him.

It’s like looking at a toad.

In this life, let Qiao Baozhu be a toad, because she will be spoiled by Zhao Haiyang like a princess.

Qiao Xifeng thought about Shen Xiao’s previous life. He only finished his mission and returned home on the morning of the third day after his wedding.

As soon as he returned, he was kidnapped by the bitch Bai Hongmei.

Thinking of the humiliation she suffered in her previous life, Qiao Xifeng lay on the pillow and acted coquettishly towards Zhao Haiyang.

“When I think of my sister spending her wedding night alone in an empty room, I feel uncomfortable.”

“Ocean, after dinner, I want to go see her.”