When I came back, I had eaten so much in the store that Lin Wan wasnāt hungry at all. She added some coal to the stove, sat in the room knitting a sweater, and listened to the radio.
Lin Wan is pregnant now, she gets sleepy, and canāt stay up as late as she used to.
She went to bed at around eight or nine oāclock.
The next day, Lin Wan simply made two poached eggs.
She boiled a pot of hot water and washed the sheets and quilt covers that were changed yesterday.
They were hung out in the yard, and in no time at all, they had frozen into icy sheets. Oh, I donāt know when theyāll be dry.
Lin Wan was worrying about drying the clothes when she heard a knock on the door outside.
Lin Wan peeked through the crack of the door and saw it was Shi Lan. She quickly opened the door for her.
"Why are you here?" Lin Wan stepped aside to let her in and quickly closed the door.
"Thereās nothing much to do at home, so I came over to chat with you. Why do you lock the door during the day?"
"Iām afraid of Wang Guihua and her daughter, so I locked the door."
"I understand, Iāve come to know that mother and daughter quite well recently. Itās just like that."
Lin Wan led her to the room and up on the heated bed. "Youāve made the bed really warm."
"Iām afraid of the cold, so I hardly want to go out in winter."
"Me too, but I donāt know how to manage the heat bed. Itās either not hot enough or too hot, haha."
"Try a few more times, and youāll gain experience," Lin Wan said as she poured Shi Lan a mug of hot water with a few red dates in it.
Shi Lan laughed out loud, "The two of us really have quite the taste, quite in sync."
Lin Wan laughed along with her.
When Shi Lan came, she was holding two frozen pears. "I bought them in the city yesterday for you to try."
"Iāve been here for over two years, and I still canāt get used to these frozen pears. You like them?" Lin Wan said, but she still picked one up and took a bite.
"I hadnāt tried them before, bought some yesterday, and tried one at home last night. Itās alright, quite sweet."
There are few fruits in the winter, and although Lin Wan doesnāt like them, she couldnāt let them go to waste. She finished it too.
Shi Lan was holding the uppers of cotton shoes in her hands, lined with a layer of rabbit fur inside.
Seeing her making cotton shoes, Lin Wan wanted to learn, "Shi Lan, can you teach me how to make cotton shoes? I want to make some for Han Yi."
"Sure, do you have any scrap fabric or old clothes at home?"
"I have. Why do you need that?"
"To make insoles!"
Lin Wan didnāt understand, but whatever Shi Lan asked for, she fetched. Since they hadnāt made porridge in the morning, Shi Lan brought over the leftover porridge from their house in the morning to teach her how to make insoles.
Itās actually using scraps of cloth, boiled into paste with cornmeal and flour, then layered and dried.
The two of them worked in the room for half an hour and finished.
"Just leave them in the room, or theyāll freeze outside."
"Oh, alright."
After finishing all this, Lin Wan saw it was only a little after ten.
The two saw that it was still early, so they sat on the heated bed chatting. Lin Wan knitted her scarf while Shi Lan worked on her shoes.
They talked a lot about things from their hometown.
Their families live by the mountains, with lots of mountain products. After the reform, their family started a dry goods store in the county.
The family is now quite well off.
She and Ning Jiang were matched by their families, and at first, she didnāt agree. But later, when Ning Jiang returned home for a visit, they met by chance. Slowly, they started to like each other and got married.
Actually, theyāve been married for two years, but Ning Jiang has been over here, hardly ever able to go home twice a year.
Thatās why her family let her come and join the military family here.
"Actually, Iāve been married for over a year too. Just after the new year, he went on a mission for more than half a year. He only just got back less than two months ago."
"Thatās how it is for us military wives."
"Yeah."
"Alright, enough about this. How about you stay and have lunch with me today? Letās have hotpot for lunch. I specially brought hotpot base this time."
"Great!"
After speaking, Lin Wan went to the kitchen with Shi Lan to get busy.
They didnāt make too much since there was still some dried venison from last time. With a few more dishes, they were quite happy to eat. After finishing their meal, the two of them lay on Lin Wanās kang and rested for a while. Shi Lan was thinking of going back to have a look.
Then Sister-in-law Jiang and Sister-in-law Zhang came over and asked if they wanted to go mushroom picking in the mountain.
Both agreed immediately.
Everyone took a basket from home and dressed warmly before heading out. There was quite a crowd going up the mountain this time, Lin Wan roughly counted, there were about twenty or thirty people.
It had snowed recently and the mountain paths were still quite slippery, so Sister-in-law Jiang and Sister-in-law Zhang were worried sheād slip accidentally. They kept close to her on both sides, walking carefully.
Lin Wan had some experience from her last visit, and Shi Lan, who often walked in the mountains, was even more familiar with the mountain environment.
Although the four of them were lagging behind, they still picked quite a few mushrooms and wood ear fungi.
Last time, Han Yi and I went into the mountain and picked mushrooms and wood ear fungi; thereās still plenty left. Enough for Han Yi and me to eat throughout the winter.
Thereās no harm in stocking up.
Ning Jiang has taken Shi Lan into the mountain once or twice; she doesnāt follow the large crowd, instead leading the three of them cleverly to find nearly half a basket. Seeing as theyāve gathered enough, none of them were greedy to go further up. They sat at the entrance of the path waiting for the others to come down the mountain.
But itās too cold. Sitting there is worse than standing up to get some exercise.
Luckily, the people above returned in no time.
At night, Lin Wan was left alone. For lunch, she and Shi Lan added some mushrooms and greens to the leftover pot base, and simply ate some more. After dinner, Lin Wan knocked on the back wall of Shi Lanās house, then took a flashlight and a bowl over to her place.
Itās her first time at Shi Lanās house; it was quite similar to theirs, with floral curtains, and the room was decorated with a sense of style. There were two glass bottles, found from who-knows-where, containing a few dried flowers.
"Your house is really beautiful."
"Likewise," Shi Lan chuckled.
"Is your husband not home?"
"He said theyāre on a drill. Your Captain Han is there too, has been gone for several days; no idea when heāll be back." Lin Wan frowned upon hearing this, she thought Han Yi would be back in two or three days. With this news, she might not get to see Han Yi this time.
"If you canāt sleep at night, come sit at our place for a while and chat with me," Shi Lan smiled and pulled her towards the kang.
"I canāt, thereās a fire burning at my place. Didnāt you say earlier you have some yeast? I came to borrow a bit."
"I do, wait here, Iāll grab some for you," Shi Lan said, going to the kitchen to scoop some yeast from the dough bowl into her bowl.
"Thanks, Iāll come play at your place tomorrow."
"Alright, take it slow on your way back."
On her way back from Shi Lanās house, Lin Wan passed by Wang Guihuaās house, hoping to walk by quickly. Unfortunately, she was a step too late and Miao Miao caught sight of her.
"Aunt Lin, why didnāt you come out to open the door for us yesterday when we called?"
"Yesterday? I wasnāt aware," Lin Wan gave the child an innocent look. Though she didnāt like her, she didnāt want to be too harsh as the child is innocent. "Oh, you didnāt hear? What about now? Can I come to your house?"
"You want to go to Auntieās house... But Auntieās sick, Iām afraid itāll be contagious. Maybe wait until Auntieās better in a few days?" Lin Wan said, fake-coughing a few times.
"Iām not scared..."
"Miao Miao, itās dark outside, come back to sleep,"
Just as Miao Miao was about to continue, Wang Guihua called her back from inside the house,
"Lin, I heard you came over yesterday; we wanted to knock and say hello but didnāt realize you were ill. Hurry and get inside, the nightās chill is severe," Wang Guihua said, quickly pulling Miao Miao away, worried she might catch something. Illness is expensive these days; and although families arenāt charged for medical treatment, being sick is uncomfortable.
Their daughter, whenever she got sick, would be very difficult for about a week and, during her illness, only want to eat delicious food. If she wasnāt given what she wanted, sheād cry endlessly, quite a handful to deal with.
Seeing Wang Guihua like this, Lin Wan felt secretly pleased; sheād finally found a way to keep some distance from this mother-daughter pair.
Lin Wan replied, feigned a hoarse throat and coughed twice, then swiftly returned home.
Back in the kitchen, Lin Wan immediately kneaded a whole bowl of dough. She placed the dough bowl in the freshly heated pot.
With nothing else to do, Lin Wan listened to the radio while continuing to knit a scarf. She didnāt find it dull at all.
The chilly morning made Lin Wan reluctant to get up, but the discomfort in her stomach forced her to rise unwillingly.
Before going out to the toilet, Lin Wan took out the dough from last night to check it; it hadnāt risen yet.
She had to set it aside, added water to the pot, and put in some rice to start making porridge. Using coal for the fire assured Lin Wan her peace of mind. She wandered outside for a bit, and upon returning, was shivering from the cold.
Living in a single-story house has this downside ā going to the toilet is freezing.
Who knows when they could live in a house with heating?
Had a bowl of porridge and stir-fried some shredded potatoes.
Sheās a Southerner, actually doesnāt need to steam buns, but after living with Grandma for a year, she got used to it. Plus, after she moved last year, Mom started buying buns every morning.