Struggle Life in the 1970s

She said this with good intentions. After having been in contact with Mu Jiajun and Sister Deng for such a long time, she considered the three of them to be friends.

What's more, these two people taught her a lot in study, and they can be said to be both teachers and friends.

If tonight, after her friend taught her, she had to clean up the mess in the house late at night, she would feel guilty just thinking about it.

Sister Deng had long been fed up with being crowded with luggage. She felt constrained even when she wanted to continue knitting sweaters, but she was too embarrassed to speak up.

After all, all her interactions with Mu Jiajun came from Chu Ye. Normally, the two were not particularly close, and she didn't want to speak rashly.

What's more, she vaguely sensed that Mu Jiajun's attitude towards Chu Ye was unusual.

Mu Jiajun's temper is indeed first-class. No matter whether he is facing the educated youth or the people in the village, he always has a bright smile on his face.

Not to mention her appearance, you can tell at first glance that she has the best looking genes in the family.

However, it can also be seen from the interactions that Mu Jiajun's politeness towards others comes from his good family education, and his every move is full of courtesy and cultivation.

It was just that when he was in front of Chu Ye, he would occasionally reveal something other than his personality, something she had never seen anywhere else.

Because of this, she did not intend to take the initiative to help Mu Jiajun.

But it was different when Chu Ye spoke.

Mu Jiajun helped her a lot with her studies, so it was reasonable for her to repay him with her labor.

When Chu Ye asked this question, Mu Jiajun was stunned for a moment. After a while, he refused, "No, I can do it myself."

It just takes a little more time. His hands and feet are fine, so there's no need to trouble anyone else.

Hearing this, Chu Ye didn't say anything. She tiptoed to the desk, put the cloth bag on it, and then noticed that many books were missing from the desk.

She comforted Sister Deng first, "Sister, I will help him pack up first, and come to study later."

After that, she looked at Mu Jiajun again and said seriously, "I don't have much to give you in return. Now there is work I can do. Let's clean it up together. This way it will be faster and free up space for study."

Mu Jiajun looked at Chu Ye, then looked at the pile in the room. The two confronted each other for a moment. Seeing that Chu Ye was determined to help him clean up, Mu Jiajun finally gave in.

"Okay then, but let me take a look at my things first, and I'll give you the ones that are suitable for you to organize, how about that?" Mu Jiajun made his final concession.

Chu Ye was stunned for a moment, unable to figure out the meaning of this sentence. Then she saw Mu Jiajun moving quickly among the packages, opening them one by one and taking a look. After confirming what was inside, he put a pile next to the bed and another pile next to the desk.

Then she saw fabric sticking out from the package, soft and shiny, the same material as his bedding she had seen before, and then she looked at another pile, which should be clothes or something.

Then she suddenly understood.

Mu Jiajun should have left his more personal belongings with him and packed them himself.

As for her side, Chu Ye looked down and also saw some books and some snacks through the gaps in the package.

When Mu Jiajun had almost divided the items, the two of them started to work. Sister Deng watched from the side, but she felt it was inappropriate, so she simply put down the knitting needles in her hand and joined Chu Ye's team.

While working, Chu Ye accidentally saw that Mu Jiajun was very skilled in making the bed sheets. After he made the mattress, he took out a light blue sheet from his luggage. This was a fabric she had never seen before, and it looked very slippery.

Then I saw him shake the bed sheet open, and with a shake of his arms, the bed sheet floated in the air like a fairy's skirt. Then his hands sank, and the bed sheet was steadily spread on the mattress.

Then he folded the hanging edges and tucked them under the mattress, then ran his hands over the fabric to fit it.

This set of movements was so smooth and flowing that Chu Ye was stunned.

She originally thought that this young master would not do these housework. After all, when Mu Jiajun revealed his family background, he said that they had several servants who took care of the family's daily life.

She found it hard to believe that a family like this would let the young master make his own bed?

Chu Ye's eyes were straightforward, and they all said, "How can you be so skilled at housework?" Mu Jiajun found it funny for a moment, and didn't dare to think about what kind of image he had in her mind. He asked back, "You don't think I'm an idiot in life, do you?"

Chu Ye neither nodded nor shook her head, but there were several words clearly visible in her eyes: It's too weird.

Mu Jiajun laughed angrily, "Even if I don't do these things at home, I have seen how the servants do it."

"Besides, after I came here, I did everything by myself. The more I did, the more skilled I became."

Sister Deng nodded in agreement and added, "Indeed. He is so skilled because he loves cleanliness. He changes his bed sheets and quilt covers once a week. If you go to the well on Sunday morning, you can see him washing these things."

Chu Ye's eyes were full of shock, while Mu Jiajun looked a little embarrassed as his past was exposed, but he was also troubled by the fact that he was telling the truth, so he chose not to respond and turned around to continue making the bed. Chu Ye could not imagine the scene of such a mixed-race young master sitting by the well washing the sheets.

However, seeing that Mu Jiajun didn't want to talk about this, she didn't ask any further.

The three of them worked much faster, and soon Mu Jiajun had tidied everything up. Chu Ye and Sister Deng also put his books back in place, but when Chu Ye opened another package, he found several brown-leather notebooks inside.

Chu Ye did not move, fearing that there might be something private inside, but Mu Jiajun over there saw it.

His eyes lit up with joy, and he walked over in two or three steps and took out the notebook.

There were three books in total, all as thick as a finger. He picked them up and flipped through them one by one. After confirming that they were correct, he handed them to Chu Ye, "These are my notes from junior high school. There are also many types of questions recorded in them. Take them home and flip through them to see if they can help you with your studies."

Chu Ye was stunned and blinked. She knew that Mu Jiajun had already graduated from high school, so it was impossible for his family to send him junior high school things for no reason.

"How did you..."

"Well, I looked at your exercise book before and found that some of the questions on it were not well-designed. My family happened to want to send me something, so I wrote to them and asked them to find my school notes and bring them to me." Mu Jiajun said it easily. In his opinion, this was just a matter of convenience.

Anyway, his laptop is gathering dust at home, so he might as well take it out and put it to some use.

He is not a pushover. In his opinion, the word "pushy" actually means casual.

Putting aside the fact that Chu Ye was his savior, he was honest and saw in her a desire for knowledge and going to school.

When he was in high school, he was an excellent student. During breaks, classmates would often come to ask him questions, and many of them understood everything. They were much smarter than Chu Ye.

This is a fact that one has to admit. Even though Chu Ye has been an excellent student since she was a child, and even ranked first in her grade in junior high school, she still went to a school in the village and town.

There is still a gap in education between Chu Ye and higher-level schools. Chu Ye is smart, but in the campus where he goes to school, people like Chu Ye are just average.

But it was only Chu Ye who made Mu Jiajun notice something different about her, that is, she tried her best in studying, as if she was willing to burn herself out to prepare for the exams.

He could clearly sense Chu Ye's progress. Take English for example. At the beginning he still needed him to learn some phonetic symbols. Even when asked questions the next day, Chu Ye often couldn't answer them.

But now, she can already have some simple conversations.

Although his speech still has an accent, it is much better than before.

He narrowed his eyes and found Chu Ye was in a daze.

After Chu Ye realized what was happening, he immediately took it with both hands and bowed deeply, "Thank you!"

Sister Deng sat on the bench, leaning her head to watch the two people's actions. She could feel the ups and downs in Chu Ye's heart when he received the notebook, and after a moment she felt sad.

After a month of contact, she knew that Chu Ye was a person who was afraid to give. Perhaps it was because she had not been loved much at home. She carefully controlled her emotions and only showed a little relief when she felt that she had made progress in her studies.

She thought of herself. When she was in school, whenever her grades improved a little, she would run home happily to ask her parents to reward her.

Seeing that the two were silent, she took the initiative to find a topic, "Hey, Mu Jiajun, what's in this bag?"

She pointed to the last package on the ground. The package was not small and was tightly packed, so it was difficult to see clearly.

Sister Deng's words broke the atmosphere between the two. Mu Jiajun turned his head, took a look, and walked over and said, "The rest should be the food sent by my family."

He opened the package, and immediately the contents poured out like a flood: iron boxes of canned meat, malted milk, toffee, dried meat, and dried fruit, plenty of each.

Chu Ye and Sister Deng were stunned for a moment. How rich must this family be and how much they dote on their youngest son to send all kinds of food time and time again, with new variations every time. I'm afraid that as soon as the department store has any new food, they buy it all up.

The two were once again shocked by the financial resources of Mu Jiajun's family.

Mu Jiajun was used to it. His family always prepared some simple meals. Sometimes when people got hungry before mealtime, they would just use these to fill their stomachs.

Besides, his grandfather is old, and his parents are worried about his health, so they often buy some supplements for him.

However, in the past, his family would not send him so much food at once. Firstly, they were afraid that he would get tired of it, and secondly, they were afraid that it would not taste good after being left for a long time. They would rather have someone send him so many food several times.

This time, he wrote a letter to his family specifically, briefly telling them about falling into the water, and emphasizing that they should buy more so that he could share the money with his saviors.

At this moment, he has started to divide the food into three equal portions, one portion for each of the three people.

(End of this chapter)