The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

The box contained several 100-yuan bills, some tickets, two bankbooks, and two personal seals.

Bao Ya took out the passbook and opened it to take a look. The first one was Jiang Yuan's, with 700 yuan on it. The second one, judging from the name, should be Jiang Yuan's uncle's, with 1200 yuan left.

At this time, deposits were not registered in real names; anyone with a name stamp could withdraw the money. Therefore, even though Uncle Jiang Yuan was no longer alive, the passbook was not closed.

"Uncle, this was originally over two thousand. We spent over a thousand on wedding gifts and another two hundred on house repairs. This is what we have left. The other one is what I've saved from working these past few years. From now on, you'll be in charge of the family's money, so you can keep all of this."

Hearing this, Bao Ya did not object. She flipped through the rest of the list and found some tickets, including five large ten-yuan bills.

For the sake of the money, Bao Ya didn't make a scene for the time being. They were already married, and she thought she would wait and see what happened that night. If things didn't go well, she would run away as soon as possible.

After counting everything, Bao Ya put her money, gold bars, and the IOU into the box. Jiang Yuan was a little surprised when he saw the two gold bars she took out. Was this part of her dowry from her family?

Thinking about it, he picked up the gold bar and looked at it; it was Old Jin.

"Did your grandmother give this to you?"

"No, it was given to me by my great-grandmother."

Bao Ya said casually.

"Your great-grandmother, I've never seen her before. Where does she live?"

Jiang Yuan found it strange. He had met all the members of the Lin and Su families, except for a few brothers-in-law who were away from home and couldn't come back. He had even met some of the most respected elders in the village. He had never heard of her having a great-grandmother.

"Live in the mountains."

"Living...up in the mountains?"

Jiang Yuan suddenly remembered something and silently put the gold bars into the box.

"You dug it out of her?"

Jiang Yuan looked at Bao Ya and asked incredulously, as if he had gained a new understanding of his wife's courage.

Bao Ya glared at him, wondering what he thought of her.

"What we dug up from her grave were all things belonging to the Lin family, which I used as my dowry."

That's what she thought: since Old Man Lin is hiding it and not taking it out, whoever finds it can keep it.

Jiang Yuan had a general idea in his mind: so his wife liked this. Okay, he made a note of it.

Bao Ya carefully put away the box containing the money. After thinking for a moment, she decided to lock it in her camphor wood chest first. She would deposit the money in the bank when she had time, as it was not safe to keep it at home.

"There's no toilet in the yard?"

She suddenly remembered that she needed to pee and wondered if she would have to go to a public restroom outside.

"Um, you can use the bathroom to pee, and go to the public toilet outside to poop."

As he spoke, Jiang Yuan led her to the bathroom, where there was a squat toilet with a water tank above it. It was separated from the toilet by a half-wall, which she hadn't noticed before.

"Does this house have running water?"

Bao Ya was amazed; she never imagined that the tap water pipe could be connected to the house.

"Yes, the tap water here is in the back room, and I connected the pipe in front myself."

Bao Ya looked around and found it quite convenient; the bathroom and kitchen were both in the back, and of course, the water supply was also in the back.

Having settled this major life event, Bao Ya began to examine the house. It had three main rooms, but they were not quite the same as the three rooms in the countryside.

Each room is very large, with the east and west rooms separated by brick walls. The bedroom occupies two-thirds of the space, and the small room at the back occupies one-third.

There was a bathroom behind the room I was staying in, and a small room behind the room to the west, which was filled with a lot of things. Only the main room was separated by a wooden wall, with the living room in the front and the kitchen in the back.

In the kitchen, there was a large earthen stove with a big pot on the west side, next to which was a large water vat. On the east side was a stove they had built themselves with bricks. Their room had a fire wall, and the stove was probably connected to that wall. The kitchen was a bit messy, and Bao Ya directed Jiang Yuan to put things where they were easily accessible.

Behind the house was a small courtyard, about two meters wide. There used to be a chicken coop against the west wall of the courtyard, but it has now collapsed. To the east was a small shed that they had built themselves. Inside, they stored some coal and wood.

The front yard of the house is quite spacious. Beyond the main house is a platform about 1.5 meters wide, running from the east wall to the west wall, two steps higher than the ground level of the yard, and surrounded by a half-meter-high fence, like a courtyard within a courtyard. There are also several baskets on the platform, filled with dried vegetables.

There is a west wing room in the courtyard used to be used for storing miscellaneous items, and there is an open space to the east. It seems that the vegetables used to be grown there, but today they were all pulled up to prepare for the banquet.

This courtyard is quite spacious, but the walls are low; standing on the platform at the entrance, you can see the neighboring courtyard and the road outside. I'll have to raise the walls later.

What do you want to eat tonight?

Now that Jiang Yuan had emerged from the shadow of his earlier death, he tentatively asked Bao Ya.

"Anything will do, I'm not very hungry."

Tsk, she's still angry, she doesn't even want to eat. Jiang Yuan observed Bao Ya's expression, annoyed at his own impulsiveness for scaring his wife.

It has to be said, he was overthinking it; Lin Baoya wasn't as irrational as him. She'd been sitting in the house since morning. The lunch was delicious; she ate two steamed buns and three bowls of vegetables in one go, and was stuffed.

"How about I go to the state-run restaurant and buy you something? What would you like to eat?"

Jiang Yuan asked again tentatively, and Bao Ya thought for a moment, but she wasn't hungry and couldn't remember what to eat.

"I can't remember. I'll make some porridge for dinner. I don't have much of an appetite."

After saying that, he turned and went into the house, moved the radio from the sewing machine to the cabinet, turned on the sewing machine, and began to mend his belt.

She only had this one belt, and now she was holding it up with the button on her pants; otherwise, her pants might fall down.

Seeing that she was silent again, Jiang Yuan felt uneasy and went to the kitchen to cook.

When it was time for dinner, Bao Ya saw rice porridge, leftover multigrain steamed buns from lunch, two sliced ​​salted duck eggs, and a vegetable dish on the table.

Hmm, looks like she can cook. Oh well, what a pity.

Bao Ya glanced at that face that could make you want to eat, and then recalled the scene from earlier, feeling depressed. Why are both of her love lives so bumpy?

The two of them didn't speak again from the time they finished eating until they washed up in the evening.

After washing up, Bao Ya looked at her face in the mirror.

"Hiss~"

When she touched it, she hissed in pain. She hadn't felt it when Grandma Jiu had styled her face that morning, but now it felt burning hot after washing it. Looking closely in the mirror, her cheeks were all red.

"What's wrong?"

Hearing her voice, Jiang Yuan hurried over to look. He bent down, getting closer to Bao Ya, and looked at her. Her delicate earlobes and fair neck stirred a restless feeling in his heart.

"Is my face bleeding?"

Bao Ya opened her eyes wide and strained to see, but the 15-watt light bulb was really not enough, and she couldn't see very clearly.

Hearing her say that, Jiang Yuan leaned closer to take a look, and her little face was indeed incredibly red, as if she had a fever.

"There's no bleeding, but you should still go to the hospital to get it checked out."

"No need, I'll look at it tomorrow."

After saying that, Bao Ya pouted and climbed onto the bed with an unhappy expression. She spread out her own quilt, thought for a moment, and then spread out Jiang Yuan's quilt as well, but pulled her own quilt inward a little more.

She couldn't get excited at all, thinking that this girl might be a sister, and might even be wary of her.

Thinking this, she looked at Jiang Yuan with some disdain.

Look at that guy's waist and long legs, what a waste of talent.