frightfiction Chapter 273 Just a House
Chapter 273 Just a House
Zhuang Chaoying happened to get a piece of Zhuang Tunan's "celebration meat". When he returned, he heard Zhuang Xiaoting reporting Zhuang Tunan's achievements to Huang Ling.
In the evening, the two families sat together to celebrate. Song Ying made braised pork with all the meat she bought, filling a large bowl.
Zhuang Tunan didn't want to enjoy it all by himself, so he made way for everyone and put a piece of braised pork on each person's plate. According to custom, it should start with the elders, but none of the adults wanted any, so Lin Dongzhe and Zhuang Xiaoting each got a piece.
Huang Ling felt that Zhuang Xiaoting was getting old and should be given some private space, so she asked Lin Wufeng to buy some glass and wood to make a small partition above the desk.
Zhuang Xiaoting invited Lin Dongzhe to her room, and Lin Dongzhe gladly accepted.
Lin Wufeng used the remaining wood to build a staircase for Zhuang Xiaoting. Although it was a bit steep, it was much more comfortable than climbing a ladder.
They climbed up the small stairs and sat facing each other in a tiny cubicle.
It doesn't feel like much from the outside, but once you sit inside, you can really feel it – the cubicles are so small!
When it comes to getting dressed, she can only do it sitting down, and she can't raise her hands too high. By the time Zhuang Xiaoting grew up, even sitting down felt cramped.
"Xiaoting, when you grow up, I'll buy you a big house!"
Zhuang Xiaoting wasn't particularly moved by Lin Dongzhe's words; she still thought her little cubicle was pretty good.
“Lin Dongzhe, you said you would buy me anything. It’s just a house, there’s no need to bring it up separately.”
Lin Dongzhe was speechless after being choked by Zhuang Xiaoting's words, and could only chuckle.
Zhuang Chaoying received the latest news from the grading team: the educated youth were protesting to return to the city, and a policy had been issued allowing some of them to return.
However, Zhuang Chaoying's younger sister, Zhuang Hualin, was unable to return to the city because she had gotten married and had children there, so she had to stay there. As the eldest daughter, Zhuang Chaoying felt very sorry for her.
That evening, I told Huang Ling about it and summarized the differences between myself and Zhuang Hualin. It was because I was good at studying while Zhuang Hualin had a low level of education that Huang Ling valued Zhuang Tunan and Zhuang Xiaoting's studies more.
The new semester has begun.
Zhuang Tunan, led by Zhuang Chaoying, went to No. 1 High School. Along the way, everything seemed new and exciting to him, especially No. 1 High School, which he found impressive. Zhuang Chaoying aptly pointed out, "Good schools have good facilities, and university campuses are even more different!"
Upon hearing this, Zhuang Tunan's eyes were filled with longing.
Seeing that her son had listened to her words, Zhuang Chaoying smiled with relief.
Elementary school has started again. Just two days into the new semester, the Young Pioneers' assessment began. The teacher said they would be looking at scores, one of which was the number of flies. Each fly counts as one point.
Zhuang Xiaoting was very concerned about the Young Pioneers' admission assessment, so she spent her days swatting flies with a fly swatter. After chasing away the flies, she would then scrub the sink with a brush, saying that a clean sink would earn her extra points.
But as the assessment approached, he hadn't accumulated enough points and felt very down.
Lin Dongzhe knew what Zhuang Xiaoting was thinking, and took her hand, "It's just catching flies, right? Leave it to me."
Zhuang Xiaoting glanced at Lin Dongzhe, "With so little time left, can you still conjure up flies?"
"That's natural."
Suzhou is a water town in Jiangnan, where small rivers are everywhere. Lin Dongzhe pulled Zhuang Xiaoting to the riverbank and used the family's net to catch a small fish weighing 0.35 kilograms.
The fish was placed on the stone slab, and its fishy smell quickly attracted swarms of flies. The net then became a fly-catching marvel, catching more than a dozen flies in one go, making Zhuang Xiaoting jump for joy.
The flies were collected in a glass bottle and sealed with a small piece of cloth.
The next day, when the two handed the fly to the teacher, the teacher's face turned pale again.
The transparent bottle was teeming with live flies, crawling around in dense swarms, giving the teacher a taste of the power of trypophobia.
Zhuang Xiaoting and Lin Dongzhe's applications to join the team were quickly approved. The teacher didn't want to see so many flies huddled together again.
After putting on the red scarf, Lin Dongzhe accompanied Zhuang Xiaoting through the joining ceremony. Zhuang Xiaoting, imitating Huang Ling, straightened Lin Dongzhe's collar and said, "Dongzhe, you are a Young Pioneer now. You should be more strict with yourself in the future."
Lin Dongzhe: "..."
Every few days, Zhuang Jia would visit his grandparents at the compressor factory.
The old woman complained to Zhuang Chaoying that Zhuang Ganmei's family hadn't visited them for half a year, and that she felt the second son's family was heartless and had no respect for the elderly or care for the young.
Grandpa also told Zhuang Chaoying that Zhuang Tunan's grandma almost slipped and fell. Luckily, she grabbed the doorknob, otherwise she would have fallen hard. However, she still twisted her waist a bit and has been a little sore lately.
Zhuang Chaoying said, "I'll come to see you every week from now on. Leave the hard work to me and Huang Ling."
The old woman waved her hand, "How can I let Ah Ling do it? You should do it!"
Now that we've chosen someone to care for us, we must cultivate a good relationship, just like we tolerated the second son's daughter-in-law before. The old lady understands this clearly.
When Zhuang Chaoying left, he took a detour to the old house and saw two fat balls and two skinny monkeys, which were quite conspicuous. After exchanging a few perfunctory words with the two lazybones, Zhuang Chaoying left. He had no choice but to leave; as soon as he entered the house, he smelled something inside that was worse than a pigsty!
If the two overweight people become more diligent, their bodies will gradually recover. If they remain lazy, their physiques will not worsen, but they will remain unchanged.
Lin Dongzhe was careful in his actions; he didn't kill anyone, but he wouldn't let them off easily either.
Zhuang Tunan did the math and realized that eating lunch at school wasn't cost-effective. One pound of grain coupons could be exchanged for one pound of rice or one pound of cooked rice, but one pound of rice could be used to cook two pounds of cooked rice!
So Zhuang Tunan decided to go home for lunch every day.
Huang Ling felt sorry for Zhuang Tunan and wanted her son to take the bus home at noon.
Zhuang Tunan refused. The daily train ticket was already a considerable expense, and he felt it was unnecessary since he could just walk a few more steps to get home.
Huang Ling asked around and found out that a family had bicycle tickets and wanted to exchange them for a sewing machine.
Without much hesitation, Huang Ling replied to the person that she agreed to the change.
Before taking the sewing machine away, Huang Ling spent several days making a pair of bell-bottoms for Zhuang Xiaoting and Song Ying, and then checked all the clothes in the house, mending any that were about to tear.
Song Ying came to thank Huang Ling and learned that the sewing machine had been sold. She was a little regretful, "It originally belonged to Xiaoting. Now it's been sold to buy a bicycle for Tu Nan. When Tu Nan grows up, we'll get one for Xiaoting!"
Zhuang Xiaoting originally didn't dare to wear it because it was too fashionable and she was afraid people would laugh at her.
But Song Ying wasn't afraid. She was the most fashionable person in the entire factory and firmly believed she was the factory's most beautiful woman. She even tempted Zhuang Xiaoting to dress up with her and go out on the street.
Because the movie "Homecoming" is very popular right now, and these pants are a very accurate replica of those in the film. Wearing these pants on the street definitely gets you a lot of attention.