binnovel Chapter 61 "Full of Love" - World Widows Raising Children 2
Chapter 61 "Full of Love" - World Widows Raising Children 2
After telling the gatekeeper that she was looking for Director Wang from the neighborhood office, Liu Yuxi took the two children to Director Wang's office.
After knocking and entering, she told Director Wang that she needed to get a new household registration booklet and that the house also needed to be transferred. Director Wang then called in an clerk, took her documents, and helped her with the process, leaving Liu Yuxi and her two children in the room to talk to her about work.
"Xiao Liu, have you thought about filling in for someone? Which position do you want?" Special arrangements were made because Liu Yuxi couldn't fill in for Wang Jun's security department position. So, after discussing it, the factory gave her a detailed introduction to other positions in the factory and let her decide which one to work in.
"Director Wang, my education level is only primary school. I can't do the work in the propaganda department. In the kitchen, you earn a living through your skills, but I've never studied cooking, so I can only work as an assistant. As for the purchasing department, I'm new to Beijing and don't have any connections. Besides, it's not safe for a woman to go to the countryside to collect things. However, I have a lot of strength, and I'm thinking of working as a fitter in the workshop. After all, there's a master to teach me. I'll try to attend night school later to improve my education. Being a fitter will also be more suitable if my child needs to take over the job in the future. What do you think?"
"Okay, why not? Since you've considered all aspects, I won't try to persuade you. Don't put too much pressure on yourself; the organization is looking after the child. Since you've decided, I'll write you a letter of introduction. Later, take the letter of introduction and your household registration book to the steel rolling mill to complete the on-the-job training procedures." "Okay, I'll go this afternoon."
Holding the letter of introduction and thanking the subdistrict office for their help over the past few days, Liu Yuxi took her child to the supply and marketing cooperative after the junior staff member delivered the new household registration booklet.
Liu Yuxi plans to buy a bicycle. Her two children are too young, and there's no one else at home to take care of them. She plans to send them to school after the New Year. Once she goes back to work, she'll need a bicycle to cook breakfast, take the children to school, and then go to work at the factory. Besides, bicycles are free now, so she wants to buy one while the neighborhood committee and factory still have some influence, to avoid future trouble.
The era of ration coupons is about to begin, so Liu Yuxi doesn't need to worry about supplies at all. However, when she returns to the compound, she still needs to remind the people there that it's not scarcity that's the problem, but inequality. Although Liu Yuxi isn't afraid, her child is still young, and a harmonious living environment is necessary. Otherwise, all she'll see all day is petty arguments, which will narrow her perspective.
After buying the bicycle, I bought some candy and steamed cake for the two kids, went to the police station to get their official stamp, and then went to the market to buy some potatoes and tofu before taking the kids home.
When she got to the courtyard, she didn't run into anyone else. Since everyone lived in the front yard, at this hour, some were at work, some were buying groceries, and those still at home were either busy at home or chatting and sewing shoe soles in the middle yard. Only the third auntie heard the noise and came out of her house. Seeing the bicycle, she exclaimed, "Yuxi, you bought a bicycle?" Hearing her voice, several women from the middle yard also came to the front yard, and exclaimed in surprise when they saw the bicycle! "Oh my, is that a Flying Pigeon?" "It must be expensive!" "Wang family, what made you decide to buy a bicycle?"
Liu Yuxi had her two sons open the door and bring the groceries home. She chatted with others in the yard, "I'm about to go to work, and I'm planning to send the two kids to school, but look at me, I'm the only one busy at home. How can I manage? Buying a car will give me more time to pick up and drop off the kids and get to work." "That's true, sigh, it won't be easy for you both at home and outside." "If you need anything, just let us know. We're all neighbors." "Yes, I can't help with big things, but I can at least watch the kids." Even Jia Zhangshi didn't say anything harsh, after all, she was a widow herself and knew the difficulties widows faced. However, the way she looked at the bicycle... well, how to put it? There was a hint of possessiveness in her eyes!
She chatted with her neighbors for a while before they dispersed. She pushed her cart into the main room. She knew that right now, with a recent death in her family and two young children, the neighbors would start gossiping more when her salary increased and life got better. She decided to deal with that later.
Back home, she took two comic books from her spatial storage (collected during her previous time travels) and sent the two children back to their room to read while she tidied up the house.
Each of the two east wing rooms in her house is 30 square meters. They were renovated last year when she moved in. Both wing rooms were divided into two rooms. The one near the entrance is the main room, where guests are received and meals are usually eaten. Behind it is a small single room with a separate window, which was originally intended for future children or for her two sons to have their own rooms when they grow up. It is currently used as a storage room. The original door of the adjacent wing room was sealed off, leaving a window, and it was divided into two bedrooms. The bedroom doors are on the wall connecting to the living room. The outer room was the original room of the couple, and the inner room was the room of the two younger brothers.
The 12-square-meter side room was used as a kitchen. Of course, the kitchen was also filled with honeycomb briquettes, firewood, pickle jars, water tanks, and other items. As for grain, it was mostly stored under the cupboards. Her family came from the north, so they built a kang (heated brick bed) when they renovated the house. Besides being a matter of habit, using a coal stove was also unsafe, as the children were still young. A while ago, there was a meeting in the courtyard where the street committee was relaying a message about the importance of coal safety in winter.
After looking around the kitchen and storage room and getting a general idea of what was in the house, Liu Yuxi returned to her room and packed up all of Wang Jun's usable clothes and shoes. She planned to alter the clothes to fit her two sons later, and wait for the children to grow up before wearing the shoes. As for the worn-out clothes, she would keep them to make shoe soles, and wait for the scrap collector to come and sell the shoes.
He pulled a small box from a hidden compartment in the wardrobe. The top layer contained Wang Jun's military medals and a Rolex watch—a battlefield capture awarded to him by his superiors. He himself usually wore a Shanghai brand watch, but now it was on Liu Yuxi's wrist. The bottom layer contained over fifty silver dollars and three small gold bars—clearly, these were looted from the corpses during the battlefield cleanup! One above the other, right? Liu Yuxi stored the silver dollars and gold bars in his spatial storage, placed the watch in the bottom layer, and left the medals in the top layer. These were all of legitimate origin, so leaving them out was safe.
She rummaged through various corners and found some loose change; the two little brothers' room didn't need tidying up for the time being. Sitting on the bed, she considered the future. The rationing system was about to begin, and everyone would be eating rationed food. She'd have the three old men remind everyone that they should stock up on food and buy anything they needed. There was also the Jia family's household registration issue; she wondered if it was still possible to transfer it. Everyone said the chaos in the courtyard depended on the Jia family, but wasn't it because of food shortages that Jia Dongxu died at the end of the difficult period? If Jia Dongxu had enough to eat, she wondered if he would still make mistakes at work, or even die. If Jia Dongxu didn't die, the entire story of the courtyard would be completely rewritten. She'd have one of the old men talk to them first; if it could be changed, great; if not, then they'd deal with it.