The green camphor tree has a deep view

Chapter 159: Hometown Human Touch Nourishes the Soul

Xing Lu followed the navigation and made many turns before finally driving into the dormitory yard of the fourth factory.

This is the family quarters built in the 1990s, when the Fourth Factory was at its peak. The dormitories were built to the highest standards, but they don’t look good now. The exterior wall of the staircase is old and mottled, with a color between brown and gray. From a distance, it looks foggy, like a yellowed old photo.

The car occasionally bumped into the yard, raising a cloud of dust on the road that should have been repaired long ago. Several elderly people gathered in groups of three or five on the roadside, each sitting on a small stool, watching the white Audi drive past them, looking hard at the people in the car, wanting to see whose child drove back in the nice car.

Xing Lu didn't give them a chance to spy. She turned the steering wheel, and the car turned a corner and meandered towards the yard.

"I don't recognize the car outside." Mrs. Li muttered to the old lady beside her, "It's time. I should go back and cook."

"Just sit for a while. It's a rare good day. Once the mine starts working, it will be gray again and you won't be able to see the sun." Another old lady advised.

"Everyone knows that it's good to bask in the sun in winter and supplement calcium, but there are mouths to feed at home, and we don't have that blessing." Mrs. Li said helplessly, supporting her knees with both hands, slowly stood up, then turned sideways, picked up the small stool, and slowly walked home.

He crossed the small square between the dormitory buildings, went around two residential buildings that looked like barracks, and walked all the way to the smallest old building deep in the yard. He stopped to catch his breath, looked upstairs, walked to the stairs, and climbed up again with all his strength.

Old Mrs. Li is 71 years old and in good health, but her legs and feet have been weak for a long time and she is especially afraid of climbing stairs. If the sun had not been shining today and her old friends had not called her to go downstairs, she would rather stay on the narrow balcony and enjoy the sunshine through the dense anti-theft windows.

Going downstairs to bask in the sun is certainly comfortable and refreshing, but climbing the stairs is a chore. Mrs. Li held a small stool in one hand and tightly grasped the handrail in the corridor with the other hand. She stretched her head forward, pulled her arms back hard, and tried her best to move her legs and feet upwards, step by step.

Once I go upstairs this time, I won’t come down again easily! The old lady swore to herself.

Fortunately, the old dormitory building was not high, and Mrs. Li lived on the top floor, which was only the fourth floor. She climbed to the corner of the third floor panting, and heard voices coming from upstairs, and she felt confused.

My neighbor across the street has been away for several months, why is there suddenly someone talking at the door? Is it a thief?

Thinking of this, I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"Who... who are you?" The old lady asked the people upstairs tremblingly across half a flight of stairs.

After turning the corner, the old lady finally saw clearly that there were two girls standing on the fourth floor. One of them looked familiar, like the granddaughter of the old Liu family next door. Eh? Didn't that girl pass the exam to study in the south? Why is she back now? Impossible! She must be dazzled.

"Are you... an agent showing houses? This house is not for sale and nothing in the house has been moved yet." said Old Mrs. Li.

The girl in front of the door paused, then suddenly turned around and said with a look of surprise, "Grandma Li, it's me! Wen Qing."

"Ah, it's really Qing'er who's back?" Old Mrs. Li smiled brightly, and her steps became lighter as she went upstairs. "When did you come back? Is your grandma back too? What are you doing standing at the door? Come to my house and have a seat."

"My grandma is with my aunt in Jiangcheng, and I came back by myself." Wen Qing said, "Grandma Li, did my grandma leave you a spare key before she left? I came here in a hurry and forgot to bring my key, so I was thinking of finding someone to open the lock."

"Don't look for anyone! I have the key." Mrs. Li waved her hand, motioning Wen Qing to go home with her to get the key.

"That's great." Wen Qing said with a smile, "If I had known you had the key, I wouldn't have been in such a hurry."

"In our Fourth Factory staff quarters, who doesn't leave a key for their neighbor before going out?" Old Mrs. Li took out her own key from her coat pocket with a smile, tremblingly inserted it into the keyhole, turned the lock, and the door opened.

"I guess so." Wen Qing followed into Grandma Li's house with a smile, leaving Xing Lu standing in the corridor in a daze.

After a while, Wen Qing walked back to the door holding the key and chatted with Mrs. Li for a while. After she closed the door, she turned and came to Xing Lu, raised her hand and shook the key, a smug smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, which she couldn't suppress.

Xing Lu smiled and sighed, "I'd better leave. A spare key can make you happy, why did Mr. Song ask me to come? It's a complete waste."

"It has nothing to do with the key. It's the human touch of my hometown that nourishes my soul." Wen Qing smiled, opened the door, and made an inviting gesture to Xing Lu, "My humble home in the alley is not respectful, please don't mind."

"You're welcome. My living conditions when I was a child were not as good as yours." Xing Lu walked into the house unsteadily, carrying a Chanel bucket bag. She glanced left and right and had a rough idea in her mind.

This is the last batch of welfare housing for ordinary workers in the fourth factory in the last century. It has a usable area of ​​55 square meters and is the most primitive two-bedroom and one-living room. The living room cannot be transparent, and the bedrooms are divided into north and south. A table is placed in the corridor between the kitchen and the living room to serve as a dining room. If there are a few more people, the living room and the dining room can be combined into one, freeing up space for a camp bed. It can be folded against the wall during the day and opened at night to cover the bedding and draw the curtain, and the two-bedroom becomes a three-bedroom in an instant, realizing functional upgrade.

Xing Lu was a little dazed for a moment. If she had not persisted back then, would she have married into a worker's family in Factory No. 4 and slept on a camp bed?

"Sister Lu, do you want to change into slippers?"

Wen Qing asked from behind, and Xing Lu came back to her senses and said with a smile: "Give me a pair if you find something suitable. I have to go back home later. If you need anything here, you can tell me and I will bring it over on the way."

"I don't lack anything, I just don't know if you..." Wen Qing hesitated to speak.

Xing Lu was someone Song Jingshen had brought in, and she didn't know how they had arranged it.

"If nothing unexpected happens, I will stay with you until Mr. Song takes you back to Jiangcheng." Xing Lu got straight to the point. "If you feel uncomfortable, I can also live separately from you, but I have to keep track of your condition at all times."

"What's the status?" Wen Qing asked.

"Your physical, mental, and spiritual state are all included," Xing Lu said. "During this period of time, you will completely get rid of Mr. Song's influence, and live a relaxed life just for yourself."

"Even without him, I can't live just for myself." Wen Qing smiled, feeling like she was listening to a fairy tale. "People always have to take responsibility and prepare for the unexpected in the future. Adults are not qualified to live in a vacuum or in fantasy. At least I don't."

"You're too sober." Xing Lu leaned sideways, took off her Ferragamo shoes, and elegantly put on cotton slippers. "Of course being sober is a good thing, but being too sober can easily lead to pessimism. Occasionally relaxing and indulging yourself in a small amount will be good for your physical and mental state."

"Okay." Wen Qing responded, turned around and closed the door, took out grandma's cotton slippers from the shoe cabinet and put them on, then took off her backpack and put it on the shoe cabinet, then turned and walked towards the kitchen.

"Please sit down for a while. I'll boil a kettle of water." She pointed to the sofa and said to Xing Lu, "We are out of tea leaves at home. I'll go to Grandma Li's house to borrow some."

"I don't drink tea, just boiled water is fine." Xing Lu walked into the living room and threw the bag on the sofa, but she didn't sit down. Instead, she strolled to the balcony.

The balcony is next to the neighbor opposite, separated only by a wall. There is a square window on the wall, blocked by wooden boards.

"You have such great neighborhood relations. Your balconies are connected, and you can hear each other's chickens and dogs..." Xing Lu stopped talking halfway through, and she shouldn't have said the next sentence.

"In the past, my mother and grandmother often made dumplings and passed them to Grandma Li from the balcony. Grandma Li's family would also borrow my balcony to dry sausages. The sausages she made were delicious. I don't know if she made any this year." Wen Qing boiled some water, walked to the balcony, and said nostalgically to the blocked window.

"You are thoughtful, nostalgic, and sentimental. Why can't you get along well with Mr. Song?" Xing Lu played the direct ball.