Daily Life in the 70s-Chapter 135: Tidying Up

Then, Chen Guizhi asked about the earlier suggestion made by Yang PeiMin to bring more clothes; now feeling she understood the hint, she smiled and said, "You want your daughter-in-law to spend more time with your son, don’t you?"

Shen Erniu simply nodded with a smile.

Chen Guizhi gave him a sideways glance, "Look how anxious you are. Even if she can stay a bit longer, she can’t stay until winter, can she? Have you forgotten? The child still has exams to take."

Shen Erniu organized the money and handed it over to her. "What do you know about the world outside, never having left the county? It’s not like here; being prepared is always good."

Chen Guizhi glared at him without much affection and took the money, "So what if I haven’t left the county? Even a three-year-old knows there are still several months before winter, so you wouldn’t need a cotton-padded jacket even in the far north now, would you?"

Shen Erniu just hummed, with an attitude of choosing not to argue with her, but the upturn of his mouth betrayed his good mood.

Meanwhile, back in her room, Yang PeiMin took out clothes from the wardrobe and found herself in a dilemma. She didn’t know what the weather was like where Shen Yiguang was in the Northwest; she had been there on a trip before, but it wasn’t during the current season.

Moreover, she was only staying for ten days at most, so she didn’t need to bring too much. She detested traveling with heavy luggage, especially when transportation wasn’t convenient, which made her petulance rise. She decided to pack as lightly as possible.

For her personal undergarments, she decided to bring three sets in addition to what she would wear there, fearing she might encounter rain and the clothes wouldn’t dry. She couldn’t bear not changing clothes daily, especially underwear. During her previous trip, she had this same issue and only after much persuasion from Zhang Minghua did she manage not to change her outer garments, just her underwear, which she secretly washed and changed. When Zhang Minghua found out, there was nothing she could do about it.

As for outerwear, she planned to bring two sets in addition to one she’d wear: a sweater, two shirts, a thin cardigan, a light jacket, and two pairs of trousers.

She decided not to bring any shoes, just wearing the pair she had on. For toiletries, she’d pack them in small boxes, perhaps two, along with some emergency medicines.

Finally, regarding the Shen family elders’ request to bring some food, she was completely reluctant, but she couldn’t go without it. Traveling thousands of miles, how could one not bring some hometown flavors and memories to the one living far from home? It was supposed to be a gesture of remembrance.

So she racked her brains, wondering what light, durable, and delicious things she could bring?

She wrapped her clothes with a large square cloth into a bundle, and seeing the new fabric just cut on the sewing machine, she remembered that Xiao Fang and Xiao Fen’s clothes were still not made. Could she really break her promise?

She shook her head, got up, sat at the table, and began measuring the fabric with a ruler. Then she reflected on herself, realizing she had never actually made a piece of clothing for Shen Yiguang; the two sets for the wedding were the efforts of Zhang Ming and her elder sister-in-law, while she only helped by handing over the needle or trimming the threads.

Other more challenging clothing styles still awaited her learning, but what she had become more experienced in was making underwear, specifically that type which had a T-back, called a "sweatshirt" by men. This didn’t require much technique, just measure with a ruler, cut the fabric, and then just sew the seams tightly on a sewing machine.

And since it was worn underneath, who would nitpick your handiwork?

With this thought, she decided to set aside Xiao Fen and Xiao Fang’s clothing for the moment. As the two sisters weren’t in a hurry, they could ask Chen Guizhi to take her time making their clothes later. Clothes for Shen Yiguang, however, were more pressing.

In the days just after Shen Yiguang left, when Yang Peimin faced a largely unfamiliar family, each with their own habits, she slowly adapted while also being busy with work. Gradually, Chen Guizhi started treating her like a daughter, stabilizing her wavering heart, softening it further, and as work took the right path and relations with colleagues became harmonious, the times she visited her mother Zhang Minghua to complain had made her accustomed to life without Shen Yiguang by her side, and only occasionally, in the rare instances when heavy lifting was involved, did she find herself missing him.

Feeling guilty, Yang Peimin decided to make him another couple of pairs of underpants.

Before long, Chen Guizhi came over to knock on her door. Previously, people hadn’t had the awareness to knock; if the door wasn’t locked and someone was inside, they would go in just by lifting the curtain, without the habit of knocking at all. It was Yang Peimin who later taught Xiao Fen and Xiao Fang to knock before entering her room, and seeing this, the family members also picked up the habit of knocking when coming to her room.

Yang Peimin lifted her head at the sight of Chen Guizhi and immediately said, "Mother, please come in."

Chen Guizhi walked in with a smile, curious to see her bustling about by the sewing machine, and leaned in to ask, "What are you making?"

"I’m making two pieces of personal clothing for Yiguang. I didn’t know before that we could visit him, so I never made them. Now I’m thinking of rushing to get them done. Please have a seat, mother, I also want to talk to you about Xiao Fen’s clothing, I’ll need to trouble you to help make them for the girls."

Chen Guizhi sat beside her, nodding with satisfaction and smiling from the corner of her eye, very pleased with her daughter-in-law’s devoted attitude towards her son, "What’s the trouble? Taking care of Yiguang’s needs is the most important thing."

Yang Peimin casually asked her, "Mother, what brings you here? Is something the matter?" The mother-in-law wouldn’t normally come to her room without a reason.

Chen Guizhi pulled a small cloth bundle out of her pocket, unwrapped the cloth to reveal a stack of large banknotes, "Your father was right, it’s more convenient to carry money when going out. These are what Yiguang sent back each month; I’ve been saving them. There’s no need to spend much at home, and we have enough to eat. Here’s a hundred, take it."

Yang Peimin quickly avoided her extended hand, "Mother, what are you doing? This is for you. Yiguang left me quite a bit when he left, and just last month, he sent back his salary, so really, I don’t need it. You take it back, please."

Despite her insistence, Chen Guizhi ultimately gave up the matter.

She didn’t leave, however, but started discussing with Yang Peimin about making underwear for Yiguang.

"He never wore such things when he was little, back then we all did the same, kids would run around bare-bummed until they were five. But that boy Yiguang, he wasn’t willing to do that past the age of three; he felt embarrassed. He even stopped wanting to go outside because of it, and he would ask me and his father why it was that the bigger kids got to wear clothes and the little ones didn’t, wondering if it was because adults think kids are small and it’s okay to bully them. Can you imagine, he was so young but could say such things. It made his father and me laugh; his dad even said he’d go far and immediately cut a piece of old cloth to make him a pair of underpants."