Ning An immediately added a barrier around her room to make sure the smell wouldn’t drift in.
Those two must have drunk water mixed with spiritual spring and started detoxing.
Over forty years of accumulated toxins—that smell was definitely not something ordinary people could stand.
How had she forgotten about that?
Even Xiao Juza, inside the Xitong Kongjian, covered his nose. Although he actually couldn’t smell anything, he put on an appearance of sharing Ning An’s suffering all the same.
Ning An said, “They’ll probably be at it until very late. Let’s go back tomorrow. The smell should have dissipated by then.”
Xiao Juza nodded his little cat head vigorously. “Mm-hm, we’ll listen to An-An. Go to sleep, An-An—you have work tomorrow.”
“Okay, good night.”
Ning An tucked herself in and went to sleep.
Her quilt was made of old printed homespun cloth—the very cloth her grandmother had woven herself back when she was alive. The loom her grandmother had used for spinning thread and weaving still sat in the family’s storage room to this day.
The cotton in the quilt was new too. Every year her mother would take the quilts apart and remake them, so what Ning An used was always a quilt made with fresh cotton. Soft and fluffy.
The pillow left something to be desired—it was stuffed with wheat straw and would rustle whenever she turned her head. Ning An had swapped it for a latex pillow stored in the space, covered with her own pillowcase. Unless you moved it, you’d never notice.
But just to be safe, she still planned to go to a little extra trouble: before bed each night she would swap in the latex pillow, then swap back in the morning, so her mother absolutely wouldn’t find out.
Ning An slept soundly, completely unaware that Jiang Xuegong and his wife were up until the middle of the night.
It wasn’t that they were squatting over the pit the whole time—in fact, the detox process only lasted a bit over an hour. The rest of the time was spent trying to cover up the stench.
The couple dug a huge pit out of the dirt yard and carried basket after basket of soil into the outhouse, nearly filling in the family’s latrine pit flat, before they finally managed to cover the smell.
When they were finally done, husband and wife looked at each other, unable to bear looking at the other—or, of course, at themselves.
Zhao Fengxia said, “Tomorrow morning you take An-An into town for breakfast. Leave as soon as you get up, don’t stay home, and have An-An use the toilet at her workplace. Whatever you do, don’t let her go into that outhouse.”
It had been over a decade since the town had been reorganized as a commune, but sometimes people still called it the wrong thing.
“All right.”
“Tomorrow I’ll take the day off and clean out the latrine. And I’ll find some soil to fill in that big pit in the yard.”
“Fine. No rush on the pit—that’s my job when I get back.”
Zhao Fengxia waved her hand. “Forget it, I’ll just handle it myself. Hurry and boil some water—we need a bath. And all the clothes need washing.”
And so the two of them were at it half the night.
Perhaps because they were so absorbed in the work, the couple never noticed that even with upset stomachs, even busy until midnight, they didn’t feel the least bit tired—on the contrary, they felt incredibly light and refreshed.
The next morning, Zhao Fengxia and Jiang Xuegong got up early. Jiang Xuegong went to request leave on Zhao Fengxia’s behalf, saying she had caught a chill the night before and now had a fever and needed a day’s rest.
The people at the brigade office got up earlier than anyone—they had to set an example for the whole village.
They all knew the Jiang family’s situation—the family didn’t lack those work points, and it wasn’t the busy harvest season anyway. Besides, the corn stalks they dug up would be hauled home by everyone to dry for firewood. With Zhao Fengxia not working today, the others would get a bigger share of the stalks, so they readily agreed.
Jiang Xuegong hurried home, got everything ready, and the moment Ning An got up, he would whisk her away.
“Oh right, An’an said yesterday that the back seat was still a bit bumpy. Add another cushion for her.”
Zhao Fengxia hurried back to the room, found a small quilt, folded it up, and tied it onto the bicycle’s back seat.
“This little quilt is the one An’an used as a baby. She slept hugging it until she was several years old.”
“Wasn’t this quilt made by our mother for her?”
“Mm. I could never bear to take it apart.”
The couple’s thoughts flashed back more than a decade, to when their daughter was still little and their mother was still alive. Ah, those were days that could never return.
Zhao Fengxia had gotten along wonderfully with her mother-in-law; the two had never once quarreled. When she and her husband argued, the old lady would always smack him and tell him to shut up and give in to his wife a little. The old lady was kind-hearted, soft-hearted, hardworking, and capable. Back then, when Zhao Fengxia worked in the fields, she never had to worry about anything at home.
The old lady, hobbling on her tiny bound feet, kept the house spotless. Every time Zhao Fengxia came back from the fields, the meal was already ready.
So when she recalled the departed old lady, her feelings were as genuine as her husband’s.
“An’an, get up. Your original body’s dad is waiting outside. The moment you get up, he’s going to whisk you away—he’s just afraid you’ll catch the smell at home.”
Xiao Juza woke her up while filling her in on the current situation.
Ning An decided to play along with her parents. She got dressed and did her hair in the room, only coming out once everything was ready. She even brought out her crossbody bag.
“An’an, quick—Dad has something at work today and has to go in early for overtime. Let’s head out early. You can eat at the commune.”
The moment she stepped out the door, she heard Jiang Xuegong’s machine-gun voice. He sounded so sincere that if she didn’t know the truth, she would have believed him.
He was in such a hurry he didn’t even leave her time to wash up and brush her teeth.
“Oh, okay. Then let’s hurry, don’t let it hold up your work.”
“Right, right, let’s go.”
“Mom, we’re off! Make yourself something to eat at home.”
Ning An turned back to say to Zhao Fengxia.
“Got it, got it, hurry up and go.”
Zhao Fengxia urged them on.
Father and daughter headed out without a moment’s delay.
Ning An sat on the thickened cushion and said with a grin, “I deliberately didn’t remind you yesterday. I thought you’d forgotten.”
Jiang Xuegong: “Well, well. So you were just waiting to catch me out?”
“Hehehe.”
This was family-style entrapment!
When they reached the commune, Jiang Xuegong dropped her off at the entrance of the state-run restaurant and fished some grain coupons out of his pocket to hand to her. “Go buy yourself some meat buns. I’ll eat at my workplace.”
“Dad, I have coupons.”
“Isn’t it just in case you rushed out and forgot yours? Take them. Buy a few extra, and bring the leftovers home tonight to reheat for your mom.”
“Okay!”
Meat buns were two for ten cents, plus one liang of grain coupons. You could buy them without coupons too, for two cents more.
Ning An had both money and coupons, so she bought ten at once.
There were no plastic bags in those days—the buns were wrapped in paper. They were big, with thin skin and generous filling, very substantial, and the taste wasn’t bad either.
Ning An ate two and put the rest in her bag—actually storing them in her space, which had a freshness-preserving effect.
Xiao Juza had no interest in these foods; it only liked the dried fish from the system mall. They were products specially developed for systems, and Ning An, never stingy with points, bought it plenty. She even gave it access to her points, so it could buy more itself whenever it ran out.
But Xiao Juza had never used her points. It had its own. After completing tasks, systems also earned points.
Xiao Juza was quite generous with her too. In those Small Worlds with well-developed internet, it made money with virtual accounts, then spent it all buying supplies for her, storing them in her space.
Its shopping enthusiasm made even Ning An, a certified hoarder, concede defeat.
She arrived at her workplace especially early today, much earlier than usual. But the backyard of the Gongxiaoshe was never empty—employees who lived far from home stayed in the dormitories, so the main gate was already open.
A coworker staying in the dorms saw her and exclaimed in surprise, “Comrade Xiao Jiang, you’re really early today!”
“My dad’s workplace has overtime today, so he had to head in early. I caught a ride with him—that’s why I’m so early.”
“Have you eaten? If not, join us. We cook and eat together in the mornings.”
“No, thanks. I’ve already eaten.”
“Don’t be so polite with us.”
“Really, I’ve eaten.”
Ning An chatted with them briefly, smiling, then headed to her office.
With nothing to do, she took the fabric she’d bought yesterday out of her space, cleared off her desk, and prepared to make clothes.
Xiao Juza was astonished. “An’an, you’re really planning to sew it yourself? The commune has tailors—let’s just have one make it. The original owner’s mother made clothes herself out of habit, and because she was frugal by nature and didn’t want to spend money on a tailor. But An’an, there’s no need to work that hard!”
Ning An thought it over. “Fine. I have my own pocket money anyway, and a set of clothes won’t cost much. I’ll go find a tailor during the lunch break today.”
“Mm-hmm. The countryside in this era is pretty interesting. There’s a dedicated ‘Five Crafts Group’ meant to preserve traditional skills. It’s called ‘Five Crafts,’ but there are actually more than five: masons, carpenters, tailors, coopers, bamboo weavers, plus boat builders, stonemasons, and blacksmiths—but they still call it the ‘Five Crafts Group.’ They can use their skills to earn a little extra by working for others, but they can’t open their own shops. Usually they’re hired to work in people’s homes during the farming off-season. As long as meals are provided, and they’re given some food to take home when they leave, that’s enough.”
“Will the commune tailor be home at noon?”
“He will. He’s an old tailor with bad legs. He’s already been released from mandatory farm labor—he doesn’t have to work in the fields, and couldn’t anyway. He’s a special case: an elderly man with no family, so the commune made a special exception for him, letting him make a living with his craft. He can’t go work at other people’s homes, so people come to him instead.”
Ning An had always admired people who supported themselves through their own labor.
Having settled on the plan to visit him at noon, she put the fabric away again.