Once outside, Lu Jiajie said, “Big Brother, Jiaxin’s changed so much.”
Lu Jiaguang gave a small “mm” and said, “Jiaxin’s not only become more decisive, she’s also learned to speak up when she’s wronged. That mother and daughter won’t be able to bully her anymore.”
He felt the change was for the better, she hadn’t suffered all that for nothing.
While Lu Jiaxin and Xue Mao were cleaning the house, someone knocked on the door. When they opened it, they found an older woman who’d come over after hearing the noise.
The woman said, “My surname is Li, I’m with the neighborhood committee. Miss, is this house yours?”
After looking at her ID, Lu Jiaxin said, “This house was left to me by my mother. I was too young before and afraid my stepmother would find out and take it from me, so I didn’t dare come here. Now that I can’t survive under my stepmother anymore, I have no choice but to move here.”
She had no intention of hiding family shame from outsiders. Besides, these neighborhood women had well-connected grapevines, even if she said nothing, they’d dig up every detail of her situation within a few days anyway.
Having seen plenty of cases like this at the neighborhood committee, the woman offered some advice. “Dear, you should transfer your household registration over here as soon as possible. That way your stepmother won’t be able to use your marriage prospects to control you.”
Lu Jiaxin thought the woman was quite warm-hearted, and thanked her. “Once I’m settled in, I’ll transfer my registration.”
Auntie Li looked at Xue Mao and asked, “Will the two of you, brother and sister, be living here from now on?”
Lu Jiaxin explained Xue Mao’s status. “Auntie, I’ve already taken him as my sworn younger brother, he’ll be living with me from now on.”
Auntie Li noted down both their information, then said with a smile, “I only live two doors down from you. If you ever need anything, feel free to come find me.”
Lu Jiaxin thanked her, and once she’d seen the woman off, went back to cleaning with Xue Mao.
After more than an hour of work, both of them were hungry. With no pots, bowls, or utensils in the kitchen, they had no choice but to eat out. The capital now had plenty of small restaurants, and the two of them quickly found one.
Lu Jiaxin ordered braised fish, oil-drizzled water spinach, and tomato egg drop soup. She didn’t eat much, but Xue Mao had a huge appetite, finishing three bowls of rice and sweeping every dish clean before he felt full.
Walking out of the restaurant, Xue Mao said, “The food here is too expensive, not worth it. Sis, let’s cook for ourselves at night.”
“We’ll start cooking once we buy pots and utensils tomorrow.”
Cleaning was the most exhausting work. Once they’d finished the east and west wing rooms, Lu Jiaxin collapsed into a chair. “Let’s just clean the kitchen and call it done, we’ll handle the three rooms of the entrance hall whenever we have time.”
Xue Mao didn’t feel tired at all, this was his sister’s own house, and he could live here right up until she got married. “Sis, go rest in your room, I’ll handle this.”
The main bedroom had a bed, wardrobe, dressing table, and desk and chairs, fully furnished. Once the furniture from her old room got moved over later, it could go to Xue Mao, so there’d be no need to buy anything extra.
Knowing he’d feel uneasy if he wasn’t allowed to work, Lu Jiaxin nodded. “I’ll go rest for now. If you get tired, take a break, this is our own house, no rush to finish everything at once.”
Her body still hadn’t fully recovered, and the slightest bit of work left her exhausted. She figured her health must have taken a real toll from not recuperating properly earlier, she should find a good doctor to help her recover properly.
There was no bedding in the room yet, but fortunately she’d brought along the few old changes of clothes she’d packed. She’d wanted to throw them out at the time, but Xue Mao had said to keep them as rags, and now those old clothes came in handy.
She’d spent three straight days on the train. These days it was all green-skin trains, noisy and in poor condition, and since they’d bought hard-seat tickets, there was no way to rest properly. After getting off the train, they’d gone straight to the housing complex, and worried the whole time about being caught as not really the original owner, Lu Jiaxin’s nerves had stayed tightly wound. Now that she could finally relax completely, she fell asleep the moment she lay down.
By the time she woke up, over three hours had passed. Lu Jiaxin walked out to find the courtyard silent. “Xue Mao, has Fifth Brother not come yet?”
Xue Mao paused what he was doing, wiping sweat as he answered. “Not yet. Big Brother went to borrow a truck, maybe he couldn’t find one.”
Lu Jiaxin was worried that if the furniture didn’t arrive today, she’d have to sleep on bare wooden boards, and Xue Mao wouldn’t even have boards to sleep on. Just from a short nap she already felt sore all over, sleeping like that all night might leave her unable to get up the next day.
Xue Mao brought up something he’d noticed. “Sis, there’s no bathroom here. I needed to pee earlier and couldn’t find anywhere, had to go outside to deal with it.”
Worried Lu Jiaxin might misunderstand, he quickly added, “There’s a public restroom outside, but it’s really filthy, you definitely won’t be used to it.”
Lu Jiaxin hadn’t even thought of this. “Then we need to buy a couple of chamber pots, or going out to a public restroom at night will be way too much trouble.”
Having lived with her for over a month now, Xue Mao knew how much she valued cleanliness. “Sis, we can’t keep doing this forever. Once we start our stall and make some money, we should hire someone to build us a proper bathroom.”
After deducting travel costs and other expenses, they still had a couple hundred yuan on hand, enough to set up a small food stall. As for Lu Jiaxin’s own money, he hadn’t even considered touching it.
While they were talking, Lu Jiajie’s booming voice rang out from outside. “Jiaxin, Xue Mao, open the door, I need to bring things in.”
Once, Xue Mao had been so exhausted he’d collapsed onto the bed and forgotten to lock the door, and the pot he’d worked so hard to acquire, along with half a bag of grain, had vanished. Ever since, he’d made a habit of locking the door even while at home.
Lu Jiajie carried in a bed frame, and seeing Lu Jiaxin about to come out to help, called out to stop her. “Jiaxin, your health hasn’t fully recovered yet, rest up properly. There’s not that much stuff, a couple of trips with my two buddies and we’ll be done.”
Lu Jiaxin’s body really was still weak, so she didn’t push herself.
Xue Mao soon came in carrying two wooden buckets balanced on a shoulder pole, filled with pots, bowls, knives, and other kitchen tools. He said joyfully, “Sis, once we buy rice and flour tomorrow, we can start cooking for ourselves!”
Lu Jiaxin was rather surprised, and once Lu Jiajie came in carrying the bedding, she asked, “Fifth Brother, did you buy all this yourself?”
Lu Jiajie said with a smile, “No, Third Uncle got it from the department store. These are all slightly flawed items, a great deal, really.”
Lu Jiaxin had glanced at what was in the buckets, and while she hadn’t looked closely enough to be certain, they looked new. But she wasn’t naive, after years navigating the working world, she knew a thing or two.
What surprised her more was that besides the kitchen items, there were also two sets of summer bedding, a thermos, a kettle, cups, toothbrushes, towels, and other daily necessities.
Lu Jiajie said with a smile, “Jiaxin, Third Uncle bought all this for you.”
“He’s being this generous?”
Lu Jiajie said with a smile, “Even if Big Brother and I wanted to buy you these things, we don’t have that kind of money on hand. Jiaxin, that woman knows how to put on an act, and Third Uncle can’t help but be fooled by her sometimes. But you’re his only daughter, his money and property will all go to you eventually.”
Between him and Big Brother, their salaries were handed over to their households the moment they were paid, leaving them with at most a yuan or two on hand. These items together were worth several hundred yuan, even selling their own blood, the two of them couldn’t have scraped that much together.