The Qiao family lived on the far eastern end of the first floor. About a meter to their right was the wall surrounding the apartment building, while the Hu family lived directly to their left. There were no other neighbors nearby.
On every floor of their apartment building, there were two water taps outside the doors of the washroom and shower room in the middle of the building, where people could wash clothes. Each apartment also had its own kitchen and toilet. There were places to splash water both inside and outside the homes, so almost no one would pour water outside their door, especially since people frequently walked through the area below.
Therefore, the water in front of their door couldn’t possibly have been poured down from upstairs.
Once they thought about it that way, it was obvious who had poured the water there.
Who else could it be but the Hu family?
They were the only neighbors next door, and they had just had a disagreement with the Qiao family the day before.
He Yingying leaned closer and smelled it. She immediately covered her nose.
“I’m guessing the Hu family poured the leftover soup from their overnight dishes in front of our door. It reeks of sour, spoiled food. If we shine the flashlight on the ground, it’ll probably look greasy too. If we don’t clean it up quickly, this weather is practically guaranteed to attract flies and bugs.”
Hearing this, the whole family didn’t even have time to get angry.
Qiao Zhufang said, “Quick, let’s get inside first. Go to the kitchen, fill a few basins with water, and hurry up and wash the area outside the door!”
The family carried several buckets of water outside and poured them over the ground.
Only after the area in front of their door was finally clean and the smell was gone did they stop.
At that moment, He Yingying couldn’t help sighing. The old saying really was true: it was better to offend a gentleman than a petty person.
You could never imagine what disgusting tricks a petty person might come up with to make your life difficult—especially someone who never learned from their mistakes.
Normally, when ordinary people suffered a loss, they would keep their heads down and behave themselves for a while afterward.
But what about the Hu family?
They had just been confronted by their creditors the day before, and all the tomatoes in their field had been taken as repayment. Instead of thinking about how to quickly repay their debts and get their lives back on track, they still had the energy to cause trouble?
As the head of the family, Qiao Qiusheng said,
“You all go inside first. We’ve been busy all day, and Jia Jia hasn’t even slept. Hurry up and wash her and get her to bed early. I’ll deal with this.”
After saying that, he went outside and looked toward the Hu family’s apartment.
The Hu family’s window was completely dark. Like most of the other households in the building, their lights had already been turned off. It looked as though the entire family had gone to sleep.
Qiao Qiusheng thought for two seconds.
Then he bent down, picked up several small stones from the ground, and threw them directly at the Hu family’s window.
“Even though their lights are off, they probably still feel guilty after doing something bad just now. There’s no way they’ve gone to sleep yet. Even if we smash their window, they’re probably too scared to come out and check right away.”
Qiao Qiusheng spoke to his son with an utterly calm expression before slowly walking back inside.
When it came to people like the Hu family, he understood their mentality quite well.
Qiao Heping was startled by the swift way his father had thrown the stones and smashed the window.
Then he laughed.
That kind of retaliation really did feel satisfying.
He had originally been thinking about putting a sack over the neighbor’s head and beating him up.
This was pretty good too.
As for the Hu family, having to spend money to replace their window glass would probably hurt badly.
If he hadn’t seen wrong, his father had just thrown several stones. The entire panes of both of the Hu family’s windows were probably shattered.
Replacing them would cost four or five yuan!
When Qiao Jia Jia was carried inside to be washed, she was absolutely furious.
Unfortunately, she was still tiny and couldn’t help with anything, so all she could do was curse the Hu family in her heart.
But she hadn’t even cursed them a few times when she heard noises outside.
Then she remembered that her father and grandfather had just gone outside.
What else could have happened?
When she realized that the Hu family’s window glass had been smashed, Qiao Jia Jia finally felt better.
After Qiao Qiusheng and Qiao Heping returned inside, they stopped paying attention to what was happening next door.
As the saying went, when catching thieves, you needed to catch them in the act.
When they had smashed the Hu family’s windows just now, the Hu family had been too guilty to come outside and investigate. Since they hadn’t caught anyone on the spot, now that the Qiao father and son were back inside, they had nothing to do with the broken windows.
No matter what the Hu family said, they simply wouldn’t admit to anything.
If the Hu family claimed that someone from the Qiao family had smashed the windows, then they would have to produce evidence.
Otherwise, the Qiao family could just as easily say that someone passing by had thrown the stones.
Or perhaps the Hu family themselves had accidentally broken their own windows!
The next morning, as soon as the Hu family stepped outside, they marched angrily over to the Qiao family.
Putting on a tough front despite their lack of confidence, they demanded,
“Was it you who smashed our windows last night?”
Qiao Qiusheng didn’t take them seriously at all.
“You say we smashed them, so that makes it true? Where’s your evidence?
“I could just as easily say that someone passing by casually threw a stone at them. Or maybe you broke them yourselves by accident!”
They had been too guilty to come outside and check the previous night, and now they wanted to start trouble.
There was no way Qiao Qiusheng was going to entertain them.
Hu Shifu angrily said,
“If it wasn’t you, then who was it? Last night, I had just—”
Qiao Qiusheng turned around and smiled.
“Had just what?”
Hu Shifu didn’t dare continue.
If he admitted that he had been the one who poured the foul leftover soup in front of the Qiao family’s door first, then even if he claimed that the Qiao family had smashed his windows, none of the neighbors in the building would take his side.
Especially since he had no evidence.
Seeing Hu Shifu’s expression change repeatedly as he struggled to find the courage to continue, Qiao Qiusheng thought to himself that this wasn’t over yet.
He stepped forward and, with one swift movement, dislocated Hu Shifu’s arm.
Then he immediately put it back into place.
That brief moment of dislocation was more than enough to make Hu Shifu suffer.
Hu Shifu was terrified by the sudden move.
He clutched his arm and jumped several steps backward, his face filled with fear.
Qiao Qiusheng smiled and, in a very good mood, gave him a warning.
“I don’t know who smashed your windows, but from now on, if anything happens to our windows, I’ll assume you’re deliberately provoking us and taking revenge.
“Don’t blame me if I beat you up then.
“Oh, and you’ll have to pay for the damage too.
“You know what I’m capable of. Back when I was catching enemy agents, I once broke a man’s arm with my bare hands.
“What I just did was only dislocate your arm for a moment. If I catch you doing something bad again next time, it won’t be this simple.
“You understand what I’m saying.”
By the time he finished speaking, Qiao Qiusheng’s expression had turned cold and intimidating.
Hu Shifu was so frightened by his gaze that he didn’t dare move.
From that day onward, Hu Shifu and his wife finally behaved themselves.
They no longer dared to cause trouble, and they didn’t even dare come close to the Qiao family.
For the Qiao family, having that annoying nuisance next door finally stop bothering them made life feel much more peaceful.
Qiao Heping laughed as he said to his father,
“If I’d known he would behave after something like this, I would’ve beaten him up ten times or eight times earlier and taught him a lesson.
“We were simply too civilized before.
“Dad, if they cause trouble again next time, let me handle it. I’ll beat him up.”
Qiao Qiusheng said indifferently,
“We’ll talk about it if there’s a next time.”
With the Hu family finally keeping to themselves, a week passed.
The Qiao family quickly put the whole incident behind them and couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the neighbors anymore.
At this point, the whole family was thinking about the photographs they had taken a week earlier.
They had finally gotten them back.
Ping’an Photo Studio was extremely popular.
It was still the 1950s, and the political movement had not yet begun. There were quite a few people with money, and especially many who were willing to spend it on photographs.
The process of developing and printing photographs also took time.
With so many people waiting in line, it normally took at least one or two months to receive the photographs after having them taken.
However, the Qiao family had paid for an expedited service.
They could get their photographs after only one week, but the price was twice as high.
Under normal circumstances, one black-and-white photograph cost four jiao.
With the expedited service, each photograph cost eight jiao.
The Qiao family had also chosen to have the photographs hand-colored.
The photographer used watercolor paint to add color to the photographs, turning them into what were essentially color photographs.
They looked much prettier than black-and-white photographs.
However, that cost an additional one yuan per photograph.
So this time, the photographs had been quite expensive.
Each one cost a total of 1.8 yuan—enough to buy nearly three jin of meat.
And the Qiao family hadn’t taken just one photograph.
They had taken six in total.
That meant they had spent 10.8 yuan!
For that era, this was definitely an expensive amount.
But the Qiao family didn’t feel reluctant to spend it at all.
After receiving the photographs, Qiao Zhufang even praised the photographer for doing such a good job with the coloring.
The color photographs really did feel completely different from the black-and-white ones they had taken the previous year!
Qiao Jia Jia sat at the table in her mother’s arms and looked at the color photographs with everyone.
But after seeing these so-called color photographs, she was genuinely shocked.
She had originally assumed that hand-coloring a photograph meant reproducing the colors of the clothes and everything else exactly as they had appeared on the day the photograph was taken.
Apparently, that wasn’t how it worked!
In these color photographs, everyone’s hair was painted black, and everyone’s lips were painted red.
Even her grandfather and father, the two men in the family, had bright red lips.
As for the colors of their clothes, the photographer simply chose them according to his own judgment.
The men’s clothes were generally darker shades such as black, gray, military green, and dark blue.
The women’s clothes, meanwhile, were almost always pink, red, or yellow!
When Qiao Jia Jia had gone to take the photographs that day, she had been wearing a red plaid pinafore dress.
But after the photograph was colored, her dress had become pink.
She didn’t really understand why they hadn’t colored it red.
But after thinking about it, Qiao Jia Jia understood.
If every tiny detail in every photograph had to be reproduced perfectly, the photographer would have to spend forever painting them.
If that were really the case, it certainly wouldn’t cost just one extra yuan.
Qiao Heping had ridden his bicycle to the photo studio after work to pick up the photographs.
While he was there, he also bought some picture frames.
He even bought two photo albums.
That way, the photographs that weren’t framed and hung on the wall wouldn’t have to be kept underneath the glass on the table anymore.
It was quite troublesome to take them out and look at them every time.
Although Qiao Jia Jia was only one year old, the family already had more than a dozen photographs of her.
Of course, there would be many more in the future.
The black-and-white photographs and these so-called color photographs of this era were nowhere near as detailed or beautiful as the photographs made possible by the advanced technology of later generations.
But Qiao Jia Jia loved them.
These photographs recorded her growth in this life.
And, most importantly, they recorded a childhood spent with the people she loved most by her side.
After celebrating her birthday, Qiao Jia Jia was considered to have grown another year older.
Strictly speaking, she had only just turned one.
But since she had been born the previous year, whenever other people asked how old she was, her family would usually say that she was already two.
Her daily life after turning one wasn’t much different from before.
If there was one notable change, it was that the family had acquired a radio.
The moment the radio appeared, all the toys that the family had bought for Qiao Jia Jia and all the cloth dolls they had sewn for her were instantly forgotten.
Qiao Jia Jia couldn’t help it.
There was no television in the house, and she was only one year old, so she couldn’t exactly pass the time by reading books.
Now that they had a radio, how could she not treasure it?
No matter how boring the program was, she listened to it with great interest.
And since Qiao Zhufang had nothing better to do, she simply decided to use the radio to teach her beloved granddaughter Russian.