Shen Yanshu understood—he felt for his sister too, of course—but remembering his father's instructions before they left, he could only steel his heart: "Stop making a fuss. It's just a public restroom, isn't it? If others can use it, why can't you?"
Shen Yitang stared at Shen Yanshu in disbelief, unable to accept that these words had actually come from his mouth.
"Just a public restroom? Why don't you go take a look yourself? There's not even a place to set your feet, and it's crawling with white maggots—it's disgusting!"
Shen Yanshu forced patience: "Tangtang, the conditions on the island are a bit rough, but since you're here, you need to learn to adapt…"
"I can't adapt. I could never adapt to this in my lifetime. I want to go home—I want to go back right now!"
Shen Yitang snatched the rope from her brother's hands, intending to re-tie her luggage.
The coarse hemp rope scraped against her palms, stinging painfully.
"Shen Yitang!" Shen Yanshu said sternly. "You're a married woman now. You can't keep being this willful."
Gu Huaijun came over to mediate: "Yanshu, Tangtang has never been to a place like this. It's normal for her to have trouble accepting it at first. Talk to her properly…"
Having already thrown up miserably in front of Brother Gu on the boat earlier, Shen Yitang felt she'd been humiliated enough. Now being scolded by her own brother over the bathroom issue, she felt she'd lost all face in this lifetime.
Without a second thought, she charged into a random room and slammed the door shut behind her.
The three men were left standing there, exchanging helpless looks.
Shen Yanshu sighed and went to knock on the door: "Tangtang, open up."
"I won't, unless you promise to take me home right now."
"Don't be willful. Going home is out of the question. Just open the door first—can we talk things through properly?"
Shen Yanshu paused, then added: "Don't you need to use the bathroom? You have to solve that problem first."
Mentioning it sent Shen Yitang into a frenzy: "I won't solve it. Let me just hold it in until I die."
Gu Huaizheng walked over silently, pulled Shen Yanshu aside, and handed him something: "It's my fault—I didn't think things through beforehand. Let her use this for now."
It was a brand-new chamber pot, the kind most households kept.
When you needed to relieve yourself in the middle of the night, you couldn't very well stumble through the dark to the public restroom, so this was the solution.
The next morning, you'd carry it to the public restroom to empty it, or simply keep it to water the vegetables—killing two birds with one stone.
Shen Yanshu looked at the object with some hesitation.
Others might not know Shen Yitang's temperament, but he certainly did.
She practically wished everyone would believe she was some ethereal fairy who had nothing to do with the mundane world.
If anyone ever found out she was associated with anything like this, even remotely, she couldn't bear it.
Would she be willing to use this thing?
Gu Huaizheng seemed to read his hesitation and pulled him outside, pointing to the window of that room: "Go around there and talk to her."
Shen Yanshu circled to the back and tapped on the window: "Tangtang, it's your brother."
Shen Yitang was crouching in the corner of the room, completely ignoring him.
Shen Yanshu tried pulling at the window—fortunately, it wasn't locked: "Tangtang, use this. Don't hurt yourself holding it in. I came alone—they don't know. No one will laugh at you."
Shen Yitang hesitated for a moment, but she really couldn't hold it any longer: "Then you have to promise you won't tell anyone!"
"I swear!"
Shen Yanshu helped Shen Yitang dispose of the evidence.
Shen Yitang dawdled for quite a while before finally emerging from the room, pretending as if nothing had happened.
But she discovered that only Shen Yanshu was in the house.
"Brother, where did they go?"
Shen Yanshu said, "They went out—left a long time ago. I only brought you the chamber pot after they were gone, and I've already washed it clean and put it back. No one will find out."
Only then did Shen Yitang breathe a sigh of relief.
Gu Huaizheng and his brother had gone to fetch bricks and cement.
After bringing them back, they dug a pit that very night, and together with his brother and her elder brother, built a private outhouse in the corner of the courtyard.
It was the very one Shen Yitang was using now.
The outhouse had no unpleasant odor—it was spotlessly clean.
Ever since this outhouse had been built, no matter how strained the relationship between the two had become, as long as Gu Huaizheng was home, he would carry a large bucket of clean water every evening and rinse the stone slabs of the outhouse until they were immaculate.
He would also carefully sprinkle lime powder around the perimeter to ward off insects.
If it hadn't been for this outhouse, Shen Yitang thought, she probably wouldn't have stayed on this island at all.
In the courtyard, the basin of water for washing her face had already been prepared, and he had thoughtfully covered it with a lid, afraid she might mind the dust settling on it.
To be fair, in the very beginning, Gu Huaizheng had tried very hard to win her over.
There was no running water in the courtyard, and she complained that water drawn from the well outside and stored in the water vat for too long wasn't clean.
So he specially found someone to dig a well in the courtyard, and every morning he would rise early to draw several buckets of fresh, clean well water to set aside for her use.
She complained that the courtyard was all dirt—dusty on sunny days, and muddy on rainy ones.
So Gu Huaizheng found stone slabs to pave the courtyard floor, and following her wishes, used pebbles gathered from the seaside to lay a winding, meandering stone path.
On the rare occasions when she was in a good mood and would accompany him to collect pebbles, he would be especially delighted, bustling about with great enthusiasm and racking his brain to come up with all sorts of jokes to make her laugh.
She didn't know how to cook and refused to learn, so he would go to the mess hall three times a day to fetch meals and bring them back for her.
Everyone said that Regiment Commander Gu hadn't married a wife—he'd clearly brought back an ancestor to wait on hand and foot.
But no matter how much affection there was, it couldn't withstand day after day of warmth being met with cold indifference, never able to thaw the ice.
At that time, Shen Yitang felt no gratitude for all that Gu Huaizheng did for her.
Because she believed that all the suffering she endured had been brought upon her by him alone.
She also disliked the way he smacked his lips while eating, and how he'd come back from training drenched in sweat and flop straight onto the bed.
She disliked that he knew nothing of poetry and song, that he couldn't discuss literature and art with her.
She disliked that he had no gentleness toward her, that every night all he wanted was that one thing, and that he was rough in his actions, always hurting her.
Finally, when Shen Yitang once again kicked him out of bed and made him sleep on the floor, Gu Huaizheng had had enough.
He wasn't going to keep chasing after her anymore.
The more she despised something, the more he doubled down on it.
He deliberately ate and slurped his soup loudly in front of her, deliberately pressed close to her reeking of sweat.
Deliberately climbed into bed without washing up or washing his feet, then waited for her to fly into a rage and shove him out.
Thinking back on this, Shen Yitang gritted her teeth. Perhaps it was because so much time had passed—how could she have forgotten that this man had once been this infuriating?
Last night, he'd gotten off far too easy.
Shen Yitang walked into the kitchen and lifted the lid off the pot.
Inside was the breakfast Gu Huaizheng had brought back for her from the cafeteria, placed in a basin and kept warm with hot water.
Two steamed buns, one egg, and a bowl of millet porridge.
She reached out and touched it—still slightly warm, not completely cold.
So she brought it out, sat down at the dining table, and ate slowly, taking small bites.
Another bugle call sounded—it was lunchtime.
So she had been sitting in a daze for that long without realizing it.
This was the good thing about living in the military district.
Everything was arranged by the bugle calls.
There was a wake-up call in the morning, a meal call for eating, and a lights-out call at night.
Once the lights-out call sounded, the electricity would be cut off. If you wanted to read something, you could only use a dim kerosene lamp.
Now it was the meal call. As soon as Shen Yitang heard it, she knew it was lunchtime.
Thinking that Gu Huaizheng might come back soon, her heart beat a little faster.
Sure enough, not long after, Gu Huaizheng appeared before Shen Yitang, carrying a lunchbox and reeking of sweat.
"Why did you sleep until this hour? Your breakfast must be cold by now. Don't eat that—eat this, it's fresh."
Shen Yitang was slowly sipping her porridge. Hearing this, she looked up and gave him a glance.
Gu Huaizheng immediately said, "Alright, alright, it's my fault. I wore you out. You deserve to rest well."
He's being so agreeable today? Shen Yitang glanced at him again.
"Washing my hands, washing my hands—I'll go wash them right now!" He ran to the well, drew a bucket of water, and noisily washed his hands, face, and feet, splashing water everywhere with quite a commotion.
Alive, vibrant, full of energy—that was Gu Huaizheng.
Shen Yitang tried hard to suppress the corners of her mouth, keeping herself from smiling.
Seeing her still looking at him, Gu Huaizheng spoke up, "No need to change clothes, right? I still have training this afternoon. Changing several times a day—you're not the one doing my laundry!"