Meng Wenzhou had just closed his eyes when Xia Xianxian, on the inner side of the bed, clutched her stomach and sat up.
“How is it? Does it still hurt badly?”
He opened his eyes immediately, turned on the flashlight by the bedside, and asked Xia Xianxian by its light, “Should I go pour you some more hot water?”
“It’s much better. I’m just getting up to use the restroom.”
The rain had stopped long ago, but the moisture in the air remained. Compared to the daytime, the temperature at night had dropped sharply.
As a gust of wind blew past, it caused Xia Xianxian to shiver.
Hastily throwing on a coat, she ran outside.
“Xianxian, let’s build a toilet and a bathroom,” Meng Wenzhou, sitting by the bedside, suddenly spoke up as he felt the chill radiating from Xia Xianxian’s body.
“Eh?”
Xia Xianxian paused just as she was slipping back under the quilt, tilting her head to look at her childhood friend.
“Didn’t we say we should behave ourselves and lay low since we just arrived?”
“Well, hasn’t it been a few days since we got here?” Having said that, he pulled Xia Xianxian over with great enthusiasm to map out the plan.
“The autumn harvest just finished, so everyone isn’t all that busy. If we build a house, we can get people to help. Besides, didn’t we just get a sum of money from the family split a few days ago? This house is brand new; adding a toilet and a bathroom won’t cost much money, and it will be easy to justify to outsiders.”
Hearing this, Xia Xianxian’s interest was also piqued.
To be honest, the thing that caused her the most agony since transmigrating was the toilet issue.
The dry latrines in this rural area consisted of a large hole dug at the edge of the fields with a few wooden planks laid across. Not only was the odor foul, but it also made one feel incredibly unsafe.
Thinking of this, Xia Xianxian directed a look of sympathy toward Meng Wenzhou; he must have held back with great difficulty over the past few days as well. One had to know that this guy used to be the most fastidious person, always placing air fresheners in the bathroom.
Xia Xianxian suddenly asked with concern, “Hey, but if we do that, won’t our house become smelly?”
“I observed over the last two days—there is bamboo on the back mountain. We can research how to use bamboo to make pipes.” Meng Wenzhou paused for a moment before continuing, “Though I still need to think a bit more about a simple flushing system.”
Xia Xianxian’s eyes completely lit up; there was a real prospect here!
It seemed the rural dry latrine had truly tortured Meng Wenzhou to no small degree.
…
Early the next morning, Meng Wenzhou wiped the bicycle completely clean.
The ground outside hadn’t dried yet, making it muddy to walk on, and riding the bicycle would cause mud to splatter everywhere.
He simply pushed the bicycle and walked toward the old house.
Just as he stepped out the gate, he ran into Auntie Li from next door.
To call her a neighbor wasn’t entirely accurate. The new house was at the very tail end of Shuize Village; unlike the bustling area around the old house up front, this place backed up against the mountain, with only a few scattered households living nearby.
This Auntie Li’s house was half a li away from the Meng family, so she could barely count as a neighbor.
Auntie Li was wearing a washed-out blue jacket today, with the collar and cuffs frayed into fuzzy edges. Her pair of triangular eyes darted around improperly, as if probing for some gossip.
“Little Fifth, you’re heading out?”
The scrutiny and faint excitement in Auntie Li’s eyes made Meng Wenzhou intensely dislike her.
“Yes, Auntie.”
Nodding casually to greet her, he intended to push the bicycle and leave.
“Aiyah, Little Fifth, it’s not that Auntie wants to criticize you, but you’re still newlyweds. No matter how lazy a wife is, you can’t just raise your hand and beat her.”
After directly convicting Meng Wenzhou, she nodded her head with an air of gravity. “But that wife of yours indeed needs a good lesson. I’ve truly never seen a wife that lazy in my life.”
Xia Xianxian, whose stomach felt uncomfortable after waking up early, stepped out the door only to see Meng Wenzhou standing together with this auntie whose hair had vegetable leaves stuck to it.
“Auntie, what are you talking about? Why don’t you share it with me so I can listen too?”
At this moment, Xia Xianxian was no longer in a hurry to use the restroom. Crossing her arms, she looked at this old auntie with a chilly gaze.
This demeanor of hers seemed to say: Speak, go ahead and speak. I, the party involved, am right here; let’s see what kind of logical explanation you can come up with.
Seeing that the person she was badmouthing was right in front of her, Auntie Li shrank back sullenly. “No… nothing was said.”
“Nothing? I thought Auntie was talking bad about me behind my back, which is why you didn’t want to tell me.” Xia Xianxian was smiling brilliantly at this moment.
“How could that be, how could that be. Auntie was just joking with you two.”
Auntie Li didn’t dare to lock eyes with her at all. After speaking, her eyes caught sight of Meng Tieniu, who was walking down after gathering mountain goods from the mountain. She immediately shouted at him, “Tieniu! Tieniu!”
“Auntie, what are you all talking about, gathered around together?”
“Nothing, nothing. We just bumped into each other and said hello. You all carry on with your work. I need to head home to do chores too.”
Auntie Li greeted him and prepared to run home. This young girl’s eyes were so sharp, and Little Fifth beside her just stood there without saying a word; if she didn’t leave now, she suspected she might get beaten up.
This Auntie Li had possessed a loose tongue and loved to spread rumors since she was young, and though she had been beaten countless times for it, she simply never learned her lesson.
“I thought you were talking about what happened yesterday,” Tieniu said, scratching his head as he saw everyone about to disperse.
“What!”
The moment these words came out, Auntie Li instantly lost her desire to leave. Grinning to reveal her yellow teeth inside, she leaned straight toward Tieniu.
Frightened by Auntie Li suddenly leaning in, Tieniu took two steps back, wiped his face, and said, “Auntie, weren’t you in a hurry to go back and do chores?”
Seeing Meng Tieniu back away, Auntie Li yanked him over and said anxiously, “It’s fine, this brief moment won’t delay anything. Hurry up and tell me, what happened yesterday?”
Meng Tieniu turned his head to look at Meng Wenzhou instead, saying, “Zhou-zi, what happened at your house yesterday? How come I suddenly heard Sister-in-law shouting your name so loudly? Did something happen at home?”
Well, after all that fussing around, it turned out everyone had been circling around the exact same matter all morning.
“Yesterday we went for our homecoming visit, didn’t we? As a result, it rained heavily on the way back, so we rushed home in a hurry.”
“When I was organizing things in the room, I couldn’t find the items my mother had given me. I was incredibly anxious at the time, so I just shouted out.”
“Aiyah, are the things still there?” Hearing this made even Meng Tieniu feel anxious for the two of them.
Meng Wenzhou took over the conversation with a smile: “They’re there, they’re there. It was all my fault; I went to the kitchen to pour water and just casually tossed them aside over there.”
“Hehehe, as long as everything is fine.”
Hearing that this was all it was about, Auntie Li curled her lip. Dropping a line that she had things to do, she rolled her eyes and walked home.
Since Auntie Li had left, their temporary gossip squad naturally dispersed as well.
By the time he pushed the bicycle into the old house, the sky had completely brightened. Reasonably speaking, there shouldn’t be many people in the courtyard at this hour since everyone would have gone to work.
Yet at this moment, everyone was gathered quite completely.
It appeared he hadn’t come at a good time. However, since he had already pushed the door and entered, he couldn’t just abandon the bicycle and leave without a care; otherwise, how could he face anyone in this village in the future?
Meng Guoqiang took a puff of tobacco from his pipe, then rolled up his eyelids to look at Meng Wenzhou, who was pushing the bicycle, and said, “Leave it over there by the corner of the wall.”
“Ah, yes, Father.”
Meng Wenzhou complied. He didn’t inquire much at this moment, silently pushing the bicycle to place it against the foot of the wall.
“Father, Mother, you have to decide this matter for me!”