Chapter 20: Setting Up the New Home

After wiping her hands, Yun Shu opened the windows to ventilate the room. The two young women sat by the doorway watching the sunset, planning to head inside to settle their soft furnishings once the room cooled down.

Later, as if suddenly remembering something, Yun Shu ran back inside, rolled up the bedding, and stacked it under the back window to expose as much of the reed mat on the kang as possible.

Once she finished, Yun Shu told her friend, "Quick, lift up the bedding. Otherwise, this rattan-woven mat will trap the coolness and hold heat, and since the bedding will block the airflow, we’ll be too hot to sleep tonight."

This made perfect sense. The "autumn tiger"—the lingering summer heat—was still quite fierce, and the young people, lacking much life experience, immediately decided to follow her advice.

While waiting for the heat to dissipate, Team Leader Xie brought over the man who had been out of town visiting his mother-in-law to help with the electrical wiring. After much bustling—pulling wires, connecting circuits, securing fixtures, and installing light bulbs—the task was done.

By the time dusk fell, the room was successfully illuminated by a soft, slightly yellowish glow. It certainly wasn't as bright as the varied lighting of the twenty-first century, and it was even a bit dim, but it was better than nothing and far superior to a kerosene lamp.

Conveniently, they no longer had to tidy up the room in the dark.

The group thanked Team Leader Xie repeatedly. Once the room had finally cooled down, they dove back into their chores with enthusiastic diligence.

...

Yun Shu’s belongings were arguably the most numerous among the group. When she first arrived in the countryside, she had brought two large parcels and carried a military-style overcoat on her back. Later, during a trip to the county seat, she collected three more large packages sent from home and bought many daily necessities, so unpacking took her the longest.

First, she opened the two large wardrobes, folding and hanging her clothes according to their thickness and season, as she would need them all.

The spring and autumn in Northeast China are actually quite troublesome, as the temperatures can span all four seasons. Just like now, when it’s hot during the day, one wants nothing more than to sprawl on the kang in short sleeves and shorts, breaking into a sweat with the slightest movement. Yet, as soon as the sun sets and the autumn breeze picks up, one must put on a long-sleeved outer layer.

Before long, after the autumn harvest, the Northeast would gradually grow cold, with temperatures dropping from twenty degrees Celsius above zero to about thirty degrees below zero. This fifty-degree span meant Yun Shu had to prepare everything: thermal underwear, sweaters, wool pants, and padded cotton clothes.

The thin clothes, for the time being... could not be packed away.

The two wardrobes were eighty percent full. Once she acquired more things later, her large camphor wood chest would come in handy.

After organizing her clothes, she placed the washbasin and towel rack next to the wardrobe. With three tiers, it was perfect: one for the face basin, one for the laundry basin, and one for the foot basin. She draped her face and hair towels over the rack and set out her toothbrush mug, toothbrush, toothpaste, and facial soap. Everything was just about ready.

The laundry powder and shampoo were placed on a wall-mounted shelf; since they weren't needed every day, there was no point in letting them take up space in plain sight.

There were also scissors, a hot water bottle, two aluminum lunch boxes, balls of yarn, fabric, and some snacks she had bought.

Recalling the traces of life in her rural hometown, Yun Shu sighed. She felt she would need to find Carpenter Wang to make some woven baskets and small containers. With things placed as they were, the small, scattered items looked a bit messy, and she felt a belated regret that she hadn't bought more storage items.

True enough, just like shopping for school supplies, it was impossible to buy everything one needed in a single month.

...

The dish rack had just been placed on the kitchen counter by Xie Guotao. He would bring the blue bricks tomorrow, and he had also helped secure the large iron pot. Yun Shu only needed to organize her bowls, chopsticks, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar.

She might not want to cook, but there was no guarantee she wouldn't have to one day, so she had to have the essentials.

The large water vat was placed between the stove and the storage shelf for easy access, and it wouldn't obstruct her sleep above her head.

The small square table and chairs, just enough for two, were placed under the front window. A thermos sat on the table, and a tea tray held an enamel kettle and two enamel mugs. Yun Shu didn't like eating on the kang, as she felt it would drop too many crumbs. If she had a kang table, she would use it for writing, reading, or storing odds and ends like yarn.

The two thick quilts her mother had mailed were tucked into the kang cabinet. Whether used for sleeping on or under, they were sure to be warm.

In the lower compartments, she placed her intimate apparel, and she kept her flashlight by the head of the bed near her pillow. With this, her existing things were mostly organized.

Sitting on the kang to rest for a moment, Yun Shu took a sip of water, caught her breath, and began fiddling with hemp rope and fabric scraps, thinking about making two curtains and a dust cover for the space above the kang.

...

Curtains were easy. While Yun Shu’s overall craft skills weren't as good as the locals', she knew some manual work. She hadn't spent all that time watching DIY videos from handicraft masters on Douyin for nothing.

After measuring the dimensions and cutting the fabric with scissors, she folded one end over by about a centimeter and sewed it. She then threaded a wire through the gap, tied the ends of the wire to nails driven into the window frame, and pulled them taut. A simple yet practical curtain was finished.

Following the same method, she made another one. Yun Shu climbed down from the kang and began pondering how to make a dust cover.

The ceilings in their individual rooms were very high—nearly four meters—so nailing fabric to the ceiling to prevent dust from falling wasn't practical.

Mostly, she just couldn't reach that high.

So she had to find another way—making a bed canopy similar to what she had in her college dorm. It would be convenient for blocking dust and hanging a mosquito net.

Yun Shu studied it carefully and finally decided against using the kang cabinet as a simple support. After all, the cabinet was twenty centimeters shorter than the kang; if she used it as a support, her head would likely be wrapped in the mosquito net, rendering it useless for keeping bugs away.

After taking measurements, she ran to find her best friend for help. The two girls worked together to assemble a rectangular frame from bamboo strips—two meters by two meters by 1.6 meters—leaving one side open at the bottom. With a great deal of effort, they heaved and shoved it onto the kang.

It was a perfect fit, encompassing the kang cabinet and covering the entire space on the kang.

The two-meter-square mosquito net fit perfectly over it. She secured the four corners against the wall with nails, and it was so sturdy it wouldn't even budge. This way, Yun Shu only needed to stretch a piece of fabric across the top of the frame and secure the mosquito net inside to effectively prevent dust from falling. The small space created by the net also gave her a sense of security.

She couldn't help it; she just loved the feeling of being alone in such a small, private space.

Tucking the corners of the mosquito net under the reed mat, the two girls sat on the kang, looking through the white gauze at Yun Shu’s transformed room. They both felt incredibly satisfied.

Lin Jingshu also loved this method of hanging the net, so the two of them hurried out before it was completely dark to build a similar frame for her.

The two young women worked away, heaving and straining, without any intention of letting the nearby male educated youths help. With everything already tidied up, Jiang Xiucheng and the two other men could only stand by and watch foolishly.

Several times, seeing the two young women struggling to carry the large frame, Chen Ming and Jiang Xiucheng couldn't help but want to step in, but they were rebuffed by the stubborn "No, no!" shouts from the two girls.