Chapter 8 Moving House

  Many things that my mother can tolerate, don't mean I can tolerate them. In other words, I'm a kid who will definitely retaliate when wronged. Those middle-aged women with fading charm and beauty, who constantly mock and ridicule me, have made me increasingly uncomfortable. After a period of endurance and observation, I finally found an opportunity to take revenge.

  Among the several foolish women, the one who shouted the most was a woman named Guo from next door. Relying on her husband being a workshop director in the factory, she usually loved to gossip and stir up trouble. Because of her boldness and her husband being a small official, no one dared to provoke her in this small alley. It can be said that she has some of the style of a female demon. My target for revenge is her. I personally think that as long as the strongest fighter among these foolish women is taken down, the others will not be worth worrying about.

  That day, I waited until 6:10 pm. Wearing plastic slippers, I walked out of the house and stood at the door, watching the alley for that woman's husband to get off work.

  "Ding ding!" From a distance, I saw him, an old man with a hairstyle that was once popular in the countryside, riding a bicycle into the alley.

  I suppressed the fear in my heart, took a few deep breaths and tried to calm myself down. Then I pretended nothing was wrong and turned back home, half-closing the door to listen to the movements in the corridor.

  "Fourth Red, open the door!" Guo's husband leaned his bicycle against the passageway and started yelling at the door.

  "It's now!" I took a deep breath, pushed open the small window in the inner room of my home. Gnashing my teeth, I shouted: "Hey? Hey? Uncle, don't you have any shame? You're climbing through windows with your butt exposed in broad daylight."

  This shout suddenly startled the neighboring gossipmongers who had been idle for a long time. Who would climb over the wall in broad daylight? This kind of thing was as attractive to them as cow dung was to flies. In an instant, the rear windows of each household were pushed open one after another, and the women all stuck their heads out to take a peek around. The only ones who didn't open their window were the Guo family. Why? Because at 6 o'clock, I saw her carrying bucket after bucket of water from the public faucet in the corridor back to her home. What for? To take a bath! At this time, it's likely that the soap bubbles on her head hadn't been rinsed off yet, so why would she open the window to watch the commotion?

  That year and month, there was no air conditioning. In a good home environment, there was only one fan. A dormitory building like this, in the summer it's like a steamer, making people feel hot and stuffy. I guess this woman really couldn't take the heat, so she thought of taking a cool shower at home? But she didn't know that I've been waiting at home every day, just waiting for today's opportunity.

  "Hey, Mengmeng, did you really see a naked man climbing out of the window?" The auntie next door asked me with raised eyebrows. She seemed to want to get firsthand information from my mouth.

  "No, it's okay! Maybe I was wrong, I was wrong!" I pretended to be flustered and responded, then closed the windows at home under everyone's watchful eyes!

  "Fourth Red, open the door. What are you doing at home?" My loud shout made Guo's husband feel a surge of anger in his heart. He didn't even bother to look at the mocking faces of the neighbors on either side, and with a clenched fist, he started pounding on the wooden door of his own home.

  "Who's knocking? Can't you see I'm taking a bath?! How can I open the door for you?" A loud and fierce voice came from inside the house, belonging to Guo's wife. It seemed as if she was deliberately stalling for time, allowing her non-existent lover to escape smoothly.

  "Haha! This bath is really early!" Gradually, the corridor was filled with people who came to watch the excitement. From the crowd, someone added another sentence.

  "Where did you buy this cabbage today? It's so green!" There are actually a lot of gossipy people in the world!

  What can be tolerated and what cannot, Guo's wife's husband is a cadre in the factory every day, managing hundreds of people under him. Can he bear such ridicule from others now? At this moment, anger rose from his heart, and one foot kicked towards the wooden door in front of him that blocked his way to the truth.

  A loud crash, accompanied by a woman's scream. The door was kicked open, and at this moment, the woman, Guo, was standing naked in a large wooden tub, pouring water over her body to rinse off. Caught off guard when the door was suddenly kicked open, she was so startled that she forgot to grab clothes to cover herself. As a result, her husband's face turned green with rage. It was a scene witnessed by all, absolutely everyone. Hmm, people ask me how I knew? Well, I found out later from my younger friends. Given my character, I would never get involved in grown-ups' business and snoop around on anything. No way!

  In the following days, those women shifted their attention from me to Guo's family. Every day, they would get up early and gather in groups of three or five to ask about the latest developments. Some even brought out candies that had been stored at home for a long time, now half-melted, trying to coax more "truth" out of my mouth! Each time this happened, I would say that I didn't know anything, that I must have read too many books and ruined my eyes.

  A little kid said he read books until his eyes were blurred, and shouted that Uncle was not wearing pants. And without mentioning who stole the affair, what can you do to me? Many times, I will secretly feel proud for a while.

  In the end, Guo's wife and her husband chose to move out. I didn't ask where they went, but after that, the dormitory building became much quieter. There were fewer idle people meddling in other people's business, and family conflicts decreased. Does this count as one of my great merits?

  Half a month after Guo's wife moved away, one evening when the old man came back from work, he excitedly shouted to the old lady "We are going to move too!"

  My mother thought my father was crazy, at that time the houses were all allocated by the unit. Relying on her and my father's years of service, it would take another decade or so to qualify for a house allocation. My father suddenly came home saying he wanted to move, my mother naturally didn't believe him.

  It wasn't until Dad took out the key and waved it in front of Mom, proclaiming himself the greatest under heaven, that Mom finally believed him. After her initial surprise wore off, she began questioning where the house came from. As for me, I was hiding in the inner room, continuing to eat grapes without spitting out the skins, or rather, not eating grapes but still spitting out the skins, all under Master's supervision.

  "Unbelievable! I only responded to the country's call back then, and now the country hasn't forgotten about us. As one of the first batch of single children, we'll get priority allocation for housing in the factory compound. 5th floor, from now on we'll be living in a high-rise too!" The curtain outside was filled with Dad's excited voice.

  "So, does this house belong to our family from now on? Do we need to pay for it? If so, where are we going to get that much money?" Mom was calmer and her first reaction was to ask if they needed to pay the government for the house. She thought that such a good thing happening to their family was hard to believe. She was afraid that Dad would be cheated by someone.

  "Can official documents be fake? Let's pick a date and move!" Dad picked up the teapot on the table, gulped down a few mouthfuls and said to Mom.

  "Master, you said, my dad won't really be deceived by someone, will he?" Suddenly knowing that our family can move into a building that all the cadres envy, to be honest, I also have some doubts in my heart. So, I stopped muttering to myself and turned to ask Master who was sitting beside me with an air of calmness.

  "Haha, why bother with such thoughts? The world's affairs are ever-changing. Focus on practicing your tongue-twisters." My master patted me on the head and said to me.

  They say it's choosing a good day to move, but actually, there was only one day in between! On the third day, early in the morning, our family moved under the envious and jealous eyes of our neighbors next door, surrounded by a group of colleagues from my father's work unit. There were very few things, just a TV set, two wooden beds, a five-drawer cabinet, and a wardrobe. A single cart was enough to take everything away. On the day we moved, Liu Jun, the fat boy, brought some friends he usually played with to see me off. Watching them sniffle as they took out brand new picture cards from their pockets and handed them to me, my nose also turned sour.

  And He Jingying took off a small, mysterious silver bangle from her wrist and stuffed it into my pocket. She said, "If you have any trouble in the future, go to Qitaihe, Heilongjiang to find me!" I invited her to visit my new home, but she shook her head and said she had to return to Heilongjiang to inherit a responsibility that she must inherit. This sentence was very complicated, and it wasn't until many years later that I understood what Nose Mucus Girl inherited. And on her frail shoulders, how much responsibility did she bear?

  I wanted to find something that caught my eye, to give to He Jingying. After rummaging through my pockets for half a day, I still couldn't come up with anything. In desperation, I had no choice but to seek the help of my master, who was standing beside me carrying a rattan box.

  "The jade pendant I gave to Xiaoyu earlier was worth much more than this silver bangle." Master said in a low voice, glancing at the silver bangle in my hand.

  "Jingying, even if you go back to Heilongjiang, don't forget about Auntie." It was Old Mother, with reddened eyes, who came forward and grasped Jingying's hand, speaking tearfully. Finally, Old Mother pulled out a small cloth package wrapped in red from her pocket, took out a silver chain from inside, and hung it around the little girl's neck.

  "Wow, you still have this kind of thing at home? What a big spender!" Master glanced at the silver chain and looked at the intricately carved twelve zodiac signs on it, clicking his tongue in surprise.

  "What a big hand!" I had never seen Mom wear this chain before, and asked immediately!

  "If I'm not mistaken, it should be from the Imperial Palace... the apron chain!" Master took a deep breath.

  "After messing around for half a day, this exquisite thing is just a waist chain?" I said with some disdain.

  "Heh heh, after a few years, who knows if it will be worth a lot more?" the master said with a smile as he stroked his beard.

  That night, after my mom used her hands to make noodles with five-spice meat and dried tofu to entertain the workers from my dad's unit who came to help, I only found out that the chain was given by my grandmother to my mom. In other words, it was a gift from the mother-in-law to the daughter-in-law when they first met. It seems that my mom really wanted He Jingying, this snotty girl, to enter our family's door.