Chapter 48: Control Your Siberian Tiger

Li Xiangru returned home from work. As soon as she entered the courtyard, she heard a familiar melody drifting from inside the house, and the exhaustion from her day's work seemed to dissipate significantly.

"Coral Ode," a song that female comrades loved to listen to, was also a favorite of a certain male comrade in this house.

That was Comrade Jiang Jingtao.

As soon as Li Xiangru heard the song, she knew Jiang Jingtao was back. She hummed along to the melody while parking her bicycle.

However, her good mood lasted less than a minute. The moment she stepped through the door, she caught a familiar, overwhelming scent.

Her image of a gentle and virtuous mother instantly transformed into a raging Northeast Tiger. "Jiang Jingtao! Don't you go straight to the shower after coming home covered in sweat? And you took off your shoes and are lying on the sofa with your stinky feet! I just washed that sofa cover yesterday! You've dirtied it again! I'm going to beat you, you little brat!"

Before her voice had even faded, Li Xiangru had already taken off her shoe and swung it toward the sofa.

Startled by this "Lioness of Hedong" roar, Jiang Jingtao bounced up from the sofa, only to be met by his mother's small high-heeled leather shoe flying toward his face.

*I gotta dodge!*

Jiang Jingtao lunged forward, slamming onto the coffee table to narrowly avoid the projectile launched by his mother.

Having successfully escaped danger, he scrambled to pull on his shoes and flee.

"You dare dodge!" Li Xiangru was fuming. She took off her other shoe and, barefoot, chased after him.

"I am definitely going to beat you today! You're a young man old enough to start dating, so why are you so unhygienic? Is it really that hard to take a shower first when you come home covered in sweat? You insist on making the whole house smell like fermented black beans! How are we supposed to live!"

Li Xiangru was so angry she wanted to cry. Men were no good—the old ones were like this, and the young ones were the same. They were all natural slobs!

Dodging left and right, Jiang Jingtao defended himself: "Mom, I intended to shower as soon as I got back! It's just that when I turned on the radio, I heard your favorite song playing, so I listened for a bit. It's just a coincidence you came back now! It's a misunderstanding! Stop hitting me and move aside, I'm going to shower right now!"

"Now you know you need a shower?" Li Xiangru craned her neck and yelled at him, "Too late! I have to give you a beating today, otherwise, wasn't all that stinky smell I just smelled for nothing?"

If she didn't give him a beating, the frustration in her heart wouldn't subside.

Rather than stewing in silent anger, it was better to go crazy together.

With that thought, her high heel flew toward Jiang Jingtao.

Jiang Jingtao dodged the attack once again. While she was looking for a more effective weapon, he slipped out the door.

Instead, he ran straight into Comrade Jiang Yulin, who was pushing a bicycle into the courtyard.

"Dad, Papa, you're finally back! Help! Please control the Northeast Tiger in your house! If you don't, she's going to beat me to death!"

As soon as he got close, Jiang Yulin caught a whiff of that fermented scent. He knew exactly what was happening—this kid must have provoked his wife again.

He brushed aside Jiang Jingtao's reaching hands. "Can't you learn your lesson? Can't the first thing you do when you get home be to clean yourself up?"

Li Xiangru chased out of the house brandishing a stick, looking menacing. She pointed it at Jiang Yulin and said, "You're just in time. Go inside and throw out all of your son's shoes and socks, and throw the sofa cover into a basin to soak."

Then she pointed at Jiang Jingtao: "Today, you are punished to wash your own clothes, shoes, and socks. Go shower immediately. You aren't allowed to eat until everything is clean!"

"Mom, what if I can't finish them all?" Jiang Jingtao challenged weakly.

"Then don't eat!"

Having issued the ultimatum, Li Xiangru turned and marched into the kitchen without looking back.

Her heroic and fierce demeanor made Jiang Yulin's eyes sparkle; even when his wife was angry, she was so pleasing to the eye.

"Go, go, go!"

After driving the annoying brat off to shower, Jiang Yulin put down his briefcase and began tidying the living room.

He actually listened to his wife; he threw out Jiang Jingtao's stinky socks and shoes and put the sofa cover in a basin to soak.

In this era, the most fashionable socks were nylon ones—they were elastic and fit well, making them very popular, but because they weren't breathable, they were the easiest to make feet smell.

Especially for sweaty feet...

Jiang Yulin washed his hands and went into the kitchen to help.

"It's all smoke and fire in here, you don't need to help. Go rest."

Seeing her man being so proactive, Li Xiangru felt a pang of guilt and urged him to go rest in the living room.

"The living room still smells. I'll just sit here and talk to you."

As for helping, Jiang Yulin truly didn't know what he could do.

When washing vegetables, Li Xiangru complained he didn't wash them clean enough.

When cutting vegetables, she complained he cut shreds into sticks and slices into chunks.

When stir-frying, he either added too much salt or burnt the food.

The more he helped, the more trouble he caused—commonly known as "helping by hindering."

"Didn't that boy go to his classmate's house to help today? Why is he back so early?"

While chopping vegetables, Li Xiangru said, "He went to help? Do you really think your son is someone who can endure hardship? If the other person wasn't Leng Hui, do you believe he would have lasted even half an hour?"

Jiang Yulin clicked his tongue. "That youthful development has quite some momentum. That vague crush from school... he still hasn't forgotten even after graduating for so long."

The Leng family's situation was somewhat lacking; even if they married in the future, they might hold him back.

Jiang Yulin neither supported nor opposed this; whether it succeeded or not depended entirely on their son's ability.

Li Xiangru had a different view. Everything was fine before a daughter-in-law entered the house, but no one knew how things would be once she did.

"I suspect this feeling is only getting stronger. I heard him say that girl used to like this song. And now, look, your son has taken a liking to it too."

Jiang Yulin wasn't optimistic. "It doesn't matter if he likes it. It seems that girl hasn't quite realized her feelings yet; she's treating him as purely a classmate."

Li Xiangru shook her head. "They are still young. Let them interact on their own; we adults shouldn't interfere. Whatever their relationship becomes in the future is up to fate. At worst, they are destined to meet but not to be together."

"Tsk, your mindset is more open-minded than mine!" Jiang Yulin gave his wife a thumbs-up.

Li Xiangru's chopping motion paused slightly, and she shooed him away disdainfully. "Pfft, don't give me such high praise. Stop standing there idling. If you really want to help, go scrub that sofa cover clean."

"I'll rest after using the last bucket of mud."

***

Tang Lin shoveled all the mixed mud into a bucket and handed it to Leng Hui.

She then went to pump water to prepare for boiling hot water. After a busy day, both of them were a mess; they needed a bath before cooking.

By the time Leng Hui climbed down from the scaffolding, Tang Lin had already boiled the water.

"Go fetch some water to wash up first. I'll sit in the courtyard and keep watch."

They hadn't had time to install the doors and windows over the past few days—neither the courtyard gate nor the room doors and windows were in place. Without someone watching the courtyard, it wasn't convenient to bathe inside.

After the mother and daughter took turns bathing and changing into clean clothes, they began cooking together.

In the apocalypse, any ingredient was simply processed; the mother and daughter's culinary skills were limited to making food edible.

As for how delicious it was—to them, naturally uncontaminated food was the most delicious thing in the world.

Since coming here, after eating at the machinery factory for a while and then a few times at the state-run restaurant, their palates had become quite picky.

For dinner tonight, Tang Lin simply made sorghum flour pancakes and boiled some pickled cabbage.

Under the dim glow of the kerosene lamp, Leng Hui took a bite of the tooth-jarring sorghum pancake. Her face showed no enjoyment of the food; her slightly furrowed brow suggested she was eating merely to fill her stomach.

"Mom, why are the sorghum pancakes Sun Xiaojuan makes so soft and chewy, while yours almost knock my teeth out?"

Tang Lin rubbed her aching jaw. Eating these pancakes really required significant biting force. "How should I know? To make a pancake, don't you just mix the flour with water and fry it in a pan until it's golden on both sides?"

"The same method, so why is this pancake so hard? I think I'll ask Auntie Qin tomorrow." Leng Hui took small bites, chewing slowly to ease the strain on her jaw.

Tang Lin nodded and took a bite of the pickled cabbage. As soon as it hit her mouth, the sourness made her eyes and nose scrunch up. "Hiss, this cabbage is so sour! When we bought it at the market, that person said this was the most authentic flavor."

She thought it was just the most "authentically sour."

Leng Hui also took a bite; she could tolerate this level of sourness. "It's not too sour. It's within an acceptable range."

Tang Lin shook her head, not daring to reach for the cabbage bowl again. "With our cooking skills, it's a miracle we're even alive. When you find a partner in the future, the primary requirement must be that they can cook. Only then should you look for someone who is kind and capable."

Leng Hui glanced at her. "Instead of pinning your hopes on me, you might as well find a man who knows how to take care of a home and bring him back to be my stepfather. It would relieve your loneliness and take care of us—killing two birds with one stone."

"If I find another man, aren't you afraid your father will come making a scene?"

"You're already divorced; marriage and divorce are separate matters. If he comes to cause trouble, he's being unreasonable. Just drive him out. Is that really enough to make things difficult for you?"

After eating the tooth-jarring sorghum pancakes, the mother and daughter found it a bit hard to digest. Leng Hui tossed and turned in bed for a long time before finally falling asleep.

The next morning, she got up at the crack of dawn, jogged to the foot of the barren mountain behind the house, and dug up a lot of yellow clay.

For breakfast, they had the pancakes from the night before, steamed in a pot for half an hour. They weren't as hard to eat as they had been the previous night.

After eating, while rubbing her stomach, Leng Hui thought about how to help Tang Lin "trick" a man who could cook into coming home.

Eating too many of these hard pancakes made Leng Hui worry that their stomachs would develop problems.

She wanted to make an effort to finish the remaining half-wall of the courtyard this morning; she didn't want to waste a single moment.

When Qin Baiqiu passed by the courtyard carrying a basket, she saw that only one wall remained to be built and exclaimed, "Child, you build walls incredibly fast!"

Yesterday before dinner, she had seen two walls left to build; today, only one remained.

Leng Hui smiled bitterly. "I have no choice. If the courtyard wall isn't finished, my mom and I won't feel safe living here."

Qin Baiqiu nodded. "A courtyard wall does provide more security."

"Auntie Qin, where are you headed?"

"I have nothing to do today, so I thought I'd wander up the mountain to see if I could find some mushrooms."

"Oh, mushrooms make a good dish."

Thinking of the pancakes from last night and this morning, Leng Hui asked, "Auntie Qin, may I ask how you usually make sorghum pancakes? My mom's pancakes are too hard; they're a real tooth-breaker."

"That's simple. The most important thing is letting the dough rest."

"Rest the dough?"

"Yes, resting the dough. I like to use warm water to mix the dough. Once it's mixed, you have to let it rest for at least half an hour before frying the pancakes."

Leng Hui frowned slightly. "It's that simple?"

"It's not that simple. If the dough is too dry, the pancakes will be hard. The dough needs to be a bit softer so the pancakes won't be so hard to eat."

Leng Hui nodded, committing these key points to memory, thinking of trying it herself at noon.

However, Jiang Jingtao gave her no chance. When the boy arrived, a bag of steamed buns and baozi was hanging from his bicycle handlebars.

Leng Hui stared at the bag of buns and asked in surprise, "You came here to help me and you even brought your own rations?"

Jiang Jingtao rubbed his nose and chuckled. "I just picked them up on the way."

Could he say that the noodles he ate yesterday at noon made him want to cry?

Plain water noodles were truly just plain noodles—aside from a hint of salt, there wasn't even a drop of oil.

He didn't want to torture himself.

Leng Hui nodded. Fine, who would want to eat tooth-jarring sorghum pancakes when there were baozi to eat?

With Jiang Jingtao's help, the wall-building went even faster than working alone.

By noon, the courtyard wall was finally completed.

All that remained was to install the courtyard gate.

Only once the gate was installed would the courtyard truly be shielded from the prying eyes of outsiders.

"Leng Hui, you bought too many bricks and tiles; there's quite a lot left over."

Leng Hui washed her hands, drank a cup of boiled water, picked up a steamed bun, and walked around the house while eating.

She pointed to an empty space on the west side and said, "I plan to build a bathroom here for convenience."

She would also build a septic tank in the northwest corner near the courtyard wall and connect it with PVC pipes.

This way, the water flushed from the bathroom could be collected in the tank for preliminary sewage treatment.

Of course, PVC pipes—drainage pipes made of polyvinyl chloride—did not exist in this era.

But Leng Hui's space had collected quite a lot during the early days of the apocalypse.

Searching through the original owner's memories, she knew that drainage pipes in buildings during this era were made of fired ceramics; even in special units with strict requirements, they used galvanized iron pipes.

Jiang Jingtao pointed to the wall of the northwest room and asked, "Are you planning to put a door in this wall?"

"Yes. I plan to make this northwest room the kitchen. To make washing up easier, I'll put a door here that leads directly to the bathroom. It'll be much more convenient."

Leng Hui had had enough of using public toilets lately. Even in the apocalypse, she had made sure the bathrooms were decent for the sake of safety.

After lunch, Leng Hui tossed a hoe to Jiang Jingtao and told him to go dig the septic tank in the northwest corner.

As for herself, she began digging the foundation near the western outer wall of the house.

"Leng Hui, you're treating me like a beast of burden! This ground in the corner is so hard; every time I swing the hoe, my hands go numb from the vibration."

Jiang Jingtao felt that once he finished helping Leng Hui, he absolutely had to go work at the City Construction Company for a few days. Perhaps working on a construction site would allow him to earn extra money and even land a job as a supervisor.

Leng Hui pointed to the ground they had dug two days ago. "Since you find the septic tank so hard to dig, why don't you help me turn this soil over again?"

Jiang Jingtao leaned on his hoe, panting heavily, looking utterly despondent. "Leng Hui, I'm telling you, don't go too far. I'm not your family's laborer."

"Fine, fine, fine. Go over there and rest then. I'll dig the septic tank myself tomorrow."

Seeing him panting with his tongue out, Leng Hui thought he looked as pitiful as a stray dog on the roadside.