Starting a new chapter in life

Jingyan was rendered speechless by his words: "It's true that your family listens to the wife, that's because your mother laid a good foundation for it. But the male chauvinism of Northeastern men is ingrained in their bones, and they are also obsessed with saving face. There aren't many wives who can make them listen. You can't do it without some husband-taming skills."

He Zhijun wasn't interested in that topic, so he changed the subject: "It's still early, why don't we go to the scrap yard and see if we can find a coal stove? If the scrap yard has one, we won't need to go to the secondhand store."

"Do you know where there's a recycling center?" Jing Yan's eyes lit up, and she looked at him intently.

He Zhijun puffed out his chest: "I really know this area. I lived here when I was a child. Although I haven't been back for many years, I don't think much has changed. Let's go take a look first, and if we can't find it, we can ask someone."

"Then I'll go get my wallet." Jingyan went inside to get her small bag and slung it over her shoulder. After locking the gate, the two headed straight for the recycling station.

As they walked and talked, He Zhijun said, "When we came here, Mom gave me the 1,000 yuan we had previously remitted, and also gave me an extra 1,000 yuan, saying it was for our renovation."

"So we have 3,500 yuan on hand now?" Jingyan leaned closer and asked him softly.

He Zhijun nodded: "I had more than two hundred yuan in change before, but now I don't have any allowances anymore. The university subsidy is only enough for my own living expenses. Mom said that during my university years, my parents will give us fifty yuan a month, so Jingyan, you don't need to worry about the money."

Jingyan frowned upon hearing this: "I don't know how much this renovation will cost. After the house is finished, I'm planning to raise a few chicks. We'll see what we can do here. If there's a market, I can at least set up a barbecue stall. That'll be some income. We should avoid taking money from our parents if we can. Even if we do take it now, I'll keep a record of it. I'll write down the thousand yuan that our parents gave us this time, and we'll pay them back when we're better off later."

He Zhijun shook his head: "No need to give this money, it's what our mother paid for renovating our house."

Jingyan glared at him: "If you were the only child in your family, I would accept whatever my parents gave me without a second thought. But you have an older brother. Even if your brother and sister-in-law have no objections, we can't ignore their feelings."

We're all Mom and Dad's children. Yes, their house was also bought for them by Mom and Dad, but this house of ours is also a gift from Mom and Dad. Apart from being a bit old, it's better than my older brother's house in terms of both location and size. My sister-in-law is already very understanding that she doesn't have any objections to this.

But we can't go too far. Once we have the house, it's fine for our parents to lend us money if we don't have any, but if they do, it'll be too biased, and in the long run, it won't be good for family unity. We're not starving; there's no need to make our parents do this.

He Zhijun was somewhat confused: "I really hadn't thought that much about this before."

Jingyan sighed helplessly: "No matter what, men are still a bit less perceptive. I guess your older brother didn't think that much about it. But my sister-in-law and I are women. Even if we understand some things, we still feel uncomfortable about our parents' favoritism. We don't need to escalate this conflict. After all, harmony in the family brings prosperity."

He Zhijun smiled and took her hand: "My wife is so good, so sensible. I'll listen to you on all things from now on."

Jingyan glared at him: "You're just being sarcastic. As long as we continue to discuss things like this, I believe our lives won't be bad."

As they were talking, the two of them actually saw the sign for the scrap metal recycling station. Jingyan turned to look at him and said, "You were right, it really is here."

He Zhijun looked confident, and while Jing Yan was looking around, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't been here for so many years and was really afraid of pointing out the wrong place. Fortunately, he guessed right.

When the two arrived at the gate, He Zhijun went up to the gatekeeper and started talking to him in a string of words. Anyway, Jing Yan didn't understand a word of what he was saying and listened to their discussion in a daze. After they finished, He Zhijun turned around and looked at her with a smile: "We're lucky, there really is a coal stove. Come on, let's go in and pick one together."

Jing Yan nodded and let He Zhijun lead her into the room. Led by the old man, they wandered through a maze of doors to a room with various stoves scattered haphazardly. Jing Yan pursed her lips and thought to herself, "This place is a mess. It's not as neat and tidy as the scrap yard in Jiang City."

He Zhijun, on the contrary, was not surprised: "There are steel mills in Haishi. The demand for steel is large, and the frequency of iron collection is relatively high. Therefore, the items here are not stored for long. Only those in good condition are brought over separately. If the condition is not good, they are thrown into the scrap metal."

Jing Yan didn't say anything, just nodded: "Do you know how to choose?"

He Zhijun pondered for a moment: "It should be about right. Let's buy two first. In the meantime, one can be used for cooking and boiling water, and the other can be used for stir-frying. Once our kitchen stove is set up, we can sell these coal stoves as second-hand if needed. Anyway, we definitely won't lose money."

Upon hearing that she wouldn't lose out, Jingyan immediately beamed with joy, which made He Zhijun laugh along with her. He picked and chose for a while, then picked out two coal stoves that were relatively new and of decent size. He chatted with the old man for a while, and finally gave him fifty-five yuan. The old man took the money and found two tattered burlap sacks to help pack the coal stoves and accessories into them.

He Zhijun took it and was about to hoist it onto his shoulder when Jing Yan took a sack from his hand: "Let's each take one. Don't worry, I'm strong enough."

Seeing Jingyan hoist the sack onto her shoulder, He Zhijun didn't refuse anymore. He hoisted the other sack onto his shoulder as well, and the two said goodbye to the old man before heading straight home.

Once inside, He Zhijun assembled the coal stove under the awning and chose a spot. "Jingyan, it's getting dark. You stay home, I'll go see if I can buy some coal briquettes. If I can, we can cook at home tonight."

Jingyan nodded and pulled the cart out from the corner against the wall: "If you don't push the cart out, you can just push it back after buying coal briquettes. It's easier than carrying it."

He Zhijun smiled as he took the handlebars and happily drove off.

Jingyan thought for a moment, then moved the cot to the room upstairs. After setting it up, she moved the dining table back to the living room, and arranged the chairs and other items. Only then did she begin to unpack the bedding, carefully opening the outer packaging bag and taking out the plates and bowls mixed in with it, putting them into a basin.

After confirming that all the dishes and bowls in the bedding had been removed, I carried my package upstairs to the second floor. I laid two mattresses on the cot, sat down to test them, and found them quite soft. Then I made up the sheets, took out one of the blankets, folded it, and placed it at the foot of the bed. I also took out the pillow, changed the pillowcase, and put on a pillowcase. Once it was all set up, it was actually quite nice.

After going downstairs, she started looking for the wok and steamer. Fortunately, she had someone line them up along the wall beforehand, so finding things was much easier. At least she didn't have to drag them around. She also got out the oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Seeing that she had found most of the necessities to sustain her life for the time being, Jingyan sat down on a small stool to rest for a while.

When He Zhijun pushed the cart back, he saw Jingyan with her hands in her pockets and her shoulders hunched, running around in the yard. He closed the gate and asked, "Jingyan, are you cold?"

Hearing him speak, Jingyan looked up at him and nodded: "It's alright during the day, it's not too cold when the sun is out, but it gets really cold after dark, so cold that you shiver." After saying that, she saw the coal briquettes on He Zhijun's cart and quickly went to help, but He Zhijun stopped her: "I'll do it, it's dirty."

"I'll do some work; it'll keep me warmer." Jingyan said, helping to move the coal briquettes down. He Zhijun saw her moving the briquettes and quickly went to the coal stove to start a fire. After the fire was lit, he filled a kettle with tap water, sat on the stove, and after the water was warm, he called Jingyan over to wash her hands.

Jingyan dipped her hands into the basin, and a wave of heat entered her body. She shivered twice and felt much better: "Then bring down the rest of the coal briquettes. Let's just cook some noodles for dinner tonight, and that will keep us warm."

He Zhijun responded and went to continue moving the coal briquettes. When he finished moving the coal briquettes and came back, Jingyan's noodles were already in the pot. Tonight, they didn't have everything they needed, so Jingyan picked two green vegetables from the yard, threw them in, added some salt and sesame oil, and then it was ready to serve. Although it was a bland soup, it was still quite good to eat with the pickled vegetables that had been delivered.

"Thank goodness I brought the pickles back too, otherwise tonight it would really be just plain noodles." He Zhijun ate his noodles with the pickles with relish. "Homemade food is the best. I used to think the food here was pretty good, but after living in the north for so long, I'm really not used to it."

Jing Yan smiled and said, "What I'm worried about now is that my braised meat and barbecue are suited to the tastes of people from the North. I don't know if they'll work here."

"Don't worry, if it really doesn't work, we can change the seasoning ratio and make it more like the local flavor. It doesn't have to be exactly the same. There are still quite a few people from other places here. Now that the college entrance examination has started, the number of people from other places will increase. I believe the tastes will become more and more diverse in the future," He Zhijun comforted him.

Jingyan regained her confidence after hearing his words. "We still need to wait before doing business. We need to observe the situation further and wait for the trend to become clearer before making a decision. After all, if we are going to do business, we will need to go through the relevant procedures and obtain the necessary permits. This is a big city, unlike where we were before, where we could exploit loopholes by selling agricultural products. It's better to be more formal."

He Zhijun agreed with this view. After the couple finished eating the noodles and cleaned up the table, they boiled some hot water in the yard to wash up and then went upstairs to sleep. Of course, they didn't forget to fill an IV drip bottle with hot water to warm the bed.

The cot was a bit narrow, and the winter blankets were thick and heavy. Although it wasn't exactly warm, the two of them could sleep together without getting cold and waking up. However, they could forget about sleeping in. It would be better to bask in the sun in the yard after it came out to warm up.

After the two finished getting ready and cooked noodles, Jingyan said she was going to check where they could buy groceries nearby. Although they didn't lack anything else at home for the time being, they still needed to stock up on meat and eggs.

Before they could even leave, Liu Qiang and his wife came over. "Comrade He, we went back and discussed it yesterday. If the labor cost is 300 yuan, I'll try to get the house done by the end of the month. Of course, the balcony railing is not included; I don't know how to do that, nor do I know anyone who does."

He Zhijun didn't say yes or no, but only asked, "Have you got the materials sorted out? Can you give me an estimate of how much it will cost?"

Liu Qiang took out a notebook and calculated the costs of cement, sand, and other materials one by one. He estimated that around 500 yuan would be enough. If the price was different, he would stop at 700 yuan at most, which meant that he only needed to prepare 1,000 yuan.

He Zhijun thought the price was acceptable. With this amount, the family had about two thousand yuan in savings, which would be enough for household expenses even if they didn't have any extra income for three or four years. He looked at Jing Yan, who knew nothing about this, but her big eyes showed complete trust.

He Zhijun immediately felt a great sense of accomplishment and asked, "How many people have you contacted to come and do the work?"

“There are four of us in total, including me. We’re all used to doing manual labor. We used to build houses in the countryside. Back then, there weren’t enough houses at the educated youth settlement. When we first arrived, we had nowhere to live, so we built our own house. We finished two large rooms in just over half a month. Of course, some villagers helped out, but the four of us were the main force, so you can rest assured,” Liu Qiang said hurriedly.

"Would it be convenient for you to come with me to buy materials today? To be honest, I don't know where to buy those things." He Zhijun was a little worried.

Upon hearing this, Liu Qiang knew he had been asked to do the job and quickly nodded: "I know. A building materials market just opened here this year. It puts all the building-related products together for easier management. They also have delivery trucks, so it's a one-stop shop. My family recently had our house renovated, and I bought the materials there. I'll take you there."

After saying that, he looked at his wife, who smiled gently and looked at Jingyan: "Are you going to go with them too?"

Jingyan shook her head: "We're still short of some ingredients at home. I'm going to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to take a look. How old are you this year?" Jingyan asked.

"My name is Yuan Xiaoling, and I am twenty-five years old," the woman said softly.

"My name is Zhang Jingyan, I'm twenty-three this year, two years younger than you. But you really don't look older than me, you look much younger." Jingyan looked at her with eyes full of envy. She wasn't a gentle person and spoke loudly, but she liked that style.

“Then I’ll call you Sister Zhang. I know the supply and marketing cooperative well, so I’ll go with you. You’re not from around here, so I think you might not understand the local language. It’s your first time going to a place by yourself, and you might get lost if you don’t speak the language,” she joked.