Chapter 746 Feeling sorry for He Yushui
The next morning, Wang Jianguo opened his eyes and heard the sound of Zhao Shuzhuo chopping wood from next door. He Yushui hummed a song as she added firewood to the stove.
Yang Huaiqing was probably painting his crabapple tree again - these real sounds were like a solid foundation, allowing his mind, which had just been floating in the space of consciousness, to land steadily on the hot land of the Great Northern Wilderness.
Wang Jianguo lifted the quilt, and the corner of the red cloth on the lining of his cotton-padded jacket rubbed against his skin.
He walked to the window and saw light blue smoke coming out of the chimney of the brick factory in the distance, winding up in the morning light, as if connected to some distant place.
He took a deep breath of the air filled with snow particles, feeling the spiritual energy in his body awakening along with the rising sun, and thoughts about building a house, collecting spiritual energy, and breaking through restrictions.
At this moment, it has all turned into the real land beneath our feet, and the brick-by-brick labor that is about to begin in our hands.
Because he knew that Yu Li was waiting, Xiao Juan was waiting, Hai Tang and others were waiting.
And he, Wang Jianguo, wanted to build himself a house that could shelter him from wind and rain in this vast northern wilderness.
Then use the popularity and fireworks accumulated in this house to break through the cold restriction and bring his relatives back one by one to this real home that is about to be born.
The ice on the wooden lattice windows melted into thin streams in the morning light, and Wang Jianguo stood up on the creaking wooden floor.
The corner of the red cloth on the lining of the cotton-padded jacket rubbed against her chest, where the residual warmth of Yu Li's spiritual energy beads was still retained.
When he pushed open the door, the crisp sound of icicles falling from the eaves startled the sparrows on the roof, and the figure of He Yushui squatting by the well came into his sight.
She was dipping the washboard into a wooden basin covered with a thin layer of ice. The water droplets splashing on her blue apron had frozen into shiny ice chips.
The wind in the Great Northern Wilderness in March was still like a knife, and it hurt when it scraped my face. Wang Jianguo saw that He Yushui's fingers holding the mallet were frozen purple, with tiny bloody cracks on his knuckles, and he couldn't help but shiver when he dipped it in the water.
The ice on the edge of the wooden basin was broken by the washboard, making a crackling sound, which startled the calico cat lying on the wall to bask in the sun and made it raise its tail.
"rainwater!"
He walked over quickly, his cotton shoes slipping on the frozen mud.
"Washing clothes with ice water today will make your hands crack!"
Before he finished speaking, he snatched the hammer from her hand. The moment it touched her fingertips, the bone-chilling chill made him frown violently.
"Why don't you boil some hot water? Isn't there a fire in the stove?"
He Yushui raised her head, the strands of hair at her temples were stuck to her cheeks due to the water vapor, and tiny ice crystals condensed on her eyelashes.
She looked at the mallet in Wang Jianguo's hand, and then at the blue cloth shirt soaking in the wooden basin - that was the shirt he wore yesterday that was stained with brick dust. She moved her lips but made no sound, and just hid her frozen red hands in her apron.
“She’s stupid!”
Yang Xiaohua came out of the house holding an empty medicine bowl, the red rope tied to her braid swaying in the wind.
"I told her yesterday to boil some hot water and mix it in. Guess what she said?"
The little girl put the medicine bowl on the well platform, and the porcelain bottom made a crisp sound.
"She said that the corn cakes had to be kept warm in the pot. If she used the pot to boil water, the cakes would be cold!"
Wang Jianguo's hand holding the mallet suddenly stopped. He remembered the oil paper package He Yushui had stuffed into his pocket before he went to bed last night. Inside was a golden pancake that still had the residual heat from the stove.
At this moment, the icy water in the wooden basin reflected He Yushui's drooping eyelashes, and half a piece of thread appeared in her apron pocket - it was the blue thread that she used to mend his cotton jacket yesterday.
"Silly girl..."
He placed the mallet on the edge of the basin and reached out to take off his cotton gloves.
"The pancakes can be heated up if they are cold, but how can you work if your hands are frozen?"
He had just taken off his gloves halfway when He Yushui suddenly snatched the wooden basin and moved it to the side, and the splashing icy water wet his trouser legs.
“My hands aren’t cold!”
Her voice was trembling with a windblown tremor, but she gripped the washboard tighter.
"You had a tiring day at the brick factory yesterday. You need to have a hot breakfast..."
Before he finished speaking, Yang Xiaohua came running over and stuffed the hot water bottle in her hand into He Yushui's arms:
"Here! I told you to warm it up, but you wouldn't listen!"
The heat from the hot water bag seeped through the coarse cloth, but He Yushui seemed not to feel it and continued to stare at the clothes in the wooden basin.
Wang Jianguo looked at the red spots on the tip of her nose caused by the frostbite, and suddenly remembered the spiritual crabapple that Yu Li handed to her across the space of consciousness. That cool feeling turned into a burning sensation in his palm.
He squatted down and snatched the clothes from her hand without saying a word. The rough cloth soaked with ice water stuck to his skin, and it was so cold that he shivered.
"Go inside and warm yourself by the fire,"
He wrung the water out of his clothes and threw it onto the ground, and the ice chips splashed onto the surface of his shoes.
“I’ll wash it.”
He Yushui wanted to argue, but Yang Xiaohua grabbed her arm and dragged her into the house:
"Let's go! Brother Jianguo loves you!"
The little girl's voice floated in the wind. When He Yushui turned around, she saw Wang Jianguo warming her hands on the hot water bottle. The blood seeping from between her cracked fingers dyed the coarse cloth red.
The icy water in the wooden basin was gradually steaming under the morning sun. In the distance, the sound of horns from a brick factory could be faintly heard, startling a group of sparrows that flew over the eaves.
Wang Jianguo paused in washing clothes, looked up and saw He Yushui coming into the house pushed by Yang Xiaohua, with the corners of her apron still stained with soap foam.
The icy water in the wooden basin dripped down through Wang Jianguo's fingers, creating tiny ice pits on the frozen mud.
He stared at the morning light reflected on the water and suddenly saw the calluses on the palms of his hands - they were hard scabs caused by carrying sacks, but they had never been touched by a drop of soapy water.
At this moment, He Yushui's hands were holding hot soup and blowing on it on the kitchen windowsill. The cracks on her knuckles looked very much like the cracks on the wall of a brick factory.
One year and three months ago, they stood in the snow in the Great Northern Wilderness carrying tattered bags on their backs. The soles of He Yushui's cotton shoes had long been worn out, but he still broke off half of his only steamed corn bread and stuffed it into his hand.
At this moment, the cuffs of the blue cloth shirt floating in the basin still had the crooked stitches from when she mended it last night - she used the old trouser thread he threw away, saying that she could save it to make a pair of insoles for Yang Huaiqing.
He remembered that he had a high fever when he was digging a canal last month. He Yushui stayed by the kang for three days and three nights, warming up the snow water and using it to wipe his body over and over again, but he himself refused to warm himself by the fire even though his lips turned purple from the cold.
There was also the time when they went to the brick factory to pull bricks, she secretly put a boiled egg in his lunch pocket, saying that "eating it during the Rain Water solar term will relieve your back pain." Later, it turned out that those were eggs she had saved for half a month and wanted to take them to the supply and marketing cooperative to exchange for salt.
The ice water suddenly splashed on his wrist, and Wang Jianguo shuddered.
He remembered that yesterday at the commune, Director Song patted him on the shoulder and said, "Yu Shui loves you more than her own sister." He smiled and waved his hands at that time, but now he felt that these words were like a needle piercing his heart.
He Yushui always said, "I have rough hands, but I work quickly," but he had clearly seen her hiding in the woodshed, smearing lard on her frozen wounds, and hiding her hands in a hurry when she heard footsteps.