Chapter 117 - 114: Moving
"Bao’er, you have to understand, your husband only has eyes for you. I haven’t seen you for days, it’d be a miracle if I even noticed anyone else!" Seeing his wife’s attention had been diverted, Li Xiu secretly breathed a sigh of relief and spoke nonchalantly. ’I’m holding my own lawfully wedded wife. Who has any right to interfere!’
Zhou Lian knew she couldn’t win against his specious arguments and couldn’t be bothered to bicker with him any longer. She poked his sturdy chest and asked, "Did you get everything taken care of in the Capital City?"
"Mhm. Bao’er, I bought a small courtyard house right near Beijing University, only about a ten-minute walk away. It has five main rooms and two side-wing rooms. There’s a big grapevine in the yard and even a well. The house is in great condition and very clean. A university professor used to live there."
Seeing his wife listening so intently, Li Xiu added with a smile, "It cost three thousand yuan in total. Our daughter and I can have our household registrations transferred over. I also made some careful inquiries, and we can move yours over too. That way, when you graduate, your registration can be settled directly in the Capital City, saving you the trouble of having it tied to your work unit, which would be rather inconvenient."
"Our household registration? We can really transfer it?" Zhou Lian asked happily. ’A Capital City household registration... can something this good really be happening? With a house and registration in the Capital City, does that make us residents now? In my past life, my son and daughter worked in the Capital City for so many years and still could barely afford a house, let alone the registration. The Capital City registration they struggled half their lives to get... we have it now.’
"Mhm, I brought the transfer permits back with me. In a few days, when we move, we’ll get the registration transferred. Bao’er, I told you I’d give you a good life. Things will only get better for us," he said, smiling at Zhou Lian’s happy expression as he kissed her fair, smooth forehead.
After packing everything they were taking, the day they had arranged with the truck driver soon arrived. Li Xiu took his mother-in-law back to Zhou Family Village, said his goodbyes to the first and third branches of the Li family and Grandma Li, and handed the house keys over to Grandma Li. All their grain and other supplies were loaded onto the truck. The livestock had been slaughtered; half was given to friends and relatives, and Li Xiu turned the other half into cured and preserved meats to take with them.
He had already informed the necessary people in the village. Transferring a household registration meant the village head would find out anyway, which saved him an explanation. Still, he asked Ge Dayu to help keep it on the down-low, as he didn’t want to make it public knowledge.
This year had an intercalary sixth month, and by the beginning of the seventh lunar month, the weather was oppressively hot. Li Xiu couldn’t bear to make his wife and daughter suffer, so he decided to go ahead with the truck. He would first take his wife and daughter to his father-in-law’s house, and then come back to pick them up after he had the house in the Capital City ready. Zhou Lian had initially disagreed, but she couldn’t stand up to Li Xiu’s endless coaxing and playful pestering, so she finally gave in.
Watching the truck drive away, Li Xiu turned and went back into the small courtyard. ’This is the home I’ve made for my wife in the Capital City. I need to get it ready quickly. My wife and daughter are still at my father-in-law’s place. Besides, her school starts soon. I need to make sure she gets a few good days of rest.’
Li Xiu was truly something else. He managed to clean up the entire house and yard in just two days and two nights. He arranged it much like their old home, except the east side-wing room was missing a kang, a traditional heated brick bed. There wasn’t enough time to build one now. After his wife started school, he would build the kang so she wouldn’t have to worry about the winter cold.
Out of habit, he walked a circuit through the house to see if anything was missing. Seeing the west-side rooms piled high with things, Li Xiu frowned. ’I’ll have to find time to dig a cellar. Some things are better kept hidden.’
After arriving at his father-in-law’s house and discussing their future plans with his father-in-law and brothers-in-law, he took his wife and daughter on the train to the Capital City.
In those days, the trains were all the old, green-skinned kind, agonizingly slow. The trip to the Capital City would take a full day and night. The train passed through their county right in the morning. Li Xiu carried a bag on his back filled with a change of clothes for his wife and daughter, along with food and supplies for the journey. The bag wasn’t large. Carrying it on one shoulder, holding his daughter in his arms, and his wife by the hand, the family of three embarked on their new journey.
Throughout the day-and-night journey, Li Xiu didn’t sleep a wink, constantly looking after his wife and daughter. The weather was sweltering, and the train had no air conditioning or even fans. He worried they wouldn’t be able to handle it. Although it was hot back home too, there they had ice blocks he’d stored from the winter and things to beat the heat like watermelon and mung bean soup. On the train, however, there was nothing to be done except buy popsicles. But since their daughter was still nursing, his wife didn’t dare to eat them. So, Li Xiu fanned them relentlessly to keep them cool.
When they finally arrived in the Capital City the next day and returned to their small courtyard, Zhou Lian was in high spirits, having suffered no hardship on the journey. Holding her daughter, she carefully examined what would be their future home—a house that had cost them nearly half of their cash on hand. The layout was similar to their old house, only it lacked the south-facing flat-roofed building, the east side-wing room didn’t have a kang, and there was no pigsty, chicken coop, or anything of the sort.
The eastern room of the main building was their bedroom, just as before, with the furniture arranged according to her habits. The room next to the bedroom was the living room, where the furniture was also already in place. Only the two west-side rooms hadn’t been tidied up and were still piled high with their belongings.
While Zhou Lian was looking over the house, Li Xiu boiled some water, mixed it to the right temperature, and gave their daughter a bath. He then urged Zhou Lian to hurry up and wash and change her clothes; he knew his wife’s fastidiousness about cleanliness all too well.
After the whole family had washed up and changed into clean clothes, Li Xiu made lunch. Once they had eaten and coaxed their daughter to sleep, the couple could finally breathe a collective sigh of relief and lie down on the bed for a proper rest.
"Bao’er, are you satisfied with the house? Is there anything you want to add? Just tell me, and I’ll get it all sorted out before school starts for you," Li Xiu said gently, holding his wife against the headboard and softly stroking her hair.
"Mhm, there’s quite a bit to do. After all, this is going to be our home now, so we should fix it up properly," Zhou Lian said slowly. ’Barring any surprises, we’ll probably live here for the rest of our lives. I don’t like apartment buildings; a house like this is much more comfortable.’
"Okay, let me tell you my thoughts, and you can see if there’s anything else to add. First, we need to build a kang in the east side-wing room. The winters here in the Capital City get very cold. Next, we need to dig a cellar. We brought everything from the cellar at our old place, and I don’t feel comfortable leaving it all out in the open. Also, the two west-side rooms need some renovations, but we can do that slowly later. No rush."
"Mhm, are you going to put the cellar under the east side-wing room again? And you’re building a kang, too... can you really do all that by yourself?" Zhou Lian asked, her tone disapproving. She was worried he would try to do everything on his own again.
"I’ll still dig the cellar under the east side-wing room. I have to dig that myself, but I can hire people to renovate the room and build the kang. You start school in half a month, and I know you won’t be able to rest easy until it’s done. We’ll get the side-wing room finished first, and I’ll dig the cellar gradually." Knowing his wife’s heart ached for him, Li Xiu spoke softly.
"Oh, right. Bao’er, I asked around. You don’t have to live on campus. From now on, our daughter and I will walk you to school and pick you up together."
"Can I really live off-campus?" Zhou Lian asked in surprise. ’Is that allowed at Beijing University these days?’
"You can. It’s just a bit of a hassle. You need a local Capital City household registration, a house near the school, and a whole bunch of miscellaneous paperwork. But it’s not too bad. The people at the neighborhood committee office were really helpful. I explained your situation, and they said they could help with the application. You meet all the conditions, so there won’t be a problem," Li Xiu said with a smile. ’I looked into this ages ago. If she had to live on campus, what would I do? I’d go crazy if I couldn’t see her for days on end!’