Chapter 111
“You guys?” Xu Wen’s eyes widened, “Sister-in-law, are you talking about building your own house kind of cover?”
Wang Lingling nodded, “Right! We can do anything from removing weeds to leveling the land I’ve never built a tree house, but my father-in-law and I built the two side rooms in our house I’m really good at it!”
Another sister-in-law also rushed to answer, “I can do it too! My mother’s family was carpenters I grew up with planes and saws, and I have no problem laying down wood”
“I don’t know how to build a house, but I have strength I can help carry the wood and do the hard work!”
“My father is a mason, we used to build houses in our village with my father, and I’ve been working for him since I was a child, so I know how to do it too!”
“I don’t have much of a skill, but I can help clean up weeds and carry bricks and tiles”
Xu Wen listened with a stupefied expression, more or less in disbelief, “Sister-in-laws, I’m not doubting you! I just think that building a school is no joke It’s really a lot of hard work and some technical work We women are inherently weaker than men in terms of physical strength It would be even more troublesome if we can’t build it halfway, or if we build it wrong and have to rebuild it”
A complete army of women building a school?
Xu Man was a little afraid to think about it even if he was so bold
Sister-in-law, who said she had the strength, was a bit of a hothead and straightened up, “I really must have the strength! Sister-in-law, I’m not bullshitting just to take credit”
In order to show that she had strength, she stood up and bent over with both hands to hold the coffee table in Xu Man’s house off the ground
Xu Wen: “”
She wanted to stop it, but unfortunately her sister-in-law didn’t give her that chance
Their family’s coffee table, which was so difficult to carry back from the road expedition, was actually hugged by this sister-in-law
Xu Wen was so shocked that she didn’t even know what to say for a moment
The other sisters-in-law also emphasized that they weren’t exaggerating, and that they were no better than men at doing farm work at home
The sister-in-law who carried the coffee table put it down and said, “It’s just a school, isn’t it? Can’t we build a house without men? These soldiers only earn a living in the village, and they can’t count on them for spring planting and fall harvesting I only see them on vacation a few days a year Don’t they have to feed the family, fix the house, and give birth to children all by themselves?”
When Xu Man thought about it, he gritted his teeth and made a final decision: “That’s fine! Let’s build our own house! However, just a few of us are definitely not enough I’ll do the work of the other sisters-in-law to see if we can do it together”
In the past, there was definitely no problem, she was sure to convince the sisters-in-law on the island But now that the defense had just been changed, not only half of the familiar warriors had been replaced but also some of the sisters-in-law had followed the changed warriors and left Rainbow Island
She didn’t know any of the new sisters-in-law on the island
Seeing that Xu Man had agreed, several of her sisters-in-law were particularly happy, thanking her again and again before getting up to bid farewell to Xu Man
Xu Man couldn’t help but laugh and cry, she had obviously taken the initiative to help out, and they were still thanking her all the time
These sisters-in-law were really too down-to-earth
The sister-in-law whose feet had left the ground before fell at the end, her face somewhat hesitant, as if she wanted to say something but found it difficult to do so
Seeing this, Xu Wen asked, “Sister-in-law, what’s wrong? If there’s something you need to say, just say it”
“Can I take this with me?” She pointed to the milk tea on the table, “Don’t worry, I’ll brush the cup clean and send it back”
Xu Wen was stunned, not expecting such a small request, and just by looking at her embarrassed expression, she thought she wanted to borrow money
Another sister-in-law, who was close to her, elbowed her and whispered, “What are you doing asking for a cup of milk tea? Won’t this make people laugh?”
“It’s delicious! I want to bring it back for Nini to try”
Nini was her daughter, almost three years old
Xu Man shook his head and refused, “No way!”
That sister-in-law’s face reddened for a moment, more formal, “Sorry, I shouldn’t make such a request”
“This cup you drank, just finish it yourself When you’re done, I’ll pour another cup for the child for you to take away” Seeing his sister-in-law so shy and embarrassed, Xu Wen was too embarrassed to joke anymore
“Huh?” That sister-in-law’s eyes lit up, “Really?”
Xu Man didn’t say anything and pointed to the cup in front of her
She was busy picking up the cup of tea, and like the other sister-in-laws, she drank it in small sips, especially cherishing it
Xu Man didn’t pour the milk tea, poured a cup of boiled milk and added some rock sugar into it, handing it to his sister-in-law, “Sister-in-law, it might not be very good for the body of such a young child to drink milk tea This is milk, only less tea than milk tea, you take it back to your child to try”
The sister-in-law thanked him repeatedly
Xu Wen sent them to the door, still not holding back to say to this sister-in-law, “Sister-in-law I have a suggestion that only represents me When we mothers see good food and drink, our first reaction is to leave it for our children There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, because mothers are the greatest! They are so devoted to their children that they want to give them the best of all worlds
But the next time you’re in a situation like this, I suggest you drink it yourself Because everyone’s life is different You obviously like to drink it but you think of leaving it to your child first, but your child is still young, and what you can’t afford to give up, in the future, it may be what she’s tired of eating and drinking Even now, milk tea is not for her, right?
And, even if you really want to bring it to her, you can finish it yourself and ask for another cup
I don’t mean anything else, I just want to say that we women should be good to ourselves before we are good to others This other person includes the child!”
Some sacrifices are unnecessary and can only touch yourself
Like this sister-in-law, her daughter will not remember when she grows up that her mom left her a cup of milk tea even though she clearly wanted it, but her sister-in-law herself will miss that cup of milk tea after many years
She only tasted a mouthful and thought it was particularly good, but held back from drinking it, and it will always be on her mind
Normally, it will not affect life, just recalled at some point, there will be a trace of painless regret
If the children become a filial piety is good, if you raise an unfilial, this kind of regret may become aggrieved
I can’t say that my sister-in-law was wrong, but Xu Wen wouldn’t do that
The sister-in-law froze, probably never thought that someone would be such a mother
Wang Lingling, who was slightly more familiar with Xu Man, spoke up, ”Sister-in-law, when I’m with you, I can always learn something we didn’t know before Anyone else would have thought that we moms should not drink such expensive beverages It would be better to save it for the child Maybe they would also say that sister-in-law Xu is shallow-eyed and untalented, opening her mouth to ask for a cup of milk”
And Xu asked to teach them to enjoy themselves before caring about others
It couldn’t be said that anyone was right or wrong, but in their hearts, they were more in favor of Xu Man’s argument
Who wouldn’t want more love for themselves
Xu Man’s focus was on another place in Wang Lingling’s words, asking in shock, “You became a mom?”
She didn’t come to the island to have a baby?
Wang Lingling nodded, a little embarrassed, “Yes! I have a six year old daughter at home, I didn’t bring her here This time, I came because I want a second child I’ve been asking for a second child for several years, but nothing has happened My mother-in-law thinks that it’s because I spent too little time with Class Leader Wang, so she asked me to come to the island”
Xu asked, “”
She tried to act less surprised, “But you should look about my age, right?”
Wang Lingling showed her age, and Xu Wen was deliberately guessing her age at a younger age
But, she really felt that Wang Lingling shouldn’t be too old, that Wang Banzai Xu Man had seen, and Lu Yuanzheng had said that he was less than thirty
Xu Wen thought he married late, did not expect to be ready to have a second child
Mentioning the matter of getting married and having a baby, Wang Lingling was still a little embarrassed, “We both got married early I’m twenty-five this year”
Xu Man: “”
This is not the usual early!
When Lu Yuanzheng came back in the evening, Xu Man mentioned to him that his sisters-in-law wanted to build a house
Lu Yuanzheng didn’t even think about it and said, “Stop it!”
Although Xu Man had no idea what was going on in her heart, she wasn’t happy when Lu Yuanzheng said so, and retorted with a pout, “What do you mean? Looking down on women?”
Lu Yuanzheng: “”
He pinched his eyebrows, “Daughter-in-law, can you be reasonable? You’ve been around for two lifetimes, so tell me, from now to the future, no matter whether it’s the countryside or the city, which courtyard or which building was built by a woman from start to finish?”
Xu Wen opened her mouth and didn’t speak
She couldn’t say it
There might be quite a few modern buildings designed by women, but most of the migrant laborers on construction sites referred to men
Even in the world-famous China Speed, there was only one Iron Maiden class in the building that took up one floor a day
In the countryside, don’t look at the work in the field, often men and women are equal, men can do the work of women can also do
But who wants to build a house, to help are all the men of the family
Anyway, as far as Xu Man had come into contact with, there were really no houses built purely by women
Seeing Xu Man’s face a bit lost, Lu Yuanzheng rubbed the top of her head as if he were coaxing Dongsheng, and softly said, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely put this house-building thing in my heart! After I’m done with this period of time, I’ll lead the people to work overtime at night to build the school I really can’t do it lately!”
All the companies were disorganized and rearranged, and needed to break in for a while
Also when the seaport is completed, there might be warships coming over, and then there will be more training at sea
As well as when the seaport was completed and the transportation conditions were there, they would slowly pull away from the infrastructure
All of this had to be kept secret, he couldn’t tell Xu Man
In any case, he would help get the school built, and it really was something that would benefit the warriors
Xu Man shook his head, ”You guys are already busy enough, I don’t want to add to the chaos and put an extra burden on you There’s a first time for everything, even if no woman has ever built a house in its entirety before until now Then won’t there be a first if we build it?
Men have been emperors since ancient times! Didn’t Wu Zetian still become an empress?”
Lu Yuanzheng: “”
Being an empress is like building a house?
Well, to a certain extent, building a house is much easier than being an emperor
Lu Yuanzheng wrapped his arms around Xu Wen, rolled over and pressed on top of her, his tone was a bit grumpy: “Daughter-in-law, it’s not easy for me to come back a little early today Can we lower the level of worrying about the country and the people a little bit? Put your gaze toward your man for a bit? How long has it been since we ”
Lu Yuanzheng held Xu Man’s hand and pulled it downward while kissing her lips
Xu Wen: “”
It seems like it’s been a while
She actually kind of wanted to
Closing her eyes, she hooked her remaining hand around his neck and kissed him back
Allowing him to take one of her hands to familiarize herself with his body
It wasn’t just Lu Yuanzheng who didn’t think it was an impossible thing for military wives to build their own houses
Wang Lingling and their husbands similarly thought that they couldn’t
In fact, Xu Man initially thought so too, but she is sometimes quite rebellious, they do not look favorably on them, Xu Man’s temper really came up, had to do it to show them
Covering the school can’t be based on one’s passion, and even more so, it can’t be based on just a few of them
Xu had to convince the rest of his sisters-in-law first
After the change of defense, there were about sixty sisters-in-law on the island, young and old
Xu Man borrowed the battalion’s auditorium to hold a pajama party for the sisters-in-law
Unfortunately, the sisters-in-law didn’t know what a party was, and half of them didn’t know about pajamas either
Xu Wen: “”
She switched to a colloquialism, “a bedtime tea party”
Wearing clothes that you can go straight to bed in, people get together and talk
Put it that way and everyone gets it
I don’t know if it’s because Hsu Man is well liked or if he’s borrowed the light from the road expedition
Anyway, except for the nursing sisters-in-law who needed to bring their children to bed, all of them were very facetious and came over to participate in this bedtime tea party
Xu Wen and Song Baoying set up the auditorium in advance
The auditorium was actually a big and empty room with nothing but the stage
Originally there were some tables and chairs, but Mr Lu ordered people to move them away and cleaned them up so that the room looked bigger and more empty
Xu Wen made several large ice buckets early in the morning and put them in the room, and also made some sheets to act as curtains to cover the windows
He also borrowed a lot of training mats from the battalion headquarters and spread them on the floor
Mrs Li brought over all the mattresses from the commissary’s warehouse for her sisters-in-law to use She also provided a lot of melon seeds and peanuts for free
Xu Man bought a big bag of candles and made a lot of desserts and juices
There were pizzas, thousand-layer mango cakes, not-so-successful toasts, and some dessert drinks
For example, iced congee as well as a large bucket of milk tea and a variety of fruit juices
Last time, Xu Wen noticed that the few sisters-in-law who went to her house liked the milk tea and didn’t drink enough of it, so this time, she specially prepared more
She also made some white cold powder jelly and brought it over
It was almost ten o’clock when the sisters-in-law arrived one after another, and some of them came with their children, who were left unattended at home
Dongsheng also came along, sitting at the table and being attentive to Doudou, telling her that this is good and that is good
Xu Wen shook his head, a little speechless
Dongsheng has grown up to be a proper warm man
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Xu Man asked Dongsheng to turn off the lights
Xu asked Dongsheng to turn off the lights, and Xu asked Song Baoying and DouDou’s mom, Li’s wife, to light the candles one by one
“Last year, when the sisters-in-law first came to the island, they also threw a reception banquet for sister-in-law Gwai and her child But this year, these officers and soldiers of the battalion are too busy and should not be able to take care of us They’re busy and we’re not that busy, so let us ‘old’ sisters-in-law serve as representatives to welcome the ‘new’ sisters-in-law, everyone applaud first!”
Warm applause rang out cooperatively
With five or six candles, it wasn’t too bright in such a large room, basically belonging to the category of being able to see but with only a dim layer of warm light
Xu Wen pointed at the candles and explained, “There are more than sixty of us, and the ones who know each other are in the minority If it wasn’t for the fact that our men happen to be in the military here, we probably wouldn’t have met anyone in our lives! Sister-in-laws come from all over the world, not only is the food culture different, I’m afraid some of the language is not quite the same It’s not realistic for sixty strangers to sit together and speak from the heart At the very least, I’d be embarrassed
I’ve heard that the darkness of the night can bring people closer together Putting out the lights means we don’t want to be too formal
But we can’t be too dark either Because some sisters-in-law are timid and will be scared if it’s too dark Besides, there’s so much food and drink here, so we can’t see the food if it’s too dark
If there are so many people, we won’t divide them evenly, all the food and drinks will be placed on the table in the center, whoever wants to eat will take what they want, don’t be polite!”
As soon as Xu Man’s words fell, several children jumped up and chose what they liked to eat, and when they were dragged back by their mothers, they didn’t forget to stuff a little bit into their mothers’ mouths
Xu Man raised his hand to indicate, “Sister-in-laws don’t need to stop the children There are enough snacks and drinks prepared today for everyone Here, before we become friends, let’s first introduce ourselves and get to know each other”
One of the sister-in-laws asked in Mandarin with a heavy regional accent, “What’s a self-introduction?”
Xu Wen didn’t understand for a moment
This sister-in-law, who had a hometown friend in the area, translated for her
Xu Man let out a cry of thanks, and then said, “Self-introduction means saying your name, and the name of the person you’re talking to can be said or not Then tell me where you’re from How old are you? Anyway, it’s up to you to say something about yourself to make it easier for everyone to understand yourself
I’ll start with a sample! My name is Xu Wen, twenty-one years old My lover’s name is Lu Yuanzheng, and my child is Dongsheng We both come from a small city in the north and are also in the same commune, our commune is called Wei Zhuang Commune, it’s an ancient place, I welcome all of you sisters-in-law to come and play with us when you have time”
“My name is Jiang Yi Yi! I live next door to sister-in-law Xu Man My date’s name is Li Mao, but, we haven’t gotten married yet I came with to the island as soon as I graduated from secondary school”
“My name is Song Baoying, I’m thirty-six years old My lover is Shi Lei, and my daughter’s name is Wenwen is seven years old I am an elementary school teacher However, I’m planning to resign! I want to set up a school on the island with Sister-in-law Xu Man, so that all the school-age children on the island will have a school to attend!”
“Yes!” A sister-in-law shouted, and there was spontaneous applause
“My name is Song Qin, and I was in the same family as sister-in-law Song Baoying five hundred years ago I’m twenty-four years old this year, and DouDou is my daughter ”
“My name is Jiang Yue, twenty three this year ”
“My name is Wang Lingling, twenty-four this year ”
“I Li Yanan, forty-two years old, I guess I am the oldest among these sisters-in-law My lover’s name is Peng Chao”
More than sixty people, the single self-introductions are quite a while
As each sister-in-law introduced herself, the others listened quietly, ate some snacks or drank some drinks
They would all give applause and encouragement when they finished their introductions
As Xu asked, this kind of environment is the easiest way to bring people closer together
After the introductions, many sisters-in-law find small organizations
For example, who is from the same hometown as whom Who is in the same company or the same squad as who’s husband
Soon there is a common topic of conversation, and the room is buzzing with chatter
Women sometimes get acquainted very quickly, and by the time the introductions were over, many sisters-in-law had found new friends or people they felt close to and had a desire to talk to
Although Xu Wen was still unable to match the names of each sister-in-law, it didn’t matter
The purpose of her visit today wasn’t to recognize anyone either
Only after everyone had pretty much chatted, did Xu Wen then speak, ”Now everyone is considered to have gotten to know each other! We’ll all be on the island in the future, so there’s plenty of time to slowly get to know each other
In fact, besides calling everyone here today to welcome the new sisters-in-law to the island, there’s one more thing I want to discuss with you It’s the building of a school that sister-in-law Song Baoying mentioned just now”