Chapter 116
Wu Xiaoping hugged her school bag and ran in the alley. It was already dark, this place is far away from the street, there is no street light, the neighboring families also do not have to pull the wire, everyone all light candles, use kerosene lamps.
She flew all the way, but also to avoid the puddles on the ground, but this road she walked every day, where there are puddles, she knew exactly.
In the narrow alleys, the doors of the houses were open, and she could hear the voices of the people inside, smell the food, and hear the women singing and playing the piano.
She ran through the long narrow alley, at the end of which was a well, by which there were several women washing clothes in the dark, the water clattering, the sound of rubbing clothes like a powerful song, full of rhythm.
She ran to the well, panting, could not take a break to put her school bag on the far side of the steps to avoid being splashed with water, took off her shoes, walked barefoot, squatted down to help her mother wash clothes.
A woman who was washing clothes next to her said with a smile, “Your daughter is here, you can relax.”
Wu Xiaoping’s mom laughed and said gently to Wu Xiaoping, “Are you done with your studies? How many questions did you write today?”
Wu Xiaoping talked to her mom while the two of them washed the bucket of clothes next to her, panned them twice, wrung them out, and then carried them to the yard and put them on bamboo poles.
There is a young man in the building over there, listening to the radio and eating melon seeds. Wu Xiaoping came in and politely called out to her brother, “We’re done.”
The young man smiled and said, “Then I won’t go and see, or two buckets?”
Wu Xiaoping nodded, the young man opened the drawer to get her money, two buckets of clothes 80 cents, Wu Xiaoping’s mother to wash from four in the morning to nine at night. Because that bucket are bath tubs, can put dozens of pounds of clothes.
Wu Xiaoping took the money and ran out to find her mom. Her mom had already changed her clothes, took her bag, held her daughter’s hand, and the two of them walked home.
The four-way alley, tilt your head up and you can see the bright moon hanging in the sky, look down and you can smell the aroma of the soup being cooked at the food stalls, and you can also hear the voices of the families talking in the small buildings on both sides.
Mother and daughter were snuggling together, walking down the alley.
There was a food stall on the side of the road, and there were two people waiting for the shopkeeper to come down. The noodle soup cooked with fish heads and shrimp shells was fragrant and fresh, and the aroma wafted out, making people drool.
Wu Xiaoping’s mom stood still and asked her, “Are you hungry?”
There was no rice at home, if she went back home and ate again, her mom would definitely want to save the firewood and not cook it, so she would eat half a cold bun to top off her hunger. She wanted her mom to eat something hot, but …… she was worried about buying noodles and going home dad would be angry if he saw less money.
She hesitated, her mom thought she still wanted to eat, pulled her over and asked the food stall: “Boss, how much for a side of vegetarian noodles?”
The owner of the food stall said, “Vegetarian noodles without scallions, 12 cents a bowl, you two eat, I’ll give you an extra handful, 15 cents.”
After a day’s laundry, Wu Xiaoping’s mom thought about it and asked, “Boss, will you sell it for 10 cents?”
The owner of the food stall took a look at the clothes of the mother and daughter, and sighed: “Sell, alas, I’ll add more soup for you, have some soup to warm your stomach.”
Wu Xiaoping’s mom then put down a dime, the boss grabbed a handful of noodles and put them into the bamboo cage, looked at them and grabbed another handful.
The noodles were as thin as silk, the pot was rolling, and immediately turned up when it was lowered into the pot, like a handful of snow-white silk threads dancing in the rolling water.
The boss took a bowl, mixed in the noodle sauce, then lifted the bamboo cage and put the noodles in, then lifted the lid of the other pot, injected the fresh broth boiled from the fish head and shrimp shells into it, dotted it with two drops of sesame oil, then took two pairs of chopsticks, put them on the stall board, and said, “There are no stools, so stand and eat.”
Wu Xiaoping’s mom thanked her, and the two mothers and daughters stood in front of the stall and ate the bowl of noodles cleanly, and drank all the soup. Wu Xiaoping only felt that the coldness above her body and the watery air beside the well were dispelled by this bowl of hot noodle soup.
She grabbed her mom’s already deformed hand and asked, “Mom, is it good?”
Her mom smiled and wrapped her arms around her and said, “Yummy, yummy.”
The two walked for an hour before they arrived home around ten o’clock.
The house was pitch black, Wu Xiaoping’s father and two younger brothers were already asleep. The two mothers and daughters were used to it, entering the door in the dark and not touching a single thing.
Wu Xiaoping’s bed was right at the entrance, right next to the cabinet. There was already Big Brother lying on the bed, she pushed Big Brother inside a bit, took off her shoes and got on the bed, took off her outerwear and wore only a tank top and shorts, pulled back the blankets and lay down.
Her mom climbed into the big bed and her little brother, who hadn’t been born very long, grunted twice and her mom rushed to pick him up and coax him a little. Her dad rolled over and asked sleepily, “Back? Did you get the money?”
Her mom whispered, “Got it. You go to sleep.”
Her father asked, “How much did you take?”
Her mom said, “Seventy cents.”
Her dad grunted and said, disgruntled, “You mother and daughter wash together and you only give 70 cents?”
Her mom said, “That’s a lot, it’s like that everywhere now, this family already gives more than enough.”
Dad then stopped talking.
Wu Xiaoping then carefully sighed in relief, closed her eyes, and immediately fell asleep.
The next day, a few hours later, she heard her mom and dad getting up.
Dad went out to empty the toilet and catch the water, and came back to poke the stove to cook noodles for breakfast, while mom was feeding her brother and changing his diaper.
Mom yelled for her and her big brother to get up, saying, “Take your brother outside to pee, be careful not to be seen.”
Wu Xiaoping climbed up, then pushed her big brother up, helped him get dressed and put on his shoes, then took him out to pee and wash his face, and when the two of them came back, Dad had already eaten, and half the noodles in the pot were missing.
Wu Wei changed into the only set of long shirts he had without patches and grabbed his briefcase, ungainly. He stood in front of a broken mirror in the doorway and carefully used a comb to neatly comb his hair into a center parting, with the seams of the center parting to be straight and straight.
He cleaned it up and said to his wife, “Hurry up and go out.” Then he said to Wu Xiaoping, “Do a good job of washing clothes with your mom and make more money, the security fee for this month hasn’t been paid yet.”
Wu Xiaoping nodded. He then said to his eldest son, “Take your brother well and stay at home, no running out. You are not allowed to take your brother to bed, you are only allowed to play on the floor, if you run to the bed again and poop or pee, beware of getting beaten up!”
The eldest son hemmed and hawed.
Wu Wei slapped his head, “Don’t laugh! It’ll be good when you’re a bit older and can make money too.”
Wu Xiaoping looked at her eldest brother and remembered that when she was his age, her family still lived in Zhu Jia Lou, she wore clean clothes, and she could go to reading and literacy classes with her little sisters every day, but now her eldest brother could only be locked up at home every day, not to mention reading, and he couldn’t even read.
It all started when her dad went out to gamble and the family got into debt and had to move out of Zhu Jia Lou. Dad’s job is also gone, in order to avoid the debt, the family moved several home, and then grandpa and grandma died, dad refused to go back to his hometown mourning, grandpa begged him that he wanted to be buried back to his hometown, do not want to be burned to ashes, but dad thought it was too costly to send the grandparents back to his hometown to be buried, but they were still burned to ashes.
Mom said that when Dad stopped gambling and the family’s debts were paid off, the family’s life would be better.
But now that Dad has stopped gambling and the family’s debts have been paid off, things still haven’t gotten any better for them.
Dad doesn’t let her go to tutoring anymore, and he doesn’t want to send her to a girls’ high school, he now wants her to go with mom to make money and earn a little more, he doesn’t even want to send his younger brother to school, he wants him to grow up in a hurry, and to go and earn money for the family too.
She followed her mom to the laundry yard, after signing the report, the two of them collected the clothes and went to wash.
She was panning clothes, her mother said to her, “Do not blame your father, now the days are not good, security fees, health fees, firefighting fees go up every month, this month will cost eight dollars, alas ……”
She and her mom only make eighty cents a day washing clothes, and eight dollars will take ten days. But their family still pays six dollars rent, but also to eat, Dad still have to take the car, but also to pay the public share of the water and electricity, although the electric light is only available at the intersection, but still have to share fifty cents of electricity every month.
It’s no good not paying, the landlord is not worried about renting out the house, if they are evicted, they will have no place to live.
Wu Xiaoping asked, “Can’t we go back home? I heard from the people in Zhu’s building that quite a few of them have gone back to their hometowns.”
Mom shook her head, “We can’t go back, it’s so hard to get out.” She looked at Wu Xiaoping and said, “If you were in your hometown, you should have gotten married at the age of ten, you are lucky to be able to give someone a wife, most of them are sold out to be small. You can still study now, and you will have a chance to find a good man in the future. Your father gambled even more, he didn’t sell you, he sold me, he’s a good man.”
Wu Xiaoping washed clothes all morning, from four o’clock to twelve o’clock at noon, and couldn’t lift both arms.
The young man boiled hot water, and at noon, he took out big cakes from the house, and carried the hot water from one to another to pour hot water for the women who were washing clothes, so that they could nibble on the cakes with the hot water.
This is their lunch.
Wu Xiaoping’s arms were sore and painful, making her want to cry, she cried the first day she came to wash clothes, not aggrieved, but in pain, arms, waist, legs, all over the body, no place does not hurt.
The other washerwomen were laughing as they watched her cry.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry, it won’t hurt after a couple days when you get used to it.”
“You won’t get used to it the first day, just wash it for a few more days.”
As she cried, she thought to herself that her mom had been washing for years and she had never cried at home. If she hadn’t come to do the laundry, she wouldn’t have known that it could be so painful.
It still hurt now, but she was able to hold back the tears. She stiffened and directed her hands with her arms, bringing the cakes and hot water to her mouth. Looking at the other washerwomen, they all did the same thing, their expressions a little grim and their movements a little stiff, but they were silent as they swallowed their food.
After eating, they had to continue washing.
Another day of hard work, another eighty cents earned.
Today they didn’t eat noodles, but they still secretly saved 10 cents.
Wu Xiaoping’s mom said, “A few more days of saving will save your tutoring money.”
But Wu Xiaoping no longer wanted to go to school, she wanted to do something.
She hugged her mom’s arm as she walked home and couldn’t help but say, “Mom, I want to be a servant, I’ve asked around, and I can earn fifteen dollars a month as a servant!”
Wu Xiaoping’s mom stood still.
Wu Xiaoping had been afraid to say anything for fear of her anger, but she had always wanted to help the family more, “I want you to not work so hard, I want to help the family!”
Wu Xiaoping’s mom looked at her, loving and sad, “You are still too young, it’s okay, there are mom and dad, you don’t need to care about the family.”
Wu Xiaoping said, “I’m not small anymore! I can do it!”
Wu Xiaoping’s mom still shook her head, “Being a servant, you have to be beaten and scolded, no.”
Wu Xiaoping: “I’m not afraid, I can do it.”
Wu Xiaoping’s mom: “No. You are a girl. You are a girl, what if something happens to you? People outside are too bad, what if they bully you?”
Wu Xiaoping had no way to convince her mom, so she had to give up the idea for the time being, but in her heart, she felt that the situation at home would get worse and worse, sooner or later, one day, they would have to make such a decision, and at that time, her mom would just have to agree that she should go and find a more lucrative job.