HPDBC Chapter 31
Chapter 31
Chapter 31
In addition to hoarding grain and fodder, Wen Qian also bought things online and had them delivered to the post office in town.
She bought several dozen catties of soap base for herself online, planning to make soap at home.
She just bought the raw materials. If she really started from the soap base, it would be too much trouble for her.
With soap base, she could add some ingredients she liked to make it easier.
Because of sharing online, she also earned some pocket money to continue buying things.
When Wen Qian went to exchange shifts with Chen Lin, he was sawing wood at home with a power saw. He sawed the trees into very short sections and did not split them. He said they were for the heating stove.
When Wen Qian went to his house, she found that they had a room with a heating stove in it, the same style she had bought online before.
Chen Lin bought it online.
So Wen Qian went back home and took out her things and installed one in a room behind her bedroom too.
The chimney extended into the sunny alley behind the house where it could vent smoke and avoid wind.
Wen Qian spent half a day assembling it. She lit a small fire to test it. It worked very smoothly. According to the size of the stove, she also sawed quite a few logs.
While she was installing her heating stove at home, when Auntie Chen saw it, she also thought it was great. She went home and called her son to have him buy one, planning to put it in the stairwell room on the first floor.
When the fire burns bigger, a small room gets warm. Their place had no heating. Air conditioning was expensive and ineffective.
With this, they could sit warm and cozy in the room. It just took a little more firewood, which they had plenty of in the mountains.
The wood also didn't need to be split too small. A section of log put inside, as long as it caught fire and the stove door was shut, it would burn slowly for a long time. It was not smoky like a fire bowl, and there was no danger of poisoning like burning coal.
When Auntie Chen went to town to get the heating stove, she gave money to Chen Lin to help carry it back.
As he pushed it through the market, many people asked where to buy it. Auntie Chen happily said her son bought it, she didn't know how, it was an online item.
After a while, some shops outside put out two heating stoves, but the styles were different than the one bought online. There was a large pot placed in the middle. It was like a movable earthen stove made of iron.
When Auntie Chen came back from going out, she said this one was not as good as the one bought online! The variety online was really something!
Sure enough, this person named Wang Guihua asked Wen Qian if she wanted to poke her nose into an affair.
In the local rural areas, they humbly referred to matchmaking as poking their noses into other's affairs.
Wen Qian secretly rolled her eyes in her heart. You'd better not get involved! But she just said, what's up?
So Wang Guihua leaned in toward her, grabbed her hand and patted it, beaming.
"You've come back here for this time now with no friend. I know a pretty good young man. Do you want to try at least becoming friends? Take a look at each other with him?
Right now you're off work, and probably won't be leaving again until after New Year's, just right to meet while you're both home on vacation during this time?"
"He's a year younger than you, steady and hardworking out there, his parents are young enough to help raise your three kids..."
With a blank face Wen Qian replied, "No need for that, Aunt Wang."
"I'm not joking with you. I'm being serious, speaking from my heart to you. Don't be shy. This is a lifetime event. Your age is not small anymore either. Picky choosing won't get you another chance later." The other person with her worldly wise face had a hand still grasping Wen Qian's as if it would not let go.
Wen Qian didn't reply, just pulled her hand free.
Guihua: "How could you want to be a nun already at your age? You'll definitely regret it later when you're older. You've got a health problem and there is no one to offer a helping hand."
Wen Qian asked her: "How do you know he won't die before you? Maybe you'll have to take care of him but he goes first."
That struck a chord.
Guihua's husband had died suddenly two years ago, but Wen Qian hadn't aimed her remark at Guihua's personal life, just used a common argument to rebut her.
This person only profited off others, never herself at a loss. When things went her way, that was proper and right. If people accommodated her requests one hundred percent she only reciprocated fifty percent.
So Wen Qian's strategy was to let the other party become discouraged or even dislike her, then they would not try again.
As expected Guihua was very unhappy: "How could you want to be a nun already at your age? You will definitely regret it when you're older. You've got a health problem and there is no one to offer a helping hand."
Wen Qian asked her: "How do you know he won't die before you? Maybe you'll have to take care of him but he goes first."
That struck a chord.
Guihua's husband had died suddenly two years after getting married, but Wen Qian hadn't aimed her remark at Guihua's personal life, just used a common argument to rebut her.