Jackets, sweaters, pants, shoes, autumn clothes, and autumn underwear.
Chu Xia bought four outfits for herself and Cen Huai'an. She also purchased a pair of white Hui Li sneakers and a pair of small leather shoes for Cen Huai'an.
Her taste was influenced by her future knowledge. She didn't choose flashy or elaborate designs but opted for simple, elegant, and versatile styles that would never go out of fashion.
And such a style is very good to wear, easy to match, and with the addition of a brooch and a beautiful belt, it makes it look clever and beautiful.
Chu Xia's favorite piece is a burgundy spelling waist dress, paired with a retro belt and a pair of black high-heeled shoes. It became beautiful and trendy.
Cen Huai'an has no problem with what he wears and is completely at Chu Xia's mercy.
However, as soon as he returned home, he immediately changed into his new white Hui Li sneakers. Chu Xia knew what he liked best.
The old coat was definitely no longer suitable. Chu Xia helped Cen Huai'an put on the new dark blue hooded zip-up jacket, which had no other embellishments except for a small brown bear embroidery on the chest. It was simple but looked great on him.
Cen Huai'an was already fair; although his face is still thin, he has already gained some meat, so this outfit is just like the TV child star.
He looks like a child star on TV when he dresses like this.
Unfortunately, there was no full-length mirror in the house for Cen Huai'an to see himself.
He gently touched his jacket and found it very comfortable and warm.
In his heart, he was very happy, but on his face, only the corners of his mouth had a little curve. He's especially good at hiding his emotions.
"Mom, will these be my clothes from now on?"
"If it's not yours, then who? Stop touching them and come help me wash the vegetables and peel the garlic. Today I'll make spinach with garlic paste."
Chu Xia is a bit sad that her own spinach hasn't grown yet; the current spinach is from this morning when she bumped into an old farmer hawking it near the family complex.
She took a look at the spinach's watery freshness and didn't hesitate to buy two handfuls.
Spinach at this time of year is all natural, and without pesticides, of course, it's better to buy extra. It's so convenient to have a refrigerator, so you can put the vegetables in the refrigerator without fear of spoilage.
Cen Huai'an moved a small bench next to Chu Xia, washed the spinach, and sat there to peel garlic.
He is young, but he works hard and peels the garlic very quickly.
For garlic spinach, it was important to sauté the garlic in hot oil first and then add the spinach. A brief stir-fry was enough—don't overcook the spinach, or it would become tough, and don't undercook it, or it would remain raw.
The timing is very important, and finally, add some soy sauce and salt, and it's ready to serve.
Garlic spinach is very quick to make but very tasty, perfect for summer. It's refreshing and delicious.
Chu Xia also made tofu and spinach soup, warmed up the steamed buns, and it was time to eat.
Cen Huai'an is happiest at this time every day. If Chu Xia wasn't watching, he would stuff himself every time.
The weather had not been great all day, and the wind was blowing strongly. Chu Xia brought an umbrella and a raincoat to work.
Sure enough, it started raining again in the afternoon.
By the time it was time to leave work, the rain was heavy and showed no sign of stopping. It was even colder outside than during the day.
Cen Huai'an was still waiting for Chu Xia to pick him up; she couldn't wait for the rain to stop like everyone else, so she braved the rain and went directly into it.
By the time she reached kindergarten class, her pants were soaked, and she put a raincoat on Cen Huai'an. They hurried back home.
At their doorstep, Chu Xia saw that the empty house next door had someone moving things inside. It's a woman with a child; both people's bodies are wet.
Chu Xia only looked a bit, then pulled Cen Huai'an into the house. Her body can't get cold; otherwise, she will get sick again when she had just recovered.
The aluminum kettle had been sitting on the coal stove with hot water inside. Cen Huai'an's body is not very wet; only his shoes and trousers are wet. Chu Xia let him wash his feet and change his trousers.
Then she carried the water from the aluminum kettle into the inner room to scrub.
The house is too small, with the inner room separated from the outer room by just one room. They didn't even have a door, and bathing was inconvenient.
An'an is five years old; at most, by next year, she needs to make a new bed for him to sleep alone. When she thinks about it, Chu Xia wants to move house.
But during this time, there is no commercial property, there is no housing available, plus it's not easy to find. And most importantly, she doesn't have enough money.
Residential land was affordable enough to purchase, but building a house required money as well.
But if she wants to buy a house, Chu Xia definitely wants to buy a house in the capital and the sea city.
How cheap the houses are now ah, there is no restriction on purchasing them. Why not buy a few more properties now? Property prices were bound to skyrocket in the future, and they would surely regret it if they didn't seize the opportunity.
However, one couldn't bite off more than they could chew. For now, she needs to solve the problem of work, study well, and wait for next year's college entrance examination.
Chu Xia quickly got dressed, putting on the new linen shirt she had bought and a pair of jeans. She gave her hair a quick comb, intending to wash it during the day.
Otherwise, it won't dry at night, and she will get a headache. Besides, there is no hair dryer at home to use.
When Chu Xia went out, Cen Huai'an turned his back to the inner room and sat on the table, reading a book. What he's reading is not what the kindergarten teaches, but the first grade textbook that Chu Xia taught him.
Chu Xia taught him pinyin along with the characters.
Right now, he's only been taught the rhymes and some of the consonants, so he still can't spell the words and can only read what Chu Xia taught him.
Chu Xia looks at Cen Huai'an's back and suddenly realizes that he doesn't seem to have many toys and hasn't asked her for any.
She hadn't heard of him showing particular interest in toys that other kids played with, such as marbles or other games. The only game he had shown some interest in was a Chinese character recognition game.
This was something she hadn't considered; Cen Huai'an's childhood didn't have the word toy, but she should have thought of it.
Just because she can't go out to buy things now doesn't mean she can't make them. The games she used to play as a child, like Connect Four, Five in a Row, Six-Stone Chess, and Bamboo Jointed People, can all be played at home.
Six-stone chess [六子棋 (liùzǐ qí)] also called connect 6
Bamboo jointed people [竹节人 (zhú jié rén)] are little action figures made out of bamboos
Let's wait after dinner.
For dinner, Chu Xia stewed a fish. The fish was frozen in the fridge, not so fresh, but this is the best time to drink a bowl of warm fish soup and then boil some millet and red date porridge that's most suitable for a rainy day.
"An'an, send this bowl of fish soup to Grandma Chen."
Chu Xia still remembers Grandma Chen teaching Cen Huai'an the towel cooling method, and she serves another bowl to send it to Sister Li's house.
While being sick for a few days, Sister Li helped her a lot. She came to see her when she was free and sent hot porridge and hot buns, and when she saw Cen Huai'an decocting the medicine, she said that Chu Xia's heart was big and she wasn't afraid of the child being scalded. Afterward, she didn't let Cen Huai'an carry the medicine anymore, and she helped carry it for her.
This kind Sister Li, not to mention sending a bowl of fish soup, is willing to send even ten bowls.
When she sent the food over, Sister Li's family hadn't finished the meal yet, and when she saw that the bowl of fish soup was piled high with fish, Sister Li refused to take it.
"Don't. Don't. A fish has so little meat. You've already brought it to me. What are you and An'an going to eat? We're not lacking food in my house."
Chu Xia saw her daughter and son gulping; obviously, they don't usually eat meat or fish much.
Although Sister Li's family is dual-income, she is raising three children. Her husband came from a rural hometown with several brothers in the family. They had to send money home every month, and Sister Li would also visit her parents' home from time to time.
Their family life is tight, but it's not a problem to eat enough. But if they want to eat something good,they have to wait a long time before they can buy some meat to enjoy.
Everyone is like this during this era. Many people supported large families.
But since Chu Xia stopped giving money to her mother, she has been stewing either chicken or fish every other day and putting meat in her stir-fries.
The smell makes the kids on the whole floor drool. Now if they were to ask who they envy the most, it would definitely be Cen Huai'an, who gets to eat delicious food every day.
Chu Xia, just like before, moves quickly to pour the meat into Sister Li's family bowl and says with a smile, "You've helped An'an and I so much these past few days; you should eat this bowl of fish; what's the point of being polite with me!"
As soon as Chu Xia left, the Li family's eldest daughter and two sons gathered around and said, "Mom, let me try a piece first."
"Go, go, go, hungry ghosts; wait for your dad to come back before eating."
She picked up the fish and locked it in the cupboard; otherwise, once she went out to cook, these three children could immediately eat all the fish with no soup left.
"Candy from Grandma Chen." As soon as Chu Xia comes back, Cen Huai'an pulls out a piece of fruit sugar and gives it to her.
The candy had been sitting for who knows how long, and the sugar inside the wrapper had clumped together. Chu Xia took the candy and said, "Don't eat this candy; I'll give you a milk candy later."
Cen Huai'an instantly didn't mind that the candy was taken away by Chu Xia and was looking forward to waiting for the milk candy to eat.
When the two of them were happily eating fish and drinking hot millet and red date porridge under the dim, warm light, they didn't know that the mother and son next door on the left were looking enviously.
"Mom, I'm hungry; I want to eat fish too."
Guan Yan was also hungry; having moved to this house in a hurry, there wasn't a single piece of furniture except for a bed, let alone a coal stove.
She couldn't do anything, so she could only hold her son and say, "Bear with it for a while. I'll go and borrow some hot water to make you a cup of malted milk."
Qi Ming is only four years old, and when a hungry child cries, he doesn't understand how to hold back. He's used to getting what he wants, so he wailed loudly, "No! I don't want it! I want to eat fish, not drink malted milk! I want Grandma!"
Guan Yan gritted her teeth. Her son was brought up by her in-laws full of bad habits.If she didn't give in, he would throw a fit, and she always defended him.
If it wasn't for the fact that her son was going to be ruined if he wasn't disciplined, she wouldn't have made up her mind to make a scene with her mean in-laws.
Fortunately, she had prepared this room earlier, thinking they would move in at some point. Otherwise, on a rainy day like this, being thrown out in the rain with her husband away from home, she and Mingming would have frozen outside.
The moment Qi Ming didn't get what he wanted and was throwing a tantrum, Guan Yan borrowed the broom she fished out from the corridor, and a hard-hearted "snap snap" hit him.
Qi Ming cried more heartbreakingly, but Guan Yan herself also cried.
The family residential building has no secrets. While people might gossip about hitting a child, they would only say a few words and not pay much attention to it.
It's just that Guan Yan and Qi Ming just moved in, so they may be curious about it.
Chu Xia and Cen Huai'an are not curious, because at this time Chu Xia is teaching Cen Huai'an to play six-stone chess
Five in a Row needs a lot of pieces, but there are none at home.
Six-stone chess is easy. Draw a nine-square grid with six pieces for each player, fill the outer circle, and you're ready to go.
As long as two of White's pieces surround one of Black's pieces, Black's piece is captured. They keep going until one player has only two pieces left, and that player loses.
Before playing the game, Chu Xia took out a new book and gave it to Cen Huai'an, saying, "Today we're going to implement the Little Red Flower system."
Cen Huai'an looks at Chu Xia. There are also little red flowers in kindergarten class. The teacher said that the best-behaved child will get a little red flower every day; he got several.
But the little red flowers are not counted until the end of the term, when whoever gets the most gets the reward.
Because he didn't get a reward, Cen Huai'an didn't say anything.
Whenever Chu Xia asked him what happened in kindergarten today, he would say that the teacher spoke a few words and taught a few numbers today, and then nothing.
Then, when asked if anything interesting happened with his classmates, Cen Huai'an would say, "They like to cry; I don't like playing with them."
Chu Xia: "Then there are always the ones who don't cry."
Cen Huai'an hesitates for a while and reluctantly says, "Chen Chen doesn't cry."
When Chu Xia says that he can play with Chen Chen, Cen Huai'an lets out a "hmmm". There's no way for her to continue.
Cen Huai'an is obviously intellectually different from the children in kindergarten, so there's no way to integrate with them.
Of course, they were the same in terms of liking candy.
Cen Huai'an frowned to himself and wondered: What was Mom's little red flower system? Will she give him candy?
Chu Xia explains to Cen Huai'an, "This little red flower system is mainly used to reward you. For example, if you win a game with me today, you'll be awarded a little red flower; if you help me with my chores today, you'll have a little red flower; if you get praised by your teacher at school for doing something good, you'll also have a little red flower. But if you make a mistake, you have to deduct the little red flower. The little red flowers can be used to exchange things with me, such as money, such as candy."
Cen Huai'an's eyes instantly lit up, and he immediately said, "I just washed the dishes."
Chu Xia smiles and nods. "Okay, then I'll start counting from the time you washed the dishes and give you one."
Chu Xia finds the red pen she took notes with and draws a little red flower.
"Now let's play sixes, one game only, and after that, you're going to go write big letters."
"Good!"
Cen Huai'an's eyes show excitement; he wants to win over Chu Xia with all his heart and get another little red flower.
Don't underestimate six-stone; it also tests one's intelligence and ability to count, layout, dig traps, and how to make the first move.
Cen Huai'an was unfamiliar with the game at first and was quickly eaten up by Chu Xia.
But later on, it's hard for Chu Xia to eat his pieces; the two of them can't eat anyone's, and in the end, the game is stalemated.
Chu Xia looks at the time on her watch; it's almost eight o'clock. She stands up and interrupts Cen Huai'an's thinking, "Alright, save this game for tomorrow; you should write big characters."
Chu Xia's own handwriting was forced by her grandfather to practice from a young age, so she also wants Cen Huai'an to practice his handwriting from a young age.
Her handwriting is definitely not as good as that of those great calligraphers, but it's still more than enough to teach Cen Huai'an to get started.
"You're not putting in enough effort. You can't rush through this part. Erase and rewrite it."
Chu Xia accompanies Cen Huai'an, and while he writes, she memorizes her exam materials. The factory is going to have an internal recruitment exam next Monday; she doesn't have much time left.
At this time, Chu Xia is especially envious of Cen Huai'an's ability to remember everything. Her memory is not bad, but she needs to read each paragraph three or four times to remember it, and she will forget it if she doesn't review it.
It's true that people's abilities can be quite different.
While she was memorizing, the door to Chu Xia's house was knocked on with a thump.
"Keep writing," she said to Cen Huai'an.
She got up to answer the door.
Outside the door were the mother and son from next door who had just moved in, and the two had changed their clothes to new ones.
"Is there something you need?" Chu Xia looked at them and asked hesitantly.
Guan Yan's face turned red, as this was her first time asking someone for help, and her words were not coming out smoothly. She said, "Um... at my place... could you lend me some hot water? I want to make a cup of malted milk for my child."
Borrowing water is just a matter of borrowing water; it is not a difficult task. Chu Xia puts out the thermos and says, "Yes, you guys pour it."
"Thanks! Thank you!" Guan Yan thanked him repeatedly.
However, when Chu Xia learned the next day that the mother and son next door were named Guan Yan and Qi Ming, she instantly regretted lending them the water.
Qi Ming is the hero of [Era of Godly Merchants] and his mother happens to be named Guan Yan.