Back To The 80s-Chapter 149: Short Distance_1

Gu Xiaobei had been quite busy these days, knitting when worn out from translating articles, and even tutoring Chen Gang and Dadong at noon.

On Saturday noon, she filled a cloth bag with two pounds of rice and slipped it into Chen Gang’s schoolbag to be taken back to his fourth sister-in-law after school.

After the children had gone to school, Gu Xiaobei decided it was a good day to wash and dismantle the quilts. The quilts at her home did not have covers, they were all stitched together directly. After a few months of fumbling around, Gu Xiaobei became adept at repairing them.

Repairing quilts was a technical job. Those who led thrifty lives would reuse the cotton threads torn off and use them the second time for stitching. However, Gu Xiaobei was not the kind who lived thrifty--the threads she pulled off were so messy, she couldn’t untangle them at all.

Gu Xiaobei was sitting on the small bed, back to the door, unthreading the quilt.

Upon hearing the door open, she turned around to see Lu Zhanguo standing in the doorway against the light, in his green military uniform, standing as erect as a tall pine tree. Overjoyed, she quickly got off the bed and ran up to him: "You’re finally back. Eh, why is your uniform wet?" When Gu Xiaobei reached out to touch Lu Zhanguo’s arm, she was surprised to find his whole body was damp.

"Quickly, take it off, the rain has already stopped, hasn’t it?" Gu Xiaobei brought Lu Zhanguo into the inner room, and hurried to get clothes from the closet.

Lu Zhanguo allowed his little wife to guide him. His gaze was soft as he watched Gu Xiaobei rummaging in the closet for clothes.

"First take off your wet clothes, I’ll get a basin of warm water, and you can clean yourself up." Gu Xiaobei said, placing clean underwear on the bed while leaving to fetch water.

When Gu Xiaobei brought the water in, Lu Zhanguo was already half-naked, sat on a stool, taking off his shoes. When he took off his high-waisted military boots, water poured out. After removing his wet, dripping, army-green socks, he revealed his white and wrinkled feet due to the long soaking.

Seeing this, Gu Xiaobei’s heart ached. Without saying anything, she put down the basin, grabbed the towel from the head of the bed, squatted down and was about to wipe Lu Zhanguo’s feet.

Lu Zhanguo hurriedly reached for the towel: "I’ll do it."

"Don’t move." Gu Xiaobei sternly warned.

Lu Zhanguo looked at Gu Xiaobei who was squatting right in front of him with her head lowered and his heart filled with warmth. His gaze softened even more as he watched her.

Gu Xiaobei quickly wiped Lu Zhanguo’s feet. She spoke with some restraint: "You should quickly take off your wet pants too, and I will get you another basin of water for washing your feet." She then stood up, walked out of the room, rubbing her eyes once outside. She blinked twice to stop the tears from flowing.

Gu Xiaobei boiled another pot of water, just warming it before pouring it into a foot basin and carrying it in for Lu Zhanguo.

Lu Zhanguo had already put on his undershirt and shorts, sitting on the side of the bed wiping his hair. Seeing Gu Xiaobei bring the water in, he said warmly: "I was just thinking of coming back to get some clean clothes for bathing at the camp."

"The camp must still be cold, don’t catch a cold." Gu Xiaobei put the basin of water next to Lu Zhanguo’s feet, telling him to soak his feet.

Lu Zhanguo pulled Gu Xiaobei to sit next to him, pinching her delicate white fingers, he said: "Don’t worry, all military men go through this. The hardship now is to shed less blood on the battlefield."

"I know it makes sense, but I just can’t bear to see you like this. Look at the scars on your body." Gu Xiaobei said, while resting her head on Lu Zhanguo’s shoulder, with distressedet.

"Didn’t the rain stop? How did you get so wet?" Gu Xiaobei was still baffled.

"Four seasons on a mountain, weather changing every mile, deep in the old forest, it has been raining non-stop these days."

"Why didn’t you come back sooner? You’ll get sick from the rain like this." Gu Xiaobei said with a distressed look on her face.

Lu Zhanguo smoothed her hair, patiently explaining: "War won’t stop because of bad weather. Missions can’t be canceled because it’s raining. So the worse the weather, the more it can train a soldier’s perseverance and physical fitness."

Gu Xiaobei was at a loss for words, silently leaning against him for a while until Lu Zhanguo had soaked his feet, then sat up straight and said, "You rest for a while, and I’ll give you some hot soup to drink."

"No need, we’ll eat together tonight, I just need a nap now." Lu Zhanguo looked affectionately at Gu Xiaobei, who had been bustling about ever since he came in.

"Okay, then you sleep. I’ll go wash the quilt." Gu Xiaobei thought about it; if he ate now, he would probably not be hungry in the evening. Saying this, she went over to close the curtains.

Seeing that Lu Zhanguo had lied down, she ran over, leaned over, and gave him a couple of kisses, teasing him, "Sleep, my Sleeping Beauty."

By the time Lu Zhanguo reached out to grab her, laughing and crying, Gu Xiaobei had slipped away like a little fish, chuckling as she ran out, closing the door behind her.

Because Lu Zhanguo was back, Gu Xiaobei was in a good mood and finished dismantling the quilt cover and cotton padding. Then she quietly carried them to the washroom to clean.

Li Fengmei was in the washroom laundering Zhang Lijun’s clothes. Looking at this, Gu Xiaobei suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to take Lu Zhanguo’s clothes out of the room for washing. It seemed that she was still a bit away from being a good wife. With this thought, she turned back to fetch the clothes.

Looking at Gu Xiaobei’s happy face, Li Fengmei couldn’t help but tease, "Feeling pretty secure now, aren’t you?"

Gu Xiaobei just smirked without uttering a word, she indeed felt secure at heart.

"You are wasting detergent to wash clothes, for thick clothes and quilts, you can just use soapnuts." The soapnut soap didn’t resemble the normal ones, it was a bumpy black piece shaped like a pagoda. Gu Xiaobei disliked its color and didn’t want to use it.

"Doesn’t detergent wash things cleaner?" Gu Xiaobei didn’t want to say that she found soapnuts ugly.

"Soapnuts clean sweat stains on quilts better. You scrape it, let it simmer a bit and it washes off. Why don’t you give it a try?" Li Fengmei suggested enthusiastically.

"Okay, I’ll give it a try later." Gu Xiaobei was moved by the thought of how troublesome it was to dismantle and wash the quilt. She would do it once every two months and had to exert a lot of strength to scrub the quilt cover clean.

As the two of them were chatting, Ge Chunling came in with a basin, also to wash her husband’s clothes.

"You two are washing clothes too." Ge Chunling greeted with a smile.

"We’d better hurry up and wash. It looks like everyone will be coming over soon." As Li Fengmei spoke, her hands worked faster.

"Did you hear? Xiangmin’s brother from her mother’s side is being transferred to our camp." Ge Chunling put the basin in front of the sink, but instead of turning on the faucet, she started gossiping first.

"Didn’t hear about it, how do you know?" Li Fengmei joined in.

"Wang Ping said it. She went to town to see Xiangmin yesterday." Ge Chunling said in a lowered voice.

"Didn’t she say she wouldn’t go? How come she went again?" Li Fengmei thought Wang Ping was a bit unreliable. They had been to the vegetable field together in the morning, but she had not mentioned this. They had agreed not to go a few days ago and she ran off sneakily.

Gu Xiaobei just listened and stayed quiet. She understood people like Wang Ping. She had seen many such colleagues in her previous life. They often complained about being bullied but willingly took the bitterness hoping to gain a little benefit. It wasn’t that the person was necessarily bad.