Chapter 1655 - 1077: Heroine of the Republic 51 (5000+)_3

Chapter 1655: Chapter 1077: Heroine of the Republic 51 (5000+)_3

"Yeah, how come we didn’t realize earlier that he’s just a pretty face? Look at that handsome face, but that woman is just too ugly, not a match for him."

"Although she’s a bit ugly, but look, this woman has a bicycle, dresses neatly, not bad conditions, right? No wonder that usually unpleasant Old Zhou is begging for help now."

"Hey? How did his leg get injured? No wonder we haven’t seen him lately, the people from the street office are looking for him; no one’s been cleaning the toilets, it’s stinking..."

...

"Anyway, don’t take it to heart, they’re just jealous, jealous that I got sent back, me, a street sweeper, I, "

"Where’s your home?" An Yi interrupted him, asking coldly.

"Huh?" The wind scattered his voice, he didn’t hear clearly.

"I asked where your home is?" Her voice was a bit impatient, clearly she hadn’t communicated with these gossipy women for a long time, and was now a bit out of practice.

"Oh, go straight to the right, the last house at the end is mine."

An Yi waited for him to sit back on the bike, kept silent with his head down, for the biting wind made opening one’s mouth for a breath uncomfortable.

So on this journey, they almost had zero communication.

The houses in the slum area are built haphazardly; some use wood, some earth bricks, using whatever is at hand. This place is gathered by people with city relatives but no houses, who had no choice but to come to build houses. They usually earn a living by doing temporary work at mines or as hourly workers.

This area has no rich people, only poor people, and the houses are small. Each household is only allowed to build two rooms, no more is permitted.

If someone has many relatives, as long as they’re joining the county ranks, it’s counted as one household. So even if they’ve separated from city relatives, they still live crowded.

Each house here has a yard for growing vegetables; cooking is done indoors. In times with no oil, there’s no concern about grease smoke.

Every household has a kang (a kind of heated bed), without it, it’s hard to survive. Who could handle the cold winters otherwise?

Because his home is in the windward spot, he’s allowed to build two wind walls, within which is the house’s courtyard wall, including two brick mud houses, one for storage and one for living. Entering the hall room, the bedroom is inside, connected to the main door with no lock, just a wooden latch, so it easily pushes open.

The houses are small, low, and dilapidated, but from their neatly organized repair, including sealed windows, you can see this person is handy, at least not lazy.

He locked the door when he left, but during this half month, two snows fell, and now the doorway is full of snow, the messy steps showing many people have sought him.

She pushed him to his doorstep, Gu Cheng’s long legs touched the ground, leaned on his cane to open the door. But due to the cold, the lock was frozen, so from across the courtyard wall, he borrowed a bowl of hot water from the neighbors to pour on it, only then did it open. Since there was no fire, the house wasn’t any warmer than outside, cold and stiff.

Entering was a mess of firewood, chaotic but the kitchen cupboard, cutting board, were neatly placed, covered with a basin.

The stove is near the doorway, connected to the kang head inside, with two quilts and a box in the corner, and a table in the center. Besides these, there were cleaning tools and some random things collected.

Well, what should be messy was indeed messy, but the kang and dining stove were clean; for a man, it’s already commendable.

He managed to achieve order in disorder.

An Yi walked around to check, "Do you have a cellar? Have you stored winter grain?"

Gu Cheng nodded, "Look, under the firewood is the cellar, with radishes, cabbage, winter melon, zucchini, and some fine wood stored there, plenty of firewood for my use."

An Yi looked inside the house, then outside at the door, couldn’t help but marvel: "You’ve been gone half a month, and your house wasn’t robbed?"

Normally, during such a cold December disappearance for half a month, people would assume you’re gone, and then some restless souls might covet your things.

But from the looks of it, everything was intact, which An Yi found quite remarkable.

However, Gu Cheng merely stated flatly: "They don’t dare."

As to why they don’t dare, there’s no explanation.

An Yi’s memory was pulled back to that boot-wearing, smoking, arrogant soldier from long ago.

Even when sweeping streets and toilets, seeing others’ attitudes around, only dared to gossip privately without saying a word upfront, still possessed a certain deterrent power. As for what he did, she wasn’t truly curious.

But the house was too cold to inhabit, so she helped light the fire, boiled hot water, noticed that the water tank inside was already empty.

As she was about to take a bucket to fetch water, Gu Cheng stopped her.

"No need, later I’ll have the guy next door help, you can go back. I see the sky’s gloomy, might snow again soon, there’s nothing much here, thanks for bringing me back."

"Do you have food?"

Gu Cheng nodded, "Yes, it’s in the cellar."

An Yi thought for a while, went down to fetch it for him, also brought up a basket of vegetables, placed his bundle, and around twenty kilograms of assorted grains on the kang head.

"This is all I can do; every ten days I’ll come help check your health, keep the wound clean."

The man ’hmm’ed a sound, "Thank you, Teacher An."

An Yi paused her steps, glanced back at him, "Wishing you good luck."

An Yi walked out the door, mounted her bicycle and left, on her way was stopped by women asking about her relation with Gu Cheng, which she dismissed with a sentence.

"That shouldn’t... concern you?"

Then she cycled away without ever looking back, hearing jeers from behind, ’Bah, what a thing?’

She shook her head, ignoring them, all busybodies overly addicted to meddling in affairs?

Returning home, Anna and Angel glanced at her back, confirmed the person was indeed gone, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sis, wasn’t your original plan to wait for him to recover before letting him leave? How come he’s off your hands just after half a month?"

An Yi cast a sweeping gaze: "This grandpa’s too temperamental, I won’t serve him anymore, is that not allowed?"

Temperamental? They didn’t seem to think so, rarely seen much movement in his room!

But if sis says big, then it surely is; after all, she is the one going in and out, managing the urination, sis just handles the two kids.

They could empathize with her dissatisfaction, probably from the same place? After all, it’s said there’s no filial child standing by a sickbed for long, right?

Picking up a man back home randomly, if ungrateful, no one would indulge him, may as well be gone, less suffocating without him.

They merely assumed An Yi didn’t want to serve him anymore, when actually it was his attitude annoying her, shouldn’t one be a bit cautious when dependent?

Why did she encounter such arrogance? Where did he get his confidence from? Liang Jingru?

No wonder people say, only when men are hung on the wall are they truly honest; with someone like Gu Cheng, not being married is fine, but once married, who knows how the partner could stand it? This machoism is hard to cure, but reflecting on women of this era, naturally assume their role is to cook, tend the kids, honor elders, the traditional Hua Country perspective deeply ingrained.

Only she, this modern woman, believes women can fully support themselves, why marry? Why let a man dominate her?

Moreover, because of her face, he had to endure quite a bit, despite being a street sweeper, he actually dared to disdain?

Bah, what a thing; out of sight, out of mind, gone is even better, not serving him!

Without this outsider, they could eat, do what they want without worrying, isn’t that good?

Better curtail this habit of randomly picking people into home, and spare a recurrence, better break a hand than repeat!