Framed at the beginning: Female educated youth forced to marry disabled military officer

The house the two rented was an old house in Haishi. It was located near the city center and very close to the military school where Xiao Xiangdong studied, only ten minutes away. But most of these are old-fashioned alleys without separate sanitary facilities. You have to empty the toilet by yourself every morning, and the toilet is also a public toilet.

The hot water supply also relies on the public boiling water room, and bathing is in the public bathhouse connected to the water room.

This small courtyard has two floors, including the main house and a side house, with a total of about ten rooms, but five or six families live there. In the early morning, Meng Xiaoman was still asleep, and she could hear the sound of pots and pans clattering in the kitchen downstairs. From time to time, children crying and adults scolding could be heard in the yard.

In addition to classes, Xiao Xiangdong also has morning exercises to do every morning, so he gets up early. He felt sorry for Meng Xiaoman's hard work in getting up early to cook, so he went to the cafeteria to have breakfast every day, while Meng Xiaoman was happy to sleep in.

Meng Xiaoman didn't get up until he had had enough sleep and almost all the people working and going to school in the yard had left. At this time, the yard was much quieter, and there was no need to grab the faucet for washing.

Meng Xiaoman washed up leisurely, then took the used soap, toothbrush, cup, and washbasin to the room and put them away.

Because the kitchen is a public kitchen, we are afraid that things will get mixed up, and we are even more afraid that our things will be stolen, so each family has a square cabinet to put their own things, such as pots, pans, spoons, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar. There are also rations, which are all locked in the cabinet. They are taken out when used, put back after use, and then locked with a small square lock.

Meng Xiaoman hasn't had time to buy cabinets yet, so every time she runs out of things, she has to take them back to her room.

It's not that she likes to cause trouble for herself, but there are many people in the yard. If it is placed in a public area, her things will be touched in two days.

New furniture is not only expensive but also expensive. The two of them have lived here for three months and it is difficult to take it with them when they leave. Meng Xiaoman plans to go to the flea market to buy a used one.

The flea market is on the edge of the city, and Meng Xiaoman took two buses to get there.

Some of the items in the flea market are obtained from garbage dumps, and some are collected from residents' homes. Although it is old, it does not hinder its use and is cheap, especially for many people who cannot afford a new home.

Meng Xiaoman picked a one-meter-high two-layer cabinet to store pots, pans, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar. She also picked a square table and two matching chairs. There was no dining table at home. In recent days, both of them had It's eating at the desk.

The cabinets and tables were of very simple styles, made of ordinary materials, and not expensive. These items only cost Meng Xiaoman two yuan in total.

The things were not expensive, but hard to get. Meng Xiaoman moved a cupboard home first, and the two of them would pick up the rest when Xiao Xiangdong came back.

When the two came in the evening, there were a lot more things on the stall than in the afternoon, and the quality was also better.

"A new batch of goods just arrived." The stall owner explained. It's said to be new, but it was just picked out of a junkyard.

Meng Xiaoman took a fancy to a carved mahogany chest of drawers, which was just the right height to be used as a bedside table.

The stall owner touched the wooden paint on it and said, "This is an old thing. Even I rarely see such good things recently."

"Were there many old objects like this in the past?" These things are not very valuable now, but after 20 or 30 years, they will become antique furniture and are very valuable.

"In the first few years, there were a lot of them. They were confiscated from homes. The garbage dump couldn't fit them. Most of them were chopped up and used as firewood. In the past two years, there are fewer, but there are still some, but it's just not the turn of us who pick up old things. "

It turns out that since the year before last, some people have been collecting old goods in the garbage dump. Furniture with better materials and workmanship like this has been picked out, and the remaining ordinary furniture will flow into the secondhand market.

"This chest of drawers probably fell into my hands because it was too dark and the picker didn't see it clearly."

It seemed that she was not the only one to see the value in these old objects.

Meng Xiaoman suddenly thought of Shen Yuru, who had used the space to collect many such things.

Xiao Xiangdong and Meng Xiaoman went to the market to move furniture after class. Neither of them had eaten dinner yet. The kitchen downstairs was only a dozen square meters, and it was crowded with people cooking. Meng Xiaoman didn't want to crowd with others, so the two of them went to a state-owned restaurant to eat.

Two bowls of Yangchun noodles and a plate of pickled vegetables completed dinner.

There is no shortage of vegetables in Meng Xiaoman's space, so she doesn't have to get up early to queue up at the grocery store to grab vegetables that are in short supply. She only buys some for show occasionally.

The school's curriculum was heavy, and Xiao Xiangdong had to stay up late into the night every night. He became visibly thinner. Meng Xiaoman bought an old hen and planned to make a medicinal meal to supplement him.

The recipes that Mr. Chen left for her included many medicinal and dietary recipes, and the medicinal materials were readily available in the space, so it was not troublesome to make them.

Medicinal food needs to be simmered over low heat to allow the medicinal properties to soak into the chicken and soup. Therefore, at around nine o'clock in the morning, Meng Xiaoman stewed the chicken on a coal stove.

The medicinal meal was simmering on the stove, and Meng Xiaoman was washing clothes in the backyard. It was rainy in Haishi in spring, but it finally cleared up today, so Meng Xiaoman washed and dried the dirty clothes from the previous two days.

After washing the clothes and washing and cutting the vegetables that I planned to cook later, the fragrance of the medicinal food also wafted out.

It took a long time to stew the medicinal food. Meng Xiaoman felt bored and went back to the room. When the time was almost done, she came down to take a look.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, I saw a woman holding a spoon and fishing for something in her pot.

"what are you doing?"

The woman looked panicked and almost dropped the spoon in her hand into the pot with a clang.

"I, I just want to see what is cooked so fragrant." the woman explained.

Meng Xiaoman stepped forward, took the spoon from her hand, and checked the medicinal food. Fortunately, she came in time, the hen was still there, and the medicinal materials inside were also there.

"Oh, I thought you wanted to steal my stewed chicken?"

When the medicinal meal was almost done, Meng Xiaoman took down the casserole, put it in the cupboard, took out the wok, and planned to stir-fry some green vegetables.

"Isn't it just a chicken? What's the big deal? Just act like you haven't seen it before!" After the woman finished speaking, she twisted around and walked away.

Guessing that Xiao Xiangdong would be home soon, Meng Xiaoman took out the medicinal meal. When he got home, he happened to be at the entrance.

It's okay to put it in a casserole. As soon as it is served, the aroma of meat mixed with the aroma of medicine immediately fills the entire yard.

"smell good."

"Whose chicken is stewed?"

"Ah, I want to eat meat."

It even made the two children cry with greed, making trouble for the adults to eat meat.

Meng Xiaoman ignored the words around her and walked to her room carrying the medicinal meal. Nowadays, everyone doesn’t have enough to eat. Eating meat is like celebrating the New Year, and no one will take the initiative to share it with others.