NOVPUB
Chapter 280: 270 new neighbors
Li Hongjun drove to his new house, making quite a stir in the area, where many of the future neighbors were from the same military unit and knew each other. The men came out to lend a hand, while the women went to Wu Guoqiang’s home to gawk at Li Hongjun’s new bride.
So, it wasn’t long before Sister Wu welcomed four or five army wives into the house.
"Wow, so this is Deputy Camp Commander Li’s young wife, eh? She’s really pretty, no wonder Deputy Camp Commander Li is so smitten." A woman in her thirties entered the room with a little girl and began sizing up Shen Yunfang, who was sitting by the kang.
Shen Yunfang also scrutinized the newcomers, and upon hearing the woman’s comment, she simply glanced at her, then shyly yet impatiently lowered her head and turned to comfort her son.
"Fengmei, look at what you’re saying, you’ve made Sister Yunfang bashful. She’s a young bride, not like you who isn’t picky about anything," Sister Wu joked, giving the talkative woman a scolding glance and breaking the encirclement for Shen Yunfang. "Come, Yunfang, let me introduce you. These are all army wives from our second regiment. This is Deputy Camp Commander Wang’s wife, Qiu Fengmei. From now on, just call her Sister Fengmei."
"Sister Fengmei," Shen Yunfang called out with a smile.
Seeing that Qiu Fengmei was about to speak again, Sister Wu hastily continued with the introductions, "This one is Camp Commander Liu’s wife, Liu Xiaohua. You can just call her Sister Xiaohua." She pointed at a tall, thin woman behind her.
"Sister Xiaohua," Shen Yunfang smiled at her.
"Hello, we are all family now. If there’s anything you need, just say the word. I live just to the right of your place," Sister Xiaohua responded with a smile.
Li Hongjun’s new home was to the right of Wu Guoqiang’s home, and Sister Xiaohua lived two doors to the right of Li Hongjun’s home.
"Oh, I feel the same. We’re all family now, so just give me a shout if you need anything," a younger woman with a slightly dark complexion chimed in from the back.
Though she was considered young, she was almost thirty, still quite a bit older than Shen Yunfang.
"This is Political Commissar Tao’s wife, Xun Laiying. She’s very enthusiastic, and you’ll come to know it soon enough," Sister Wu said with a smile.
"Nice to meet you, Sister Laiying," Shen Yunfang continued to greet politely with a nod and a smile.
"Finally, this is Camp Commander Wu’s wife, Liu Shuli, a primary school language teacher at the city government school, a cultured person," Sister Wu introduced the last woman.
"Nice to meet you, Sister Shuli," Shen Yunfang greeted her respectfully.
Liu Shuli just nodded without saying anything.
"Alright, now that you’ve finished introducing, can I speak now?" Qiu Fengmei had been waiting on the side for quite some time, and if it weren’t for the fact that her husband held the lowest rank, she wouldn’t have been so patient.
"Oh come on, who’s stopping you from speaking, just say what you want to say," Sister Wu was somewhat exasperated with her but couldn’t actually gag her, though every time she spoke, she tended to offend people. Now that it was in her own home, it would look bad for her as a host if someone was offended. "Come on, let’s not all stand around, let’s sit on the kang and have a chat. Yunfang, you take your child inside." 𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑝𝘶𝘣.𝑐𝘰𝘮
No longer feeling like an outsider, Shen Yunfang quickly slipped on her shoes, clambered onto the kang, grabbed her son’s little quilt, and moved inside, making room at the edge of the kang.
The women’s eyes instinctively drifted to her feet and then, with various thoughts, withdrew their gazes back.
A pair of pristine white cotton socks, not faded, not yellowed, and without a single patch.
Xun Laiying smiled broadly and said to Shen Yunfang, who was sitting on the kang, "I heard that Li Hongjun’s place isn’t close by. You must have spent quite some time on the bus today."
"Mm, it is quite far. We set out before dawn and only arrived just before," among these people, Shen Yunfang found Sister Laiying the most agreeable. After all, her smiles towards her seemed genuine, but whether she was truly nice or not still had to be slowly figured out over time.
"That really is far. The adults may be alright, but it must’ve been tough for the child." Liu Xiaohua peered at Pangpang on the kang who was waving his little hands and kicking his feet, "This child is really well-grown; he’s got the best features from both of you."
"He’s alright, just a big eater," Shen Yunfang modestly responded. It was too soon to say whether her child looked good or not; he was only a little over a month old and his features weren’t fully defined yet. Anyway, she couldn’t tell if her son was good-looking, but no matter what, he was her flesh and blood, and she cherished him greatly. Hearing others praising her son now filled her with indescribable joy.
"Just now, I saw Deputy Commander Li leading a sheep off the truck. Why did you bring a sheep all this way?" Qiu Fengmei, with her daughter by her side, held a comb, scraping her child’s scalp while she asked.
Shen Yunfang gave a shy smile and explained a little, "My child is too small, and I don’t have much breast milk, so Hongjun went out and bought a milking ewe. Since we were moving here, we brought the sheep along too."
Qiu Fengmei furrowed her brows and said, "We’ve never had anyone raise those things in the residential compound. Everyone complains about the strong smell. It’s not so bad now in the cold, but come summer, if you raise sheep, the smell of the sheep dung could waft for miles. Living here then would be a real suffering for us all."
Shen Yunfang pursed her lips and remained silent. She had planned to have her son drink sheep’s milk from an early age for its rich nutrition and health benefits. However, as Qiu Fengmei said, if it really became problematic for others, raising sheep might indeed become a troublesome issue.
"Don’t be so quick to worry," Wu’s sister-in-law came to Shen Yunfang’s defense. After all, raising sheep at home wasn’t a big deal, and Qiu Fengmei lived quite far from here. Even if there were smells, they wouldn’t reach her home. This was simply making a fuss over nothing.
"Look at you, sister-in-law, making such fuss. That’s just something I said in passing, and you took it so seriously," Qiu Fengmei, not taking the retort to heart, used her big thumbnail to squeeze the lice to death from the comb and then wiped it on her body, starting to comb her daughter’s hair again.
"This time you’re wrong; I wasn’t serious. I was just playing along," Wu’s sister-in-law said with a renewed smile on her face. "Alright, I’ll stop now. My pot of porridge is ready, and I need to serve a bowl for Yunfang. She hasn’t eaten anything warm all day and she’s still breastfeeding. This won’t do."
"Then hurry along. We’ll stay here and chat with Yunfang," Xun Laiying waved her off, looking very familiar with Wu’s sister-in-law.
After Wu’s sister-in-law had left the room, the military spouses gathered around Shen Yunfang and started a conversation. They discussed when and how she met Li Hongjun, when they got married, what his family and her family were like, and then the talk circled back to the child.
From their chat, Shen Yunfang also learned about some aspects of life in the military district. Of course, this had nothing to do with military matters, which these women didn’t know much about as their husbands never discussed official business at home due to confidentiality rules.
Naturally, even if their husbands did share, they might not understand it. What they cared about were the household necessities and their children.
The military district had a kindergarten where the children of accompanying family members of the right age could be sent. It was free, but each month a certain amount of food had to be provided because the children would have lunch there. As for the kindergarten teachers... no, they should be called aunties, they were all military spouses. This was also a form of care the military district provided for the spouses.
When military personnel’s children reached school age, they had to go to city schools. The military district didn’t have schools, but there was a connection with the No. 1 Middle School in the provincial city. Children of military personnel could study there. However, due to the distance, they had to board at the school, returning home once a week. On weekends, the military district provided a special bus to transport these precious children.
Xun Laiying worked in the military district’s kindergarten, which suited her as her own child was young and she could take her child with her to work.
Wu’s sister-in-law’s eldest daughter and youngest son both went to school in the city, only returning home once a week, while her youngest daughter attended the military district kindergarten daily.
Liu Shuli had one daughter, who was ten years old and also studied in the city. Once school started, both mother and daughter had to board there, only returning home on weekends.
Then there was Qiu Fengmei, with two daughters in her family. She had longed for a son for many years to no avail. Her two daughters, one nine and the other five, were both at home; neither attending school nor kindergarten, both under Qiu Fengmei’s care.
