NOVPUB
Chapter 612: Chapter 602 New Home
The train was delayed by half an hour, and at four in the afternoon, when Shen Yunfang had just gotten off the train with her luggage and children, she saw Li Hongjun waiting to pick them up.
"Did everything go smoothly on the way?" Li Hongjun took the backpack from behind his wife and then bent down to pick up his daughter. "Did you miss Daddy?"
"I did." Manman’s sweet little mouth smiled, and after being picked up by Daddy, she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.
The stern look on Li Hongjun’s face couldn’t hold back anymore; the corners of his mouth involuntarily curled upwards.
"Oh, that must be your man, here to pick up you and the kids." Sister Liu had just gotten off the train and saw the loving family of four, the man dressed in crisp military uniform, looking quite well-matched with Xiaoshen.
"Yes, that’s the children’s father." Shen Yunfang smiled and looked back as she spoke, and then she introduced the two, "Hongjun, this is Sister Liu, whom we met on the train. She took good care of us." 𝔫𝖔𝖛𝖕𝔲𝔟.𝔠𝖔𝖒
Li Hongjun nodded slightly to show his gratitude, "Thank you so much, Sister Liu."
"Ah, don’t be polite now, I didn’t do much. Alright, I won’t keep you any longer; come visit me when you have time." Sister Liu finished speaking, waved to the children, picked up her luggage, and left.
Shen Yunfang whispered to Li Hongjun as they walked, "Sister Liu is the director of a bank, mainly in charge of the loans department."
Li Hongjun glanced at his wife, knowing she had something in mind, but he wasn’t in a rush. They could talk about it once they got home. "Let’s go, the car’s just outside."
Then Li Hongjun, with the luggage on his back, one hand holding his daughter and the other leading his son, with his wife following behind, made their way grandly out of the train station.
The jeep drove for half an hour and finally entered the military compound.
Li Hongjun led his wife and children to the family building, "Our home is in Unit 3 of Building 5, Number 402."
Shen Yunfang followed, observing the military family quarters. There were about ten buildings in total, each with five units and four stories. This meant their assigned home was on the top floor, which wasn’t great.
The top floor would be cold in winter and hot in summer.
But she figured that it was the organization that made the allocation, not something Li Hongjun, the battalion commander, could decide on his own.
At the bottom of their building, they encountered several women, likely military spouses, but Li Hongjun had only recently arrived at this military region, so he did not know any of them. Thus, he simply passed them by without a sideways glance, thinking that his wife could get to know them gradually in the future.
When they reached their door, Li Hongjun took out his keys and unlocked it.
"I set things up simply; if you see anything you don’t like, feel free to change it," Li Hongjun said, knowing his wife was picky. So when he came back, he had arranged everything roughly like their old home. If there was anything his wife didn’t agree with, she could handle it. "Taxue, move aside, don’t be in the way."
As they opened the door, Taxue, who had arrived a few days earlier, was already waiting at the doorway to greet them.
Shen Yunfang took the keys from Li Hongjun, first petted Taxue on the head to calm her, then began to look around their new home.
There was a shoe cabinet at the entrance, filled with several new pairs of slippers she had bought. She took out slippers for the children to put on.
"Come on, little ones, change your shoes, then go inside and play with Taxue."
After sending the children away, she finally had the time to take a good look at their new home.
The house was a very common two-bedroom, one-living room layout, much like the ones in the Capital, but it was significantly smaller, especially the bathroom, which could only fit a squat toilet. The house was state-owned, meaning she couldn’t renovate as she pleased.
"There’s a bathhouse in the military district, right by the family housing area. They issue a few bath coupons every month. If you run out of coupons, you can still pay to take a bath. I asked around, and it’s one jiao per bath without a coupon," Li Hongjun hastily explained, noticing his wife’s dissatisfaction with the bathroom.
Shen Yunfang nodded, indicating it was acceptable enough.
She then looked around the two bedrooms. The larger bedroom was about fifteen square meters, and the smaller one was about ten square meters.
In the larger bedroom, there was a one-and-a-half-meter wide iron frame bed, and in the smaller room, there was a bunk bed—it seemed her children would be sleeping there from now on.
The floors were all concrete, and the white walls weren’t very white anymore, showing that it was an old house that had been lived in before.
"The bed doesn’t seem very sturdy, probably creaking with every turn. And the kids’ bed, without safety rails, doesn’t seem safe for sleeping," Shen Yunfang thought. The drop in living standards from their cozy home to this simple place was quite significant. Of course, Shen Yunfang was not one to shy away from hardship; she could accept these conditions. But if their bed made too much noise, the real sufferer would definitely be Li Hongjun.
"This is the standard in the military district. If you’re not satisfied, we can find someone to make a couple of beds to your liking," Li Hongjun said, embracing his wife. She was always considerate.
Shen Yunfang did not resist the embrace and asked, "Is there anyone around here who can make furniture?"
"Not in the military district, but there are some in the provincial capital," Li Hongjun had heard from others.
"Alright, then let’s make do for a few days. Once I’ve settled in a bit here, we’ll go to the provincial capital to look for some," Shen Yunfang didn’t want to settle for less. Li Hongjun had told her that, barring any accidents, they might be living here for eight to ten years, so it was important to make it comfortable.
"Sure, you decide. When I’m on leave, I’ll go with you," Li Hongjun had no objections to his wife’s decision. "Let’s not cook today. In a bit, I’ll go to the canteen to bring back some food for us to make do," he said, glancing at his watch.
He wanted to spare his wife the trouble—she had been on a train all day and should rest tonight.
"Yes, that works. The pots and pans in the kitchen—I’ll need to boil some water and sterilize them first. It’s too late to cook anything now anyway," Shen Yunfang nodded in agreement.
So Li Hongjun took his food container and headed to the canteen to get food, while Shen Yunfang rolled up her sleeves and started to set up the house.
By the time Li Hongjun returned with the food, the family of four made do with their first meal together in the small living room.
The home had no table or chairs, only a coffee table in the living room.
Li Hongjun brought back two dishes from the canteen: a stew of cabbage and vermicelli and another dish of stewed potato slices. There were also ten steamed buns made with wheat and cornmeal.
Both children frowned upon tasting the canteen’s food. With no other option, Shen Yunfang took out a few dishes from their supplies, and finally, the family had a satisfying dinner.
After dinner, the family of four cleaned up and took their bath coupons to the bathhouse to bathe. Naturally, Shen Yunfang took Manman to the women’s bathhouse while Li Hongjun took Pangpang to the men’s side.
The bathhouse was open only to residents of the military family housing area, so both the men’s and women’s sides were not very large, with only about a dozen showerheads each. Fortunately, not many people were bathing at that time. Shen Yunfang took Manman to bathe and even brought along a large basin, which helped Manman make her first friend in the bathhouse. Shen Yunfang also met her first fellow military spouse.
That night, the couple tested the iron frame bed and found that it did indeed make quite a bit of noise. Li Hongjun said gloomily, "We have to change it, this bed needs to be replaced soon."
