Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space novel Chapter 250

Chapter 250: Chapter 182

In the room, Zhou Jiao was holding her son and reciting "San Zi Jing". When she saw Zhang Guoqing come in all dirty, she smiled and said to the child: "Ping’an, look who it is? How come he looks like a beggar. Our little darling understands, right? Ping’an, I’m your mom, and that’s your dad. Look at daddy and ask him where he’s coming from? Is he bringing back lots of meat?"

Zhang Guoqing shook his head helplessly, knowing that she could never really lie still. She had never properly rested during her confinement month, and who knows how things would be later on.

"Why aren’t you lying down? Holding your arm like that will make you tired."

"It’s fine, I just held him up to feed him and will set him down soon. Did you just come down from the mountain? Do you still have to rush to the county town? Do you want to get something else to eat before heading out?"

Zhang Guoqing found some clothes and toiletries, shook his head, and said: "We’ve all come back from the mountain. Today was really lucky. I didn’t expect to run into a herd of deer by the creek. I caught six wild deer, three boars, and a mountain goat. Our family even got an extra goat. There are six pheasants under the eaves in the bamboo basket, I specifically picked them for you to nourish yourself. Time was tight, so I didn’t have a chance to gather the eggs, we can go together after your confinement month, and I’ll handle the pheasants when I return." With that, he hurriedly left.

After he left, Zhou Jiao took her son to the inner room, soothed him, and laid him on the kang. She opened a secret compartment in the wardrobe, took out a cardboard box, returned to the kang, and opened it to see. She found that the bicycle tickets and watch tickets would expire by year-end. Last time she checked the dates, probably didn’t pay them much attention.

She hesitated for a moment, then poured them out to check if any had expired. Before her mom left, she had given all the tickets to her. She stayed at home and didn’t go out, so Zhang Guoqing was the one using them, and she hadn’t paid attention to which tickets they had.

Besides the three main types, which are grain tickets, cloth tickets, and sugar tickets, they didn’t really need other tickets here. Some are not strictly managed. For example, the cotton tickets they had were from the provincial city, while here in the county town, you could just pay a high price. Her mom said that yesterday they didn’t require cotton tickets, and homespun fabric didn’t need cloth tickets either.

Zhou Jiao carefully sorted them into bundles. They should be useful when they return to the city. The grain tickets they had were national, which her mom must have left last time. She also needed to prepare some for Zhang Guoqing to use today when he goes to the restaurant, though she looked at the grain tickets in her hand with a bit of reluctance.

Finally, she took out the bicycle and watch tickets and tossed them aside. She wasn’t at all sorry to see those go. She already had two watches and didn’t feel comfortable giving a worse one to her mother-in-law, so she left them in the drawer. As for giving them to others as a present, she really wasn’t interested in that idea.

Seeing the coats in the wardrobe, she realized that Zhang Guoqing really didn’t have clothes. Thinking about the fabric she had, she decided she might just sew a few coats for them while her dad was at home, trusting her sewing skills, as she could never admire anything that’s just average.

The clothes in their wardrobe, aside from the new wedding outfits, were all old and faded, or patched. Except for the four new coats hanging there for her. She wasn’t short on clothes, and there were quite a few brand-name coats in her space with classic styles, as she never liked flashy things, planning to wear them when returning to Beijing.

Unfortunately, some of Zhang Guoqing’s bigger coats weren’t stored in her space at the time. Now she only had two down coats and a wool sweater she bought for him during shopping, which were new and never worn. But she dared not take them out.

Zhou Jiao took the tickets and put them into her space, then inquisitively asked, "They’ve long talked about a housewarming, why is there no movement for so long? I thought they weren’t going to do it anymore."

"Haha, they’re eager to move in. My brother-in-law mentioned the housewarming dinner to me no fewer than three times. We’re all about to start living in the new house, yet there’s still no action. But this time it should be soon. It seems there’s some issue with his family brothers, I didn’t really ask. Mother said the three of us brothers don’t need to give a gift. When you visit the county town, check the courtyard here for any old items to give to eldest sister. There are many good things piled up in the warehouse, father said they’re for you to gift people. Haha... Didn’t Aunt Cheng take home quite a few military items? Dad told Mom to send things from the warehouse, saving the new ones for you." Zhang Guoqing laughed, having seen the kitchen wares storing pots and dishes, better than what they had at home.

Zhou Jiao shook her head, "Don’t give away stuff freely, check if those porcelain bowls are antiques. After parents leave, I’ll pick some to use first. Whatever’s left, have Mother decide. Last time, Mother bought a lock and was distressed for several days. If we give away things randomly, she’ll likely be upset. By the way, remember to check if the lock is still there when you go to the county town, take it back for Mother, she said she wanted to keep something secured."

Zhang Guoqing chuckled and ruffled her hair, "Alright, I’ll listen to you. We’ll talk about the lock later, for now everything’s stored in the warehouse, let Mother see for herself. You didn’t mention, I almost forgot to check if the vases in the study are antiques, Dad didn’t seem to notice these details. This time I’m really going to check if the pickled vegetable jars might be Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain. I’m going, make sure you get some rest."

Zhou Jiao laughed out loud, surprised that his joke had been taken seriously. Watching Zhang Guoqing leave, she thought to herself and chuckled again, even if there were antiques, this house wouldn’t be worth giving away.

She turned on the phonograph, played a song for her son to listen to. Zhou Jiao took the sewing basket from the outer room back inside, sitting there humming a tune while busy with the work in hand.