dkrc Chapter 171 Discharge 2
Chapter 171 Discharge 2
"Shuyao, this is your room. See if you need anything. Your godmother will go shopping with you this weekend."
Zhou Chunmei pushed open a door and smiled at Lin Shuyao.
Lin Shuyao stood at the door, stunned for a moment.
The room wasn't big, but it was kept very clean.
The floral curtains are new, with clusters of small flowers printed on a light pink background. Against the wall stands a wooden dressing table with a small round mirror, a comb, and a bottle of Friendship face cream, still in its original packaging.
The bed sheets were peony-patterned, with large red and pink flowers clustered together, creating a festive and joyful scene.
Everything is new.
"Godmother, thank you." Lin Shuyao's nose felt a little sore.
She never expected that Zhou Chunmei would set aside a room for her at home and even buy these things.
"Don't thank me, godmother. You saved my life." Zhou Chunmei took her hand, sat down on the edge of the bed, patted the back of her hand, and softened her voice. "You don't need to worry about anything else from now on. Just live here peacefully. We're family. By the way, have you thought about anything after all this time?"
Lin Shuyao lowered her eyes, raised her hand to rub her temples, her brows furrowed slightly, as if she were trying hard to recall something. After a few seconds, she shook her head, her voice soft: "I still don't have much of an impression."
"It's alright, don't think about it if you can't remember." Zhou Chunmei sighed, her tone tinged with heartache. "To be honest, I noticed you when you boarded the train. You seemed upset, your eyes were red, like you'd been crying. It was late at night, and you, a young woman, were traveling so far without anyone to see you off, while others had family or friends to see them off at the station. I figured you must have suffered some kind of injustice. It's good that you have amnesia; you've forgotten all those sad things."
Lin Shuyao's nose tingled and her eyes welled up with tears.
She lied twice.
He deceived Cheng Zheng once, and Zhou Chunmei once.
But the people she deceived were all very kind to her, so kind that she felt guilty, so kind that she didn't know how to face them.
"Stop crying, you're a grown woman." Zhou Chunmei took out a handkerchief and gently wiped her eyes, her movements so gentle it was as if she were afraid of hurting her. "Let's not talk about this anymore, let's talk about something else. What are your plans for the future?"
Lin Shuyao remained silent for a while.
She hadn't really recovered from this month. She kept dreaming about Cheng Zheng, sometimes dreaming that he was looking for her, sometimes dreaming that he was marrying someone else. Her heart felt like it was soaking in a vat of vinegar, sour and astringent, and she hadn't had a single truly happy day.
Actually, she used to be quite carefree. She had been in several relationships, and she was always the one who initiated the breakup. She didn't feel much when they broke up, but the other person would cry and wail for a long time and couldn't get over it.
But this time is different.
It's been a month, and she still misses Cheng Zheng a little. She wants to know how he's doing, what he's doing now. She even thought about sneaking back to see him; if he really is with someone else, maybe she can finally let go completely.
But it's just a thought; I don't have the courage to go back yet.
Seeing her dejected look, Zhou Chunmei felt a pang of sympathy and simply said, "Why don't you come work at our steel factory? Our union happens to be short of a propaganda officer. If you want to go, I'll pull some strings for you."
Lin Shuyao was tempted for a moment, but quickly dismissed the idea.
She can't go.
Her identity was a ticking time bomb; if it were discovered, it would definitely implicate Zhou Chunmei. She didn't want to repeat the same mistake.
"Godmother, let me think about it some more," she said.
She wanted to find out about the situation in Hong Kong. If she could get a new identity there, she wouldn't have to keep lying to people like this.
"Okay, then think it over carefully." Zhou Chunmei patted her hand and didn't try to persuade her any further.
In the evening, Lin Shuyao had dinner with the Lin family.
The atmosphere at the dinner table was quite harmonious.
Zhou Chunmei's husband is named Lin Jianguo. He is a man of few words but very honest, and he kept putting food on her plate.
Lin Yuanzhou sat opposite her, burying his head in his rice. Occasionally, he would look up at her and, if he saw that she had taken a lot of a particular dish, he would move that dish to her and then eat something else.
Lin Shuyao could tell that the Lin family was quite welcoming of her arrival.
That's why Lin Shuyao felt even more guilty.
She thought that if she could go to Hong Kong, she would go there.
The next day, everyone in the family went to work.
Lin Shuyao went out alone and first went to the street to buy a few newspapers to find out about the situation in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong in the 1960s was in the midst of an economic boom. The manufacturing industry was developing rapidly, creating a high demand for labor. As long as you were willing to work, it wasn't difficult to find a job.
However, it is not easy for mainland residents to go to Hong Kong; they need legal exit documents or to smuggle themselves in.
If you want to smuggle yourself across, you either have to swim from Bao'an County or find a smuggler to take you by small boat across the sea. But the risks are not small. If you get caught, you will be deported, and you may even be double-crossed by the smuggler halfway through the journey.
To legally leave the country, you need a relative or employer in Hong Kong to issue a receiving certificate. The procedures are complicated and cannot be completed in a short time.
Lin Shuyao walked and thought, her mind wandering far away.
When I went home at noon, I ran into Lin Yuanzhou at the entrance of the family compound.
Lin Yuanzhou noticed the newspaper in her hand and asked, "Bored?"
"Huh? Hmm." Lin Shuyao folded the newspaper and stuffed it into her cloth bag without explaining much.
Lin Yuanzhou said, "If you're bored, our factory is playing a game against the cotton mill tomorrow, on the basketball court. You can come and watch."
Lin Shuyao, who was worried about not having a chance to repay the Lin family's favor, smiled and nodded: "Sure, is there anything I can help you with? Keeping track of points, delivering water or something."
"No need. The union members you mentioned will handle that. You can just watch the game from the stands."
"Oh well."
Lin Yuanzhou went to work in the afternoon, and Lin Shuyao went out again.
During this period, she didn't spend any money on food; Zhou Chunmei always bought food from the cafeteria and brought it back.
She offered Zhou Chunmei money afterward, but Zhou refused, so she had to buy some things for her family. But Zhou Chunmei was well-off and didn't lack anything. Lin Shuyao thought about it and decided it would be better to buy some groceries and cook a meal for them herself.
She turned and went to the supply and marketing cooperative. She bought a chicken, a coconut, and some seasonal vegetables, then carried her bags home.
In the evening, Lin Shuyao made a coconut chicken hot pot and stir-fried a few side dishes.
She poured coconut water into a pot as a soup base, cut chicken into pieces and put them in to cook. After the water boiled, the whole house was filled with the sweet aroma of coconut.
The dipping sauce was homemade, made with soy sauce, minced ginger, chopped green onions, and a few small limes squeezed on top. It was sour and spicy, and the aroma was appetizing.
When Zhou Chunmei returned and saw the pot, her face lit up with a smile. She leaned close to the pot, smelled the contents, and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, Shuyao, your cooking is amazing! Much better than your godmother's!"
He picked up a piece of chicken and stuffed it into his mouth. After chewing it a couple of times, his eyes lit up. He gave a thumbs-up and mumbled, "Delicious, delicious! Why is the soup base sweet? Did they put sugar in it?"
"No sugar added, it tastes like coconut." Lin Shuyao smiled and ladled a bowl of soup for Zhou Chunmei, who was so impressed by how delicious it was that her eyebrows almost fell off.
"It's so delicious! It's so fresh and sweet. I've never had hot pot like this before," she kept praising.
Lin Yuanzhou remained silent.
But as he held the bowl, his chopsticks never stopped, and in just a short while, he had added rice three times.
The rice in the pot was almost gone.
Lin Shuyao stared at the empty pot for a moment, then looked at the several empty bowls piled up in front of Lin Yuanzhou, and couldn't help but laugh: "I'll go cook another pot."
"Hmm." Lin Yuanzhou responded, his face expressionless, but the tips of his ears were red. He glanced towards the kitchen, where Lin Shuyao was scooping rice into the pot. Her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, revealing a section of her fair forearm. When she turned her head, some stray hairs fell around her ears, making her profile look soft and beautiful.
Lin Yuanzhou lowered his head and poked around in his bowl with his chopsticks. Actually, there was no rice left in the bowl; he just didn't know where to look.
Zhou Chunmei gave her son a meaningful look.