...
Chu River returned ho to see Daya, Yun Baoni, and Da Dan joyfully circling around several beds.
Three pairs of small hands were gently touching the bedposts and bedboards, their excitent indescribable in words.
After all, furniture is such an expensive item!
Chu River had smashed a few cabinets at ho, which almost made the old lady furious, and even though there was plenty of space in the countryside, furniture was so costly that everyone ended up sleeping on straw beds.
Da Dan, being the cherished grandson and older, had a slightly better setup, actually having a bedboard, but he still had to share it with several younger brothers.
Daya?
As a girl, it was a blessing that she was allowed to sleep properly indoors.
And now, there were as many as five bunk beds here, aning each person had their own bed, with an extra top bunk to store things...
What a delightful surprise this was!
However, Da Dan decided he would store things below and sleep on the top bunk himself.
Bunk beds, he had heard they were like the ones on trains, and he wanted to enjoy the feeling of riding a train at ho!
No need to ask, Daya and Yun Baoni felt the sa way.
Even soone as timid and shy as Yun Baoni, upon seeing Da Dan nimbly climbing up the ladder, couldn’t help but feel the urge——
For rural kids, climbing trees and wading in rivers were normal; what’s this compared to that?
...
Chu River didn’t care how they allocated these beds; she was busy placing things in the room. Three boys shared one room, two girls another, with all the tables and benches set up, including an additional table for Daya to spread her fabrics.
Maybe they paid well enough, and the carpenter brothers just wanted to earn money quickly, probably staying up all night, since everything was delivered together today.
Yun Baoni watched as Daya laid the fabrics back on the table and looked around the small room. Besides the sewing machine, it was filled with Daya’s various tools...
Is this the benefit of having skills?
The young girl silently made a decision in her heart——
In the future, she wanted to have her own dedicated workspace too!
...
In the sumr, you didn’t need a quilt at night; just cover with a bedsheet if it got chilly.
Thus, the beds were quickly organized, even those of Gu Ping and Gu An who hadn’t returned, with their rice husk pillows and bamboo mats all set up.
But considering the sick ones, the two brothers’ beds were thoughtfully placed on the bottom.
Gu An had just finished surgery, and being so young, Chu River thought for a mont and reminded Daya:
"I rember there’s a quilt at ho; find it and wash the cover, so it can be used if it gets cold at night."
Upon this thought, it seed like they hadn’t prepared autumn and winter clothes yet!
Autumn jackets, long-sleeved shirts and pants, children’s shoes, and winter coats, mattresses, and thick quilts...
With so many kids at ho, I heard that up north they build heated kangs, and Ning City’s winter was harsh too; should we build one at ho?
Can’t think, can’t think about it.
For the first ti taking care of kids, the more Chu River thought about it, the more she realized how much they lacked. She pondered, cotton tickets were really scarce; she would have to ask Chen Changhai tomorrow to get dozens of pounds of cotton.
Ah, having a brother who’s a profiteer, compared to other sisters-in-law who were still struggling to save tickets, it really was a blessing!
As for how to handle the cotton?
Little Chu shouted:
"Daya, do you know how to make quilts?" If not, we’ll have to find soone in town who can process cotton.
The sound of the sewing machine stopped, and Daya’s puzzled voice ca: "I do, but does Auntie want to make quilts now? If so, we’ll need to prepare so cotton processing tools later."
Aunt Juhua was making a red dress for a bride, and she needed to supply eight quilts as dowry, which was quite generous. She didn’t want this money going elsewhere, so she took on the job and made them at ho with Daya and the daughters-in-law.
They earned 50 cents for each quilt!
And this task didn’t require any particularly difficult skills, just carefulness and patience; Daya felt she could do it well.
Chu River: !!!
This Daya actually knows how?!
Five bucks well-spent, and in a year or two, they’ll definitely have to give Daya a raise.
Yun Baoni paused in her motion of smoothing her bedboard, thought for a mont, and then followed into the room with the sewing machine.
Inside, there were still many, many drawings her aunt had given her that hadn’t been traced yet!
...
Outside the yard, Da Dan had already polished the last chain until it shone, now watching Chu River piecing and assembling a pile of oddly-shaped wooden boards, he couldn’t help but move closer:
"Auntie, what are we making?"
Chu River was assembling the car chassis—too bad they couldn’t use tal sheets on a large scale; getting scraps of tal wasn’t hard, it’s just that the scraps couldn’t be used.
However, right now, the large and small pieces of tal sheets she got from Professor Zheng, Shi Suifeng, and Chen Changhai were all here.
To conserve resources, Chu River could only use the clumsy thod right now—
First, she wrapped each chassis part with tal sheets, pressing firmly on edges and joints, aiming to cut the tal precisely and then nail or press it down tight.
Though this task seed simple, it actually required precise curvature alignnt to be pieced together correctly, which was indeed tough.
Even with Chu River’s great strength, it was still not easy, and it took her about an hour to wrap the car’s base and wheels entirely with tal sheets.
As for the rest... nowadays, the wood was quite good, and toys were extrely precious, using wood was more than sufficient.
As long as the paint was applied well, nothing else would really matter.
For other important but less critical parts, she followed the sa thod using lighter aluminum sheets to create a tallic look, making the car seem more authentic.
When the pieces gradually took shape, as the last iron axle wrapped around a solid wood core held the wheels in place, linking the pedals to the four large wheels, Da Dan’s mouth was wide open.
He stared, utterly speechless, at the four-wheeled car bigger than his pickle jar.
This...is a car?
The assembly was utterly perfect; Chu River carefully considered that as long as she pre-pressed the tal sheets correctly, the assembly required no additional technical skills. In an era where everyone had so craft, self-assembly was not a problem at all!
Chu River nodded with satisfaction.
Next, it was ti to test if it could move freely.
"Auntie, can you sit in this?"
Da Dan looked at the tiny car’s only driver’s seat, itching to try it himself.
Chu River nodded, "Of course you can, but not you. You’re too big—Baoni! Baoni, co out!"
Da Dan stared longingly at the small car, his eyes full of desire.
But ultimately, he could only watch as the small-headed Yun Baoni, under Chu River’s guidance, opened the car door, sat in the driver’s seat, and placed her feet on the hidden pedals for her first exertion of strength——
Under Yun Baoni’s flushed cheeks and full effort, the car slowly began to move.
Da Dan: ...
He really, really wanted to ride it!!!
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