Chapter 32: Doing Laundry

Chapter 32: Washing Clothes

Cheng Miao bit a small hole in the pointed tip of the chocolate, first taking a sip of the liquor inside, then taking a bite of the chocolate shell.

A sip of liquor, a bite of chocolate, until he'd drunk all the liquid inside, then he stuffed the rest of the chocolate into his mouth.

Cheng Miao chewed slowly, savoring it—this chocolate didn't melt right away in your mouth; you had to chew it a while longer.

Lin Jinrui was still nibbling away at hers slowly, while Lu Yu held his candy but hadn't touched it.

Cheng Miao finished his own and looked at Lu Yu's candy with hungry eyes. He asked, "Aren't you going to eat it?"

These candies were kind of pricey, and his mom hadn't bought many. Cheng Miao had snuck five pieces, and now there were only three left.

"I'll eat it later," Lu Yu said. With that, he stuffed the candy into his pocket.

"You can't keep it in your pocket—it'll melt," Cheng Miao quickly stopped him. "You gotta eat it fast."

Lu Yu took the candy back out and held it in his hand. He unwrapped it, revealing the light brown chocolate that gleamed softly in the sunlight. Cheng Miao watched and secretly swallowed his saliva.

Lu Yu popped the entire candy into his mouth, bit down to break it open, and the cool liquor slowly seeped out with a strong, heavy alcohol taste.

After he swallowed the liquor, the chocolate in his mouth started to melt slowly. Lu Yu didn't have the patience to wait for it to melt, so he chewed it up and swallowed.

Cheng Miao watched, dumbfounded. "How could you eat it all in one bite?"

Lu Yu shot him a sidelong glance, as if to say, "Why not?"

"Good food's gotta be eaten slowly, so you can enjoy the pleasure longer," Cheng Miao said, looking at him with a hint of pity.

Lin Jinrui nodded in agreement next to him. She was still licking her chocolate with great care, and the part in her hand had already started to melt, making her fingers look all sticky.

Cheng Miao shot her a slightly disgusted look and thought to himself: No need to be that slow.

He silently turned his head away. Whatever, out of sight, out of mind.

Lin Jinrui treasured the last bite of her candy as she swallowed and said with feeling, "This is so good. I've never had anything like this."

Cheng Miao nodded in agreement. "Today's already the 28th of the twelfth lunar month. Has your family gotten ready for New Year's?"

Lin Jinrui's face fell. "Dad's been busy taking Mom to the hospital lately. We haven't gotten anything for New Year's."

"Ah!" Cheng Miao realized his question was poorly timed and quickly backtracked and said, "Yeah, my parents are busy too. They don't even have time to take me shopping for new clothes."

Ms. Ma Lianhua always firmly believed that making money was the way to go—without money, how were you supposed to buy clothes?

So every year, on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, when business was slow, she'd take Cheng Miao to the county to buy clothes.

When he was little, Cheng Miao minded it—all the other kids already had new clothes, but he didn't.

But now, Cheng Miao would rather trade new clothes for boozy chocolates. Can you eat clothes or what?

When it came to new clothes, Lin Jinrui's eyes lit up instead. She seemed about to say something, but then, as if remembering something, she held back.

Cheng Miao didn't notice and started chatting about something else, but Lu Yu took an extra glance at her.

The three of them chatted about this and that for a while, and then Lin Jinrui said she needed to go home to wash clothes.

Cheng Miao and Lu Yu also prepared to head back. The weather was nice, and looking at the bright sunlight, Cheng Miao thought maybe he should wash the family's clothes too.

When Ms. Ma Lianhua came back and saw that he'd already washed the clothes spotlessly clean, maybe she wouldn't mind so much that a lot of the candy was gone.

Cheng Miao looked at Lu Yu and suggested, "Let's go back and wash our clothes too! The sun is strong today—perfect for doing laundry."

Lu Yu nodded indifferently.

"Yeah, let's go! We'll change the sheets and pillowcases too." Cheng Miao grabbed Lu Yu's hand excitedly and quickened his pace.

Lu Yu stumbled as he was pulled along, hurrying to keep up with Cheng Miao.

When the two got home, they first gathered all the dirty clothes, then stripped the sheets and pillowcases off the bed. The most troublesome part was the washing.

At this time, there were no fully automatic washing machines. The machine had to be filled with water manually. Cheng Miao took a small basin and carried water bucket by bucket, already panting halfway through. Washing clothes was exhausting.

Lu Yu looked at him strangely and asked, "Is this how your family always fills the water?"

Cheng Miao was stunned. "I... I don't know."

He knew the washing machine needed water, but every time, his mother only called him over when it was time to start the wash.

Lu Yu thought for a moment, walked into the utility room where the washing machine was, and came out shortly with a hose. It fit perfectly onto the faucet.

Watching the water flow continuously into the washing machine, Cheng Miao let out a long sigh of relief. No more hauling water.

Once the water was filled, they added the detergent, put the clothes in, and turned the dial to 15. The washing machine started spinning.

Cheng Miao then filled a large basin with water. The washed clothes would need to be wrung out, rinsed in clean water, and then put in the spin dryer.

The two sat around with nothing to do, waiting until the machine finally stopped. They prepared to take the clothes out.

The moment Cheng Miao's hand touched the water, he felt how bone-chillingly cold the winter water was. He instinctively pulled his hand back.

Seeing this, Lu Yu rolled up his sleeves and reached in, but Cheng Miao slapped his hand away. "Your frostbite hasn't healed yet!"

Cheng Miao suddenly thought of something and ran out quickly. "Wait! Don't move—I'll go find something."

Sure enough, there were two pairs of fleece-lined rubber gloves at home. Mother Cheng always wore them when washing clothes. Cheng Miao put them on—his small hands wobbled around inside the gloves, but they really did keep the cold water from feeling freezing.

Winter clothes were thick, and after absorbing water, they became heavy and cumbersome. No matter how hard Cheng Miao tried, he couldn't lift them.

Using all his strength, he still couldn't pick them up. Seeing this, Lu Yu grabbed a pair of gloves too, and the two each grabbed one end, twisting in opposite directions.

They finally squeezed the water out. After wringing them dry, they put the clothes back into the clean water, watching them soak up water all over again. Cheng Miao wanted to cry.

Why on earth did he decide to wash clothes! Wouldn't getting a beating have been easier? At least it wouldn't require this much effort.

Luckily, there weren't too many clothes. As for the sheets and pillowcases, Cheng Miao had planned to just put them back on—they weren't that dirty, so maybe he could skip washing them. But he realized that taking them off was easy, but putting them back on was hard.

Sigh, since he'd already taken them off, he might as well wash them.

So after finishing the clothes, they changed the water and started washing the sheets. The sheets didn't absorb much water, but they were very long.

They still had to wring them from both ends, with water splattering all over the floor of the room.

Finally, all the clothes, sheets, and pillowcases were washed and ready to hang on the clothesline in the yard.

Cheng Miao stood on a stool, stretching up to drape one end of the sheet over the line, while Lu Yu held the other end.

He picked up the stool, estimated the distance, moved it along, and set it down again. Lu Yu stepped onto the stool and hung his end, pulling it taut and spreading it out before it was finally properly hung.

As the last sheet was spread out, Cheng Miao finally let out a sigh of relief. He'd gone back and forth moving the stool so many times that he was sweating profusely even in the cold winter day.