Daily Life in the 70s
Chapter 249: Dormitory

Chapter 249: Chapter 249: Dormitory

Yang PeiMin once again witnessed the power of a military uniform.

She thanked the dormitory supervisor and headed upstairs.

Originally, Shen Yiguang didn’t need Xiao Xu to go up, but Xiao Xu stubbornly refused to comply. Like a doctor heeding their advice, he was determined to manage his own worksite and wouldn’t let his boss do the heavy lifting.

The Military Wife had lots of luggage, two big bags totalling almost seventy pounds. How could he feel at ease letting him carry it all? Thankfully, he came along.

Even though the dormitory supervisor readily allowed them upstairs, Shen Yiguang and Xiao Xu still tried their best to follow the school rules. They only placed the items at the dormitory entrance and didn’t roam around. They let Yang PeiMin bring her things inside. After briefly saying goodbye, Shen Yiguang and Xiao Xu headed back.

Because everything that needed to be said was already discussed on the way here, it wasn’t necessary to repeat it, even though it was hard to part. Considering the current environment and with the weekend just two days away, she planned to return to the military base. This was one of the reasons why Shen Yiguang left promptly.

Feng Erxi came out, "Is that your husband?"

Yang PeiMin nodded and smiled, "Yes, he happened to have the day off today, so he helped me with my things."

"Wow, so you’re a Military Wife! Your husband looks so sharp. Is he serving around here?" As she spoke, she helped Yang PeiMin move her things into the dorm.

"You have a good eye, he is indeed stationed around here."

"Heavens, your husband is serving here and you just happened to get accepted into a university here? What’s this called? This is like heaven helping you out. You really found the right person," teased Feng Erxi, then turned to her roommates and asked, "Don’t you agree?"

"Absolutely, even if her military rank isn’t high enough for her to follow the military, she’s still much better off than other Military Wives."

"Hey, you can’t say it like that. It’s because Pei Min is accomplished. By that standard, she got into a university here."

At this moment, the dormitory was nearly full. Yang PeiMin glanced at the made beds, twelve in total, which meant twelve people would be living in this dormitory.

She shivered at the thought and immediately thought of lining up for showers. She sighed lightly; it was an unavoidable circumstance.

Since Feng Erxi arrived early and was a straightforward and sociable person, she promptly introduced Yang PeiMin to everyone. There were also seven other new roommates whom Yang PeiMin hadn’t met yet. Their ages varied, some were married and others not, and from rural and urban areas. Yang PeiMin made a point to remember each of their faces and names.

Aside from the sleeping hours, a girls’ dormitory was never quiet. Classes hadn’t started yet and books hadn’t been distributed, so even the studious ones couldn’t do much without materials. For now, everyone was busy arranging their things and chatting, and the entire dormitory seemed to buzz with activity.

Yang PeiMin wiped down her bed a couple more times with a dry cloth, let it dry, then laid out a mat followed by a thin blanket. Although she’d been here for half a year, she still wasn’t accustomed to the hard bed and needed to pad it with something. Being thin, the padding helped prevent her bones from aching.

She added a bedsheet over the blanket, which was another one of her meticulous habits; she thought it was comfortable only if the bedsheet matched the quilt cover. Then, it was time for the cotton quilt. With the temperature difference between day and night quite significant nowadays, it was already time to use the cotton quilt at night, so it had to be encased, and the one she bought had a zipper, not one that needed sewing or tying with a cord.

As she was doing this, someone was secretly observing her. It was a girl from the bed opposite hers, named Cheng Aihua. When Yang Peimin looked over, she grinned widely, apparently amazed, "You really are fastidious."

Yang Peimin just smiled.

Soon, it was dark, and when she heard that the cafeteria was open, someone called everyone to go eat together.

Yang Peimin responded to the one who invited her, Feng Erxi, "I won’t go; I’ve brought some dry food with me when I came."

"Alright, I’m planning to go down and get a couple of buns to bring back up."

Most people had gone downstairs, leaving those who had just arrived from their hometowns today with their own dry food, which they took out and soaked in hot water to eat.

Cheng Aihua, from the bed opposite Yang Peimin, was one of them. Worried about dirtying the bed, she purposely sat on the lower bunk to eat. While eating, she looked up at Yang Peimin and asked, "Did you also bring dry food over? What did you bring?"

Yang Peimin had packed some celery and pork dumplings from the restaurant, along with two meat buns, which she kept warm in an insulated container. They were still warm when she took them out.

She chuckled, "I brought some buns." She had inadvertently glanced down earlier and noticed that the roommates who were reluctant to go downstairs to eat had brought either steamed buns or flatbread. Cheng Aihua, for her part, had a blackish flatbread, unclear what it was made of. Therefore, Yang Peimin didn’t mention the dumplings; in those times, a lot of people would only eat dumplings during festivals, and since she had only prepared enough for herself, it wouldn’t be polite to brag about it openly.

Yang Peimin also didn’t want to go down to eat; there were no tables and chairs below, and she felt uncomfortable occupying others’ beds, so she decided to stay in her own bed to eat. She wasn’t really hungry, but she wasn’t sure when the lights would be turned off, so it was better to eat something early. She planned to save the two buns to eat later.

Cheng Aihua below seemed very interested in her, glancing up several times in just a short span of time while eating.

By the looks of it, Cheng Aihua wasn’t very old, perhaps around twenty-two or twenty-three, with two thick braids, a round face, and small eyes. She seemed like a cute girl, but Yang Peimin felt a bit troubled, as she often caught her staring and couldn’t understand what about her was so intriguing.

She turned towards the window and finished her dumplings, then decided to eat the buns too. Afterwards, she felt a bit full and didn’t want to make another trip to wash up; she just needed to go downstairs to wash her dishes, brush her teeth, wash her face, and read a bit before sleeping, sufficiently preparing for the first day of school tomorrow.

When she returned to her bed, some of her roommates who had gone down to eat were also back. Moreover, there was the sound of a child—a roommate named Guo Caixia walked in, leading a girl around three years old.

Yang Peimin looked down curiously. Perhaps to clarify things for the dorm residents, some people began to explain eagerly, "Sister Guo’s in-laws are just awful. No sooner had her mother-in-law taken money with the promise of looking after her granddaughter than she claimed to be bedridden and unable to care for the child, forcing someone to bring the kid here."

As it turned out, Guo Caixia’s family wasn’t far away, just from a neighboring county, about an hour’s drive, which explained why the mother-in-law had the child sent over so quickly.

Guo Caixia said apologetically to everyone, "I’m really sorry, this is my daughter Xiao Lian. There’s no one at home to take care of her, so, for now, I have no choice but to keep her with me. If it’s inconvenient for anyone, I hope you all can understand."