Chapter 512: Gossip-for-Survival System (11)

"And they call themselves decent people in government positions; the things they do aren't decent at all. My mom says that if Old Man Feng and his wife ever can't work anymore, those children of theirs definitely won't visit, and they'll run faster than anyone else."

Xiao Shitou woke up. Xie Yang washed his little bottom, put on a clean diaper, moved the kang table to the side, carried Xiao Shitou onto the kang, and gently began to give him a full-body massage.

The other bedrooms in the Xie Family home have old-fashioned canopy beds, but a kang was built in the main room; it was paid for by Xie Yeye while he was still alive.

Xie Nainai's hands and feet are cold every winter; she can use a hot water bottle to warm the bedding at night, but she can't do that all day, and she likes doing needlework, often sitting for an hour at a time.

So, Xie Yeye remodeled the layout of the main room, dividing it into a north and south section, with a wall connecting the southern kang and the northern stove. In winter, when a fire is lit in the stove, the hot smoke travels through hollow pipes inside the wall to the bottom of the kang, circles around, and then drifts out through the chimney. This not only warms the kang but keeps the entire main room toasty.

In summer, when the kang doesn't need to be heated, the iron plate at the flue opening is pulled down; this way, the stove can still be used for cooking, but the hot smoke doesn't go toward the wall and instead goes straight up the chimney.

With this kang, Xie Nainai spends almost all of winter in the main room.

Getting up in the morning to boil water and cook warms the kang; the old lady sits on it doing needlework and listening to operas on the radio—it couldn't be more comfortable.

As for why the bedrooms don't have kangs... don't ask; if you ask, it's because there weren't enough bricks.

But then again, the fact that the Xie Family could build a kang in the main room is unique in the Number 8 Compound.

The Xie Family has many rooms and large rooms, but if you look at the east and west side rooms and the ear rooms, even if they bought enough bricks, there wouldn't be any space to build a kang in the main room.

Even Zheng Miaomiao's family didn't build a kang in their living room, though that's because Miao Lan likes modern furniture, like a long sofa that can seat four people.

The long sofa is also flanked by two single-seat sofas.

Once you have sofas, you have to have a coffee table, and with that, there's no space left to build a kang.

In her past life, Zheng Miaomiao was a true Northerner, accustomed to sitting cross-legged on a kang, so she really likes the style of the Xie Family's main room; it's so much like her hometown.

Seeing Xie Yang carry Xiao Shitou onto the kang, she also came over to help guard the edge of the kang, watching Xiao Shitou struggle to roll over while continuing to complain:

"There are even people meddling in other people's business, telling my parents to have another one. They don't even think about what's the use of having many; one filial one is enough!"

Zheng Miaomiao doesn't know why she became so gossipy after transmigrating; she wasn't like this when she was training with the National Team. Maybe it's because... she's bound to a Chi Gua Bao Ming System?

Xie Yang nodded in agreement: "Everything is about quality, not quantity."

"Right? Only Yang Yang Jie understands me."

"..."

Xie Yang felt like rubbing her forehead.

Wasn't she supposed to be a National Level Shot Put Athlete? Why does she act like an entertainment gossip enthusiast?

At this moment, a commotion came from outside, as if people were arguing and others were trying to mediate.

"I'll go take a look."

Having become addicted to gossiping for the sake of saving her life, student Zheng Miaomiao developed the habit of rushing to the front lines of gossip at the slightest sign of trouble in just a few days, and she slipped out.

Xie Yang doesn't need to go out to gossip—there is a Main System in her sea of consciousness that loves to gossip.

【Host, it's Wang Yumei and Luo Caifeng arguing over the empty space in front of the east ear room.】

Wang Yumei is the mistress of the east ear room; there are no children or elderly people in her home, and she is bored on her days off. On a whim, she wanted to grow some vegetables, so she cleared a few vegetable patches around the empty space in front of her door, which allows for planting vegetables without affecting the drying of laundry.

Because of this, Chen Youcai's family, who live to the north of the east side room, feels cheated.

This empty space is located between the east ear room and the east side room; it wasn't designated as belonging to any one family and is considered public. Chen Youcai's wife, Luo Caifeng, often passes through here to get to the foot of her own east window.

She had planted a few rows of scallions, a crop of garlic sprouts, and celery there along the base of the wall.

Although it doesn't get sunlight planted there, she can still harvest a little to add a dish to the dining table.

But now that Wang Yumei has cleared a circle of vegetable patches in the empty space in front of her door, how is she supposed to pass through?

Besides, this is clearly public land; how did it become the private plot of the east ear room?

"Wang Yumei, don't think I don't know what you're up to! 'Nothing to do and want to open a few patches to grow vegetables and flowers,' ha! It's vegetables and flowers now, but after a long time, will you just enclose this land into your homestead and build a house without anyone saying a word?"

"Pah! You think everyone is like you! I, Wang Yumei, wouldn't stoop to occupying a few square meters of land. I'm just opening a few vegetable patches to grow vegetables and flowers. Didn't you also plant vegetables behind your house at the base of the wall? In this Dazayuan of ours, which family hasn't found some nook or cranny to open a vegetable patch? If you can plant, why can't I?"

"Then you go open one behind your house too! Why move to this spot? Since you don't care about these few square meters, then don't occupy it! You talk so grandly, who knows what kind of thoughts you're harboring!"

"You're talking nonsense..."

Both sides had their own arguments and neither would give in, so naturally, they started arguing.

Zheng Miaomiao watched the scene with great interest.

This piece of gossip increased her lifespan value by 5 days; she'll go home later and drink a bottle of soda to celebrate.

Xie Yang figured out the cause and effect of this gossip without stepping out of the house.

She couldn't help but think of her own little vegetable garden.

Her family also opened a vegetable patch in a nook or cranny of the Dazayuan, but the location isn't very good; it's next to the public restroom.

The public restroom is located in the southwest corner of the entire Dazayuan, south of the west side room, corresponding to the position of the southeast corner gate.

Next to it is the entrance to the public cellar, where every family has an area to store winter radishes, Chinese cabbage, or other sundries like coal ash and firewood.

Next to the cellar entrance, along the base of the south wall, is a long, narrow strip of vegetable garden where all nine households have a small plot.

But because it is blocked by the south wall and the main room of the Dazayuan to the north of the wall, this long strip of vegetable garden never sees sunlight all year round. The types of vegetables that can be grown are quite limited, nothing more than shade-loving crops like garlic sprouts, chives, celery, and onions, ginger, and garlic.

That is why Wang Yumei set her sights on the empty space in front of her door.

After her little cousin fell asleep, Xie Yang went to look at her family's vegetable patch next to the public restroom, pondering what other vegetable varieties would be better to add.

She really hasn't stored many fresh vegetables; space is truly limited, and she has prioritized storing those high-value rare medicinal herbs. What she does have are the colored tomatoes, colored bell peppers, kiwifruit, sugar apples, tangelos, black grapes, watermelons, and mangoes she cultivated during those dozen years of retirement in Australia.

But she has collected many vegetable seeds.

There are seeds from Daye, Nanyang, South America, Europe, Australia... it can be said that she has collected the seeds of every vegetable and fruit she has ever seen.

She flipped through the Seed Vault and sorted out vegetable seeds suitable for planting in the shade, selecting garland chrysanthemum, asparagus, cilantro, and Malabar spinach.

She will also plant two sweet potato plants; when they are tender, she can pinch the vines and leaves to eat, and when they mature, she can harvest a few large sweet potatoes.