Chapter 7: High School
Nie Qiu looked at Nie Aifang and asked, “Mom, why did you make me study at this school?”
Nie Aifang kept her head down. “This is the best school in City A, and… Mom is useless. I heard that it’s hard to find a job even after graduating from university. Mom is useless and can’t find any connections to get you a good job. I heard that most of the people studying here are rich. I don’t expect you to be a good student; I just hope you can make one or two friends. It will be of some help to you when you enter society.”
The hearts of parents are truly pitiful.
But… Nie Qiu looked at her faded school uniform, which was the result of her washing it all afternoon yesterday. Thinking about how filthy it was before, Nie Qiu sighed again. How could a girl like this make friends at a school like this? People from wealthy families, regardless of their quality or upbringing, are at least clean. If a girl isn’t clean, how can she make clean, good friends? Unless others have some perverted special preferences.
She remembered that as soon as she was discharged from the hospital, she returned to that rental room to take a bath. Nie Aifang had to boil four or five pots of hot water, which was then mixed with cold water for her bath. The first batch of water that came out was, as expected, completely black.
She remembered that while washing for the second time, she lay in the foot basin and asked Nie Aifang, “Mom, did I not used to take baths before?”
She saw Nie Aifang stiffen, about to cry again. Nie Aifang choked out, “It’s all my fault. We don’t have money at home. I set up a barbecue stall at the night market, and you had to help me at the stall every day after school until past one in the morning before going home to sleep. Where would there be time to bathe? We only bathed once a week.”
Barbecue?! That greasy, dust-filled, smoke-laden barbecue stall? No wonder her fingernails were full of dirt, and there was mud in the lines of her palm! If they only bathed once a week under such circumstances… it’s no wonder she was so dirty.
Nie Qiu looked around the bathroom. It was actually a partitioned space carved out from the balcony. Bricks were stacked on the balcony to form a partition about two meters high and over a meter wide. A foot basin was placed in the middle, with a red chamber pot inside.
Honestly, if the desire to bathe hadn’t been so overwhelming, Nie Qiu didn’t know if she could have stepped into this place.
Besides the bathroom, the balcony also housed a makeshift stove. This was a table about half a person’s height, with a gas stove on top and a gas cylinder underneath. Next to the table with the gas stove was another table, likely used for cutting and washing vegetables, as there was a faucet on it. Beside that table was a honeycomb briquette stove.
It was one thing for the bathing environment to be poor, but the bathing conditions were also bad! There was no water heater, no shower head, and no bathtub. Bathwater had to be boiled in pots, and it was boiled using honeycomb briquettes! Nie Aifang was reluctant to use the gas stove.
The gas stove was just for show. Their tricycle for setting up stalls had a honeycomb briquette stove, and they used a honeycomb briquette stove at home too. Nie Qiu dared not show any disgust, fearing she would hurt Nie Aifang. Since returning home, she hadn’t done anything; Nie Aifang had done everything, even boiling and carrying the bathwater for her. Love was evident in all her actions, which deeply moved Nie Qiu.
