Zhu Yun washed the plate with hot water. Thinking of the children chasing each other and playing in the courtyard, she placed a handful of White Rabbit creamy candies on it, along with five eggs.
She dredged up some memories of social etiquette from the body's previous owner. Even though her predecessor hadn't been liked or valued, she knew that in the countryside, eggs were hard currency!
She called out over the wall, and a moment later, Sister Tan came out with a smile.
When she saw how much Zhu Yun had brought, Sister Tan immediately waved her hands. "Yun, you're too kind! It was just a few fried cakes. They're not worth such a generous gift in return."
"We moved in two days before you, so we thought we'd make some food to share and get to know our neighbors. If you really feel you must, you can make a snack too, and I'll go with you to hand it out."
"When neighbors get along, you can ask for help if you ever need anything!"
She had also just heard from Shen Yu that Yun had a hard life. 'She was the first wife, but just because Mr. Wang didn't like her, she was tormented by his family for seven long years.'
'And now, that family was sending Yun to take care of his new partner? What kind of shameless people would do something like that?'
'As for the rumors that started after Yun arrived—that her reputation was terrible, that she was a thief, greedy and lazy, two-faced, and so shameless she couldn't walk straight whenever a man was around...'
'She didn't believe it. If Yun was truly that terrible, would the Wang Family really feel safe sending her to care for a pregnant woman?'
'Wasn't it just a case of idle tongues and malicious gossip, with stories getting twisted by people who love to stir up trouble?'
'Things like that were common in the countryside. Someone sees two people greet each other on the road in the morning, and by evening, the story is that they were sneaking into the cornfields together.'
Zhu Yun smiled and nodded. "Alright then. Sister, I'm not very skilled at other things, but my cooking is decent. I'll make some cakes with preserved greens tomorrow to share with everyone."
After dinner, once both households had been put in order, Sister Tan finally had a moment to breathe. Her mouth, however, couldn't stay idle, and she pulled Zhu Yun into conversation.
Zhu Yun had never met someone so guileless. They had only met twice, and yet she already knew about eighty percent of the family's business next door.
For instance, while Tan Zhiming wasn't a university graduate, he was a veteran technician who had transferred from the military. He had earned his position as Mr. Tan—and the level-ten salary of eighty or ninety yuan that came with it—through sheer experience.
Sister-in-law Tan had always been a farmer, raising their children at home. But now the kids were older, the military unit had been converted into a machinery factory, and Mr. Tan received an allocation for welfare housing, so the whole family had moved.
With three sons and a daughter, a two-bedroom apartment was far too cramped. More importantly, the frugal Sister Tan wanted to find a place to grow vegetables and cut down on expenses.
So, they traded their welfare housing allocation for a job for Sister-in-law Tan and used their money to buy this courtyard house instead. They still kept the two family-allotted vegetable plots from the work unit, which were incredibly useful, whether for filling the bellies of their growing boys or for bartering with others.
They could also grow plenty of fruits and vegetables in their own yard and even raise a couple of chickens for eggs.
Zhu Yun found it all fascinating.
'I'm practically a founding member of the Space-Time Administration Bureau,' she thought. 'I always hand-picked my missions, choosing ones with comfortable settings and powerful backgrounds. Even when I was just taking on bit parts, I never chose conditions this harsh.'
'A real city slicker in the countryside, putting on city airs.'
Since sharing begets sharing, Zhu Yun sighed and told Sister-in-law Tan some of her own troubles. She kept it simple, saying she was unloved by her parents and had lived a life worse than a dog's with her in-laws. But now, things were looking up—she had a house, a job, and her household registration was in the process of being transferred.
"It sounds like your bitterness is finally turning to sweetness, Yun," Sister-in-law Tan said, genuinely happy for her. She glanced at the loose fit of Zhu Yun's clothes, at her dark-skinned face with its ingrained, chapped redness.
"I work at the farm in the northwest corner of the factory grounds. If you ever need anything, just come find me."
The former military base had been semi-self-sufficient, with a large farm where soldiers would work in shifts. Now that it was a machinery factory, that farm had been preserved. What was once planted by hand was now tended by newly introduced farm machinery, which had greatly increased efficiency.
It was the perfect place to assign the many family members who had come from rural areas.
Zhu Yun smiled and agreed. Back in her room, she took off the towel she'd been wearing on her head. Her hand froze as she stared at the fabric, which was so worn it was practically disintegrating into lint. 'So I walked around all evening with *this* on my head?'
'Combined with my own wretched appearance, I wonder how many people I traumatized!'
She washed her hair, soaked her hands and feet, and filed away the thick calluses. After washing her face again, she mixed eggs, honey, and several types of powdered medicinal herbs into a paste, which she then slathered on her face, neck, arms, hands, and feet.
Everywhere she applied it, her skin was hit with a sharp, cool, stinging sensation that was simultaneously intense and yet strangely pleasant.
With no watch, Zhu Yun stuck a stick in the ground and tracked the time by watching its shadow move in the moonlight.
The spring night was utterly tranquil. A gentle breeze carried a slight chill, and looking up revealed a sky blanketed in stars. Aside from the occasional distant bark of a dog, the world seemed to have fallen completely asleep.
The corners of Zhu Yun's lips curved up. After only a day, she was already starting to like this kind of life.
The next day, at the crack of dawn, the courtyard district was already stirring with the dense, lively signs of morning life.
The creaking of doors opening and closing, the clucking of chickens being fed, the percussive sounds of cooking, the ringing of bicycle bells, the laughter of children, the chatter of people, and the distant sound of the reveille bugle call, followed by a loudspeaker announcement—all of it combined to form the world's most potent yet gentle alarm clock.
After getting dressed and washing up, Zhu Yun slathered a thick layer of aloe vera on all her exposed skin, followed by a layer of vanishing cream.
For breakfast, she made herself a bowl of hand-rolled noodles, topped with scrambled eggs and tomatoes and a small scoop of spicy broad bean paste. The noodles were perfectly chewy and smooth, the fragrant eggs coated in the bright acidity of the tomatoes, all complemented by the salty, spicy bean paste. As she ate, she was the very picture of pleasure and satisfaction.
'This "Excellent Culinary Skills" ability is pretty great!'
After eating and tidying up, she slung a bag over her shoulder, locked the door, and headed for the cafeteria in the office complex.
Her head-turning rate on the way was about one hundred and twenty percent, but Zhu Yun paid it no mind, choosing instead to survey her surroundings.
Aside from the Tianhe Community Office and the factory's seven-story office building, which were a dust-covered brick-red, everything else she saw seemed to be muted by a filter. It was a uniform sea of black, white, gray, and blue, almost making her wonder if she'd gone colorblind.
Following her memory, she found the cafeteria and went up to the second-floor office. There were already seven or eight people waiting in the hallway outside.
"Well, well, look who it is. I've never seen anyone so shameless. You do something awful, but then you won't let anyone talk about it. Throw a fit and jump into a pond, trying to blackmail the Wang Family with your life."
"Tsk, tsk. Look at you. What can you even do? You're filthy, and you're a thief. How did you end up working in the cafeteria? Aren't you worried the leadership will be disgusted just looking at you?"
The two women, arms linked, sneered under their breath.
The others also looked over, and upon seeing Zhu Yun, they all frowned in displeasure.