My Courtyard Refuge

Warming

On the other side, Aunt Wang hurried home with two buckets of milk powder.

“Mom, you’re back.” It was Aunt Wang’s daughter-in-law Zheng Yan who spoke.

Zheng Yan would occasionally bring a pair of children to live with her mother-in-law for a period of time, to let the children get closer to grandma, and at the same time pay attention to the old man’s physical condition.

Aunt Wang’s real name is Wang Xiujuan, and she and her wife originally lived in their son’s house, after all, they only have one son.

Only later, Wang Xiujuan’s wife accidentally slipped and fell in the bathroom, and because she discovered it too late, she couldn’t be rescued in the end.

Afterwards, Wang Xiujuan blamed herself all the time, coupled with her reluctance to get hurt, she insisted on moving out and lived in the Xiangxie Family Community alone.

“Xiao Zheng, mom has bought milk powder.”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Yan quickly stuck her head out of the kitchen, and said in surprise, “Mom, where did you buy it?”

Wang Xiujuan put the milk powder on the sofa, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and replied:

“Aunt Zhang, whom I introduced to you earlier, do you still remember? It’s the old Zhang who has triplets at home!”

As soon as the triplets were mentioned, Zheng Yan suddenly realized: “I remembered, does their family live in the courtyard next to them?”

“That’s right, it’s their house. I just came out of their house.”

Zheng Yan wiped her hands, walked up to pick up a can of milk powder, looked at it, and said in surprise, “Hey, why is it still a foreign brand?”

“Their family is not short of money. Isn’t it normal to drink some imported milk powder?”

“Mom, that’s not what I meant. Not all foreign milk powder is good, and some milk powder formulas are not suitable for us Daxia people.” Zheng Yan explained patiently.

Wang Xiujuan suddenly became unhappy. The milk powder she worked so hard to find was actually rejected, so she asked with a straight face:

“Then what do you say, do you want me to go back?”

“Mom, that’s not what I meant.”

Zheng Yan quickly denied it, and then expressed her own thoughts: “We are not familiar with this brand of milk powder, why don’t we ask someone first?”

Wang Xiujuan felt that there was no need to make a fuss, but since her daughter-in-law insisted, she could not object, so she proposed:

“Upstairs in our house, your Auntie Sun’s son heard that he is the manager of a big supermarket. He must know this brand. Let’s go to his house and ask.”

“Okay!” Zheng Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

Half an hour later, Wang XiujuanSitting on the sofa with her little granddaughter in her arms, she looked proud:

“I told you earlier, the family is not short of money, how could it be possible for the child to drink problematic milk powder.”

Zheng Yan smiled along with her while pointing at the milk powder.

After all, it was her fault. The milk powder is good milk powder, and the brand is also a big one, but it has always followed the high-quality line in China and is not very famous.

…

In Yanjing in winter, it gets dark very early.

Just after six o’clock, Xu Dong took out the outdoor lighting that was already fully charged, and when he pressed the switch, it turned out to be broken.

I can only give up the fluke mentality and light the candle obediently.

Mama Xu is cooking dinner with an alcohol stove, cooking rice on one stove and stir-frying on the other, the speed is not much slower than usual.

===Section 17===

“Mom, is this brightness enough? I’ll add a few more.”

There are at least a thousand candles hoarded in the underground warehouse, and Xu Dong doesn’t feel distressed at all when he lights them.

“That’s enough, Mom’s eyes are fine!”

After Xu Ma finished speaking, she waved the spatula, thinking that Xu Dong was in the way, and drove him out of the kitchen.

Being idle is also idle, Xu Dong moved out two boxes of charcoal from the warehouse, a total of nearly 100 catties, and planned to burn the fireplace in the living room in advance.

The fireplace is the original design of the house.

The original owner of the courtyard house may have been influenced by the special era. Not only did he build a fireplace in the living room, he also built a kang in one of the bedrooms.

“Dad, what are you doing?”

The twins who were playing soon noticed their father’s movements and surrounded them all at once. Even Xu’s father was holding Dabao in his arms to watch the fun.

“Father is lighting the fire, you two stay away, this is not fun.” Xu Dong reminded.

The twins took two steps back when they heard the words. The teachers in the school taught that children should not play with fire.

Dad Xu asked, “Where did you get the charcoal?”

“I bought it years ago. I planned to have a family BBQ, but I didn’t have time. I just couldn’t turn on the air conditioner tonight, so this will come in handy.” Xu Dong explained.

It is still very cold in Yanjing in February, and the temperature at night can reach as low as minus ten degrees. The night without heating is really too painful.

“What kind of charcoal is this? Is it resistant to burning? Is it too hot?” Father Xu asked again.

“Looking at the packaging, it is machine-made charcoal. Its characteristic is that it has a strong fire, so it should be very resistant to burning.”

Xu Dong stacked several sticks of charcoal in a haphazard manner, then dug out a large spoonful of solid alcohol and put it at the bottom, and finally lit it with a lighter.

The flame ignited with a “bang”.

In less than ten minutes, a raging flame was ignited in the fireplace, and the temperature in the hall suddenly rose.

The two sisters, Ke Ke, took off their gloves one after another, and they squatted side by side in front of the fireplace to enjoy the fire, their comfortable eyes almost narrowed.

Father Xu smiled and praised: “This fireplace is well designed, and I won’t be afraid of freezing if there is a power outage in the future.”

Dinner is eaten in the living room, after all, it is much warmer than the dining room.

Xu Dong fed Dabao a small piece of tofu, then turned his head and suggested to Xu Ma, “Mom, let’s make a bed in the living room at night, it’s too cold in the room.”

“Lay on the floor? Okay, don’t catch a cold.”

Mama Xu was a little worried. According to Daxia’s traditional concept, sleeping on the ground is easy to be eroded by cold air, which is not good for the body.

“Okay, why not?”

Xu Dong went on to explain: “If you are worried that the floor is too cold, you can spread a sponge mat on the floor. If that doesn’t work, add a few more layers of quilts. It will be as warm as possible. It is impossible to freeze.”

“Mom, what Dongzi said is reasonable, besides, Dabao and the others are too young to suffer from the cold, so don’t worry about leaving them alone in the living room?”

Yang Lina also agreed to sleep in the living room. Their whole family is from the south, and they really can’t stand the night without air conditioning.

The temperature of more than ten degrees below zero makes people shudder just thinking about it.

“That’s fine, I’ll sleep in the living room tonight.” Xu Ma finally agreed, mainly because she was worried about the triplets.

After dinner, the family began to decorate the living room.

Xu Ma first re-scrubbed the entire floor, and then dried it with a dry towel.

Next is the quilt, a total of four layers, one layer of sponge pads, one layer of blankets, and two layers of cotton quilts.

In addition, everyone is in a separate quilt, covered with two quilts, and the quilts are clamped around with big clips to prevent air leakage.

The crib for the triplets was placed in the middle of the floor, just enough to separate Xu Dong’s couple from the blankets of Xu’s father and Xu’s mother, so as to avoid embarrassment.

“Coco, Lele, are you two cold?” Before going to bed, Yang Lina asked again.

“It’s not cold at all, but the quilt is too thick and a bit heavy.”

Cocoa can prop up the quilt with his hands.

“Don’t move around, sleep well, you won’t feel heavy when you fall asleep.” Mama Xu coaxed.

“understood……”

In this way, Xu Dong’s family survived the first night of the blackout.