Back To The 80s-Chapter 182: Warmth_1

"How could a decent person end up doing this?" Zhang Lijun could not understand. A man with both good family and appearance, yet he was collaborating with the invaders. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Lu Zhanguo remained silent, deep in contemplation. Yuan Ye’s current behavior was undoubtedly self-destructive. He seemed too eager, suggesting that he was not the ultimate target, but merely a pawn being manipulated.

The rain began again in the late night, causing the temperature to drop significantly below freezing. The rain froze as it hit the ground, turning into freezing rain.

Gu Xiaobei was sleeping soundly when he felt a cold draft approach. He instinctively shrank back into the bed. Becoming more awake, he saw Lu Zhanguo just lay down, "Is it very cold outside?"

"Yes, it’s freezing rain. I’ll be back in the morning and get the stove set up," Lu Zhanguo laid flat, his hands folded on his stomach.

Gu Xiaobei moved closer and leaned his head on Lu Zhanguo’s shoulder, reaching out to hold his hand.

"My hands are cold, wait a moment," Lu Zhanguo said trying to stop him.

"No problem, I can warm them up for you," Gu Xiaobei insisted, holding Lu Zhanguo’s cold hand firmly.

With his warm hand touching the thin callus on Lu Zhanguo’s palm, he asked with his eyes closed, "Are you going to have a drill soon?"

"Yes, if you light the stove at home, remember to leave a small gap in the window. Don’t go to town before I come back..." Lu Zhanguo instructed with concern.

"Hmm~ you’re becoming quite nagging, huh?" Gu Xiaobei yawned lazily.

Lu Zhanguo was silent. This ungrateful kid - wasn’t he just worrying about him? He turned to face Gu Xiaobei, pinching her waist, "Behave at home and listen. When I return, I’ll bring you something nice."

Gu Xiaobei, who was almost falling asleep, was startled awake by Lu Zhanguo’s rare sweet words. He blinked and pinched Lu Zhanguo’s face in the darkness, "Is this my man? How come he started to speak so sweetly?" He kept touching Lu Zhanguo’s face while speaking.

Lu Zhanguo grabbed Gu Xiaobei’s hand, leaning over with a deep, irresistible voice, "Don’t you want to try and see if I am your man?"

Gu Xiaobei giggled, reaching up to hug Lu Zhanguo’s neck, "Hmm, you’re getting to my taste more and more. Keep it up! But remember, you can only treat me like this, got it?"

Lu Zhanguo didn’t say a word, proving everything with his actions.

.....

As expected, Gu Xiaobei overslept the next morning. When he sat up, the cold air made him shiver, his exposed skin instantly breaking out in goosebumps. The weather had become cold all of a sudden.

He dressed Jiujiu in a cotton-padded jacket in the morning, and found the snowflower tweed coat he bought in the provincial capital for himself. The embroidered flowers on the chest had been picked off by him, making it much more pleasing to the eye.

The freezing rain turned to ice as soon as it hit the ground, and the leaves on the trees were all coated with a layer of ice, giving off a chilling sensation.

Gu Xiaobei and Li Fengmei sent the three children to the front gate together. They didn’t have to do it but there was nothing much to do at home, so they figured they might as well get some fresh air.

"Has it become this cold all of a sudden?" Gu Xiaobei felt he was not mentally prepared for the winter yet.

"The sun will come out and it’ll warm up for a few days," Li Fengmei, who had lived here for two years, knew the weather well.

"The radishes in the field are okay, right?" Gu Xiaobei suddenly remembered that the radishes had not been harvested.

"They’re fine. Once the weather is clear, we’ll go dig them up," Li Fengmei said with a smile.

Li Fengmei looked at Jiujiu’s shoes and said, "Look for some old tire material later and stick it to Jiujiu’s shoe soles. It’ll be warmer when it snows and won’t get wet."

Only then did Gu Xiaobei realize that all the shoes he bought for Jiujiu were thread-soled. The soles could easily get wet.

Another new skill to learn. He felt that since coming here over half a year ago, he had learned many survival skills.

Lu Zhanguo returned home in the late morning, moving the coal stove from the hallway into the house, preparing to set up the stove and smoke pipe.

Gu Xiaobei looked on and said, "Fengmei said that it will get warmer once the weather clears up. We don’t need to light the stove so early, do we?"

"I’ll set it up for you first. We’ll light it tonight and check if it smokes. If I’m not home and the weather turns bad, you can use it directly," Lu Zhanguo said, clamping the pipe mouth with a plier so that the two pipes could be connected together.

"Right, I forgot to ask you. Did you cover the cabbages last night?" Gu Xiaobei suddenly asked.

"Yes," Lu Zhanguo nodded, busy with his work.

Suddenly, Gu Xiaobei hugged him from behind, "How can you be so cute? Without you, my cabbage would be ruined."

Lu Zhanguo halted his activity, smiling. He knew that Gu Xiaobei was learning many things he previously didn’t know how to do. How could he allow her hard-earned crops to be destroyed? When he heard the wind whistling in the middle of the night, he got up. After all, the wind usually heralds rain. Fearing that it would suddenly rain, he decided to cover the cabbages in the field.

Seeing Gu Xiaobei’s satisfied expression made him feel good. "Alright, let go of me first. I’ll finish setting up the stove."

"Keep hugging for a while? Holding you like this, I feel so warm," Gu Xiaobei pleaded without letting go.

With no choice, Lu Zhanguo bent down to continue his work, allowing Gu Xiaobei to cling to him like an octopus.

"By the way, why do other families have a brick-bed stove and we only have a bed?" Gu Xiaobei asked, hugging Lu Zhanguo tightly.

"You complained that the brick-bed stove was too hot to sleep when it was lit and too cold to sleep when it wasn’t." Lu Zhanguo paused, his voice muffled.

Gu Xiaobei had not used the memories of the original host for a long time and realized that he had lost many of them.

Hearing Lu Zhanguo’s words, he tightened his arms around him, "In winter, I will use you to keep warm. You are more useful than a heated brick-bed." He laughed happily.

Once Lu Zhanguo had set up the stove, he prepared to chop some firewood to light the honeycomb coal. Gu Xiaobei finally let him go.

There were about ten pieces of honeycomb coal left from spring in the hallway. The new ones were too damp and needed to be dried for a few days before they could be burned.

Lu Zhanguo retrieved a few pieces of scrap wood from under the stove and chopped them into small firewood.

Gu Xiaobei simply watched as Lu Zhanguo lit the firewood. Once the flames were high, he put a piece of honeycomb coal in and covered the stove. He thought to himself, this also seems pretty simple.

Lu Zhanguo opened the windows and door to let the smoke disperse before washing his hands and sitting down.

Gu Xiaobei poured half a jar of boiling water and handed it to Lu Zhanguo saying, "Fengmei said this morning that we should find some tire waste and stick it on Jiujiu’s shoe soles. It’s warmer and less likely to get wet. Can you help me find two pieces?"

"Tire soles?" Lu Zhanguo was puzzled. The tire soles were thick. How could they be used as shoe soles?

"Yes, the tires Fengmei was talking about," Gu Xiaobei didn’t catch on.

"Should be the kart tires, right? Car tires are too thick to be used, aren’t they?"

Gu Xiaobei finally realized, "Right, it must be kart tires."

As they were talking, someone rushed into the house.