143 Ruthless Destruction of Beauty, Sister-in-Law You Know Too Much

Early the next morning, Cheng Xuemin was once again dragged out of his warm bed by his young sister-in-law to buy a bicycle.

There was simply no reasoning with her; if he did not buy her that bicycle, he would never be able to sleep in peace again!

After getting up, he first headed to the pigeon market, but he failed to locate the ticket scalper right away. In this freezing weather, those loafers preferred to curl up under their thick quilts and sleep in, usually only coming out to wander around in the afternoon. He had arrived far too early. If he had known better, he should have followed the man into the alley to his home last time.

Now that the scalper was nowhere to be found, and it was impossible to blatantly ask around for one, Feng Jiamo stamped her feet in frustration and declared they would have to come back in the afternoon to try their luck. On the way back, Cheng Xuemin stopped to chop up a pound of pork and buy some vegetables.

He dumped the sister-in-law along with the meat right at the courtyard entrance, and before she could even react, he mounted his bicycle and sped away.

"Big Brother Cheng! Big Brother Cheng! Where are you going?! Take me along to have some fun!"

Holding the meat and vegetables, Feng Jiamo watched the departing figure of Big Brother Cheng, practically driven mad by exasperation.

"Have fun, my foot! Can you even afford the kind of fun I'm having?"

Leaving her behind, Cheng Xuemin was in a rush to check on the new house and make a trip to the Overseas Chinese Store to buy everything remaining on his list. The items he had previously ordered should have arrived by now.

The construction progress at the new courtyard was remarkably fast. Cheng Xuemin had only skipped a day without coming over, yet almost everything here was already nearing completion. Because floor tiles or ceramic tiles were completely unavailable, the bathroom floor had been designed according to Cheng Xuemin's alternative plan: he had bought a batch of smooth, round, and uniform pebbles and paved them in a layer over the concrete surface. The cement had not yet dried completely, so Cheng Xuemin could not step on it to test the effect. Next, all that remained was for him to buy the toilet and bathtub, install them, and connect the pipes, and the project would basically be finished.

Tap water storage barrels were simply not sold in this era. Cheng Xuemin had checked the Overseas Chinese Store before, and they had none. He had also run to the Department Store and the Xidan Mall, but similarly found no suitable large barrels. In the end, his eldest brother-in-law, Feng Jiazhou, managed to procure a large gasoline drum from goodness knows where. It was scrubbed thoroughly clean and repurposed purely as a tap water barrel, standing upright on the triangular corner wall outside the bathroom, facing east toward the sunlight.

In winter, needless to say, anyone wanting a hot bath had to boil the water themselves and pour it into the tub. But in summer, a large gasoline drum facing the sun could be filled with water in advance, left to bake in the sun all day, and by evening, the water could be used directly without needing any cooling down.

Seeing a flatbed cart loaded with sand, gravel, and red bricks parked in the courtyard, Cheng Xuemin called over a mason named Wang to come along and help haul the bathtub and flush toilet back from the Overseas Chinese Store.

"Comrade, are you heading to the Overseas Chinese Store to buy things? That place only accepts Foreign Exchange Certificates!"

Master Wang was an honest and simple-tempered man. Along the way, he had simply followed silently behind Cheng Xuemin without ever asking where they were going. But when he was led right up to the Overseas Chinese Store, his expression suddenly shifted into one of shock, and he hurriedly issued a wary warning.

This was the Overseas Chinese Store, a place where only overseas Chinese went to shop, and only overseas Chinese possessed Foreign Exchange Certificates. Ordinary people like them truly had no idea what a Foreign Exchange Certificate even looked like.

"Master Wang, my wife is a student at Yanda University. She knows a few foreign exchange students and managed to exchange a small amount of Foreign Exchange Certificates from them!" Cheng Xuemin replied with a smile, nodding. In this era, ordinary people strolling into the Overseas Chinese Store was indeed a rather sensational affair.

"Is that so?! Your wife is a jinshi scholar from Yanda University, young comrade? That explains it then!" Master Wang's expression turned even more astonished. Clearly an old Beijing native from the grassroots, he knew that anyone who could pass the exams to enter Yanda was an extraordinary figure—back in the imperial dynasty, that would truly be the equivalent of a jinshi scholar!

Cheng Xuemin smiled, nodded, and said nothing more, leading him inside the Overseas Chinese Store.

Once inside, Master Wang appeared nervous and jittery, whereas Cheng Xuemin was completely at ease, having visited the place a few times before. The goods inside the Overseas Chinese Store were actually not all that numerous, nor were the items truly high-end—at least, to Cheng Xuemin's eyes, they were just so-so. Yet, placed within the domestic context of this era, they were clearly the most high-end and luxurious available.

"Comrade Xiaomei, have the bathtub and flush toilet I ordered arrived yet?"

When he had asked during his last visit, the Overseas Chinese Store had no stock on hand and required him to place an order and wait a couple of days while they had the items transferred over from the Tianjin port. Originally, the sales clerk here hadn't been so easy to talk to, but during his last visit, Cheng Xuemin happened to run into two old Americans who had come in to buy things.

While the Overseas Chinese Store was meant for receiving overseas Chinese, the clerks were ordinary citizens who might only know a few simple spoken English phrases. The items those two Americans wanted at the time were quite tricky: sanitary napkins!

Such menstrual pads were extremely common in later generations, but in the domestic market of this era, they simply did not exist! Forget about the domestic market; even abroad, sanitary pads had only been invented a few years prior and had not yet been introduced into the country at all. Naturally, even the Overseas Chinese Store in Beijing did not carry them.

At the time, among the two Americans, one of them—a woman—happened to have her period arriving right then and there. She kept gesturing and gesticulating, repeatedly speaking and emphasizing what she wanted to buy, but the store clerks simply could not understand a single word she was saying.

As it happened, Cheng Xuemin was there and helped translate for them. Although the purchase ultimately fell through, Cheng Xuemin—a young comrade who spoke extremely fluent English—caught the eye of the store's director. Believing him to be a rare talent, the store felt they desperately needed someone like Cheng Xuemin, who possessed such superb English skills, to work as a sales clerk. In the end, they even invited Cheng Xuemin to come work as a clerk on a non-official staffing basis.

As if! How could Cheng Xuemin possibly care for that? The Yanda University library was offering him a formal, established position, and he hadn't even bothered to take it! The same went for the Humanities Publishing House!

However, through this give-and-take, he had established a connection with the Overseas Chinese Store. From then on, whenever Cheng Xuemin needed foreign goods—as long as they were imported items listed on their foreign trade catalog—they could help him source them in the shortest possible time.

The flush toilet and bathtub were precisely what he had pre-ordered this way, agreeing to come pick them up in the past couple of days.

"Xuemin, you've come just at the right time. Old Yang had the items hauled over a couple of days ago, and they're in the back. Come take a look and see if they're what you wanted!"

Upon seeing Cheng Xuemin step inside, the sales clerk Deng Xiaomei promptly greeted him and urged him to go to the back to take a look, while also calling out to her colleague Xiao Liu to fetch Old Yang.

"It's quite a coincidence, too. We just received a supplementary shipment of goods these past two days, and Old Yang managed to bring back the items you requested along the way!"

The "Old Yang" whom Deng Xiaomei referred to was Director Yang, the person in charge here. Moreover, the bathtub and flush toilet Cheng Xuemin needed were not contraband items, and they were already listed on the Ministry of Foreign Trade's import catalog; it was just that not even a single set of these items was sold from one end of the year to the other. Therefore, the Overseas Chinese Store basically kept no stock on hand, and anyone who wanted them had to place an advance order so the staff could file a report upward. Of course, prior to this, these goods were intended exclusively for overseas Chinese and foreigners and were not open to domestic citizens.

However, the policy had relaxed somewhat now: as long as one had Foreign Exchange Certificates, anyone could buy imported foreign novelties here.

"I must thank Director Yang for his trouble. I'll have to treat him to a meal later!" Cheng Xuemin smiled, nodded, and offered a polite remark.

"Our Old Yang said treating him to a meal won't be necessary!" Deng Xiaomei replied with a bright, beaming smile. "Xuemin, you live in that courtyard near the Overseas Chinese Apartments, right?"

"Our Old Yang said that if foreign guests come in to buy things again in the future and we can't understand them, would it be possible to invite you over from your home to help us translate?"

Since they couldn't afford a full-time translator, getting a part-time one was a pretty smart calculation on Old Yang's part! Having been delayed for so many years, people with genuine proficiency in foreign languages were truly scarce. Russian was fine, as studying it had been encouraged previously; people of his father-in-law and mother-in-law's generation generally knew a bit of Russian. But English simply wouldn't do! Back then, studying English might well have gotten someone branded as a spy and subjected to public criticism. As for other languages like German or French, the number of speakers was even scarcer.

The generation of foreign language professionals had suffered an almost complete generational fracture. Consequently, when the store happened to stumble upon a neighbor who spoke fluent English, how could they not strive to cultivate a good relationship with him?

"That's entirely fine! If you run into foreign guests like the ones last time, you're more than welcome to come to my house and call for me!"

"Though you'll have to wait until after the New Year; we haven't moved in yet!"

"If you ever need me in the future, you can also go to the Yanda University library and ask for Cheng Xuemin—I guarantee you'll find me!"

Acting as a part-time translator was something Cheng Xuemin was quite happy to assist with! After all, as far as he was concerned, writing articles to earn foreign exchange through his father-in-law's Foreign Languages Press was one avenue, but if he wanted to acquire foreign novelties in the coming decade, he might well have to rely on the Overseas Chinese Store here.

Backed by the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Overseas Chinese Store could surely procure whatever he desired as long as it was on the foreign trade list—provided Cheng Xuemin had enough Foreign Exchange Certificates.

"The Yanda University library?!"

"So you're an elite student from Yanda, Xuemin? No wonder your English is so good!"

At this, the sales clerk named Xiaomei found her eyes flashing with renewed brilliance, her gaze lingering on him admiringly.

"No, no! My wife is the student at Yanda; I'm still preparing for the exams myself!"

"Ah?! You're already married, Xuemin?"

Well! The ripples that had just stirred in her heart instantly extinguished. What a case of missing each other in another lifetime!

Cheng Xuemin simply nodded and dropped the subject, walking into the back room, which appeared to be a storage warehouse for goods.

"Take a look, Xuemin. Are these the flush toilet and bathtub you wanted?"

"I reckon they must be! When we watched the movie *Manhunt* a while ago, we saw the Japs had these installed in their homes!"

"Oh, right, Xuemin, did you watch *Manhunt* and see the Japs with these in their homes, which is why you decided to buy them?"

Comrade Xiaomei was quite the chatterbox, rambling on endlessly and somehow connecting a mere flush toilet to the wildly popular dubbed foreign film *Manhunt*, which had recently swept the nation. Cheng Xuemin had accompanied Feng Jiayou to watch that film, and he vaguely recalled there being a scene with a flush toilet in it.

Yet this was hardly surprising! The points of reference for things from the outside world were exceedingly scarce. The fact that the female clerk had watched *Manhunt* and instantly recognized them showed just how immense the visual impact of foreign goods still was on the domestic populace!

"I did watch *Manhunt*, but the reason for the toilet is that I saw them installed over at the Overseas Chinese Apartments, only I couldn't afford a house there."

"So I thought about buying a courtyard house and trying to install them myself. Hopefully, it'll beat going to the public restroom!" Cheng Xuemin smiled, mentioning the Overseas Chinese Apartments.

"Oh! The Overseas Chinese Apartments! That explains it then!" The female clerk suddenly understood, adding, "That's bound to be much better than a public outhouse!"

"Just look at these, Xuemin—they're all foreign goods!"

Alright! The worship of foreign things was already beginning here, with the belief that foreign goods were inherently superior. Typical of the Overseas Chinese Store.

"Yes, exactly this!"

"What about the showerhead?"

Cheng Xuemin inspected the items and confirmed that it was indeed a complete set consisting of a flush toilet and a bathtub. The flush toilet was of the seated variety rather than a squatting pan. However, he didn't see the showerhead, which he had also mentioned to Old Yang at the time.

"A showerhead?"

Deng Xiaomei looked puzzled, having no idea what that referred to.

"It looks kind of like steel tubing. Didn't Old Yang mention it to you?"

Logically speaking, they should have been packed together if they had been brought in.

"It's inside here!"

Cheng Xuemin opened up the packaging of the bathtub and discovered that the showerhead, water pipes, and other components were all packed right inside the tub.

"Oh, so it's all inside here then?"

The female clerk finally breathed a sigh of relief and leaned over to poke around at the items inside the bathtub.

"Ah! Xuemin, you're here! I was upstairs just now and heard Xiao Liu shout out!"

At that moment, Director Yang, the head of the Overseas Chinese Store, walked in and greeted Cheng Xuemin.

"Director Yang, hello, hello!"

Cheng Xuemin exchanged polite greetings with Old Yang in return.

"Xuemin, everything's right here: the bathtub, the flush toilet, and the showerhead and pipes!"

"As for that large water barrel you mentioned, they didn't have it on the manifest either."

Director Yang went over the items with him and brought up the issue of the water barrel. Sure enough, it was still unavailable. That meant they would just have to keep using the large gasoline drum provided by the eldest brother-in-law.

"It's quite all right! I really must thank you this time, Director Yang!"

After another round of polite pleasantries, Old Yang calculated the bill with Cheng Xuemin: sixty-five yuan for the flush toilet, forty yuan for the bathtub, and twenty-five yuan for the showerhead and pipes—all payable in Foreign Exchange Certificates, of course.

It was admittedly a bit expensive, but who could blame these items for being so rare? Fortunately, his father-in-law had slipped him another sixty yuan in Foreign Exchange Certificates last night. Otherwise, the total cost would have completely exceeded what Cheng Xuemin had anticipated, and the one hundred yuan in Foreign Exchange Certificates he originally held would have fallen far short.

Still, for the sake of future comfort and happiness, spending these Foreign Exchange Certificates was well worth it. After all, of all things, Cheng Xuemin loathed the public outhouses of this era the most.

Such were the limitations of the times; people often said that even a top celebrity in this era had to obediently get up early every morning to empty their own nightsoil pots. Therefore, since Cheng Xuemin had the means to improve his living conditions, spending a few Foreign Exchange Certificates truly amounted to nothing.

Once all the items were hauled back, Cheng Xuemin's task was to instruct the masons on how to install them. Letting the masons figure it out on their own was out of the question, as they wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to proceed. Truth be told, Cheng Xuemin wasn't entirely an expert either, but fortunately, an instruction manual was included. Although it was in English, Cheng Xuemin was able to read it.

Following the manual, he first installed and connected the flush toilet, hooked it up to the outdoor tap water line, and tested it—everything worked perfectly!

By then, the entire morning had slipped away. Cheng Xuemin couldn't be bothered to run all the way back for lunch anyway, having already instructed Feng Jiayou that if he didn't make it back, she and her sister should cook for themselves.

He grabbed a casual bite outside, and in the afternoon, he continued supervising the installation of the bathtub, showerhead, and other fixtures, striving to finish everything that required his on-site guidance within the day.

"Big Brother Cheng, what... what on earth are you tinkering with here?"

At some point, his younger sister-in-law Feng Jiayou appeared in the courtyard. Seeing Cheng Xuemin busy inside the small room, she could not help crying out in astonishment.

"Jiamo? Why are you here?!"

Upon seeing Feng Jiayou walk in, Cheng Xuemin felt a sudden, cold jolt in his heart. The very first thought that flashed through his mind was whether he needed to silence his sister-in-law.

After all, his purpose in building this modern bathroom was to give her older sister a massive surprise! Aside from his eldest brother-in-law Feng Jiazhou, no one else at home knew he was constructing a modern-style bathroom.

Yet now that young sister-in-law Feng Jiayou had abruptly barged in and caught him red-handed, the only way to prevent her from snitching to her sister seemed to be a ruthless act of silencing her!