A large bathtub immediately captured the hearts of my sisters-in-law!

Because her younger sister-in-law, Feng Jiamo, had leaked some hints on Friday evening, the whole family headed straight for the backyard as soon as they arrived today. Father Feng, Mother Feng, the eldest sister-in-law, and the second sister-in-law all wanted to find out what kind of huge surprise Cheng Xuemin, the son-in-law and brother-in-law, had prepared for their family's rebellious little ingrate of a daughter and sister.

Yesterday, Mother Feng couldn't help herself and secretly questioned the youngest, Feng Jiamo, wanting to know in advance what kind of tricks her son-in-law was pulling this time.

Yet that ungrateful wretch Feng Jiamo was already leaning toward outsiders and refused to give her own mother the slightest hint. She claimed that Big Brother Cheng had sealed her lips, warning her that if she leaked any information, she could forget about ever getting any pocket money again.

Mother Feng was so furious she wanted to thrash her right on the spot. She was even more biased toward outsiders than Feng Jiayou, keeping secrets even from her own mother.

As for the eldest sister-in-law, Ke Yumei, she had clearly already squeezed some relevant inside information out of her husband the night before.

She knew that her brother-in-law had built an indoor lavatory and toilet inside the house for their sister-in-law, Feng Jiayou.

An indoor lavatory and toilet inside the house?

Upon hearing this that very night, Ke Yumei had been completely dumbfounded. Her brother-in-law Cheng Xuemin was an educated man, refined and delicate, who wrote great articles, earned plenty of royalties, and always did things reliably.

Why on earth was he acting so unreliably this time with their newly bought courtyard house?

To build a toilet right inside one's own living quarters—wouldn't that place stink to high heaven and make it impossible to sleep?

At the time, Ke Yumei had looked at her husband with suspicion and laughed, asking if he was joking.

Yet her husband swore up and down that a toilet had indeed been built, telling her to go and see for herself if she didn't believe him.

Fine!

I'll go see it then!

Ke Yumei genuinely wanted to know what kind of toilet could possibly be built inside a living room.

Could people actually sleep in a place like that?!

She simply couldn't imagine it. Sleeping right next to a latrine day in and day out—she honestly had no idea what her brother-in-law Cheng Xuemin was thinking!

Could it be that houses in the rural areas of northern Shaanxi were all built this way?

Did everyone dig their latrines inside their own homes?

Putting aside whether it would stink to high heaven, it certainly saved one from freezing when getting up in the dead of winter!

But what about the summer?

How on earth was anyone supposed to sleep in a house with a latrine dug inside it during the scorching summer months?

It was unimaginable!

Ever since she squeezed this piece of inside information out of her husband the night before yesterday, Ke Yumei hadn't been able to focus on her work at all yesterday.

Her mind was entirely occupied by the massive surprise her brother-in-law Cheng Xuemin had prepared for her sister-in-law.

Of course!

Since it was described as a massive surprise, combined with the way her husband and younger sister-in-law Feng Jiamo had been deliberately keeping them in suspense, she figured there must be more to this toilet than met the eye.

Otherwise, if he really had just dug a public-style latrine like the ones outside, or a village pit toilet from their hometowns down south...

That was simply unthinkable!

Therefore, Ke Yumei followed everyone else straight to the backyard, driven by a strong wave of curiosity.

"Over here! Over here! Mom, Sis, over here!"

With the traitorous younger sister-in-law Feng Jiamo acting as their guide, Cheng Xuemin didn't even get a chance to reveal it himself, let alone build up any sense of mystery or play the shy, half-hidden act like a woman behind a beaded curtain.

Feng Jiamo chattered excitedly as she led everyone into a corner of the side room, pointing at the door connecting the bathroom to the outer courtyard. "Sis, take a guess! What kind of surprise did Big Brother Cheng prepare for you inside here?"

"Right in here?"

Prompted by Feng Jiamo, Feng Jiayou, Mother Feng, and the others all wore expressions of doubt.

If they remembered correctly, this room was supposed to be a storage room and hadn't been assigned to anyone yet.

What kind of massive surprise could possibly be inside?

"Jiazhao mentioned that Xuemin set up some kind of... toilet in here. Jiamo, you wouldn't happen to mean that, would you?"

Ke Yumei couldn't hold back any longer. She had originally wanted to use the word "latrine," but it sounded too crude to voice aloud, so she tactfully substituted it with "toilet."

Yet, whether it was a latrine or a toilet, Ke Yumei couldn't rack her brain hard enough to figure out how her brother-in-law could possibly make something as foul as a cesspit into anything fancy.

Even if he could work miracles, a toilet was still a toilet. To dig a dung pit inside the room where one slept every day—no matter how she thought about it, it sounded perverted and foul!

"What? Xuemin, you dug a toilet in here?"

Upon hearing the eldest daughter-in-law's words, Mother Feng instantly lost her composure!

True, the courtyard house the son-in-law bought was a two-courtyard compound, quite spacious with plenty of rooms.

But even with all those rooms, did he really need to sacrifice one just to dig a dung pit and use it as a latrine?

How eccentric and extravagant was that?!

"You dug a toilet... but isn't your room right next door, Xuemin and Jiayou?!"

"This might be fine in the winter, but what are you going to do in the dead of summer?"

When Second Sister-in-Law Sun Juan heard this, she too wore an expression of shock and disbelief. She truly could not fathom the bizarre tastes shared by her brother-in-law and younger sister-in-law.

To dig a latrine right next to their own bedroom—was this the great suspense her sister-in-law had been keeping them hooked on?

And to think they had actually fallen for the hype, letting their anticipation build up over the massive surprise promised by her brother-in-law Cheng Xuemin.

Now that they knew it was just a toilet and a latrine, their stomachs churned so violently they felt like vomiting.

"Xuemin, did you really dig a toilet in here?"

Having heard what her eldest sister-in-law said, Feng Jiayou looked at her husband with mingled shock and suspicion. Remembering the crude rural latrines used by the sent-down youth in northern Shaanxi, her head began to ache instantly!

No way!

Earlier, when she told her husband that she liked the look of that apartment in the Overseas Chinese Building precisely because it had an indoor bathroom, sparing her from having to squat in a public toilet outside in the middle of the night—

Her husband must have taken her words to heart, remembered them, and actually put them into action!

Had he really dug a private toilet right inside their own room, just like the ones in the rural villages of northern Shaanxi?

"Eldest Sister-in-law, Big Brother already told you about it!" Cheng Xuemin nodded, turning to Feng Jiayou. "Wife, I really did install a toilet and bathroom. Since you've been getting up frequently at night lately, it's much more convenient not having to go outside!"

It really was a toilet and a dung pit?

Forget about Mother Feng and the second sister-in-law; even Feng Jiayou's face fell. After building up so much anticipation for a massive surprise, it turned out to be just a toilet and a latrine.

Are you serious, Cheng Xuemin?

And you too, Feng Jiamo! A mere latrine was enough to make you this happy, helping your brother-in-law keep up the charade and keeping everyone in suspense?

"Let's go in and look! Sis, Mom, Eldest Sister-in-law, Second Sister-in-law, you're definitely going to love it!"

"You have no idea how much thought Big Brother Cheng put into this bathroom!"

Unable to contain her eagerness any longer, younger sister-in-law Feng Jiamo rushed forward to open the door for everyone, inviting them to come inside and take a look.

Which once again assaulted the sensibilities of Mother Feng and the others!

Just a latrine and a toilet, and they were supposed to love it? And Cheng Xuemin had put a lot of thought into it?

Was this toilet paved with diamonds or something?

Even if it were paved with diamonds, a latrine was still a latrine, and it had no business being dug right next to the master bedroom.

If they really wanted a private toilet, they could easily have built one in the corner of the courtyard. Why dig it inside a living area?

Carrying the same look of utter confusion, Feng Jiayou was pushed into the room by her younger sister Feng Jiamo, followed closely by Mother Feng and the others, all equally bewildered.

"This..."

As Feng Jiayou was nudged inside, expecting to see nothing more than a bare, ugly pit, she found that it looked... completely different from what she had imagined.

Greeting her eyes was a flush toilet, a fixture she was quite familiar with, which left her staring in absolute disbelief.

"Xuemin, where... where on earth did you buy a toilet?!"

Feng Jiayou cried out in stunned amazement. It was the exact same kind of flush toilet she had seen in the Overseas Chinese Building. How on earth did her husband manage to get his hands on one?

"Sis! Sis! There's more, there's more! Go look inside, there's a big bathtub too!"

"Later on, once Big Brother Cheng fills it up with hot water for you, you can just lie right inside and take a soak. It is going to be so cozy and comfortable!"

Before Feng Jiayou could turn around to question her husband in astonishment, her enthusiastic younger sister shoved her further into the inner section.

There, she saw a large bathtub inside the bathroom!

Yes, a large bathtub!

Feng Jiayou wasn't as ignorant as her younger sister; this wasn't just some ordinary wooden wash basin, but a proper large bathtub just like the ones in the bathrooms of the Overseas Chinese Building!

Just as Feng Jiamo had said, filling that large bathtub with hot water and lying down inside it would undoubtedly be the pinnacle of comfort and relaxation.

Mother Feng, the eldest sister-in-law, and the second sister-in-law, who had just stepped inside, wore expressions of profound shock and wonder as well.

Before long, they all realized what these items were. They recognized that this was indeed an indoor toilet, but nothing like the crude facilities they had envisioned.

The instant Ke Yumei and Sun Juan stepped inside, their minds flashed back to the Japanese film *Manhunt* they had watched a while back. The toilets in that movie looked just like this, and they were called bathrooms.

Moreover, they remembered asking about this strange contraption you could actually sit on to do your business, learning that it was called a flush toilet.

To their utter astonishment, their brother-in-law Cheng Xuemin had taken something straight out of the movies and installed it right here in their sister's home—and inside the living quarters at that!

And honestly, with this flush toilet around, their sister-in-law would never have to dread getting up on freezing winter nights ever again!

To have such an extraordinarily convenient bathroom right inside one's own home was enough to make anyone green with envy.

Then, catching sight of the large bathtub and listening to the excited chattering of younger sister-in-law Feng Jiamo, the two sisters-in-law couldn't help but picture the scene in their minds.

Indeed!

Taking a bath in the dead of winter was always an arduous chore for women, requiring an immense amount of courage.

Yet Feng Jiayou's husband had gone ahead and installed such a massive bathtub right inside the room. If it were filled with steaming hot water, stripping down and slipping into it would literally be reaching the peak of human happiness—something they wouldn't have even dared to dream of in the past.

As for Mother Feng standing off to the side, she shot a reproachful glare at Father Feng, her heart filled with a tangled mixture of complex emotions.

Startled by his wife's sudden glare, Father Feng was momentarily stunned before realization dawned on him!

It was obvious!

His wife had clearly figured out that the ultra-Western-style bathroom their son-in-law had built wasn't inspired by watching the Japanese movie *Manhunt* at all.

Instead, it was modeled entirely after the layout of the apartments in the Overseas Chinese Building that they had visited previously, built precisely like that for his daughter.

He truly had put his heart into it!

Yet the more thoughtful this gesture was, the more of an unmerited calamity it brought upon Father Feng as the father-in-law.

That was because his wife—Cheng Xuemin's mother-in-law—had yearned for an apartment in the Overseas Chinese Building for over a decade, thinking that the dream had long since faded away.

Who would have thought that her son-in-law would resurrect the idea and bring it to life right before her eyes? Seeing it there, it would be a miracle if her mother-in-law's heart wasn't filled with complicated feelings.

"Sis! Sis! There's still more!"

After showing her eldest sister the flush toilet and the large bathtub, Feng Jiamo grabbed her arm and pulled her back out, still chattering excitedly.

There's more?!

Everyone turned to follow Feng Jiamo's gaze, only to discover yet another door inside the bathroom.

This door?

Before anyone could voice their confusion, Feng Jiamo threw the door open, and the scene on the other side instantly greeted their eyes!

Wasn't this... the main room of the east wing?

"Sis, look! Isn't this an amazing surprise? Big Brother Cheng connected your main bedroom directly to the bathroom!"

"From now on, you won't even have to step outside your bedroom at night. You can access it right from inside the room!"

Good grief!

At this, the eldest and second sisters-in-law were even more dumbfounded. They had assumed this bathroom only had a single entrance, meaning Feng Jiayou would still have to walk out and circle around through the main hall to use it at night.

Yet her husband had gone ahead and cut a doorway directly into the main room connecting straight to the bathroom, meaning she wouldn't have to step outside into the biting cold wind at all during the night.

This move was sheer perfection. Cheng Xuemin was simply too thoughtful, treating their sister with an extraordinary level of care and consideration!

"Xuemin, you installed this... toilet here and cut open a doorway, won't it smell awful?"

After the initial wave of shock, the family naturally began picking out potential flaws!

Faced with everyone's doubts, Cheng Xuemin demonstrated and explained: "This is a flush toilet. After we use it, we just press this button, and the water flushes everything straight away!"

"If it flushes things straight away like that, won't it flood the streets outside?!"

Seeing Cheng Xuemin point toward the outside of the house, Ke Yumei asked with a puzzled look. If it flushed directly outside, wouldn't the stench fill the entire neighborhood? Would the neighbors ever agree to that?

"No, no, no!"

"We dug a large septic tank outside, and it's sealed completely tight. We just need to hire the nightsoil collectors to empty it once or twice a year!"

Cheng Xuemin shook his head repeatedly. He wasn't lacking in civic virtue the way his sisters-in-law suspected; how could he possibly flush waste directly onto the ground outside?

"So that's how it works!" Ke Yumei nodded in understanding.

The septic tank Cheng Xuemin spoke of must be the same concept as the cesspits outside public restrooms!

"If the outside is sealed up, won't the air flow back up through here? Won't the whole house end up reeking?"

Second Sister-in-Law Sun Juan voiced the question everyone had on their minds, and Mother Feng shared the exact same concern.

Although she knew this was a flush toilet, she didn't understand the mechanics behind it. Didn't it just flush things directly out?

If the septic tank outside was sealed, wouldn't the waste and odors push right back up through the flush toilet?

This was the one point Mother Feng had never quite figured out.

"Not at all! Second Sister-in-law, the working principle of this flush toilet is actually like this..."

"There's a siphon return bend at the bottom with a built-in sealing mechanism, so the sewage gases outside can't back up..."

Cheng Xuemin once again explained the simple structure and working principle of the toilet to everyone.

Only then were their doubts put to rest, and they all came to a sudden understanding.

Following that, Feng Jiamo eagerly emphasized that she no longer wanted to live in the west wing and would instead move into the side room directly across from the bathroom. Knowing what she was up to, no one raised any objections.

However, if she moved into that side room, wouldn't the main room in the west wing be left vacant?

At that moment, not only were the eldest and second sisters-in-law harboring secret thoughts about the newly vacated west wing, but even Mother Feng cast a sideways glance at Father Feng, clearly tempted to move into the backyard herself.

The truth was that Cheng Xuemin had made this backyard entirely too nice, practical, and convenient!

At the very least, the mere fact that they wouldn't have to brave the outdoors to squat over a public latrine left the entire family brimming with joy.

***

PS: Respected patrons, little Fatty Mother is humbly asking for monthly votes! Thank you all so very much!