take a wife to support the family

Chapter 13 Washing the Torn Blanket

Song Haonian forcefully asked Lily to sit back and rest, and he squatted by the well platform to wash the quilt cover.

With great strength, he rubbed it down, and all the dirt on the quilt was wiped off.Lily looked at it in a daze: "Do you know how to wash clothes?"

Song Haonian originally thought that he was partial to his sister, and that Lily was going to be angry with him, but she didn't expect that she would take the initiative to talk to her, so she couldn't help showing a relaxed smile: "I didn't know how to wash before. But I have been separated from the family for more than a year, and I cook Laundry, sweeping and drying, these things have to be learned to do. The more you do it, the better you will be.”

In ancient times, it was important for parents not to separate families. Lily remembered that she was in the countryside when she was a child, and it was a big deal for people in the village to separate families. If possible, try not to separate families.If someone separates the family, everyone will definitely say that it is not virtuous to take the family son and daughter-in-law. If it weren't for their instigation, why would the brothers think about separating the family?

She thought about the reason why Song Haonian separated, but she didn't ask.People say that it is a big taboo to talk shallowly and deeply. She and Song Haonian are husband and wife in name, but their friendship is not as deep as that of her and the chickens in the yard. It is not easy to ask such taboo questions.

Lily was about to give birth, when Song Haonian suddenly heard a soft "ah" and said, "It's broken!"

"What's wrong?"

Song Haonian didn't answer, and spread out his hand to show her, in the generous palm, the thin quilt had been washed torn by him.

Lily didn't know whether to laugh or cry, she could only complain that the quilt was too old, it was homemade homemade cloth, it couldn't be thicker, but after a long time it was worn too thin, it's good that she has little strength, Song Haonian rubbed it so vigorously, it was like rice paper The same pieces shattered.

Seeing that Lily didn't blame him, Song Haonian smiled embarrassedly, and continued to wash the quilt cover, but this time he didn't dare to use force, the tall man moved lightly, which made Lily feel uncomfortable.

"You... go into the house and take out the straw mat to dry in the sun." Lily whispered.

There is only one bed in their house, which is covered with a thick straw mattress, a thin cotton mattress on the mattress, and a broken quilt.Lily took off the quilt by herself and took it out to wash, but the straw mattress was so big and thick that he couldn't even drag it.

Song Haonian, as if he had received an amnesty, quickly left the wooden basin and went to the house to move the straw mats, and Lily went over to take over the work of washing the quilt covers.

Straw is a good thing for poor people to keep warm in winter. It is easy to absorb water and return to moisture. When it is wet, it will be terribly cold. It is best to spend more time in the sun. As long as it is kept dry, it will always be warm.

Song Haonian rolled up the straw mattress on the bed, put one hand under his arm, and easily spread it out in the yard to bask in the sun.

After Lily washed the quilt cover, she asked Song Haonian to wring it dry, and the two of them worked together to dry it on the fence. Song Haonian was afraid that the wind would blow it away, so he specially folded two soft wickers to form a ring, and fixed the quilt cover on the fence.

One turned the straw mat so that the sun would dry it evenly, and the other beat the cotton wool with a stick to fluff it up.For a while, the yard was full of crackling sounds, and the dust in the cotton wool floated up, making people's noses itchy.

"Ah!" Song Haonian couldn't help but sneezed.

He seemed to think that this was not good, and while rubbing his nose, he peeked at Lily, but saw Lily pursing her lips and smiling, although her face was sallow and emaciated, but her eyes were full of smiles, as if there was light from the morning sky falling in them, he immediately The son was dumbfounded.

Once the quilts were dry and warm in the sun, Song Haonian didn't let Lily do anything, and moved them all back into the room by himself. The place that should be spread was neatly made, staring blankly at the torn quilt cover, and went to the kitchen I found a needle and thread in my chest of drawers, and planned to sew by myself.

After being separated for more than a year, Song Haonian learned a lot of things by himself, but Liu Yi's sister-in-law took over the matter of mending clothes, which he really didn't learn.

Compared with the thick fingers, the thin needles are pitifully small.Song Haonian tried to thread the thread into the needle hole, but failed four or five times in a row. He scratched his head at the needle thread and lowered his head to continue.

Even though she has a daughter-in-law, she didn't take all these things for granted, but cared for her body... Lily felt that Song Haonian had more conscience than many modern men in this regard.

Lily went to the kitchen, looked in the chest of drawers, and found a sewing basket.Inside were a pair of scissors, a needle holder with three or four needles of different sizes inserted into it, and two rolls of thread, one black and the other white.

In addition, there are rags of various colors and shapes, most of them are monochrome, and there are also a few pieces with flowers.This kind of rags are usually obtained when other people cut clothes, or they are used to glue shoe uppers, or to patch.

Ordinary people would not be willing to give away the cloth heads cut off by ordinary people. Er Niu saved them as a helper at Master Liu's house. She was too lazy to do the work herself, so she gave them all to her sister.The big girl is in charge of the house and lacks everything. I am very grateful to my sister for sending these things.

"Give it to me, I'll sew." Lily carried the needlework basket to the middle room, seeing that Song Haonian was still struggling with needlework, she wanted to laugh again.

Taking the needle and thread from the dazed Song Haonian, Lily found that the needle was of medium length and thickness, so she inserted it back into the needle socket, picked up a small needle again, twirled the thread with her fingers, moistened it with the tip of her tongue, and twisted it into a When you squint your eyes, you can easily put the thread into the nose of the needle.

It takes a lot of thread to sew the quilt cover, but Lily first measured more than two feet with her hands—when she was a teacher, she sometimes used her hands to roughly measure the height of the students. The distance from the tip of the middle finger is exactly nineteen centimeters.

The hole in the blue quilt cover was in the middle. Lily picked up the scissors and cut off all the fluff around the hole, leaving only the relatively strong part, and then rummaged through the cloth in the basket.

Many men are impatient to watch women work, and Song Haonian was like this in the past, so he never knew how his mother sewed the quilt cover.He found it very interesting to see Lily doing her work in an orderly manner, without any haste.

Song Haonian squatted by the side to help Lily pick out the rags, picked out five or six pieces, Lily pressed on the hole for comparison, and kept it when she thought it was suitable.

Lay the rags on the inward side of the quilt cover, with the brighter color on the outer side, and stitch it finely from the inside, joining the edge of the rag to the edge of the hole.

Turn it over to the side facing the outside and see that the stitches are fine and tight, with no exposed burrs. Finally, tie a knot on the side facing the inside and cut the thread short to complete the patch.

Lily was deeply grateful that she had done a lot of patching and sandbag sewing in the past. If she hadn't done it like her female classmates in the city, she would be dumbfounded in the face of such a situation.

There are two quilt covers, the larger one is spread out on the bed first, and the cotton batting of uneven thickness is placed on it, covered with a blue cloth cover of the same size as the cotton batting, and finally the extra corners of the bottom are folded up, which looks like A gray-blue border is inlaid on the blue cloth, and the shape and position are fixed.

Then Lily changed to the largest needle, pulled a ten-foot-long thread, and sewed the quilt from one corner, sewed the upper and lower quilt covers together with the cotton batting in the middle, and at the same time, paid attention to nesting the edge of the cloth to make it look Neat and beautiful.

(End of this chapter)