The two meat dishes on the table had been mostly consumed by Shen Mianmian, who placed her chopsticks down and belched contentedly.
"Full?" He Nan glanced at her.
"Mm," Shen Mianmian’s face warmed slightly; she had wanted to suppress that belch, but failed to do so.
He Nan finished the remaining dishes and then led her out of the noodle shop. Seeing him heading to the car, Shen Mianmian prepared to say goodbye.
"Big Brother He, go ahead if you have things to do! I have something else to attend to and won’t be heading back yet."
He Nan raised an eyebrow slightly, "To the bathhouse for a bath?"
Her bulging backpack surely contained clothing; it wasn’t hard to guess her intent.
Shen Mianmian admitted obediently.
She kept hypnotizing herself that in He Nan’s eyes, she was just a little brat; thus, she felt there was nothing to be embarrassed about.
He Nan opened the car door and directly took the driver’s seat.
"Goodbye, Big Brother He."
Shen Mianmian raised her hand in a farewell gesture; it was the same one she had used when she used to drop off Zhou Siyu’s kid at the kindergarten. At that moment, habit took over. Updates are released by 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵·𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮·𝓷𝓮𝓽
Realizing she had just treated He Nan like a child, she retracted her hand awkwardly.
Fortunately, Big Brother He had already gotten into the car, certainly not having seen her.
Feeling guilty, Shen Mianmian turned and hurriedly left, her steps quickening until she eventually broke into a jog.
Inside the car, He Nan watched those short legs run like they had propellers attached, his face darkening.
Was he really that frightening?
Shen Mianmian, holding her five cents, arrived at the bathhouse only to discover that, close to the New Year, the price for a bath had gone up. Thankfully, she had eight dimes left from before that she hadn’t spent, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to afford this bath.
Bathhouses of that era were very rudimentary, with a large pool filled with hot water where everybody soaked together.
Luckily, it was mealtime so the bathhouse wasn’t crowded, and the water wasn’t very dirty yet. Even so, she didn’t get into the pool to bathe.
At this time, the water in the bathhouses wasn’t disinfected, and all sorts of people used it. As a young girl, she had to be mindful of her hygiene.
She found an empty basin, filled it with clean hot water from the tap, and found a corner to start rinsing. Shen Mianmian missed the showers of the twenty-first century.
She had to find a way to make money. Otherwise, even taking a simple hot bath would be a luxury.
Eager to truly live her second chance at life, Shen Mianmian wanted to enjoy everything she hadn’t experienced in her previous life.
She wanted to have her own home, her own bathroom, her own desk, her own husband and children.
She wanted to have a complete life.
"Young girl, can you really get clean squatting there? Why don’t you come over here and soak?"
A plump lady already soaking in the bath saw Shen Mianmian alone, bathing by pouring water over herself with her hands and couldn’t bear to watch.
Can you scrub off the dirt on your body without soaking in the hot water?
Shen Mianmian came back to her senses and replied softly, "I’m fine washing over here."
"You won’t get clean washing there," the lady said while scrubbing her arm, "It’s hot in the water and it feels comfortable, and you’ll get clean."
Shen Mianmian turned her head to look and, feeling embarrassed, quickly averted her gaze, thinking to herself that she really needed to hurry up and earn money to buy a house. Houses in the city were cheap at the moment; a few thousand yuan could get one, but after the nineties, the price of houses would skyrocket. If she wanted to buy a house then, it wouldn’t be so easy.