Yan Lingyun's sister-in-law was a very courteous woman, refined in both manner and speech.
"You finally came, you little rascal. I was bored to death."
Hearing her northern accent, Lian Youming grew curious and asked about it in private. Only then did Yan Lingyun tell him that her sister-in-law's ancestral home was in Luoyang. Years ago, her family had fled to Lingnan as refugees and were longtime friends of the Yan Family.
The apartment the two of them would be living in was number 307, diagonally across from Yan Weidong's.
The apartment had already been given a basic cleaning. It had two bedrooms, a sitting room, and a partitioned-off study. The previous tenant had been an elderly secondary school teacher who had moved out recently because his wife had developed health problems. Perhaps he had left in a hurry; quite a few books remained in the rooms, and even the paper and pens on the tables and chairs had not been cleared away.
Meals were no concern either. They could eat with Yan Weidong's family, or Lian Youming could eat at the school cafeteria. Failing that, they could cook for themselves. Pots, bowls, and utensils were laid out beside the corridor outside their door, and all the cooking equipment was there.
There were two communal toilets on each floor, one at either end, as well as a large one downstairs. Water for daily use came from a communal washroom, where more than a dozen taps stood in a row. Plenty of fruit and vegetables were soaking inside, and a group of women, young and old, were gathered in animated conversation.
Once they had eaten with her elder brother's family at their new place, Yan Lingyun sprang into action. Carrying a basin of water, she scrubbed every corner of the apartment,