Struggle Life in the 1970s

Mu Jiajun handed over a brown paper bag. It was hard to tell what was inside. Chu Ye was quite hesitant, but Mu Jiajun pushed him to the locker room with a smile.

After a moment, the curtain of the dressing room was drawn open, and Chu Ye appeared in a white dress that went below her knees. She lowered her head and adjusted her collar with some discomfort.

She didn't know what material this skirt was made of, but it felt very smooth to the touch and very soft and cool when she put it on. She used to wear coarse linen clothes, which rubbed against her skin and made her feel safe. It felt a little unnatural to wear this suddenly.

Mu Jiajun was originally admiring the photos he had taken in the house. He turned around after hearing the noise, and then saw the beautiful appearance that he would never forget in his life, and he stood there in a daze.

Chu Ye, who is eighteen years old this year, is in the prime of her youth. She has a good appearance, but she has always dressed ordinary before. Even if people noticed her, they would focus on her face.

But today, this moon-white dress seemed to be tailor-made for her. The neck was a Cuban collar shirt style, slightly revealing the collarbones on both sides. The soft fabric fit the girl's well-developed chest. The waist was wrapped with a black leather belt as thick as a finger, making the waist appear slender. Then the hem of the skirt stretched down, making the person in front of her look like an elegant lily.

It was clearly that familiar face, yet it seemed so hazy.

"Oh, the little girl is like a fairy that fell from the sky! So beautiful!" The boss didn't expect that the little girl had changed so much, but he was old after all, and he was not like a young boy who couldn't walk when he saw a fairy.

He nudged Mu Jiajun with his elbow, calling him back from his trance. The latter slowly walked to the front and saw Chu Ye adjusting her collar rather uncomfortably. He subconsciously reached out to help her adjust the hair behind her ears, then stood behind her and adjusted the collar at the back of her neck.

While he was tidying up, Chu Ye waited quietly, which made the boss beside her smile. After the clothes were ready, the boss asked Chu Ye to sit in front of the dressing table and he wanted to do a simple hairstyle for her.

During this period, Mu Jiajun looked at Chu Ye seriously through the mirror.

She was already very good-looking, and the makeup made her look vulgar. The boss was used to this and knew how to bring out the best in a person. He simply drew her eyebrows to make her eyes more delicate, and put a touch of light pink lipstick on her lips to enhance her complexion.

The boss also did several hairstyles for her, but none of them looked good. In the end, he simply let her hair down, draped it behind her ears, and put a white headband on her.

During this time, someone came into the store and asked the boss to come out to take pictures, but when he saw the two people, he turned off the fire. Someone walked to Mu Jiajun's side and asked expectantly if the one doing makeup was his sister, but Mu Jiajun smiled proudly and said, "She looks good, right? This is my girlfriend."

These words made people jealous.

After everything was cleaned up, Chu Ye stood up and walked to Mu Jiajun.

"How does it look?" Although she had already seen the changes in herself in the mirror, she still wanted to hear Mu Jiajun's opinion.

"It's incredibly beautiful." Mu Jiajun is not a person who is stingy with praise, so he gave his answer.

Then the two of them followed the boss's instructions and sat in front of the curtain, "Three, two, one. Cheese!", a white light flashed before their eyes, and with a "click", the smiling faces of the two were frozen forever.

While waiting to pick up the photos, the boss discussed something with the two men. He wanted to display their photos outside. After all, the photos of these two people would become a living signboard once they were put out.

Chu Ye felt a little embarrassed at first, but on second thought, she felt that it was nothing. She and Mu Jiajun were already together, and it was not unspeakable for a boy and a girl to fall in love. However, Mu Jiajun seemed unwilling.

After Chu Ye's further questioning, it was revealed that Mu Jiajun felt that many people would stare at Chu Ye, and it felt like his good things were being coveted by others. In the end, he agreed after Chu Ye's funny persuasion, but he still paid for the photographic negatives of the two.

After leaving the photo studio, Mu Jiajun took her to the department store in the city. It was so large that the horizon could not be reached, and the decoration looked much more luxurious than the one in their town. Everyone coming and going was dressed neatly and clean, especially some of the sales clerks, who were young and beautiful, wearing lipstick, and some even had curly hair, looking very fashionable.

Chu Ye was walking among them, feeling a little nervous, but Mu Jiajun was a careful person. He keenly noticed Chu Ye's unnaturalness. However, he did not pull Chu Ye away. Instead, he leaned close to her shoulders and casually asked her what subject she taught in the school. After getting the answer of English, he followed up and asked her if she had encountered any difficulties in teaching.

This question touched her heart directly. Chu Ye had been worried about students' unwillingness to learn English. Now that she had found an expert, she quickly told him about the confusion she had encountered. Facing Mu Jiajun's gentle and attentive eyes, she couldn't stop talking. Unconsciously, the timidity in her heart had already dissipated completely.

After Chu Ye finished speaking, he realized that the two of them had unconsciously walked to the third floor. Compared with the two floors below, there were obviously fewer people on the third floor, and everywhere he looked were expensive items.

Mu Jiajun's expression remained unchanged, as if he was used to seeing all this. After thinking about it, he explained Chu Ye's questions one by one and also provided several teaching strategies. Chu Ye found them very useful.

When they turned to the last counter, the two were still talking, but they saw the salesperson's eyes light up, and he walked quickly to Chu Ye, looking at her again and again with amazement, which made Chu Ye confused.

"Little girl, this skirt of yours is the latest model of our brand. It was only sold in the United States last month, and there is no one in China yet." The saleswoman looked to be in her thirties, with wavy hair tied behind her head, thin eyebrows and red lips, and looked very fashionable. Chu Ye was very surprised after hearing this. Her first reaction was that the sister had seen it wrong. She was about to say that it should not be as expensive as she said, but when she turned her head and saw Mu Jiajun's calm expression, she slowly felt incredible.

"Mu Jiajun, is this skirt really like what this sister described?" She patted the person next to her and asked.

"I'm sure I'm not mistaken. This fabric is very rare in China. A few days ago, the salesperson from the United States came to me and said that if we want to order this skirt, we have to pay a deposit first. That's not all. It won't be delivered until next month." The sister pouted, "This skirt is too expensive. We were afraid that no one would buy it, so we didn't order it."

She sighed regretfully, "Hey, little girl, can you let me touch the fabric? It looks really good on you."

Chu Ye nodded, and after the salesperson finished touching the fabric, he marveled at the feel of the fabric, and finally took out some biscuits and gave them to the two of them.

Chu Ye felt mixed emotions after learning the value of the skirt. After the two of them went downstairs, she carefully asked, "This skirt is so expensive, if you give it to me, will you——"

"No." Mu Jiajun knew what she was going to say the moment she opened her mouth. Chu Ye looked up at him, with uneasiness in her dark eyes. He felt soft-hearted and reached out to touch her long hair.

"I originally sent you this dress to celebrate the start of your internship, but my brother was too slow and didn't send it until a few days ago." He was a little dissatisfied. "Don't feel pressured. Don't listen to that person's nonsense. It's just that you can't buy it here. There are still many in the United States. Besides, this is my brother's money. He earns a lot, so this is very cheap for him."

"It's fake, right? You take me for a fool." Chu Ye was a little dissatisfied. Although Mu Jiajun said that it was easy to buy in the United States, she believed it, but when she touched the fabric of the skirt, she knew it would definitely not be as cheap as he said.

"How could I bear to lie to you? Besides, I will buy you lots and lots of dresses in the future so that you will never be able to wear them all." Mu Jiajun grinned confidently, as if he had already seen the scene of himself taking over Chu Ye's wardrobe with a wave of his hand in the future.

"I didn't agree." Chu Ye retorted dissatisfiedly, but was automatically ignored by Mu Jiajun.

When the two of them were walking back, they passed by the photo studio again. Standing at the door and looking inside, they saw a crowd of people in the room, and the boss was also drowned out by them. Their photo was posted in a prominent position at the door. Through a layer of transparent glass, they could see the two of them leaning against each other in the black and white photo. Their brows were relaxed, and they were smiling, looking like they were living a peaceful life.

The two of them went around in circles, and soon half a day had passed. Mu Jiajun originally wanted to send her back to school, but was sternly rejected by Chu Ye.

Their schools were located in the west and the east, respectively. If Mu Jiajun sent her back, she would have to take a longer car ride. She knew that Mu Jiajun had good intentions, but she was not a dodder that could not survive without someone. What's more, she felt sorry for Mu Jiajun for traveling all the way. Finally, at Chu Ye's insistence, they both got on their own cars and went back.

When they arrived at the school gate, the security guard's eyes lit up when he saw Chu Ye. After Chu Ye greeted him, he went to the guard room to pick up the bouquet.

This morning when Mu Jiajun took her to the city, she felt it was inconvenient to carry it all the way, so she told the old man to leave it with him first.

The flowers were left in the stuffy guard room for a whole day. At his age, the old man naturally didn't know how to find a vase to put water in, so some of the delicate flowers looked a little wilted. After Chu Ye returned to the dormitory, he quickly put them in water, thought about it, and divided half of them and took them to the dormitory next door.

"Xiao Ye, you're back." They all knew that Chu Ye was called away this morning, and they also guessed who she went out with. Seeing her wearing a white dress they had never seen before and with a little makeup on her face, they couldn't help but tease her and pulled her to tell them where she had been today.

Chu Ye was unable to break free for a moment, and just laughed and played with them. Finally, he sent the bouquet of flowers to their dormitory, and also took out the cookies that the saleswoman had given him today and shared them between the two of them.

The fact that she had a boyfriend also spread quietly among the teachers. A boy who came to intern with her had a crush on Chu Ye, but now all his feelings have disappeared.

However, Zhou Wenlong was not among them.

These days, Chu Ye followed Mu Jiajun's method and began to explain simple English letters to students in the form of storytelling, first attracting their interest in class, and then interspersing patriotic education in between, which included many benefits for learning English.

This novel teaching method caught the attention of the dean. He did not object at the first time. Instead, after sitting in on a few classes, he encouraged Chu Ye and hoped that she could really improve the English of the third graders. This obviously surprised Chu Ye.

However, within a few days of this surprise, Chu Ye discovered that some teachers began to look at her with strange eyes, and even some students began to ignore her. She asked a few people but got no results.

Gradually, more and more strange looks appeared around Chu Ye, and many people whispered when she walked. At this juncture, some rumors reached her roommate's ears, and she gradually began to understand what was happening.

"Xiao Ye Zi, someone spread rumors that you hooked up with your current partner by selling your ass, and that they saw you on the street with different men, shamelessly fawning on others."

(End of this chapter)