Chronicle of the 70s

In the span of seven to eight days, the six rooms plus the kitchen were thoroughly tidied up, and the walls were freshly painted. The workers’ craftsmanship was good. From the outside, the house looked almost unchanged, just a bit larger, but inside there were significant changes. The previous subpar floorings were all replaced with marble, and the bedrooms were fitted with wooden floors. Many electrical wires were installed, with hidden outlets placed in usually-needed positions.

However, it was still not habitable due to the strong smell. By the end of August, everything was neatly arranged. Li Xianglu opened the warehouse, and Qin Xi, Qin Zhen, and two security guards brought by Grandpa Xun helped to carry out and install all the additions.

At that time, the Whirlpool air conditioners were still those bulky models, yet their cooling effect was no worse than those seen twenty years later in the future.

Li Xianglu remembered that when she was about to graduate, there was a problem with her thesis, so she took it to her professor’s house during the hottest days of summer. The air conditioner there had run out of refrigerant and needed a refill.

The maintenance person kept praising the air conditioner after looking at it – it was a Whirlpool from the United States, brought back in ’83, and after twenty years, it was still in use with an excellent cooling effect. Thus, Li Xianglu had some impression of this brand of air conditioner.

Mr. Li didn’t allow one to be installed in his bedroom, so they had to put it in the living room. Then one was installed in Li Xianglu’s room, and both Qin Xi’s and Qin Zhen’s rooms were equipped as well. That left three new ones still unused. Mr. Li instructed to keep them stored for now, as it was still early days and they might move again, in which case they could simply take them directly to the new place.

Two refrigerators and two small freezers were mentioned by Li Xianglu, but she only had one big refrigerator unpacked; the rest were said to be stored in the warehouse, but were actually all placed in the Storage Ring. Electrical appliances like refrigerators are not good if not used for a long time.

A television, a 21 inch, color one, was placed in the living room. After installation, Qin Zhen couldn’t move from his spot – watching it during the day and at night, needing to watch while eating, and if it weren’t for Qin Xi dragging him away, he might have watched all night.

The washing machine was a single-cylinder type that could only wash and not spin-dry, but that was also quite good. They were about to install the municipal water supply in their area soon, which would make doing laundry outside convenient.