第七章：宿舍阿姨什么都知道

Ma Ke washed clothes for the first time on his fourth day in China.

He put the dirty clothes into a bag and walked to the laundry room on the second floor. There were four washing machines in the laundry room, and a note on the wall said: scan code, select machine, select mode, pay.

He knew a little of each character, but when put together, he was a bit confused.

Ma Ke took out his phone and scanned the QR code on the machine. There were many buttons on the phone screen: standard wash, quick wash, heavy wash...

He looked at the last word and thought: Where is the clothes? Which one should I choose?

In the end he chose 'standard wash'. Standard sounded the safest.

Next, he needed to pay. He took out his campus card and swiped it in front of the machine.

No response.

He swiped again. Still no response.

At that moment, the dormitory aunt passed by the door, saw him standing in front of the washing machine, and came in.

"What's wrong? Washing clothes?"

"Yes," Ma Ke said, "but it doesn't work."

The aunt glanced at his phone and then at his campus card. "This is not for card swiping; you pay by phone."

Ma Ke looked down at his campus card.

This card could let him into the dormitory and pay for meals in the cafeteria, so why couldn't it wash clothes? The aunt seemed to know what he was thinking and said, "Not all machines recognize your card."

Ma Ke felt that this sentence made a lot of sense, but he was also sad.

The aunt pointed to show him: "Here, WeChat Pay. Then select the machine. Yours is number two."

Ma Ke followed and tapped. The machine finally beeped.

"It worked!" he said.

"Not yet," the aunt said. "Have you put in the laundry detergent?"

Ma Ke looked at the aunt.

He had brought clothes, his phone, and his card, but he hadn't brought laundry detergent.

The aunt sighed. "You new students..."

She took a small bottle of laundry detergent from the cabinet next to her and poured a little in.

"Use mine this time. Don't forget to bring it next time."

"Thank you, aunt," Ma Ke said.

"Also, dark clothes and white clothes are best washed separately."

Ma Ke glanced at the washing machine.

Black T-shirt, white socks, blue towel were already living together inside.

"Is it okay this time...?" he asked cautiously.

The aunt looked and said, "It's okay. You've already put them in."

Ma Ke didn't know if that was comfort.

In the evening, Ma Ke stood at the door of the hot water room holding a cup. There were two buttons on the hot water dispenser, one red and one green, with "Caution: Hot" written next to them.

"Aunt," Ma Ke asked, "how do I use this?"

The aunt came over. "Put the cup below, press red. Don't put your hand under, the water is very hot."

Ma Ke did as told. Hot water came out quickly. "Stop, stop, stop!" the aunt suddenly said.

Ma Ke was startled and immediately let go. "Your cup is too full; it will spill when you walk. The dormitory building is not a swimming pool."

Ma Ke looked at the nearly overflowing cup and nodded. "I understand."

The aunt looked at him and suddenly asked, "What's your Chinese name again?"

"Ma Ke."

"Oh, right, Ma Ke," the aunt said. "This name is easy to remember."

Ma Ke was a little happy. He thought that the aunt saw so many students every day that she wouldn't remember his name.

The aunt added, "Lin Hao said you almost bought a very spicy dish in the cafeteria?"

Ma Ke was stunned.

"Even you know?"

"Haha, students sometimes chat with me," the aunt said with a smile.

Ma Ke thought about it and felt that this sentence might be true.

At 10:25, Ma Ke was about to go back to his room. The aunt saw him on the first floor and called him again.

"Ma Ke, hurry up. The door closes at ten-thirty."

"But I'm already inside the building."

"You should go to bed early. You have class tomorrow."

Ma Ke nodded. "Okay, aunt."

As he walked up the stairs, he heard the aunt behind him say, "And don't forget to take your clothes out of the washing machine!"

Ma Ke stopped.

He really had forgotten.

He ran back to the second-floor laundry room and took out the clothes. The clothes were almost dry.

After returning to the room, Lin Hao saw him holding a big pile of clothes and asked, "First time doing laundry, did it go smoothly?"

Ma Ke thought for a moment.

"More or less."

Lin Hao looked at the pile of clothes, then at him.

"What does 'more or less' mean?"

"It means the clothes are washed, and the aunt is tired."

Lin Hao laughed so hard he almost fell off his chair.

Ma Ke hung up the clothes. The campus outside the window had become quiet, and in the corridor he could still hear the aunt reminding another student to close the door.

Ma Ke suddenly felt that the dormitory aunt was like a big alarm clock. She reminded everyone to wash clothes, get hot water, close the door, go to sleep, and also reminded everyone not to make life too messy.

She spoke quickly, sometimes very direct. But she remembered his name.

Ma Ke felt that the aunt cared about the students in the dormitory.