These municipal planning details were largely kept confidential before their official announcement.

If Xia Xiaolan knew about this, she might have trembled for a few minutes.

The flutter of her butterfly wings had caused the land regulations to be implemented early, and the Futian District was showing signs of premature establishment.

Coincidentally, in Xiaololan’s previous life, both the “Provisional Regulations on the Grant and Transfer of State-owned Land Use Rights in Hua Country Towns” and the establishment of Futian District in Peng City happened in 1990.

She entered university in ’95, graduated in ’99, and started working in Peng City after the millennium.

By the time she arrived in Peng City, the Futian District had long been established. Who would pay attention to exactly which year Futian District was founded?

Xia Xiaolan didn’t work for the government!

She mentioned Futian District casually; it was still officially called the Futian Street Office.

Of course, even knowing she had altered history somewhat, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t panic too much.

After trembling for a few minutes, she would continue with her tasks as usual. One person couldn’t affect the grand course of history; reform and opening up would proceed as it should. It was just that her closeness to Tang Hong’en, who happened to be the mayor of Peng City, had caused some things in Peng City to happen two years earlier.

Xia Xiaolan felt quite satisfied after calling Jiang Yan from Shijiazhuang to Peng City to scold her.

She didn’t know what Pan Baohua had said to Jiang Yan, but when she and Zhou Cheng were leaving, Jiang Yan appeared deeply troubled.

Seeing Zhou Cheng, she gritted her teeth and apologized:

“Zhou Cheng, I still don’t understand your choice, but I will respect your decision. From now on, I won’t comment on your love life in front of you.”

Zhou Cheng thought to himself that he wouldn’t listen to her opinions anyway.

But it was best that Jiang Yan had come to this understanding on her own.

Whether the materials were genuine or false remained uncertain, but Jiang Yan’s attitude showed she genuinely wanted to reconcile with them.

Zhou Cheng couldn’t continue treating Jiang Yan like air anymore.

He had discussed this with Xiaolan, and she understood this point, only asking that when he spoke with and interacted with Jiang Yan, he shouldn’t do anything that might cause misunderstandings.

Friends were friends, lovers were lovers; different relationships required different boundaries.

Though Xia Xiaolan disliked Jiang Yan, she wasn’t tyrannical enough to drive away all females around Zhou Cheng.

After all, Jiang Yan had known Zhou Cheng and Pan Baohua first!

“Whether you understand or not doesn’t matter, respect is enough.”

After Zhou Cheng finished speaking, Xia Xiaolan clapped her hands: “So now you’re friends again? Jiang Yan, welcome to abandoning darkness for light, returning to the camp of justice.”

Jiang Yan ignored her. Pan Baohua coughed, and only then did Jiang Yan nod at Xia Xiaolan.

She was still sulking.

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t be bothered to coax her.

“Third Brother, Zhou Cheng needs to return to the academy, and I guess you won’t be staying in Peng City either. Since Kang Wei and the others are also in Peng City, why don’t we all have a meal together to liven things up?”

Pan Baohua hesitated briefly, thinking that since traveling from Shanghai with Zhou Cheng, those who should know already knew, so he had no more concerns.

“Alright, let’s have a meal together. Third Brother will treat you all! Xiaolan, you’re familiar with Peng City, you handle the arrangements. Consider it helping me out.”

Xia Xiaolan readily agreed.

This meal brought together everyone in Peng City.

There were Liu Yong, Shao Guangrong, and Kang Wei. When hearing Third Brother was treating, Bai Zhenzhu asked if she could come too.

Bai Zhenzhu greatly admired strong individuals like Pan Baohua.

Given the chance, she wanted to spar with Pan Baohua.

These were her exact words: “My elder brother is stronger than me, and if Pan Third Brother can earn even my brother’s admiration, he must be someone I should learn from.”

Though Bai Zhigong had worked for many years and only wrote about his personal life in letters home, rarely mentioning specific work matters, he had mentioned Pan Baohua. He must have admired him extremely to mention him to Bai Zhenzhu in his letters.

“My elder brother is coming back for a family visit this year, and will settle his marriage matters while he’s here. The unit leaders have been urging him, and our grandmother is worried she won’t live to see her great-grandchildren.”

Xia Xiaolan quickly offered congratulations:

“So you’ll soon have a sister-in-law.”

Bai Zhenzhu nodded, “He has a month’s leave for the family visit. Grandmother says it’s just enough time for matchmaking and marriage, and she can spend some time with the new sister-in-law.”

Xia Xiaolan broke into a cold sweat hearing this.

But this was indeed the common special marriage pattern of the 1980s.

With inconvenient transportation and communication, who had time to take things slowly? Usually, the family would find a suitable match in advance, call their son back from his work unit, and if both parties didn’t object upon meeting, they would immediately get their marriage certificate and hold the wedding banquet.

The trend of flash marriages started with these special marriages.

Couples like Xia Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng, who had dated for two years without getting married, were the real oddities.

Zhou Cheng must be quite envious of Bai Zhigong.

This thought popped into Xia Xiaolan’s mind, but she quickly suppressed it.

They had finally reached an agreement about when to get married. Zhou Cheng had accepted her prioritizing education, and their consensus to focus on careers before discussing marriage. Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to create any new problems.

Everyone enjoyed this meal quite a bit.

Pan Baohua was an extremely generous person. When he wanted to, he could become familiar with anyone in a very short time.

Liu Yong drank until he was tipsy, Shao Guangrong swore to break his big-mouth habit after drinking himself seventy percent drunk. Kang Wei seemed to be using alcohol as an excuse to act wild, asking Jiang Yan in an odd voice why she had come when the gathering was breaking up. Jiang Yan gave him two glances:

“I’m not as despicable as you think.”

Kang Wei grinned, “Then tell me, what do you think I’m thinking?”

Jiang Yan didn’t respond to him.

After Kang Wei’s disruption, Jiang Yan left early on the return journey, not traveling with Zhou Cheng.

Kang Wei’s petty behavior was unanimously condemned by Pan Baohua and Zhou Cheng, with only Xia Xiaolan secretly giving him a thumbs up—this willful disruption was all for Xia Xiaolan’s sake, worried that she might be troubled by Jiang Yan. Kang Wei declared his stance that he only accepted Xia Xiaolan as his future sister-in-law.

In private, Kang Wei had said:

“I just believe a bad bamboo shoot won’t produce good bamboo. Jiang Wu is a bad person, so Jiang Yan can’t be much better.”

Xia Xiaolan remained noncommittal:

“But she’s showing her good side now… Let’s wait and see. Nothing is certain until it’s over. Once Third Brother’s matter is resolved, we’ll know whether Jiang Yan is good or bad.”

With Jiang Yan leaving early, only Xia Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng were left to return to Shijiazhuang.

They rarely had such long periods together, and the longer they stayed together, the more reluctant they were to part.

Xia Xiaolan promised Zhou Cheng:

“I’ll come to see you again before school starts, and I’ll visit on weekends when possible after school begins.”

After spending so many days together, their so-called “cooling-off period” had naturally ended!

When Xia Xiaolan returned from Shijiazhuang, it was already August 10th. Secretary Peng seemed very excited:

“Harold’s side has made concessions. The investment will continue, and the 2,500-mu land lease can be signed immediately.”

Xia Xiaolan laughed heartily: “Then congratulations to you, Secretary Peng!”

Secretary Peng couldn’t help showing his satisfaction:

“Let’s all celebrate together; this achievement isn’t mine alone.”

Xia Xiaolan expressed her agreement.

While the foreign investors got the meat, she would drink the soup.

With the golf course project successfully settled, Xia Xiaolan was also very happy!