Xia Xiaolan favored the shop at February 7th Square, Shangdu’s city center, which would remain the largest commercial district for years to come.

It was a small building with three storefronts, owned by Shangdu State Cotton Mill No. 3… Xia Xiaolan winced – that was Zhu Fang’s mother’s workplace!

Shangdu had six state cotton mills. In 1983, the textile industry was Shangdu’s pillar industry. “One Cotton Spinning Road tells half of Shangdu’s history” – the six state cotton mills employed tens of thousands of workers! With a thriving textile industry came a flourishing clothing industry. Shangdu had countless clothing factories, large and small. Xia Xiaolan went all the way to Yang City for wholesale clothing, bypassing local options, because Shangdu’s local clothing industry was fiercely competitive, requiring novel styles to succeed.

Among the six state cotton mills, No. 3 was the most profitable.

The three-unit storefront that both Liu Yong and Xia Xiaolan preferred was State Cotton Mill No. 3’s property.

The mill was doing well financially, so much so that they could leave a building in the city center empty – truly a sign of their wealth.

“Is this easy to handle?”

Liu Yong didn’t know about Xia Xiaolan’s “grievances” with Ding Aizhen, but securing this shop wouldn’t be easy anyway. Before housing reform, except for extremely special cases like Grandmother Yu’s, all housing belonged to the state. Street-front shops were entirely controlled by various work units and departments. While one might find loopholes to rent housing from private individuals, renting a street-front shop from private owners was impossible.

Some ground-floor residents did convert their street-facing walls into small shops with doors and windows, but these could only manage breakfast stores… Selling clothes? Maybe just cheap street goods.

Cheap clothing was everywhere in Shangdu. Opening a shop on West First Street would leave Xia Xiaolan without any competitive edge.

The February 7th Square location was perfect.

Except for belonging to Cotton Mill No. 3, everything from its location to the first-floor ceiling height was ideal.

Xia Xiaolan explained her grievances with Comrade Ding Aizhen to Liu Yong with a bitter smile:

“If I approach them myself, the chances of getting this place are zero.”

Though Ding Aizhen was just a minor leader at Cotton Mill No. 3 and might not have the authority to approve renting out factory property, she could certainly sabotage it.

Liu Yong was angry, “Being too eager isn’t good for business. I met that young man, Zhu Fang, he seemed quite polite. How can his family be like this?”

Looking down on Xiaolan while also thinking she shouldn’t date anyone but their son – did the Zhu family think they could have everything their way? Without Ding Aizhen’s approval, was Xia Xiaolan supposed to wait for marriage arrangements like a maiden in the old society?

Xia Xiaolan quickly mentioned how she had retaliated on the spot, not sparing Zhu Fang’s mother’s face:

“Who knew we’d end up wanting Cotton Mill No. 3’s property…”

“Would you have slapped her if you’d known?”

Of course, she would have – no regrets there.

Though it was troublesome now, Xia Xiaolan believed it could be resolved. Even without the conflict with Ding Aizhen, she wouldn’t have tried going through Director Ding’s connections for the storefront. To prevent Ding Aizhen from causing trouble, Xia Xiaolan felt she couldn’t appear personally. Who else could go? Liu Fen couldn’t possibly handle such matters, and while Li Fengmei was more articulate than Liu Fen, she still couldn’t deal with large organizations.

“I’ll go.”

Liu Yong was small in stature, looking even thinner after his injury. The Liu family had slaughtered two pigs, and Li Fengmei kept plenty of meat, stewing it daily to help Liu Yong recover. The Liu family’s table had been excellent lately, alternating between stewed meat and stir-fried pig liver. Having just moved into their rented house, the daily aroma of meat impressed the neighbors – no one looked down on them for being rural people. In the work unit dormitory, private rentals were forbidden and colleagues would surely report it, so they couldn’t admit to renting. They had to insist they were relatives of the owner, temporarily staying as a family.

As for where the owner lived?

The owner was young and moved back to live with their parents.

Making room for relatives was considered proper – people still valued relationships greatly in those days.

Liu Yong wouldn’t approach Zhu Fang – who knew what that seemingly nice young man had said at home? Xia Xiaolan gave Liu Yong another 20 “Caidie” cigarettes. High-level leaders wouldn’t care for “Caidie,” if they smoked “Sanhua” from the same Shangdu Tobacco Factory. But Liu Yong didn’t know any high-level leaders; he’d need to network indirectly, consuming the Caidie cigarettes in the process.

In Shangdu, the six major cotton mills employed tens of thousands. The saying went, “Cotton mill daughters marry railway bureau sons” – cotton mills had many female workers, and railway bureau men had good benefits, making these two groups the most competitive in the marriage market… And Liu Yong’s family was now living in railway bureau housing! Though Liu Yong had been idle for years, he had accumulated rich social experience. He might find physical work tough, but chatting with people was simple for him.

Just two days after moving in, he could name everyone on his floor and recognize faces throughout the building.

Accepting Xia Xiaolan’s mission, he worked in this direction. After giving out over ten “Caidie” cigarettes, he managed to connect with a deputy factory director of Cotton Mill No. 3 – well, not directly, but he met the deputy director’s elderly mother.

The old lady didn’t get along with her daughter-in-law and lived separately from her husband.

The deputy director was filial but extremely busy, without much time to care for his parents. Recently, when the old man injured his leg, the deputy director could only find a rural relative to help care for his father. This was when Liu Yong appeared, voluntarily helping care for the old man, tirelessly assisting and repairing their broken furniture.

When the old man wanted “Mei Ji’s Curry Noodles” from Baihua Road – a street that tens of thousands of Cotton Mill No. 5 workers passed daily – Liu Yong helped. Cotton mill workers’ homes didn’t have water heaters; they had to use the factory bathhouse, bringing pots or basins to Mei Ji’s while bathing, sometimes still not getting served after finishing… Business was that good. While cotton mill workers had to work, Liu Yong was free, so he’d wait at Mei Ji’s door as soon as they opened.

The curry noodles were still steaming when he brought them back – how could the deputy director’s parents not like him?

The relative helping at the deputy director’s home was almost in tears – if Liu Yong continued like this, he’d take over her job!

While Liu Yong was busy currying favor, Xia Xiaolan was actively promoting her cold weather gear and duck-down jackets.

This time wasn’t so smooth. When she brought out the clothes to sell, the weather had just turned warm, with sunny days not cold enough for cotton coats. While she could sell wool coats, bell-bottom pants, and even all the leather shoes she’d brought back for her stall, no one was interested in the cold weather gear and down jackets.

“The colors are pretty, but they’re expensive!”

One female customer commented. They didn’t think hundred-yuan wool coats were expensive but complained about several dozen yuan for cold weather gear and down jackets.

Looking at the bright sun in the sky, Xia Xiaolan was worried too.

Was it cold in Jing City?

Regardless, she packed up a sheepskin vest and a men’s duck-down jacket to send to Zhou Cheng.