The next day, Bai Zhenzhu first introduced two senior martial brothers to Xia Xiaolan.

She had a junior brother bold enough to take over her fruit stand for survival, and she also had relatively honest senior brothers. Both senior brothers were in their thirties, one short and stout, the other tall and thin. Bai Zhenzhu said Xia Xiaolan was a friend introduced by her brother, and the two senior brothers misunderstood, both promising to ensure Xia Xiaolan’s safety.

“Ke Yixiong’s influence has been growing fierce lately. He’s taken over the territory around the train station, and Yuexiu District is almost under his control!”

Xia Xiaolan was somewhat surprised. Yangcheng’s administrative divisions were slightly different from those of later times. The four main urban districts were Yuexiu, Dongshan, Haizhu, and Liwan, with the rest considered suburban… Ke Yixiong looked only in his twenties, yet he’d claimed a quarter of Yangcheng’s main urban districts.

What made Xia Xiaolan’s expression darken was that the clothing wholesale area also belonged to Yuexiu District.

She was doing business in his territory!

“Can we find any dirt on Ke Yixiong?”

Wasn’t this the year of the crackdown? At year’s end, who knew if Yuexiu District had met its crackdown quotas?

The short, stout senior brother shook his head, “He never appears in person. His subordinates handle everything, so no one can pin anything on him.”

Ke Yixiong’s reputation was well-known, but few had seen him in person. If he hadn’t introduced himself, even Bai Zhenzhu wouldn’t have recognized the round-faced young man as Ke Yixiong. Would anyone dare impersonate “Ke Yixiong” at Yangcheng Railway Station? That was his territory – you’d have to be tired of living to try that.

Xia Xiaolan felt somewhat relieved that she hadn’t had time to give him a strong jolt with the electric shock device yesterday.

If she had made Ke Yixiong lose face in front of Cao Liu and the others, he definitely wouldn’t let her off. Even killing Ke Yixiong wouldn’t solve anything – aside from the legal principle of a life for a life, his subordinates looking to take over would follow underground rules requiring revenge for their boss first – Xia Xiaolan might not even make it out of the train station.

Did she have to deal with a gang leader?

Heaven was truly fair. In her previous life, she’d looked plain enough to travel north and south without encountering such situations.

With her current face, since she could attract Zhou Cheng’s pursuit, it wasn’t strange to draw the attention of lecherous thugs.

Zhou Cheng was quite rebellious too, but at least he worked for a classified unit – Ke Yixiong was a real gangster.

“Senior brothers, you can ensure my safety without getting into trouble, right?”

Xia Xiaolan’s knowledge of the underworld came entirely from movies and TV shows. Even the most loyal gang leader only showed such loyalty to insiders. If Bai Zhenzhu’s two senior brothers got into trouble because of this, Xia Xiaolan would feel guilty.

“Ke Yixiong only rose to power these past two years. If Zhiyong were still in Yangcheng, this guy wouldn’t dare be so arrogant, not even giving face to our little martial sister!”

The tall, thin senior brother wasn’t so intimidated by Ke Yixiong, flexing his fist.

Whoever could fight earned respect, and those trained at the Bai family martial arts school were different from common street thugs. Currently, with tight security, no one dared to fight with knives – it was all minor scuffles, scamming outsiders at the train station, and pickpocketing was fine, but Ke Yixiong wouldn’t dare touch serious crimes like kidnapping.

Xia Xiaolan had an idea forming in her mind.

Bai Zhenzhu thought they should ask her brother Bai Zhiyong about the situation.

This showed how Xia Xiaolan lacked feminine weakness – even the simple-minded Bai Zhenzhu knew to consult her brother Bai Zhiyong’s opinion. Zhou Cheng had given his contact information to Xia Xiaolan, but she had no intention of calling him. Subconsciously, she believed her problems should be solved by herself. Zhou Cheng was far away in Beijing, and his unit had strict discipline. If Zhou Cheng acted rashly in a moment of impulse, it would severely impact his career.

The short, stout senior brother’s surname was Wan, and the tall, thin one was surnamed Li. They had families to support, so if they were to accompany Xia Xiaolan on her travels in the future, she would need to compensate them – while they say loyalty is priceless, one shouldn’t take advantage of it either.

Xia Xiaolan noted down Wan and Li’s contact addresses, then went with Bai Zhenzhu to pick out lamps.

Yangcheng’s lighting market was more prosperous than Shangdu’s. The catering and accommodation sector was quite developed here, and luxurious European crystal chandeliers were available, though usually only used in restaurants and similar establishments. Wealthy work units would buy them too, but private homes rarely used them… In 1983 Yangcheng, the concept of home decoration was still backward. Buying a European pendant light was already quite trendy – installing a crystal chandelier at home? The ceiling height wasn’t even suitable!

Bai Zhenzhu led Xia Xiaolan to the store, and upon hearing the price, Xia Xiaolan wanted to grimace.

The lamp she liked was truly beautiful, with an elaborate design, but expensive… it cost 1,500 yuan – truly something only wealthy work units would buy.

In 30 years, lamp competition will be fierce. Not to mention high-end brands, ordinary small brands would be very cheap, consumers would have a wide range of choices, both in physical stores and online shops, and a crystal lamp would only cost a few thousand yuan. But by then, ordinary white-collar workers would earn several thousand yuan monthly, while now at 1,500 yuan, even high-wage earners would need to save for a year.

Xia Xiaolan asked Bai Zhenzhu if it looked good, and she just uttered one word: “Expensive!”

“In a couple of years, you won’t think it’s expensive anymore. It’s not that things are expensive – we just earn too little.”

Yangcheng’s wages would be higher than Shangdu’s, and Pengcheng Special Zone’s wages would be higher than Yangcheng’s. Foreign factories in the Special Zone recruit locally – people would fight over one position, with monthly wages reaching 400 yuan, ten times the monthly income of some urban workers in Shangdu.

With a monthly income of 40 yuan, buying a 1,500-yuan crystal chandelier was luxurious.

With a monthly income of 400 yuan, looking at items of the same price was like Shangdu people spending two or three months’ wages on a presentable outfit – nothing extraordinary.

Besides this large lamp, Xia Xiaolan selected two smaller ones, bargained hard, and spent 2,000 yuan in total. The lamp sellers were used to packaging, wrapping everything in layers inside wooden frames, convenient for train transport.

Xia Xiaolan arranged freight shipping at the train station for the three lamps and several packages of clothes. She still needed to send a telegram home so they could estimate when to collect the goods. At the train station, she saw Cao Liu and his group lurking around again. Those people wore malicious smiles but didn’t approach.

Ke Yixiong wasn’t seen.

Xia Xiaolan bought her train ticket, and Bai Zhenzhu saw her onto the train.

“If you have any business issues, contact me right away.”

Bai Zhenzhu nodded, “Don’t worry about Ke Yixiong, I’ll find a way to resolve it.”

Xia Xiaolan waved at her, “Go back now, I’ll take care of my safety!”

As the train from Yangcheng to Shangdu clanked into motion, two people secretly boarded. Xia Xiaolan felt someone watching her the whole way. The next morning, when the train reached Yueyang Station and she heard the station announcement, Xia Xiaolan got up and left the train.

The two people in her car didn’t react at first – after all, Xia Xiaolan had bought a ticket from Yangcheng to Shangdu, so they thought she was just getting off to buy food at the platform. But when the train started moving again, Xia Xiaolan still hadn’t boarded – the two looked at each other in dismay, wondering how to explain this to Cao Liu. They were supposed to follow her to Shangdu to investigate her background.

Wasn’t she from Shangdu?

She had bought Yangcheng-Shangdu tickets several times, but this time she got off halfway at Yueyang.

“How do we explain this when we get back?”

“Tell the truth! That bitch, trying to play tricks on us!”