In 1946, the Central Mint on the Bund in Shanghai increased gold bar production. After minting, these bars were air-transported by the Central Bank to various locations for public exchange.

The smallest gold bar weighed five qian, with varieties of one, two, three, five, and ten liang specifications. In old Shanghai, people called the ten-liang gold bars “Big Yellow Fish” and the one-liang bars “Small Yellow Fish.”

Grandmother Yu mentioned that her son Xu Zhongyi took several precious antiques and a box of “Big Yellow Fish” abroad – by any measure, a considerable sum of money.

That’s what made it strange – Xu Zhongyi only sent one letter back to China before disappearing completely.

What misfortune could have befallen them that left all three family members without any communication?

Xia Xiaolan recorded the information provided by Grandmother Yu and began distributing the items she’d brought back from Hong Kong.

When she visited the Zhou family, she didn’t see Guan Hui’e, who had been working overtime for several days as every workplace was busy near year-end. Xia Xiaolan could only leave the gifts and go. Her presents for the Zhou family were impeccably chosen – though certainly not as expensive as the gifts for her own family, she had thoughtfully considered everyone from top to bottom!

When meeting the Zhou family elders, Old Master Zhou stopped her:

“The other day Zhengqing came to see me, and mentioned you had some kind of education assistance program. Could you explain it to me in detail?”

Since this idea first emerged until today, Xia Xiaolan has been constantly refining it in her mind. Now the concept had matured, and she had written detailed implementation steps to ensure the plan could be executed successfully even during her year abroad.

Xia Xiaolan explained it again to Old Master Zhou.

Her explanation was clearer than Gu Zhengqing’s. Old Master Zhou pondered for a moment: “When do you plan to launch it?”

“I’ve already prepared the proposal document. I plan to give it to Uncle before the new year. During my year abroad, I hope it can receive approval from the Education Department and have a trial run for a year!”

Old Master Zhou nodded: “It’s worth trying.”

Focusing on priorities while letting minor issues slide, Old Master Zhou wasn’t worried about Xia Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng’s relationship. Having come this far, wouldn’t the young people themselves understand their feelings better than their elders?

It was only a year apart – if they truly cared for each other, their relationship would certainly withstand the tests of distance and time.

If it didn’t pass the test, it would mean they weren’t destined to be husband and wife. Even so, what Xia Xiaolan proposed was beneficial – given the scope of her vision, Old Master Zhou had no reason not to support it!

By now, Xia Xiaolan was quite confident about this plan.

Zhou Cheng had heard it, Gu Zhengqing had heard it, and Old Master Zhou approved. These people understood the current situation in China better than she did. If they didn’t object, Xia Xiaolan felt it had potential.

Moreover, she had discussed it with Elder Song, who had elevated the significance of the plan – another form of validation for her idea.

This was something Old Master Zhou didn’t know.

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t one to boast. She wouldn’t tell Old Master Zhou about meeting Elder Song. After all, Elder Song had met her because of Tang Hong’en, not because she had some great influence that reached the highest levels!

Xia Xiaolan had more places to visit today, including Jiang Hong’s home and Zhou Cheng’s two aunts’ houses. She wouldn’t show favoritism in gift-giving.

For the younger generation like Cheng Min and Gu Siyan, Xia Xiaolan uniformly gave fountain pens. These were compact and didn’t take up much space – she had bought more than twenty in Hong Kong! Fountain pens were appropriate gifts for students, and even suitable for those who had been working for many years like Zhou Wenbing and Gu Zhengqing, though more thought was needed in selection.

Among all the Zhou family members, Xia Xiaolan only excluded Zhou Yi, and Jiang Hong had no objection to this.

Xia Xiaolan had brought a pair of silver bells from Hong Kong, typically used for Christmas there. She’d thought of giving them to Zhou Yi’s unborn child during her year abroad, but as soon as Jiang Hong received the bells, she immediately hung them on the dog’s neck.

“Aunt-“

“See how well they suit our Lele?”

Xia Xiaolan was speechless.

The dog was also her gift, and now it held a higher status than Zhou Yi – Zhou Yi would surely hate her for this.

She realized why Grandmother Yu’s grandson’s nickname “Lele” had sounded familiar – it matched Jiang Hong’s Pekinese’s name!

Jiang Hong had originally prepared brass bells for the little Pekinese, but after switching to silver bells, the dog seemed to know they were more valuable and ran around the house excitedly. Jiang Hong thought about the gold she had been accumulating over the years just gathering dust, wondering if she should make a gold bell for Lele.

White fur would look even better with bright gold.

No, she should keep a lower profile. Others didn’t know that was originally Zhou Yi’s dowry savings – they might think Zhou Wenbing had embezzled money if even their dog wore a gold bell!

Jiang Hong dismissed the idea herself, and Xia Xiaolan breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhou Yi had been married for two months now, yet Jiang Hong was thinking of using Zhou Yi’s dowry gold to make bells for the Pekinese – clearly, the mother-daughter relationship hadn’t improved?

Jiang Hong was irritated at the mention of her:

“Your uncle insisted she must go to work, but every day she complains of headaches or backaches, wanting sick leave to ‘protect the pregnancy.’ Her father told her to get a doctor’s note – if she really needed pregnancy care, the doctor would approve her leave… Of course, she couldn’t get the note. Perhaps feeling her father was too controlling, she hasn’t come home these past two weeks.”

Jiang Hong showed no signs of missing her daughter; if anything, she seemed relieved.

Every time Zhou Yi returned home, Jiang Hong was reminded of her daughter’s disobedience and unfilial behavior, which always soured her mood.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t Zhou Wenbing acting in everyone’s best interest? When would Zhou Yi finally clear the water from her brain?

Then again, they’d only been married two months – the honeymoon phase wasn’t over yet!

After some hesitation, Xia Xiaolan mentioned seeing the tianhuang seal at the Hong Kong auction.

“It looked very similar to the seal Yuan Han sold. I wonder where he got his antiques from, and if it might cause trouble?”

Jiang Hong was shocked, “So what he sold was worth that much!”

Then Yuan Han must still have quite a bit of money?

The plan to make Zhou Yi suffer might not work out.

Jiang Hong casually remarked: “Those things must have been stolen or robbed. Just like that house Yuan Han lived in back home – your uncle investigated and found it wasn’t even the Yuan family’s property, it should have belonged to his ex-wife. It was supposed to be returned to his ex-wife’s ancestral property, but somehow ended up under the Yuan family’s name… She was a fool too, giving the Yuan family a large house for nothing!”

Zhou Wenbing had mentioned this issue before, but not as clearly as Jiang Hong just had.

Xia Xiaolan was speechless. Yuan Han was truly a professional leech – he’d succeeded on his first try, no wonder he could deceive Zhou Yi so easily.

No surprise the timing of the divorce was so convenient – was his ex-wife really searching for relatives, or had the Yuan family driven her away?

If only they could find Yuan Han’s ex-wife!

“Why don’t you and Uncle tell Sister Zhou Yi about this?”

Stroking the Pekinese’s head, Jiang Hong replied, “Do you think she would believe us? Right now, everything Wenbing and I say is just us trying to deceive her, trying to break her and Yuan Han apart.”

Raising such a muddle-headed fool – Jiang Hong felt she must have committed some grave sin in a past life!