“Oh? Aunt’s here too?”

Just a trip to Beijing, and somehow Liu Fang had found her way to the commercial district. Xia Xiaolan suspected something was going on, but she didn’t show it. Behind her was a porter she’d hired from the train station—she couldn’t possibly return empty-handed from Beijing. With too many items to carry herself, she’d hired help to bring everything to the store.

“Sir, please put the things over there. Yes, right there.”

“Please take a rest and have some water. Here’s your payment.”

Xia Xiaolan handled things efficiently, paying the porter promptly. The porter felt uncomfortable lingering in such a place—the polished, clean floor tiles weren’t meant for manual laborers like him.

“Child, why did you come back by yourself without letting us pick you up?” Li Fengmei complained, but Xia Xiaolan just smiled.

She was old enough not to need an escort from the train station, and besides, with only two adults managing the busy store, Xia Xiaolan had simply arranged for someone to help carry her things back.

“I’m fine.”

Liu Fen was never one for many words, so Xia Xiaolan deliberately turned around a couple of times to show her mother that a trip to Beijing hadn’t taken anything out of her.

Liu Fang began to understand. “So Xiaolan went on a trip?”

No wonder she hadn’t seen Xia Xiaolan yesterday—she’d just returned today. Liu Fang showed interest: “Where did you go to play? Why aren’t you helping out here? Look how busy your mother and aunt are.”

Accustomed to her superior attitude, she couldn’t help but lecture a bit.

Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t stop arguing with someone like her. She saw no need to explain her travels to Liu Fang, but for the sake of family relations, she responded perfunctorily:

“I went to Beijing. Aunt, since you’re here, take some pastries back with you—I brought them from Beijing.”

Beijing was famous for what if not Dao Xiang Cun pastries?

Even thirty years later, tourists visiting Beijing would inevitably bring Dao Xiang Cun pastries and Quanjude roast duck as gifts for relatives and friends. Xia Xiaolan couldn’t escape tradition. Zhou Cheng had tried to give her more foreign exchange certificates, but she’d been too busy to visit the Friendship Store. If she wanted to buy something special, she could either get it during her purchasing trips to Yang City or have Bai Zhenzhu keep an eye out—the Friendship Store held little appeal for her.

The roast duck wasn’t good cold, but Xia Xiaolan had no choice. For families like Hu Yongcai’s, Dao Xiang Cun pastries and Quanjude roast duck were perfect gifts. She hadn’t expected Liu Fang to be here, but she’d bought plenty, so sharing some with Liu Fang would maintain a family face.

She casually pulled out two boxes of pastries, which left Liu Fang quite uncomfortable.

Liu Fang had also brought “Dao Xiang Cun” pastries yesterday, but hers were in paper bags while Xia Xiaolan’s came in metal tins. The metal tins were more upscale than paper packaging, and Liu Fang, remembering her words from yesterday, felt her face burning.

That wasn’t all.

After Xia Xiaolan gave Liu Fang two boxes of pastries and two roast ducks, Liu Fang’s sharp eyes caught sight of some familiar-looking bulging items.

“What you have there…”

“Oh, I brought back two cans of goat milk powder. Mom says she’s had enough cow’s milk, so I’m giving her something different to try.”

Xia Xiaolan didn’t offer to share the goat milk powder—she’d hauled two cans from Beijing, one for Liu Fen and one for her cousin Liu Zitao. However, when she said this, why was Liu Fen giving her that look?

Liu Fang didn’t understand goat milk powder, thinking she’d heard “foreign milk powder,” and couldn’t read the foreign text on the cans.

The goat milk powder was indeed imported goods that Xia Xiaolan had brought back.

Liu Fang was completely lost for words.

She wanted to ask Xia Xiaolan about her purpose in Beijing when someone else entered the store.

It was Hu Yongcai, who immediately noticed Xia Xiaolan distributing her packages:

“Xiaolan, you’re back?”

“Yes, Brother Hu, no work today? I just got back.”

Perfect timing—no need for a special trip to Hu Yongcai’s house. Xia Xiaolan handed him the pastries and roast duck, which he accepted after token protests.

Xia Xiaolan’s generosity infuriated Liu Fang—she’d given this man the same amount as her aunt! If Liu Fang wasn’t uncertain about Hu Yongcai’s background, she would have shown her displeasure right there.

In Xia Xiaolan’s mind, Liu Fang might be her aunt, but they weren’t as close as the Hu family. Giving them equal amounts was already showing respect for family relations; otherwise, she would have given the Hu family more.

It turned out Hu Yongcai had come to tell them that he’d secured both a television and a washing machine through his connections—they could have them delivered whenever the two families wanted.

“A 19-inch Panasonic color TV and a fully automatic washing machine with good capacity—large enough to wash quilt covers.”

They were expensive, or else Hu Yongcai would have bought them himself.

In front of outsiders, he didn’t mention the price.

But Xia Xiaolan and Li Fengmei wanted both items. Li Fengmei was delighted to hear about the color TV: “You can deliver it to my house anytime!”

Village households with televisions only had black and white ones, none larger than 17 inches. The Li family wasn’t settling for less—they were getting a 19-inch Panasonic color TV.

If this were happening in the village, Liu Fang would have suspected they were putting on an act. But standing on the crystallite tiles of “Blue Phoenix,” when Li Fengmei said it was a 19-inch Panasonic color TV, it couldn’t possibly be a domestic black and white set.

Her maiden family’s rapid rise to prosperity left Liu Fang needing time to process everything.

She couldn’t get over the feeling in her chest. She could understand Liu Yong getting rich and Li Fengmei being able to buy a 19-inch imported color TV. But how was her divorced second sister now using an imported washing machine? A fully automatic one at that—even Liu Fang didn’t have one, only a twin-tub semi-automatic model.

Liu Fang’s family still had a black and white TV, 14 inches.

She assumed Liu Yong must have bought the washing machine for Xia Xiaolan’s family. Though the Liang family could afford one, wasn’t her brother showing too much favoritism?

Her second sister used to do all the dirty, heavy work in the Xia family, but now her hands were so precious they needed a fully automatic washing machine… Liu Fang glanced at her second sister’s hands—now no one would doubt Liu Fen was a city dweller.

Liu Fang suppressed her discomfort.

She still wanted to learn more about Xia Xiaolan’s boyfriend.

With Xia Xiaolan just returning from Beijing, and Liu Fang not having stayed for a meal in the provincial capital yesterday, it would be awkward to ask for another meal today. Yet Liu Fang didn’t mention returning to the county, seeming to want to stay in the provincial capital.

Xia Xiaolan apologized, “Aunt, our landlord is very strict about not allowing guests to stay overnight. If you want to stay in the city, I can book you a room at a guesthouse. By the way, did you bring your introduction letter?”

Grandmother Yu did have this rule, though now that relations between her and the mother-daughter pair had improved considerably, she probably wouldn’t object to guests staying over.

Liu Fang didn’t know this, but remembering the stern, gloomy old lady who swept the streets, she still felt somewhat afraid.

Looking toward Li Fengmei, she received a cold smile: “We only have one bed—Little Fang wouldn’t be comfortable here.”

Xia Xiaolan insisted on the guesthouse option, but Liu Fang hadn’t brought an introduction letter. Reluctantly, she chose to return to the county: “By the way, I’ve been here two days and haven’t seen my brother?”