After more than a month away, Xia Xiaolan finally returned to Shangdu.
Though Pengcheng’s harsh sun and sea breeze hadn’t darkened her skin, her face had lost some of its delicacy. When she returned with various packages of goods, Grandmother Yu, that sharp-tongued old lady, immediately commented on her roughened complexion. Xia Xiaolan was speechless – how could the old woman criticize her while simultaneously accepting her gifts?
Xia Xiaolan had brought the old lady a gold ring.
The traditional gold shops in Yangcheng had reopened, selling gold at 42 yuan per gram. Though Xia Xiaolan didn’t particularly like gold jewelry herself, she bought some as gifts. The ring for Grandmother Yu was 6 grams, costing over 200 yuan. This time, Grandmother Yu didn’t offer to pay for it.
Looking at the small trinket in her hands, Grandmother Yu sighed, “It’s been years since I’ve touched gold.”
When the Yu family members left the country, they carried trunks full of gold bars.
The gold Grandmother Yu had kept was exchanged for medicine and food during difficult times. Even knowing that one small gold bar was worth more than what they received in food, what choice did they have? One couldn’t survive holding onto gold while starving. A pair of gold earrings had been exchanged for just three buns, and after that, Grandmother Yu had no gold left at all.
She never expected that after so many years, someone would give her a gold ring again.
And that someone was Xia Xiaolan, who had no blood relation to her.
Xia Xiaolan also brought Li Fengmei a delicate twisted gold bracelet, though this wasn’t purchased by her but sent by Liu Yong.
At 15 grams, the bracelet was very thin, worth just over 600 yuan – something Li Fengmei could have bought herself. But coming from Liu Yong through Xia Xiaolan, it held a different meaning.
“At least your uncle has a conscience!”
After spending over two months in Beijing, barely resting at home before rushing to Pengcheng in early June, it was now almost September – three months without returning. Liu Yong couldn’t get away from work, being inexperienced and without reliable assistants, he needed to oversee everything personally. First, the guesthouse renovation, then the building materials store – Liu Yong missed his wife and son, but the business demanded his attention. The initial period was naturally exhausting.
How else could they make money without hands-on involvement?
Workers weren’t robots that would follow programming perfectly without cutting corners.
Materials needed to be watched to prevent theft.
Or they might deviate from blueprints, requiring costly rework!
While Li Fengmei complained, Xia Xiaolan had to defend Liu Yong. The clothing store’s Ma Wei had long since become a permanent employee, and before Liu Fen left for Yangcheng, they’d hired another young girl. Either Liu Fen or Li Fengmei only needed to be at the store each day, and both said they were living like capitalists. But as Xia Xiaolan pointed out, hiring an employee whose monthly salary and bonus didn’t exceed 100 yuan had freed Li Fengmei and Liu Fen from exhaustion.
“Your time is worth more than those few dozen yuan!”
Li Fengmei asked, puzzled, “But what should your mother and I do with our free time?”
Xia Xiaolan thought for a moment before asking Liu Fen, “I’ve been meaning to discuss this with you – would you prefer to come to live with me in Beijing or stay in Shangdu?”
Taking her mother to university was feasible – they could find a place near the school to settle Liu Fen. When Xia Xiaolan took Liu Fen from the Xia family, she promised never to abandon her mother, saying wherever she went, Liu Fen would go too.
But Liu Fen had lived in Shangdu for nearly half a year now, with the familiar clothing store, daily interactions with Grandmother Yu, Li Fengmei, and neighbors she’d grown close to. Though Xia Xiaolan wanted Liu Fen to come to Beijing, she reminded herself not to be selfish – in Beijing, Liu Fen would have to rebuild her social connections from scratch.
Sure enough, Liu Fen’s expression showed hesitation.
“What would I do in Beijing?”
Wait at home every day for Xiaolan to finish class? University students lived on campus and might not even come home after classes. Xiaolan would have her classmates and friends, and Liu Fen couldn’t bear to stay home alone. Used to being busy, she wasn’t comfortable being idle. Unlike the countryside, city life left unemployed people with nothing productive to do.
Liu Fen wanted to be with her daughter, satisfied just being able to care for Xiaolan.
But her daughter was so capable, did she even need caring for?
“Alright, I understand. You stay in Shangdu for now, and I’ll explore Beijing this semester, and see what opportunities there might be for you.”
Even if they wanted to open a “Blue Phoenix” branch in Beijing, Xia Xiaolan needed to research the market and secure a location first. The distance from Yangcheng to Beijing was even greater, making branch expansion more complicated. Xia Xiaolan wasn’t in a hurry.
This time she hadn’t just brought back Blue Phoenix’s autumn clothing from Yangcheng, but also three thousand sets of sportswear.
When Li Fengmei asked if these clothes would be sold in the store, Xia Xiaolan shook her head: “Let Ma Wei and the new employee sell them outside, for 20 yuan per set. Whoever sells more gets a higher bonus!”
The store was quite relaxed – it would be a waste of their ruthless capitalist reputation not to make good use of two employees.
…
On August 26th, Xia Xiaolan, this ruthless capitalist, took her mother back to Qijing Village.
Seeing her return, Gong Yang sighed in relief.
“Miss Xia, the house has gone over budget.”
Gong Yang couldn’t pay the villagers’ wages, and it was only their trust in university students not defaulting that kept construction from halting.
The villagers didn’t understand – while others built modern villas, Xia Xiaolan chose to build a traditional house with black tiles and white walls, a style they’d only seen at Baixi Temple! They dug a pond in the courtyard and planted bamboo. Gong Yang, a university student, had even had people dig up some reeds from the marsh to plant in the small pond. The villagers really couldn’t comprehend Xia Xiaolan’s house.
Spending over ten thousand yuan could have built an impressive modern villa with a tiled exterior!
The house wasn’t ugly, but the villagers found the style outdated.
Xia Xiaolan was quite satisfied though.
The house wasn’t purely traditional – it used plenty of red brick and cement, just with an antique style. With white walls and black tiles, the transplanted bamboo’s yellowing leaves would recover in a few months. Besides brick and cement, they’d used considerable wood, which was very cheap at the time. Solid wood wasn’t considered high-end; compressed board with its technical craftsmanship was the novel material.
If materials and labor weren’t so cheap, this house couldn’t have been built for just over twenty thousand.
While the finishing touches were still needed, the overall effect was apparent. The final step in house construction was “raising the beam” – placing the highest central beam, a ceremonial event signifying the house’s completion. The owner must be present for this ritual, performed at an auspicious time. Village youths would hoist the thigh-thick round beam onto the roof, and tradition demanded red envelopes for those raising the beam, while children gathered below.
During the beam-raising, they scattered melon seeds, peanuts, and roasted broad beans from the roof, with people below spreading their clothes to catch them, along with hidden coins. Xia Xiaolan thought the “fen” coins were too small, using nothing less than 1 jiao piece. Children who caught coins shouted excitedly, creating a celebration more joyous than New Year!
Liu Zitao’s neck ached from looking up.
Seeing Chen Qing talking with Xia Xiaolan, Liu Zitao immediately recalled his brother-in-law Zhou Cheng’s instructions.
Should this situation be reported to his brother-in-law?