On the first day of school, Zhi Xia and Guo Momo were walking together when they suddenly noticed the area in front of the school gate was more lively than usual, with several hand-decorated food carts.
The smell of fried wontons drifted over, tickling PingAn's nose.
He reached out and slapped Guo Momo's shoulder, mouth open and making an "ah-ah" sound, though it was a little hoarse and grating.
This had just started happening recently - originally he couldn't make any sounds at all, but one day while playing, he had suddenly yelled out.
But even just this much already made Guo Momo very happy.
She handed PingAn to Zhi Xia, "Auntie, could you hold him for a bit? PingAn wants to eat wontons, I'll go buy some for him."
"I'll go instead, you two wait here," Zhi Xia said. She went over and bought 5 fen worth of wontons, paying with two liang of ration tickets. The shopkeeper folded up some oiled paper into a paper cone and filled two cones for her.
When she came back she gave one to Guo Momo, and popped one of the freshly fried wontons into her own mouth - they were crispy and delicious, perfectly tasty.
After eating the wontons, PingAn also showed a happy smile.
After registration was over, Guo Momo suddenly had to use the bathroom, so Zhi Xia sat with PingAn by a garden planter to wait for her.
After the initial excitement of the wontons, PingAn was half full and started to slow down.
When Guo Momo came back, Zhi Xia took out a medicine bottle from her bag, with a jade green colored bottle and high quality jade material.
Zhi Xia had considered changing out the bottle before, but only this could better preserve the effectiveness of the medicine.
"PingAn must have almost finished that medicine, this is a new batch," Zhi Xia handed it to her.
Guo Momo didn't stand on ceremony, accepting it and saying "Thank you auntie, we've depended on your help these past few years, I don't know what we would have done otherwise."
"It's only right, PingAn ought to call me third granny," Zhi Xia said. "Try thinking more positively - since taking this medicine, the little guy's health has clearly improved greatly, and he can even make sounds now. Keep at it for a while longer and he may soon be like a normal child."
This medicine was specially formulated for premature babies by genius doctor elder sister. Ever since Zhi Xia had told her about PingAn's condition, she had been researching it, and this currently showed the most obvious results.
For this, she had even specially found another child in a similar situation to study, putting in great effort.
Looking at her son able to stand by himself at the planter without support, Guo Momo said with red eyes and a smile: "I truly hope that day comes sooner - it's because I'm an incompetent mother that my child has had to suffer this since birth."
"No more thinking like that. I see the campus is lively, let's go out and walk around before heading back," Zhi Xia suggested.
As they started to leave, Guo Momo said "Alright, there's two doses left in this medicine bottle, I'll return it after he finishes."
She may not understand these things, but she could still distinguish the quality of the jade bottle by feel.
Zhi Xia nodded, and the two headed out together.
Wang Li suddenly jumped out, "Zhi Xia, you're really too inconsiderate, not even waiting for me when you knew I was looking for you!"
Zhi Xia hurriedly explained with a smile. Their duo leaving became a trio, strengthened in numbers.
She noticed many people on campus were also wearing new clothes, the fabric looked similar to that batch she had taken out of her space - including the one Wang Li had on.
After asking around, it really was the same.
After a lap around campus they returned home, already mid afternoon.
As soon as they entered the door Zhang Sister said "Zhi Xia, Little Hu is here again, helping pick jujubes in the backyard!"
She had told him to wait in the living room, but he couldn't sit still. Little Sixth and the others happened to be using poles to knock jujubes down in the backyard, so he had pulled his daughter along too.
Over this time, Hu Zhou had often brought his daughter over, so Zhang Sister also got to know them.
"Then I'll go take a look in the backyard," Zhi Xia put down her schoolbag and headed to the backyard.
Over the past two years, the jujube trees had grown very tall and lush. Hu Zhou was sitting in the branches of a tree, while Wanqing led the triplets below holding up bedsheets to catch the falling jujubes.
Looking in the basket next to them, they had already harvested quite a few.
Little Yue Ya was eating jujubes with Little Sixth - not sure if they were washed. Seeing Zhi Xia come over, she immediately called out excitedly to the tree "Dad, auntie is back!"
Zhi Xia really liked this cute and well-behaved little girl. She stroked her cheek and praised "Yue Ya is so good? Do you like auntie's jujubes?"
"Yummy," she shyly hid behind Little Sixth, peeking at Zhi Xia - even cuter.
Hu Zhou called from the tree to the kids below "Have we picked enough? The rest are still a bit unripe, better to let them ripen more on the tree."
Without waiting for an answer he jumped down. Zhi Xia had the children tidy up while she brought Hu Zhou to the front yard.
"Did you come to pick jujubes or find me?"
"A bit of both - some business matters I wanted to discuss with you."
With money padding his confidence, Hu Zhou had changed greatly.
Back then he had called Da Hu "big tiger" or "tiger bro", but now Da Hu called him "Hu bro" - such was the difference.
Once seated in the living room, Zhi Xia poured him a glass of water as they sat down.
"The fabric market is becoming saturated?" She knew roughly how much stock she had put out, and the sales speed clearly wasn't as fast as before the last two times.
"There is some of that situation - after all, many people took advantage of the low prices to prepare several years worth of fabric needed for their whole families. You wouldn't know, with our sudden huge supply, the supply and marketing agency can barely sell any cloth." As Hu Zhou recalled, Zhi Xia had asked him before what was selling best currently - meaning she likely had more than just a fabric pipeline. That was also his purpose today in coming over.
"Sister An, autumn is here and once the temperature drops winter will come swiftly. So thicker fabrics will sell better recently, as well as if we could get cotton..." He tentatively began, observing Zhi Xia's expression, but she remained calm.
"I also don't know what stock sister An has access too, but I feel if there are other channels we could try other avenues, though of course not abandoning fabrics since the profit margins are still considerable." In case there were no new channels, he didn't want to lose the old ones either.
Zhi Xia thought for a bit, "Hu Zhou, don't you feel our large scale sales are a bit too conspicuous?"
But Hu Zhou just laughed, "Sister An, when you first started in the black market you didn't understand the circumstances. Though superficially calm these years, there have always been undercurrents and maneuvering. We're small fry compared to those trafficking grain and mountain goods."
Yet grain and fabric were ultimately not the same - grain was a consumable, needed daily, while clothes could be worn for years.
Still, Zhi Xia's words also gave Hu Zhou a wake up call. He knew a buddy involved in the grain trade, hearing they mostly relied on transport convoys to move goods out of province, having connections in factories for large shipments and guarantees. Meanwhile he did private sales only in Jincheng, so the market was saturated much faster, also snatching business away from the supply and marketing agency and stores - truly risks provoking attention.
Hu Zhou pondered that perhaps he should also give factory routes a try.
Yet the feeling Hu Zhou gave Zhi Xia was someone suddenly struck rich, inevitably unsteady in his steps and floating along. This could be sensed from his conduct and speech. Over these years she had persisted until now before thinking of making money, with the core approach being prudent action.
It could also be said she was timid. She truly didn't understand the black market, but also realized that without policy changes and opened circumstances, large shipments of goods circulating in one place, no matter the type, could easily arouse others' suspicions.
So even if Hu Zhou hadn't come to find her today, she would have set aside time to find Hu Zhou - the fabric business needed to halt for now.
At least for the time being, it couldn't impact the supply and marketing agency and store's business, as that would draw too much attention.
