Renting a House
This courtyard is really nice! There are three main rooms, a bathroom on the left—which doesn’t have any strange odors—and a small kitchen built on the right.
Next to the kitchen is a shed for storing odds and ends. The courtyard is quite spacious, and there’s even a small vegetable patch on the empty lot next to the bathroom, though it’s all overgrown!
Li Lanlan pushed open the door to take a look inside. There was some old furniture and such, but the house was in pretty good shape overall—you could tell it was built with quality materials.
Li Lanlan checked the electrical wiring and other systems in the house as well; there were no issues. Overall, she was quite satisfied.
Li Lanlan agreed on the spot: she’d sign a two-year lease, pay one month’s rent upfront, and the keys would be handed over to her immediately! The two of them recorded the water and electricity meter readings, settled all the details, and then went their separate ways.
Wang Caixia reminded her to get a residence permit when she had time. The authorities were cracking down pretty hard on undocumented migrants in this area—after all, it was the capital—and getting caught would be bad news. The only downside was the cost: it was a hundred yuan.
Not wanting to dwell on the cost, Li Lanlan went straight to the Wang family’s place after getting it sorted. She rode her tricycle over to move the belongings she’d bought, boiled some hot water, and tidied up a bit. The room basically just had empty cabinets and a table—nothing else.
It was still relatively tidy, so it didn’t take much effort to clean up.
This entrance was even closer to the office building. Just a short walk out, cross the street, and you’re there!
By the time she finished tidying up, it was already past four o’clock. Li Lanlan prepared some potatoes again, this time adding tofu skin, wood ear mushrooms, and other ingredients.
She also made a few portions of liangpi[1]cold noodles jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2285254_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2285254_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });and yu mian[2]is a traditional Chinese noodle known for its chewy texture and rich flavor. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2285254_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2285254_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });—local delicacies from her hometown—to see if she could sell them. If they didn’t sell, she’d just give a few portions to Sister Fangfang and the others, and eat the rest herself!
She had originally planned to go cook a meal for Sister Caixia this afternoon. When she asked around lunchtime, Sister Caixia said she’d just help prepare lunch, since she doesn’t eat dinner—she just has some fruit—because she’s worried her belly will get too big to manage, especially since it’s already quite large now.
So Li Lanlan didn’t go over. She had actually planned to help cook lunch, but then her brother-in-law Bai Zhigang’s mother came by that afternoon to discuss the arrangements for postpartum care, so Li Lanlan didn’t get a chance to join them!
By a little past six, Li Lanlan was pushing the small three-wheeled cart Sister Caixia had lent her to go do business, setting up right next to Li Fangfang’s stall.
The couple had arrived by then. When Li Fangfang saw Li Lanlan coming over, she walked right up. She noticed Li Lanlan had set out cold noodles and jade noodles. She’d seen and eaten cold noodles before, but she’d never tried jade noodles.
“Sis, what’s this? Is it hand-rolled, or made by a machine?”
“Sis, I’ll make you a bowl—give it a try!”
“Sure, give me a bowl. How much are you selling it for?”
Li Lanlan knew she didn’t want to take advantage of her, so she said, “Two yuan a bowl!”
She then served Li Fangfang a heaping bowl. After Li Fangfang handed over the money, she dug in with disposable chopsticks. Since she couldn’t eat right there at the stall, she used a stainless steel spoon to mix it up, poured it into a plastic bag, and handed it over!
Li Fangfang was blown away after just one bite. Back home, they always added sesame paste to dishes like this—stir-fried noodles or cold noodles—but Li Lanlan’s version had none. It was spicy and numbing, a real treat. If she hadn’t already eaten her fill, she would have ordered another bowl!
“Quick, Lanlan, get another bowl for your brother-in-law! My goodness, this is so delicious!”
Li Fangfang handed over another two yuan. Passersby, seeing how much Li Fangfang was enjoying her meal, also ordered cold skin noodles and jade noodles. Before long, everything was sold out!
Many people had only tried liangpi before and hadn’t tasted yu mian, but figuring it couldn’t be that bad, they picked up some yu mian on a whim—after all, anything that tastes bad wouldn’t last long here!
While buying liangpi, they also picked up grilled intestines, wheat gluten, and other items, as well as Li Lanlan’s soup dishes.
People have a herd mentality; seeing that this new stall had fresh food, they’d come over to take a look, which made Li Lanlan’s business even better.
Just as shops and stalls tend to cluster together, so do the training institutions in this area. These small stalls are completely in short supply, so it doesn’t necessarily mean Li Lanlan’s business is particularly booming—those who can stick around here for the long haul all have some special skills.
After all, no one can eat the same thing every day; customers might try one stall today and another tomorrow.
So, surprisingly, no one tried to sabotage Li Lanlan’s business!
Two months passed like this, and Li Lanlan had already earned nearly 20,000 yuan—a huge sum in those days. She opened a savings account using her ID and deposited the money.
During this time, Wang Caixia inevitably went into premature labor and gave birth to a set of twins—a boy and a girl—at just over seven months. It was likely that once she was out of her postpartum confinement, Li Lanlan wouldn’t be able to continue working here.
She’d been in confinement for nearly a month now, but since she’d given birth to twins, she had to observe a double confinement period! She was set to take over the work here in the next couple of days.
Over the past two and a half months, Li Lanlan had earned 2,500 yuan here, which was quite decent. She had used some of this money to gradually buy a few household items, spending two or three hundred yuan, but hadn’t touched the rest.
Fortunately, she now ran a small stall, but she couldn’t handle much on her own. She planned to bring her whole family to Beijing!
Sales were brisk today; she’d almost sold out by eight o’clock. After standing for so long, Li Lanlan’s feet were starting to ache, so she sat down on her little stool to rest.
She’s waiting to sell off the remaining stock. Since she’s working alone, she can’t make too much at once—otherwise, she won’t be able to keep up!
Two children had been standing by her stall for quite a while. Li Lanlan was puzzled—had these two kids forgotten their money?
Li Lanlan took two skewers of potato strips from the pot and handed them over. “Here, Auntie’s treating you!”
The children took the potato slices and handed her two mao. “Auntie, we do have money. It’s just… could you do us a favor?”
The children were a bit shy. Li Lanlan, being a mother of four herself, felt a pang of sympathy seeing children about the same age as her eldest. But she wasn’t a spring chicken anymore, so she had to ask exactly what they wanted before deciding if she could help!
“What is it? Go ahead and tell me!”
“Auntie, could you help us with our English vocabulary dictation?”
The two children’s parents had been away for the past couple of days, leaving no one to help with their vocabulary practice. Not wanting to skip the homework their teacher had assigned, they’d been watching from downstairs for a while before finally mustering the courage to ask Li Lanlan for help!
Li Lanlan thought it was no big deal!
Back when her own kids were in school, she’d usually be the one to help them with their English spelling tests. It wasn’t until they got to high school and no longer needed spelling tests that she stopped doing it!
Her English has always been excellent. If her family hadn’t been unwilling to pay for further education back then, Li Lanlan felt she could have easily gone to a vocational college!
Her English is standard “Chinese-style English,” but her pronunciation and intonation are perfectly fine.
Even though so many years have passed, Li Lanlan can still read these English words fluently. While she was writing down the words, she didn’t notice that a man in his thirties had been staring at her the whole time!
After finishing the dictation, the two kids were overjoyed. They bought up all of Li Lanlan’s remaining skewers—not many, just five or six—and picked up some grilled sausages and glutinous wheat from the neighboring stall before heading home happily!
Li Lanlan went home to put her things down, then went to the nearby convenience store to call her hometown. She asked the staff there to let her family know she was coming!
After waiting about ten minutes, the call came through. Li Lanlan briefly mentioned over the phone that she planned to go back home soon!
It was nearly the end of June now, right around exam time. The tutoring classes were on break and wouldn’t pick up again until early July, though there were still a few scattered customers—it wasn’t completely dead. Li Lanlan planned to take advantage of this quieter period to visit her hometown and bring the kids back with her.
Daycare centers here are open year-round, and the two older kids could just be enrolled in a study class—that would keep them out of trouble at home!
Meanwhile, the children back in their hometown were over the moon when they heard their mom was coming home!
After Li Lanlan and Wang Caixia had clearly handed over all the responsibilities, she left the Wang household. The elderly couple there were quite reluctant to see her go and had even planned to introduce her to their eldest son’s family so she could continue working there.
Li Lanlan politely declined. Even if she earned a lot as a nanny, it wouldn’t be much more than what she makes now running her small stall. She couldn’t afford to neglect her own business for something else—the kids would need plenty of money in the future!
Wang Caixia felt quite guilty as well. She had called her cousin to work, expecting her to stay for at least five months. She never imagined the twins would be born prematurely so soon. Fortunately, her cousin had set up her own small stall; otherwise, she would have felt even worse about it.
Li Lanlan, however, wasn’t particularly disappointed. She hadn’t come here intending to take her cousin’s place; her main goal was to see if there were any opportunities. Since she’d already found a good one, there was no need to dwell on it.
She’d long since come to terms with this: without expectations, there was no room for disappointment!
Li Lanlan went to a large wholesale market to buy some clothes, backpacks, and school supplies for the children, as well as some clothes for her mom, dad, Wang Dashan, and Wang Dashan’s mom. She also picked up some local Beijing pastries and snacks from a shop!
Like everyone else leaving Beijing to go home, Li Lanlan pulled her luggage on a trolley toward the West Railway Station and boarded the train bound for An City. This time, she’d booked a middle bunk on the hard-sleeper car—finally, she wouldn’t have to squeeze into a hard-seat compartment. On the way here, she’d felt like her back was about to snap from the crowd!
She arrived in An City early the next morning. Right next to the An City train station was a bus heading to Ningzhou County. Li Lanlan bought a ticket first, then went over to grab a bowl of mutton soup with flatbread.
The mutton soup here was loaded with wood ear mushrooms and glass noodles. The flatbread was made from unleavened dough, and you had to tear it into pieces yourself beforehand. Li Lanlan tore off a few pieces at random, tossed them in, and handed the bowl to the server to cook. When it came back, she took a bite but found she just couldn’t get used to the taste.
Every place has its own way of life!
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