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Traveling with small children is such a hassle, but there’s no rush right now.
As soon as Li Lanlan bought her ticket and returned, she went out to work in the fields. Since there wasn’t much to do at the moment, she picked some ripe peaches and strawberries that had been left behind in the corners.
Back home, she brushed off the dirt and ate the peaches!
The peaches here are famous, as are the jujubes. I’ve heard they used to be tribute offerings to the imperial court. There are both new and old varieties of peaches. They split open easily when you break them in half, and both the pit and the flesh right next to it are red, juicy, and sweet.
She’d been away from home for years and had eaten so many peaches, yet she’d never found any variety as delicious as these. She remembered one year when she went to work away from home and brought a crate of peaches with her—only to have them stolen by thieves. It really made her furious!
Once online shopping took off, she was determined to sell peaches online. It would be such a waste to keep such wonderful peaches all to herself!
Her hometown has been a poor, underdeveloped region for the past decade or so—and likely will remain so for the next ten years or more. Some say the area lags half a century behind major cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen in terms of development.
Yet this place was once a strategic stronghold of the capital!
It’s just that as the economic and political centers shifted south and east, the region’s former glory has faded. That’s an undeniable fact—there’s really no point in arguing about it.
The days passed quickly. The eldest child had finished his exams, and the couple was preparing to take the kids to Beijing. With two adults and four children, they wouldn’t have room for luggage, so they left everything except the clothes on their backs at their family home.
These belongings probably wouldn’t be of much use in the future, but they couldn’t just throw them away—they might come in handy for a time or two when they returned.
The train was leaving that evening, so early the next morning, Li Lanlan and Wang Dashan set off with the children. Jia Fanghua and Li Tianci went together to see them off.
At the station, the two bought four tickets. They each held a toddler and sat on the outer seats, while the two older children took the inner seats.
In those days, the concept of “one seat per person” wasn’t really a thing yet. Many adults would hold a child while sitting in a single seat, mainly to save on the cost of extra tickets.
It wasn’t until overloading accidents became frequent—and after numerous derailments and bloody lessons—that authorities began to take the issue seriously. They started strictly enforcing limits on overcrowding, and traffic police would occasionally conduct spot checks along the route.
The bus Li Lanlan was riding was an intercity route. Although these buses were also overloaded, at least they didn’t make people sit in the aisles—after all, a sudden brake could send someone flying.
The profits wouldn’t even cover the damages.
They got off once along the way to use the restroom, and it took nearly six hours to reach Anshi Railway Station.
Li Lanlan had visited An City many times in her previous life. The layout around the train station hadn’t changed much over the decades, so she was still fairly familiar with it.
At that time, tourist scams were still quite rampant near the train station. As soon as she got off the bus, Li Lanlan told Wang Dashan to follow her. The two of them held the two older children’s hands tightly and hugged the two younger ones close.
They pushed through the crowd, took a bus, and only breathed a sigh of relief once they reached a place to eat.
Li Lanlan opened the bag she’d been carrying on her back, intending to take out some tissues, only to discover that the bag had been slashed open.
She’d assumed it only contained the children’s diapers and toilet paper, while they both kept their money and IDs on their persons, so she didn’t expect any problems.
As it turned out, the items they kept on their person were indeed safe, but the diaper bag had been slashed open. The diapers, however, were still intact. The thief must have been furious—all they managed to steal was a pack of diapers.
Li Lanlan was almost laughing in frustration—it had all happened in just a few short minutes.
They ordered four servings of mutton soup with flatbread. She and her husband each had a bowl, then asked the shopkeeper for a few small bowls to share among the children. Whatever the kids didn’t finish, they gave to Wang Dashan, who didn’t seem to mind.
Li Lanlan would never eat someone else’s leftovers—no matter whose they were.
After they’d eaten their fill, it was already around 3:30 p.m. Their bus wasn’t until a little after 7:00 p.m., so with more than three hours to kill, they couldn’t go very far.
The two of them took the children for a stroll around the area. They’d originally planned to climb the city wall and walk a short loop.
But when they asked, the ticket price was too steep—the total for the family was almost as much as a single train ticket—so they abandoned the idea and just strolled around the neighborhood for a while.
Along the way, they passed a shop selling hot rice noodles, which brought back memories for Li Lanlan.
The first time she’d tried it was when the kids had taken her and her husband to play in the “City That Never Sleeps” area; they’d eaten at a shop that had been open for over a decade.
She fell in love with the flavor the moment she tasted it: soft, chewy hot rice noodles, drizzled with the shop’s secret sauce, and topped with a spoonful of bold, spicy chili oil. The taste was truly unbeatable.
As a neighboring province closely tied to Shaanxi, the flavors are remarkably similar. That first bite was so satisfying—it hit the spot perfectly!
Especially since their city was only incorporated into Gansu Province in the last century or two; for at least a thousand years prior, it had been under Shaanxi’s jurisdiction.
Despite her past impressions, she cautiously decided to buy just one bowl to sample the flavor first—she’d been burned too many times before.
Not every vendor cooks well; some people can take good flour, good rice, good meat, and good vegetables and turn them into a pile of rubbish that even a dog wouldn’t eat!
The family shared a bowl first, and the taste was indeed good. Li Lanlan then bought two bowls of hot rice noodles, two bowls of cold rice noodles, and two bowls of vegetable tofu. The family had a light meal to tide them over, then each packed two portions to eat on the train.
Since they weren’t carrying much luggage anyway, they weren’t worried about not being able to carry it all.
They didn’t dare buy much more. Even though they weren’t carrying many belongings, they had four kids with them—which was even more exhausting than carrying luggage.
When the family returned to the train station, there was still an hour and a half before departure. In reality, they could enter the station in just an hour, since this was the starting station and the train would begin boarding and ticket checking half an hour early.
It was early July, right when universities were on summer break, so the station was bustling with people traveling north and south. Not long after they entered the station, boarding began.
Back then, Anshan Station still had only stairs—no escalators—which gave rise to a profession of luggage porters.
This was work reserved for the relatives of station employees and the like. Don’t let the hard labor fool you—it wasn’t a job just anyone could take on!
Sometimes, without the right connections, you couldn’t find a way in even if you were willing to endure the hardship.
Last time, Li Lanlan nearly wore herself out carrying her luggage up and down the stairs at this station!
This time, returning with her belongings, she decisively paid someone to help carry her luggage—even just taking this long-distance train was exhausting enough.
Li Lanlan’s group was on a sleeper train, and the whole family happened to be in the same compartment—two lower bunks and two middle bunks.
The people in the upper bunks had already unpacked and gone to bed. There was a small table by the lower bunks, so Li Lanlan grabbed some tissues to wipe it down and set her belongings on it.
Once the train started moving, she dug out some disposable paper cups from her bag, filled them with hot water from the train, and set them on the table.
She had Wang Dashan take the two younger kids, while she took the two older ones to the washroom to wipe their faces and wash their feet.
For some reason, the two younger children had managed to get their plastic sandals caked in mud after just one day of wearing them. It would be so dirty if they went to sleep like that—the sheets were all white, and they’d leave footprints all over them.
After getting the two younger ones settled, Li Lanlan made them sit on the edge of the bed and not get down. She asked the attendant for two pairs of adult slippers and two pairs of children’s slippers before letting the two older children get down and walk around for a bit.
But since they were on a train, she still didn’t feel comfortable letting the children run around freely.
At 11:30 p.m., the lights in the sleeper compartment were turned off, leaving only the hallway lights on. Li Lanlan and Wang Dashan put the two older children in the middle bunk and held the two younger ones while they slept.
The two of them barely slept a wink all night, taking turns keeping watch—one for the first half of the night, the other for the second.
Child trafficking and similar crimes were rampant at the time, so they simply couldn’t help but worry!
Early the next morning, they arrived at Beijing West Station. Having gone through the process before, Li Lanlan was already familiar with the procedure. Upon entering, she registered them as relatives of Wang Caixia and Bai Zhigang.
They were able to apply for temporary residence permits there as well, so they took care of that right away. Once they arrived safely at the small courtyard, Li Lanlan’s heart, which had been in her throat the whole way, finally settled. The children were full of energy; they’d slept soundly all night and were wide awake now.
Li Lanlan went to the gate to let her family know they’d arrived safely, then bought some breakfast. She asked the two older kids to keep an eye on the younger ones for a bit while she and Wang Dashan went to catch up on some sleep.
Only after a good night’s sleep did she finally feel rested. Traveling in those days was no easy feat.
It wasn’t until high-speed rail was introduced later, trains began to run faster, and the country launched a massive infrastructure push that travel became relatively convenient.
Take her mother, for example—she never left Yang City her entire life. Her father had only left the province once, when he took his two nieces to their weddings.
After waking up, the children were playing quietly in the courtyard. Having just arrived in an unfamiliar place, they were still relatively well-behaved for the time being!
Li Lanlan had already bought most of the household essentials beforehand. She hadn’t bought too many clothes—just two sets for each child to keep on hand. She didn’t dare buy them too small, afraid they wouldn’t fit later and would go to waste.
The courtyard had a total of three habitable rooms. The two youngest were still too small to sleep in their own rooms for now, but the two older ones could share a room. Li Lanlan placed two large desks by the window in their room.
That should be fine for elementary school!
These children all loved reading, so once they got a little older, she’d probably need to build a bookshelf or something.
After instructing the eldest child to look after his younger siblings, Li Lanlan took Wang Dashan to the vegetable market to check in with the vendors she usually buys from and pick up some vegetables for tomorrow.
The service cooperative mainly serves the residents of the compound. Buying a little extra now and then is fine, but bulk purchases like Li Lanlan’s aren’t really appropriate.
So she ended up going to the nearby vegetable wholesale market to buy her supplies.
“Master Li, yes, this is my partner. He’ll likely be the one coming here to pick up the produce from now on!”
Li Lanlan greeted each vendor in turn—there weren’t many, just a few vegetable and spice sellers.
Wang Dashan, however, was surprised that Li Lanlan was already able to sell food outside the compound. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her; it was just that their cooking skills were pretty much on par with each other.
The difference was only a matter of perspective—inside versus outside the compound. In fact, Li Lanlan’s cooking wasn’t even as good as his!
If she could sell food like this, the people of Beijing must have quite the appetite. After all, isn’t this city home to smart people from all over the country?