"You... sigh, whatever, go as you please!" Minister Sun waved his hand and left.

"Why did you come here?" Sun Wei asked Zhou Pin.

“Here to hand in our homework. We’re going on a long trip tomorrow, and we’ll say goodbye to everyone in a bit. Since we’ve run into you, we won’t go to your house. Here are our house keys; we’ll leave them with you.” Zhou Pin took a bunch of keys out of his pocket and handed them to Sun Wei.

"Okay, have a safe trip. Director He is at the ministry, and his daughter is here too. I'll be going now." Sun Wei took the keys, turned around, and left, glancing at Xu Lin before he left.

Xu Lin's intuition told her that this matter was not simple.

Zhou Pin could only squeeze Xu Lin's hand, give her a reassuring look, and then turn and enter the Department of Science and Technology.

Since it was an important department, outsiders were not allowed to enter at will, so Xu Lin was left outside.

About half an hour later, Zhou Pin came out, followed by a woman carrying a designer handbag.

"Zhou Pin, did you resign from the Ministry of Science and Technology because of me?" the woman asked in a coquettish voice.

"You're overthinking it, Ms. He. I resigned simply because I wanted to spend more time with my wife."

"You're lying! You said you weren't married when you joined the company!"

“We weren’t married back then, but we got married later. The base doesn’t have a registration department, so we had relatives and friends witness it. You can ask Sun Wei.” Zhou Pin walked quickly to Xu Lin’s side.

"Also, Miss He, please don't bother me anymore. It's causing trouble for my wife." After saying this, Zhou Pin put his arm around Xu Lin's waist and turned to leave.

Ms. He was left stomping her feet behind her when she accidentally broke her heel. She took out her phone, found the number, and dialed it.

"Jiajia, where are you? Let's go to that nameless general store in the market to look at shoes later, my heel broke." Her voice was completely different from her previous sweet and coquettish tone.

After hearing what the other party said, Ms. He hung up the communicator with satisfaction.

Xu Lin and Zhou Pin came to Sister Chen's shop after leaving the Ministry of Science and Technology. There were even more people there than in the morning, and Sister Chen's husband and son came to help.

Sister Chen glanced at the doorway and saw Xu Lin and her husband. She immediately stopped what she was doing and went to greet them.

"Girl, you've finally arrived! Come in and sit down with your brother."

Sister Chen led them to the reception room, which was not spacious to begin with, but was now crammed with boxes. They were probably the antiques to be exchanged.

"The store seems quite busy, and we have other things to do later, so I won't say any more and let's start exchanging the goods," Xu Lin said.

So the two sides took out the items they had exchanged and checked them against each other, then put them back into their respective boxes after confirming that everything was in order.

Xu Lin brought more than thirty pairs of designer shoes, including sandals, high heels, Martin boots, chunky sneakers, and so on, and laid them out on the table in different styles and sizes.

Sister Chen prepared several strings of Buddhist prayer beads, two paperweights, two jade carvings, two sets of Yixing clay teapots, five jade rings, eight jade bracelets, two sets of blue and white porcelain teapots, two wine pots, and so on.

As usual, both parties inspected the goods, then packed their respective items, and the transaction was completed.

Xu Lin remembered to say goodbye to Wang Jing and the others. Sister Chen was also quite busy, so the two sides didn't chat much, only saying that they shouldn't forget each other next time they had goods.

When Xu Lin arrived at Wang Jing's house, Aunt Ning and Lao Zheng were off work that day. Xu Lin told them she was leaving for a while, and they both expressed their reluctance to see her go, telling them to be careful on their journey.

"Dr. Dai is at work today, and Xiang Qing is at school, so you don't need to make a trip. I'll just let her know," Aunt Ning said.