As soon as she opened the front door, Xia Minmin couldn't wait to take off her sandals and put on slippers. She then opened the glass door to the balcony and gazed at the distant scenery.
Xia Minmin returned to the living room. "Although it's fun outside, it's still more comfortable and relaxing at home."
Looking at the father and daughter, Li Chunmei said, "Even if we don't do anything at home, we feel very happy. I just hope that our whole family can be healthy. Not getting sick is more important than anything else. It doesn't matter if we spend less money."
"True happiness lies in the ordinary and simple things." Xia Jianguo said without delaying what he was doing, opening all three suitcases and spreading them out in the living room.
Xia Minmin's suitcase was a jumbled mess of things: kneeling archer figurines, tiger tallies, and Tang tri-colored pottery dolls. Clothes and books only took up about a third of the suitcase.
Pack your suitcases, place your gifts on the coffee table, put the laundry in the washing machine, and clean the house.
"Your dad and I are going to the discount supermarket to check accounts with your aunt and uncle. Do you want to come along? We'll eat out for dinner, you can watch your dad and me eat!"
Xia Minmin was dumbfounded. "Why do I have to watch you and Dad have dinner?"
Li Chunmei gritted her teeth and said, "What do you think? You just took some digestive pills not long ago. It's for your own good to be hungry tonight."
Xia Minmin pouted, "Trying to tempt me won't work that easily. I'm not going then. I want to stay home. I ate too much earlier, I'll probably get diarrhea later."
Li Chunmei thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then take care of yourself. If you feel any discomfort in your stomach, remember to call me and your father."
Before leaving, Xia Jianguo said, "Xiaomin, don't forget to hang the clothes out to dry in the washing machine. It's too hot. By the time your mother and I get home, the clothes will probably smell terrible in the washing machine."
"good."
After Xia Jianguo and Li Chunmei left, Xia Minmin wandered back and forth between the small living room and the balcony. Although she had taken some digestive tablets and felt better than before, her stomach was still a little bloated. She pressed her stomach in the same way Li Chunmei did.
There were still some steamed buns brought back from Chang'an on the table, but we probably won't be able to eat them today. We won't have dinner tonight either, to help with digestion.
With nothing else to do, Xia Minmin picked up the phone and started dialing.
Beep beep...
"Hello, is this Aunt Yang? This is Xiaomin."
A familiar female voice came from the other end of the phone, "Is this Xiaomin? Are you looking for Mengmeng? I'll call her for you."
Xia Minmin heard Luo Yang call Tang Meng over the phone, and Tang Meng answered the phone in less than a minute.
"Xiaomin, what a surprise! You had time to call us today. Have you returned to Shenzhen from Chang'an?"
"I just arrived today and immediately called you to tell you that I bought a lot of trinkets in Chang'an, and also brought baiji buns, fresh walnuts and pastries. I'll deliver them to you when you come back."
Tang Meng's tone was a bit higher than before, "Fresh walnuts? Can these taste good? I've only ever eaten dried walnuts."
"It's delicious, you have to trust my taste buds."
"Okay, we're at least five more days before we go home, so the food probably won't last that long. Don't save any for us, you can eat it yourselves."
Xia Minmin asked, "Have you found a house in Shanghai yet?"
"I've already bought them. Now I won't have to use public restrooms when I go back to Shanghai!"
Xia Minmin could sense Tang Meng's joy just by hearing her voice.
The voice on the other end of the phone called Tang Meng.
"Go ahead and get busy, I'm hanging up now. We'll talk again when you get back. Bye!"
"Bye-Bye!"
When Li Chunmei and Xia Jianguo returned home, the living room was pitch black.
"It's not even eight o'clock yet, and Xiaomin is already asleep?" Xia Jianguo looked at the clock on the shoe cabinet.
Li Chunmei changed into slippers. "She's been through a lot today, she's probably tired."
The two quietly opened Xia Minmin's door. The electric fan in the room was oscillating back and forth. Li Chunmei walked to the bedside and touched her daughter's forehead. Xia Jianguo checked whether the window screen was closed securely and whether the electric mosquito coil light was working properly. After everything was in order, the two quietly went out and closed the door.
"Xiaomin doesn't have a fever, does she?" Xia Jianguo asked.
"Xiaomin is fine!" Li Chunmei walked to the balcony, raised her hand to touch the clothes that had been drying in the afternoon, and found them completely dry.
Xia Jianguo took the clothesline pole and took down the clothes hanging on it, then folded them neatly.
After a few days of travel, the couple was exhausted, having to take care of both the elderly and the young. With so much to do and not getting enough rest, they fell asleep in bed before nine o'clock.
Xia Minmin goes to bed early and gets up early. Before five o'clock, it is still pitch black outside the window, and even the birds that are usually chirping are quiet.
The temperature in Shenzhen was a bit chilly at around 4 p.m. Xia Minmin, wearing slippers, slowly opened the door and, by the bright moonlight, walked to the light switch in the living room and turned on the lights.
Her stomach, which was so full from eating yesterday, is completely fine today. She feels like she could eat a whole cow right now.
Starting the day with a glass of cool boiled water, Xia Minmin sat at the dining table, her hands itching to eat the steamed buns on the table; they were just too tempting.
Xia Minmin kept telling herself that she had been hungry all night, so eating a little shouldn't be a problem. She was hungry anyway, so eating a little wouldn't be a problem. Even a small amount wouldn't be a problem. With this repeated self-suggestion, Xia Minmin reached out her claws towards the baiji bun.
She untied the plastic bag, picked up a piece of baiji bread, and was about to put it in her mouth when she saw three black spots. She rubbed them with her hand but couldn't get them off. She flipped the baiji bread over, and there were even more black spots on this side.
She put the baiji bun in her hand on the table and went to check the other baiji buns in the bag. To her surprise, the other baiji buns all had black spots on them, which she remembered when she bought them.
There was only one reason: it must have gone moldy. Just then, she remembered what the owner of the baiji bun shop had said: it would be fine to leave it for a week, but it had gone bad in just a few days.
Feeling like crying but unable to, Xia Minmin pulled out 100% dark chocolate from the refrigerator. The bitter and sour taste of the dark chocolate mirrored her mood.
Xia Jianguo opened the door and noticed that the baiji buns he had put in the bag last night had all been spread out on the dining table. Thinking they had been stolen, he quickly went out to check. His daughter was sitting on the balcony doing her homework. He asked, "Xiaomin, what happened to these baiji buns?"
Xia Minmin turned her head with a long face, "Dad, they're all moldy, we can't eat them!"
Li Chunmei changed her clothes and came out of the room. When she heard what her daughter said, she chuckled and said, "This steamed bun isn't suited to the weather in Shenzhen. The humidity is too high, and the food is prone to mold."
Xia Minmin said, "It's not like the rainy season now, how could it get moldy?"
"Maybe it prefers the weather in Chang'an! We'll try the Baiji buns again next time we go to Chang'an." After saying that, Xia Jianguo picked up the Baiji buns on the table, put them in a bag, and threw them into the trash can.
Xia Jianguo and Li Chunmei, carrying their daughter on their backs, chuckled to themselves. They had gone through so much trouble to bring her back from Chang'an, only to have her food spoil before she even got a bite.
Having lived in the South for so many years, this was the first time they had directly experienced the difference in humidity between the North and South. It was such a waste to go to waste all these Baiji buns.
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