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墨書 Inktalez
Getting off the airport shuttle, Bai Tang immediately spotted Bai Dad and White Mother standing side by side under a tree. After a year apart, the two elders had not changed much; they looked spirited, which reassured Bai Tang. As soon as they saw their daughter get off the bus, they walked over.
"Why do you have so little luggage?" Bai Dad took the bag from his daughter's hand and glanced behind her, noticing that aside from the bag she was holding, there were no suitcases or anything else.
"Did you throw all your luggage away like trash?" White Mother was quite exasperated with her daughter's careless spending habits and often reminded her to be frugal with her money, but this child still wasted so much.
"No!" Bai Tang wrapped her arms around her parents' arms and walked with them toward home. "I'll explain about the luggage in detail when we get home!"
The family happily made their way home, encountering many familiar faces along the way. Everyone greeted Bai Tang with smiles.
"Tang Tang is back? Come visit us at Auntie's and Uncle's house sometime!"
Bai Tang smiled back at each of them. These elders had watched her grow up, and although there had been some unpleasant moments during that time, they were just trivial matters that everyone had long since forgotten.
"When are you moving?" Bai Tang asked White Mother while climbing up to the fourth floor.
Bai Tang's home was in an old district in the city center, with a history of over forty years. The building they lived in was one of the younger ones in the area, but it was still older than Bai Tang herself. The location was excellent, right in the city center, directly across from the municipal center plaza built at great expense by the government, surrounded by numerous shopping malls. Many developers had long set their sights on this land; unfortunately, it belonged to a factory company that had conflicts with the government, and neither side wanted to give in to the other. As a result, this prime piece of land with great development potential remained untouched. Residents hoping for new homes had no choice but to continue living in old buildings while complaining.
"Who knows!" White Mother sighed. "Every year they say there will be relocation, but nothing ever happens. It's been five years now; we've given up on the idea of moving into a new house!"
"Of course we should move into a new house! Since they aren't relocating us, let's buy our own!" Bai Tang said confidently. With over two million yuan in savings on her card, she knew she couldn't buy a good house in a big city, but in her hometown—a third-tier city—she could afford four or five three-bedroom apartments.
"Your dad and I only have over three hundred thousand yuan saved up; we can only buy a two-bedroom apartment. And after buying it, we won't have any money left for renovations. Let's wait another two years!"
"Don't wait two years! Let's buy a new house now; you don't have to spend any money. Your daughter has money and will buy a house to honor you!"
"Where did you get so much money?" White Mother asked in surprise. As a mother, she knew her daughter's financial situation well. When she first graduated, her monthly salary was only two thousand yuan; five years later, it had only increased to six thousand yuan. The cost of living in the south was high, and after paying rent and other expenses, her daughter hardly saved anything each month. Having fifty thousand yuan in savings would be impressive—how could there be extra money to buy a house?
"Ha ha, this is what I wanted to show you!" As they spoke, the three of them had already reached the fourth floor. Father Bai opened the door, and the family of three entered the room.
Bai Tang glanced around the house, which hadn't changed much from her memory. She walked over to the window, closed it, and then drew the curtains to block the view from the opposite building.
"What are you up to, girl?" Mother Bai and Father Bai were puzzled.
"Hehe! Mom and Dad, don't blink! This is the moment to witness a miracle!" Bai Tang waved her hand, and suddenly a large bundle tied with a bedsheet and a cardboard box filled with books appeared in the center of the living room.
"What is this?" Mother Bai and Father Bai were utterly shocked, thinking they must be seeing things.
"My luggage!" Bai Tang replied with a grin.
"Who asked you that? I meant how did these things suddenly appear?" Mother Bai tugged at her daughter's cheek.
"Is this some kind of magic trick?" Father Bai asked hesitantly. He had forgotten that Father Bai was a descendant of Taoism and had once studied under a famous Taoist elder, so he had some knowledge of Taoist culture.
Mother Bai's eyes immediately lit up: "Tang Tang, you didn't get one of those portable spaces mentioned in novels, did you?"
"Pretty much!" Bai Tang didn't expect her parents to accept this so easily, so she detailed how she ended up in the world of Dream of the Red Chamber after being struck by lightning while online. Her parents were her closest people; she didn't want to hide anything from them. Moreover, since she would be traveling between two worlds in the future, it would be helpful for them to know the truth so they could cover for her.
"Girl, who else knows about this?" Father Bai asked sternly.
"Don't worry, Dad. I haven't told anyone except you two," Bai Tang said. "I don't want to be dissected!"
"That's good! This secret must be kept well!" Mother Bai said.
“Mom, Dad, look at the gifts I brought back from ancient times!” Bai Tang said cheerfully as she revealed her treasures to her parents. Before long, the coffee table was filled with various ancient items: there were wooden carvings made of Rosewood, white jade bracelets, gold hairpins, and Blue and White Porcelain tea sets… Each item was a priceless antique.
“Such good stuff!” Father Bai and Mother Bai exclaimed as they touched the items in admiration. Both of them enjoyed watching the antiques appraisal shows on television and had a keen interest in antiques. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the money to indulge in such collectibles.
“I’ll keep these well as family heirlooms!” Mother Bai said.
“Mom, these are just ordinary things. You and Dad can play with them; there’s no need to worry about preserving them. If they break, I can just go back to the Dream of the Red Chamber world and get more!” Bai Tang said nonchalantly. After all, she had only spent two hundred taels of silver on these items, which were quite cheap.
“You wasteful child!” Mother Bai slapped her daughter lightly. “What if that system suddenly disappears? If you can’t go back to the Dream of the Red Chamber world, how will you get more antiques?”
Bai Tang rubbed the back of her head. “Is it wrong for me to admit my mistake? I’ve given you everything; you can handle it however you like!”
Only then did Mother Bai feel satisfied and carefully put away all the items from the coffee table, while Father Bai helped out gently beside her. Bai Tang pouted and returned her luggage and books to her room. As she left, she saw her parents still discussing how to preserve the items and didn’t want to disturb them, so she headed straight to the bathroom with a change of clothes to take a shower. By the time she emerged from the bathroom, refreshed and slightly steamy, Father Bai and Mother Bai had just finished tidying up.
“Tang Tang, are you hungry? I’ll make you something to eat!” Mother Bai looked at her daughter, thinking that since she had rushed to catch a flight early in the morning, airplane food surely wouldn’t suit her taste, and she must be starving by now.
Bai Tang patted her stomach; she had only had a glass of milk for breakfast and just a piece of bread for lunch. She was indeed hungry.
“Mom, no need to cook; I have delicious food in my backpack that’s absolutely fresh and meant for you to try,” Bai Tang said as she grabbed Mother Bai’s arm before she could head to the kitchen. Then she pulled out steaming plates of mouthwatering dishes from her backpack: Pipa shrimp, Chrysanthemum Sea Conch, braised fish head, clear-braised lion's head meatballs, roasted whole pig head… these were all from Yangzhou cuisine; Hongmei fish belly, Wuxi crispy eel, mushroom pork tenderloin… these were Jinling Cuisine; Taiji tofu, Nine-turn intestines, Texas grilled chicken, Yuan Bao San Dan… these were Shandong dishes; Buddha jumps over the wall, Lychee meat, Clear fried starch… these were Fujian dishes; boiled fish, Kung Pao chicken, couple's lung slices, twice-cooked pork… these were Sichuan dishes; roasted suckling pig, colorful stir-fried snake strips, sweet and sour pork… these were Cantonese dishes… Bai Tang had traveled all over the Great Shun Dynasty in the Dream of the Red Chamber world and bought many local delicacies.
The dining table couldn’t hold any more food; neither could the coffee table. Father Bai and Mother Bai stared wide-eyed at their daughter. When they saw her reaching for more items from her backpack, Mother Bai quickly stopped her: “No more! We won’t finish all this! It’ll be a waste!”
“It won’t go to waste! If we can’t finish it, I’ll just put it back in my backpack. The backpack has preservation functions; whatever goes in comes out just as fresh,” Bai Tang continued pulling out food again—this time featuring specialties from Qixiang Country.
Mother Bai couldn’t help but exclaim: “Girl, your backpack has such functions? From now on, we’ll just put any leftover food in your backpack!”
Bai Tang protested, "Mom, my backpack is neither a refrigerator nor a cabinet!"
Father Bai replied, "Put away the dishes on the tea table, just leave three or four."
"Dad, don't you want to try some other delicious food?"
"By eating two or three at a time, we can still taste all these delicacies!" Father Bai glanced around at the plates filling half the room and felt overwhelmed. "If you bring out this much food, even if we only take a bite of each, we'll end up bursting."
"Oh!" Bai Tang finally realized she had brought out too much. Her dad was right; by eating just two or three at a time, they could enjoy all the food. She waved her hand, and the food immediately disappeared, leaving only five plates of Yangzhou Cuisine on the dining table.
"Let's invite Xiao Kang and Mei Mei for dinner as a welcome for me!"
Wu Xuemei and Xing Xiaokang, mother and son, were neighbors of the Bai Family. The two families had a very good relationship. Since Xing Xiaokang was born, he had been cared for by the elderly couple of the Bai Family, almost like their own Sunzi. Wu Xuemei and her ex-husband also respected the elderly couple greatly. After Wu Xuemei's ex-husband passed away, Bai Ma and Bai Dad took even better care of the two orphans and widows, and now both families felt like one big family.
"Hey? Old Bai, Xiao Kang's tutoring is about to end; you should hurry to school to pick him up!" When Bai Ma heard her daughter mention Xing Xiaokang, she quickly urged her husband to go to school to get the child. Since Wu Xuemei had to work, it was always Father Bai who helped pick up the kids after school.
Father Bai quickly grabbed his bicycle keys and went out. Half an hour later, he returned with a seven or eight-year-old Shota. The boy had beautiful features, was clever and lively, making him quite endearing!
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