Running into a human trafficker while getting a cup of hot water… Xia Xiaolan felt she was really having rotten luck.
What was this woman trying to do? She wasn’t the type to put up with it and play along. She didn’t have that kind of patience. She asked directly if the woman was a trafficker.
The fat woman was both embarrassed and furious, and tried to drag Xia Xiaolan aside.
“ Come on, let’s go sort this out! ”
“ You’re a trafficker! ”
Xia Xiaolan knew she was no match for the woman in strength, so her other hand had already touched the stun device Zhou Cheng had given her.
She was just about to give the fat woman a hard lesson when the people around them started talking, and someone came forward to break them up.
“ Big sister, it looks like the young lady doesn’t know you? ”
“ Why are you holding her arm like that? ”
“ Could she really be a trafficker? I heard there are traffickers on trains who steal children and trick women. They tell young women they can make big money down south, but really they’re selling them off! ”
“ Where’s the train police? Go get the train police! ”
In any case, Xia Xiaolan could not let herself be dragged away. She was also wary of the people trying to break it up. She couldn’t be sure whether any of them were the fat woman’s accomplices.
The fat woman still didn’t explain whether she knew Xia Xiaolan or not. She just threw a tantrum and demanded an apology.
“ You’re calling me a trafficker? You’re so young and already slandering people at random. You’re no good!”
Xia Xiaolan was sick of her. She didn’t pull out the stun device in public, but she did kick the woman’s shin. Pain shot through the bone. The fat woman instantly let go.
She tried to grab Xia Xiaolan again, but Xia Xiaolan was already shouting, “ Catch the trafficker! ” and used the chance to break out of the crowd.
“ Stop right there! ” The train police came.
They’d been brought over by a middle-aged man in glasses, someone Xia Xiaolan had never spoken to. Hands behind his back, he looked calm and imposing.
“ Comrade, we bought sleeper tickets because we wanted peace and quiet. This woman has been shouting and making a scene… she really could be a trafficker. ”
This was a train. There was nowhere to run.
The fat woman’s arrogance immediately shrank. Still, she kept up the bluff.
“ Who are you calling a trafficker? You’re all in on this together, slandering a good person! ”
Whether she was a trafficker or not, one look from the police would tell. Xia Xiaolan first explained her side and handed over her introduction letter for inspection.
“ I ran into her while getting hot water this morning. She kept pestering me with questions. Just now she grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Officer, I really don’t know her, and I don’t want anything to do with her. ”
Of course, the fat woman defended herself too. Without real evidence, the train police could only criticize and warn her, telling her not to go near Xia Xiaolan again.
“ What’s so great about that… ”
The fat woman muttered under her breath, glared at Xia Xiaolan, and slunk back to her carriage.
The police kept an eye on her, and the woman and her husband got off at the next stop. That wasn’t exactly Xia Xiaolan’s victory. She had only escaped one crisis.
Who knew whether there were other people being fooled by that woman?
“ Thank you. ” Back in the sleeper car, Xia Xiaolan broke the silence and thanked the middle-aged man with glasses.
He was holding a newspaper. He nodded, but said nothing more. They were just travelers who happened to cross paths. On a train trip, helping call the police already showed a sense of justice. This man clearly had a different air about him… he might have some status.
Since he didn’t want to chat, Xia Xiaolan didn’t force it. But when she ate afterward, she put all the food she’d brought onto the small window table.
“ Would you like to try some? ” The middle-aged man didn’t even glance at the braised meat giving off its fragrance.
He calmly ate his train meal instead.
Xia Xiaolan understood. He really didn’t want to talk to her.
Fine. She wasn’t going to be pushy.
After the fat woman’s incident, people of all kinds in the surrounding carriages seemed to realize Xia Xiaolan was not someone easy to mess with. No more trouble happened after that.
The next morning, Xia Xiaolan arrived safely at Guangzhou Railway Station. A dark-skinned woman was holding up a wooden sign that read “Xia Xiaolan.”
Xia Xiaolan squeezed through the crowd.
“ Hello, comrade. I’m Xia Xiaolan. ”
The woman broke into a smile, showing a bright row of white teeth.
“ My brother told me to pick you up. He said Zhou Cheng asked him for help. ”
Xia Xiaolan asked a few more questions. The answers matched what she and Zhou Cheng had agreed on, so this woman really had been sent by Zhou Cheng.
“ My surname is Bai, Bai Zhenzhu. I was born in 1962. ”
That made her three years older than Xia Xiaolan, twenty-one this year.
The name and the complexion left a deep impression. Guangzhou had strong sunlight, so girls’ skin there wasn’t as fair as in Henan.
Bai Zhenzhu also looked older than her actual age. But the person Zhou Cheng had found had her strengths too. She didn’t talk much, but she also didn’t leave Xia Xiaolan hanging.
Bai Zhenzhu had a somewhat tomboyish personality and was very strong. When Xia Xiaolan said she had come to Guangzhou to buy women’s clothing wholesale, Bai Zhenzhu took her straight to the area near the station.
Wholesale markets were usually close to train stations. That made sense, large shipments had to move by rail.
For many years to come, Guangzhou’s clothing wholesale market would account for more than half of the country’s goods.
Wholesale markets in other provinces all took stock from Guangzhou. The most up-to-date sources were all here. But the major wholesale markets everyone later knew by name had not yet been unified or properly managed. There were no high-rises and no signboards to guide the way.
Bai Zhenzhu found Xia Xiaolan a guesthouse, then took her in the afternoon to the famous Xihu Night Market and Huanghua Night Market. Canopy-style stalls were lit however, people could manage mostly with electric bulbs strung up by hand.
There were even more street stalls, with patterned oilcloth spread on the ground and piles of clothes stacked into little hills. Buyers didn’t even bother looking carefully. They just grabbed the clothes and stuffed them into snake-skin bags.
“ Everything is five yuan each! Come pick, come look! ”
“ Suit pants, eight yuan! ”
“ Autumn jackets— ”
Voices rose and fell all around, making it hard to focus.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t rush to buy anything. She walked past stall after stall, not putting a single item into her bag. Bai Zhenzhu followed closely, worried Xia Xiaolan would get bullied by locals.
Bai Zhenzhu looked like a typical Guangzhou native, and once she opened her mouth with that strong local accent, nobody could easily fool her. Xia Xiaolan wasn’t interested in the especially cheap stuff. If she was going to buy that kind of merchandise, she didn’t need to come all the way here.
Only after checking every stall did she settle on two of them. Both were wholesale stalls, but unlike the others, their clothes weren’t thrown into a heap. Each piece was hung up neatly, apparently ironed too. The clothes had a very crisp, quality look to them.
Xia Xiaolan gently touched the fabric.
“ Boss, how much for this one? ”
“ Are you buying retail or wholesale? ”
“ Wholesale. I’m not taking just one. ”
“ Thirteen yuan wholesale, sixteen retail. ”
At other stalls, a round-neck sweater like this would cost only a few yuan. Here, it was thirteen yuan, more than double the wholesale price. Bai Zhenzhu held up the sweater.
“ Don’t try to rip us off just because we’re from out of town! ”
The boss laughed. Xia Xiaolan felt the fabric. The yarn was softer, and the collar had a ring of lace trim with colored beads sewn on using clear thread.
Women in Shangdu City would like this kind of sweater. Paying a little more was fine.
“ What colors do you have? I’ll take two of each. ”
Red, white, and black were the main colors. Xia Xiaolan really liked the style, and she even took two mustard-yellow ones.
Seeing her actually pull out real money to place an order, the boss smiled even more warmly.
“ You’re a straightforward girl. I’ve got some new stock too! ”
He pulled a big sack out from under the stall and took out what he called new designs.
Xia Xiaolan shook the clothes open and laid them flat. They really were beautiful… white and green thread woven into a maple leaf pattern, with a lapel collar instead of a round one.
In Shangdu, these could still be worn as autumn undershirts, and when the weather got colder, they could be layered underneath too. Definitely styles that would sell.
Xia Xiaolan thought the green one looked best, followed by the sky blue. That watery blue was fresh and lively, very different from the dull national defense green and blue ant shades people were used to.
Women in the 1980s did not prefer worker-style colors because they loved them. It was because the market simply hadn’t offered them anything else.
Xia Xiaolan specifically chose bold, novel colors.
She believed these clothes would sell.
Bell-bottom pants were also considered strange and unconventional. In 1978, the Japanese films Sanjuro? and The Yellow Handkerchief? were all the rage in China, and bell-bottoms entered the view of young people.
Bold and improper? Young people wanted to stand out. Deep down, they were hungry to be different.
People in Shangdu would accept this kind of trend.
Xia Xiaolan made her move decisively and bought several pairs of bell-bottom pants. Thanks to the generally slim builds of people at the time, she only needed to take two sizes per style. Most customers could squeeze themselves into small or medium sizes.
Women who wore large sizes already counted as full-figured. As for sizes above that? Either they were rich enough to eat well and not worry, or they were just the type who gained weight from drinking cold water.