On the other end of the phone, Lin Dongxue understood Chen Shi's request and couldn't help but smile bitterly. "Master Chen, it's snowing and you’re learning Lei Feng[1] outside? Okay, I'll help you check it, don't hang up..."

After waiting for a while, Lin Dongxue said, "Huh... In Long’an City, there are fourteen people with this name. There are two who are men.”

Chen Shi asked the old lady, "What's your sister's name?"

"Liu Cuizhen!"

Chen Shi told Lin Dongxue, who said, "I found it. I'll call the real estate bureau now for an address."

Five minutes later, an address was sent to Chen Shi's mobile phone. Chen Shi relayed it to the old lady, "Unit 1209, 3, Red House, Fengning Road."

The old lady said gratefully, "Thank you so much!"

"I'll take you there."

"The fare..."

"Five dollars for you!"

"Okay. Dog egg[2], get in the car."

On the way, Chen Shi found some lollies in the glove box from the New Year. He gave it to the little boy. "Want some lollies?"

The little boy was afraid to answer until the old lady said, "Hurry and thank the uncle."

"Thank you uncle."

"You're welcome." Chen Shi smiled. "What's your surname?"

"Surnamed Liu. It's not easy for you to come out and run a taxi out on a cold day."

"No, I just went to visit relatives so it’s on the way."

The two chatted with each other for forty minutes until they arrived at the Red House Community. The old lady Liu thanked him and got out of the car with the child in tow.

They got all the way to the gate below Wang Xifeng's residence, but the two were unsure of how to get through it. Finally, someone came down and the old lady blocked them. She said that they were looking for Wang Xifeng who lived in the building.

The other person looked the old lady up and down and responded, "I don't know. What is the unit number?"

Old lady Liu opened a cigarette case paper which held the address that the kind-hearted driver had helped them to copy down and showed it to the resident. The resident pressed 1209 for her. An impatient voice came from the gate. "Who is it?"

"Is this Xifeng? I'm your aunt. I’ve come to see you for the big Chinese New Year."

Old lady Liu shouted to the access control box. The resident just chuckled as they walked away.

"Which aunt?"

"Liu Cui’e."

"Liu Cui'e? You are my mother's younger sister from the countryside?”

"Yes, yes."

"Who's there?" There was another woman talking over on the other side.

"Rural relatives. Really, do they have to come now..."

Old lady Liu's face flushed red but she still maintained a smile. She thought that this small device could let them see her.

"Come up!"

The door lock snapped open and old lady Liu whispered to herself, "I really don't understand the things in the city!" She hurried up the stairs with the boy.

The two went upstairs. Wang Xifeng had opened the door to greet her, but she seemed to have just woken up. Her hair was not combed and her makeup was not done. She wore silk pajamas that showed a touch of cleavage. The boy had never seen such a beautiful and sexy woman in the countryside before, so his face suddenly turned red. The old lady urged, "Hurry up and call aunty."

"Aunty!"

"Who is this kid?" Wang Xifeng asked impatiently.

Old lady Liu smiled, "He is your cousin's child. He’s never been out of the village, so I took him here to play."

Wang Xifeng glanced at the dirty brat and her expression was full of disgust. "Why didn’t you call before you came to the city?”

Old lady Liu didn’t know where to put her hands, but still smiled and tried to change the topic. “I came here by bus early in the morning, but it was so difficult to find this place. Thanks to a kind driver, I was finally able to get here! "

"Come in and change your shoes!"

The two entered the house cautiously. The room was very messy. It seemed that the people living here didn't like to clean very much. Old lady Liu always liked to be neat, so she looked a little disturbed. She bent down to find slippers, but there were no shoes prepared for children here. She could only find a pair of women's slippers for him to wear.

Wang Xifeng lazily leaned on the sofa and lit a mint cigarette up. She remarked, "Don't wear that pair. Those are LV slippers. They cost tens of thousands for a pair. If you don't have clean feet, then don’t wear that. Wear that one!"

Old lady Liu pointed awkwardly to the slippers next to her. "These ones?"

After changing shoes, another girl that was a little younger than Wang Xifeng came out of the room. She looked kinder and nodded at the guests. "Hello."

"Hello!"

Wang Xifeng spread out a palm and introduced, "This is my assistant, Pingzi."

"Go fuck yourself. When did I become an assistant?" The girl Pingzi laughed and threw a pillow at Wang Xifeng.

"Then what should I say that you are? My wife?"

"I knew you’d take advantage of me!" Pingzi reached out to take a cigarette on the coffee table.

The boy tugged at old lady Liu's clothes and said, "I need to poo."

"Why didn’t you say so outside?!" whispered old lady Liu. "Bear it for a while. We’ll leave soon."

"I can't hold it."

"I can't believe you." Old lady Liu asked, "Xifeng, where is the latrine?"

"There is a bathroom over there," Wang Xifeng said while playing with her mobile phone without looking up.

When she saw the white and clean bathroom, old lady Liu was a little embarrassed. She told the boy to sit on the toilet. The boy said that he couldn’t go while sitting and he could only squat on it. The old lady instructed the boy to hold his little penis so that he wouldn’t get any pee on the outside and make the house dirty.

Dog egg blushed and nodded. However, because his clothes were thick, it wasn’t comfortable to squat on the toilet.

The door behind them slammed open, Wang Xifeng rushed in like she was catching an affair. She stood upright and screamed with a sharp voice, “Get up! I knew you’d be like this!”

Old lady Liu explained with an embarrassed smile, "The child isn’t used to this."

"He didn’t go outside and came in to do it. What’s wrong? You really think that good things shouldn’t be left outside[3]?"

The old and young both blushed to the tips of their ears. Pingzi came over and persuaded, "Don't scare the child."

Wang Xifeng looked disgusted. "After you finish, remember to wipe the toilet clean."

While dog egg was going to the toilet, old lady Liu brought the sack placed by the door into the house, opened it, and placed its contents on the coffee table, saying, "Dried bamboo shoots, fungus and snow fungus. We grew it back in the house and were hoping to give you a taste.”

Pingzi said, "See? You were wrong about them."

Wang Xifeng still looked disgusted. "Everything can be bought in the city, so you didn’t need to bother."

"A little bit of our heart." Old lady Liu rubbed her hands and smiled. "Your mother has been dead for almost a year, right?"

"It's been a year."

"Well, it wasn’t easy. When she was young, she ran into the city, married two men, and barely managed to earn enough for the younger generation."

Wang Xifeng said coldly, "My mother didn't leave me anything when she died, and I put in hundreds of thousands for her medical bills. I bought this house myself as well."

"Xifeng, where do you work?"

"I do my own business," Wang Xifeng answered vaguely.

"That's good, that's good. You are like your mother. You have the ability to make money, unlike us."

"You came all this way for this?”

"No, no!" Old lady Liu explained as if she was trying to prove herself innocent. "I just thought that if relatives don’t meet up often, there would be distance. So, we came to see you. Next time when you’re free, you can come and play with us as well as see your cousin.”

Wang Xifeng said with contempt, "I'm not going to the countryside!"

1. Expression saying that he’s playing nice guy. People use this to talk about selflessness.

2. It’s literally read as “dog egg”. I’m not sure if this is the reason, but there’s SOME country people who call their sons/daughters this back in the day to “prolong their life” as the lord of hell wouldn’t want someone called that. The author uses “dog egg” in place of the boy’s name going forward, so I’ll keep it as “dog egg”. I suppose it’s like calling someone “little brat” affectionately and without malice.

3. Asking if they thought shit was good.