Chapter 44

Chen Ying hung up and turned to her husband, excited. "Li Quan, somebody's just said the television people are coming to interview Lanlan. Your daughter's going to be on television."

Li Lan didn't miss the delighted grin in the mirror, and then her mother turned round. "Lanlan, there are television people coming to interview you. You're going to be on television."

Looking at the pair of them, the refusal she'd been about to make wouldn't come out. She hadn't missed the pitch of her mother's voice on the phone, or her father's face, and she was certain that if she said she didn't want to, her mother would ring back and decline on the spot.

And then she wouldn't get to see the two of them looking like this. Thinking about part of why she'd worked so hard in the first place, Li Lan made a decision.

It's an interview. Hardly a catastrophe. Let them come.

She produced a smile much like her mother's. "Mm. My form teacher rang me about it just now — I was going to tell you, and then you got the call."

"Wonderful. Us on television. Li Quan, don't go home yet — let's go into the city and buy some clothes first. They said they might interview the two of us as well, and we can't be on television dressed badly. Into the city." Thinking of the wholesale-market clothes in her wardrobe, she patted his arm urgently.

He stopped bothering to hide his own grin. "Right. Get me something too. Everything I own is from the scrap days, it should have gone years ago."

She counted on her fingers. "Everyone needs something. Father and Mother, and Chengcheng and Jingyu — the whole family might be on television."

He agreed. "Everyone. Don't stint. Something good for each of them." And he put his foot down, and the car turned for the city.

Watching the two of them plan it out with such enthusiasm, Li Lan knew she'd decided correctly.

---

Running the supermarket meant frequent trips into the city for stock, and they knew the roads perfectly; they went straight for the largest shopping centre in it.

By the time the three of them came out it was closing time, and they were loaded with bags, all of them clothes. With the shopping stowed, Chen Ying sat in the passenger seat, calmed down, and winced. "Shop clothes are dear. The same things would have cost nothing like that at the wholesale market. Pity it was shut."

Li Quan had always believed you get what you pay for. "You can't compare the wholesale market with a shop. They're bought now."

She knew that perfectly well; the remark was habit. "I know you're generous. I can't even say it, apparently." The money smarted, but the television outweighed it.

Thinking about being on television, she said happily, "Right, let's get home — it'll be midnight. Clothes today, and tomorrow we'll go into the county town and get our hair done."

He glanced at himself in the mirror and realised it had been a while. "Heh. I'll get mine cut tomorrow as well."

She looked at him with disdain. "What is there to cut on a crop like that? Lanlan, though — you and Chengcheng are coming with me to get your hair done. We're not going on television looking a fright."

Li Lan said, expressionlessly, "Whatever makes you happy." Two and a half hours, with a half-hour break to eat and nothing else. She had not known her mother could shop like that.

It was midnight when they reached Beiguan, and the three of them carried the bags up to the third floor thoroughly spent. Excited as she was, Chen Ying had no energy left for sorting anything, let alone Li Quan after hours of driving, so they dumped the lot on the sofa and went to wash and sleep.

---

First thing the next morning her parents took the clothes they'd bought for the grandparents round to the old courtyard.

Li Tieshi had just eaten and was sitting in the inner room listening to the radio, and looked up to find the two of them coming in beaming, carrying things.

Chen Ying put two bags on the table. "Father, these are clothes Li Quan and I bought for you and Mother. Try them on later."

He looked at the bags. "What do you want to buy us clothes for? It isn't as though we've nothing to wear."

Song Qiulan came in, having finished clearing up. "Quite. Spend the money on something for the three children. What do you want to buy for us two for?" She assumed it was the new-clothes-at-New-Year custom.

Her parents exchanged a look, and Chen Ying said, smiling, "Father, Mother, the children have new clothes too. We were late back last night collecting Lanlan and you were asleep, so we couldn't tell you.

"Somebody rang me yesterday to say the television people are coming to our house to interview her. Tomorrow. So Li Quan and I bought some new clothes, and some for you, ready for the television."

"Television? Truly?" Song Qiulan was delighted.

Li Tieshi maintained his dignity and affected severity. "What of it? All this fuss."

Then, after a pause, "Still, you've bought them and it'd be awkward to return them, so your mother and I had better wear them."

Chen Ying gave him the ladder down. "Just so. They're from a shop in the city and returns are a nuisance, so you and Mother wear them — new clothes for the new year, very festive. Try them and see if they fit."

She got them out. With no heating in the countryside and winter well in, she'd bought them padded coats, one black and one deep red. Li Tieshi's was slightly large, which left room for layers underneath.

"Light, this, and warm with it." With his son's help he got into it first and took a few steps, faintly astonished; he'd always worn the cotton-padded coats his wife made, and this was his first down jacket.

"Woman, how do I look?" He paraded in front of Song Qiulan, who was being helped into hers, and only once the zip was up did she turn her attention to him. "Not bad. Smart."

Chen Ying zipped hers, stepped back and looked her over, nodding. "Yours fits nicely too, Mother. Takes years off you."

Song Qiulan was embarrassed. "At my age. In red."

"What's wrong with red? On television, and over Spring Festival — red is exactly right." Li Tieshi was dissatisfied with that.

"Yingzi, what time are the television people coming tomorrow? I'll go down to the corner and have old Wang cut my hair."

Father and son, unmistakably: the same remark twice.

Li Quan objected. "Father, what do you want to go to Uncle Wang's for? Having your hair cut in the street in this weather, you'll catch cold. We'll both go to the barber's later."

He conceded the point — a cold would defeat the purpose — and then, as though remembering something, said, "Yingzi, get the three of them properly turned out as well. I'm not having them scruffy on television."

"Of course, Father. Lanlan's the star of it — I'm taking her into the county town for a haircut. Mother, come with us."

Song Qiulan waved it away. "You lot go. What's an old woman's hair want doing? I'm perfectly all right as I am."

Chen Ying pressed her a few times, and finding her immovable, let it go. Her hair might be white but the quality of it was excellent, and with an old-fashioned band on she looked notably benign.

---

Li Lan heard her parents getting up, and having only just finished her exams, decided for once to stay in bed — and after lying there with her eyes open for a while, got up anyway, since lying there was intolerably dull. She missed smartphones acutely at moments like this.

While she was rustling about dressing, Li Cheng woke. "Why aren't you sleeping in?" She knew Li Lan had got back very late, and here she was up early again.

"I can't sleep. You get up too, you're awake."

Li Cheng pulled the quilt tighter, with only her face showing. There was no heating and it was freezing, and a bed in winter is the best place there is. "No. I'll get up in a bit."

Li Lan raised an eyebrow. "Mum bought you a set of designer clothes in the city yesterday. They're in the front room. Don't you want to look?"

Li Cheng didn't believe a word of it — an obvious ruse. "You're lying. Mum only went to the airport to collect you. She hadn't time to buy clothes."

So Li Lan fetched her own and waved them in front of her. "What do you call this, then?"

Li Cheng had not expected it to be true. "That's a brand. How did Mum bring herself to? Did I get some?"

At the nod she was ready to get up immediately — and touched the cold air with one foot and withdrew it, and started shouting instead. "Li Lan. Sister. Dear sister. Fetch mine for me."

Li Lan had no intention of indulging her, threw her a look and headed for the front room. "Get up or I'm wearing yours. We're much the same size."

The threat travelled from the front room, and the prospect of Li Lan in her new clothes had Li Cheng out of bed instantly, into a coat and out of the door. "You dare. You are not wearing mine."

Which was when she saw the bags on the sofa. "God, why has Mum bought so many designer things?" New clothes at Spring Festival, certainly — but previously that meant something off the rack at a shop on the street, not labels you could name.

Li Jingyu came out at the noise. "What are you two doing awake at this hour?"

Li Lan called him over to collect his. He had no concept of brands and was simply pleased to have new clothes.

The three of them were on the sofa dividing them up when their mother got back and found them trying things on.

Li Cheng was excited. "Mum, are these new clothes for us?"

Seeing her bouncing about on the sofa in hers, and afraid she'd have them dirty before the interview, Chen Ying said urgently, "Yes, yes. Sit still, don't get them dirty."

"Oh." She settled. "But Mum, why such good clothes this year?"

Chen Ying repeated the news, smiling.

Li Cheng looked at her sister, then at her mother. "On television? Seriously?" As a self-conscious adolescent she found the prospect both embarrassing and appealing — and she genuinely admired Li Lan now. One exam, and all this; television people, even.

Li Jingyu didn't think that far. "Yes! I'm going to be on television."

His sisters looked at him with matching disdain. What did one do about a brother who seemed to be getting stupider.

Their mother, however, was entirely satisfied with his reaction. "That's right, the whole family's going on television, so be quick, both of you. I'll cook now and we'll go into the county town after."

Breakfast made, and before anyone had started eating, Li Quan spoke with great seriousness. "Yingzi. We've forgotten something important."

Four faces turned to him.

He surveyed the disordered front room, thought about the equally disordered bedrooms, and looked grave. "We haven't tidied the house."

Nobody said anything.

The three children had a bad feeling.

Chen Ying came to and started chivvying. "Eat. Eat and then clean this house — the county town can wait until this afternoon."