Chapter 61

Having decided to register a company, Li Lan looked the process up and found that an agency was indeed the quickest route; and since she'd be spending most of her time in Beijing, she'd find one there. Even with an agency, though, the name was hers to choose, and she was close to useless at naming things. She was currently going through classical poetry in her head, looking for anything that would serve.

Chen Ying, in from taking the washing down, saw her still at the computer. "Lanlan, we're flying to Beijing first thing. Have you packed?"

It was the tenth of August, and by rights term was some way off, but Peking University does it differently: military training began on the sixteenth, with formal enrolment on the fourteenth and fifteenth. Her parents had settled on leaving on the eleventh — tomorrow.

Li Lan crumpled the paper on the desk and dropped it in the bin; she'd written several names and liked none of them. "Packed. I haven't much anyway." Most of her things were already in Beijing. It was only clothes.

Chen Ying pushed the last garment into the case. "Good. Your grandparents' things were done first thing this morning. Go and see whether Chengcheng and Jingyu have packed. I'll put a few more things together for your father."

In the next room, neither of them having been on a holiday before, the two of them sat looking at each other over an empty suitcase with no idea whatever what one takes.

"Li Jingyu, we're going away for a few days. What do you want that wretched guitar for?" Li Cheng said, watching him set it beside the luggage.

"I can play it when there's nothing to do. And you can talk — you've packed several books. Are you going to read on holiday?" He looked at the books in her case, unimpressed.

Li Lan looked at the two of them, whose progress amounted to some clothes and nothing else, and took charge. "Neither of you is in a position to criticise. You're as bad as each other. Go and pack your washbags." Given direction, the two headless chickens found something to steer by and went off to do as they were told.

---

Before it was properly light the next morning, Li Quan drove them all to the airport. They'd considered driving; it was seven or eight hours from Yu city to Beijing, and while Li Tieshi and Song Qiulan were in reasonable health they were not young, and the family had decided against putting them through it. Flying it was.

Nobody but Li Lan had flown before, so they queued behind her obediently and checked in, and Chen Ying only breathed out once they were through security. "There's a great deal more to this than a train."

The others nodded feelingly. They'd arrived with hours to spare, and after all that there was one hour left.

Li Tieshi said, "Quan, Ying. Have you thought about how hard it will be for the children to get home once they're grown? Have a look at what you've got in a few days' time. It's about time you bought a flat in the city."

They hadn't expected it. "Dad?"

"Hear me out. Barring accidents, Lanlan will stay away after she graduates, and Chengcheng and Jingyu will do the same — wasn't that the point of educating them? Things seem comfortable enough at the moment. If you've got the money, buy in the city, and then they won't have to change buses all over the place coming home.

"Your mother and I have tens of thousands. It isn't much, but we've no need of it for food and drink, and we'll give it to you when we're back. There are a lot of us. Buy something big enough."

The two exchanged a look and Li Quan said, "Dad, all three of them are still young. There's no hurry."

Chen Shanxing had only bought in the city last year, when his eldest married, and their business swallowed money at every turn; to his mind buying when the children married would be soon enough.

Li Tieshi slapped his knee. "What do you mean, young? That pit behind our house cost twenty yuan when I bought it for you. That's a few years ago and it's worth tens of thousands. Flats in the city will be worse. Haven't you seen the news going on about prices every night? What if you can't afford it later?"

Li Lan, who hadn't spoken, hadn't expected her grandfather to see that far ahead. These were the fastest years for prices, and his raising it saved her working out how to. "Dad, Mum, Grandad's right. Beijing prices have doubled in two years, and city flats are up a great deal on two years ago as well. Ask Eldest Uncle.

"And if there isn't enough, I've got some." Not the whole price, but a share of a deposit she could manage.

That made them laugh. "We can't use your money. There's money at home. Your father and I were thinking about opening a new supermarket at the east end of town — perhaps that money would be better kept for a flat."

Li Lan's eyes went round. "Obviously. What does a supermarket make in a year? A flat could double or triple in one. Buy the flat, Mum."

Li Quan laughed. "You again, saying prices will treble. We're not Beijing or Shanghai."

Seeing them soften, Li Lan sat down beside them and talked and talked, determined to have them buying the moment they got home. "Mum, if you do buy, don't buy in the city centre. Buy on the outskirts. The country's developing this fast, and our province is — and when they clear the site for redevelopment, well."

She only stopped, still with more to say, when her mouth was dry; had they not been boarding she could have gone another half hour. Her parents had long since been talked into a haze, with a sense that their eldest, who had an answer for everything, sounded rather as if she knew.

It was thanks to that force-feeding that when they came back from Beijing and bought with Chen Shanxing, the two of them found themselves passing over a small flat in the centre in favour of a large one on the outskirts — precisely where Li Lan had said the site would be cleared.

Seeing the brainwashing had taken, Li Lan pressed it home. "Mum, tell me when you buy. It has to be where I said." It was outskirts now; within a few years it would be cleared and designated a high-tech district, would develop extremely fast, and would become one of the most expensive places in Yu city.

Only when they nodded was she satisfied. She had no particular attachment to property — somewhere to live was enough. For most people a flat represents a great deal of appreciation; she had confidence enough not to care either way. She'd argued for it as security for the two of them: with the compensation money, the rest of their lives would be free of worry.

---

Two hours' flying brought them to the capital airport, and it was three in the afternoon by the time the luggage was collected. They'd left home at eight; seven or eight hours in, Li Tieshi was all right, but Song Qiulan looked tired.

Li Lan left the others sitting while she and her father collected the car. With that many people, being without one was awkward, so she'd asked Dr Zhang to find her a hire car before she came. It was expensive, though divided among them not unbearably so — with a party that size, taxis anywhere would have come to a good deal.

Given that her grandparents had been travelling all day, Li Quan drove straight to the hotel. The one painful part was that there was no navigation. Fortunately he was a driver of many years who had said at home that finding the way wouldn't be a problem, and on a paper map alone he duly found it.

"Grandad, Grandma, the hotel's beside Tiananmen. We'll go and see the flag raised first thing tomorrow." Li Lan helped them down, smiling.

Neither of them had been to Beijing before, and for Li Tieshi in particular, an old soldier, Tiananmen was one of the things he most wanted to see. From the airport he'd sat in the front seat watching the streets without pause, as had Li Cheng and Li Jingyu, each glued to a window in the back.

"So this is Beijing." Getting out, Li Jingyu looked at the crowded scene around the hotel and the towers in the distance and couldn't help saying it. The furthest he'd been until now was Yu city, and Yu city was either digging up roads or putting up buildings and was nothing like the city of his imagination. Seeing Beijing, he understood what a real one looked like.

Li Cheng wasn't much better off. She went to school in Yu city, but there was nothing worth doing near the school and going out meant roadworks and difficulty getting anywhere; two years on, she'd seen the area round the school and the bookshops in the centre, and had been to a shopping centre once or twice with classmates.

"Good, good, good." Li Tieshi was rarely this happy. He was tired from the journey, but at the thought of Tiananmen he could hardly wait for tomorrow.

"Mum, you look worn out. You and Dad go and lie down, I'll see what there is to eat round here." They saw the two of them into the room to rest, and the door had barely shut before Li Cheng and Li Jingyu were pulling their parents outside. Curiosity was on them and they weren't tired at all.

Since their parents still had some energy, they went along, with Li Lan leading. Both were wide-eyed as they walked. It wasn't their first time in Beijing — Li Quan had come often when he drove lorries — but he had dropped his loads on the edge of the city and left, and neither had ever been into it for pleasure.

The hotel was ten minutes' walk from Tiananmen. Being afternoon, the five of them only learned the route, walked about the square a little and went back.

At the hotel, Li Jingyu, wound up all day, finally put a hand to his stomach. "I'm a bit hungry."

Li Cheng had been tired for a while. "Only now? Mine was rumbling before."

Their parents were no better; nobody had eaten properly all day. "Where are we eating, then?" And all four looked at Li Lan.

Knowing nothing about Beijing, they naturally left it to her. Chen Ying felt they'd spent rather a lot today; her eldest had booked the flights and the hotel, and with that many people it plainly hadn't been cheap. Making money writing novels wasn't easy, and Beijing was expensive; the girl should keep some for herself.

She wondered whether it was her own constant line about money being for spending that had left Lanlan with no sense of it. "Lanlan, let's not eat anywhere too grand. We've been travelling all day and nobody's very hungry. Any small place will do."

Li Lan nodded seriously, which reassured her — the girl did know what she was about. They collected Li Tieshi and Song Qiulan and went out, and then watched Li Lan lead them to the Quanjude a short way along.