After finishing his bowl of noodles, Li Long felt warm all over. Of course, he was not going to leave the bowl for Sister Yang to wash.
The couple tidied up briefly, then turned off the light and went into their room.
Li Long placed the two cloth tigers beside the children's pillows and watched his sons for a while before returning to the inner room.
He took out everything he had brought and spread it across the table for Gu Xiaoxia to look at, then went to wash up.
When he returned to the inner room, Gu Xiaoxia was still sorting things, considering which relatives to give them to and which things were unsuitable as gifts and ought to be kept.
Seeing Li Long come in, Gu Xiaoxia said,
"How come you brought so much back this time? It all looks so finely made."
There were twenty or thirty items of various sizes on the table, and every one of them could be considered a fine piece.
"Most of these were gifts from the Ethnic Affairs Commission Beijing Office. They have a whole storeroom full of things like these. They have every well-known specialty from all over Xinjiang.
"Not just Xinjiang, either. They have specialties from other provinces too. They're all for giving as gifts. I happened to be there at the right time."
"You haven't been there in years, and they were still that welcoming?" Gu Xiaoxia asked, somewhat puzzled. "You really are on good terms."
"It wasn't entirely about that." Li Long briefly explained the key points, and Gu Xiaoxia understood.
They were giving gifts at someone else's expense anyway, and using Li Long to build closer ties with Secretary Zhang was worth far more than these little odds and ends.
Seeing that Li Long had already