In the dormitory, Li Juan tidied her bed, then picked up a cloth bag and put on her padded coat, ready to go out.
Her roommate from the South, Dong Yuping, asked enviously:
"Li Juan, are you going to your aunt's again this weekend?"
"Yes," Li Juan answered, opening the door and stepping out before closing it behind her.
It was winter. Although the room had heating, leaving the door open would still let the warmth escape.
After Li Juan left, another student in the dormitory, Ma Xuemei, said, "Li Juan has it so good. She can go to a relative's on weekends, unlike us. We can only stay at school..."
"You could go out and look around. I heard several of the big department stores are pretty crowded these days," someone else said. "But honestly, that aunt of Li Juan's really does treat her well. She's always buying her things. If Li Juan doesn't visit, she even calls."
"Do you think Li Juan's family is rich? Once, I passed the dorm supervisor's office and heard her on the phone. Whoever was on the other end seemed to be asking whether she had enough money, and she kept saying she did."
"Probably. Her family lives in a small county town in the northwest, but she never seems short of food or anything else. They must be pretty well-off."
"I don't know. I haven't really noticed anything, have you? She eats at the same canteen as us, and her clothes don't seem particularly fancy. She doesn't seem to go shopping much either," another student, who looked rather easygoing, said.
"Her family must be well-off. Just look at what they send her. Never mind the dried fruit from Northern Xinjiang-those cans are pure meat, and they send a whole case at a