"Xiaoxia, you're here?" Tao Dayong's wife, Ma Chunhong, was the first to react, greeting her with a smile:
"Looking for Shufen? She's inside. That bike of yours is so pretty... is it new?"
"Yes." Gu Xiaoxia nodded, propped up her bicycle, and prepared to go inside to see Wu Shufen.
Only then did the women notice that she hadn't lifted the bicycle to set it on its stand. Instead, it had a little kickstand beside the rear seat!
How convenient!
One of the women couldn't help asking:
"Xiaoxia, what kind of bike is that? It's so pretty! Did you buy it yourself?"
"A Phoenix, a women's twenty-six-inch bicycle," Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile. "With a full chain guard. I've only been working a few months. I couldn't afford it. Li Long bought it for me."
When they heard that Li Long had bought Gu Xiaoxia the bicycle, every woman who had made sour remarks about the Gu Family not asking for a bride price gaped.
Ma Chunhong eyed it enviously and asked:
"That bike... wasn't cheap, was it?"
"No, it cost a little more than a twenty-eight-inch bike. A hundred and eighty-eight." Gu Xiaoxia said it casually, then went inside.
She didn't want to talk to these people any longer.
Wu Shufen was sitting inside. Her gaze was complicated as she watched Gu Xiaoxia enter.
She had heard what the women had said outside, as well as Gu Xiaoxia's replies.
"Congratulations on getting married." Gu Xiaoxia set a package on the table in front of Wu Shufen. "These are the gifts I bought for myself."
As she spoke, she opened the package and laid the items on the table one by one.
Two bottles of hair oil, two delicate combs, two bottles of face cream, a headscarf, a small