Song Tan's Notes

My best friend invited me to stay at his house for summer vacation. What gift should I bring?

On a certain social media platform, which is full of vibrant people, a post like this suddenly appeared.

This is an amazing app that Qiaoqiao only found out about after asking Sister Yanran. It's said that as long as you ask a question on it, someone will answer it.

He was both curious and excited to be invited to someone's home for the first time.

But looking in the rearview mirror, the older sister and Lu Chuan were still talking and arguing with the villagers and village officials.

But their expressions didn't seem that intense, it didn't look like they were arguing...

He lingered on the back of the seat for a while, then remembered his sister saying he didn't need to get off, and obediently sat back down.

After hesitating for a moment, I looked down at my phone again.

As newly registered users, websites will definitely provide traffic to promote them in order to retain them.

Therefore, it wasn't long before the system notified me of numerous comments.

Summer vacation? They're still students. Friendships don't depend on the size of the gift; bringing some seasonal fruit is enough.

Are you a top student? If so, bring a notebook with you; your friend's parents will definitely be thrilled.

Why emphasize that your best friend is on summer vacation? Don't you have a summer vacation? Are you still in school? Or are you already working? Is it an old classmate?

Everyone else is answering questions, but this is the only one asking a question.

Qiaoqiao replied earnestly, "I don't have a summer vacation. I'm already working. We're classmates I met last year. We studied together this year."

His answer was strange.

But young people who have been exposed to the internet know that many people only appear normal, but in reality, they lack logical thinking and can come across all sorts of nonsensical answers online.

Therefore, they quickly extracted only the key points:

[Your friend is still in school, but you're already working? Well, then when you visit their home, you can't go empty-handed. Ask how many people live there, if there are grandparents or other elders. If so, bring two bags of soft, easily digestible snacks—it's inexpensive, practical, and shows courtesy. Also, see if their parents have any preferences, like cigarettes or tea… If they drink, bring two bottles of alcohol; the specific type depends on your budget. Don't try to impress them by bringing more than you can afford; after all, you've invited them over, and if you do, their parents might not approve.]

This post received the most likes, and there were many comments from netizens below:

Yes, the person upstairs is right. Your friend is still a student, and the power in their family still rests with their parents. You should stay a while when you visit to show respect, so your classmate won't get nagged by their parents.

[Is your friend a student? Then you're probably not very old either. Friendships among young people should be based on sincerity. Bringing two cases of milk and some fruit is fine. Gifts that are too heavy will burden the recipient. This is supposed to be a friendship between you two; if the gift is too extravagant, it will seem like an interaction between adults.]

He's already working, so if a friend invites him to stay at their home, it's only natural to be courteous. Where we live, someone who's capable of working is already considered an adult; it mainly depends on age.

[Would anyone really be willing to stay at a classmate's house for a while? It feels like there's no place like home. There's never enough room at someone else's house, our lifestyles are different, and wouldn't it be uncomfortable to be crammed together in the sweltering heat?]

[Boys might be a bit rough around the edges – are you a guy? If you're a girl, I wouldn't recommend it, especially since asking if you should bring a gift when you visit suggests you've never been before, it's not very safe.]

Everyone started chatting animatedly, and the comment section gradually became lively.

Qiaoqiao looked at it carefully and wrote down every item he thought was useful: snacks, cigarettes and alcohol, fruit, milk, notes...

But he didn't take any notes, and Xiao Yang is already in college.

As for milk...

He became worried again. Although he had never been to Xiao Yang's house, it seemed very far away. In this hot weather, the milk would probably spoil by the time he got home.

But while pondering this, he also earnestly replied to the netizens who offered suggestions:
[He's a boy, and I'm a boy too.]

Teacher Xin said, "You can never be too careful, especially girls." You're right!

I'm happy to visit my friend's house. He stayed at my house for a while before. We have slightly different lifestyles, but we both love to eat and are very good at it.

Why is there no room to sleep? There's not enough space upstairs, but I can sleep downstairs—a friend said the house has five floors, so I should be able to fit everyone, right?

Why do parents nag me when I visit someone's home?

The netizens looked at the replies above, then at the suggestions in the comments section below, and their expressions gradually became strange.

[Everyone, disperse. This young master is oblivious to the hardships of life—his friend's house already has five stories, and I'd guess the poster's house is at least three stories high.]

He's been staying at your place for a while now, so you don't need to worry about anything when you visit. Just take my advice, buy two pounds of fruit and two boxes of milk and bring them over.

[Being nagged when inviting friends over is probably an experience only those in poor families have – because the space is small, and with multiple people having different lifestyles, you have to be careful about their diet, which can be quite uncomfortable.]

Goodness, five floors! Could it be that every room is a suite with a living room, study, studio, and bedroom?

As Qiaoqiao watched everyone's continuous and increasingly enthusiastic replies, her brows gradually furrowed.

He could understand some of the words on it, but they weren't easy to comprehend, so he resorted to the same old, rudimentary method—

I answered every question seriously.

For example, the one about one's own floor.

"Yes, my house has three floors. My parents live on one floor, my sister on one floor, and I live on one floor. My friend's house has two basement floors."

"The room has a living room, a bedroom, and a small study, but no studio."

Comments section: ...

[Disperse, disperse, this is the real young master.]

[With so much money, even if you're sending it abroad, you wouldn't need to be working so early, would you? How come your friend is still studying, while you've already been working for a year? Do you perhaps have a three-story house built in the countryside?]

Don't underestimate self-built houses in the countryside! In our village, some wealthy families have three-story villas that cost several million yuan to build and decorate.

What do you do? Or what do your friend's family do? Since money isn't an issue, be sincere when giving a gift and make sure it suits their taste.

Below is Qiaoqiao's reply:

"Yes, we live in the village, and we built our own house."

"My family farms, and my friend's family farms too. They have huge plots of land."

Okay.

[The family is so wealthy, yet they don't value education; otherwise, they wouldn't have been deprived of schooling.]

[Some people, as mentioned earlier, genuinely lack academic talent; not having a diploma doesn't mean they're uncultured.]

The way he replies to questions, does he seem very cultured?

Alright, now that these two young masters from the countryside are making friends here, we renters in our cramped apartments have some ideas for them.

[OP, don't just ask! What's your friend's house like? Could you post a picture? What about yours?]

The comments section was in complete chaos.

Qiaoqiao flipped through the page repeatedly, but couldn't extract anything new or insightful from it, so she had no choice but to continue replying:

"I've arrived in the county town, but I don't have any pictures right now."

“I’ve never been to my friend’s house, it’s so far away, but they have a lot of land, much more than mine.” “I’m not very educated, I’m not as capable as my friend.”

Comments section: ...

[I don't know why, but even though the poster seems to be feigning ignorance and showing off like someone from Versailles, there's also a strange sense of sincerity and earnestness about them. It's as if they're frowning and pursing their lips, staring at the screen as they reply to us, sentence by sentence.]

[+1, I feel the same way, such an old-fashioned cadre vibe.]

Qiaoqiao stared at the two comments, her eyes slowly widening.

He looked up and saw in the rearview mirror that he was indeed still nervously pursing his lips and slightly furrowing his brows.

His eyes were wide open, as if he was somewhat puzzled.

Upon refreshing the page, even more comments were liked and moved to the top:
[Since you're asking such a serious question, could you please post some pictures after you visit your friend's house? I've never seen a five-story self-built house in the countryside before; I feel that self-built houses generally don't have two basement levels.]

Qiao Qiao thought about it seriously:
Although he couldn't understand what many people were saying, he did receive a lot of suggestions.

He replied seriously, "Okay, I'll ask if I can take a picture when I see him."

Yes, Xiao Yang said that they built their own house, so why did they build two more basements?

(It's perfectly normal for someone who acquires the land, builds their own high-end villa complex, and keeps one penthouse for themselves, right? —From Lao Yang.)
Qiaoqiao had spent so much time in the car, and when she turned around again, she saw Song Tan talking to the village officials behind the car. Now, they waved goodbye, and it was finally time to leave.

As Song Tan got into the car, she watched the windows roll up and the doors close, finally settling back into the seat in the enclosed space.

"I've been here for two days, and I'm not as tired as I am now."

Yan Ran and the other two, sitting in the back row, nodded frequently: "Yes, yes, staring at the instruments all afternoon is not as tiring as this moment."

However, they really can't bring their equipment back now, even if there's no luggage on the vehicle, just one vehicle, they still can't bring it back.

Fortunately, Chen Yuan and his group have a large car, so they can bring it along after they're done with their work.

The village's enthusiasm is also inseparable from Qiaoqiao's achievements.

This morning, during another of his live streams, all the grapes that passed the tests were sold out.

What followed was a relentless cycle of shipping orders day and night.

But Song Tan couldn't help much with this. The only thing she could do was to hand over the remaining security guards who had rushed over overnight to Chen Yuan for deployment and to be in charge of quality control.

She, on the other hand, needed to take Yanran and the others back as soon as possible.

After all, the 5 yuan per kilogram commission they receive for helping Baiyu County sell grapes isn't for nothing; they also have to handle all the miscellaneous after-sales matters.

As for why they couldn't leave for a while...

Sigh, it's all because the villagers and leaders were too enthusiastic.

Putting aside other things, people like Tao Zhuangzhuang and Da Liang each picked several baskets of fresh and high-quality grapes early in the morning. The baskets were stacked on top of each other, and the trunk couldn't hold them all.

Their thoughts were all very similar:
"If you can't finish them, just give them away. The grapes in our county are delicious, and they're presentable gifts."

It's quite respectable, but it's easy for everyone to give it to you.

As they pushed the baskets back and forth, each family wanted to pile up several baskets. The leaders of Baiyu County even asked them to wait a little longer, saying that the old varieties of grapes that were ripe but easy to fall off were also being picked.

In addition, he asked the owner of the family-run canteen to bring him two large buckets of homemade wine, simply because Song Tan had praised it at the dinner table.

This is this...

In short, I couldn't refuse them, and I couldn't let them go either. It took a lot of persuasion and cajoling before I was able to refuse most of them, leaving only the gifts from two wealthy families and the wine.

"Sigh." Song Tan looked at the baskets of grapes piled up everywhere, and was also worried. "Yanran, do you want to give some away?"

To everyone's surprise, all three shook their heads, and Tang Xiaodong even sighed:
"Boss, we have so many fruits to enjoy this season. Back when I was with my teacher, we could find them all over the place..."

"Are you giving it away?"

Song Tan offered a suggestion: "We can also send them home."

This was originally a good idea, but Yanran and his group had the advantage of being close to Song Tan and could often find good things there, which they would send home every few days.

Nowadays, not to mention them, even their own families look down on this fruit.

Anyway, it's not as good as Qiaoqiao's, so what's the difference between expensive and cheap? You might as well eat the cheaper one.

Moreover, even though it is a high-quality item, how many senior students have sent it to Professor Song every year?
During the summer and autumn seasons, there is no shortage of exquisite products from all over the country.

Looking at Lu Chuan again, he saw that Lu Chuan was also shaking his head:
“Didn’t my best friends come back with a ton of grapes the other day? They’re sending these grapes over to give away as gifts.”

Song Tan: "..."

She made a decisive decision: "When we enter the city, we'll make a detour and deliver it to my aunt first. We'll keep 50 jin (25 catties) for her to sell or give away, it's up to her."

"Leave another 50 jin for my aunt."

"And when we went back, I left 50 jin with my uncle..."

With this distribution, the pile of grapes at the back suddenly seemed less heavy.

But there's more...

She simply took out her phone and asked Guo Dong, "Do you want some grapes from Baiyu County? If you don't want them, you can give them away."

Even Dr. Guo didn't think much of it.

She doesn't eat much fruit to begin with, but it's the Song family's fruit that allows her to eat more of it.

As for giving it to relatives and friends...

Those close relatives who deserve to be sent fruit from afar, like my teacher, are now successful in her business and send only the best things from the Song family.

Regardless of price, you can pick dried houttuynia cordata from the pond, make your own mugwort sticks, or various medicinal herbs, as well as fruits from the mountains...

There's no need to send it over.

And what about Teacher Xin?
"Do you want some sent to your parents?"

Xin Jun also refused:

“Even if I send them, they won’t be able to eat them; they’ll all be given to other customers. The grapes from Baiyu County are different from those in the market. It’s not appropriate for them to eat the good ones in one private room but the ordinary ones in another. So I’d better not send them.”

Song Tan was also helpless.

These are grapes that cost 50 yuan per kilogram, but now they can't even be given away as gifts.

After thinking it over and over—

"Then give some to Secretary Zhu. There are several production brigades in the village, and some elderly people who don't have children or family around. Give some to them all—oh, but not to those with diabetes." (End of Chapter)