I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

What drew Yang Shumin's attention was a post under the "All" tag.

All three are complete, so beautiful!

After clicking into the post, you'll find both images and text.

The first picture shows three bookmarks placed on a dark rosewood table. Yang Shumin only recognized the leftmost bookmark, which was exactly the same as the Miao embroidery bookmark with the fish leaping over the dragon gate that she had received today. The other two bookmarks should be the "Butterfly Mother" and "Auspicious Cloud Pattern" that she did not receive.

The tassels on the three bookmarks were carefully arranged in the same arc, with the tassels hanging neatly along the edge of the table.

In one corner of the photo, the bottom of a yellow-glazed bottle and the cover of an ancient book are inadvertently revealed. The composition is unintentional, but every blank space is just right.

The second photo is a close-up of Butterfly Mother. A bookmark rests on top of a huanghuali wood official's leather trunk, its copper hinges gleaming with a dark gold hue. Beyond the depth of field, in the blurred background, an entire wall of books can be seen. In front of the bookshelf is a Ming-style round-backed chair, with a neatly folded camel velvet rug draped over its armrest.

The third image shows the back of the bookmark with the auspicious cloud pattern. The bookmark is placed on a piece of leather, not a placemat, but the cover of an open auction catalog. Only half of the catalog cover is visible in the image, but the words "Modern and Contemporary Chinese Painting and Calligraphy" are clearly visible. A Montblanc fountain pen is also on the catalog, its cap undone, as if it had just been signed and casually placed down…

"Is this a display of bookmarks, or a display of family wealth?"

Yang Shumin couldn't help but make a comment.

Then continue watching.

Besides these pictures, there's the caption from the poster.

"The Anjia people came over today and talked about the local community event. They also asked if any of my children were taking the civil service exam, and they mentioned these bookmarks, saying that you could get one by donating exam materials. I don't have any children taking the civil service exam, but I was quite interested in these bookmarks, so I just collected a few."

"After receiving it, I looked at it for a long time in my study, and the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. The water ripples of the leaping fish change color under different lighting, the butterfly pattern is the densest, and the seed embroidery of the ruyi feels warm and smooth like jade. When the three are placed together, you can see that the color scheme was carefully considered, ranging from vibrant to serene..."

"...Good stuff, no wonder it's intangible cultural heritage."

The poster didn't say a single word like "I've collected them all," "This is difficult," or "Do you have them?"

She only talked about how beautiful the item was, how detailed it was, and how the formation was. She glossed over how to collect them all, as if it were as casual as picking up a couple of scallions while grocery shopping.

Yang Shumin was all too familiar with this feeling:

Three years ago, Mrs. Li returned from a trip to an island nation and invited a few of her girlfriends to her house for tea.

When Yang Shumin arrived, the other ladies were already sitting on the sofa. Mrs. Li was brewing tea in an iron kettle, which she said she brought back from Kyoto.

After brewing the tea twice, Mrs. Li suddenly stood up and said, "Let me show you my newly renovated master bedroom bathroom." The ladies followed her with smiles.

The bathroom was spacious, with marble floors and double sinks. Mrs. Li pointed to the corner and said, "I'd always heard people say how good it was, so I bought one this time. I tried it out and it's really good; the heating function is quite comfortable in winter..."

Yang Shumin looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a white, oval toilet seat sitting quietly under the warm light. The lid closed gently, and the edges had a delicate matte finish. On the table next to it was a bottle of aromatherapy, with the label facing outwards in French, and the bottle itself was frosted glass.

Regarding the toilet seat, Mrs. Li never mentioned the price or brand; she only said it was "easy to use," "comfortable," and "I bought it on the way."

All the ladies present were praising it.

"Sister Li, you have excellent taste!" "This isn't available in China, is it?" "I'll check it out next time I go there."...

Yang Shumin praised it at the time, but her gaze fell on the word "tt" on the toilet seat.

After returning home, Yang Shumin found a way to buy the toilet seat from Japan through a personal shopper and installed it in her home.

Even earlier, many years ago.

Mrs. Qin's daughter won a prize in a piano competition and hosted a dinner party, which was attended by several of her girlfriends.

Mrs. Qin showed everyone a video of her daughter's competition in the living room. After watching it, Mrs. Qin led everyone on a tour. When they reached the study, she pushed open the door and said, "This is where she practices the piano. It's a mess, so I won't tidy it up."

As you can see, a grand piano is leaning against the window in the study, with several sheet music books spread out on the lid and a school uniform jacket draped over the piano bench, making it look like it has just been played.

Mrs. Qin walked over, picked up the school uniform jacket, and casually said, "The girl insisted that she felt good practicing the piano at night, and she disturbed the neighbors. I'm so sorry."

Yang Shumin was standing at the door when her gaze swept over the "L" on the piano leg, indicating Steinway.

She didn't know anything about pianos, but she had heard of this brand.

Someone nearby even asked, "This violin must be expensive, right?"

Mrs. Qin had already gone into the living room and was arranging fruit.

Throughout the entire conversation, Mrs. Qin didn't mention the piano brand or the price; she only kept saying "it's a mess," "it's disturbing the neighbors," and "I'm sorry." It seemed that all her attention was focused on her daughter's diligent practice, and the Steinway piano just happened to be sitting in the study, not worth mentioning.

That night, Yang Shumin had an even deeper impression of the brand called Steinway.

Not long after, Yang Shumin's family acquired a Steinway piano, and Zhang Lin inexplicably "fell in love with the piano" and began learning it.

There are many more examples like this.

The person who posted this is actually doing the same thing.

Yang Shumin read the post twice more, and a sense of familiarity welled up in her heart.

This drive started decades ago when she married Zhang Taihong. Back then, it was about who had the most impressive wedding. When she was in her thirties, it was about whose child had the best grades. In between, they also compared all sorts of things, like toilet seats, pianos, and so on.

She had previously thought that collecting the other two Miao embroidery bookmarks would be a bit troublesome.

But now, I suddenly realize that those two Miao embroidery bookmarks are really good, very exquisite, and they are also intangible cultural heritage, so they are worth collecting!

"I'll call Sister Liu tomorrow and ask her in detail if there are any other ways to get those two bookmarks besides the chance of getting them by selling secondhand items."

Yang Shumin thought to herself.

Then, I continued watching.

This post is quite popular. There aren't many users in this local community forum right now, but there are already several replies to this post.

Unlike the youth forums like Beiming Community, which are filled with "Holy crap," "Awesome," and "??????", the replies on Anjia Tongcheng Hui have a distinctly "old-fashioned" feel.

Replying to a post is like his mother writing a long essay.

"The embroidery technique of 'fish leaping over the dragon gate' using water ripples is rare. Water ripples are usually done with flat weave, but this piece uses a combination of gold thread embroidery and watercourse patterns, which makes the transition of the waves so natural. Also, the thread-bound book in the background, judging from the fish tail and the format of the page margins, seems to be a Qing dynasty woodblock print. Could you please tell me the title?"

"That ruyi cloud pattern embroidery is incredibly skillful, but my attention keeps getting drawn to the catalog next to it. It's the cover of the 'Modern and Contemporary Chinese Painting and Calligraphy' auction, right? It's from this year's China Guardian Autumn Auction, isn't it? There were quite a few fresh items in that auction. May I ask, are you also interested in modern and contemporary Chinese painting and calligraphy?"

"These three intangible cultural heritage bookmarks are indeed very exquisite and have great collectible value. I like them very much and am also collecting them. So I'm very impressed. It's only the first day, and you've already collected all three bookmarks? How did you do that? I'm very ashamed, I've only collected one so far."...

The person who posted the message also seemed to be sitting in front of a computer, constantly replying to the comments.

Yang Shumin then looked at the "User Ranking" on the left sidebar of the webpage.

The top-ranked user is named "Jinxiu".

The poster is also named "Jinxiu" and has the same profile picture.

Clearly, the user currently ranked number one is the poster named "Jinxiu".

In terms of popularity, "Jinxiu's" post is currently the most popular one in the local community forum.

After watching silently for a while, Yang Shumin suddenly got up and started wandering around the room.

She went to the study, pushed open the door, and wandered around the room.

Zhang Taihong ignored her at first.

A moment later, hearing that Yang Shumin hadn't stopped moving, he couldn't help but look up and ask, "What are you wandering around for?"

"It's nothing."

Yang Shumin stopped in front of the bookshelf, reached out, and picked up an inkstone from the top. "Do you still need this?"

Zhang Taihong casually asked, "What for?"

Yang Shumin said, "If it's useless, just sell it to save space."

Zhang Taihong's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly reached out to stop him, "No, no, no! I still need this!"

"oh."

Yang Shumin felt a little regretful, put down the inkstone, and started wandering around again.

"Do you still need this?"

"Useful! Useful!"

"What about this one?"

"it works!"……

After a while, Zhang Taihong found an excuse to quickly kick Yang Shumin out, hurriedly closed the door, locked it, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

Good guy.

He had no idea what had gotten into his wife tonight. Luckily, he was in the study; otherwise, he didn't know if she would actually take some of the things there and sell them.

"How come our son is getting better, but our wife has gone insane?"

Zhang Taihong was puzzled.

After standing at the door for a while and still not figuring it out, he decided to stop thinking about it for now, shook his head, and went back to his desk to sit down.

After leaving Zhang Taihong's study, Yang Shumin went to Zhang Lin's room.

Zhang Lin was online when he was startled.

"Mom, why didn't you knock before coming in?"

Yang Shumin ignored him completely and just wandered around his room, her eyes scanning each item like a scanner.

Zhang Lin glanced at it twice, and suddenly his heart skipped a beat.

My mother looks both strange and familiar now.

He wouldn't go into the unfamiliar parts, as he had no idea what was going on. The familiar parts, however, were all too familiar—Zhang Linji remembered that before he was inexplicably forced to learn piano, his mother had been like this for a few days. And, before they got a TT toilet seat, his mother had also been like this for a few days…

Under Zhang Lin's watchful gaze, Yang Shumin picked up a Wenquxing electronic dictionary.

"You don't need this anymore, do you?"

?

Zhang Lin thought his mother was going to buy something new for the family because of the familiarity, but he didn't expect her to ask him if the electronic dictionary was useful.

"It's no longer needed."

Zhang Lin obediently shook his head and answered truthfully.

Yang Shumin felt relieved and happy. "Okay. Since you don't need it anymore and it's just gathering dust, I'll help you sell it."

Zhang Lin didn't care, "Okay."

Yang Shumin continued to wander around Zhang Lin's room. After a while, a look of doubt flashed in her eyes. "Son, where's your old laptop? The one you used when you were in school?"

"The brown cardboard box under the bed," Zhang Lin said casually.

After glancing at the computer for a few moments, Zhang Lin heard a noise behind him. He turned around and saw his mother lying on the floor, taking a box from under his bed, opening it, and taking out a laptop.

"Did you sell this too?" Zhang Lin asked casually, remembering what his mother had just said.

"Um."

……

When Yang Shumin rummaged through her home, trying to find secondhand items to sell in order to collect two more Miao embroidery bookmarks.

Under the same night sky

Yangke University, Shen Kang and his dormitory

Shen Kang was sitting at his desk.

It's already past ten o'clock, and their daily family game time has ended. Shen Kang is browsing the Anjia Tongcheng Hui page as an ordinary user.

His online name is, of course, still the familiar "aaa Building Materials Wholesale General Manager Wang".

Hey, you know what, his name actually fits the community kind of surprisingly well.

Shen Kang wasn't posting anything at the moment; instead, he was reading posts. He was reading the most popular post at the moment, the one about collecting all three Miao embroidery bookmarks.

Shen Kang replied directly, unlike the previous essay-style replies, with only two words—"Awesome."

College students are like this: their vocabulary is limited, and they can't compare to those high-end individuals.

Just then, Feng Moquan strolled over, stood behind him for a moment, glanced at him, and asked, "Old Shen, is this the website you just created?"

"To be precise, it's a newly created section on a website," Shen Kang explained accurately.

"Give me the website address, I'll go in and boost your popularity too."

Feng Moquan felt that Lao Shen was quick-witted and the things he created were quite interesting, such as Beiming Community and If You Are the One.

Now that Lao Shen has created a new website, he immediately wants to check it out.

Shen Kang, unusually, refused, "I can't give that to you. This website is a closed community, only open to Anjia Home Services' premium clients..."

He briefly explained the concept of Anjia Tongcheng Hui to Feng Moquan.

Wang Pan is playing a game.

Upon hearing the words "high-end people," Wang Pan's excitement was immediately aroused. He stopped playing the game and immediately moved behind Shen Kang to listen.

After listening, Wang Pan said directly, "Since it's a website targeting high-end users, Lao Shen, can I join? I guess I'd be considered high-end, right?"

He had no idea what the website was for, but it didn't matter, as long as it was "high-end"!

Shen Kang turned to look at him, then shook his head again. "Brother Pan, you are indeed high-end, but the rules are inflexible. You must first be a client of Anjia Household Services and reach a certain spending threshold before you can enter. As the saying goes, 'Even the emperor is subject to the same laws as commoners.' Once this rule is set, it's not easy for me, the boss, to change it."

Wang Pan thought about it and agreed; he wouldn't make things difficult for Old Shen. Then, he thought of another idea: "I don't think I'll need Anjia Household Services in Yangcheng... Do you have Anjia Household Services in Anfang City?"

Anfang City is a prefecture-level city in Qianlin Province.

Shen Kang also clearly remembered that Anfang City was among the cities they were expanding into this time.

"have."

"If my family purchases your company's housekeeping services, will I become a user of this community?"

"You also need to spend a certain amount."

"OK!"

After getting the answer he wanted, Wang Pan felt relieved and started thinking about calling his father later to ask them to buy more Anjia Housekeeping services.

If Wang Pan doesn't join such a high-end community, can it still be called a high-end community?

He was just helping Lao Shen out.

Wang Pan pondered this, while Feng Moquan looked at the screen in front of Shen Kang again, saying, "Old Shen, according to you, all the users on this screen are rich people?"

"That's a reasonable way to understand it for now."

Feng Moquan quickly glanced at the post on the screen again, puzzled: "Are these three bookmarks really that good? They seem just average to me. Why are they being praised as unparalleled? Rich people don't seem to have much discernment, do they?"

If it weren't for the excessive praise from the original poster, Feng Moquan's three bookmarks would indeed be quite nice and exquisite.

However, after hearing the original poster's effusive praise, he developed a rebellious attitude and felt that the three bookmarks were nothing special.

Shen Kang remained calm and simply asked, "You think these three bookmarks are just so-so?"

Feng Moquan nodded. "Hmm, so-so."

Shen Kang's hands flew across the keyboard as he logged out of the alternate account and logged into an administrator account. He checked some data about "Jinxiu" in the backend and then reported it to Feng Moquan.

"In order to collect all three bookmarks in one day, this user brought out a treadmill, five laptops, three electronic dictionaries, and sixteen MP3 players. In return, he got three type A bookmarks, four type B bookmarks, and one type C bookmark, which finally gave him a complete set of three bookmarks."

Shen Kang guessed that this user's family owned a company, and these items were probably not something she owned herself, but rather something she collected from elsewhere and then handed over to Anjia Housekeeping to sell.

"..."

Feng Mo was shocked.

Wang Pan, startled from his reverie, said calmly, "Old Feng, you don't know anything. These three bookmarks are exquisite! They're full of culture. You just don't know how to appreciate them."

Feng Moquan couldn't help but ask, "Old Shen, he gave you all this stuff just to collect these three bookmarks? These bookmarks are more expensive than gold!"

At the same time, she looked at the pictures on the screen again and had a different feeling: "You know what. Now that you mention it, I think these three bookmarks are really quite nice."

Shen Kang shook his head. "The things she took out weren't for me, but for me to sell. After they're sold, I'll still give her a share of the profits, just a commission."

Feng Moquan wasn't so surprised then. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I see. There isn't that much money left, but I still made money for you, so it's like giving you money."

As he spoke, he leaned forward slightly, saying, "It seems like it doesn't look as good as it used to, but it's still better than before..."

Feng Moquan's aesthetic taste is truly based on "how much money it is worth".

After looking at it for a while, Feng Moquan asked Shen Kang how much he paid for the bookmark.

"Twenty yuan each."

"..."

Feng Moquan took out what Shen Kang had just said—"one treadmill, five laptops, three electronic dictionaries, and sixteen MP3 players"—in his mind and compared it with "twenty yuan each" and "a total price of sixty yuan."

And so they fell silent.

Wang Pan glanced at Shen Kang a few more times, thinking to himself, "Old Shen really has the talent of a shrewd businessman. When I become a high-ranking leader in the future, I must keep a close eye on Old Shen to prevent this shrewd businessman from harming the people."

After a moment of silence, Feng Moquan couldn't help but say, "Old Shen, what are you rich people thinking? Let me think about it carefully. If he sold those things himself, he'd definitely make more money than if he gave them to you. And yet he let you get a good deal, just for these bookmarks that cost sixty yuan?"

"It's not sixty, it's one hundred and sixty."

Shen Kang corrected the error in his algorithm, "There are eight bookmarks in total, but five of them are duplicates."

Feng Moquan counted on his fingers and said, "Even if it's 160, the profit you made from the items he gave you would be much higher than this, right?"

Shen Kang didn't answer the specific question about profits, but simply said, "That's not how you calculate it. Take my Versace t-shirt, for example. Do you really think it's worth thousands of dollars? But people still buy it. The high premium they pay isn't actually buying the item itself, but rather a kind of 'social value' and emotional value. In the end, if you have money but don't show off, then I've just made money for nothing, haven't I?"

Upon hearing Shen Kang's words, Feng Moquan understood: Wang Pan really liked Old Shen's Versace t-shirt; it made him look good. The most prestigious moment was when he casually mentioned the price of that t-shirt, regardless of whether anyone asked, eliciting shocked looks from onlookers.

It seems that these three bookmarks are essentially the same thing.

After looking at it for a while, Feng Moquan lost interest in Shen Kang's newly created website: "Look at what those users on the forum are saying in their posts and replies. It's so old-fashioned and boring. The Beiming Community is much more interesting."

Wang Pan stood behind and watched for a while, becoming increasingly interested: This website is great! You can tell at a glance that it's full of high-end people! I'll call my dad tomorrow and tell him to buy more of the Anjia Family Array service so he can get the qualification as soon as possible.

When you're chatting with people, you'll be able to subtly reveal your status as a "distinguished Anjia Local Club member".

It's best if the other person knows, but even better if they don't. That way, I can give them a long, detailed explanation, telling them it's a gated, high-end community where only big bosses and high-ranking officials reside; ordinary people can't even get in. This is even more effective at showing off than Old Shen's Versace suit! ...