Returned City Kids Refuse to Be Tools

In 2000, Liang Qian returned to the city with her parents, who had been assigned to work in a border region.

Her uncles and aunts eyed them warily.

"You moved your household registration out ages ago. The house has nothing to do with you!"

"What, you want to register your daughter here for the college entrance exams, but don't want a share of the house? Who'd believe that?"

"You can register here, sure. At the going rate, it'll cost 50,000!"

They paid 50,000 to register their daughter, but whenever they needed the household register, they were given the runaround. Their daughter almost missed the college entrance exams because of it.

Liang Qian was reborn, back to the moment her parents were preparing to hand over the money in exchange for a local household registration. She stopped them and said, "If we buy a home, we can get a blue-stamp household registration, and our whole family can stay registered together."

No more living in a tin shack like in her past life. No more giving gifts and smiling ingratiatingly to so-called relatives every time they needed the household register. Liang Qian helped her parents avoid every trap.

At last, the news of the demolition reached them. A group of women stood at the entrance to the alley, chamber pots in hand, chatting excitedly.

Aunt Liang, the eldest: "We're worried too. What if that family coming back from the northwest doesn't know their place and tries to take our house? It'd be such a pain."

A puzzled neighbor: "They live in a villa. Why would they want your house?"

Uncle Liang, the third, turned down a neighbor's request for help. "It's not that I don't want to help. Our company really is hiring a clerical worker, but I have to save the position for the daughter of... well, my second older brother."

The neighbor: "Hmph! If you're going to make something up, at least come up with a better excuse! A graduate from a top university needs to work as a clerk for you?"

Theme: Hard work brings rewards