Sure enough, a prompt soon appeared on the system screen. Chen Lan, relying on her strength, followed the system's prompts, moving and searching extensively.
Chen Lan grew more excited the more she searched. With the system's help, she had quite a harvest this time. She not only found five ancient books with yellowed and slightly damaged pages, but also three old medical books. She also found a book on acupuncture and massage, and a copy of "Compendium of Hundred Herbs."
Finding these ancient medical texts made Chen Lan incredibly happy. For children to learn medicine well, especially traditional Chinese medicine, they needed to study and draw upon the experience of their predecessors, which would help them avoid many detours.
After that, Chen Lan found three relatively complete ancient paintings. Finally, she happened upon a complete set of "Self-Study Series in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry," along with a stack of study notes. Seeing the neat handwriting and clear organization of the notes, Chen Lan felt as if she had found a treasure, even happier than when she found the other valuable items.
Chen Lan didn't have time to examine these treasures carefully. She put everything she found, along with the "Self-Study Series in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry" and the study notes, into the system's storage, planning to take them out later at home to appreciate the ancient books and paintings.
Just then, Jiaxing came over, holding a large pile of books. Seeing Chen Lan still engrossed in searching through the piles of books, he asked, "Mom, how many have you found?"
Chen Lan looked up, wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, and rubbed her slightly sore lower back. She asked, "Jiaxing, how many have you found? Have you found all the junior high school books?"
Jiaxing bent down and placed the books he was holding on the ground. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and replied with a smile, "Mom, I've found two and a half sets. How many sets have you found?"
Chen Lan had been so focused on using the system's search function to find treasures that she had forgotten about finding junior high school books for the children!
She replied a little sheepishly, "Mom hasn't found a single one yet. I've been searching for a long time, but I've been looking in the wrong places. But now Mom has a new target! I definitely won't get it wrong this time."
Upon hearing Chen Lan's words, Jiaxing quickly comforted her, "Mom, don't worry. It's too hot. It's okay if you haven't found any! I've already found two complete sets, so we siblings can take turns reading them!"
Chen Lan waved her hand and said, "Mom will search one last time. If I get it wrong again, Mom will listen to you and stop searching!"
Before she finished speaking, Chen Lan immediately opened the system's search function with her thoughts, and a prompt soon appeared on the system screen.
Chen Lan bent down and searched again. This time, she not only found a complete set of junior high school textbooks but also a complete set of high school textbooks and several high school class notes. Finally, there was an unexpected bonus: she found a stamp album.
Without any hesitation, Chen Lan first put the stamp album into the system's storage. Then, she took out a large snakeskin bag from her backpack and put all the books into it.
Holding the snakeskin bag in one hand, she walked towards the door and said, "Jiaxing, let's go! We'll take these to the front store to pay!"
Jiaxing bent down, picked up the books on the ground, and followed Chen Lan out of the warehouse. The mother and son went to the front store as if they were very familiar with the place, placing all the books on a large scale to be weighed for payment.
The person on duty at the front store that noon was a woman in her late forties or early fifties, with the standard short hair for women of that era. She was slightly overweight, which was uncommon for women at that time.
She bent down and opened the snakeskin bag, carefully examining the books inside. Then, she looked up and asked somewhat confusedly, "Sister, what are you doing buying so many old textbooks? Don't schools give out new books at the beginning of the semester?"
Chen Lan explained to her that she was buying old books for her three sons and one daughter to use for their transfer exams.
Unexpectedly, after hearing Chen Lan's explanation, the woman first looked at Chen Lan, then carefully looked at Jiaxing, and muttered to herself, "How come they don't look like mother and son at all? They must look like their father."
She then scrutinized Chen Lan and Jiaxing for a long time, leaving the mother and son utterly bewildered.
Finally, the woman said something that shocked them, "Sister, I didn't expect you to be so capable! For such a petite woman, you're quite fertile! Look how young you are, yet you have such a big son, and four children who are about to go to high school. I really wouldn't have guessed it! Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
She said this while clicking her tongue, with a meaningful expression that was hard to describe.
Being teased by an outsider in front of her son, Chen Lan's face flushed with embarrassment. She didn't know how to answer for a moment and could only smile awkwardly, changing the subject. "Heh heh, not bad, not bad, just average, average. It's thirty-eight and a half jin. Let's call it forty jin for easy calculation. Books and newspapers are five fen per jin, so that's two yuan in total."
Chen Lan worried that the woman might say something even more shocking and embarrassing, so she immediately took out two yuan, paid for the books, grabbed the snakeskin bag, and hurried away from the store as if she were escaping.
It seemed the storekeeper wanted someone to chat with at noon. Seeing Chen Lan leaving with the bag, the woman shouted from behind, "Hey! Sister! Why are you walking so fast? It's not like a wolf is chasing you, don't rush off! Let's chat for a couple more minutes before you go!"
When Chen Lan heard the storekeeper's words, she quickened her pace even more. In her haste, she made a wrong turn and rushed out of the store's main entrance.
Because Chen Lan left so suddenly and too quickly, by the time Jiaxing reacted, he was shouting anxiously from behind her, "Mom, this way, you're going the wrong way!"
But it was too late. By the time Chen Lan heard Jiaxing's shout and realized she had gone the wrong way, she was already quite far away.
It's okay if I went the wrong way. I'll just go around the scrap yard to the back door. Chen Lan didn't dare to go back to the store for fear of being caught by the storekeeper and teased again.