Chen Lan decided to pick out 108 beads for each of the elderly people at home. Xu Mingxuan helped her. Once the couple had selected all the bracelets to be given as gifts, Chen Lan ordered a batch of wooden craft boxes for jewelry from the system and had Xu Mingxuan help her pack each bracelet separately. They could then be directly given as gifts when they returned to the valley.
From the remaining pile of bracelets, Chen Lan picked out several brightly colored red ones she had noticed earlier: deep red, persimmon red, and rose red. Each string was exceptionally beautiful.
She decided to pick these out for her daughters. While wiping each bead with an old towel, Chen Lan played with them. She discovered that the beads were very fine-textured, and the more she polished them, the more lustrous and rich their color became. The red ones were even more vibrant, and she found them increasingly beautiful the more she looked at them.
She then asked, "Brother Mingxuan, is the material of these beads carnelian?"
Xu Mingxuan picked up the deep red bracelet in Chen Lan's hand and examined it carefully. He replied, "Yes, it's carnelian. This material should be Jin Hong, a type of Southern Red Agate. You can see its characteristics: red color, soft texture, fine grain, lustrous sheen, and uniform color. It's as vibrant as red silk. While intensely red, it's rich without being gaudy, giving a sense of great nobility and beauty. Red agate of this vivid color is quite rare, and if it's also full-bodied and fully colored, it's even rarer and more precious! Lan'er, you should keep this Jin Hong bracelet for yourself!" Su Dan Xiaoshuo Wang.
Chen Lan casually replied, "Brother Mingxuan, I'm already old. Such a vibrant color... I think I'll pass. Since it's such a good item, it's better to save it for the daughters. Besides, I don't really like wearing such things."
Hearing Chen Lan say this, Xu Mingxuan immediately looked displeased. He put on a stern face and said, "Lan'er, what are you talking about? Old? You're still young! Do you know why I want you to wear Southern Red bracelets? Because Southern Red has always been considered an auspicious item for warding off evil and protecting oneself since ancient times."
Chen Lan asked dismissively, "Brother Mingxuan, warding off evil? Is it really that effective?"
Xu Mingxuan replied very seriously, "Of course, Lan'er. Do you know that Southern Red is listed as one of the Seven Treasures of Buddhism? Since ancient times, people who believe in Buddhism have used it as an amulet to ward off evil, and monks in temples use it as a protective charm."
Seeing Chen Lan still looking unconvinced, Xu Mingxuan continued, "Lan'er, it is said that women who wear Southern Red bracelets not only benefit their sleep but also improve blood circulation and help the body expel toxins. If worn for a long time, it can make one's lips rosy and eyes bright, and their skin become ruddy and lustrous. Moreover, items that are full-bodied and fully colored like this are very rare. Such valuable items, I worry the daughters are too young to handle them."
Seeing that Xu Mingxuan had explained it so thoroughly, Chen Lan couldn't refuse his kind intentions. She nodded and accepted the bracelet, carefully wiped it clean with an old towel, and placed it in a jewelry box. Then, along with the gifts for her mother and the other elders, she stored it in the system warehouse.
In her past life, Chen Lan was an ordinary person and had no opportunity to encounter such jewelry, let alone study them. Therefore, she only had a vague understanding of what Xu Mingxuan meant by "full-bodied and fully colored."
So, she asked curiously, "Brother Mingxuan, I often hear people talk about 'full-bodied and fully colored,' but what exactly does it mean?"
Xu Mingxuan thought for a moment and said, "I haven't really studied this. This is my understanding! I personally believe that 'fully colored' should mean that the color of the bead is evenly distributed throughout, with no other杂色 (miscellaneous colors), and the material is clean and fine-textured. 'Full-bodied' refers to the material being dense, not translucent, and having a thick, plump texture."
After speaking, Xu Mingxuan picked out a rose-red Buddha pendant from a pile of bracelets and said, "Lan'er, you wanted to give bracelets to the daughters, right? These bracelets are too large for young children. This rose-red Buddha pendant is quite rare. Let's give this pendant to our youngest daughter, Shi Mei!"
Chen Lan saw that the pendant was carved entirely into a jovial Maitreya Buddha with a purple-red color, like a blooming rose. It was indeed quite rare, and making it into a pendant to hang around the neck would be very suitable for Shi Mei.
So, Chen Lan reached out, took it, wiped it clean with an old towel, and put it into a jewelry box, storing it in the system warehouse.
Xu Mingxuan then picked out a string of cherry-red bracelets and said, "This fully colored cherry-red one, with its fresh and tender color, should be quite suitable for our fourth daughter, Jia Hui."
Xu Mingxuan then picked out two strings of persimmon-red and one string of flame-red bracelets, saying, "These full-bodied, fully colored persimmon-red bracelets have a gentle and fine texture like congealed fat, giving a soft and warm feeling, which is more suitable for our second and third daughters. This flame-red bracelet has a good texture, a vibrant color, and is quite rare, making it suitable for our eldest daughter, Chun Ni."
Chen Lan smiled and said, "Mingxuan-xuan, when the time comes to give them to the daughters, I'll say that you specifically picked them out for them. They'll surely be very happy to hear that."
With that, she packed each of the bracelets Xu Mingxuan had specially chosen for the daughters into jewelry boxes, to be given as gifts when they returned to the valley.
Once the bracelets were packed, Chen Lan collected the remaining unselected bracelets into a box and finally stored them all in the system warehouse.
Chen Lan then took out the ration coupons she had bought for five hundred yuan from the system warehouse. She had Xu Mingxuan pick out the coupons with "Harbin City" written on them, while she herself would pick out the nationally valid grain coupons.
One must know that ration coupons were a hard currency in that era, and national ration coupons were even more valuable than money. It was said that one kilogram of national ration coupons contained two liang of oil! Cooking oil was very precious and hard to buy in the 1970s, as the monthly allocation of oil coupons was extremely limited.
Therefore, even if you had money, without ration coupons, it would be very difficult to buy grain and staple foods at state-run grain stores or restaurants, unless you went to the black market.
So, even though the state repeatedly prohibited the buying and selling of ration coupons on the market, in that special era, in people's actual lives, national ration coupons were equivalent to cash, and even more valuable than Renminbi, which showed how precious national ration coupons were during this period.