"Godmother, godmother——"

From a distance, Sun Rongfang spotted the girl in the yellow jacket amidst the crowd, carrying a large travel bag in each hand. She urged her son to run ahead: "Quick, hurry up, your Sister Li Xuan is here to pick us up."

Pushed by his mother, Xie Youtian walked unhurriedly behind her, carrying a big blue backpack and looking around. As a kid leaving his small hometown of Songyuan for the big city for the first time, everything seemed new and intriguing to him.

"If you get lost, let’s see what you’ll do." Sun Rongfang scolded when she saw her son lagging behind.

Wu Lixuan found a gap through the crowd and squeezed over, reaching out to take the luggage bag from Sun Rongfang. "Godmother, let me carry it."

"Don’t rush. The bag is heavy." Sun Rongfang tried to swat away her hand.

"No worries, it’s not like I haven’t done this before." Wu Lixuan quickly took the luggage from Sun Rongfang without another word.

Sun Rongfang jumped and shouted at her slow-moving son, "We’re leaving without you."

Wu Lixuan shouted to the kid, "Xie Youtian, want some McDonald’s?"

Upon hearing about food, Xie Youtian knew he should run and dashed to Sister Wu, asking, "Where’s McDonald’s?"

"Afraid I’m tricking you, huh? Look, there’s one right ahead." Wu Lixuan pointed out, not trying to deceive him. Originally, they intended to grab a bite nearby after getting off the train to fill their stomachs.

The trains used to be slow, taking over ten hours to reach here. Sun Rongfang and her family surely saved money by not buying tasty food on the train, and now they were hungry.

Xie Youtian licked his lips. For a kid his age, fast food like McDonald’s and KFC was very tempting.

The group headed to McDonald’s in the train station. On the way, Sun Rongfang tried to stop her goddaughter from spending money: "Eat something else; this is too expensive and not worth it—two burgers cost tens of yuan."

"Godmother, we only eat this occasionally; don’t worry about it. I told you over the phone, I have some money now, and I can afford this." Wu Lixuan responded.

"Making money is not easy for you."

Unable to convince her godmother right away, Wu Lixuan changed the subject, placing her hand on the little brother’s head to measure his height: "Hasn’t Youtian grown?"

Xie Youtian, now in his first year of middle school, hadn’t yet outgrown the elementary school phase and was like a little garlic sprout compared to his sister Xie Wanying, who was over 1.6 meters tall.

"Let’s see by the second or third year of middle school. His sister grew taller in her second year." Sun Rongfang reminisced about her daughter’s growth. To her, raising a son took much more effort than raising a daughter. Yingying was obedient and listened to her, whereas her son was mischievous and secretly opposed her.

"How are your siblings?" Sun Rongfang casually asked about her goddaughter’s family.

"My sister is graduating from college this year," Wu Lixuan replied.

The second child of the Wu family, Wu Lizhen, was studying at the provincial capital’s business school, having entered college a year after Xie Wanying.

"Has she found a job?" Sun Rongfang inquired.

"We don’t worry about her," Wu Lixuan said truthfully. Her sister was more capable than her. Wu Lizhen excelled in foreign languages at college, participated in practical school activities at trade fairs two years ago, and managed to contact manufacturers to work as an independent agent, earning money.

Upon hearing Wu Lixuan talk about how her sister was already contributing to household incomes as a college student, Sun Rongfang sighed internally, increasingly worried about her daughter’s future livelihood.

"Godmother, you don’t need to worry about Yingying. She’s well-liked by her teachers. I think she’ll have no problem finding a job," Wu Lixuan predicted, based on her observations of her childhood friend’s situation.