◎ Deposit ◎

Zhou Zhining had never expected to see Gu Qiao at a police station. She didn’t think particularly highly of Gu Qiao’s character, but finding her here — sitting in what was clearly the seat of someone under questioning — was still a surprise she couldn’t quite contain.

Zhou Zhining was doing an internship at a television station and was working with a colleague on a documentary segment about frontline police officers. They happened to be on the scene when this case involving illegal foreign exchange certificate trading came in. The Gu Qiao she saw now looked nothing like the animated girl she’d encountered before; had it not been for the vivid colors of Gu Qiao’s outfit, she might not have recognized her at once.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Gu Qiao sat beside a young man, though the distance between them was not particularly close. Acting on a tip from a member of the public, officers arrived at the reported location just as Peng Zhou was accepting a bundle of renminbi from the other party. The moment he heard the police siren, Peng Zhou bolted toward the yellow Dafa parked nearby. When he realized the officers were closing in, he turned to Gu Qiao and shouted, “Go!” — but he himself didn’t get in the car. Before Gu Qiao had even fully understood what was happening, Peng Zhou had already been apprehended. The search afterward turned up 11,000 yuan’s worth of foreign exchange certificates on the other person and a bundle of cash on Peng Zhou. Gu Qiao had no foreign exchange certificates on her, but as the driver, she was also brought in to assist with the investigation.

—

In the trading market, transactions were generally conducted in three currencies: renminbi, US dollars, and foreign exchange certificates. Vendors inside the market preferred to receive payment in foreign exchange certificates; when accepting payment, renminbi and foreign exchange certificates were exchanged at a one-to-one ratio, but when someone needed foreign currency converted, the rate would shift to 1:1.2 or 1:1.3 — and in some cases, traders could profit by as much as forty or fifty percent. This environment had given rise to a thriving black market for foreign exchange certificate trading. Even so, outside of those who dealt in it professionally, most vendors’ individual transactions were on a small scale.

Peng Zhou was still smiling his easy smile. “This girl doesn’t know anything about any of this. Having her sit here is just wasting everyone’s time. The foreign exchange business has nothing to do with her — my van broke down, she’s got a good heart, she saved me the cab fare and gave me a lift. She’s a completely law-abiding citizen who had absolutely no idea what I was here to do. It would be wrong of me to hold up her business on account of this. Don’t believe me? Ask the man I was doing the deal with — from start to finish, it was just the two of us. A third party had nothing to do with any of it.”

It wasn’t until the officers were loading Peng Zhou into the police vehicle that Gu Qiao fully grasped what had happened. If she had known what Peng Zhou was there to do, she would never have driven him here in the first place — and she certainly would never have let him go through with the transaction. Trading foreign exchange certificates at that volume was a violation of the law. The consequences ranged from fines to outright confiscation.

One of the officers said to Peng Zhou, “Start talking — explain yourself.”

“I was only doing a good turn helping someone exchange their money. Being helpful was my whole motivation. The moment someone told me they urgently needed US dollars, I stopped thinking about whether it was legal or not. Lucky for me you officers arrived when you did — otherwise I might have made an even bigger mistake. That’s why they call you the People’s Police!”

Officer Wang gave a cold laugh. “Tell it straight. We have solid evidence that this isn’t your first time trading foreign exchange certificates.”

“Who reported me? What a despicable person! Officers, don’t believe a word they say!”

“Make your statement honestly!”

“How could I dare do otherwise? But I really did mean well.” Peng Zhou coughed, then continued, “You gentlemen have sharp eyes, so I won’t try to hide it — I’ve helped people exchange money a few times before out of goodwill, all small amounts, a few hundred yuan at most. An amount this large? Truly a first time. I was trying to do someone a favor, and look — I walked right into a trap!”

“Doing a favor, and you charge forty percent over the rate! Did you not know this was illegal?”

When he heard that his money would be confiscated, Peng Zhou nearly shot out of his chair. “Officers, even if I had the intention, the money was never actually exchanged, was it? At most this counts as an attempted violation!”

Throughout the entire process, Gu Qiao stayed almost entirely silent. In the end, it was confirmed that she had indeed had no involvement; the officers even thanked her specifically for cooperating with the investigation.

When Peng Zhou emerged from the police station, he looked thoroughly deflated. “Someone must have deliberately set me up. Who knows which little rat in the market reported me…” His original plan had been to complete the foreign exchange deal in order to buy more goods — more goods meant more profit. Instead, he’d earned nothing and been left half his fine short.

“You do realize what’s right in front of you, don’t you? If you want to go back inside, keep talking!”

Gu Qiao delivered this line and jumped straight into the yellow Dafa. She leaned out and shouted down at him, “Are you getting in? If not, I’m leaving.”

Peng Zhou scrambled in after her. “I owe you an apology for dragging you into this. Your older brother here is sorry, all right?”

“Don’t try to sweet-talk me! Whose older brother are you exactly? Is this what a decent person does? You illegally trade foreign exchange certificates in a large amount and you drag me along as your getaway driver.”

“Fine, fine — I’m your grandson if that makes you happy. But to be fair, I was about to hail a cab and you said you were going that way anyway and offered me a lift. I didn’t expect any of this to happen either!”

It was rare for Peng Zhou to see Gu Qiao’s face look this dark. He dropped his defense. “You’re right — it was my fault. If I’d known I was going to get caught today, I would never in a million years have let you drive me. Never mind letting you drive me — I would never have done this deal at all. I lost my head. Yesterday Boss Zhai came to find me and handed me a piece of paper — said someone had approached him wanting to exchange foreign currency, but he didn’t have any on hand, so if I could help, I should contact the number on the note. I was hesitant at first because of the risk, but when money gets dangled right in front of your face, you start thinking it would be a real waste not to take it. I told them I’d think it over, but the other party was in a hurry, so I gave in on impulse and agreed.”

Peng Zhou slapped his own forehead. “You don’t think it was Zhai himself who reported me, do you? I cobbled together a few foreign exchange certificates from different people — it wasn’t much, nowhere near enough for them to bother reporting me over. And I’ve never crossed Boss Zhai either.” At the station, he hadn’t mentioned Boss Zhai — partly out of personal loyalty; partly because Zhai had only handed him the note, while the amount and rate had been negotiated entirely between himself and the other party over the phone. Even if he brought Zhai up, Zhai could easily claim he’d known nothing about it.

“Boss Zhai?” Gu Qiao thought back to a time when she’d been short on funds and had competed with Boss Zhai over a deal. Later, when her business had gotten on track and she landed a large order, Zhai had run into some difficulty of his own; she had passed half the order to him as a form of compensation. She didn’t believe that gesture had turned them from rivals into friends — they were still competitors. She could believe that Boss Zhai might try to steal her business, but that he would go out of his way to set a trap for her, and do it through such a roundabout approach as targeting Peng Zhou? That she couldn’t quite accept. Boss Zhai wasn’t a fool. Why would he do something that benefited no one?

Gu Qiao set aside her suspicions. “If you’d held firm yourself, it wouldn’t matter who reported you — your money would still be yours. Whoever turned you in isn’t the issue right now. What matters is that you don’t do this again.”

“After getting burned like this, why would I! Stop being angry! I’ll add a bit more margin for you on each leather jacket.”

Gu Qiao asked the question she cared about most right now. “Can you pull together the deposit we agreed on by today?”

Peng Zhou said through gritted teeth, “No problem. I’ll get it to you.”

“Are you sure? I’m going this afternoon to sign the contract with the manufacturer. The money needs to reach them by tomorrow at the latest. If you can’t manage it…”

“I’ll definitely have it.”

Gu Qiao pulled the yellow Dafa to a stop at a busy spot where it would be easy to flag down a cab. “Out you get. I’ve got a contract to go sign.”

Left behind on the asphalt road, Peng Zhou watched the yellow Dafa drive off into the distance. “That girl!”

The manufacturers who had verbally agreed to a deposit with Gu Qiao suddenly changed their terms. What had originally been negotiated as a thirty percent deposit now became full payment in advance. Even the vendor who had always given Gu Qiao the most face was only willing to come down as far as eighty percent. When Gu Qiao asked why, the explanation was the same from all of them: border trading carried too much risk; this was Gu Qiao’s first time doing business at the border; and she was an outsider with no local ties. If something went wrong, who were they supposed to chase for the balance?

The words were still politely worded — they had to maintain working relationships, after all. But that was what they all meant.

The reason was plausible enough. But when the thirty percent deposit had been agreed upon in the first place, Gu Qiao had told them it was for border trade as well — and the fact that she was a solo operator with no local roots had never been a secret. So why the sudden change?

In Gu Qiao and Peng Zhou’s partnership, whoever put in money bought that amount of goods and kept the corresponding profits. But because Gu Qiao was the one sourcing the goods, she took a cut of Peng Zhou’s profit per jacket. Peng Zhou couldn’t have gotten such a low deposit rate on his own; raising the deposit requirement would mean buying fewer goods, which meant lower profits. And organizing goods from multiple suppliers, hiring trucks, arranging escorts — it was all time-consuming and exhausting. Still, after weighing everything, Peng Zhou had agreed to Gu Qiao’s terms.

Now that the deposit had gone up, the money they’d pooled together — which would have bought four truckloads of goods — could only buy a little over one truckload. Cutting the goods to a third meant earnings cut to a third as well. And Peng Zhou’s agreement to give her a cut on each jacket had been premised on her ability to bring the deposit down to thirty percent. On his own, Peng Zhou would have needed to pay at least eighty percent upfront.

But now she would be paying roughly the same deposit rate as Peng Zhou himself. Why would he hand over a cut to her for that?

When the last manufacturer told Gu Qiao that the deposit had been raised to a minimum of eighty percent, the light went out of her eyes. The cold was brutal; her bare hands had gone red from the freezing air, and she hadn’t even noticed. She had been planning to pay and take delivery the next day — Lou Deyu had already arranged the trucks, just waiting for the goods to be assembled before heading out to Erlian.

Gu Qiao had reached the entrance to the alleyway, her mind still churning over why the vendors had changed their minds so abruptly. A bicycle bell rang behind her several times without registering.

Then a voice bellowed: “Excuse me, coming through!”

Gu Qiao turned and saw a young boy who had only just started growing stubble, riding a three-wheeled cargo bike piled high with leather jackets. She recognized him as the son of one of the manufacturers.

Gu Qiao’s eyes made a quick calculation, and she immediately produced a smile for him. “You’re delivering to Sister Zhao at the market, right? She’s been waiting for you! Better hurry!”

“I’m delivering to Boss Zhai!”

“Boss Zhai!” Gu Qiao remarked. “Word is he gets them from you for seventy yuan a piece. We’re all in the same business — you should treat people equally!”

The boy was guileless and no match for Gu Qiao’s probing. Thinking she was simply trying to haggle, he said, “Boss Zhai needed the goods urgently, so the price he’s paying isn’t lower than anyone else’s. Besides, he said he’s now got connections with a foreign trade company — more reliable than those border traders.”

The smile froze on Gu Qiao’s face, as if the cold air had set it in place. The foreign trade company the boy mentioned was one Gu Qiao had visited before; she had even taken its manager, Yu, out to lunch. How had those two ended up joining forces?

—