The second Sister and her husband brought canned fruit and three bottles of beer. Even bottled beer requires ration coupons these days. Usually, when Old Fei wanted a drink, he’d have to take his thermos to the restaurant to get a draft beer.

Halfway through the meal, it started raining, growing steadily heavier. By the time Ye Feng was ready to leave, there was no sign of it letting up. The family had only two umbrellas in total – one was given to Fang Muyang, and the other to Ye Feng. Fei Ni accompanied Ye Feng to the door, and as they descended the stairs, she deliberately brought up the topic of her brother, who had been sent to the countryside as an educated youth.

“My brother has returned to the city. If the street office can’t find him a job, I’ll give him mine.”

“Did your family ask you to do this?”

“No, it’s my own decision.”

When she was young and sickly, her parents had scraped together enough money to get her milk deliveries. Not only did her siblings not get any, but they had to heat her milk every day. After warming the milk and pouring it into a bowl, her eldest brother would use chopsticks to skim off the cream on top and feed it to Second Sister, saying it was the essence of the milk and must be given to their second child. Then he would supervise Fei Ni as she drank every last drop from the bowl. As for himself, he would pour hot water from the thermos into the unwashed milk pot and tilt his head back to savor the lingering dairy taste.

Fei Ni should have attended the same primary school as her siblings, but that school had no heating in winter, only coal stoves. During breaks, the entire class would crowd around the stove in layers, and those who couldn’t get close enough would huddle together, sharing body heat. Since Fei Ni was frail in childhood, her parents went to great lengths to get her into a school with proper heating. At that school, children from ordinary working families like Fei Ni were the minority.

Among the three siblings, the best things at home were always hers. Fei Ni wasn’t the type to take advantage, and besides, she didn’t like working at the hat factory. When the time came, it would be better to give the position to someone who truly needed it.

“Then what will you do?”

“I know how to make clothes, I can earn money that way.” Money could be exchanged for grain and cloth rations; she could still support herself. However, people who thought like her were in the minority. These days, people from state-owned enterprises look down on those from collective enterprises, who in turn look down on those without formal employment. Fei Ni knew that many people were willing to associate with her not just because she was young and pretty, but because she had a formal job. Delayed disclosure sometimes amounted to deception, so it was better to be upfront. If Ye Feng could accept it, they could continue seeing each other; if not, they would end it here.

Ye Feng remained silent.

Fei Ni had anticipated this silence and maintained her smile. She stood at the building entrance saying goodbye to Ye Feng, telling him to be careful on his way. Raindrops fell from Ye Feng’s umbrella onto the ground, and as Fei Ni watched them, she wondered when the rain would stop. Fang Muyang had probably returned to the hospital already – she wasn’t sure if he’d made it in time for the cafeteria’s meal hours. She’d forgotten to tell him he didn’t need to return the umbrella, and she worried he might come back to return it…

When Fei Ni went upstairs, the water room door was open, and she saw Second Sister washing dishes inside.

Fei Ni turned off the tap in front of Second Sister and pulled the basin toward herself. “Go rest, I’ll wash these.”

Second Sister teased her: “Why did it take so long to see him off? Was there something you couldn’t say at the dinner table?”

Fei Ni remained silent, and the Second Sister assumed she was just being shy.

“Our factory was processing some defective fabric, and I brought you a piece. It’s enough to make two shirts. You haven’t made any new clothes in the past couple of years, have you?”

“I made a skirt just last month.”

“That’s such old fabric from years ago. Even Mom thinks the pattern is outdated, though it looks surprisingly good on you. I think Ye Feng is quite nice, and he has good table manners too. You can tell he’s never gone hungry, unlike your brother-in-law who eats like a starved soul – you can tell he often went hungry as a child.”

Fei Ni could hear the tenderness even in this mockery.

“I think he’s nice too, but he might not be satisfied with me.”

Second Sister laughed, “You didn’t see how he looked at you – he’s more than satisfied.”

Fei Ni kept quiet. Things change.

After seeing off Second Sister and her husband, Old Fei took out the package Fang Muyang had brought and said to Fei Ni, “This is from young Fang for you.”

Fei Ni opened the package to find malted milk powder, American milk powder, chocolate, and five apples.

“Dad, why did you accept his gifts? You know he doesn’t even have a job, he’s just living on subsidies.”

“I didn’t know he’d be so generous. If you want, tell me where he lives, and I’ll return these to him. This child, why did he bring so many things?”

“Never mind, it’s complicated enough already. You keep them.”

Old Fei was in a good mood today and decided to use his hand-cranked phonograph that hadn’t been used in ages. He had bought this phonograph specifically to listen to Zhou Xuan’s songs, but Zhou Xuan’s music wasn’t allowed anymore. He pulled out a record of “The Commune Members Are Sunflowers.”

The room was filled with an atmosphere of upward mobility and hope.

Among the stack of records was a foreign one, wrapped in newspaper from the 1960s. Old Fei could recognize a few of the separate foreign letters on the record, but couldn’t make sense of them when they were together.

Old Fei asked his daughter, “Where did this one come from?”

Fei Ni took the record, looked at both sides, rewrapped it in the newspaper, and took it to the inner room, where she retrieved a locked box from the corner.

This box and its contents were things she had tricked out of Fang Muyang’s possession, and she hadn’t opened the lock since last year.

After securing the box, Fei Ni took her basin to the water room, but the door was closed – probably a man taking a shower. The building had no shower room, so people either had to go to the public bathhouse or use the factory’s shower facilities. The door opened, and three men came out, one of them a bare-chested boy of about ten. Fei Ni turned away, pretending not to see. She turned on the tap and splashed water on her face vigorously. When she squeezed her toothpaste tube, it took a while – she’d need to buy new toothpaste tomorrow.

There was a fly in the water room, buzzing around annoyingly.

Fei Ni had once hated flies but for different reasons than most people. In primary school, Fei Ni got perfect scores in every subject, but there was one area where she fell short. The school had launched a campaign to eliminate the “Four Pests,” and students had to turn in dead flies daily. On her way to and from school, Fei Ni would carry her flowered schoolbag, glass jar, and fly swatter, searching for flies, but she never managed to kill a single one. During the Four Pests elimination honor roll announcements, she was always last in her class.

Her connection with Fang Muyang had also started because of flies. At their school, students ate lunch on campus. The rural grain shortage had affected school meals – you could count the rice grains in the vegetable porridge. Most children would bring steamed buns or other food from home, or those without packed lunches would use money and grain rations from home to buy food.

After lunch, Fei Ni would walk around the school grounds with her fly swatter looking for flies. She hadn’t caught any flies, but she accidentally hit the plump arm of an older male student. Before she could apologize, the boy stomped on her foot twice, telling her to watch where she was going. The boy’s physique was uncommon at the time – clearly from a family that didn’t lack oil and fine grain; such round arms couldn’t be developed from vegetable porridge and corn buns alone. When Fei Ni protested about being stepped on, the boy said, “What’s wrong with stepping on you, little girl? If you don’t watch where you’re going, I’ll kick you too.” Fang Muyang happened to witness the latter part of this exchange. He recognized the girl with two braids, wearing a white blouse and floral dress, holding a fly swatter, as Fei Ni from his class. Before Fei Ni could call for help, he rushed forward and kicked the boy several times, declaring that if he ever saw him bullying one of his female classmates again, he’d make him throw up everything he’d eaten.

The boy recognized Fang Muyang and threatened to report him to his parents. Fang Muyang appeared completely unconcerned, telling him to go ahead.

Fei Ni, holding her fly swatter and glass jar behind her back, thanked Fang Muyang. He responded generously, saying that helping classmates was natural and that she would surely help him if he were in trouble, wouldn’t she? Fei Ni couldn’t say no. Fang Muyang then said he was very hungry and wanted a spiral-shaped baked flatbread, asking if she could lend him five fens and one liang of grain rations. Fei Ni said she had no money with her, and Fang Muyang looked very disappointed. Fei Ni felt somewhat guilty, having just received his help. She handed her fly swatter to Fang Muyang and, holding the empty glass jar, went to search through her school bag. She pulled out a vitamin-enriched bread wrapped in wax paper – something she had saved up for over a week to buy. Tomorrow was her brother’s birthday, and she had intended it as his birthday gift.

Before handing the bread to Fang Muyang, Fei Ni clutched the wax paper-wrapped bread tightly, squeezing it smaller. She said if he could give her the money for the bread tomorrow, she would let him have it now.

Fang Muyang agreed readily.

The next day, Fang Muyang didn’t repay the money. Instead, he brought Fei Ni a “Made in England” pencil box, telling her it was worth at least ten loaves of bread, and he was willing to use it as payment for the bread.

Fei Ni said she already had a pencil box; she only wanted the money and grain ration coupons he’d promised to return.

Fang Muyang still showed no intention of repaying. He told her he had no money at the moment, and if she wanted money and ration coupons, he’d need some time. He offered to leave the pencil box as collateral, saying he’d retrieve it when he had the money.

“You promised to pay me back today.” She knew he had money – he often ate foreign canned meat during lunch. His grandmother had visited him in a German car and had even donated a piano to the school.

Fang Muyang grinned at her, showing a row of white teeth, and said shamelessly, “But plans don’t always work out. The commission store won’t take my pencil box, so what can I do? Didn’t you say classmates should help each other?”

His shamelessness made Fei Ni cry. Fang Muyang tried to console her: “Don’t cry. In a few days, I’ll pay you back double the ration coupons and money.”

“Really?”

“I’m not lying. My grandmother’s gone to Indonesia. When she returns, I’ll have money.”

“Don’t your parents give you money?” Though young, Fei Ni knew Fang Muyang’s parents earned considerably more than hers. If her parents could give her a few fen for pocket money every day, why would he have nothing?

Fang Muyang answered with silence. His parents had sent him to board at school, where he ate three meals a day. He couldn’t even go home for a decent meal, let alone receive pocket money.

With no other choice, Fei Ni had him write an IOU and gave the “Made in England” pencil box to her brother as a birthday gift. Fortunately, her brother was happy with it.

The next morning, Fei Ni found Fang Muyang and asked, “Do you need to borrow more money? If you’ll pay back double, I’ll lend you more.”

“No problem, I’ll pay back double whatever you lend me.” He asked her, “How much can you lend me?”

Fei Ni pulled out a two-fen coin from her dress pocket.

Though penniless, Fang Muyang couldn’t hide his disdain for such a small amount. “This isn’t even enough for one spiral flatbread.”

“You’ll pay back double?”

“Really. Come on, hand over the money. If you don’t trust me, I can leave my violin as collateral.”

“I can’t play the violin. It’s useless to me.”

“I really will pay you back.”

Fei Ni believed him and hesitantly produced a five-fen coin and a grain ration coupon.

Fang Muyang snatched them, asking, “How much more do you have? Give it all to me. When my grandmother returns, I’ll treat you to chocolate and cream cake, okay?”

“Just pay me back the money, no need to treat me.”

Fei Ni wanted to lend Fang Muyang more money, given the promise of double returns, but she’d spent all her savings on the bread that he’d eaten. She could only try getting more from her parents. She told them lunch wasn’t enough, and they believed her, giving her an extra five fen and one liang of grain rations daily, which she passed to Fang Muyang in exchange for IOUs.

As the IOUs piled up, Fei Ni grew increasingly worried and asked Fang Muyang when he would repay her.

Each time, he’d say, “Soon, don’t worry.”

Fearing Fang Muyang might starve before repaying her when her family bought biscuits, she wouldn’t eat them but secretly wrapped them in paper to give him at lunch. Fang Muyang nearly ate the paper along with the biscuits. She’d even share half of her steamed buns with him.

One day, Fei Ni gave Fang Muyang a whole jiao. He asked why it was so much today.

Fei Ni explained that Five Fen was her movie ticket money.

Fang Muyang said, “You’re too kind. Why waste money on movies? I can take you to see free movies at my compound’s auditorium. They show films you can’t see elsewhere. I can take you if you want.”

“When can we go?”

“Next Sunday. I’ll come to your house. Where do you live?”

Fei Ni gave him an address.

On the appointed day, Fei Ni specially wore her white blouse and blue dress, her two braids tied with blue and white polka-dotted ribbons. Her flowered schoolbag contained preserved plums her mother had bought her, which she planned to share with Fang Muyang during the movie. She decided she wouldn’t ask for double repayment anymore – returning what he borrowed would be enough. But she waited until dark, and he never came. The next day, she learned that Fang Muyang had casually forgotten his promise.

Fei Ni swore that no matter how Fang Muyang begged, she wouldn’t lend him any more money or ration coupons for his spiral flatbreads. But Fang Muyang never gave her the chance – his painting had won a prize, he’d reconciled with his parents, no longer needed to board at school, and could return home for meals daily. Most importantly, his grandmother had returned, and he could once again enjoy French pastries from the bakery. He no longer cared about her spiral flatbreads.

He not only repaid Fei Ni double but also gave her a full brown paper bag of chocolates and candies.

Fei Ni refused his chocolates and candies, though she wished she could let her family taste them.

Looking at the money and ration coupons she’d received, she forced a smile at Fang Muyang: “Next time, if you need to borrow money, you can still come to me. Just pay me back double, I don’t want anything else.”

With the money and ration coupons, Fei Ni went to the grocery store and bought five vitamin-enriched bread rolls – one each for her father, mother, brother, sister, and herself. She paid with quite a flourish.

The five bread rolls nearly burst her flowered schoolbag. At home, she took them out and placed them on the dining table. To prevent her family from saving them for her to eat later, she tore off all the wax paper wrapping and put the bread on plates.

Fei Ni didn’t mention her money-lending business, only saying she had saved the money herself.

Her family felt sorry for her, knowing that saving so much meant she hadn’t spent any pocket money at all – not even for a red bean popsicle in such hot weather. But since she’d torn off all the packaging, they could only enjoy the bread she’d bought.

Fei Ni felt deeply satisfied watching her family eat the bread she’d earned.

Later, Fang Muyang invited her to his grandmother’s house for fruit and cream cake, but she declined. She felt a bit disappointed, knowing he probably wouldn’t borrow money for spiral flatbread from her anymore. Where else could she earn double interest?