1
Lin Yingtao stood at the podium and introduced herself: “My name is Lin Yingtao!”
She pronounced “tao” with a deliberate second tone, striving to raise her pitch.
Cai Fangyuan, Yu Qiao, and Du Shang laughed from below.
The Chinese teacher corrected her again, a bit exasperated as the girl never seemed to remember despite repeated corrections: “Ying~tao. ‘Ying’ should be stressed, while ‘tao’ is neutral. Let’s try again: Ying~tao.”
Lin Yingtao looked at the teacher, blinking her large eyes a few times.
“Ying, tao!” she enunciated, still using the effortful second tone.
Lin Yingtao didn’t care that her classmates were laughing. She insisted on pronouncing her name the way she liked.
So when her parents asked if she’d prefer to use “Lin Qile” as her formal name and keep “Lin Yingtao” as a nickname, she hesitated.
Standing by the screen door with her hands behind her back, Lin Yingtao’s eyes darted between her parents’ faces as they crouched before her. She leaned back slightly.
Lin Dian Gong, the electrician, hugged his seven-year-old daughter. He heard her ask chokingly, “Is it because I can’t pronounce it correctly…”
Lin’s mother smiled and said, “Yingtao is seven now. It’s time for a formal name!”
As night fell, Lin Yingtao put on her slippers and pattered into the narrow bathroom of their worksite dormitory. She sat in the large red basin filled with lukewarm water her mother had prepared. As her mother poured water over her, she laughed happily, her wet hair clinging to her cheeks. “Mama, why do I need a formal name?” she asked.
Lin’s mother rolled up her sleeves and crouched down, ignoring the back pain from operating the tower crane at the construction site. The conditions were harsh; they couldn’t pour hot and cold water directly into the basin for her daughter’s bath. Instead, they had to mix it in a smaller container first.
“A formal name,” she said, massaging the foam on her daughter’s head, “is what Yingtao will use outside. But the closest people, family members, will still use your nickname. We’ll still call you Yingtao!”
“Yingtao” – a name reserved for the closest people, for family.
Lin Yingtao never told Jiang Qiaoxi about what her mother had said, but she felt Jiang Qiaoxi should understand. Unlike other children at the Mountain Group construction site, he always seemed mature and steady. Jiang Qiaoxi never spoke out of turn or gave wrong answers; the blackboard solutions he shared with her were always correct.
Jiang Qiaoxi also treated this name as a kind of unspoken privilege.
2
However, not everyone who called her “Lin Yingtao” was as kind as her parents. Often, they were even more irritating than those who called her “Lin Qile.”
Since kindergarten, Yu Qiao seemed to understand Lin Yingtao’s temper better than anyone else. He was well-versed in all the ways to annoy her. In second grade, Lin Yingtao was “tricked” by the head teacher into reading Hong Kong’s reunification stories at the broadcasting station. The teacher chose her because of her clear pronunciation and because “Lin Qile reads everything very seriously.”
As she headed downstairs with her booklet, she overheard Yu Qiao joking with some boys.
They were laughing about the “reads everything very seriously” comment.
One boy said, “Yu Qiao, you can’t beat Lin Qile, and you’ll have to appease her after you provoke her.”
“When have I ever appeased her?” Yu Qiao grumbled, clearly annoyed.
Another time during recess, Lin Yingtao was coloring a Sailor Moon card with watercolor pens. She was so focused that various colored pens were scattered across her desk.
“Something’s wrong with her brain…” a voice suddenly said from behind.
Lin Yingtao turned to see it was Cai Fangyuan, the new transfer student, probably still resentful from being beaten up by her.
Yu Qiao, sitting next to Cai Fangyuan, looked up from his newspaper and glanced at Lin Yingtao. He turned to Cai Fangyuan with a smile and said, “You’re just now figuring that out?”
Yu Qiao seemed to follow a principle: it wasn’t that he never tried to appease Lin Yingtao, but she was too difficult to placate. Sometimes, even after trying for half a month, it was useless. The more he tried, the worse it got, and it only made him angry. So he figured it was better to just watch her get upset, which was entertaining in its own way.
In third grade, Lin Yingtao and Yu Qiao were desk mates for half a semester. Out of those eight weeks, they spent three weeks quarreling and fighting, three weeks not speaking to each other, and only two weeks being friendly. During those two weeks, Lin Yingtao was elected as the rotating class monitor, elevating her status. Even Yu Qiao had to show her some respect, refraining from retaliating for a full two weeks.
Cai Fangyuan, sitting behind them, observed it all.
3
Cai Fangyuan’s father, Cai Yue, had just arrived at the Mountain Group construction site as the project manager. He quickly became close with the site’s junior leader, Foreman Yu, and the good-natured electrician, Lin Dian Gong.
He gave Foreman Yu’s son an electronic dictionary, which was very advanced and worth 600 yuan in 1997.
Yu Qiao didn’t really know how to use it, as no one else did either, not even Manager Cai. One Sunday, when Cai Fangyuan went to play at Yu Qiao’s house, they sat on the sofa watching an American movie about a pilot fighting terrorists on a plane on CCTV-6. Yu Qiao absent-mindedly fiddled with the electronic dictionary while Cai Fangyuan devoured a plate of fried pork given by Yu Qiao’s mother. In the adjacent bedroom, Yu Qiao’s young cousin, Yu Jin, crawled around on the bed with a runny nose.
Someone knocked on the door. Yu Qiao looked up, went to open it, glanced outside, and returned to his seat.
It was Qin Yeyun, the daughter of Uncle Qin who ran the site’s small shop.
In the movie, the American pilot forgot to bring the cabin door key. He quickly told his girlfriend, “Enter the password, and the door will open.”
“What password?” the girlfriend asked, confused.
The pilot said tenderly, “Baby, it’s your birthday.”
Qin Yeyun entered haughtily, her curly hair unevenly styled. Seeing that Yu Qiao ignored her, she ignored him and Cai Fangyuan as well, walking straight into the bedroom to greet Yu Qiao’s grandmother.
Qin Yeyun struggled to pick up Yu Jin, who had been crawling on the bed. She sat on the edge, forcing Yu Jin to stay still in her arms. Yu Jin had mucus under his nose, and while Qin Yeyun appeared affectionate, she was actually disgusted. Her gaze secretly wandered outside.
Yu Jin sat there with his bright, innocent eyes, looking bewildered.
Cai Fangyuan continued eating his fried pork and watching the movie when he suddenly heard Yu Qiao curse under his breath.
Cai Fangyuan looked at him.
Yu Qiao acted as if nothing had happened and continued playing with the electronic dictionary.
Even after the movie ended and Du Shang had come over to mooch dinner, Cai Fangyuan noticed Yu Qiao still frowning, randomly pressing buttons on the device as if facing some cosmic puzzle.
“Damn…” he muttered, pressing keys in frustration. “Can it only be changed once?”
Cai Fangyuan put down his plate and leaned in to look.
He lowered his voice and said, “Bro, first enter the password to unlock it. I’ll change it for you.”
Yu Qiao looked down at him, and that glance suddenly made Cai Fangyuan feel like they had just forged a lifelong friendship.
Yu Qiao quickly punched in the code and opened it, then handed the device to him.
Cai Fangyuan’s eyes moved even faster, pondering: 040990, what could that mean?
As he lowered his head to reset the password, Cai Fangyuan suddenly looked up and exclaimed, “Holy shit, Yu Qiao!”
Du Shang, sitting in front of the TV watching “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils,” turned to look at them.
Yu Qiao had already closed the battered electronic dictionary and carelessly stuffed it between the sofa cushions.
Suddenly, the front door of Yu Qiao’s house was pushed open from outside. Lin Yingtao entered, carrying a bamboo basket that seemed a bit too big for her, like a bandit entering the city. “Auntie!” Lin Yingtao went straight to the kitchen. “I’ve come to return your basket!”
Yu Qiao’s mother replied from the kitchen, “Come in, Yingtao. Let me fill it up again for you to take home!”
In fourth grade, Cai Fangyuan sat in front of Yu Qiao. When he turned back, he saw Yu Qiao looking down at his newspaper, and next to him, by the window, Jiang Qiaoxi was studying an English math olympiad textbook.
As soon as math class ended, Lin Yingtao darted over, quickly securing an advantageous position in front of the new student.
Cai Fangyuan bent down to grab a big bread roll to eat and asked Jiang Qiaoxi if he wanted some.
Meeting for the first time, they each introduced themselves to Jiang Qiaoxi.
Lin Yingtao told Jiang Qiaoxi slowly and clearly: “My name is Lin Qile, the ‘Qile’ from ‘Qile Rongrong’ (harmony and joy)—”
Yu Qiao interrupted her from the side, telling Jiang Qiaoxi: “She used to be called Lin Yingtao. Do you know why?”