Lin Qile spent the Spring Festival of 2000 in Beijing.
Her aunt’s family lived in a narrow alley off the North Third Ring Road, with a small entrance. Next door was a barbershop that also offered shaving services.
When bored, Lin Qile would sit on a small stool outside the barbershop, watching people get haircuts. Seven or eight times out of ten, customers would give her candy or peanuts.
Inside the house, the family was preparing chives for dumplings to be eaten on New Year’s Eve. Lin Qile returned home, skirting around her mother and aunt, and sat on the high mattress to eat the little sugar horses she had just bought.
On TV, a drama called “The Happy Life of Talkative Zhang Damin” was playing.
Lin Qile’s aunt sighed to her mother, “It’s a good thing we didn’t let your brother-in-law go there. Look at how things are now.”
“Nothing’s easy these days,” her mother replied. “The company headquarters in our provincial city promised to distribute housing last year, but it still hasn’t happened.”
“Still not distributed?” The aunt dropped the chives she was holding.
Lin Qile focused on eating her candy. Her mother glanced at her, and noticing that Lin Diangong wasn’t around, furrowed her brow and said to the aunt, “The Qunshan worksite won’t last many more years. I had hoped that once we got the headquarters’ housing, we could send Yingtao to a middle school in the provincial city—”
“You should!” the aunt interjected. “You can’t let her continue studying at the worksite. Middle school is crucial for a child’s education!”
Lin Qile’s mother looked troubled and helpless.
“Sister, you know your brother’s personality,” she said with a bitter smile. “He lets others take precedence when it comes to housing distribution but is always the first to volunteer for overtime. If anyone stays behind at the work site, I bet it’ll be him.”
The aunt’s expression changed. “That won’t do. He’s always been willing to take the short end of the stick, but let him bear it alone. You two shouldn’t suffer because of him. I’ll have a word with him when he gets back!”
“If you can convince him,” Lin Qile’s mother said, carrying a small basin of cleaned chives to the kitchen, “I’ll be truly impressed!”
Lin Diangong had gone to buy fish with Lin Qile’s cousin. Lin Qile sat on the mattress, watching Zhang Damin on TV for a while longer as she finished most of her sugar horses.
“Yingtao!” her aunt suddenly called quietly. “Yingtao?”
Lin Qile’s big eyes darted over to see her aunt in her cousin’s small room, door ajar, beckoning her to come in.
Her mother was still in the kitchen, chopping chives for the filling. Lin Qile entered her cousin’s small room and was pulled to the bedside by her aunt.
The room was even smaller than Lin Qile’s bedroom in Qunshan. At least Lin Qile had her desk; her cousin had to read and write on his bed.
“Yingtao, how did your final exams go this semester?” her aunt asked with a smile.
Lin Qile bit her lip. “Not good.”
Her aunt pinched Lin Qile’s chubby cheeks with her plump, wrinkled hands. She then traced the red string around Lin Qile’s neck and pulled out the small red amber pendant from inside her cotton jacket.
“It’s beautiful, like a cherry, isn’t it?” her aunt said, carefully cradling the amber in both hands. “I remember the day you were born, it was just the beginning of April!”
“I was working in Beijing when I got a call from your father saying, ‘Yingtao is born!’ As soon as I got off work at noon, I called your uncle, and we went to Panjiayuan Market together. We looked around, and I fell in love with this!”
Lin Qile smiled as she listened to the story of her birth.
“For other children’s births, people usually give gold items,” her aunt said, looking at Lin Qile with loving, tender eyes. “Your aunt couldn’t afford expensive gold, so I bought this amber for Yingtao. I heard amber is a good thing—it brings good fortune and wards off evil. It won’t change for thousands or tens of thousands of years!”
Lin Qile nodded earnestly.
Her aunt glanced towards the door as if watching out for her brother and sister-in-law. She then took out a small red paper package from her pocket and slipped it into Lin Qile’s jacket pocket.
“This is from your aunt,” she said. “Don’t let your parents see it, or they’ll take it away!”
Lin Qile blinked. “Is it New Year’s money?”
Her aunt smiled. “Yes!”
Lin Qile couldn’t hide her excitement; she loved the New Year most of all!
Her aunt advised, “Don’t spend it carelessly. Save it and buy something you want later.”
Lin Diangong and the cousin returned with fresh carp. Lin Qile went to watch her father clean the fish, then went outside to see people slaughtering chickens.
Night fell early in Beijing. Her mother came out and called Lin Qile back inside.
This place was different from the Qunshan worksite. The small alley in Beijing was home to all sorts of people. If Lin Qile, a little girl from out of town, got lost or was taken away, it would be impossible to find her.
Just before entering the house, Lin Qile’s mother suddenly crouched down and said seriously, “Yingtao, if your aunt and uncle try to give you New Year’s money this year, you must not accept it, understand?”
Lin Qile was taken aback.
Her mother continued, “If there’s anything you want, Dad and I will buy it for you. Your cousin is starting high school this year, and your uncle is sick. We can’t take money from your aunt.”
Lin Qile squatted by the kitchen door, peeling garlic and placing the white cloves in a bowl. She overheard her parents talking quietly in the kitchen.
“Just a thousand, let’s give her a thousand,” her father said with a smile. “It’s not often we come here.”
Her mother replied, “Then give it to her secretly, don’t let your sister see!”
During the Spring Festival Gala, Lin Qile was still thinking about what her mother had said about the New Year’s money. What should she do about her aunt’s money?
The phone in her aunt’s house kept ringing, interrupting the TV program. Relatives and colleagues were calling to send New Year’s greetings.
Her cousin’s classmates also called to make plans for after the holiday.
Lin Qile suddenly wondered what Jiang Qiaoxi was doing in the provincial city right now.
At night, only a few houses in the Qunshan worksite still had lights on. Not many families stayed at the worksite for the New Year. Du Shang and his mother brought their homemade dishes to Yu Qiao’s house to share a New Year’s Eve dinner.
Yu Qiao was watching Zhang Ziyi sing at the Spring Festival Gala when his father called, “Yu Qiao! Come answer the phone!”
“Who is it?” he asked.
“Jiang Qiaoxi.”
Yu Qiao raised an eyebrow and got up to answer the phone, passing by Du Shang. He was surprised that Jiang Qiaoxi would call from the provincial city. Although they had been classmates and deskmates for half a year, their relationship outside of class wasn’t as close as with other boys.
Jiang Qiaoxi rarely spoke, always studying, never playing games or joking around. Yu Qiao and he didn’t have much in common.
“Hello?” Yu Qiao said.
Jiang Qiaoxi replied, “Happy New Year.”
Yu Qiao could hear that Jiang Qiaoxi’s end was quiet, as if he was in an empty house, unlike a typical New Year’s atmosphere. He responded, “Happy New Year.”
The atmosphere of the New Year’s call began to feel awkward. On Yu Qiao’s end, it was lively, with Du Shang asking at the dinner table, “Uncle Yu, who’s Zhang Ziyi?”
Jiang Qiaoxi asked, “Are you having New Year’s Eve dinner together?”
Yu Qiao glanced back at Du Shang and said, “Du Shang’s dad didn’t come back, so my dad invited him and his mom to eat with us.”
Jiang Qiaoxi inquired, “Just your two families?”
Yu Qiao, holding the landline receiver, used his brain a little.
“Lin Yingtao went to Beijing,” Yu Qiao said, “She’s spending New Year’s at her aunt’s house.”
Jiang Qiaoxi was silent for a moment.
Yu Qiao, feeling generous, added, “She’ll be back on the fifth day of the New Year.”
He then asked, “How are you doing in the provincial city? Is Cai Fangyuan keeping up with the cram school there?”
Jiang Qiaoxi laughed, “His books were confiscated by the principal there too.”
Yu Qiao also laughed, “Are you coming back to school after the break?”
“Yes,” Jiang Qiaoxi said firmly.
Yu Qiao said, “Then let me copy your homework.”
On the fifth day of the New Year, Lin Qile sat on the train back home from Beijing, listening to music with her headphones.
Her father sat beside her, took her headphones to listen for a moment, and hummed along, “Deep in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean…”
“Dad,” Lin Qile suddenly called.
“What is it?” her father responded.
Lin Qile said solemnly, “I took the two hundred yuan Aunt gave me.”
Lin Diangong, hearing this, removed the headphones and looked down at her.
Lin Qile confessed, “Aunt gave me four hundred.”
Lin Diangong asked, “Where did you put the other two hundred?”
Lin Qile fidgeted with her fingers and said, “Before we left, I secretly slipped it into my cousin’s pencil case.”
The train had been traveling for almost a day, swaying back and forth, before finally stopping at Qunshan City Railway Station. Lin Qile was carried off the train by her father, and once on the platform, she was still sleepy but was shaken awake by her mother.
“Yingtao, we’re home!” her mother said with a smile. “Look who came to pick you up!”
It was past midnight, and the city buses had stopped running. Team Leader Yu drove a small van to pick up Lin Diangong’s family and take them back to the worksite. Lin Qile sat in the car, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
While chatting with Lin Diangong and his wife, Team Leader Yu asked with a smile, “Yingtao! How was Beijing?”
“Good!” Lin Qile answered.
“So which is better, Beijing or Qunshan?”
Lin Qile replied, “Qunshan!”
As soon as they entered the house, Lin Qile ran into her long-missed small room with her little backpack. Team Leader Yu said, “Yingtao, go to Grandma Zhang’s house tomorrow to bring your rabbit back.”
“Okay!” Lin Qile checked on her pothos plant on the windowsill, then turned to greet the Bobbi fairy who had spent New Year’s alone at home.
Ah. Lin Qile suddenly remembered.
The little fairy had spent this New Year in the provincial city.
It had spent New Year’s with Jiang Qiaoxi.
Lin Qile wondered what Jiang Qiaoxi was doing in the provincial city now. It was so late; he should be sleeping. She put her backpack on the bed and opened it, taking out the candy her aunt had filled it with, along with colorful hair clips and picture cards bought at the temple fair.
Among the picture cards was a thin “Saint Seiya” comic book.
Lin Qile remembered seeing this volume before she left but hadn’t finished it. Athena was standing by the water, waiting for her heroes to come and save her. Her cousin only had this set of comics, so Lin Qile had no other choice.
She had accidentally brought this volume back and needed to call her cousin to let him know.
As she opened the comic book, a note fell out.
“Little sister,” it was her cousin’s handwriting, neat and square, “Here’s five hundred yuan for you to buy some snacks. Don’t just eat snacks though, study hard and make your parents and us proud!”
This was incredible!
By noon on the sixth day of the New Year, Lin Qile discovered her net worth had skyrocketed, suddenly becoming a “thousand-yuan millionaire”!
Her cousin had given her five hundred, her aunt two hundred, and Uncle Yu one hundred, adding up to eight hundred yuan in New Year’s money!
When Lin Qile went to Grandma Zhang’s house to bring back her beloved white rabbit, Grandma Zhang mysteriously gave her a small red envelope containing another two hundred yuan.
Lin Qile felt the money was burning a hole in her pocket!
Late on the eighth night of the New Year, while Lin Qile was sound asleep, she vaguely heard urgent knocking at the door.
Uncle Yu shouted from outside, “Old Lin! Old Lin! Wake up!”
Lin Diangong and his wife hurriedly got up, put on their coats, and ran out to open the door.
Uncle Yu said, “Du Yongchun is back, and he’s beaten his wife and child again in the middle of the night!”
Lin Diangong was stunned for a moment. He stepped out and asked, “Where’s Du Shang?”
Lin Qile put on thick cotton pants and a jacket over her pajamas and followed the adults out the door. In the darkness, they walked forward. The gates of the Qunshan Worksite Staff Hospital were wide open, with several young nurses who seemed to have been called out of bed in a hurry.
Lin Qile entered the ward surrounded by adults.
Du Shang was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, his back to the door, with his head bandaged, crying. The nurses surrounded him, trying to comfort him.
They heard Du Shang cry out in despair, “What good is the Kamehameha or the Six Veins Divine Sword… They’re useless… I… I couldn’t beat him at all!!”
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Notes for this Our Generation – Chapter:
“The Happy Life of Talkative Zhang Damin”: A 20-episode TV series directed by Shen Haofang, starring Liang Guanhua and Zhu Yuanyuan, officially broadcast in January 2000. The Beijing Thermos Factory is the workplace of the main character, Zhang Damin.
“Zhang Ziyi”: The first performer in the 2000 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, singing “Bring Spring In.”
“Deep in the Bottom of the Pacific Ocean”: Lyrics from the song “Heartbroken Pacific” by Taiwanese male singer Ren Xianqi, released on his album on August 28, 1998.