In late March, the Qunshan construction site welcomed a grand event.
The young, dashing driver from the car team, Shao, married the company accountant, Miss Xie. The project’s general manager, Cai Yue, gave the newlyweds a generous red envelope. Everyone had heard that Manager Cai had recently made a fortune, looking particularly spirited and radiant both at work and after.
Yu Qiao’s family sat in the hotel lobby, helping the newlyweds greet guests. Lin Qile’s mother was backstage, helping Lin Qile with her hair and flower girl dress.
“Auntie Xie,” Lin Qile looked up and said, “you look beautiful today!”
In Lin Qile’s eyes, Auntie Xie had always been the prettiest aunt in Qunshan, just as Uncle Shao was the most handsome uncle.
Their wedding must be as perfect and happy as those in TV dramas.
“Yingtao looks especially pretty today too,” Auntie Xie said shyly, complimenting her, “Later, ask your Uncle Shao to give you a big red envelope!”
As the flower girl, Lin Qile walked down the red carpet with the newlyweds.
She wore two pigtails, a white tulle dress, and a red hairpin that matched the bride’s lipstick perfectly.
Jiang Qiaoxi sat at the children’s table, drinking cola between Yu Qiao and Cai Fangyuan, his gaze fixed on Lin Qile in the distance.
The wedding’s host was Li from the company’s security department. At Qunshan, he always officiated workers’ weddings.
“Today, our Qunshan site’s little stock genius, Engineer Lin’s daughter Lin Yingtao, is also here!” Uncle Li suddenly changed the subject after congratulating the newlyweds, focusing on the flower girl Lin Qile, “Everyone here today, let’s bask in Manager Cai and Lin Yingtao’s glory, wishing you all prosperity and good fortune!”
Foreman Yu drank too much at the wedding banquet. He was always the most emotional when young people at Qunshan got married. When Driver Shao and Accountant Xie came to toast their table, they excitedly called out in unison: “Brother Yu!”
Manager Cai was also drunk. He picked up Lin Qile. The usually serious man enthusiastically kissed Lin Qile’s round cheek.
“Good girl!” he shouted.
The general manager’s excitement made everyone laugh and applaud. “Manager Cai, how many limit-up days has Taishan Tourism had this month?” a colleague asked excitedly.
“Almost nine limit-up days!”
Lin Qile was held too high by Uncle Cai, everyone laughed, and she was happy too. When she was put down, Uncle Cai said seriously: “Yingtao! What do you want? Tell me! Uncle Cai will buy it for you!”
“Manager Cai, Manager Cai! Just saying it isn’t enough now!” The adults around gathered, teasing and giving Lin Qile ideas, “Yingtao, go find a pen and make him write it down! In case your Uncle Cai forgets when he sobers up!”
The wedding banquet lasted nearly two hours. The workers returned home laughing and joking, with Uncle Yu swaying and needing support.
Lin Qile walked behind, saying, “Did Uncle Yu drink too much again?”
“No!” Uncle Yu suddenly opened his eyes and turned to Lin Qile, “Absolutely not too much!”
Lin Qile didn’t expect him to hear, laughing as she hid behind her father.
Seeing this, Foreman Yu laughed, caught his breath, and said, “Yingtao, when you grow up and get married, your uncle will drink even more than today!”
“More, more!” The groom, Driver Shao, supporting Brother Yu, laughed, “When Yingtao gets married, we’ll all drink together!”
Lin Qile held her father’s hand as they slowly walked home.
“Dad,” Lin Qile looked up, “Will I get married like this too?”
“How?” Lin Diangong asked.
“Like Uncle Shao and Auntie Xie.”
Lin Diangong smiled, squeezing his daughter’s hand: “Dad doesn’t want you to get married on a construction site.”
“Why?” Lin Qile asked.
“Because workers’ lives are hard,” Lin Diangong said, looking down at her.
Children of electric construction workers are born, grow up, and go to school on construction sites. After graduating, they return to the sites, marry people from the sites, have children, work long hours, day after day, year after year, move between cities until they’re too old to work, and finally retire.
Lin Diangong’s generation of electric construction workers had devoted almost their entire lives to national construction.
Lin Qile said, “But I like the construction site!”
Hearing this, Lin Diangong rubbed her head.
Throughout March, the stock called “Taishan Tourism” charged like an unstoppable bull in the stock market. Lin Qile sat on her small bamboo mat, reading the encyclopedia Uncle Cai had given her. She looked up at Jiang Qiaoxi and asked, “Do you know what ‘Chun lu’ means?”
Jiang Qiaoxi was still solving his math olympiad problems, at a crucial point. Hearing Lin Qile’s question, he didn’t look up: “I don’t know.”
Lin Qile began to read from the book: “…A thousand layers of reed leaves and small boats, a dream of water shield soup and perch… A lone whistle in heaven and earth, a single horse in the west wind.” She thought for a moment and said to Jiang Qiaoxi, “This must be ‘White Horse Neighing in the West Wind’!”
Jiang Qiaoxi, not listening, absentmindedly nodded and made an “mm” sound.
Lin Qile asked, “Do you want to know what ‘Chun lu’ means?”
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “I don’t want to know.”
Lin Qile blinked her big eyes: “I’m going to tell you anyway.”
Lin Qile read out word by word, stumbling a bit: “Chun lu means water shield soup and sliced perch, foods that poets miss dearly from their hometowns—”
When Jiang Qiaoxi reluctantly looked up, he saw Lin Qile swallow, her face full of longing.
“Have you eaten it?” Lin Qile asked pitifully.
Jiang Qiaoxi shook his head.
Lin Qile put down her book, resting her chin on her knees, and started playing with the Bobbi fairy at her feet.
Jiang Qiaoxi continued his problems, then heard Lin Qile suddenly say: “Then I’ll call you Jiang Chunlu from now on!”
Jiang Qiaoxi looked up, puzzled.
He saw Lin Qile still pinching the fairy’s face with her fingers, murmuring its new name. Jiang Chunlu. Jiang Chunlu. Lin Yingtao, Jiang Chunlu.
On a weekend afternoon, Yu Qiao came to Lin Qile’s house to find Jiang Qiaoxi for football, just as Lin Qile was going to his house for new fried shrimp chips. The group of children left together.
Grandma Zhang and Grandma Yu were knitting in front of the TV. Seeing Lin Qile come in, they both greeted her. Lin Qile asked, “Grandma, where did Auntie put the fried shrimp chips?”
Just as she asked, Lin Qile looked down and saw Yu Qiao’s little cousin Yu Jin, who was in kindergarten, sitting between the two grandmothers, seriously poking at the yarn with a few knitting needles.
“Yu Qiao!” Lin Qile held Yu Jin’s hand as she came out, calling to the figures playing football on the road, “Why didn’t you take Yu Jin to play football? Look, he’s knitting!”
Hearing her words from afar and seeing little Yu Jin come out, Yu Qiao’s shoulders shook with laughter.
Before dinner, Lin Qile told Jiang Qiaoxi that she thought Yu Jin must be very unhappy: “I’ve never seen Yu Qiao take Yu Jin out to play. How can a brother not take his little brother out to play? Even playing some games that boys often play would be fine.”
She tied a piece of yarn from Grandma Yu into a loop and put it on her finger.
Soon, the string became a tangled mess.
Yu Qiao and Du Shang came over again at night. As soon as they entered Lin Qile’s small room, they saw Jiang Qiaoxi setting aside his math olympiad problems, patiently helping Lin Qile untangle a piece of yarn.
Yu Qiao immediately kicked Lin Qile’s back: “You said I made Yu Jin knit, but you’re making Jiang Qiaoxi help you untangle yarn.”
Adults might not understand what Lin Qile and her friends played every day, or what was going on in children’s minds. In early April, two small incidents occurred at the Qunshan construction site.
The first was that Manager Cai’s son, Cai Fangyuan, cried and wanted to run away from home in the middle of the night because his father had discovered his treasured photo album and torn it to pieces, flushing it down the drain.
The second was that on Lin Qile’s birthday, she wanted “The Lion King” comics, but Lin Diangong took time off to search all the bookstores in Qunshan City and couldn’t find them.
In the end, he bought a set of “Journey to the West” comics. Lin Qile was a bit disappointed and rolled around at her father’s feet, throwing a tantrum.
Cai Fangyuan’s attempt to run away from home failed. He sat on Lin Qile’s sofa, covering his face and crying as if his wife had died, extremely heartbroken. Manager Cai was truly angry, not comforting or persuading him, scolding Cai Fangyuan for being so young and only interested in such useless things.
But Cai Fangyuan wasn’t stupid. He was ten years old and had a girl he liked.
Lin Diangong was confused, hearing Cai Fangyuan constantly cry out the name “Doudou”. He asked, “Who’s Doudou?”
Du Shang hesitantly said, “She’s… a female celebrity.”
Lin Qile, hugging her “Journey to the West” comics, said, “She’s a very beautiful female celebrity!”
“What does she look like?” Lin Diangong asked Cai Fangyuan.
Manager Cai was busy with work, handling countless matters daily, naturally not having as much “free time” as Lin Diangong to listen to what these growing, yet still naive and inexperienced children were thinking.
Lin Qile and the others accompanied Cai Fangyuan home. On the way, Cai Fangyuan choked out, talking to himself: “When I grow up…”
Yu Qiao asked, “How did your dad find out anyway?”
Cai Fangyuan complained, “How would I know?? I hid it under the mattress!”
The two of them exchanged hiding techniques. Perhaps since the beginning of human reproduction, how children hide from adults, how students hide from teachers, how husbands hide from wives, or wives from husbands – these have all been eternal topics.
Lin Qile hugged her “Journey to the West” comics. Now that Cai Fangyuan was okay, she planned to go home to find Jiang Qiaoxi.
“Yingtao,” Du Shang said, “Didn’t you wear a black hairpin a few days ago?”
Lin Qile turned to look at him and nodded.
“But Jiang Qiaoxi doesn’t like black,” Lin Qile said.
Du Shang frowned and said, “But I like it!”
Lin Qile looked at him with wide eyes.
Lin Qile opened the comic book in her hand, took out the black hairpin used as a bookmark, walked over, and pinned it to Du Shang’s hair, generously saying, “Then you wear it!”
In June, the TV was broadcasting international news about the summit between North and South Korean leaders.
“The 55-year-old ice on the Korean Peninsula melted with a smile between the two leaders, a day destined to go down in history!”
Lin Qile and Jiang Qiaoxi were feeding rabbits in the backyard. Lin Qile secretly peeked into the living room, where a man in a suit sat on their sofa, his head lowered deeply.
Lin Diangong asked in the living room, “Are you making money doing this now?”
The man said, “I’m taking it one step at a time. Now that I’m laid off, I have to find a way to make a living.”
Lin’s mother asked, “Is business good out there?”
The man said, “I’ve thought about doing some small business, but money’s tight, so I need to save up first.”
After the man left, Lin Qile entered the living room. She saw several paper bags placed next to their sofa.
Each paper bag was printed with the word “Amway”, containing unknown items.
“You’ve already bought everything he brought,” her mother quietly advised in the bedroom, “and you still want to lend him money?”
Lin Diangong smiled and said, “I know him well, he’ll pay it back.”
After dinner, Lin Qile took her empty bowl to the kitchen. She saw her mother using the blue Amway bottle to pour dish soap and try to wash dishes.
“Dad,” Lin Qile turned and asked, “Who was that uncle today?”
Lin Diangong smiled and said, “You don’t recognize him?”
Lin Yingtao shook her head.
Lin Diangong said, “That was your Uncle Wang.”
“He joined the factory with Dad back then,” Lin Diangong said, smiling with empathy, “Uncle Wang has been laid off, he has no job now. If you see him, you should greet him properly as uncle.”
Lin Yingtao asked, “Why was he laid off?”
Whenever she asked “why”, Dad always gave her a few sentences as an answer, never brushing her off. But this time, Dad fell silent. He said, “Yingtao, go do your homework with Qiaoxi.”
Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
- The stock for “Taishan Tourism” surged from 9.65 yuan on January 4, 2000, to a high of 48 yuan on March 30, 2000, with a maximum increase of 397%.
- “In the dense reeds, a thousand layers of boats, a dream of wild rice and water shield soup”: This phrase is from the poem “Shui Diao Ge Tou: Ping Shan Tang Using Dongpo’s Rhyme.”
- The first inter-Korean summit took place on June 13, 2000. South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that year for his efforts to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.
- Amway: A direct-selling brand that entered the Chinese market in the 1990s. It has since evolved into a verb.