Nothing is permanent. Lin Yingtao lost the amber pendant she had worn since childhood. She grieved for a long time but gradually grew accustomed to its absence.
Adults claimed 2001 was an extraordinary year, especially the latter half. Just ten days into the new school term, a disaster struck that Lin Yingtao couldn’t comprehend. Some adults remarked, “They bombed our embassy and crashed into our plane. Now it seems Americans can be hit and bombed too?”
Lin Yingtao couldn’t grasp the complexities of international relations. On TV, she saw billowing smoke while adults discussed how the world operated on the principle of survival of the fittest. They said if America wasn’t attacked today, we would be the victims tomorrow.
The world seemed perilous; no one was truly safe.
“Dad, what’s the Twin Towers?” she asked.
Lin Diangong replied, “It’s America’s Oriental Pearl Tower.”
“Like the Qunbai Building?” Lin Yingtao inquired, having never seen the Oriental Pearl Tower.
Lin Diangong smiled wryly. “Something like that.”
For a long time, America remained a vast, distant concept to Lin Qile. It reminded her of Voldemort from “Harry Potter” – representing everything powerful and superior, yet evil and invincible.
Du Shang wept while watching the news. Thousands had died, with people jumping from the buildings. The tragedy left him trembling with sorrow.
Cai Fangyuan stared in disbelief as the World Trade Center burned and collapsed. “This… isn’t a movie, right?” he stammered.
Yu Qiao, standing among the four, appeared the calmest. “Isn’t the U.S. Air Force supposed to be the world’s best?” he wondered, confused.
Lin Qile asked, “Yu Qiao, do you have Jiang Qiaoxi’s phone number?”
She wanted to call Jiang Qiaoxi, warning him not to go to America due to the terrorist threat. However, after several rings, no one answered.
Lin Qile hung up Yu Qiao’s phone and headed home without staying for dinner.
In mid-September, Foreman Yu and Lin Diangong took the children from the work site to the city.
“Yingtao,” Foreman Yu said, his large hand on Lin Qile’s head as they peered into a jewelry display case, “pick any amber pendant you like. Uncle will buy it for you!”
Lin Yingtao surveyed the options, then pouted. “I don’t like any of them…”
Foreman Yu furrowed his brow, then smiled, glancing back at Lin Diangong.
Lin Diangong pulled his daughter close, saying softly, “Once you’ve seen the ocean, other waters pale in comparison. Right, Yingtao?”
The group of children ate at KFC and spent time at the arcade. Qin Yeyun wanted to look at adult lipsticks at the cosmetics counter, while Lin Qile preferred to check out new albums at the music store. Neither girl would yield.
Eventually, Uncle Yu took Yu Qiao to accompany Qin Yeyun to the cosmetics counter, while Lin Diangong took Du Shang and Cai Fangyuan with Lin Yingtao to the music store.
A poster of a new male singer adorned the store’s entrance, advertising his latest album. He wore a hat and had a gloomy appearance.
Lin Qile stood transfixed before the poster, gazing up at it.
Noticing her expression, Du Shang asked, “Is he better-looking than me?”
Lin Qile turned to her father and said, “I want to buy this person’s album!”
That night, Lin Qile lay in her mosquito net-covered bed alone. Instead of listening to Leonard Cohen or Stefanie Sun, she played songs by this melancholic male singer who seemed to share her many worries.
Du Shang disliked Jay Chou’s poster from the moment he saw it.
During class, Lin Qile not only secretly listened to Jay Chou’s music but also silently wept behind her upright textbook, lips tightly pressed together.
“Is it that good?” Du Shang asked.
With a solemn expression reminiscent of a TV drama heroine, Lin Qile earnestly copied Jay Chou’s self-written lyrics onto her math scratch paper: “Only the piano accompanied me all day…”
Du Shang feigned nonchalance. “Why don’t you… stop listening for a while and lend it to me?”
Lending Du Shang her beloved “Fantasy” cassette had an immediate consequence. A few days later, Du Shang suddenly abandoned his year-and-a-half study of Wing Chun, fashioning nunchucks from a jump rope to practice instead.
During the National Day Golden Week, Cai Fangyuan visited the provincial capital with his mother. Upon returning, he brought some local specialties to Lin Qile’s parents and told her, “I went to see Jiang Qiaoxi.”
Lin Qile was startled. “Oh?”
“No one was home,” Cai Fangyuan said in a hushed voice. “I heard he attends several Olympic Math classes every day now, studying from morning till night. Isn’t that scary?”
On the last night of the Golden Week, Lin Qile wondered if Jiang Qiaoxi was still studying. Was he solving Olympic Math problems? Where was he sitting? Could someone study that intensively without getting headaches?
She pondered, does he ever think of me?
Lin Qile picked up the receiver, instinctively dialing Jiang Qiaoxi’s number in the provincial capital. Just as she dialed, a sudden burst of firecrackers erupted outside, creating a deafening racket.
Lin Diangong rushed in excitedly, covered in red firecracker paper. “Yingtao! Juanzi!”
The firecracker noise intensified, coming from all directions and shaking the floorboards.
Lin’s mother emerged from the backyard where she had been doing laundry. “What’s happening?”
Lin Diangong beamed with joy. “The national football team qualified!”
Hearing this, Lin’s mother returned to her laundry.
“Yingtao, come on! Let’s watch Uncle Cai set off fireworks!” Lin Diangong urged.
Lin Qile hung up the unanswered phone. She went outside, holding her father’s hand tightly as they walked along the path in front of the house. The streets of the Qunshan work site were filled with men who had left their homes to celebrate with beer bottles. The national team had qualified, and Yu Qiao, Du Shang, and the others were excitedly running around the neighborhood.
For the next few days, the entire Qunshan work site felt like it was celebrating the New Year. Everyone was happy.
In October, the APEC meeting was held in Shanghai. In December, China joined the World Trade Organization. Adults frequently mentioned terms like “national destiny” and “take-off.”
At a banquet, Uncle Cai’s voice sounded both gratified and envious. “You kids of this generation are truly fortunate!”
Cai Fangyuan played with his handheld game console under the table. Lin Qile sat beside him. Hearing Manager Cai’s words, the two children exchanged puzzled glances.
Neither understood what the adults were talking about. Lin Qile whispered, “Keep playing.”
That was all they cared about.
Lin Qile spent the 2002 Spring Festival at the Qunshan work site. She began to feel happy every day.
Uncle Qin from the site’s convenience store had recovered well and could now walk slowly without a cane.
“Yingtao, what are you buying?” he asked.
“Uncle Qin, does your leg not hurt at all now?” Lin Qile inquired, taking out the money her mother had given her to buy vinegar.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Uncle Qin smiled, reaching for a vinegar bottle. Then he suddenly asked, “Yingtao, can I ask you something?”
“What is it?” Lin Qile listened attentively.
Uncle Qin hesitated. “Have your parents decided when you’ll transfer schools?”
Lin Qile, confused, asked, “Transfer schools?”
Uncle Qin explained, “I heard Manager Cai and Foreman Yu’s children have already made arrangements. I’m no longer a company employee, and I’m worried about delaying Yeyun’s education if we transfer too late and fall behind the main group…”
Lin Qile returned home with the vinegar bottle. Before entering, she overheard her parents arguing inside.
“If the work site keeps you here alone, what about Yingtao? Go talk to the leaders again!”
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, it snowed in Qunshan City.
Lin Qile built a snowman with Yu Qiao and the other boys. She formed snowballs with her gloved hands, retaliating against Yu Qiao’s snow chunks.
Yu Qiao pinched Lin Qile’s cheeks with his icy hands, causing her to grimace from the cold and pain.
“My dad says you should live with us during middle school,” Yu Qiao looked down at her. “Will you come?”
Lin Qile tried to grab his face, but Yu Qiao dodged.
Children seemed to have no choice but to accept adults’ decisions. However, there were exceptions.
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Du Shang beat his father, Du Yongchun, with homemade nunchucks, landing him in the hospital.
This incident shocked the entire Qunshan project department.
Du Shang’s mother had been hesitant about divorce, unable to cope with her alcoholic, abusive husband. When Manager Cai and Foreman Yu arrived at the workers’ hospital, they saw young Du Shang, with a bruised eye, telling his mother, “Divorce if you want, or don’t. But if he hits us again, I’ll hit him back!”
In March 2002, shortly after the new semester began at Zhongneng Power Plant Elementary School, Cai Fangyuan packed his books into his backpack. He was transferring to a school in the provincial capital.
After school, the “Little Four” of the power plant school walked home slowly.
Du Shang and Cai Fangyuan chatted intermittently while Lin Qile stared at her feet, silent.
“Lin Qile,” Cai Fangyuan suddenly said as they parted ways at the Workers’ Club, “why aren’t you talking to me?”
Lin Qile finally looked up. She was unusually quiet today and shook her head.
“Look at your eyes,” Cai Fangyuan teased with a strange smile, “They’re as red as a rabbit’s.”
Du Shang tried to console her: “Yingtao, it’s not like we’ll never see each other again—”
“You’re the rabbit…” Lin Qile couldn’t hold back and burst into tears. She gripped her backpack straps and kicked Cai Fangyuan.
Cai Fangyuan, who had been laughing, continued to smile even after being kicked.
“Why are you crying?” Cai Fangyuan shouted, now at a loss.
In April, Lin Qile blew out her birthday candles at home. She turned twelve.
Foreman Yu took a bite of the cake Lin Qile shared and said, “Yingtao, come stay with Uncle Yu in the provincial city for middle school!”
Yu Qiao’s mother added, “With two boys at home, it’s driving me crazy. Yingtao, come keep Auntie company!”
As the adults encouraged her, Lin Diangong asked, “Yingtao, do you want to go?”
“I don’t…” Lin Qile clung to her father, eating her cream cake.
The Yu family, being large, moved in two groups. Grandmother Yu left on April 16th, along with Yu Qiao’s mother and young cousin Yu Jin. Only Yu Qiao and his father remained, so they often ate at Lin Diangong’s house.
That night, Yu Qiao sat on the edge of Lin Qile’s small bed, flipping through her “Saint Tail” manga.
“What’s so great about this?” He couldn’t understand why Lin Qile loved manga so much.
Lin Qile, her mouth full of shrimp crackers, retorted, “It’s much better than your ‘Sports Weekly’!”
Yu Qiao turned to look at her, seeing her cheeks puffed out with food.
She never acted like a typical girl around him.
“How old are you? How long do you plan to cling to your dad?” Yu Qiao asked.
Lin Qile paused, swallowing her crackers. “What do you mean?”
“Your parents want you to go to the provincial city, you know,” Yu Qiao said.
Lin Qile was silent for a moment.
“But I want to stay with Mom and dad…” she said.
Yu Qiao left Lin Qile’s house in the darkness. Lin Qile ran out to say goodbye. Yu Qiao didn’t look back, just waved his hand in farewell.
In June, the sixth-grade students at Zhongneng Power Plant Elementary School were anxiously preparing for their graduation exams.
Du Shang told Lin Qile that his parents had gone to the provincial city to finalize their divorce.
Lin Qile, sitting on a black-insulated heating pipe, asked, “Why do they have to go to the provincial city?”
Du Shang sat beside her, pondering. “Because my mom’s household registration is in Guizhou, and my dad’s is in the provincial city.”
Lin Qile fell silent.
Since the New Year, Lin Qile felt Du Shang had grown up overnight. Like a frail youth who suddenly slayed a dragon, finally dispersing the perpetual clouds above, he was becoming a hero.
Du Shang fiddled with the “Fantasy” cassette in his hand. “My dad gave the house in the provincial city to me and my mom.”
Lin Qile responded with a simple “Mm.”
All their other friends were gone; only the two of them remained. Even the Qunshan work site’s family quarters have seen many people move out in recent months. Adults said the project was nearing completion, with only finishing work left.
Du Shang, sitting beside Lin Qile, suddenly hummed a melody.
Lin Qile recognized it as the intro to a song from Jay Chou’s cassette.
Du Shang began to sing softly.
If he had wings, he’d take off anytime, and he’d take his mother away.
“I’ve realized rapping in Chinese is more interesting,” Du Shang said, nodding his head to Lin Qile. “I never understood the lyrics of H.O.T’s songs before.”
Lin Qile responded with another “Mm.”
“Du Shang,” Lin Qile said softly, “you can keep this cassette.”
Du Shang was surprised: “No, I was going to return it to you—”
“I bought another one,” Lin Qile said.
Du Shang looked at her.
“You cried when Jiang Qiaoxi left, you cried when Cai Fangyuan left, and you cried when Yu Qiao left,” Du Shang paused, then smiled. “Don’t cry when I leave, okay?”
“Mm.” Lin Qile nodded in agreement.
“Well… when I get to the provincial city, I’ll go confront Jiang Qiaoxi for you!” Du Shang said, rolling up his sleeves. “I’ll ask him, why haven’t you called our Yingtao?”
At the end of June, the graduation exams at Zhongneng Power Plant Elementary School concluded.
On her way home from school, Lin Qile ran alone with her small backpack.
As soon as she entered, she shouted, “Dad! Mom! My scores are good enough for Qunshan No. 1 Middle School!”
As part of the last group remaining at the work site, Lin Diangong and his wife faced many inconveniences. With workers reassigned to other sites, the dormitory area had begun early demolition.
With fewer people around, even the street vendors outside the compound had closed shop.
Now, they had to go to the city mall for everything. Hearing the good news, Lin Diangong happily lifted Lin Yingtao, turning to say, “Juanzi! Let’s celebrate with hotpot in the city tonight!”
Lin’s mother quickly called Foreman Yu’s home in the provincial city, excitedly saying, “Yes! She can attend No. 1 Middle School!”
Lin Yingtao sat in front of the mirror, redoing her two crooked pigtails. She put on the new dress her mother had bought her and slipped on her red leather shoes before heading out.
Lin’s mother locked the door behind them as Lin Diangong called out, “Yingtao, slow down!”
Lin Yingtao walked quickly ahead, leading the way for her parents.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
－－－－－－－－－－－
Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
On September 11, 2001, a series of terrorist attacks occurred at the World Trade Center in New York, USA, marking the most severe terrorist attack on American soil.
On September 14, 2001, Jay Chou released his second album “Fantasy.”
On October 7, 2001, the Chinese team defeated Oman 1-0, securing a spot in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup finals.
On October 20, 2001, the APEC meeting was held in Shanghai.
On December 11, 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), becoming its 143rd member.
“Saint Tail”: A Japanese manga series by Megumi Tachikawa, serialized from 1994 to 1996. The main characters, Meimi Haneoka and Asuka Jr. are a bickering couple who often argue and fight over small matters, but everyone knows they have feelings for each other.