Jiang Qiaoxi pushed open the hotel door and vanished into the night. Lin Qile sat amidst Old Qunshan’s laughter, surrounded by clinking glasses, but her mind was elsewhere.
“I know,” Jiang Qiaoxi had said.
Lin Qile dreamed of this scene once again. Lush ivy leaves clung to the window, obscuring the stars in the night sky. She sat up in bed, glancing at her Barbie doll on the desk. The doll perched atop a stack of workbooks, wearing a trendy outfit from years ago, its long hair clumsily cut by Lin Qile’s roommate from Nan School.
Even if you’re unhappy, what does it matter to me? Lin Qile thought.
In July, Lin Qile studied at home in a nightgown, eating a popsicle. To combat the heat, she had tied her hair into two small buns atop her head. When Cai Fangyuan came to deliver a data cable to her father, he exclaimed, “Whoa! Chun-Li!”
Lin’s mother emerged from the kitchen with sliced watermelon. In Qunshan’s final years, as the children left, even she felt lonely at times, missing not just Yingtao but the bustle of youth.
“Fangyuan, help Yingtao when school starts,” she said. “She hasn’t been to the main campus yet and doesn’t know if commuting will be convenient.”
Cai Fangyuan entered Lin Yingtao’s room to find her doing homework while listening to Jay Chou on cassette, explaining why she hadn’t heard him arrive.
As the adults fiddled with the computer in the other room, Cai Fangyuan gently removed Lin Yingtao’s earphones. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said.
Startled, Lin Yingtao turned to look at him.
“Don’t provoke Jiang Qiaoxi too much,” Cai Fangyuan continued. “If Aunt Liang comes after you, you’ll be in trouble.”
Confused, Lin Yingtao replied, “What are you talking about?”
Cai Fangyuan struggled to find the right words. “If he bothers you, just pretend you don’t know him,” he said, pausing before adding, “By the way, your hair looks nice like that.”
Lin Yingtao laughed and playfully kicked at Cai Fangyuan.
He dodged nimbly, a skill honed from years of being overweight. “You’re about to enter university. Shouldn’t you stop resorting to violence?” he teased.
On TV, the news reported that athlete Liu Xiang had broken the world record in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a time of 12.88 seconds. Lin’s father excitedly called Lin Yingtao to the living room, not to watch TV, but to see something else.
He had connected the data cable Cai Fangyuan brought to their old computer and Lin Qile’s elementary school tape recorder. Stacks of English cassettes from school lay nearby. Lin’s father inserted one into the recorder, closed it, and pressed play.
Simultaneously, he opened recording software on the computer.
As Lin Yingtao approached, she soon heard the English lesson playing through the computer speakers.
“This way, we can convert all the cassettes to MP3s for you to listen to on the go. No need to ask teachers for extras!” Lin’s father explained.
Lin Yingtao hugged her father’s neck dramatically, feigning tears. “How did I get such a clever dad?!”
At sixteen, Lin Yingtao had grown from a little girl who clung to her father’s legs to nearly his height. She was gradually sliding towards womanhood, yet still deeply attached to her parents and everything that constituted “home.”
On a summer night, Lin Yingtao left home wearing a dress and sandals, carrying a basket of jujube buns. She crossed the street outside their complex, heading towards the West District cadre apartments.
Yu Qiao lived in Building 18. As Lin Yingtao walked along the road, she often encountered uncles and aunties she knew from the Qunshan construction site. They all remembered her, praising how she had grown taller, prettier, and more studious. Lin Yingtao smiled at them, genuinely happy.
It felt like scattered sand slowly gathering again. Lin Yingtao didn’t dislike life at headquarters; it sometimes reminded her of Qunshan.
Next to Building 18 stood Building 23. As Lin Yingtao reached Yu Qiao’s building entrance and rang the bell, she noticed a figure standing by the garage of Building 23, watching her.
It was a woman with a dignified air, holding a leather bag and car keys. She observed Lin Yingtao warily until the door opened and Lin Yingtao entered the building.
Yu Jin, the young cousin, opened the door with wet hair, exclaiming cheerfully, “Sister Yingtao!”
Inside, the apartment was in disarray. As Lin Qile entered, she glimpsed a figure wrapped in a towel darting past her into Yu Qiao’s bedroom, locking the door behind him.
Lin Qile was startled—was that Du Shang?
“Who is it?” Yu Qiao called from the bedroom.
“Don’t open the door yet! Yingtao’s here! Let me put on my pants!” Du Shang wailed.
Yu Qiao opened the door, emerging shirtless in pajama bottoms. He glanced at Lin Qile.
With a cold laugh, he called back, “It’s not like she hasn’t seen you naked before.”
Du Shang hurriedly dressed inside, panicking, “That’s different! We’re older now.”
Since Du Shang’s grandmother fell ill and his mother returned to her hometown to care for her, Du Shang had been staying with Yu Qiao’s family for over a year.
“Yingtao,” Du Shang said, running a hand through his damp hair, “someone added me on QQ today, saying they’re your middle school classmate. Geng… Geng Xiaoqing?”
Lin Yingtao, munching on fried shrimp chips and fiddling with Yu Qiao’s model airplane, looked up. “She added you guys already?”
“Who is she?” Du Shang asked.
“My deskmate from Qunshan No. 1 Middle School. She’s come to the provincial capital for school too,” Lin Yingtao explained. “She wanted to meet you guys, so I gave her your QQ numbers.”
Yu Qiao sat on the bed, flipping through a sports newspaper. Lin Yingtao turned to ask him, “Did you add her?”
He glanced at her, noting the oil on her lips and hands from the chips. “What?”
Lin Yingtao reminded him, “She’s a girl. Her surname is Geng!”
Yu Qiao, uninterested, returned to his newspaper.
In early August, Lin Yingtao went out with Xin Tingting and Geng Xiaoqing. Lin Yingtao introduced Geng Xiaoqing as her middle school classmate and Xin Tingting as her high school classmate from Nan School, suggesting they all become “best friends.”
The three girls sat in an upscale café, drinking fruit juice. Xin Tingting and Lin Yingtao exchanged glances at the prices on the menu.
Geng Xiaoqing explained that her father had opened the café two years ago when she was considering transferring to a school in the provincial capital. “It’s usually not very busy,” she said, looking around, “but the décor is nice, isn’t it?”
Lin Yingtao had only vaguely sensed that Geng Xiaoqing came from a strict family, unaware of their wealth. Geng Xiaoqing’s appearance and behavior at school had never hinted at it.
After a year in the provincial capital, Geng Xiaoqing’s personality seemed to have changed somewhat.
“Yingtao,” Geng Xiaoqing said, “I finally understand what ‘Jiang Qiaoxi Street’ means now that I’m here.”
Lin Yingtao nearly spat out her juice.
Geng Xiaoqing continued, “At No. 2 High School, I heard about what happened between you two in middle school.”
Xin Tingting asked curiously, “What… what did you hear?”
“That you were disciplined because of him in Qunshan No. 1! And his middle school classmates even called you a country bumpkin!” Geng Xiaoqing exclaimed. “I don’t understand where people here get such airs. They act like they have Beijing hukou when it’s just a provincial capital!”
From childhood, Lin Yingtao had never been able to hide her emotions. As she grew older and tried to conceal her feelings, everything from her past seemed to remind her: Lin Qile, we all know you.
We might remember more than you’ve forgotten.
In late August, Qin Yeyun dragged Lin Yingtao to shop near the Dance Academy. “You used to be quite fashionable,” Qin Yeyun remarked. “How did three years in Qunshan make you so… provincial?”
Qin Yeyun turned back, warning fiercely, “Let me tell you, plenty of people at the main campus are waiting to see you fail. If you look much worse than Cen Xiaoman, you’ll be an embarrassment to all of us Electric Power kids!”
Lin Qile tied her hair, put on her school uniform, and shouldered her backpack. She left home, waving goodbye to her parents as she passed Yu Qiao and the others, then boarded the bus.
The unfamiliar streets of the provincial capital passed by outside the window. Lin Qile gazed out, suddenly recalling her first time here.
Yu Qiao sat beside her, drinking milk and flipping through his newly purchased “Sports Weekly.”
Cai Fangyuan and Du Shang sat in front, enthusiastically discussing a movie they had watched over the summer. Du Shang turned back to ask, “Yingtao, have you seen ‘Crazy Stone’?”
“No,” Lin Yingtao admitted honestly. “I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what?” Du Shang said. “It’s a comedy, not scary at all!”
Lin Qile paused, realizing the bus had reached its stop. As she stood up, she said, “Then I’ll watch it when I get back.”
“What did you think it was?” Du Shang asked.
“I thought it was a sequel to ‘Crazy Rabbit,'” Lin Qile explained. “That one was really scary.”
She stood at the main entrance of the Provincial Experimental High School.
Looking up, she could see the towering school gate and the statue of Confucius standing in the square ahead.
Yu Qiao folded his newspaper beside her. “Do you remember the way?” he asked.
Lin Qile closed her eyes, muttering something that sounded like a spell.
“What are you doing?” Cai Fangyuan asked from nearby.
Lin Qile’s eyes snapped open. “Let’s go check the class assignments!” she said.
As students moved from first to second year of high school, the entire grade was reassigned to classes based on their choice of arts or science track.
Du Shang was assigned to Class 15, while Yu Qiao, Lin Qile, and Cai Fangyuan were all placed in Class 18.
Qin Yeyun was assigned to Arts Class 3. After checking the full roster for Class 18, she rushed nervously through the corridor and up the stairs.
Entering the Science Class 18 room, Qin Yeyun didn’t see Lin Yingtao but noticed Fei Linge and a few others entering with their backpacks.
Fei Linge walked straight to the back row, pulled out a seat, and sat down, stuffing his backpack into the desk cubby.
A student in the front row turned to ask, “Fei Linge, why isn’t Jiang Qiaoxi here?”
Fei Linge scanned the room, not seeing any sign of the legendary “Lin Qile.” He replied irritably, “Jiang Qiaoxi made it to the finals. With exams coming up, of course, preparing for those is more important.”
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Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
- On July 12, 2006, Liu Xiang broke the 13-year-old 110-meter hurdles world record in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a time of 12.88 seconds.
- Crazy Stone: A dark comedy film directed by Ning Hao, starring Guo Tao, Liu Hua, Huang Bo, Lian Jin, and Xu Zheng. It was released in mainland China on June 30, 2006. This film marked Huang Bo’s rise to fame.
- Crazy Rabbits: A children’s science fiction film produced by the China Children’s Film Studio, released in 1997. It left a lasting impression as a childhood horror for many.