We Will All Be Happy
In late November, Du Shang went to Shanghai with his girlfriend. They visited the Bund and made plans to apply to Shanghai’s medical schools together. One night, as Lin Qile was writing her Harry Potter 7 book review on her computer, she suddenly received a call from Du Shang.
On the other end was the live scene of Jay Chou’s concert. Lin Qile could barely make out the melody, accompanied by Du Shang’s loud singing. “Don’t hit my mother like that anymore, will you listen to what I say?”
Lin Yingtao suddenly felt sad.
But she thought nothing worse could happen now.
We’ve all grown up.
In December, Yu Qiao passed the initial pilot recruitment physical examination. He received a text message notifying him of a second on-site physical exam in January. During this time, Yu Qiao even stopped playing basketball. Usually indifferent to most things, he began to approach everything with caution and seriousness as he drew closer to his dream.
Cai Fangyuan, Lin Qile, and Du Shang wanted to throw him a celebration party. Yu Qiao declined, saying they should wait until after the follow-up examination.
One day after school, a girl cornered Yu Qiao at the school gate.
Du Shang and the others wanted to listen in, but Lin Qile pulled them away, whispering, “What are you trying to hear?”
Qin Yeyun stood by the bus stop sign, her lips parted, anxiously glancing towards Yu Qiao’s direction.
“Did… did you receive my letter?” Geng Xiaoqing, wearing the No. 2 High School uniform, mustered the courage to ask him.
Yu Qiao looked down at Geng Xiaoqing as some boys from the school team teased him from behind. Yu Qiao frowned and said, “You had to say this here.”
Geng Xiaoqing’s cheeks suddenly flushed. She watched as Yu Qiao put his hands in his pockets and turned back towards the school gate.
“I don’t know you, and I certainly don’t like you,” Yu Qiao said to Geng Xiaoqing, standing at the corner of the teaching building near the bike shed after school.
His tone was so definitive and curt that it left no room for imagination.
Geng Xiaoqing stood there for a moment.
Her mind went blank. She had imagined so many possible ways Yu Qiao might respond, but none were like this.
“Then… why did you treasure my letter so much?” she asked.
Yu Qiao frowned, “What do you mean?”
Geng Xiaoqing said, “You didn’t let anyone else open and read it!”
Yu Qiao understood and nodded.
Geng Xiaoqing looked up and asked, “Why didn’t you let others see it?”
Yu Qiao replied impatiently, “Is it normal to let others see it?”
“Do you like Yingtao?” Geng Xiaoqing asked abruptly.
Yu Qiao looked at her.
“Do you like her?” Geng Xiaoqing asked.
“Where did you hear that?” Yu Qiao frowned as if finding it amusing.
“Intuition,” Geng Xiaoqing replied, unusually serious.
“You’ve only known me for a few days,” Yu Qiao said, “and you already have intuition.”
Someone called from across the path, “Yu Qiao, the car’s here!”
Yu Qiao prepared to leave.
Geng Xiaoqing suddenly turned her head, watching his retreating figure.
“I may have only known you for a few days,” Geng Xiaoqing said from behind, her flushed cheeks turning pale at his words, “but I feel like I’ve known you for a very long time! I wrote everything in my letter! Did you even read it?”
Yu Qiao turned around, seemingly using his last bit of patience to avoid hurting this girl.
“You’re overthinking,” he said.
Lin Qile discussed this incident with Jiang Qiaoxi on the phone. She wasn’t clear about the details, only knowing that Geng Xiaoqing had returned to school crying that day and continued to cry even during phone calls.
“Yu Qiao has always been like this,” Lin Qile said unhappily. “It’s as if he enjoys making girls unhappy.”
Jiang Qiaoxi laughed on the phone, coughing a few times without saying more.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Qile asked.
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “I have a bit of a cold.”
Lin Qile said, “You’re not sleeping enough, your immunity is low. Go to sleep quickly.”
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “I can’t sleep.”
He seemed to be whining.
Lin Qile thought for a moment, dried her hair, and said, “Then let me tell you about taking Mimi for vaccinations the other day!”
In the final exam of the first semester of senior year, Lin Qile ranked eighth in her class. Her homeroom teacher, Mr. Chen, called her to his office for a private conversation. He knew Lin Qile had always been diligent and hardworking in her studies: “With these grades, it would be a shame not to consider good universities outside the local area.”
“Lin Qile, you only have one life, and your youth at eighteen or nineteen only comes once. The opportunity to go out, explore, and experience a new world might also come only once—when you’re older, working, married, and in society, there will be many more constraints. Do you understand what I mean? You’re young, it’s just college, don’t hold yourself back. Set your sights and goals further.”
Lin Qile reflected on Mr. Chen’s words as she walked home from school. Standing at the bus stop, she slowly pondered: was it because of her difficult experiences at the beginning of middle school and high school that she was so afraid of going to a new school?
She always felt that if she attended a local university, even if something happened, she could still go home at night.
Was she really that lacking in ambition?
Lin Qile thought to herself and realized that her personality didn’t used to be like this.
No, that was because she had never considered the possibility of being ostracized before. She had been too happy as a child.
On the bus, Yu Qiao sat in the seat next to her, listening to her “self-reflection” speech, and couldn’t help but turn his head and smile. Lin Qile felt very angry; every time she was talking about something important and serious to her, Yu Qiao always had this kind of reaction.
Du Shang turned around from the front and said, “Yingtao, you were unhappy when you first started middle school and high school, but you were young then. You’re not the same person you were back then! Think about it, isn’t that right?”
Lin Qile immediately pouted, looking at Du Shang with emotion.
Du Shang said, “Why don’t you apply to schools in Beijing or Shanghai? After all, Yu Qiao wants to go to Beihang University…. although I don’t know if I can get in, we can all apply together when the scores come out! Besides, think about it, there won’t be many local students in university dorms. How could they ostracize you when they don’t even know each other? We’ll ostracize them first!”
Cai Fangyuan also turned around and said, “Why don’t you learn from Jiang Qiaoxi? He’s doing well in Hong Kong on his own.”
As the New Year approached, 2008 finally arrived. Lin Qile finished her homework in the morning and then went to Cai Fangyuan’s house with a USB drive to copy the unfinished episodes of “The Big Bang Theory.” She quietly pushed open the door to Cai Fangyuan’s bedroom and saw him sitting in front of the computer. The screen was gray, showing the Tianya Forum page.
“What are you looking at?” Lin Qile asked suddenly.
Cai Fangyuan was startled and turned to glare at her.
At that moment, Manager Cai rushed in from outside. He usually spoke slowly and deliberately, with an official tone, but now he was sweating profusely: “Cai Fangyuan! Let me use your computer, I need to check the stocks!”
Cai Fangyuan quickly clicked the mouse, closing several Tianya Forum pages, but coincidentally exposed the “1990 Love Hard” website at the bottom.
Cai Fangyuan’s hidden little toy was discovered by his father once again.
But this time was different from before; virtual websites couldn’t be torn up or burned like photo books. The older generation didn’t understand these things. Cai Fangyuan received two hours of criticism and education at home. He sat on the sofa with his head down, admitting his mistakes, and his attitude seemed quite sincere. He was no longer like when he was younger, always threatening to run away from home.
The next day, Cai Fangyuan put his website up for sale in a trading group. Because of its good daily traffic, even though he sold it in a hurry, he still got $20,000 for it. As soon as Cai Fangyuan received the payment, he quickly went to the bank to withdraw the money, took out half for Huang Zhanjie, and then slapped the remaining stack directly on his father’s desk.
Before the New Year had even arrived, firecrackers started going off downstairs at Cai Fangyuan’s house. Lin Qile stood at the street corner wearing her cotton jacket, holding a lunchbox filled with jujube buns. Her cheeks were red from the cold wind, and seeing how happy Uncle Cai was, Lin Qile couldn’t help but smile.
“Jiang Qiaoxi, do you know how happy Uncle Cai was today? Cai Fangyuan made a lot of money.”
She sent a text message to Jiang Qiaoxi detailing the whole incident, but Jiang Qiaoxi didn’t reply immediately.
January 2008 was a disastrous month for stockholders worldwide. The newspapers reported that the Shanghai Composite Index had been plummeting since mid-month, with a drop of 16.69%.
The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index also fell by 15.67%.
U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, global financial crisis, bankruptcy, closures, layoffs, bear market, defensive battle… These words kept appearing in TV news. Lin Qile was helping her parents wrap dumplings, not paying much attention to it.
Mom sprinkled some flour on the cutting board and suddenly said, “Your Uncle Cai hasn’t been very happy lately. I heard from Yu Qiao’s mom that he’s losing the equivalent of an Audi every day!”
“What?” Lin Qile exclaimed, holding a dumpling in surprise.
How much was an Audi worth?
“I heard from Brother Yu,” Lin the electrician said while rolling out the dough, “He bought some PetroChina stocks, and they’ve dropped from forty to just over twenty.”
“No wonder he was so happy that day,” Lin Qile remarked.
Mom laughed and said, “Cai Fangyuan has always been smart. When he was little, he came to our house to install computers. Such a small child could already install computers.”
At night, Uncle Cai suddenly came to the Lin family’s door. Lin Qile was feeding the cat in her room, and through the crack in her bedroom door, she heard the adults talking outside.
Surprisingly, Uncle Cai wasn’t talking about his dire situation.
“Jiang Zheng’s brother in Hong Kong is in trouble.”
Lin the electrician asked, “What happened?”
Manager Cai tapped his cigarette ash and accepted the tea Mrs. Lin poured for him. He said, “He had previously placed some money with me to invest in the stock market. With the recent market crash, I asked why he wanted it now in this situation?”
“Yeah,” Lin the electrician said, “Isn’t it almost below 4,000 now?”
On the TV, a group of experts were sitting in the studio of the economics channel, discussing the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Manager Cai got angry just looking at it and used the remote to turn off the TV. “Damn it, still talking about America,” he cursed.
“I asked why he needed the money at this time,” Manager Cai said. He looked at Lin the electrician, “He said he urgently needed it, no choice.”
Lin the electrician pushed open the door to the small bedroom and saw Lin Qile still crouching on the floor, petting the cat.
“Yingtao,” he asked, “Doesn’t Qiaoxi have an older brother in Hong Kong?”
Lin Qile nodded.
Her phone was lying by her feet, with a text message she had sent half an hour ago.
“Jiang Qiaoxi, did something happen to your family?”
Jiang Qiaoxi hadn’t replied. He hadn’t responded to Lin Qile’s messages for three consecutive days.
Lin Qile just thought he was busy with classes.
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Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
“Don’t hit my mother like that anymore, will you listen to what I say”: Lyrics from Jay Chou’s song “Dad, I’m Back.”
PetroChina’s opening price on its first day of listing on November 5, 2007, was 48.62 yuan. By February 1, 2008, it had fallen to 24.42 yuan.