Lin Yingtao finished her meal and lounged on the sofa, resting her head on her mother’s lap.
Her mother gently stroked her daughter’s hair, her palm radiating the unique warmth characteristic of parents. As she placed her hand on Yingtao’s forehead, the young woman softly whined, “Mom, I’m so tired…”
As a post-90s only child, Yingtao had been labeled “spoiled” since childhood. Even after two years in the workforce, she still couldn’t help but complain to her mother.
“How’s the kindergarten?” her mother asked.
Yingtao sat up and leaned close to her mother’s face, examining the reading glasses perched on her nose. “Mom,” she said, “why don’t you come with us this weekend to get your eyes checked?”
Her mother frowned, “No need! What’s there to check? These reading glasses work just fine.”
The light in the master bedroom was on. Jiang Qiaoxi emerged after chatting with his father-in-law for a while, holding a few new wedding invitations. His guest list was small, unlike Lin Dian Gong’s family – working for a large state-owned power construction enterprise meant everyone was an old acquaintance. When anyone’s child got married, everyone contributed. Lin Dian Gong was known for his kindness and had excellent relationships with others.
Qiaoxi gathered the invitations and put on his suit jacket. He told his mother-in-law, “I’ll accompany Yingtao for her check-up this weekend. We can all go together to get your eyes checked too.”
“Check-up?” Lin’s mother looked up at Qiaoxi, suddenly understanding. She turned to her daughter and said, “Yes, you should go and get a thorough examination.”
Lin Yingtao and Jiang Qiaoxi went downstairs together. She carried invitations for Uncle Yu’s family, while Qiaoxi held tea and cooking oil that her parents wanted to send to the Yu family. These were gifts from Uncle Wang, Yingtao’s businessman uncle in Qingdao. Lin Dian Gong said they couldn’t possibly finish it all, so he divided it – one bag for Yingtao and Qiaoxi’s new home, and another for his old friend, Team Leader Yu.
The provincial capital’s headquarters complex was bustling with people taking evening strolls.
“Yingtao!” Uncles and aunties called out warmly upon seeing the couple. “And this is Qiaoxi? You’re back from Hong Kong!”
Two years ago, rumors began circulating in the complex that Lin Haifen’s daughter, Lin Yingtao, had married Jiang Qiaoxi, son of the second-in-command at headquarters, at the age of 22.
Many didn’t believe it.
Soon after, Lin Yingtao went abroad, returning only in 2013. Various gossip made its way to different dinner tables: Lin Yingtao had returned from America and, despite studying early childhood education, had secured a job with a monthly salary of over 10,000 yuan. She was beautiful, had a good personality, and everyone had known her since childhood. Suddenly, people were lining up to introduce potential suitors. It was then that Lin Dian Gong finally revealed that his daughter had indeed already registered for marriage, truly wedded to the Jiang family’s son, Jiang Qiaoxi. Some still doubted until that summer when Lin’s family went house-hunting with Manager Cai Yue. Before Manager Cai had even decided, the Lin family had already paid the down payment.
Manager Cai was quite open about it: “Jiang Qiaoxi has always been outstanding! Graduated from the University of Hong Kong, and Fang Yuan says he’s now working at a big investment bank in Hong Kong, earning an annual salary of over a million! The complex Lin Gong and I looked at is near the kindergarten where Lin Yingtao works. It’s a bit expensive, but so convenient for commuting! Look at Lin Gong being such a great father-in-law, not having to pay a cent for the down payment! His son-in-law dotes on his daughter!”
Lin Yingtao had always been adored by everyone since she was little. Jiang Qiaoxi, the legendary protagonist of the teenage romance story from the Qunshan work site, also seemed to truly love her.
The couple walked hand in hand. Under the streetlights, their wedding rings were faintly visible.
“Yingtao, when’s the wedding ceremony?”
“Qiaoxi, are you staying this time or going back?”
“I just heard the security guard mention a Mercedes driving in. I thought it must be Yingtao coming to visit her parents!”
Lin Yingtao greeted everyone they met with “Uncle” and “Auntie,” introducing them to Jiang Qiaoxi, who didn’t recognize anyone despite having lived in the same complex for so many years. Qiaoxi politely greeted the elders in return.
Everyone praised him as talented, saying he and Yingtao made a perfect match.
The Jiang Qiaoxi in the minds of the power construction people was often not the real person.
While other children played and were close to adults, Jiang Qiaoxi always maintained a distance. He was always seen in his school uniform, with a black coat in winter, looking pale, coming and going at odd hours, sitting in his father’s luxury car, heading to math competitions.
He was known as “having an elder brother who died young,” being a “top math genius” himself, who “could have been guaranteed admission to Tsinghua University,” but instead “selfishly broke up a family.”
For many years, the young children in the complex grew up hearing stories about “Brother Jiang Qiaoxi.” Of course, adults only dared to tell the first half, completely omitting the latter part.
“This child is quite strange, doesn’t even listen to his parents,” some would say privately. “The Lin family’s little daughter might not be able to handle him.”
The person who opened the door was the young cousin, Yu Jin. He was already seventeen and in his second year of high school, having grown significantly taller, though still quite thin.
“Sister Yingtao is here!” Yu Jin called back into the house and then noticed Jiang Qiaoxi in his suit standing behind Lin Yingtao. He was taken aback.
Yu’s mother came out from inside, warmly greeting them: “Yingtao, you’re here! And Qiaoxi too, oh my, you’re so close, why bring gifts? It’s been so many years!” She lightly smacked the back of Yu Jin’s head, “Call him Brother Qiaoxi.”
Yu Jin had no memory of meeting Jiang Qiaoxi at the Qunshan work site when he was little.
Team Leader Yu was at the dining table, eating fried peanuts and drinking with Driver Xiao from the car team. He called out from afar, “Daughter! You’re here!”
Lin Yingtao, having changed into slippers, happily approached Jiang Qiaoxi. She pulled out a chair and sat next to Uncle Yu, fidgeting with the wedding invitation in her hand. She asked quietly, “Uncle Yu, are you and Auntie free during the National Day holiday?”
Team Leader Yu glanced at her with his tipsy eyes, raising his glass but not drinking, “What for?”
Lin Yingtao said sweetly, “Would you like to attend my and Jiang Qiaoxi’s wedding?”
Team Leader Yu suddenly let out a cold laugh.
“Let me tell you, Xiao Shao,” Yu turned to Driver Shao, complaining, “I’m getting less and less fond of attending these weddings. All that noise and chaos, so many people crowding around, wasting time. I get irritated just sitting there. I’m telling you, I don’t even want to go to Yu Qiao’s wedding!”
Driver Shao laughed beside him.
Lin Yingtao furrowed her brows, forming a little knot, looking at him unhappily.
“But,” Team Leader Yu suddenly changed his tone, turning back to Lin Yingtao, “for our daughter Lin Yingtao’s wedding, how could we not go?”
Driver Shao joked, “Brother Yu, if you don’t agree soon, Yingtao might give me the invitation instead—”
As everyone was laughing, the front door was suddenly unlocked from outside and opened.
Then came the sound of a suitcase rolling on the floor. Someone had come home.
An impatient voice called out, “Mom! Is there any food left?”
Yu’s mother ran out of the room, exclaiming in surprise, “Son!”
Lin Yingtao turned her head at the table and saw that Yu Qiao, the busy frequent flyer, had unexpectedly come home today.
Team Leader Yu lit a cigarette, slowly exhaled, and put down his lighter: “Yu Qiao! Look who’s here!”
Yu Qiao parked his suitcase by the door and took off his pilot jacket. Underneath, he wore a light blue uniform shirt with a tie and shoulder epaulets bearing three stripes. He noticed Lin Yingtao and Jiang Qiaoxi at the dining table, along with the bright red invitation on the table.
“What a coincidence,” he said with a surprised smile.
Lin Yingtao chatted with the two uncles about wedding preparations, family matters, and her work. She mentioned that she didn’t know Uncle Shao would be here, otherwise, she would have brought the invitation for Uncle Shao and Aunt Xie as well: “We even wrote the baby’s name on it!”
Driver Shao laughed, “He’s not a baby anymore, your little brother is already seven years old!”
Lin Yingtao was stunned for a moment, then smiled again.
“Oh, right, I forgot…” Lin Yingtao said, bewildered, “The little one was born in 2007, he’s already seven!”
Team Leader Yu, with the cigarette in his mouth, took a puff and looked at Lin Yingtao as he exhaled. He smiled, “Time flies, doesn’t it, Yingtao?”
Lin Yingtao suddenly felt a mix of emotions. She nodded, “Mm-hmm.”
Team Leader Yu said, “Soon, your generation will understand how we feel watching you all grow up.”
Yu Qiao was eating a bowl of spicy noodles his mother had just made. The TV was on, showing highlights from Friday’s World Cup group stage matches in Brazil.
Jiang Qiaoxi sat next to Yu Qiao on the sofa, watching TV.
The young cousin, Yu Jin, was on the phone in his bedroom when he suddenly ran out: “Brother! Brother! My classmate insists that the Winter Soldier and Falcon are in the Avengers. Are they?”
He still turned to Yu Qiao for everything, as if Yu Qiao was the standard for all correct answers in the world.
Yu Qiao, watching Messi score a goal, said, “Can’t you look it up online yourself?”
Yu Jin was stunned. His classmate was still arguing on the phone: “Yu Jin, what did your brother say?”
Then he saw that Brother Qiaoxi, who had taken off his suit jacket and was sitting next to his brother, turned to look at him and shook his head.
Yu Jin ran back to his room with his phone.
Yu’s mother was still busy in the kitchen when she saw her son bringing back his empty noodle bowl: “Was it good?”
“It was okay,” Yu Qiao said, “At least better than airline crew meals.”
Yu’s mother laughed, “Just ‘okay’! You’re so picky!”
Yu Qiao came out smiling. He approached Jiang Qiaoxi and gestured for him to follow.
Jiang Qiaoxi stood up, glancing back toward Lin Yingtao at the dining table. He then entered Yu Qiao’s bedroom.
Despite being classmates from elementary through high school, and even deskmates for two years, Jiang Qiaoxi and Yu Qiao weren’t truly close.
This was the first time Jiang Qiaoxi had stepped into Yu Qiao’s “life.” He saw bookshelves filled with basketball magazines from their student days, sports weeklies, aviation textbooks, IELTS vocabulary books… There were also model airplanes, trophies and medals of various sizes, and an action figure of Shaquille O’Neal standing in the corner.
The bedroom door closed, but Lin Yingtao’s discussion with Driver Shao about how to educate a 7-year-old child could still be heard outside.
The little girl who used to only cry now understood so much.
“I didn’t prepare any wedding gifts for you,” Yu Qiao said, looking up at Jiang Qiaoxi. He turned back to his desk, which his mother had tidied meticulously, and opened a drawer.
Inside lay a small square object with a mirrored surface and faded stickers. Yu Qiao took it out.
“This thing… the earphones are gone, just regular ones,” Yu Qiao said, looking at Jiang Qiaoxi. “You can get your pair and listen to it when you get back.”
Jiang Qiaoxi accepted the “wedding gift” from Yu Qiao’s hand.
It was the MP3 player Lin Yingtao often listened to in high school.
Yu Qiao’s house was crowded, and his bedroom was a small partitioned space. The two young men, both over 1.80 meters tall, stood in this tiny area. The air felt oppressive due to the silence.
“I can’t remember if it was the day you left or when we graduated from high school, but she left this here,” Yu Qiao said frankly, looking at Jiang Qiaoxi. “Although we all grew up with her, you’re the one who married her. From now on, she won’t come to us crying randomly, no matter what happens between you two.”
Jiang Qiaoxi looked at him. “What else could happen?”
Yu Qiao maintained an unnaturally friendly expression in front of him. “How would I know?” he said with a smile.
Suddenly, Jiang Qiaoxi felt that Yu Qiao was the one who disliked him the most.
This was the reason why they could never truly become friends.
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “Yu Qiao, do you want to punch me?”
Yu Qiao laughed helplessly. “Why would I punch you?”
Jiang Qiaoxi said, “I don’t know either.”
Yu Qiao looked at him. “You do know.”
Outside, Lin Yingtao was telling Uncle Yu and Driver Shao how trendy kids were these days. “Last week, I was accompanying the children in my class, and they insisted I play ‘Little Apple.’ I had never even heard of it before. What kind of song is that?”
Uncle Yu said she was too out of touch. “Even I know about it! Your aunts dance to it in the square in front of the parking lot all day!”
Jiang Qiaoxi stood in Yu Qiao’s bedroom, fidgeting with the MP3 player from Yingtao’s teenage years. He heard Yu Qiao taking a phone call on the balcony.
“I’m home,” Yu Qiao said bluntly. “We have guests… my sister and brother-in-law… Flying to Kunming tomorrow, we’ll talk then.”
Jiang Qiaoxi thought that perhaps he was such an inadequate husband.
Whether it was Xin Tingting or Yu Qiao, these old friends who knew Yingtao well didn’t seem to approve of him.
Yu’s mother brought over some fried shrimp chips and crispy meat, which smelled delicious. Lin Yingtao crunched on the shrimp chips, taking a large piece and offering it to Jiang Qiaoxi as he sat down beside her. They all gathered around, with Yu’s grandmother asleep and not joining them. Yu Qiao sat across from his father, eating crispy meat with pepper salt, discussing the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight in March.
Driver Shao asked Yu Qiao how much he earned in a month.
“A little over 20,000,” Yu Qiao replied.
Driver Shao exclaimed to Team Leader Yu, “These kids nowadays, earn so much!”
Team Leader Yu was smoking across from them. He glanced at his grown-up son, then at Jiang Qiaoxi and Yingtao.
“Over the past decade or so, prices have gone up,” he said softly, “but the wages of electric power construction workers have remained the same as before.”
Yu’s mother chimed in from the side, “Come on, it’s not even as good as before. Remember how great the benefits used to be? We got all sorts of things during the holidays. What do we get now?”
Lin Yingtao lowered her eyes, secretly glancing at Jiang Qiaoxi, and then at Yu Qiao.
Team Leader Yu took a drag of his cigarette in silence, then said, “Things have changed… times have changed…”
Yu’s mother said, “Fortunately, all our children have become successful! Yingtao studied such a difficult major, but now she’s found a good job!”
Team Leader Yu suddenly said to Yu Qiao, “It’s a good thing you didn’t listen to me back then.”
Sitting across from him, Yu Qiao suddenly smiled upon hearing his father’s heartfelt words.
Team Leader Yu squinted at him and said, “You look quite handsome in that uniform!”
Driver Shao asked, “Brother Yu, what did you want Yu Qiao to do back then?”
Yu’s mother laughed and told Lin Yingtao, “We wanted Yu Qiao to go to the Electric Power University, but our Yu Qiao wouldn’t have it! Our Yu Qiao had his ideas!”
Team Leader Yu suggested, “Yingtao when you get married, have Yu Qiao be your groomsman! He can wear this uniform!”
Hearing this, Jiang Qiaoxi looked up, and Yu Qiao happened to glance at him too.
They both suddenly smiled.
Yu Qiao said to Lin Yingtao, “I’ll drive for you guys, you know, be part of that car thing—”
“The lead car!” Lin Yingtao told him.
“Right!” Yu Qiao said, “Be the lead car.”
Lin Yingtao chided him, “The lead car is just the name of a car!”
Yu Qiao retorted, “Nonsense!”
Lin Yingtao told Yu Qiao that the kindergarten where she worked now was outrageous, with parents picking up their children in luxury cars after school.
“How come there are so many rich people now?” she asked.
Uncle Yu ruffled her hair from behind, his large hand covering her head. “A happy family is the most important thing.”
As Lin Yingtao and Jiang Qiaoxi were about to leave, Uncle Yu insisted on giving them a box of mountain chicken eggs, saying they were from a former subordinate. Lin Yingtao waved her hands, saying she wasn’t going back to her parents’ house: “They’re probably asleep. Jiang Qiaoxi and I will go straight to our little home.”
“That’s exactly why I want you to take them to your little home,” Yu’s mother said. She looked up, smiling at Jiang Qiaoxi, then at Lin Yingtao. “From now on, when you say ‘your home,’ it means the little home you share with your husband, understand?”
Lin Yingtao accepted the mountain chicken eggs from her aunt. “Thank you, Auntie… Thank you, Uncle Yu!”
Yu Jin shouted from inside the house, “Grandma! It’s Sister Yingtao and Brother Qiaoxi who came!”
Lin Yingtao turned back, quickly saying, “No need to wake up Grandma Yu!”
To everyone’s surprise, Grandma Yu shakily got out of bed, put on her slippers, and came out. “Is Yingtao here?” she asked, supported by Yu Qiao as she approached Lin Yingtao. She looked at her for a moment. “Ah, Yingtao!”
“Yes, Grandma Yu!” Lin Yingtao called out hurriedly. “Why did you wake up?”
Grandma Yu squinted and asked with a smile, “What did you say?”
As Lin Yingtao left and walked down a few steps, Auntie Yu called after her, “Have Du Shang be your wedding emcee! You know how he’s always been good at talking, singing, dancing, and even performing skits since he was little!”
Lin Yingtao laughed loudly, “I’ll ask him as soon as I get back!”
Team Leader Yu stood in the doorway and suddenly said, “This is Lin Yingtao, how come she doesn’t look any older at all?”
Yu’s mother agreed, “That’s right, she’s still the same as when she was in Qunshan.”
Lin Yingtao went downstairs, walking with Jiang Qiaoxi towards the opposite residential complex where their car was parked.
“Did you notice,” Lin Yingtao suddenly said, looking up, “Grandma Yu seems to have become hard of hearing. She couldn’t hear what I was saying clearly…”
Jiang Qiaoxi pulled her into his arms.
Lin Yingtao felt many things drawing closer to her.
She pressed her face tighter against Jiang Qiaoxi’s chest to ward off that sense of unfamiliarity.
“I want to go back to being a child…” she said.
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Our Generation – Chapter Notes:
The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil was the 20th FIFA World Cup, held from June 12 to July 13, 2014. On June 16, in the match between Argentina and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Messi scored a goal.
The Avengers: In 2008, the movie “Iron Man” was released, marking the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2012, “The Avengers” was released, taking the global box office by storm. In April 2014, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” was released, featuring characters like the Winter Soldier and Falcon.
“Little Apple”: A song performed by the Chopstick Brothers, released on May 29, 2014, which achieved billions of views.
On March 8, 2014, at 00:42, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport crashed into the Indian Ocean. There were 227 passengers (including 153 from mainland China and 1 from Taiwan) and 12 crew members on board, all of whom perished. To this day, the truth behind the accident remains unsolved.