Yu Mo waited for Qi Shuai in front of the FamilyMart convenience store below her office building.
The sensor at the entrance played its welcoming jingle incessantly. Inside, the counters were laden with instant foods like oden, steamed buns, and shaomai. The sunlight had taken on the quality of early summer, shining with a scorching intensity that forced Yu Mo to retreat further into the shadows.
After a while, she saw Qi Shuai walking toward her from the direction of the subway station. He was wearing grey sweatpants and a white short-sleeved T-shirt. He kept his head down, and he wasn't particularly tall.
Yu Mo stepped forward and called out, "Qi Shuai."
Qi Shuai instinctively looked up to find her, but quickly lowered his head again to avoid her gaze. This was the first time Yu Mo had seen his face in the sunlight; his beauty was radiant. He was so incredibly shy that it made her feel a bit constrained as well.
She led him to a nearby cafe and found a place to sit. He kept his head lowered or turned to look aside.
To ease the atmosphere, she decided to start with some small talk. "I’m quite familiar with Qi Lian. I heard you two grew up together. Are you married?"
"Not yet, but I’m planning to," he replied. His tone grew a bit more animated; clearly, this was a topic that interested him.
Yu Mo followed up, "I can tell. You must love your girlfriend very much. You’re very eager to get married."
For the first time, a smile touched Qi Shuai’s face. "I’ve wanted to marry her for a long time. She kept saying we should wait. I’m already twenty-nine; I’m not young anymore."
Yu Mo nodded. "It is indeed the age for marriage. Is Qi Lian the same age as you? You both seem to be marrying quite late."
"My brother is a year older than me. I’ve been delayed because my family is poor. He was supposed to get married five or six years ago—he was even engaged—but then the woman broke it off. He probably never quite recovered from it."
Qi Lian had been heartbroken? What kind of woman could do that? Yu Mo felt a flicker of gossip-fueled curiosity.
Seeing that the atmosphere was right, Yu Mo returned to the main topic. "We went over the basics on the phone yesterday. As long as your credit report is fine and you can provide proof of income, a personal loan is possible. It’s just a matter of the amount."
Qi Shuai replied, "None of that is a problem. I want to get it done as soon as possible. How quickly can it be processed?"
"If you have all the documents ready, it can be done in two days. If we’re fast, it might even be possible on the same day. But may I ask what the loan is for?"
Qi Shuai shifted on the sofa and answered, "To buy a house."
Yu Mo continued, "For the down payment?"
"Yes."
Yu Mo sighed inwardly, not quite knowing where to begin.
"Let’s do the math. Suppose you can borrow 200,000 yuan for a three-year term with equal installments of principal and interest. You would need to repay over 6,000 yuan a month. The cost of capital is very high—have you calculated that? Plus, with the subsequent mortgage, will your monthly income and expenses be balanced?"
Yu Mo saw him shifting restlessly in his seat, a sign of impatience, so she bit her tongue. There were things she shouldn't say. If it weren't for Qi Lian and the stories he had told her, she wouldn't have even said this much.
She switched to a purely professional tone. "If the details are clear, here is a list of the materials you need to prepare. Get them ready, and we’ll schedule a time to sign the contract."
Qi Shuai rolled the paper she handed him into a tube, held it in his hand, and walked out of the cafe with his head down, stepping into the sunlight.
The cafe was filled with business elites in suits and leather shoes, discussing projects worth tens or hundreds of millions, their mouths full of jargon like "empowerment," "zero-sum game," and "closed-loop." Seeing a renovation worker who had grown up without parents sitting among them, risking everything for the small wish of owning a home, Yu Mo felt a pang of sadness, though she didn't know for whom.
When she returned home that evening, the room felt a bit stifling after her shower. She stood by the window to catch the breeze, idly drying her hair with a towel. The night wind carried the fragrance of gardenias, refreshing the spirit.
Suddenly, a stray cat began to wail somewhere, letting out sharp, piercing cries. Yu Mo opened the screen window and leaned out to see. Every night, this cat would emit a continuous cry that sounded uncannily like a human infant, making one's skin crawl in the dead of night. However, the stray cat remained hidden in the darkness, howling her secrets to herself, nowhere to be found.
Just as she was stretching her neck to look out the window, her phone rang with the tinkling melody of *Summer*.
"Qi Lian."
There was silence on the other end for a moment. Thinking the signal was bad, she called out again, "Qi Lian?"
Only then did Qi Lian’s deep voice come through. "Mm. I heard you’re looking to move."
Yu Mo didn't expect him to find out so quickly. "Yes, I have plans to."
"Jiang Qingfeng asked me to keep an eye out for you. Yu Mo, are we not close? Why take such a detour?"
His tone was heavy. Yu Mo realized he had misunderstood and felt a bit embarrassed. She explained patiently, "No, I originally planned to find a place on my own. I didn't intend to trouble you guys. It’s just that Jiang Qingfeng happened to mention it that day, and I brought it up in passing. I didn't expect him to go to you."
Qi Lian didn't respond. For a moment, only the sound of light breathing could be heard over the phone, making Yu Mo even more awkward.
Just as she was wondering what to say, Qi Lian asked, "From the sound of it, you aren't too happy that he came to me?"
"No, I just feel bad about troubling others," Yu Mo said weakly.
For some reason, hearing this made Qi Lian even more displeased. His tone turned stiff. "Then just give me a straight answer. Do you want the help or not?"
"Since you already know, if you happen to have a suitable place, that would obviously be best. If it’s too much trouble, then forget it."
"Leave it to me. Tell me what your requirements are."
Hearing him agree so readily, Yu Mo felt a sense of relief. She lay back on the bed and said, "I don't have many requirements. I can't afford to rent alone, and shared housing is mostly the same anyway. Just see if the landlord is reliable." She actually wanted to say it would be best if the other tenants were reliable too, but she figured that was asking too much. How could he know if the tenants were reliable? That was just a personal wish she couldn't voice.
Qi Lian understood. He emphasized, "Leave this to me. Don't worry about it anymore. I’ll get back to you tomorrow. Just wait for my word."
He remembered that Jiang Qingfeng had intended to find Yu Mo a place in District 3, so he added, "I’ll have it sorted for you tomorrow. You don't need to look for anyone else. I’m the most well-connected person in this area. Do you hear me?"
"I hear you."
Yu Mo thought for a moment and then mentioned Qi Shuai’s situation to him. She felt uneasy about it.
"Dammit!" Qi Lian threw his towel onto the table in frustration after hearing her out.
"Sometimes he really acts like he’s got water on the brain. Nothing anyone says works. I scolded him before when he mentioned buying a house, but he actually came up with this method. He’s asking for trouble."
He paced around the room, wishing he could grab Qi Shuai and give him a beating. Then he sighed. "Let him be. There’s no stopping him; he’s incredibly stubborn. I can only wait until he’s truly at a dead end and then give him a hand. Saying anything now is useless."
He suddenly felt a desire to speak his mind to Yu Mo.
"Since we were teenagers, a few of us have been looking after Qi Shuai. Later, after the demolition and relocation, others drifted away, but we felt this childhood bond was even more precious, so we all treated him like a younger brother. For all these years, every one of us has done our best to help him, contributing both money and effort. Right now, he owes each of us at least tens of thousands. My situation is a bit better, so he owes me more than the others. We’ve been the ones paying for his grandmother’s medical bills all these years, and not a single person has complained. But he’s always been like that—he started learning plumbing and electrical work with us as a kid, but quit after a year. He’s a jack of all trades, master of none. When I take him on jobs, I have to redo everything he does. If it weren't for the sake of supporting him, why would I bother?! Ever since he got with his current girlfriend, he’s gone completely mad. He’ll skip perfectly good work just to spend time with her. And he spends money like water. We don't dare lend him money now, or they’d squander every cent. This house business—if it were me or Jiang Yuan, it would just be a matter of 500,000 yuan; we could scrape it together. But we can't give him any more money. It only encourages his bad habits. We can't keep paying forever; eventually, everyone will have their own families and careers. Now, I have to harden my heart and watch him take a fall before I help him up again, just to ensure he has a way to survive in the future."
He said it all in one breath, and then both fell silent.
After a while, Yu Mo heard him say softly, "I know this is the only way, but it feels terrible. I just can't settle my mind."
The night was so quiet. Yu Mo’s heart suddenly felt a hollow ache, turning into a bitter wave that rippled back and forth. Qi Lian seemed cold and laconic, but he was actually a rational and meticulous man.
She said, "I felt a bit down this afternoon too, but I didn't know what to do either. We have the heart to help, but we are powerless."
We are all just bystanders in the lives of others.
Two blocks west of Lotus District 1 was a commercial complex called Jufeng Plaza. It was very popular because of the Hualian Supermarket on the first floor.
That afternoon around four or five o'clock, Qi Lian walked through the large clothing market on the first floor of Jufeng toward the back. The market maintained a small-town style, with loudspeakers blaring songs by Phoenix Legend so loudly that staying for more than a minute would give anyone a headache.
Behind the building were various small shops, mostly "hole-in-the-wall" eateries. The prices were low, and they were very popular. The paving bricks on the plaza were loose and uneven; one wrong step and mud would splash up your pant leg. In front of a small fruit and vegetable shop, a pile of rotten fruit and blackened leaves lay on the ground, emitting a sour stench.
Qi Lian stopped in front of the Wei Hao Mei Lobster House. A man in a short-sleeved T-shirt who was smoking at the entrance stood up, walked forward a few steps, and nodded at him. "You're here."
The owner’s surname was Jiang, and everyone around Lotus called him "Jiang Lao Si." Jiang Lao Si wasn't short and had started to put on weight, his belly stretching his T-shirt tight. He had a thick neck and a large head, with a faded, blackened tattoo on one exposed arm—supposedly a string of Sanskrit, though no one knew what it meant.
He was actually only a year older than Qi Lian, but as they crouched there together, they looked like they belonged to different generations. Back in school, Middle School No. 3 and Middle School No. 4 were arch-rivals, constantly fighting. Jiang Lao Si and Qi Lian were the leaders of their respective schools, always at each other's throats like fighting cocks.
Jiang Lao Si handed Qi Lian a Furongwang cigarette. Qi Lian took it and sniffed it under his nose. He didn't smoke, and smoking was strictly forbidden on his construction sites, but sometimes he didn't refuse.
Jiang Lao Si flicked his lighter open, shielding the flame with one hand as he held it out to Qi Lian. Qi Lian turned his head, put the cigarette in his mouth, and with a hollow of his cheeks, the cigarette was lit.
Jiang Lao Si asked him, "Everything good? I heard you've made it big now. Do I need an appointment to see you in the future?"
Qi Lian exhaled a cloud of smoke and shot back, "Piss off! If something’s up, just call. When have I ever not shown up?"
A young lad sat at the entrance washing lobsters. A red plastic basin half a meter wide was filled with dark, restless lobsters, with a black hose draped over the edge to let water in. The lad was slacking off under the boss's nose; with a brush in one hand and a lobster in the other, he’d give it a couple of swipes and toss it into another bucket, calling it washed.
Jiang Lao Si acted as if he didn't see it and continued, "That crowd from Jiangbei is making a move on parking spaces. They didn't show their faces; they hired others to buy them up one by one. Damn it, by the time we realized something was wrong, a lot of time had passed. Those sons of bitches have finally grown a brain."
Qi Lian held the cigarette in his hand without taking another puff. He asked, "How many do you estimate they’ve taken?"
"I’d guess at least fifteen or twenty, but it’s hard to say for sure."
"If it’s only a dozen or so, it’s not a big deal; they won't be able to make much of a splash. If it’s more, it’ll be trouble. We still need to pay close attention."
In the time it took to speak, Jiang Lao Si had finished his cigarette. He crushed the butt under his foot, leaving a flattened filter and a pile of ash. He lit another one. "The Jiangbei people have set up a gambling den over in District 4. They’re recruiting people everywhere."
Qi Lian paused, then gave a cold laugh. "They did that five years ago and sucked everyone dry. They’re doing it again?"
Jiang Lao Si blew a cloud of smoke into Qi Lian’s face. Qi Lian kicked him and cursed, "Get lost!"
Jiang Lao Si grinned mischievously. "Even mosquito blood is blood. Everyone knows money is hard to earn."
Qi Lian raised his hand to wave away the smoke. "We shouldn't get involved in this. The police love this kind of 'performance' for their records. Let our people track their movements, and we’ll just give the police a helping hand."
"I get it. We’re good citizens. Boss Qi is about to become a successful member of high society. Can't be fighting and killing anymore."
Qi Lian turned to scold him, "Are you done yet?"
A young mother walked out of the fruit and vegetable supermarket across the way, a plastic bag in one hand and a little boy about thigh-high in the other. The boy refused to walk, letting his mother drag him along centimeter by centimeter.
Jiang Lao Si said with schadenfreude, "That little brat is about to get a beating."
Just as he finished speaking, the young mother dropped the plastic bag on the ground, raised her hand, and gave the boy a smack on the bottom. The boy let out a loud "Waaah!" and started crying.
Jiang Lao Si grinned broadly. He asked, "I say, you’re getting on in years. Don't you plan on finding a woman? I haven't heard of you visiting any hookers either. Aren't you afraid of getting rusty?"
Qi Lian replied, "I have hands."
Jiang Lao Si spat. "You motherfucker, I’m embarrassed for you just hearing that. You aren't some broke loser; using your hands at your age. That big bird of yours—shouldn't it be used for the benefit of the female comrades of Lotus?"
When they were young, they fought, but in the summer, they all went to the Lotus River to bathe and swim. Between young men, it always came down to the same few things: women and the stuff between their legs. The boys from Middle School No. 3 and No. 4 didn't just compete in fights; they also compared their "manly assets." A group of half-grown lads would stand in a row, straining to see who could piss the furthest. Everyone knew exactly what everyone else was packing.
They both involuntarily thought of those youthful days and laughed.
Jiang Lao Si said, "Qi Shuai was the most shameless. Every time he went to the small video hall in town to watch those movies, he’d tell his grandmother he was going to see 'Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.' His grandmother went around telling everyone how much her grandson loved 'Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.' Once, she even asked me if I liked watching it."
Qi Lian laughed and joined in. "Back then, if the video hall got a new film, your lot acted like it was New Year’s. Within five minutes, every male student in the school knew about it. Those who hadn't seen much of the world would practically finish before they even stepped through the door."
Jiang Lao Si slapped his thigh in excitement. "Back then, we really thought women were the Peach Blossom Spring; we were parched with thirst. That woman from the house at the village entrance—she’d sway her hips every day when she walked. We were dying to peek through her window and watch her bathe." He let out a few loud laughs, then sighed. "Those were the happy times. Sigh, women are just like that—nothing but trouble. It’s better when it’s just us men together."
As they spoke, the sky began to darken. The lightbox for Jiang Lao Si’s restaurant flickered on, bathing them in a red glow that blurred their faces.
Jiang Lao Si nudged Qi Lian with his elbow and asked, "What are you really thinking? My sister has had her eye on you for more than a day or two. She’s almost twenty-five now. If you don't like her, just say so early on."
Qi Lian was baffled. "I don't even know your sister. I don't even have an impression of what she looks like. I keep hearing you lot drone on about it; are you sure she hasn't mistaken me for someone else?"
Jiang Lao Si was offended by this. "Fuck! You aren't faking it, are you? She used to act all shy and hover around us every day, and you never even gave her a proper look! Not to boast, but she wouldn't settle for just anyone, yet she’s hung herself on your tree. Meet her a couple of times before you talk."
Qi Lian nodded agreeably. "Fine."
Jiang Lao Si remembered something else. "That person... she found herself a real piece of work for a husband. I heard he beats her pretty badly."
Qi Lian stubbed out his cigarette and said indifferently, "We can control many things, but we can't control what happens between a husband and wife."
Jiang Lao Si nodded. "Right. I’m just passing the word along. It’s your turn to buy the rice, flour, and oil this month. Get it ready in the next couple of days and let me know. I’ll go with you to deliver it."
"Alright. I’ve got a lot on my plate these next few days, so let’s make it in three or four days. Still five portions?"
Only then did Jiang Lao Si remember. "Four. The old man from District 4 passed away from a brain hemorrhage last month."
Qi Lian nodded, acknowledging the news.
Having said their piece, they both stood up. Jiang Lao Si grabbed Qi Lian’s arm and tried to pull him into the restaurant. "Come on, try my family’s lobsters. Give me some face."
Qi Lian had other things to do and laughed as he scolded him, "These lobsters of yours? You probably fished them out of a sewer. You don't even wash them; I’m not eating that crap."
Jiang Lao Si kicked at him. "Get lost! Just get lost! I give you face and you spit on it. We should have just kept fighting every time we met like the old days."
Because she had closed a deal, Yu Mo finally didn't have to keep her head down at the office. She no longer had to avoid Old Zhang or walk quickly with her head lowered.
Her colleagues in the group clamored for her to treat them. She was about to agree generously with a beaming face when Lili gave her a look and sent her a WeChat message: *This deal only gives you five or six thousand in commission. That’s not even enough for ten people to go to a decent restaurant and order a couple of bottles of good wine! They’re trying to fleece you. When have you ever seen them treat us after closing a deal? Just buy some milk tea and fruit.*
Yu Mo realized she was right. There were only three women in the group; the rest were men. Those who were shouting the loudest were the men, acting like hungry wolves. By the time they were done, her commission wouldn't even cover the meal. This was money she had earned by practically running herself ragged. The thought of it made her heart ache.
When she ordered the milk tea, she was still generous enough to choose HEYTEA. Along with fruit and small cakes, the total was kept around five hundred yuan. Bag after bag of delivery arrived at the large conference room.
Yu Mo, Lili, and Zhou Ye, the three women, sat together, taking small bites of cake and chatting idly. The men were laughing and joking about something, their voices gradually growing louder. "Zhang Chi, go on, go on." "If you're a man, don't wimp out."
It wasn't a secret in the group that Zhang Chi was interested in Yu Mo. He never said it outright, but he stared at her as if he wanted to burn a hole in her, always buzzing around her like a fly.
Lili rolled her eyes at them and curled her lip. "A bunch of toads starting their croaking again!"
Zhou Ye burst out laughing and chimed in, "Lili, next time you treat, give each of them a mirror."
After work, Yu Mo linked arms with Lili and went to eat at Hua Wu Que next to the company. Hua Wu Que served Yunnan cuisine and was only a five-minute walk from the office.
At quitting time, the sidewalks of the CBD were so crowded you could bump into a string of people if you weren't careful. Although it was five or six o'clock, the lingering heat of the setting sun remained; it was no longer spring.
Lili suddenly said, "Ah, you should be linking arms with a man. That way you could show off how tall and strong he is. Linking arms with me is just doing me a disservice!"
Knowing Lili’s usual sharp tongue, Yu Mo just smiled. Lili was of average height and had a slim but well-proportioned figure with curves in all the right places. Next to the slender, paper-thin Yu Mo, she looked quite large by comparison.
Lili sighed again. "We’re both wearing white shirts, but I look like a salesperson, while you look like you just got back from Paris and are about to pull out a baguette to eat."
Yu Mo pulled her into Hua Wu Que. The front hall of the restaurant was designed like a Chinese garden, with pavilions, terraces, and flowing water.
After they were seated and while waiting for the food, Lili asked her, "Why exactly did you dump Xue Shen? If any of the female sales reps in our company met a man like Xue Shen, I bet almost none of them could resist. Take me, for instance—if I could find a man like that, I’d resign immediately. After I left, the legend of me becoming a phoenix would circulate in the industry for a long time."
Yu Mo picked up a white porcelain cup and took a sip of Pu'er tea. The waiter said it was a three-year-aged Pu'er, but she couldn't taste the difference.
"Lili, maybe you wouldn't want it after you tried it. You want what you haven't had, and I want what I haven't had. We’re all the same."
Lili shook her head in disagreement. "You know that 185cm tall guy in Group 3? The one who’s quite good-looking. Do you know what his specialty is?"
Yu Mo shook her head.
Lili continued her gossip with relish. "His specialty is making rich women happy! Someone saw a rich woman put her hand between his legs! She couldn't have been checking if his pants fit, right? You can imagine the rest."
She saw Yu Mo’s shocked expression and felt a sense of accomplishment. She went on, "In this industry, you’ll see all sorts of things with no bottom line once you’ve been here long enough—from our own people and from clients. Any industry that deals with money is probably like this. Money is the Lord Almighty."
Yu Mo listened with her chin in her hand. Previously, she had viewed money as dross, but now, before she went to sleep every night, the abacus in her mind clicked and clacked as she calculated rent, food, and commissions. She had no ground to refute that statement.
A slender young girl wearing a long, form-fitting skirt arrived with a large woven bamboo basket to serve the food. She said to them, "This is the lemongrass grilled fish."
Lili took a bite and was so scorched by the spice she couldn't close her mouth. She picked up the Pu'er tea and gulped it down, completely wasting the three-year-aged tea.
She put down her chopsticks and said, "Let me tell you some gossip. You know I have a lot of clients around the Zhoukou Furniture City area; I’m very familiar with that circle. Recently, there’s been a huge scandal. The boss’s wife of 'Little Zhou Mattresses' was caught with a gigolo who took photos and tried to blackmail her. For some reason, they couldn't reach an agreement, and the photos were sent all over the market. It caused a total explosion. A client told me there had been rumors about her seeing gigolos before, but no one had seen proof so they were skeptical. Now it’s confirmed. It seems she’s been doing it for more than a year or two."
She took a sip of water and continued, "You can imagine how everyone is cursing her. The men curse her, and the women curse her even harder than the men."
Yu Mo interjected, "That’s actually a form of spiritual male-pleasing. Cursing her so vehemently is a way to distance themselves from her and prove their own chastity."
Lili continued, "I sure as hell won't curse her. I want to give her a round of applause! Well done! The boss’s wife is about my height, maybe 165cm. Her husband looks like a dwarf next to her; I doubt he’s even 155cm. When I saw them before, the husband was always smiling and the wife called all the shots. I thought the man just had a good personality. Later, I heard from their fellow villagers that when they were still poor, the wife had to hold a bottle of pesticide to her own throat before her family would agree to let her be with him. Later, they came to Jinning to sell mattresses and built their fortune bit by bit. And then, her man started cheating and seeing prostitutes. Tell me, Yu Mo, who could stand that? If it were me, I’d have the heart to kill that man. What’s wrong with finding a few gigolos? My youth was wasted on a dog anyway; why shouldn't I make myself happy?"
Lili grew more excited as she spoke, her voice loud enough that people at neighboring tables began to stare.
This world has never been fair to women. Even though women can now reach the moon tens of thousands of light-years away, we haven't actually traveled very far from our bound-footed ancestors.
***
