Next stop, Black Water Street. Please exit through the rear doors.”

The public bus set out from the suburbs of B City, circled around, and slowly turned into the business district. Streets stretched in all directions and pedestrians bustled about.

The announcer spoke crisply. Unlike the usual Putonghua,¹ the announcer’s words sounded mechanical, and even the lilt on his last word seemed deliberate.

Xie Yu, who sat in the corner seat of the last row, turned his head to glance in the direction of the burning sunlight outside the window.

He felt that the temperature in the bus was turned down too low, but he also felt hot.

The bus had already been moving slowly. Now that it was surrounded on all sides by a flow of people, its speed directly plummeted to that of an old grandpa of a vehicle. It met a red light and its long body shuddered violently before slowing to a stop.

Xie Yu had his phone in hand. He looked out the window as he waited for the other person to pick up the phone.

The dial tone sounded for a while before the call finally connected. Familiar background noise emerged from the speaker, followed closely by a woman’s voice. Her voice was loud and overpowered the chaos; it was forceful and a little hoarse. She was quarrelling with someone.

“Who knows when those six shipments of goods will arrive. None of them are reliable. That lot just makes excuses all day.”

“One moment they say tomorrow, the next, the day after tomorrow. They keep changing it and in the end they told me even they didn’t know… **** it.”

Xie Yu calmly listened to the woman rant.

“Rush, my ***! Now they don’t even take my calls and pull a disappearing act on me. They must have been pulled out of a dog’s ***. Don’t they know anything? In all of Black Water Street, who dares annoy me, Xu Yanmei?”

She could yell an entire 800-word mini-essay without pausing to take a breath. Hearing her cursing get worse and worse, Xie Yu finally said something. “Aunt Mei.”

Instantly, all the cursing stopped.

Xu Yanmei waved her hand at the other people and shut her mouth. She even snuffed out the cigarette clasped between her fingers without hesitation, pressing its burning end casually against the corner of the table. She then pointed at the phone on the table that had unexpectedly connected the call, indicating that the ‘Meeting To Discuss The Six Shipments That Were Not Delivered On Time’ was adjourned.

After putting out her cigarette, she took down her long legs which she had propped up and crossed on the cheap office desk. When she spoke next her voice was gentle to a degree the other people present had never heard before, as if she was a completely different person from the madwoman whose cursing was as heavy as two tons.

“During lunch we get together to shoot the breeze, nothing much, just for fun. Life’s so boring. Occasionally cursing is good for the spirit…”

Xie Yu didn’t expose her. He only asked, “What about smoking? Smoking is also good for you?”

Xu Yanmei, reeking of nicotine, lied through her teeth as she figured he wouldn’t be able to squeeze himself out through her phone to confirm anyway. “I’m not smoking. After you told me to stop smoking, I quit. Ah, don’t talk to me about this. If you talk about it I’m worried I’ll relapse. Don’t provoke me.”

To her credit, she acted well. Who was provoking who?

Xie Yu heard her hoarse smoker’s voice which was getting worse by the day. Only when cursing people out did her voice suddenly become clear. Even if he had toes for brains, he’d know whether her words were true or not.

“You’re on break, aren’t you? I heard from your mom a while ago that your last exam was on the 20th. Why didn’t you reply to my texts?”

Xu Yanmei continued to change the subject: “How did the exams go? I looked on the internet for a very long time before finding those quotes. All so literary, I nearly hurled when I found them.”

Don’t be worried when you face the exam paper. As long as you do your best, what you receive are good results! Let your dreams raise their sails and set sail in the exam hall! Let your life float in the ocean of knowledge! Little grasshopper, do your best on the exams!

Xie Yu wasn’t sure why he was able to recite this unoriginal message verbatim. It was cliché, the aphorisms were recognizable at a glance, and it didn’t fit the texting aesthetic of today’s youth at all.

The bus entered a tunnel, which blocked the burning sun. His surroundings went dark.

Xie Yu was wearing all black and now he was completely immersed in darkness. He leaned back in the seat and stretched his long legs, which were curled up in the tight space, and casually smiled. “But you still sent them? You know what my grades are like. What did you want me to reply? Thanks for the encouragement and I’ll do my best not to be dead last?”

Having rested for less than two minutes, the eldest sister of Black Water Street, Comrade Xu Yanmei, suddenly heard someone complaining behind her: “Is this a black market shop or a wholesale market? The prices are so high. This is sabotage.”

“… What did you say?” Having been disturbed, Xu Yanmei didn’t hear Xie Yu’s reply properly. “It’s too damn noisy. A bunch of idiots came and tried to break things in the shop. Tomorrow, I’ll go buy a big loudspeaker. I don’t believe I can’t keep this bunch of grandchildren in line.”

Xie Yu’s fingers tightened slightly on his phone. The words he wanted to say hung on his lips for a while, but in the end they didn’t make it any further. “It’s nothing.”

“I saw the text. I was busy with revision and forgot to answer.”

“Good, good, good. Although your grades are a little bit bad, don’t be discouraged. You can’t give up until the end. Who’s afraid of who, right?”

As Xu Yamnei spoke, her voice got louder again. She held the receiver away from her and yelled at the customers who were still talking about making trouble: “What the hell are you doing! If someone’s in trouble, it’s you goddamn bastards. Are you buying or not? If not, quit dawdling!”

The bus emerged from the mouth of the tunnel. Large patches of sunlight began shining into the bus again, starting from the front of the bus and leading into the back.

Xie Yu narrowed his eyes slightly. Seeing the familiar scenery outside the window, he knew his stop was coming up.

Today was Monday, the third day of summer vacation and a workday. There weren’t many people on the bus.

Several students sat in the front row. The girls had their hair in braids and still carried their satchels properly and obediently, even though they were going out to have fun. Their clothes were white and clean.

Although Black Water Street was in the shopping district, the prices were down-to-earth and not expensive, and it couldn’t be termed ‘extravagant’. The buildings in the suburbs were all of low quality and the houses were run-down. But the cheap costs attracted many visitors who didn’t have a lot of disposable income, especially first-years in high school.

Xie Yu eyed a glass ornament in a girl’s hair tie, clear with a hint of pink. It glimmered in the light.

“We’re here, we’re here. Get ready to get off.” The girl tossed her braid and held the railing as she got up. “I ate the fried nian gao here. I’ll take you there.”

At the same time—

“South Station, Black Water Street. Passengers, please exit through the rear door. Thank you for your cooperation.”

The bus slowed to a stop. The instant the doors opened, a gust of hot dry wind rushed in.

Xu Yanmei thought she had heard wrongly. “Grasshopper, where are you? Why did I hear the announcement say Black Water Street?”

Xie Yu stood and got off the bus. “Comrade Xu Yanmei, in about ten minutes I’ll be at the wholesale market’s front door. Think properly about how you’re going to take care of the smell of cigarettes and how you’re going to explain it to me. Think about what you promised me back then, too. Hold your head up when you meet me.”

Xu Yanmei turned and glanced at the ashtray full of cigarette butts on her office desk. “…”

“Mei-jie, what happened? Why the glum face?”

Xu Yanmei pushed open the door and walked out. Rolling up her sleeves, she entered the warehouse and started helping the shop owners with their work. “Don’t talk about it. I’ll die from frustration.”

Xu Yanmei operated a clothing wholesale market on Black Water Street. She’d been in the clothing business for more than ten years. In the beginning, she had put up a stall by the roadside with several of her friends. Later, it had become a proper shop. In the end, they took over two floors in the Guang Mao Expo in the middle of Black Water Street—and these two floors contained more than a hundred small shops which formed a wholesale market.

As the female boss of the wholesale market, Mei-jie’s name was very well known on Black Water Street.

“You’re frustrated, really? It looks to me like this slight smile of yours isn’t slight at all,” one of the shop owners said.

Xu Yanmei said, “What nonsense are you saying? Also, do you have perfume or anything like that? Let me borrow it. Xiao Yu-er is about to get here and I stink of cigarette smoke. If he catches me, he’ll give me hell.”

The shop owner straightened up and dusted off his trousers: “So it’s that precious son of yours. Look how scared you are, you’re… I have perfume. Let me go find it for you.”

“How can I not be scared? My Xiao Yu is a good boy.” Xu Yanmei’s voice was very quiet. With one hand she exerted strength on a small knife to open a bag of wrapping string, saying to herself, “I can’t lead him astray.”

“… He’s not your biological son anyway. Just your godson, right?”

“What good boy? My son is in the same class as Xie Yu. He’s thorny. To say nothing of his bad grades, nobody in class dares to share a desk with him. He even seems to be some school gang leader and mixes with that sort of crowd. Only you, Mei-jie, hold him up like some kind of treasure and don’t even curse in front of him.”

“I heard he even cheated on the high school entrance exams. If not, with his grades, he’d only pass if he encountered a ghost. Even though Er Zhong isn’t that good of a school, even a regular high school² at rock-bottom is still a regular high school.”

“Forget it, don’t talk about it any more. Go back to work.”

By the time Xu Yanmei undid the wrapping string, the group of chatty shop employees had dispersed. Each stood in front of their stalls, which were a meter wide at most, and started hawking their wares: “Two for 99, two for 99! If you miss today, come back next year! Down jackets are out of season and this is a clearance sale!”

“Come over here and take a look! Two for 99!”

Xu Yanmei walked over, a cloud of perfume following her. “I’ll go out for a bit. If anything comes up, give me a call. If there are idiots who can’t read the room, don’t try to reason with them, got it? Just yell at them. Reason, my ***. Reason is for humans, not for idiots.”

Xie Yu took a roundabout route, and after visiting three different tchotchke stores he finally found a loudspeaker with a volume enhancer.

It was red and white and he found it at the bottom of a pile of miscellaneous goods. The shop owner wanted to show that it still worked even though it was covered with a layer of dust; he immediately plugged it in and played the song “Damned Gentleness.”

It was indeed very strong. It was so loud it could burst eardrums.

Xie Yu’s ears hurt from the volume. As he dug his money out he said, “All right, that’s enough. How much is it?”

The shopkeeper was very close to the loudspeaker and he didn’t hear what Xie Yu said at all. He rubbed at the dust on the loudspeaker with his sleeve and raised his voice to continue promoting the item with all his might. He was an elderly man and really quite old, and it was incredible that he could still yell so loudly: “–Durable! If it’s broken, full refund! Full refund!”

“How much?”

“Quality guaranteed! If there are problems just come to me! This shop is small, won’t change its line of business, and won’t change its name! Jian Xing Goods!”

“…”

A hand stretched in front of the old man. Slender, fine-boned, well-kept with clean nails.

With a blank face, Xie Yu pressed the on-off switch. It was finally quiet. “How much.”

“Twen… twenty-five.”

The elderly man held up two fingers then five before saying, “Do you want it? If you want it I’ll wrap it up for you.”

Before Xie Yu could nod, the old man had already picked up a plastic bag and put the loudspeaker in it. Faster than the eye could see, he pulled several sheets of unknown origin from a thick stack under the table and stuffed them in the bag, too.

——Women’s clinic. Painless abortion.

——Men’s blessing. Second stick half-off.

Not only did he man a tchotchke store, he also bore the heavy responsibility of giving out leaflets. Xie Yu had now gained a new understanding of the proactiveness and professionalism of the people of Black Water Street.

The old man wasn’t done stuffing the bag and tossed another few sheets in. From the different colors, broadly speaking, the leaflets all seemed to be unique. “Side job, side job. I respond to the clarion call and strive towards middle-classdom. I work hard in order to make my fortune… Here’s your change, don’t drop it. Come back again!”

Translation notes:

[1] Putonghua: the standard Mandarin dialect

[2] An academically focused high school track, in contrast to ‘adult high school’ and ‘vocational high school

Those flyers covered nearly all walks of employment, from circumcision to microfinancing— everything one could want. There were even ads for locksmiths, miracle Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, private detectives, professional exam-takers….

Xie Yu pulled them straight out and tossed them in the garbage bin. When he reached the last flyer, he saw written on top: Mystery Game, inflaming your passion! Big brother, ah~ come~

The tildes were so flirtatious they could break through the heavens. Xie Yu was just about to toss it out when he heard someone loudly call out from behind him, “Damn brat.” Xie Yu’s hand jerked and his train of thought was broken. Reflexively he stuffed the flyer into the pocket of his pants.

Xu Yanmei rubbed her hands together: “You found the time to come see me?”

The first thing Xie Yu did upon seeing her was to pass her the black plastic bag, then swiftly retreat several steps. But he hadn’t escaped in time: “What is that smell on you? Toilet air freshener? What are you doing spraying that for no reason??”

“Like hell it’s toilet air freshener. Damn it, this is a woman’s scent.” She’d put on about half a bottle of perfume.

She opened the plastic bag. She froze for a couple of seconds when she saw the contents: “I was just saying, and you really got me a big megaphone. How does this work? Is this the on switch?”

A vein in Xie Yu’s temple jumped with a pop. “Don’t press that. It’ll make noise.”

Too late. Xu Yanmei had already pressed down on the red button like a child who had just received a new toy. The song that hadn’t finished playing in the convenience store now blared out from the speakers, forceful and enduring.

Xu Yanmei was a little stunned. “Damn, it’s this loud?”

“Quick, turn it off,” Xie Yu said. “And that voice of yours. You really don’t notice? The smoking… just smoke, then.”

Xu Yanmei: “It’s not like that… With this strong constitution of mine, I’ll still fight on for the next three hundred years at least.”

Xie Yu was silent as he observed her. He noticed at once that her right hand was supporting the side of her waist, as if unconsciously. Due to long years of hard labor, Xu Yanmei’s back wasn’t doing well. Every day she had to stick on a medicinal patch or she else might be in so much pain that she wouldn’t be able to get out of bed.

“Strong. You really dare say that.”

Xu Yanmei noticed Xie Yu’s gaze and immediately lowered her hand. Who knew how much truth was in what she said as she smoothly ran outside: “My back is fine. Speaking of which, last time you asked me to go to the hospital for a checkup. I went. It went fine. The doctor said it wasn’t serious.”

Xie Yu walked toward the Guang Mao Expo as he listened. He wore an ordinary, even somewhat cheap, black T-shirt—Xu Yanmei had bought it for him. She often sent him clothes: if she saw something suitable, she’d buy it, and after accumulating enough, she would send them over in a big cardboard box about half the height of a person.

He stuck both hands in his pockets. His sleeves were folded up several times and revealed his slender wrists. His hair was medium length and it looked soft to the touch, curling naturally due to how fine it was, and giving him a cold, fierce look.

He asked: “How many truckloads of merchandise are shipping today?”

Xu Yanmei was forty-plus years old, and usually she was busy with receiving and sending shipments of goods. All day she had to keep her eye on this and that; the riff-raff who messed up the store and caused trouble were all hers to deal with, so she didn’t have much time to take care of herself. Her hair was still in the same perm she had gotten last New Year’s. Without maintenance, it now looked like messy instant noodles, dry and yellowing.

From her features it was easy to see the beauty of her youth, but time spares no one.

If she were tossed into a crowd, she would only be a middle-aged woman, extremely ordinary, to the point that one might suspect that the glimpse of former beauty one could see in her features was simply imagined.

“Eighteen truckloads. Even though it’s summer, I still have to keep an eye on the autumn fashions, otherwise the suppliers might not have enough time to finish the orders when the time comes.” Now that the subject had come around to work, Xu Yanmei unconsciously reached for her pocket, hoping to find a cigarette to satisfy her craving. But she only found a lighter and no cigarette.

Xie Yu asked, “Do you have enough help?”

”Enough, enough. No need for you to bother,” Xu Yanmei said. “I still haven’t settled the score from last time when you arrived out of nowhere to help over here.”

Xie Yu had coincidentally found out that she had thrown out her back while moving goods. He had skipped a day of class and by the time she found him, he had already blended in among the workers and helped move four or five truckloads of goods. He had changed out of his school uniform and was sweating all over.

This had been when business at the wholesale market wasn’t good; only in the last half year had things gotten better, so the fewer workers she could employ to move goods, the fewer she employed. Managing two floors of Guang Mao was effort enough, so of course she would think about how to reduce costs.

The two stood in the elevator, and their proximity made the scent of perfume that was like air freshener curdle into something even more intense. This service elevator might also have been used to transport meat because, aside from the overpowering perfume scent, there was also the faint smell of rotting fish.

Xu Yanmei asked: “Did you grow taller again?”

Xie Yu said: “Almost 1.8 meters now.”

Xu Yanmei eyed him up and down, wanting to smile and frown at the same time. “You’ve lost weight.”

The elevator opened and Xie Yu walked out. Xu Yanmei was still fixated on the ‘lost weight’ part: “Remember to eat your regular three meals a day. Young people nowadays go on diets at the drop of a hat. Don’t get obsessed with it… Eh, why did you stop?

Xie Yu stood in front of her, blocking her entire field of vision so she couldn’t see anything.

“What is it? What happened?”

Xie Yu didn’t give her a chance to see what was happening ahead.

He just pushed Xu Yanmei back into the elevator and swiftly and cleanly hit the door close button.

His reaction was fast—so fast that even the group of ill-intentioned-looking guys didn’t have time to react. By the time they realized what was happening, the elevator doors were already closing.

“Fuck.” The guy at the front wore a fierce expression. A gold chain encircled his neck and he ripped a cigarette from between his teeth, tossing it casually by his foot as he walked forward, cursing. “——Xu Yanmei, you damn bitch, you fucking stop right there!”

He was the only person who reacted quickly enough—the other guys hadn’t even realized that the woman they were looking for was about to slip away right in front of their eyes. The man with the gold chain waved one big hand, his rage unstoppable: “What are you all standing there for? Get her! All of you just standing around and watching the show. You! Quick, go down the stairs over there and catch her!”

The elevator doors were already half-closed. Xie Yu lowered his voice and said quickly, “Go down first. Bring people back here.”

Xu Yanmei caught a glimpse of the man’s face through the elevator doors. There were too many things she wanted to say but time was tight so she hurriedly yelled, “Xie Yu!”

Xie Yu looked at her: “Aunt Mei, listen to me.”

He only looked at her for a moment before the gap between the doors disappeared as they closed firmly shut and the elevator carrying her descended.

A mop stood beside the elevator, probably forgotten there by a janitor who had finished their work. Xie Yu grabbed it, lifted one foot, and stepped on the mop head. He exerted strength and ripped the whole wooden handle out.

Brandishing the wooden stick, Xie Yu raised his head to look at them: “What do you want?”

He knew this lot.

Black Water Street was full of gangsters who caused trouble up and down the street in the name of collecting protection fees. This man in front of him was Hu-ge—word had it that he had been released from jail a few months ago. According to him, he was locked up because he had almost stabbed someone to death. Unbelievable bluster. Regardless of how he touted it, no one really cared about what the truth of the matter really was.

Hu-ge managed to scrape a living by collecting protection fees and enjoyed being respected as the ‘big brother’ by underlings who didn’t know any better. Until he met Xu Yanmei. Everything started with just one event: he had fallen for her.

Xu Yanmei was quite beautiful, and her personality was forceful and ardent.

She had just one flaw: she was ungrateful. Over and over she had rejected him… really, she didn’t know a good thing when she saw it.

At this point, Hu-ge’s eyes darkened. “Brat, mind your own business.”

Xie Yu still didn’t react. The shop employees, who had shrunk into a corner and were too afraid to make a sound, had their hearts in their throats. This was their first time encountering such a matter. This lot had walked in like they owned the place and started breaking things; one could tell at a glance that they weren’t to be trifled with.

They weren’t sure whether to call the cops. Everyone knew the unwritten rules of Black Water Street: what happens in Black Water stays in Black Water.

Then they saw Mei-jie’s so-called “good boy” standing in the elevator doorway. One against five. His expression was blank. His hand slipped out of his pocket and beckoned lightly to the group of people. It was impossible to tell if it was a challenge or if he really didn’t care. “You really want to die so much you’ve come to daddy’s door? No time for bullshit. Come on, all at once.”

”……”

Hu-ge didn’t want to admit that, for an instant, he was cowed by this boy who looked like he was still in school.

The glint in the kid’s eye was dark, chilling, like being dumped in a cold water bath. He looked at them like he was looking at a pile of shit—all in all, it definitely wasn’t the gaze of a hothouse flowerbud.

Hu-ge was really getting angry and began to posture out of habit. He pulled aside his collar. “So young and already so full of hot air. Do you know who I am? Go out and ask around. Is there anyone who sees me, Hu-ge, and doesn’t show respect? …See this? This scar on my neck? This is from a fight with the prison guards. You brat, you don’t even have facial hair, what do you care about that bitch? What is this, huh? Fighting me? Copying other people and trying to fight? Just with that little wooden stick, you think—”

Without another word Xie Yu stretched out and caught Hu-ge by the collar, drawing intimidatingly close. His knee crashed brutally into Hu-ge’s stomach and swiftly, after he trapped Hu-ge’s elbow with his hand, he pulled Hu-ge to him without giving even a second of leeway.

It was a very elegant shoulder throw, neat and clean. If the atmosphere weren’t so tense, the bunch of shopkeepers in the back might even have applauded and cheered.

Hu-ge was knocked to the ground so hard his vision went dark and he couldn’t speak a word.

But Xie Yu wasn’t going to let him off so easily. He dragged the guy up from the floor again and pushed him against the steel doors of the elevator with a thud. His fingers tightened around Hu-ge’s neck!

“So arrogant. You think jail time is a man’s badge of honor?”

Hu-ge reacted. He raised his leg and was about to kick but Xie Yu firmly hit the offending leg with the stick. Hu-ge’s calf twitched uncontrollably and the moment Xie Yu let go he fell heavily onto the ground, one hand propping himself up while the other clutched his stomach as he dry heaved. “…Fuck.”

“Who did you call a bitch.” Hu-ge’s eyes were wide as he looked at Xie Yu’s face, which could be called beautiful, gradually drawing closer. The youth’s face was brimming with violent intent and about to overflow. Compared to this outstanding beauty, he was even more surprised by the chilly, sharp aura emanating from the person in front of him.

Xie Yu repeated his earlier question, tamping down on his anger, his voice low. “Who did you call a bitch?”

Hu-ge said nothing.

”If no one taught you how to behave, I’ll teach you.” Xie Yu kicked the pile of rubbish with the tip of his foot.

The few guys behind Hu-ge looked back and forth for a few moments, all seeing hesitation in each other’s eyes. Then, in unspoken unison, they turned and ran.

“Now we’re really finished. What should we do?”

The taller one asked as he ran, “Should we call the police?”

”Call the police, my ***!” the other one said. “If we do that, how can we do business here in the future?”

Gu Xuelan was taking afternoon tea when she got the call from the police station.

The woman removed her silk shawl. She wore a haute couture lace dress underneath, well-tailored to her curves and unspeakably elegant. Two dark flowers were discreetly embroidered at the hem of the skirt. Her ankles were slender and pale like bright jade.

Carefully styled long hair fell on either side of her face. She smiled as she listened to the rich women opposite her chatting about the winter fashions they had their eyes on recently, occasionally putting in a word or two: “Madam Chen, since you like it so much, maybe you could fly over and buy it…”

“Madam, a call for you.”

Gu Xuelan turned away. Her finger rested on the ceramic cup and she asked casually, “Who called?”

The person held up the phone, unsure whether or not to answer. After several seconds of hesitation, he bent at the waist to Gu Xuelan’s ear and said in a low voice only they could hear: “Po-police station. The second young master fought with someone and it was pretty serious. The other side is demanding that we pay the medical bills. Madam, what do you think we should do about this? Send someone to take a look?”

Gu Xuelan’s expression changed with a whoosh.