《On The Same Days》橄榄树

24、26th November Tuesday Shenyang

　　Waking up call rang at 5 in the morning, Tina fought against the strong urge to disconnect the line and sleep further; she had to get up. It would be 4 hours driving to JiNan airport, she must catch the flight to Shenyang at 10:00.
　　Another call, Miss Blue, International trade department manger of Oriental Toys was already downstairs waiting for her in the lobby.

　　In less than 15 minutes time Tina washed up, threw herself in her last clean black suit, packed her suitcase and wheeled to the lift. She hated suits, but in China, business context, she had to wear them. She hated that Miss Blue’s persistence to send her to the airport, in this time of the morning, too much hospitality, in the hope of getting a few million Euros order from Tina. Tina was exhausted in the last few weeks by all the personal touches within or outside of the business contexts from different potential suppliers, as if they were in a contest, who touched her the most personally with their treats, gifts, promises and more, who’d get a hen that lays golden eggs.
　　Yet Happy Concern was just a quail to its utmost, she didn’t tell. She desperately needed space to breath, she wished she’d have this trip alone to the airport, at least she’d get sometime for herself to think, or not think at all, she wouldn’t need to think first to talk with a driver, but with Miss Blue, her head started to ache again.

　　Miss Blue stood in front of the reception desk, knew that Tina had to check out. Under Miss Blue’s accompany, Tina asked for the bill, took off her purse made the payment. When she tried to put the bill inside of her purse, another bill dropped on the floor, before Tina bent, Miss Blue already picked the note up for her, a bill from another Hotel in YiWu.
　　“YiWu light industrial commodity market,” Miss Blue commented with a disgusted tone, “That was a garbage source, only low class importers from Arabic countries would pick things there, completely no quality.”
　　“There were a lot of new hair accessories designs displayed in YiWu, I went for some ideas for our Art department.” Tina told half the truth, without commenting on the quality issue, without telling her the appointment with another active plush trader in YiWu aged over 40, had his office in Hangzhou who constantly encouraged Tina the whole time that she must go back to Amsterdam and opens her own shop right away; he’d supply her things free of charge upfront; she could pay him back after things get sold.
　　She pissed one PVC maker off when she chose another trade agent in the same town to send her to the XiaMen airport. The PVC Maker was a new father, he got a daughter on the night when Tina arrived there, he named her daughter Lucky Star because she brought Tina there, starting point of the European market, he said PVC products were still too forward for Chinese market, people were not willing to pay for the extra value, they prefer plastic substitutes, much cheaper in price. Foreigners should have the taste; he wished Tina might turn his factory profitable again. Yet he showed Tina more mountains and rivers around the city than factories, more restaurants and bars than raw material markets. Tina could understand all that hospitality, yet his factory, as many other factories, was producing all those Cartoon figures without licenses, to reduce cost, they said. There were still holes somewhere in the Chinese legal system in this transition period; the whole marketing economy wasn’t yet systematically regulated. Although they dared to export, Happy Concern wouldn’t dare to buy, that was why Tina wanted to talk with another agent for more information she did need.

　　“More business contacts in Shenyang?” Miss Blue picked up her spy task again after took over Tina’s suitcase and arranged it in the car.
　　“No, just going back home, meet families and some friends.” One appointment with a Jewelry maker Miss Blue didn’t need to know.
　　“Where do you live in Shenyang? I have never been there; it’s minus 18 degrees there right now, you may really need a coat.”
　　“I had my coat in the suitcase, I grew up in those temperatures, already used to be an ice stick, should be no problem.” Tina deliberately forgot Blue’s first question, “You should go there once, Blue, the ice lantern festival is really amazing.”
　　“I am not sure what kind of ice lantern I’d like to be yet.” Success, Blue did forget her question; it was just a polite inquiry anyway.

　　Of course, Tina wasn’t ashamed of the fact that she was from that little village in the middle of nowhere, but she hated their real surprised “Oh?!” every time when they heard it, mixture of pity and respect, not because of her herself, but because of where she was from, as if she was a prisoner with a death sentence who managed a narrow escape under god’s mercy.

　　With a very sleepy head, Tina exhausted her words long before they reached the airport, luckily the daughter of Miss Blue called her twice, which gave Tina the chance to shift the topic onto the daughter, Miss Blue talked all the way till the end of the journey with shinning face completely forgot her spy task, Tina knew why many companies prefer single female employees. Once they became mothers, they’d never get over their pregnancy, first 10 months in their bellies, all the coming years, in their minds.

　　Finally settled in the plane, Tina thought she’d be too excited to even close her eyes, within two hours, she’d be home, she had always considered Shenyang home, she had stayed there 4 years, had her college education, her best friends, her first job, the longest time span of her life outside of the village. But she fell into asleep within 5 minutes.

　　* * *

　　Ling woke up at 6, she just couldn’t sleep further. She got up and cooked breakfast, singing. Bamboo was on night shift at work. Tiffany and Roc both had to agree behave normal at dinner before they went for work. After that Tina cleaned the whole house again, second record in one year, last time she did it when Roc’s aunt was here. But of course, Tina would have to stay here with her at home, not in whatever kind of hotel, be wherever that crazy girl was from, or whichever company she represented, she was her Tina, they shared meals, bed, secrets, sorrow and happiness all together for years, nothing would ever change that.

　　She had called Lee yesterday, asked for a favor, to borrow his car and driver for a few hours today to pick up Tina from the airport. He said he’d try to join the dinner too if Tina wanted. Though a bit surprised as Lee had never been really enthusiastic about meeting up any of her friends or families, but Ling did want them to meet each other, who knows he might become another most important person in her life, she’d love to show him to Tina, nobody knows when would that crazy girl ever come back again. May and Fan would be at the dinner too, May had always been curious about Lee too. Ling made the reservation at Hot Pot City.
　　Jane wanted to join, but Ling thought it might be too big a shock for Tiffany rather than for Tina, if Tiffany reports to her parents, Ling would have a lot to explain, she’d rather avoid those fights before it is necessary. She had to promise Jane the coming Tuesday she’d bring her home, at her parent’s house near countryside to see the pigs and horses, once her parents get to know Jane first and fall in love with that child, things would get easier whichever way it may go. Though nobody ever told her, Ling knew exactly how to trick her parents down and disarm them, direct fight with them like Bamboo did never worked well.

　　Telephone rang, she picked it up.
　　“Is Ling at home?” a middle aged male voice, not her father.
　　“Uncle Zhao? How are you? This is Ling” Ling felt her heart start to beat in a quicker rhythm, Mr. Zhao had Bamboo’s mobile No., he wasn’t looking for Bamboo but for Ling, it must be about the loan possibility for Lee, she almost gave up the hope as it had been days after the National Congress although she heard the new policy encouraged private entrepreneurs, yet you never know what local emperors would play.

　　“Ling, I am just calling to tell that there are possibilities, certain amount of loan are allowed to be issued to private entrepreneurs, of course with deposit and under many restrictions, you’d better ask Lee to come for a chat soon, it won’t be an easy decision, there’d be many people fighting for the quota.” Ling could see Mr. Zhao massaging his right temple again at the end of the phone.
　　“He will contact very soon in person, thanks a lot for your help, Uncle Zhao, I don’t know how…” Ling really had no idea what should she say or do, she never had such experiences.
　　“You are family, don’t worry.”

　　Hung up the phone, Ling couldn’t help but jumped with joy, she hadn’t feel so happy for months since the cancellation of Bamboo’s wedding. It might be really time for a change of luck for the family. Then she got red cheeked by her own thought, family, Lee was no member of her family at all, would it ever be? Ling knew she wasn’t confident enough, never before had she wished to be more beautiful, as Bamboo, or more intelligent, as Tina, yet she was just herself, just an ordinary girl who hadn’t great ambitions for life, easily content at everybody else’s happiness.

　　Lee definitely didn’t jump at the news, Ling could tell from the phone, he wasn’t as excited as she expected, yet he might have never jumped at whatever news and would never do, he was a practical person. He said he would contact Mr. Zhao soon and he would attend the dinner almost for sure, but don’t count 100% on his attendance yet. That was where the insecure feeling came from, Ling realized, that he always had to be there for all the arranged or unexpected business things, not for her, at least never could be 100% for her. Ling sighed. Maybe if he starts his own business, things would change.

　　Still got one hour ahead after she settled herself in her new brown boots and a similar colored leather coat, dashed to the market outside, she bought chocolate flavored popcorns, sunflower seeds and a big watermelon home, Tina’s favorite’s.

　　Then Lee’s car arrived, the driver already knew Ling quite well, they chatted the whole way to the airport. They were half an hour too early. Shenyang airport was rather small; they had to wait outside in the open air for arrivals to come out of the exit. It was really cold, luckily it stopped snowing. The son was shinning, on the snow covering on all the roofs and roads, only the main path had been cleaned. Ling wrapped herself in the dark feather coat she brought for Tina, shifting her feet from one boot to another in the snow. More people came around the exit, some holding board with “Cordially welcome Comrade xxx (must be governmental officials) or Mr. xxx (must be business contact).”

　　* * *

　　Woke up by the landing broadcast, Tina felt the cold air. Her seat was at the back of the plane again, with the ridiculous high price she paid there in Amsterdam to the travel agent, the girl at the check in counter suspiciously checked the ticket carefully character per character, which almost drove Tina mad, she wouldn’t use a fake ticket, Y class, so what? Then the girl told her if she buys the ticket here in China, the same price, definitely first class. An imported ticket had to be more expensive, Tina explained to herself.

　　Collected her luggage, much lighter now as she already gave away all the samples she brought from Happy Concern, sent back a whole box of samples she got from different suppliers from YiWu. Without unpacking for her coat, she wheeled the luggage car to the exit, Tina must have been waiting for quite some time; the flight was late for 20 minutes.

　　Glancing around the crowd outside the exit from left to right, before Tina located where Ling was, a piece of brown shadow already struck her with lightening speed. They hugged each other tight for a very long while. Then they smiled to each other with wet eyes, and very boyishly hit each other’s shoulder with heavy fists, hugged tight again.

　　“Miss Crazy in black, you kept growing taller,” Ling had to look up at the reddish haired Tina on those terrible heels.
　　“Dear doggy, even on these heels I was still a dwarf in that tiny country full of milk cows. How are you? How is everybody? How is life? How is job? How is everything?”
　　“How are you? How is it in Holland? How is the trip to South China? How long can you stay here with me? When are you coming back?”

　　They talked like crazy the whole way back home, only stopped for a breath when they drove along their college campus. Tina turned down Ling’s suggestion of having a walk inside of the campus, of course she couldn’t yet; her diploma was still detained there due to her tuition payment shortage. Too much a shame to step in there ever again before debt clean, Tina insisted.
　　“But you’d get a foreign diploma next year, no point to pay for this 3rd class Chinese diploma anymore.” Ling tried to talk Tina into sense.
　　“Just to support the socialism a bit when I can, although the socialism hadn’t really supported me when I needed it,” Tina was a bit bitter.
　　“You did get scholarship, besides, the capitalism didn’t help you in anything either.” Ling was sensitive,
　　“Indeed not, but that was because of my nationality. They do finance all Dutch students’ education, in terms of monthly allowance, scholarship is something extra.” Tina automatically complained the advantage of a capitalistic citizenship as she always did with Lisa. Noticed Ling’s disapproving look, she added quickly “In no way am I defending their system, it is just a fact, there are more people in Africa wearing grass and eat it than here in China. Tell me more about Lee and Fan. I still can’t believe you are all sold just in one year.”
　　“You will meet both of them in a few hours anyway. But please don’t make terrible jokes about it all, both deals are not confirmed yet.”
　　“Not publicly confirmed by families yet, or privately either?”
　　“Neither.”
　　“I thought we at least reached the 20th century.” Tina couldn’t help laughing.
　　“Aren’t there more than enough changes already in one year?” Ling sighed.

　　After settled the suitcases down at home, Ling and Tina went to the Shower House downstairs for a shower. After weeks lodging in those Hotels, though not with 5 stars, it felt a bit weird to go into a public shower house again, to take a shower among a whole room of naked women. Luckily, it was Tuesday, daytime, it wasn’t so crowded. No fights over spray nozzles. Ling insisted them to clean each other’s back as they used to do when they were in college, or still did with her sisters.
　　“We’d definitely defined as lesbians if we were doing this in Holland.” Tina joked.
　　“Aha, then here in China we have the greatest number of gays and lesbians in the whole world. We have this kind of shower house on every corner of the streets.”

　　They went to China Southern Airline office by buses as Ling insisted. Tina wanted to take a Taxi; it cost less than one Euro if it is not too far a distance, cheaper than the trams in Amsterdam. Ling said they were in Shenyang and one Euro was almost 10 RMB. So they cautiously walked to the bus station a few streets away on the slippery icy road. Tina didn’t bring any winter shoes with her, she’d have to shop for a pair later on, she’d better shop for a lot actually, a few times she brought clothes home in Amsterdam then found the sticker of made in China, only 10 times the Chinese price.

　　Tina had to change the flight date from 2nd Dec to 3rd Dec as she made an appointment with another toy trader through Joanna, one of the college roommates who worked for a HK firm in Beijing. It was a boy behind the service desk, noticed the ticket was opened a month ago. He asked for Tina’s passport, the girl college sat next to the boy reached out her head too. They checked the Visa and Tina’s picture twice, decided that she wasn’t an escaped □□ refugee and Holland was indeed a sovereign country in Europe, thus the Visa should be valid, so did the ticket. The only problem was the booked flight was already canceled one week ago. Tina had to pay some non-negotiable amount of extra RMB to change to another flight. They said she had to talk with the travel agency in Holland about it if she felt unfair as they made the declaration already weeks ago. Change back into Euros, the extra charge was just something like 5 euros, Tina didn’t even consider to go back to the travel agency; it would cost her more to get there by trams.

　　The Jewelry maker was a young man called Ben, literally the word means stupid in Chinese. Tina met him in a teahouse as his factory was somewhere outside of the city. Ben brought a very young pretty girl shinning under the obvious decoration of quite some sample jewelries, “Diana, our PR manger.” He introduced. Tina smiled at the name, credited him for not refereeing her as his secretary. He talked a lot, the pretty PR poured tea more times than the waitress had done. Without any inquiry from Tina, Ben started the whole story from his parents, childhood all the way down to his education and present situation.
　　Tina nodded with true interest and exchanged smile of understanding with the PR every now and then like a good audience. Ben’s parents were intellectuals who went through the Cultural Revolution. They named the only son as Ben-Stupid in the hope that he’d be wise enough to not always show his intelligence, sometimes being stupid would bring you happiness and safety they believed. Side effects from the torture they had endeavored during Cultural Revolution, Ben said. Ben performed indeed not very well in school; he dropped after the second year in university, started to work as sales representatives for a state owned company, being laid off 5 years ago. He went to Shen Zhen in 1998 without a penny, came back in 2000 with 20,000 RMB, (2000 Euros, Tina automatically calculated mentally, 10 times of her 200) he started his own business, copy house, computer accessories distributor, wedding dress renter, jewelry seller, now he bought the jewelry factories himself.
　　Chinese market was easy he said. “You don’t need to learn anything about those marketing strategies, only one strategy applies, connections, networking. We Chinese had much longer history with webs and networks. Right connections ensure the success of your business; I do not dare say for the whole China, but North East China I have built up the web, whatever you need from here, I promise you the best price the best quality. Or whatever European products that you think would be selling point here, I knew all the commercial bureau chiefs, I have the market. We can really do something.”
　　“Most commodities there are all 10 times more expensive than here, it wouldn’t be wise to import.” Tina kept smiling at his enthusiasm, a very honest simple boy, still somewhere in his apprenticeship in this Chinese society, someone who really got the networking wouldn’t have to shout and swear to convince others, they’d play down, avoid publicity.
　　“But everyone buy things back whenever they travel abroad, art crafts or other gifts. There must be a market for those gifts.” Ben insisted.
　　“The market is there because of those gifts were bought from abroad, the value and meaning of the gift is the distance, if you sell windmills in Shenyang, no one would dare to give windmills as gifts anymore.”
　　“Whyever not? They’d save space in their suitcase to carry other valuable things instead of all the gifts.”
　　“Gift receivers would feel cheated.” Tina started to believe in Ben’s name, stupid.
　　“A windmill is a windmill.” Very stubborn,
　　“Then don’t import from me, just buy a model and copy, produce it here, price it 15 times higher, you’d be loaded the next time I see you.” If ever, Tina kept the last two words to herself.

　　Dinner time, Ben insisted sending Tina to hotpot city after asked some Euro coins and a few paper Euros from Tina out of curiosity. He went in and made a circulation of hands shaking with everybody, and then gone with his shinning PR who hadn’t got any chance to say anything the whole afternoon.

　　“Wow, look at our Dutch girl, already so businesslike!” May was in black outfit too, with a purple silk scarf, purple handbag and purple boots, as bright as always. Tina hugged May tight for a while, then with Tiffany, Roc. Fan sat next to May, a tall boy according to Chinese standard, smiling at Tina. Tina smiled back with a “hi!” appreciated that he didn’t give his hand for a shake, it’d be too distant then. After they all sat down, ordered a few dozen dishes, Lee came in, apologized, circulated a round of hands shaking as he hadn’t met anybody else ever yet.

　　“How is the study there? Is it easy to get a diploma? Many projects and group work? Aren’t westerners very individual?”
　　“Is the tuition expensive? Rents and transportations? How are you going to afford a master if it is that expensive? Do you have to work black? Have you ever been caught? What if they found out you aren’t a half blood? Fine or expel?”
　　“Are there many Chinese there, what do they do? Half open restaurants half working for them? Boring! What? You had to learn Cantonese to communicate with those from HK? You’d still count money for them when you were sold by them, why don’t you make mainland friends instead?”
　　“What do Dutch people eat? Do they really wear wooden shoes? Is Dutch language close to English? Do they also smell like black people do? Does it rain everyday? Architecture there? No modern skyscrapers?”
　　“Have you been to red light district? Are drugs there really legal? Gay marriage and euthanasia too? Even a gay politician? Assassinated?”
　　“Do you still want to come back after graduation? Is it possible to immigrate? Many girls married with Europeans just for a citizenship? What you…do you have a European boyfriend yet then?”
　　“How many bugs do people, average people there make? That much? God! What can I do if I go there? I don’t really speak English. High expenses? Can’t you make money there then spend it here in China?”
　　“……”
　　“……”
　　…………
　　…………

　　Tina drank one cup of tea after the other to keep her throat clear. Till she drained with words, had they allowed her sometime for her hot-pot. Tina had thought to call her Manager of XY Corp where she worked for a word of thanks, a notice of being alive, yet decided better not to do it, she could answering all these questioning to friends with not too much difficulty, but to him, that father like man who liked her that much to pay for the city residence permit and trusted her that much to keep the fact of her going to Holland a secret to the board for not asking her to pay the money back, he expected his once assistant to be something, but what could she tell now? As a little nobody…

　　“How is the Inner Mongolia plan of yours?” Tina teased May, winked at Fan. She simply wouldn’t allow her own mood ruin the happy dinner.
　　“If necessary, I may really go for it.” May sounded serious,
　　Fan’s smile was frozen for a second, turning to May helplessly, “What does necessary mean?”
　　“Means away from whatever troublemakers,” May clouded her face,
　　Ling picked up a big shrimp for May, “your favorite, trouble dish, you enjoyed the trouble to peel it for the taste, do you?”
　　“You do agree it is troublesome?”
　　“I do believe you never just walk away from trouble.”
　　Tina heard the future mother in law story, knew what was going on. The rest of the table except Fan hadn’t a clue what the puzzle was all about…