《On The Same Days》橄榄树

34、14th February Friday 2003 Shenyang

　　Als de blinde de blinde leidt, vallen ze beiden in de gracht
　　(If the blind leads the blind, they’d both fall in the canal)

　　It all went so quick. Ling pushed her way out of the train station, walked to the underground market across the square. Now she became the last Michigan among the 10 of them. May just stepped in the train to Shanghai with Fan. It was so busy that May and Fan could only get those standby tickets, it would take 35 hours in total to arrive Shanghai, without seats they would have to stand in the aisle and wait till there’d be free seats available half way or even later. That was an express; the fist stop would be half way at HangZhou. Considering the amount of standby tickets sold, May and Fan might well just have to stand up all the way to Shanghai. May was as crazy as ever, she spent loads on new clothes, shoes, suitcases as she heard that those would be very expensive in Shanghai, but insisted to go by train rather than plain to cut down the transport expense.

　　Ling didn’t cry this time, she did feel sad. Another good friend left again, just in two years time, 9 of Ling’s roommates were all gone. To foreign countries, to the South, to Peking, as if staying in Shenyang marked college graduates a loser. There weren’t many joint ventures yet as in the South, no much entertainment areas in the nights either. Except the FAW-First Automobile Works, there weren’t any other big industrial firms. There were no tourists either; the last puppet emperor’s palace was old and shabby. City planning bureau tore half of the civilian town down for rebuilding, piles and piles of bricks and sands everywhere, construction workers in their loud Shandong dialect flocked in all the corner shops under dusty working cloths. Indeed, Shenyang wasn’t such an ideal place to live for those ambitious young graduates.

　　“Miss, please help!” A legless beggar in some dirty smelly shabby coat was holding one of his dirty hands out to Ling at the entrance of the underground market. Ling searched her purse for some coins, a 5 Yuan paper note dropped down, the beggar picked it up and excitedly shouted “Thanks you miss, you are an angel.” Ling saw a piece of cunning from that pair of sad eyes, shook her head, stepped down the stairs. Someone was saying “he must have collected two gold legs already from his profession.” Ling had no idea either since when did begging become a money-only profession, no beggars these days would expect or accept dumplings from you anymore. At least it might mean the so called living standard had indeed somewhat improved.

　　How came there were still so many people left if there had been that many people went away? Ling always wondered whenever she had to go shopping. She needed something for Jane, although Jane’s birthday was still a few weeks ahead. Ling would like to take the time and check out a few toy stands there, she had took the afternoon off for seeing off May anyway, as a matter of fact, the Shenyang area manager of □□, a middle aged Beijing University graduate, was so shocked when Ling also asked to leave after May.

　　“You are making double salaries here than a lot of normal working class, you are not going to any other countries or the south, why would you leave?” he had asked,
　　“To also grow up a bit,” she had joked, “I liked the job, the children, now I’d like to see if I could also like the world beyond □□.”

　　“If you insist, I did plan to ask you to take over May as my assistant, but, ok, now I have to reconsider. Sometimes, the courage of your generation scares me, as if the world is there waiting for you to discover another great wall or create a new clown baby. The world is big, and you easily turn old before you realize that you haven’t discovered anything memorable.” He had been young also, he knew how it was, the ambition to conquer the moon, the endless searching for a proper position, but life taught him the lesion, he had done dozens of different jobs, he could at least become a Bureau Chief in Government or a School Head in one of those state owned colleges, but he turned out to be a manger of a private Taiwanese invested training school, not really what he planned for himself, but he was tired of changing. He hope these young teachers wouldn’t have to go around a big circle then back to the starting point as he used to be, he knew May would never stay anywhere for long, but Ling looked like a domicile girl with no ambitious dreams.

　　“Thanks. I’d definitely transfer the message to May. I myself is not really a dream seeker, I more or less live in dreams, that’s why it might be necessary for me to confront the reality. Who knows maybe after a few months, I will come back to knock on your door again.” said Ling, knew that she’d never come back anymore once she stepped out.

　　The peacock was so glad to hear the news, never before had she been so friendly to Ling, even bring Ling candies with some real happy smile in her eyes, mostly you could only see smile from her mouth, not in her eyes. As a matter of fact peacock had been quite hostile there days after May’s announcement of going south, she had been afraid of Ling to become a competitor of the assistant job. No wonder she’d be happy, she had waited for almost 2 years, she joined □□ one month later than May did, which marked her as the second generation teacher, followed May as a junior through the time meanwhile regretted badly why she hadn’t found □□ just one month earlier.

　　A pillow sized white tidy bear pulled Ling’s absent mind back, she hugged it, soft and comfortable, Jane hadn’t anything cuddly yet; Ling decided to buy it.

　　Tiffany told her how to bargain in the market, everything was twice its real price, you must give half price mercilessly to any offer, otherwise those stands owners would gather for a good laugh at the fool if one bought something without a few rounds of bargaining,

　　“Lovely and warm, the last one, you get the special price, 65 ¥.” The short lady behind the counter smiled at Ling.
　　“30 ¥, please,” Ling tried,
　　“What? If you don’t mean to buy it, don’t kidding me, you know how much did I pay for it?” the sharp Lady took the bear from Ling and put it back its place,
　　“15?” Ling went on with the half price theory,
　　“Please sell to me, how many do you have? I will take them all with that price.” The lady looked angry.
　　“While, in that case, I’d have to go and check out other stands, I am still a student, I wouldn’t be able to afford it.” Ling got better every time.
　　“Go and check them all out, I will see you back, nobody else has it. I see you really like it, how much do you really want to pay?”
　　“35,”
　　“Ok, go ahead, go to other stands.”
　　“40, maximum,”
　　“50, you take it, honestly, I just make 5 ¥ profit, I am entitled to it, am I? The whole day standing here in the cold…”
　　“Ok,” Ling had enough of the bargaining, she’d just take it. Suddenly the sharp lady started to grab everything on the counter, shoved them as quick as possible into a huge garbage bag beneath, as if the wolves were coming. Ling looked around, she saw a few groups dressed in blue uniform at the end of the hall by the CD stands, and all the stands owners at this end were busying hiding their goods, what the hell was going on again?

　　The lady was pushing the bear into the garbage bag.
　　“Can I still buy it? Who are they? Why are you hiding them?” Ling was curious,
　　“They are wolves, they are killing us, don’t even tell you saw a bear here.” The lady spoke in a frightened low voice as if blue uniforms all had extensible ears.

　　“But…” saw the lady was absolutely in no mood to answer her more questions, Ling went up to the CD stands where a group of people already gathered.

　　Some VCDs and music tapes were piled up on ground; blue uniforms were still thrown more from the shelves to the pile. Ling frown at the memory of that closed down Video house nearby Tiffany’s house, but those were porno’s, these were normal films and songs.
　　“You’d better tell us where did you buy these from?” A familiar voice, Ling looked at the woman in blue uniform questioning the seller. It was the daughter of her ancient match maker aunt, the one she had done a promotion exam for, which means it was something about taxes.

　　“Someone came to me and sold me, I didn’t know it wasn’t original copies, I had no idea these were illegal.” The seller, a long haired man defended.

　　“Do I look that stupid? You had no idea? Who else would? Go ahead; do you have special contacts with those illegal CD or tape makers? Just tell us, you may get a discount on the fine you are going to pay.” Ling’s cousin was never someone you could easily get away from.

　　“For years I have been buying these things from other sellers, why when it is my turn to sell, it suddenly turns illegal? These are cheaper than normal price, students also want to enjoy the music, just what’s wrong with that?” the long hair seller got very depressed, of course he wouldn’t tell where did he buy it, no one would get better off anyway. He genuinely didn’t think those genius who copied the CDs and packed them in exactly the same way as the original ones did anything wrong.

　　Ling agreed with him, Ling actually got loads cheap non-original CDs and tapes home, with quite good quality. Those original music CD or tapes producers might suffer profit loss; the government might suffer tax loss, so what? Poor consumer students like her did like the affordable convenience.

　　“It is in violation of copy rights, you will definitely learn what’s wrong with it in the cell.” Ling’s cousin was even smiling.

　　Ling had no idea what her cousin happy was about. She didn’t really want to say hello, but in order to know what’s coming next with those toy sellers, she waved to her cousin.

　　“Ling? Are you buying junks here?” the cousin came over to Ling,
　　“I was trying to buy something at the other end of the hall till you turned up, what’s it all about?’
　　“These people were selling illegal copies here, those toy stands are escaping taxes, selling much more items than they have reported. Now our bureau starts to check all the markets and shops overall the whole city to sort things out. What did you want to buy there?”
　　“A… a gift,” Ling remembered the lady said not to tell about the bear,
　　“Come on, I go there with you, here is under control.”
　　“No,” Ling became afraid; she didn’t mean to bring her cousin to that lady, “I don’t really want to buy the gift anymore, just go ahead with you work here.”
　　“Come on, I am just going to do you a little favor, I am the command in charge of this action, which was largely due to your help, remember?” Ling’s cousin pulled Ling’s arm and went up to the toy stands.

　　Ling could see the lady’s pale face a few steps away. Suddenly the lady dashed under her counter and stood up again with that bear in arms smiling to Ling’s cousin, “I was just going to ran after your friend, she left her bear here after payment.”
　　“No, I haven’t” Ling denied in shock, got a pinch on her arm from her cousin.
　　“So she left a bear here. How many more items are you selling here?” Ling’s cousin asked with an indifferent voice.
　　“These are all what I have here, there aren’t that many customers everyday anyway…”the lady gestured the few items remaining on the rather empty stand, eyed Ling anxiously. Afraid of Ling would take revenge for the bargaining and tell about the huge garbage bag.

　　Ling’s cousin picked up a parrot shaped alarm clock, turned it in her hand, set it on the counter, then a hello kitty covered photo album, had a look, set it beside the clock, asked the pale faced lady,
　　“Who told you these are toy items?”
　　“Uh, the wholesaler said…that, these are children items…”
　　“Stationeries are no toys; children ride bikes and watch TV too; are you going to sell those here?”
　　“No, I am sorry” the lady put the two items plus a key chain into a plastic bag and handed over to Ling’s cousin, “Please, help me throw them away on the way, thanks a lot.”
　　“Ok.” Ling’s cousin stuffed the bear into Ling’s arm and handed the bag to Ling as well, “You are going out, do this lady a favor then. Keep contact, I need to talk with you about Lily.”

　　Ling stepped out the underground market with the stuff at hands, snowing again, without close the zip of her feather coat; she walked to the bus feeling the cold wind and snow directly blowing into her bones.

　　Two hours later Ling was back to the underground market again, left the stuff under her bed at Ting’s house, she couldn’t set them in public, she felt like a thief. She had to find the lady and pay her. Blue uniforms must have gone to other markets. Ling found the lady, took 100¥ out from her wallet, “Please take it, sorry for what happened this afternoon, but I have to pay for what I get.”

　　The lady was totally shocked, eyed Ling with even more fear, “Didn’t you like them or do you still need more things?”
　　“No, listen, I am not coming to blackmail you, I am coming to pay you, for the bear and clocks.” Ling talked extra friendly. The lady seemed a bit relieved.
　　“Child, stop it, no relatives of the taxation wolves pay to buy things. If you really feel like to do something for me than tell your friend to specially pay less attention to me, you may come to pick up things you like every now and then.” the lady smiled also extra friendly to Ling.

　　Ling felt nauseas. She thought she would find a victim who’d thank her for her honesty and payment, so that she’d feel less guilty of taking advantages from her cousin, but she was wrong. There were no victims in this world anymore. After a few rounds of bargain, the lady accepted 50¥ unwillingly as if her chance to be paid less attention by Ling’s cousin was also 50% discounted.

　　Ling told Tiffany the story without the closing part in the night, if she wouldn’t, her cousin would anyway. Tiffany was happy that Ling was lucky, and felt pity that Ling hadn’t picked up some more things; the toy seller would definitely give Ling for fear of her cousin. “Do you think it is fair for them? Those stand owners, I mean.” Ling had asked.
　　God, what is fair? She’d have charged you 65¥ for that bear worth less than 30¥. Is that fair?” Tiffany had laughed with her nose, showed a jade bracelet to Ling, a gift from one of Roc’s patient’s family hoping for an above average treatment from the doctor.