The next morning, He Xian woke up in his bedroom to find that the sofa in the living room had been returned to its original position, with no signs that anyone had spent the night there. His pajamas had been washed and hung on the clothesline. Lin Sitao had already left.
During their lunch break, Ding Shengguang went to He Xian’s office and sat there chatting with him.
Ding Shengguang was the type of person who couldn’t stand being alone even for a moment. Meanwhile, He Xian was busy working on his computer, responding to Ding Shengguang’s words with a few “mhm” and “yeah” without paying much attention.
Ding Shengguang chuckled and said, “Can’t you take a break for even a moment?”
He Xian replied, “Can’t you stop talking for even a moment?”
The printer hummed loudly and soon produced a thick stack of documents. Ding Shengguang went over to pick it up and took a look, saying, “What’s this? Who has a child taking the college entrance exam? Wait a minute, Xiaohan is only in junior high. And this… does anyone even need this?”
He Xian replied, “It’s not for relatives or friends’ children. It’s for Lin Sitao.”
Ding Shengguang had already forgotten the name: “Who?”
He Xian had to explain, “The child laborer.”
Ding Shengguang suddenly realized who He Xian was referring to. He also felt sorry for those young people who had to work on construction sites at the age of 17 or 18. But to him, this kind of sympathy was no different from feeling sorry for beggars on the street. He wasn’t going to take any special actions for a specific individual. Charity should be carried out through organized charity activities.
“You’re really cute. Be careful not to get caught up in anything,” Ding Shengguang reminded him.
He Xian remained silent, sorting the printed documents and putting them into a folder.
In the afternoon, He Xian had to go back to the company and decided to stop by the construction site. He called Lin Sitao over to his car and spoke to him for a few moments before handing him the folder of documents.
The temperature was high at noon, and the lunch break was long. Without the sounds of construction work, the construction site was much quieter. Even the sound of cicadas could be heard.
“This is some information, take a look,” He Xian handed the folder to Lin Sitao through the car window.
Lin Sitao was a bit dumbfounded. He Xian had to wait for a few seconds before he finally grabbed the folder without saying anything.
“Take a good look at it, I’ll talk to you later.” He Xian’s voice came from inside the car. Lin Sitao hung his head and stood there for a while after the car drove away.
Lin Sitao ran back to the dormitory in one breath. There was nobody in the six-person dormitory. It was too hot at noon, and their makeshift room had no air conditioning, so few people came back to take a nap.
He opened the folder – inside were several documents, all about the application procedures for student loans, national scholarships, and grants.
As coughing sounds came from outside the door, someone pushed it open and entered. Panicked, Lin Sitao quickly stuffed the materials under his pillow.
In the evening, Lin Sitao took his phone ID card and ran to the public telephone booth across the construction site to make a phone call.
Every few days, he would make a phone call to his family. His grandfather had poor hearing, so he only spoke to his grandmother.
After he reported that he was safe, his grandmother asked him, “Is it hard on the construction site?”
“Not that tough,” said Lin Sitao.
Grandmother smiled and said, “Your mouth may be tough, but how can construction work not be hard?”
Lin Sitao didn’t really feel that it was difficult. He’s young and has plenty of strength. It’s just boring. He used to think that sitting in a classroom listening to lectures was boring, but he didn’t expect that working on a construction site would be ten times more boring than listening to a teacher reciting from a textbook. The sound of pile driving was relentless as if there was no end to it.
After hanging up the phone with his grandmother, he hesitated for a moment and then dialed another number.
“Hello.” A lively female voice rang out.
“Dan Dan, it’s me, Lin Sitao,” he called out to her.
Xu Dan let out a loud cry and loudly scolded him for being out of touch for the past half month and only calling her now.
He and Xu Dan were junior high school classmates and also went to high school together. Their homes were close to each other. Xu Dan’s family was a little better off than his, with her father still around, but she didn’t seem to care about family matters at all.
“You must be able to buy a lot of things with the money you earn from working on the construction site, right? That’s so great, being able to make your own money,” she said enviously.
Lin Sitao asked her seriously, “Do you think I should continue working on the construction site?”
He could talk to Xu Dan about anything. He had consulted with her before about dropping out of school to work, but they had never come to a decision as they kept going back and forth on the matter.
“What’s the matter? Why so serious?” she chirped. “Didn’t we agree that you’d work for a while and see how it goes? Who knows, by the time you want to stay on the construction site, there might not be any positions available,” she continued to chatter. “I saw a news report on TV today that said it’s difficult for college graduates to find jobs now, and in the future, even construction sites will be staffed with college graduates.”
Xu Dan’s words made Lin Sitao laugh.
Xu Dan berated him and both of them fell silent. She then said, “Then let me ask you a serious question.”
Lin Sitao made a sound of agreement.
“Am I your girlfriend?” she asked.
He and Xu Dan often hung out together, and they also walked to and from school on the same route. They had been teased by their classmates before, jokingly calling them a couple.
The school did not enforce any rules against early relationships, and there were students in the class and outside of school who were romantically involved. As for Lin Sitao and Xu Dan, they could already be considered pure and innocent.
Perhaps they were too pure and innocent.
Nothing had ever happened between them. They had attempted to kiss once, but before their tongues could touch, he pushed her away.
From that moment on, they never had any more intimate physical contact.
“Am I your girlfriend?” Xu Dan asked again.
“I don’t think so,” Lin Sitao answered her.
Xu Dan quickly said, “Curly and I did it,” and then abruptly hung up the phone.
Lin Sitao was stunned. Curly was also their neighbor, two years older than them, attended vocational school, had already graduated, and was interning at an auto repair shop.
He was at a loss. Holding the handset, he tried calling back, but Xu Dan didn’t answer.
Just as he left the phone booth, he saw He Xian walking slowly toward him with his hands in his pockets.
He changed into another set of clothes: a white t-shirt, loose gray pants, and a pair of flip-flops. He appeared relaxed as though he was taking a walk after dinner.
He waved to Lin Sitao.
The two of them crossed the bridge and walked for almost 10 minutes until they reached a square garden on another street. It was bustling with activity like a night market. They sat down on a bench and watched the aunties dancing.
He bought two ice creams, one for himself and one for Lin Sitao.
In between eating, they started talking.
“Have you looked at the thing I gave you?” He asked Lin Sitao.
Lin Sitao really wanted to ask him why such an important person like him would care so much about him, but he felt it would be impolite. He was dirt poor; what could someone like He Xian possibly want from him?
“I have looked at it,” he said.
He Xian didn’t press the matter any further, he just smiled and said, “That’s good.”
He was very sparing with his words.
After a while, he said, “Giving up education because of external factors is a lamentable thing.”
Lin Sitao understood what he said.
Holding the ice cream, He Xian didn’t eat it and a drop of melted cream dripped onto his hand. He shook his hand and handed the ice cream to Lin Sitao, saying, “They were originally all bought for you.”
“Director He…” Lin Sitao almost couldn’t help but ask, Why are you so good to me?
He Xian stared at him, and Lin Sitao said, “Thank you.”
As soon as he returned to the dormitory, someone mocked Lin Sitao for talking to his girlfriend on the phone for too long, interspersed with a few vulgar jokes.
Lying on his bed, Lin Sitao couldn’t hear the voices around him at all. He only thought hazily about the drops of cream on He Xian’s hand and the way he shook it off.
He felt awfully guilty toward Xu Dan because the world was spinning around him now, and he didn’t have much attention to spare for her.
The next day at noon, He Xian didn’t come. Wu Jianghai’s driver asked Lin Sitao to go to Old Wu’s office.
Wu Jianghai was playing Landlord on his computer and didn’t even look up when Lin Sitao came in.
“Sit,” Wu Jianghai said.
Lin Sitao sat down.
Wu Jianghai clicked the mouse a few more times before saying, “Everything I’m going to tell you now is for your own good. Old Chen says you’re honest, and I also think you’re honest, which is why I’m telling you this.”
He looked up and scrutinized Lin Sitao.
“Some people have noticed that you and Director He have been getting close. Let me remind you – he’s different from us.”
Lin Sitao thought to himself, Of course. Director He is different from other people.
Wu Jianghai continued, “His family background is not good. He ended up here as a small project director because of some scandal he was involved in.”
Lin Sitao exclaimed, “What?” He couldn’t believe it. How could He Xian, such a good person, have a scandal? Besides, he thought the director was already impressive enough.
Wu Jianghai’s eyes flickered: “He doesn’t like women. He likes to play with men.”
Lin Sitao froze.
Wu Jianghai stated smugly, “Be careful. A person like him… who told you he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, higher than us. If you were a little girl, maybe there would be some hope of climbing the social ladder. But you’re a man without any background or resources. If you get involved with him, you’ll just end up being used.”
He snapped open a lighter and lit a cigarette, glanced at Lin Sitao, and said, “You can go now.”
