Chapter 3
When my detention was over, I was released.
After finishing the paperwork, a middle-aged policeman gave me a solemn lecture.
“Young lady, live an honest life when you get out. Don’t blame your parents.
“They meant well. Their methods may have been a little extreme.
“But parents can never be wrong.”
I nodded.
A young policewoman sorting files nearby gave an enormous roll of her eyes.
“Meant well, my ass!
“We called and asked them to withdraw the complaint. They flat-out refused! Insisted she needed a few more days inside to teach her a lesson.
“Two people who’ve accomplished nothing sleep together, and suddenly they’re great, noble parents?”
The middle-aged policeman glared at her.
“Watch your mouth! Have some discipline!
“Go write a self-criticism. On my desk before you leave.”
The young policewoman pursed her lips. Before walking away, she whispered to me,
“Stay away from them when you get out. Take care of yourself.”
…
I waited outside the detention center for a long time, until the sunlight hurt my eyes.
My parents still hadn’t come.
Then a battered van stopped in front of me and honked twice, impatiently.
The window rolled down to reveal Blondie’s brash face.
With a lollipop between her lips, she shouted,
“What are you standing there for? Get in!”
I was dazed, but I opened the door and climbed in.
As the van started, the middle-aged policeman smoking by the entrance shook his head. I heard him say,
“A promising Peking student, mixing with people like that. They’ll lead her astray.”
I glanced back at him.
Suddenly I remembered a famous television host’s oft-repeated, much-misunderstood line—
Really? I don’t believe it.
The van smelled of cheap perfume mixed with gasoline.
Dreads turned around from the passenger seat, beaming.
“We heard other kids get an Apple three-piece set from their families when they graduate.
“Can’t have you falling behind before you’ve even started. We got you one too!”
I was stunned.
An Apple three-piece set? A phone, a laptop, and a tablet?
I hurriedly waved my hands.
“That’s too expensive. I can’t accept it.”
Dreads grinned proudly and pulled a red plastic bag from under the seat.
Inside lay three apples.
One Red Fuji.
One green apple.
One Golden Delicious.
I said nothing.
She thrust the apples into my arms and kept talking.
“Green apples are so hard to find now. Almost extinct.
“I went up and down a bunch of streets and rummaged through the market for ages to complete your set.
“Well? Touched, aren’t you?”
I looked at the three bumpy apples, washed perfectly clean.
How strange.
Why were my eyes stinging?
Blondie swung the wheel hard and called to us,
“Hold on.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To school, idiot.
“We’re taking you to the train station.”
I held the plastic bag a little tighter.
“I can’t go.
“I don’t have enough tuition money. The five thousand I stole was returned to my parents as recovered property.”
Dreads dragged a white plastic bag out from under the seat.
This one looked heavier.
She turned and tossed it onto my lap.
I looked down—
The lettering on the bag, ‘Haoyouduo Supermarket,’ had faded almost white.
It was full of money.
Loose bills and change.
Hundreds. Fifties.
Tens and fives too.
Even one-yuan notes patched with clear tape, and a heap of coins.
“Take it.”
Dreads chewed her gum.
“Go to school.”
I stared.
My parents were respectable people. The money they gave me was always crisp and new.
But they rarely gave me any.
They said money in a child’s hands led to trouble.
Every morning, my breakfast was steamed buns left over from dinner. Lunch was the cheapest thing in the school cafeteria: cabbage boiled in water.
And now…
Two street girls fresh out of detention, neither earning even 2,500 yuan a month, had given me a whole bag of money so I could go to Peking University.