Have you thought about how you’re going to repay me?
In mid-June 2010, Lin City entered the sticky, sweltering season of plum rains.
The window in the guesthouse wouldn’t close properly. Wind squeezed through the gap, making the curtains billow and fall, carrying with it the damp, musty smell of mildew.
Liang Jing sat on the edge of the bed, a faint tightness in her chest.
She held an old-fashioned keypad phone in her hand, her fingers tightening and relaxing again and again, yet she couldn’t bring herself to dial the number.
The contact name was just one word: Brother.
It represented the relationship they had once had.
Now, they were no longer siblings.
When Liang Jing was fifteen, everything in the family changed overnight. Her mother died of illness, and her father had a terrible fight with her older brother.
Even now, she remembered her father’s furious face as he shouted at him, “From this day forward, you have nothing to do with this family.”
Fifteen-year-old Liang Jing didn’t understand what it meant to have nothing to do with someone.
All she knew was that the name Liang Chi had been removed from the Liang family household registration.
Three years later, at eighteen, she finally understood.
It meant she walked her road and he crossed his bridge. Even if she had no family left in this world to rely on, she had no right to make that call.
But she truly didn’t know who else to call.
Liang Jing lowered her head and looked at the phone screen. It was scratched, the letters blurred with age. The name Brother kept flashing before her eyes.
After hesitating for a moment, she pressed the call button.
The ringing went on for several beats. Liang Jing’s heart rose and fell uneasily. She had no idea whether Liang Chi would answer. After all, they hadn’t spoken on the phone once in the past three years.
Her father had forbidden her from mentioning her brother.
Liang Chi had always been cold toward her, and when he left, he had done so decisively. She hadn’t dared contact him rashly. At most, she would compose a short holiday greeting and send it to him. Sometimes he replied with a simple “Mm.” Sometimes there was no reply at all.
Liang Jing’s breathing grew shallow and quick. Only when the ringing stopped and the call connected did her heart seem to settle back into her chest.
She heard a burst of background noise. He was probably outside. The sound of traffic and people filled the other end of the line, loud and chaotic.
He said nothing.
For a moment, Liang Jing didn’t know how to begin either. Her throat felt blocked. After a long silence, she finally called softly, “Brother.”
Liang Chi didn’t answer.
Panic fluttered through her. Afraid he hadn’t recognized her voice, she hurriedly added, “It’s me, Liang Jing.”
At last, he responded, his voice low and heavy.
“I know.”
Just three words.
Liang Jing was at a loss for what to say.
Then he asked, “What is it?”
His voice was so calm that she couldn’t read the slightest emotion in it.
It was the first time she had heard his voice in three years. For some reason, the tip of Liang Jing’s nose stung. She couldn’t tell whether it was because of the humiliation of her current situation or the grievance she had been holding inside for so long.
She drew a deep breath and spoke slowly.
“Dad was arrested. The house was seized and auctioned off, too. I have nowhere to go…”
Her voice was very soft, threaded with restrained tears as she stated the simple fact that she had reached the end of her options. The thin layer of pride that remained in her made her stop there.
Liang Chi’s tone remained indifferent.
“So?”
Liang Jing fell silent.
She had never really understood him. She couldn’t tell what he meant by the unfinished words behind that single question. What does that have to do with me? Or perhaps, What do you want me to do?
She sniffed, then couldn’t suppress several coughs. Afraid he would find it annoying, she deliberately forced herself to stop.
Liang Chi simply listened to her in silence.
After composing herself for a while, Liang Jing gathered her courage and asked, “Could you let me stay with you for a while?”
She knew the request might be presumptuous.
She knew very little about Liang Chi’s circumstances. She only knew that he was studying at a university in Sui City and was now finishing his junior year. He might still be living in a dormitory. Even if she went there, he might not have anywhere for her to stay.
But right now, he was the only lifeline she could reach for.
“For a while.” Liang Chi repeated the words. After a pause, he asked, “How long?”
Liang Jing faltered.
Truthfully, she wasn’t sure herself.
She had spent the past few days lost and helpless. She hadn’t thought about what came next. For now, all she wanted was somewhere to stay.
“Th—” She had barely gotten the first sound out before changing her answer. “Two… two months. Two months.”
Silence stretched across the phone. The only sound beside her ear was the faint hum of static.
Then Liang Jing heard what sounded almost like a quiet scoff.
Immediately afterward, Liang Chi said, “I’ll send you the address. Come by yourself.”
It took Liang Jing half a beat to realize what he meant.
He had agreed.
The hand holding her phone loosened slightly. She was about to say thank you when the call ended.
Liang Jing froze, still holding the phone against her ear. Only after a while did she slowly lower it.
The screen lit up.
A new text message had arrived.
It was the address Liang Chi had sent.
It looked like the address of an apartment building, not a school.
Did he rent a place off campus?
For a moment, her thoughts wandered.
At some point, the rain outside had stopped. Sunset leaked through a gap in the clouds, staining the room a dusky yellow.
Liang Jing stared at the text, her eyes faintly sore.
A tear fell silently onto the screen.
The world, along with those words, blurred beyond recognition—then came clear again when she wiped her eyes dry.
She put away her phone, left the guesthouse, grabbed a little food nearby to settle her stomach, then went to the station ticket window.
The fastest train from Lin City to Sui City departed a little after eight the next morning and arrived at five in the afternoon.
After buying her ticket, she returned to the guesthouse and slipped the ticket and her ID card into the inner pocket of her schoolbag.
The hot water in the room was unreliable, so she didn’t shower. She only wet a towel and gave herself a quick wipe.
Before going to bed, Liang Jing took a bottle of medicine from her schoolbag, measured out five milliliters, and swallowed it.
It was one of the medications she kept on hand, a maintenance drug for clearing phlegm and keeping her lungs clear. She had to take it every day.
The last time her father had bought it was before everything happened. There were still three bottles left. The other two were unopened and packed in her suitcase.
She also had an inhaler as a backup. She rarely needed it; it was for emergencies when she couldn’t catch her breath.
Both were imported brand-name medications. For an ordinary family, the cost of taking them year-round was considerable. There were domestic generic alternatives, but her father had insisted on using the drugs that worked best and had the fewest side effects.
There was no air conditioning in the room. An old ceiling fan creaked overhead, turning sluggishly and blowing nothing but warm air.
In one corner of the ceiling, a patch of water damage had spread outward, its shape resembling the outline of a small dog.
Liang Jing lay on the bed and stared at it for a while, her thoughts drifting far away.
She thought of her father, Liang Shihong.
She had begun to sense that something was wrong near the start of her final semester of high school.
Her father had grown quieter during that period. He came home later and later. Sometimes, when she woke in the middle of the night, she would see the living-room light still on, her father sitting there with a grave expression.
When he spoke, she could smell a trace of cigarette smoke on his breath.
There were no cigarette butts on the coffee table. He had probably smoked outside before coming in. He likely hadn’t expected her to be awake at that hour.
Because of her lungs, she was particularly sensitive to smells.
Her father hadn’t smoked for many years. He had told her that he smoked when he was young but quit after she was born.
Recently, for some reason, he had started again.
She had asked him what was wrong.
He had only said there was a lot going on at work and that he had been working overtime.
She believed him.
At the time, she was busy preparing for the college entrance examination and had no energy left to think about anything else.
Every now and then, her father would ask which university she wanted to attend.
She named several choices.
He smiled and gently patted her head.
That day had been an ordinary Saturday afternoon.
She watched with her own eyes as her father was led into a car. Before getting in, he turned back to look at her.
There was guilt in his eyes, reluctance, and too many other emotions to name.
Then he disappeared around the corner, together with the sound of the police siren.
Only afterward did she learn the truth.
Her father was an accountant at a factory. Over the years, in order to buy her imported medication, he had used his position to commit one illegal act after another.
At first, the amounts had been small.
Then they had grown and grown, until he could no longer keep it hidden.
Her father’s sentence came down just before the college entrance examination.
Eight years.
On the day of the exam, Liang Jing sat in the testing room, staring at the essay prompt on the Chinese paper with her mind completely blank.
She kept thinking about the look in her father’s eyes before he got into the car, and about the judgment against him.
She was obviously not herself for the remaining subjects, either.
She knew she had ruined the exam.
Her results hadn’t been released yet, but there was no way she would get into any of the universities she had chosen. She probably wouldn’t even make the undergraduate cutoff.
And once the exam was over, where she would go became a problem.
Her father had been arrested, and her relatives avoided the family as though they were contagious, afraid they might be dragged into the mess. She was an adult now. No one else had any obligation to support her.
Besides, her illness required medication year-round.
It was a bottomless expense.
Liang Jing turned over, facing the wall, and closed her eyes, forcing herself not to think about any of it.
At least she had somewhere to go now.
Her brother might not have sounded particularly willing, but in the end, he had agreed to let her stay.
At first light, Liang Jing woke.
After washing up, she slung her schoolbag over her shoulder, took her suitcase downstairs, and checked out.
The guesthouse was close to the station, so she bought breakfast on the way and ate as she walked.
The train departed at 8:15.
Liang Jing found her seat by the window.
She placed her schoolbag on her lap and shoved her suitcase beneath the seat, then took out a book.
She couldn’t really concentrate on it. She simply wanted something to do, something that would make her look less aimless.
The train began to move.
Liang Jing lifted her eyes toward the window. The streets of Lin City slowly slipped backward, then faster and faster, until they blurred into nothing.
She lowered her head.
A photograph was tucked inside the book, its edges worn from years of handling. The people in it were still fairly clear.
A family portrait of four.
She looked at it for a while, then closed the book and held it tightly against her chest.
The train arrived on time.
Liang Jing followed the crowd toward the exit.
Summer in Sui City was hotter than in Lin City. People jostled shoulder to shoulder, and her breathing grew rapid, but she didn’t stop. She kept moving forward.
Once she passed through the station exit and stepped outside, she stopped and sat on her suitcase. She took several deep breaths before pulling out her phone and opening Liang Chi’s message.
It was her first time in Sui City. She didn’t know the routes at all.
The easiest thing would be to take a taxi and give the driver the address. Drivers who spent their days on the road knew the city like the back of their hands.
But a taxi would cost far more than taking the bus.
Her father had given her some living expenses before everything happened. She still had a little over two hundred yuan in her schoolbag, and she wanted to make it last.
If the taxi was too expensive, she could always ask someone for directions and take the bus instead.
It would be hotter and more tiring, but that was all.
Liang Jing dragged her suitcase a little farther, crossed the square, and stopped by the roadside.
A taxi driver waiting for passengers immediately called out to her, asking where she was headed.
Liang Jing showed him the address.
“About how much would it cost to go here?”
The driver squinted at the words on her phone and shifted his brows.
“We’ll have to go by the meter to know.”
Liang Jing put her phone away. After hesitating, she answered honestly, “Could you give me a rough estimate? I don’t have much money… If it’s too expensive, I won’t take the taxi.”
The driver had originally planned to take a longer route and charge her a higher fare.
But after hearing that, he was afraid that quoting too high a price would make him lose the fare altogether. A little money was better than none.
So he gave her a normal estimate.
“About twenty yuan. Don’t worry, I’m not going to rip you off. It’s not easy for a young girl to be out on her own.”
That was within Liang Jing’s budget.
She nodded.
“Okay.”
The driver helped put her suitcase in the trunk. Liang Jing climbed into the back seat and gave him the address again.
The car merged into traffic.
Liang Jing stared out at the unfamiliar streets, her palms growing slightly damp.
About twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of an old residential building.
There was no air conditioning in the car. Sweat had gathered along the back of Liang Jing’s neck, and wisps of hair clung to her skin. She had no time to care about it and reached out to open the door.
It was a little after five in the afternoon. The sun was slowly moving westward, its slanting light falling across the old building so that parts of the exterior were bright while others lay in shadow.
Liang Jing lifted her eyes slightly.
The walls were mottled with age, and ivy climbed from the corners, its branches and leaves lush and thick.
She looked only once before lowering her gaze.
The driver got out to open the trunk, and Liang Jing followed.
She didn’t notice that at the boundary between light and shadow on the wall, a gaze from one of the windows had already locked firmly onto her.
A young man stood by the window, looking down.
The girl was searching through her schoolbag for money, taking out the bills one by one. Each was folded neatly before she handed them to the driver.
The driver took the money, got back into his car, and drove away.
She remained standing there blankly, counting the money left in the inner compartment of her schoolbag once more.
Three years had passed.
And she was still just as pitiful.
Liang Chi gave a quiet scoff, turned away from the window, and walked over to his desk. He picked up his phone, composed a text, and sent it.
Downstairs, Liang Jing stood there in confusion.
The address only brought her this far. It hadn’t specified which apartment.
She looked at the old building in front of her.
Several bicycles were piled beside the stairwell. On either side of the staircase were three apartments, connected by an open-air corridor.
There were five floors in all.
Thirty apartments.
She hesitated, wondering whether she should ask someone for directions.
Her phone rang just then.
She picked it up.
[Third floor. First door on the left.]
Liang Jing stared at the screen, then tilted her head back to look at the building.
Third floor.
That was manageable.
She took hold of her suitcase and began climbing.
The stairwell was narrow, the steps made of concrete. Dust coated the handrail.
She climbed slowly, suitcase in hand.
Normally, going up and down stairs wasn’t too difficult. Carrying luggage was another matter.
By the time she reached the second floor, she was already out of breath.
She stopped, leaning against the wall to rest for a moment, then continued upward.
Finally, the third floor.
It was more exhausting than she had imagined.
She set down her suitcase and leaned against the wall, catching her breath. Fine beads of sweat had gathered on her forehead.
The first apartment on the left was right beside her.
Liang Jing had just raised her hand to knock when the door opened from inside.
She froze for a moment.
The man standing before her wore a black T-shirt. The loose strands of hair over his forehead curved slightly, almost imperceptibly. The lines of his face had grown sharper with age.
His eyelids drooped lazily, and his pitch-black eyes held no discernible emotion.
Liang Jing’s hand was still raised. She hurriedly lowered it and called softly, “Brother…”
After climbing three flights of stairs, her breathing was uneven, and a natural flush colored her cheeks.
Liang Chi didn’t answer.
He simply stared at her face.
His eyes were dark. He barely blinked. His gaze felt almost tangible.
Liang Jing grew increasingly uneasy beneath it, unconsciously curling her fingers.
For roughly half a minute, that gaze finally moved away from her and settled on the suitcase beside her.
Liang Chi asked, “That’s all?”
Liang Jing nodded lightly, relief washing through her.
The house had been sealed, so she could only take her personal belongings.
Liang Chi looked away and shifted to the side.
He said nothing, but the movement was permission for her to enter.
Liang Jing pressed her lips together and wheeled her suitcase inside.
The room was larger than it had looked from outside.
A single bed stood against the wall. The sheets looked freshly changed, without a wrinkle, the corners tucked in with meticulous precision.
A wardrobe stood beside the bed. There was also a desk and chair, with a bookshelf and an old computer sitting on top.
Farther inside was a balcony, though he had turned it into a kitchen. A small electric cooker sat on the makeshift counter.
On the other side was the bathroom, its door tightly shut.
The entire layout of the room could be taken in at a glance.
Standing in the doorway, Liang Jing felt acutely like an outsider.
The owner of the room stood with his arms folded, his posture slightly slouched, carrying an air of careless ease.
His voice was cool and indifferent when he finally spoke.
“You’re staying for two months. Have you thought about how you’re going to repay me?”f