Bonus

Late December. Beijing was bitter cold. No. 6 Lechunfang, though, was a blaze of noise and cheer. The front gate, seldom opened all the way, stood wide, and the drum-shaped gate stones on either side seemed to flash with gold. A small blue truck was parked at the entrance, and everyone pitched in to unload it. "Rice, seven portions! Flour, seven portions! Apples, one hundred forty jin! Frozen hairtail, seven portions!" "Pastries, seven portions! Drink, seven bottles! Towels, soap, shampoo, and the like, seven portions! Wall calendars, eight!" Liang Xiaosheng checked the goods himself and only let the little truck leave once he was sure nothing was short. Spring Festival came early this year. Chinese New Year's Eve fell in January, and since the things were all bought, they simply handed them out before New Year's Day. The shares for the people stationed over at Beijing Film Studio had already gone out. This batch was Lechunfang's: the five in the editorial department, plus Li Jianqun and Ji Chunhua. Li Lianjie had a share too, already sent over. His work affiliation was still with the martial arts team, but there was no need to stand on ceremony over so little. What ought to be given was given. The neighbors craned their necks to watch and talked among themselves, envy creeping in whether they wanted it or not. Why did New Year and holiday benefits matter so much? First, you never got your hands on these things in ordinary times. Second, they showed you belonged to a good work unit. In those days the working class really was grandpa—the one at the head of the table. To put out benefits for their own workers, units racked their brains, and some even bartered. A tea factory that wanted seafood, for instance, would take its own tea to a seafood company and trade... Everyone cheerfully hauled the New Year goods inside and divided them on the spot. The editors were all locals. They got a flat cart and pulled their shares away. Li Jianqun and Ji Chunhua were from out of town. They could hardly shoulder the stuff and carry it home. Ji Chunhua was fretting over it when he heard Li Jianqun call out, "I'm not taking the rice, flour, or hairtail. I'll spare ten jin of apples too. Whoever wants them, come find me!" "Me, me, me! Teacher Li, I want the rice!" Dai Hanhan's hand shot up at once. The two of them ran off to one side and muttered together. They were probably haggling. Ji Chunhua's filter shattered all over the floor. He had not thought the refined and gentle Teacher Li could be this worldly. He copied her on the spot and sold his colleagues whatever he did not want to take back. When Chen Qi came over, he found the whole pack of them jabbering, excited out of their wits. He laughed. "Loosen up. Loosen up a little! Freedom and romance, diversity, tolerance and openness—you understand?" "Talking nonsense again." Liang Xiaosheng held out a wall calendar. "Here. This is yours." Chen Qi took it, looked it over, and shook his head. "This calendar is really tacky. The paper's bad, the printing's bad, and the pictures are worse." "Don't the good ones cost money? Save where you can. Besides, wall calendars are all the same." "Hey, wall calendars are not all the same. One has Auntie Zhao from the corner printed on it, one has my Sister Xue. Which do you want? Wait till I've got more stars under me. I'll put out a calendar of them, one person to a month." Chen Qi clapped his hands for everyone to look over. "New Year's Day is almost here, and the Spring Festival will be on us in a blink. There aren't many of us, so we won't put on any party. And the first issue comes out officially in January. That's when we'll be busy. "Today I'm giving you half a day off. Take your things home, then settle your minds. The battle hasn't even started!" With that, he said to Ji Chunhua, "Xiao Ji, come with me a moment!" Ji Chunhua followed him into the main room of the front courtyard. Chen Qi had a desk there too. He sat down. "You've been running east and west with the team all year. It's been hard going. You've taken the filming seriously, too. I can tell you've been practicing on your own. Your acting has come along." "Heh. You picked me. I can't disgrace you!" Ji Chunhua scratched his shiny bald head and smiled, abashed. "You're Eastern Depot—pah! You're one of the company's people. I never short my own. It's only that the company is just getting started, with little laid by, and I can't give you anything too good yet..." Chen Qi took out a large envelope and a slip of paper. "Sign your name." Ji Chunhua did not even ask. He signed the slip at once. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse. It looked like some kind of payment voucher, and beside it a figure: Five Hundred! Hiss! His heart jumped. Then his hand sank under the weight as Chen Qi tossed him the envelope. "This is your bonus. Don't tell anyone. Call Teacher Li in." "Right, right, I understand!" "Thank you, Brother Qi!" Ji Chunhua ran out in a daze. He pinched the envelope against his chest, and it suddenly felt unreal. Five hundred yuan. Never in his life had he seen so much money. He slunk about exactly like the beasts of burden of a later age collecting their first wages, wanting to find out what everyone else made and not wanting to show his own. A subtle feeling rose of itself: "Brother Qi gave it to me alone. That means he values me. How much do those editors have next to me? Surely not as much. They probably don't even get a bonus!" He called Li Jianqun. Li Jianqun went in. Same procedure. "Sign your name." She signed in a quick scratch and walked off with the envelope. Chen Qi was speechless. "Could you at least cover it up a little? What will the editors think if they see? This is all given in private." "Oh—so it's given in private!" Li Jianqun caught on. She stuffed the envelope into her pocket. "This'll do, won't it? I'm very big on unity!" Chen Qi choked. His filter on her was cracking bit by bit too. Refined and gentle? A sharp tongue, a mind of her own, personality to spare. Not an easy one to handle! Once both sums were handed out, he put a kraft-paper packet into his bag and came out. "Old Liang, you all carry on. I'm going over to Little Li's!" ...... Xicheng District. Deshengmen Inner Street. There was a Mahua Courtyard here. It had originally been the residence of Ma Jile, a minister of the Imperial Household Department in the Qing. In the Republican period a Mahua Radio Station was set up on the site, and the courtyard took its name from that. After Liberation, the place became staff housing for the Central People's Broadcasting Station. Li Lianjie's father was a technician and was allotted two rooms in a single-story house. When Li Lianjie was two, his father died of a work injury. His mother was a bus conductor. She, the five children, and Grandpa and Grandma made eight in the household. After he married Huang Qiuyan he lived here a short while, then went to the United States. They had two daughters, and later divorced. Li Lianjie left the marriage with nothing, leaving the house in the United States to Huang Qiuyan. But he had hardly any money then. The house had been bought on a loan; only the down payment was paid. Huang Qiuyan could not keep up the payments on her own. The house was auctioned off, and she drifted in the United States for a long time. She even worked at a beauty salon. She could barely look after herself, so the two daughters came back and lived a long while with Li Lianjie's mother in this courtyard. Eh. Li Lianjie may not look it, but toward Li Zhi he was a total simp. By then Li Zhi was already Miss Asia. The men around her were rich if they were not powerful, and she was on close terms with He Hongshen. Li Lianjie gave his all chasing her. Word going around had it that when Li Zhi's investments failed in early 1990, he signed an indenture with Xiang Huaqiang—six films in three years—and film fees in the tens of millions all went to pay Li Zhi's debts. The two met in '89 and did not marry until '99. Why? Because Li Zhi had said: if, ten years from now, the feeling of love is still there between us, then we can think about marriage... At this moment he and his mother were sorting the things that had just been delivered. Li Lianjie was the youngest. His eldest sister, second sister, and eldest brother were all married. His mother was already about fifty. She opened the hairtail and looked it over. "The company is very good to you. In principle you're still with the martial arts team, and yet there's a share of the benefits for you too." "Brother Qi has always been generous. He's always been good to me... Ma, try one of these pastries?" "I won't. I'll eat them at Spring Festival." "Then I'll wash you an apple!" Li Lianjie lifted the lid of the water vat. A skin of ice had frozen on the surface. He cracked it, scooped a little water with a gourd ladle, and washed an apple. Then he pushed aside the cotton curtain and flung the water out... "Yah!" "What kind of etiquette is this? The Water-Splashing Festival?" Chen Qi hopped clear. A pair of imported cotton-lined leather shoes had nearly been ruined. "Brother Qi! What brings you here?" Li Lianjie was delighted. He hurried to pull him inside and called, "Ma, a guest is here!"