Chapter 8 The Fake Suxin Jianlan

The next day, as soon as I opened my eyes, I crawled off the sticky bamboo mat and checked the clock—it was already 11:10.

Carrying my washbasin and toothbrush out of the room, I noticed there was someone new in the yard—a rural old lady, not yet sixty, sweeping coal cinders and ash at the door of the east room with a broom. My mother was off work today as well. The 18,000 yuan from the Mingqing brand had made her much more spirited these days. She shook out a few damp clothes from the basin and hung them on the woolen rope draped over the Chinese toon tree. Seeing me come out, she introduced, “That’s Grandma Walker, your Aunt Harris rented her house to little Zou. From now on, we’ll be neighbors.”

They moved in so quickly?

The siheyuan where we lived wasn’t very big, a square layout. The two rooms in the north house belonged to my parents and me. The two rooms in the west house were rented to a couple from Wenzhou who sold shoes. They had some money and only used this place as a warehouse, so they rarely came back. On the east side, one room was our kitchen, and the other belonged to our old neighbor Aunt Harris. However, when Aunt Harris’s son got married, he took her to live with him, so the house was left empty.

History’s track was gradually shifting. Originally, the ones who should have moved into Aunt Harris’s house were a middle-aged couple who ran a small shop.

I greeted politely, “Hello, Grandma Walker. Um, has Aunt Walker moved in too? I made plans with her to go to the bird market this afternoon.”

“She’s inside tidying up the room. I’ll call her for you.” Grandma Walker shouted twice toward the east room.

My mom asked, puzzled, why I was going to the bird market. I told her about Aunt Walker’s gift-giving, but didn’t mention that I was going to sell crickets.

Emily Walker came out of the house, looking stunning. She wore a white silk camisole on top, low-rise hot pants and high-heeled sandals below. Under the blazing sun, her fair, shapely legs shimmered with a bewitching glow. My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly averted my gaze, trying not to look at her.

My mom frowned, but soon replaced it with a smile, chatting and laughing with Grandma Walker and Emily Walker.

After washing up by the faucet in the center of the yard, I agreed with Aunt Walker on the time to go to the bird market, then turned to my mom: “Mom, where did you put my old cricket jars from middle school?”

“They’re all piled up in the trunk somewhere. You’ll have to dig around—I forgot too.” She pointed her chin toward the simple shed on the south side: “Just in time, help me out a bit. Go scrub the bath barrel that your Aunt Harris left in the south room. Tonight, you and Aunt Walker’s family can use it to bathe.”

Emily Walker quickly stopped me: “Sister Green, no need to trouble Xiao Jing. I’ll go clean it in a bit.”

Grandma Walker chimed in too: “That’s right, Little Green, don’t make your son do it.”

“Now that we’re both colleagues and neighbors, you two don’t need to be so polite with me.” Mom jerked her chin at me: “Well? Go on.”

I said okay, grabbed a brush from a corner, and walked into the southernmost room.

In the past, our family had a great relationship with Aunt Harris. We even chipped in together to build this room. Though it didn’t count toward the official property area, having extra rooms was always more comfortable. Both our families would store things we couldn’t fit elsewhere in here, and it also served as a place to bathe and do laundry—very convenient.

After scrubbing Aunt Harris’s wooden bath barrel, I also cleaned our own bath barrel on the other side of the screen.

Then, I bent down and rummaged through several dust-covered pine chests, and found a few cricket jars. As the saying goes, a good horse deserves a good saddle—if I wanted to sell my big-headed cricket for a good price, I needed some packaging. I picked out a fine jar made of clear clay, rinsed it clean, and carefully transferred the cricket from the plastic bottle into the jar.

Next, I found a cricket probe made from mouse whiskers in an empty chess box at the bottom of the chest. I brushed the dust off the bristles and gently used it to tease the cricket’s antennae. Instantly, the black-headed champion bared its dark yellow jaws and lunged forward, biting and flapping its wings with a deep, resonant call—truly imposing.

I couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration, rubbing my hands, feeling even more confident about it.

After hastily eating the leftover three-flavor dumplings from yesterday, I let my mom know, then caught a taxi with Aunt Walker and headed for Zizhuyuan Bridge.

It’s worth mentioning that before I left, my mom gave me a strange look, which left me quite puzzled.

The Guanyuan Bird Market had moved to a new location. Neither we nor the driver knew the way, so we just got off at a random spot by the road.

After asking a newspaper vendor for the exact address, we kept heading west and crossed the pedestrian bridge.

“Xiao Jing, I have to go to a client’s place after seven tonight. What do you think would make a suitable gift?” Emily Walker tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled wryly. “Ideally, something around two thousand yuan, tasteful and meaningful. Sigh, this client is very important to our company—you have to help me out.”

I walked along, holding the cricket jar, thinking as I went. My eyes swept over the stalls on the pedestrian bridge, and suddenly lit up. I pointed at a few vendors: “How about orchids?”

“Orchids?” Emily Walker’s brows relaxed and she agreed, “Good, orchids are great—tasteful and meaningful. And unlike antiques, you don’t have to worry about buying a fake. Mm, you really have good ideas.”