However, Brian Carter had never been punished for these bad habits, because he had a tough grandfather and a Little Uncle Carter who was even more troublesome than he was as his backing. Whenever parents came to complain that their children had been bullied by Brian Carter, his grandfather had only one response: “What boy isn’t a troublemaker? If he’s not, he’s an idiot! If your kid got bullied, it’s because your kid is useless! If they can’t get along, then just stop playing together!”

Don’t even try to reason with Brian Carter’s grandfather. The more you say, the angrier the old man gets—he’ll roll up his sleeves, ready to fight the other parents. Who in the alley would want to fight a 50-year-old man? Besides, you really couldn’t beat him. All you could do was warn your own kid to stay away from Brian Carter, or take out your frustration on your own child by scolding or hitting them a bit.

As for his Little Uncle Carter, although he couldn’t deal with other kids’ parents, he could handle their older brothers and sisters. Whenever other kids who’d been bullied by Brian Carter brought their siblings to get revenge, Brian Carter would run home as fast as he could, shouting for his Little Uncle Carter along the way. Then his Little Uncle Carter would dash out from the yard, stand in the alley holding half a brick, and threaten anyone who dared to challenge him!

If Brian Carter didn’t manage to escape and got beaten up by someone’s older sibling, his Little Uncle Carter would, the next day or in the days following, gather a group of equally mischievous kids who didn’t care much for school, and ambush the offenders at the school gate or on the way, making sure to get back whatever Brian Carter had lost.

Why was Little Uncle Carter so protective of Brian Carter? His motives were completely different from Brian Carter’s grandfather’s. The grandfather simply loved his own grandchild by nature and was fiercely protective—he couldn’t help it. But Brian Carter’s Little Uncle Carter had less pure intentions: he helped Brian Carter out so enthusiastically because he wanted to trick him out of money and treats. Brian Carter’s grandfather often slipped him a two-fen coin to buy candy.

Brian Carter’s parents had told the old man countless times not to give the child money—he’s too young! But the grandfather never listened, and kept giving it anyway. This money became Brian CarterLittle Uncle Carter’s operating funds. Brian Carter hardly ever got to spend any of it himself; it all ended up with his Little Uncle Carter. Whenever his Little Uncle Carter didn’t include him in something fun, Brian Carter would pull out a couple of coins, and the problem would be solved.

Kids born after the 1980s probably can’t imagine what you could do with just a few fen. Nowadays, if a few fen fell on the ground, most people wouldn’t even bother to pick them up—including Brian Carter himself. But in the 1970s, let alone a little kid who hadn’t started school, even if you stopped a high schooler and asked if they had five fen in their pocket, more than half probably didn’t.

So what could you do with five fen back then? Plenty!

First of all, you could buy a popsicle. Beijing summers were scorching, and there was no air conditioning or refrigerators at home—fans were rare too. The only way to cool off and quench your thirst was with a popsicle. When you were sweating buckets and parched, and saw a friend with a snow-white creamy popsicle, how could you not crave it? And they wouldn’t just bite into it—they’d lick it with their tongue, suck on it with their lips, slowly turning the square popsicle into a round one. If you happened to run into a kid who liked to smack their lips, didn’t you ever feel the urge to kick them over and snatch the popsicle for yourself?

That creamy popsicle cost exactly five fen each. That was considered pretty fancy—most kids wouldn’t buy it. Their main targets were the three-fen red bean or hawthorn popsicles. If the popsicle lady’s cart had some that were about to melt, she’d sell you two for five fen.

Besides popsicles, porridge at snack shops cost only two or three fen a bowl, beer was ten fen a glass, mooncakes were ten fen each, a bath cost five fen, you could buy ten unwrapped candies, forty small firecrackers, four “er ti jiao” (double-bang firecrackers), a piece of bubble gum, or several loose cigarettes. Or you could spend six fen on two movie tickets—many cinemas sold student tickets for three fen each.

Little Uncle Carter was already thirteen. He wasn’t quite at the age of puppy love, but he already knew it was cool to have little girls play with him. So a piece of candy, a popsicle, or a little eraser became his way of making friends with the girls in his class. Most of the money for these things had to be tricked out of Brian Carter, since Brian Carter’s grandfather usually wouldn’t give him any.

Chapter 5: Grandma’s House

Today, after Brian Carter returned to his grandma’s house, he didn’t rush out to play or get up to mischief. Instead, he sat under the big tree in the yard, watching two groups of ants on the ground fighting over territory.

“Xiao Zhong, what’s up with Taotao today? Did someone bully him at kindergarten? Why does he look so down as soon as he gets home?” Grandma asked her second son while making dumplings, peering out the window at her grandson, who didn’t seem very happy.

“How would I know! Who would dare bully him? He even dares to hit the teacher!” Brian Carter’s Uncle Carter didn’t think much of Brian Carter. He was a very honest kid himself; to avoid being sent to the countryside, he left school early and got a job at a military-run printing factory, starting to earn money for the family. He really disapproved of kids like Brian Carter.