# Chapter 021: Money Needed in a Hurry
The next morning, Junzi went out with two invoices tucked under his arm. When he came back, the cash bag for the goods was gone from the folder, and there were two more receipts. He handed the invoices to Wu Chunhua, then reached into the back of the drawer for the little paper bag. After finding it, he closed the drawer again.
In mid-July, the old machine still hadn’t been cleared out. The man who’d come by to ask about it yesterday came into the shop again during the day. He squatted down to look at the rack and asked if it would be cheaper without the hard drive. Junzi was moving a desktop computer that was waiting to be picked up. He only said he’d get back to him after checking. The man borrowed a pen and wrote down his number on the back of an old repair slip. As he left, he still urged them not to let the machines sit around for too long, and to get a few more up and running while they could.
Xiaoyezi set the number beside the phone. By evening, she had forgotten about the slip of paper and was waiting with her bag on for Ye Yan. He had promised to walk part of the way with her after closing the shop. He had just switched off the last machine when a harsh scraping sound came from the doorway.
The roller shutter Junzi had pulled down was crooked and stuck halfway, one side low, and the other refusing to come down any farther.
Ye Yan set down his cup and went over to help. First, he lifted the door so Junzi could let go, then checked along the side track and picked out some dust. They tried lowering it again, but the metal slats pressed together and got stuck in the same place. Ye Yan crouched and studied it for a long time. The back of his hand picked up a black smudge. At last, he stood and told Junzi to stop forcing it.
The customers’ computers were inside the shop, including one they were supposed to pick up tomorrow morning. Xiaoyezi took off her bag and ran next door to ask for the door repairman’s number. When she got back, Ye Yan was moving the machines inside. He moved everything he could away from the doorway, but they couldn’t move all the machines on the shelves out for the night.
The repairman said over the phone that he could come that evening. When he arrived, he tested the door, then climbed up to inspect it. He quoted one hundred and sixty yuan for labor and materials. Wu Chunhua made sure it would lock properly once repaired and asked whether there would be any extra charge before asking him to wait while they gathered the cash.
Junzi opened the drawer and counted out one hundred and twenty yuan. It was money the shop had taken in for repairs; they had already set aside what they needed for parts, and both payments for supplies that had come due had been paid. He also opened the little paper bag, took out the thirty yuan inside, and spread it on top of the stack.
“What’s there to test? Let’s get the door fixed first.”
He didn’t tell the repairman how much they were short. Instead, he took the money to the inside of the counter and counted it again. Wu Chunhua had noticed too. She pressed her lips together, and only after the repairman went out to get his tools did she lower her voice. “We’d only just sorted out those payments yesterday, and now another chunk is gone. We’d only just put this little bit aside, and now it’s gone too.”
Junzi looked toward the door as if he wanted to argue, but in the end he just stuffed the empty paper bag back into the drawer. The one hundred and fifty yuan they’d gathered sat on the ledger. They were still ten yuan short.
Ye Yan walked over to the narrow chair against the wall and moved the pile of cardboard boxes off it.
“I’ll stay here tonight. We can fix the door tomorrow. Someone will keep an eye on the machines.”
He pulled a footstool out from under the repair bench, ready to use it to prop up the door. Xiaoyezi looked at the chair. The place where she’d been waiting to leave with him was now empty. She wanted to say she’d stay too, but Ye Yan picked up her bag first and handed it to her, telling her to go home and sleep.
The slip of paper with the number showed beside the phone.
“He came by again during the day.” She set her bag back on the counter. “I’ll ask if he buys coins.”
Ye Yan’s hand stopped on the footstool. Yesterday’s offer was still on the computer, and yesterday she’d been right there beside the screen, telling him to wait a little longer.
“You want to sell them now?”
She didn’t open a webpage. The repairman’s toolbox was already outside the door, its lid stained with old grease. Inside, the computer waiting to be picked up had a note on it in Ye Yan’s own handwriting. In the morning, he would still have to turn it on here and hand it over to the customer.
“Just enough to make up the ten yuan shortfall. I checked the price. If you don’t agree, we won’t sell.” Xiaoyezi moved to the phone, then looked back at him. “Once the door’s fixed, you can go home tonight.”
Ye Yan didn’t answer. But Junzi moved the shallow case out from under the counter and rested his palm on its edge.
“We need to be clear about these fifty too. The machines and the place belong to the shop. You’ve been looking after things for so many days; when it comes time to sell, you can’t just treat them as if they belong to one person.”
He wrote fifty in the blank space in the ledger, did some figuring, then turned the notebook toward Ye Yan.
“The shop gets twenty-five, and you get twenty-five. Sound fair? The machines were here, you cleaned the dust off them, and you watched over them at night. I acknowledge that.”
Ye Yan looked at the two figures and slowly nodded. Xiaoyezi stood by the phone and said she had looked into it, but this time, when they divided up the shares, she wouldn’t take any for herself. Junzi confirmed that was what she meant, and only then did Wu Chunhua write it down beside them and show it to the two of them. Ye Yan and Junzi each signed their names. The notebook was not passed back to Xiaoyezi.
She dialed the number. Without mentioning the old machine, she went straight to asking if the buyer would bring a computer and buy twenty coins in person for ten yuan in cash. The buyer quickly agreed, then double-checked that it was only coins. Xiaoyezi said it was only coins, and that she would hand them over once the payment came through and the transaction had received a block confirmation.
Junzi agreed to sell ten of the shop’s twenty-five coins. Ye Yan was still standing beside the narrow chair. When he heard the buyer was on his way, his expression darkened a little.
Xiaoyezi held the receiver she had put back in its cradle and didn’t rush him. She knew, of course, that the balance on the screen would drop by twenty coins. Even the relief she’d felt when the buyer agreed now made her uneasy. But she was even less willing to shoulder her bag and leave him to make do on that chair for the night.
Ye Yan put the footstool back where it belonged.
“I’ll sell my ten too. At the price you said. Just this once, to pay for the door repair.”
Wu Chunhua added the quantities, the ten-yuan total, and the purpose beneath the earlier notes. Junzi and Ye Yan looked it over, and only then did they let Xiaoyezi clear some space in front of the computer. Ye Yan connected the old drive in the shallow case, waited for the client to catch up with the network, and checked that the original fifty coins were still usable. Xiaoyezi sat beside him without touching the mouse.
The buyer brought an ordinary laptop. He stooped and ducked in under the door, glanced at the repairman’s tools, and didn’t ask who was short on money. Instead, he asked if he could plug in an Ethernet cable. Junzi cleared a corner of the counter for him and found a cable. The buyer opened his client and showed Ye Yan the receiving address. Xiaoyezi checked the agreed quantity and amount, Ye Yan verified the address once more, then sent the twenty coins himself.
The transfer appeared on the buyer’s end, but the money was still in his pocket. He pushed his laptop aside a little and sat down to wait for confirmation.
The repairman had braced the crooked section of the door and, hearing they would have to wait a while, began taking apart the parts that needed work. The scrape of metal drowned out the two men’s conversation. While they waited, the buyer asked Junzi again when he could take a look at the old machine. Junzi said he wouldn’t have time until the door was fixed, so the buyer stayed to wait.
Xiaoyezi kept glancing between the computer and Ye Yan. He went to help the repairman hold the door for a while. When he came back, he washed his hands, and the balance on the screen had already changed. She had meant to say there were still thirty coins, but swallowed the words. He could see for himself.
Once the transfer had a block confirmation, the buyer took a ten-yuan note from his pocket, unfolded it, and handed it across the counter. Xiaoyezi took it. The amount was clear, but she still held it under the light to check before passing it to Junzi.
The buyer closed his laptop and unplugged the Ethernet cable. He glanced at the shelves again and said to let him know once the old machine had been sorted out, then walked out through the door, which was still open. The drive in the shallow case was still connected to the shop computer, and the test USB drive had not left the counter.
Junzi put the ten yuan on top of the original one hundred and fifty. Ye Yan noticed and came over, pointing to the ledger. He said five yuan of it had come from selling his own coins, and that he was lending it to the shop for the door repair. Junzi immediately recorded that the shop owed Ye Yan five yuan. He showed Ye Yan the entry once he’d written it down, then gathered up the notes.
When the work on the door was finished, the repairman moved his tools away and told them to test it. Junzi pulled it once, then tried the lock from inside, while Ye Yan watched to see if the door would tilt again. The door closed all the way, and the bolt slid into place. Only then did Junzi pay the full one hundred and sixty yuan in front of them. The repairman counted it, packed up his tools, and left.
Before the door was fully closed, Xiaoyezi moved the boxes back onto the narrow chair. Ye Yan returned to the computer, exited the program, and backed up the updated data to the shop’s test USB drive. Then he shut down the computer, removed the old drive, and put the drive and USB stick away separately. Wu Chunhua drew the ledger closer. The remaining thirty coins were still recorded in the same entry: fifteen for the shop and fifteen for Ye Yan. The five-yuan loan from earlier was still there too; it hadn’t been crossed out.
Before putting the keys away, Junzi gave the door another tug. The other shops outside had already closed. Xiaoyezi slung her bag over her shoulder, and at last she and Ye Yan stepped outside.
Wu Chunhua went ahead to wait at the intersection. They walked down the street. Ye Yan didn’t mention the computer again, but he didn’t respond when she asked if he’d eaten dinner, either. After a while, he said he had. Then he noticed the strap of her bag was twisted and reached over to straighten it for her.
She couldn’t help edging a little closer to him, wanting to say that the buyer hadn’t actually bought the old machine. But Ye Yan was still thinking about the screen. After they’d walked a few steps, he said quietly, “Yesterday, I still couldn’t bear to sell them.”
Xiaoyezi kept the words she’d meant to say to herself. At the intersection, Wu Chunhua was looking their way. Ye Yan raised a hand to signal that he was coming, and she followed him onward.