# Chapter 022: Sold Too Soon
A few days later, Xiaoyezi called the man over to look at the old computer, making sure to ask whether he had a hard drive of his own. He said he did and would bring it that afternoon, then quickly hung up.
When he came in, he first tested the newly repaired rolling shutter door, then smiled and said it was working smoothly now. Junzi was wiping the casing of the old computer. Hearing this, he tossed the rag aside and quoted sixty yuan, without a hard drive.
“A piece of the casing’s missing. How about fifty?”
“You can see for yourself which piece is missing. We’ll test it in a bit and see if it works. Sixty. If you won’t pay that, I’ll keep it to test parts with.”
The man didn’t leave. He took his own hard drive out of his bag and set it on the repair bench, then went to look at the computer in front of Xiaoyezi.
“Those twenty coins from the other day—you sold them too soon. Someone’s offering me twelve yuan today, and I haven’t agreed yet.”
He picked up the half-pencil on the counter and wrote “12 minus 10” on the old repair slip. He worked out the difference—two—and pushed it over for Junzi to see. Junzi glanced at it and kept wiping the back of the computer case. The man took the paper back, folded it into a tiny square, and tucked it into his shirt pocket, as if he already had two extra yuan in there.
“If we hold on to it a little longer, maybe we won’t even have to pay out of pocket for this machine.”
Ye Yan was crouched beside the bench, looking at the drive’s connector. He heard the comment and paused for a moment, then set the drive beside the empty computer case. The old drive was still in the shallow box on the inside of the counter. He hadn’t taken it out.
The man went outside to take a call. Xiaoyezi came over, intending to move the computer case within Ye Yan’s reach. He moved it himself without taking her help.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner that the price might go up?”
She looked toward the doorway. The broken parts removed when they repaired the door had long since been taken away, and the track was clean now. She wanted to say that they really had been short of money that night, but Ye Yan shook his head before she could speak.
“I know where the money went. But that night, I said I could hold on to it. You kept telling me to wait, and then you said we could go back once the door was fixed, so I sold it.”
“We were only ten yuan short at the time.”
“Today we’re only two yuan up. By your logic, any shortfall can be brushed aside.” He leaned the loosened side panel against the wall. “Last year, I kept only those few slots, and I’ve regretted it enough already. Later, you said it was useful, so I thought maybe I could keep it a little longer. But when to keep it and when to sell it—I still have to wait and see what you say.”
She reached for his sleeve, wanting to tug at him as she usually did, but she couldn’t quite close her fingers around it.
“I don’t know when the price will be highest,” she said. “That night, I wanted you to go back, and I wanted to go with you. I couldn’t bear to see you sleeping in that chair. When they asked the price, all I could think about was making up the ten yuan.”
After saying that, she couldn’t even look toward the repaired door anymore. Ye Yan had agreed, of course, and he was the one who had clicked the mouse, but she’d kept dangling the promise of “going back tonight” in front of him. When he put the footstool back, she’d even felt relieved first.
Ye Yan pulled the power cord out of the empty computer case. His voice grew quieter.
“Next time, let me think it through first. Don’t just jump in and answer for me as soon as someone asks.”
The man outside finished his call and knocked twice on the glass. He said he still had other places to go that afternoon. Xiaoyezi stepped aside to make room at the repair bench and didn’t try to explain again. Ye Yan connected the customer’s drive. The first time he pressed the power switch, the fan spun once, then stopped.
The man immediately bent down. “Didn’t you just say it worked?”
Junzi put down the rag, too. Ye Yan unplugged the power first, checked the wiring, then removed the front panel and fiddled with the loose switch. Xiaoyezi stood beside the customer and asked what time he needed to leave at the latest. Then she pushed the shop phone closer and told him that if he was in a hurry, he could come back to pick it up after they’d tested it. They could keep the price Junzi had quoted for now.
He glanced at the bag but wouldn’t leave. “The drive’s already installed. I’ll wait a little.”
She moved a stool beside the screen and let him sit down. Ye Yan finished dealing with the switch and reconnected the power. This time the machine started. The customer reached to press a key, and Ye Yan moved aside to make room, though he stayed crouched, listening to the sounds inside the case.
While they waited, the man glanced under the counter again and asked if they’d be willing to sell the remaining coins along with the others. When Xiaoyezi heard “twelve,” she nearly turned to ask Ye Yan, but stopped halfway and only said that this time they’d agreed on the machine.
“I’m keeping mine for now.” Ye Yan didn’t look up.
Junzi answered from the other side, “We weren’t planning to sell the shop’s, either. First, figure out how to use the machine.”
The customer opened a few files himself, complained that the fan was noisy, then leaned close to the air vent. Ye Yan told him not to get so close, then let the machine keep running for a while. A customer came into the shop to pick up a computer. Xiaoyezi handled him first, checked his pickup slip, and got the receipt from Junzi. She didn’t call Ye Yan away from the old machine again.
By the time Wu Chunhua arrived at the shop, the machine had already been restarted once. She saw the customer’s drive installed inside and first clarified what the sixty yuan covered. She noted on the payment slip that it did not include the shop’s hard drive, then checked her own account records without looking at the price quote the man had pulled out.
The customer tried to haggle the price down one last time. Junzi had already picked up the side panel and said that if the man really didn’t want it, he’d take the drive out and give it back to him. The man looked at Ye Yan, then sat back down and used the machine for a while longer. At last, he took out three twenty-yuan notes and laid them on the counter.
Junzi counted the money in front of him. Once Ye Yan had shut down the machine and put the side panel back on, Junzi handed the case over. The customer only realized how heavy it was when he lifted it. His bag was only big enough to cover half of it, so Xiaoyezi held the bag open for him while he gripped the case by both sides. He took his own drive with him, too. The old repair slip was still in his shirt pocket. As he walked out, he remarked again that they’d sold theirs too soon.
Xiaoyezi didn’t answer. She turned to move the now-empty stool, but Ye Yan had already sat down at another repair bench and picked up the motherboard he hadn’t finished checking that morning.
Junzi put the sixty yuan in the drawer and entered it in the shop’s accounts. Then he took out a five-yuan note and called Ye Yan over to get it.
“That’s for the money I borrowed from you that night. I’ve got cash now, so I’ll pay you back first.”
He said it as casually as if he were settling some small change, but when he looked through the ledger, he searched twice, determined to find the line showing what he owed. Wu Chunhua watched him cross it off, then entered the sixty yuan they’d received that day and the five yuan they’d paid out separately. The remaining fifty-five yuan stayed in the shop.
Ye Yan took the five yuan and put it in his pocket without looking at Xiaoyezi. Junzi started to ask them both to stay for dinner, but a call about a pickup interrupted him halfway through. He took the receiver into the back room to look for the order. Only then did Xiaoyezi sit back down at the counter and write a few lines on a blank sheet of paper.
Wu Chunhua came over to get a pen. She read the paper, then looked at Xiaoyezi.
“Next time something this important comes up, you, Ye Yan, and I should first make sure we all understand it before we sign anything.” Xiaoyezi pushed the paper toward her. “I’ll sign it, too. You shouldn’t always have to carry the burden of what I advised.”
Xiaoyezi told her how she’d urged them to sell that night, and about the argument today after she heard the offer of twelve yuan. She stopped just short of saying that she’d also wanted Ye Yan to go back. Wu Chunhua looked toward the repair bench, the pen still in her hand. She’d only heard one price from the buyer; she hadn’t even asked who was willing to pay twelve yuan.
“You two—when you’re in a hurry, one of you pushes and the other agrees, and then afterward you…” In anger, she kicked the empty stool back under the counter. After a pause, she picked up the pen. “I need to understand it first, too. Otherwise, we could all sign it together and still not know what we’re looking at.”
Ye Yan came over, read the paper, and wrote his name at the bottom. Wu Chunhua and Xiaoyezi signed it, too. They didn’t file the paper with the coin sale records, but clipped it to the front. When Junzi came back and saw it, he only pointed under the counter and said that anything involving the shop’s fifteen coins still had to be discussed with him. Xiaoyezi nodded and added that to the paper.
Ye Yan didn’t bring up those two yuan again, and he didn’t joke with her anymore, either. He checked the shallow box. Its lid was shut, and it remained on the inside of the counter. The updated test USB drive was in the drawer where they kept test items. Where the old machine had stood, there was nothing but a streak of dust.
As closing time approached, Wu Chunhua went to pick up the child first. Ye Yan put away the motherboard he’d been working on, sat down at the computer, and pulled up a few price inquiries. He copied down the address of a website where they could ask for a quote and left it beside the keyboard.
“Show me this tomorrow. I’ll ask about the price myself.”
She agreed and left the paper by the computer. She’d originally wanted to ask if he could walk home with her tonight, but when she left the shop, she saw Wu Chunhua and the child at the entrance to the alley.
The child was trying to kick off one of her sandals. It fell off, so Ye Yan had to crouch down to pick it up. She immediately flung her arms around his neck, while the other sandal still dangled from her foot. She refused to stand back on the ground. Wu Chunhua held her around the waist, scolding her for kicking so wildly again. Only when Ye Yan had her secure in his arms did she let go.
Xiaoyezi took half a step forward. Ye Yan was putting the fallen sandal back on the child. She drew her foot back and pressed herself against him, laughing. He had no choice but to hold her with one arm and coax her slowly to put her foot out.
Xiaoyezi stopped and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. The website address was still at the shop. She turned back and told Junzi that Ye Yan wanted to use the computer for a while tomorrow morning, and asked him to leave that spot free.