# Chapter 036: Whose Account Is the Money In?
In early October 2013, Xiaoyezi joined the two free afternoons together and wrote down her name and Ye Yan’s.
The visitor who had been preparing the website called last time and said he wanted to hand over the entire office setup to Xinyu. He was bringing a list to discuss today. Junzi asked them to hold some time for him, then moved up a non-urgent airport drop-off he had scheduled. Ye Yan looked over the tasks they planned to do and saw that he could go both afternoons. That would be easier to arrange than running over here today, coming back tomorrow, and waiting for a call.
Xiaoyezi had already planned through the end of the second afternoon. They could leave their tools in the same place, take care of the shop’s work in the morning, then head out together in the afternoon. She wouldn’t have to wait until she saw him picking up his bag before asking if she could come along. She wrote her name right next to his, then clipped the rescheduled airport drop-off slip for Junzi into place.
The client arrived without a computer, carrying only two sheets of paper. One listed the follow-up work; the other was folded underneath. Wu Chunhua sat at the other end of the counter, checking her own transaction records. Junzi had asked her to look over the new order later, and she’d answered with a nod, first finishing the last line in front of her.
Ye Yan went through the work list and pointed out one item that would need an on-site visit first. The client was willing to let him go, and said he didn’t want to switch providers for the ongoing maintenance either. This time, Junzi didn’t bring out the 120-yuan installation quote. He straightened up a little and pulled the blank work order from the folder.
Then the sheet underneath was pushed in front of Xiaoyezi.
It was a payment notice to be sent to the customers. The account name and number were blank, and below them was a list of names, each followed by a proposed amount. The client said these people were waiting to buy coins, and he hadn’t got his own payment arrangements in place yet. He wanted to use their existing account for a couple of days. They could record each payment against the list as it came in, then transfer the whole amount to him once everything was collected. The technical work would still go ahead as they’d just discussed.
“It’d be best if we could use the shop’s account. A personal account would work too. They just need somewhere to send the money.” He aligned the two sheets and pressed a finger against their corners. “It’s all for this batch, so we won’t have to keep finding people.”
Xiaoyezi read down the list. The amounts weren’t mixed up; each name had its own line, with a space left to check off each payment later. She’d seen deposit pages on platforms that came along later, where lots of people sent money to the same place and a new line appeared in someone’s account. This sheet was more rudimentary, as if that line just hadn’t been moved onto a screen yet.
Ye Yan was matching the two afternoons against the on-site work. She glanced at him, pulled over a blank sheet, and wrote, “Payment details to follow this afternoon,” planning to hand it over along with the schedule.
Wu Chunhua finished checking her own records and reached for the payment notice.
She didn’t look at the total at the bottom first. Her finger stopped at the blank field at the top, then she turned the sheet over. There were no other recipients listed on the back.
“Is the money coming into this account meant to buy coins for these people?”
The client nodded. He’d already picked up his phone and was waiting for her to give him an account he could send them.
Wu Chunhua put the paper back on the table, holding down the reply Xiaoyezi hadn’t handed over yet. “We won’t collect this money. We can write up a separate work order for the equipment; once the work is done, the payment can go to Xinyu. This money from your customers can’t go into an account belonging to the shop or anyone in the family.”
The client’s phone turned once between his fingers, then he set it down face-down.
“I’m not asking you to spend it. Just two days. I’ve given you the names and amounts; record each payment as it comes in. My young guy can come help you too. If any amount doesn’t add up, come to me.”
Xiaoyezi wanted to pull the list closer. Keeping separate records and transferring the money once it was all in really was more organized than she’d first imagined. She had just begun to say, “Then this line—” when Wu Chunhua turned the sheet so she could see the account name field.
“A list is just a list. In the end, the money still goes into this one account. If someone comes with a transfer receipt, they’ll come looking for us.” She left the technical work list beside Junzi. “Make other arrangements for collecting this payment. We can keep talking about the machine work.”
The client didn’t take the work list. Instead, he turned his phone face-up again.
“I came to you because I’m short on time. The money goes to one person, the machines to another, and then I have to find a third person for the rest. I’d have to explain it all to everyone again. You’ve worked on these three machines, you understand the setup, and this isn’t the first job you’ve done for me.”
Ye Yan had initially thought he could help Wu Chunhua check the payments, so she wouldn’t have to keep coming to the shop. Now he picked up the notice. He didn’t know a single person on the list; the only recipient he would recognize was the one whose name was meant to go in the blank. His thumb brushed the edge of the empty field, then he put the paper back.
“I can keep those two afternoons open for the work. But I’m not letting you use my account for this.”
He didn’t push the technical work list away. When the client reached to collect the papers, Ye Yan still had one corner pinned down. Xiaoyezi saw it. Two of the items had been marked again by her father just moments ago. When they’d discussed the next maintenance visit, he’d even worked out how to fit it around their other jobs.
The client waited a while, his gaze shifting from him to Junzi. Junzi turned over the page with the dates he had written down earlier, but didn’t respond to what the client had said about the account.
“This is what we can do on our end. If you want to discuss handling the payments too, I can’t give you an answer today.”
The client pushed the date sheet back and got up to make a call. He walked to the door first, and after the call connected, he was still saying he needed someone to take on the whole batch of work. He even offered the two afternoons they had already set aside here.
The reply Xiaoyezi had written was still under Wu Chunhua’s hand. She pulled the paper back, crossed out “add in the afternoon,” and, listening to the voices outside the door, rewrote it: We do not provide accounts for collecting payments. If you would like to commission the technical work separately, let’s discuss that another time.
When she was done, she took the paper to the doorway.
The client had just hung up when he spotted the line. His expression turned flat. He said the other place could take the work, and that he’d give Xinyu a clear answer tomorrow morning. Then he took the paper, along with the two sheets he’d brought. Xiaoyezi didn’t add, “We can keep the time open for now, if you like.” She went back to the counter and circled the mark for “to be discussed” on the appointment page.
Junzi didn’t cancel the time slot right away. He gathered up the blank work order and slipped it into the appointment folder, then opened the folder again halfway through closing it. No one else had agreed to take the work, so it wasn’t settled yet; and he didn’t find anything else to fill those two afternoons either.
Wu Chunhua put away her paperwork and stayed seated.
“The way he looked at me just now, it was as if I’d come here specifically to undermine him,” she said quietly. “I thought we’d be able to work out the pay for this batch today too. I’d even rearranged my afternoon. In the end, managing his money for him wasn’t a problem, but asking who had received it made me the difficult one.”
She picked up her cup and finished the water, only to realize there had barely been any left. She set it down a little too heavily. Xiaoyezi went to get her more water. Wu Chunhua didn’t refuse, but she still took it in silence. Those two afternoons were there for anyone to see, and refusing the work hadn’t made the reluctance go away.
Ye Yan went out again that afternoon to look at the standard computer he’d promised to check. Xiaoyezi stayed at the shop and put away the materials they might have needed for the new order. She’d cut a small stack of workstation labels that morning, larger than usual, for people at the other place to use at different stations. She stood there for a moment, pinching one corner of the paper, then tucked the stack behind the blank work orders.
A little after ten the next morning, the client called.
Xiaoyezi answered and gave the shop’s name. The caller said the whole installation and the follow-up maintenance had been given to someone else, so there was no need to keep time open here. She asked once more whether they wouldn’t be bringing the machine work either. After hearing a definite no, she repeated what she’d said yesterday: they didn’t provide accounts for collecting payments.
The caller only murmured an acknowledgment and hung up.
Junzi was talking to the neighbor at the doorway. When he heard her call, he came back and took the appointment folder. Ye Yan stopped turning his screwdriver too and glanced at the page.
Two diagonal lines crossed out the dates, but both their names were still visible. Junzi didn’t tear out the page. He flipped to the next one, took out the delivery slip for the machine they’d rescheduled, and tried to put it back on its original date. They’d already agreed to deliver it early. He paused, then slipped the slip back into the folder.
He picked up the landline and called the number on the delivery slip, hoping to ask if they could go back to the original afternoon. The customer said he’d already arranged with someone at the office to have a person waiting at the new time, and asked Junzi not to change it again. Junzi agreed. When the customer checked the time once more, Junzi had no choice but to repeat the time he’d given them yesterday.
After hanging up, he flattened the delivery slip and told Ye Yan to test the machine again today. They still had to deliver it on the earlier date, but there was no work waiting for them in those two freed-up afternoons. Xiaoyezi reached for the appointment folder, but Junzi was turning to the next page. She stood beside him, and only took it once he’d turned past the blank page.
The neighbor poked his head in and asked if they’d landed a big job. Junzi replied that it hadn’t worked out, then lowered his head and put the folder back on the counter. He didn’t mention again that the client wanted someone who could handle the money.
Ye Yan tried tightening the screw again, but the driver slipped the first time. He changed the angle, and only then did the side panel close properly. Xiaoyezi moved the empty box away from the workbench. The long cable they’d planned to take to the job site was coiled at the bottom of the box. Ye Yan reached for it and put it back in his tool bag.
“I was still hoping we could keep working for them for a while,” he said.
Xiaoyezi had hoped so too. By yesterday morning, she’d already worked out which route to take, where to grab a bite, and how they’d come back and close up the shop together. When the list was placed in front of her, those were the first things she thought of. She’d almost accepted that money on behalf of the family.
She left the original schedule on the cancellation page and didn’t erase her name.
Ye Yan picked up the repaired desktop computer and went to test it for the customer who was in that day. Those two afternoons were still free. Xiaoyezi pulled one of the oversized workstation labels from the folder, saw that it wouldn’t be useful for an ordinary pickup slip, and slowly put it back.