It was really nice to wake up after a deep sleep. When Jiang Youyou woke up, it had been eleven o’clock in the morning. Although it was already autumn, the sun was shining brightly to illuminate the dust drifting in the air as soon as she drew open the pink checked curtains.

She opened the second-hand refrigerator and there were only quick-frozen dumplings and two spring onions which she bought from the supermarket when she returned yesterday.

The taste of meat stuffing of the dumplings was a bit stinky, which was partly covered by spring onions. The second-hand refrigerator was not powerful enough. After all, second-hand goods were used goods. Jiang Youyou swore at them and stood in front of the mirror, trying on her new dress. The dressing mirror had not be framed. She bought it after seeking carefully in a crude glass shop nearby for thirty yuan.

Only one word appeared on the face of the woman in the mirror: shabby.

The polka dot dress was bought in the supermarket when it was sold at a discount. The hemline of the dress fell below the knee and because she didn’t iron the dress after washing it—she forgot to buy an iron—it looked crumpled, especially in the part of the chest, as if it were rubbed heavily.

The first floor of the new house was a utility room whose door was fastened tightly by a big rusty lock. The second floor was the bedroom for her. The third floor was also locked, but she could open it to enter the balcony, on which she could hang her clothes under the sun to dry. She could also sit on a lounger on the balcony at dusk, drinking tea and enjoying the sunset in the sky and those factories were scattered around.

For fear that it would rain in the afternoon, she went straight to the third floor to collect her clothes. The two coffins were put right in the center of the hall on the third floor. The old couple of the landlord might have arranged all affairs of their own funeral. Everyone would need such a thing one day, so Jiang Youyou thought it was unnecessary to show fear.

She checked her purse and was sure there was enough money in it. She was lucky to get a taxi that just returned from the former customer’s destination, and made a bargain of thirty yuan for a downtown trip.

The air conditioner in the shopping mall is much better than the refrigerator at her home. The Starbucks in outer square of Jusco was crowded with fake or genuine petty bourgeoisie men and women, with their Notebook PC turned on to show they were very busy. Jiang Youyou cast a quick sidelong glance at the man using his laptop and glimpsed a girl in underwear striking all kinds of tempting poses and video chatting with him on the screen.

Most upscale fashions for women are forever prepared and sold to the minority, and most saleswomen had a keen eye who could tell at a glance the difference between a young single girl who was living from paycheck to paycheck and a young charming married rich woman.

When Jiang Youyou entered the shop, a girl standing at the front desk said “Welcome to Ports” perfunctorily. She wore dark purple eye shadow on her little eyes, for which others would think she was punched in the eyes at first glance

A grey dress with a medium sleeve cardigan would be suitable at this season. Inlaid in the cloth were the glittering gold threads that were flickering and the little bowknot at the chest made the dress looking lively. When Jiang Youyou tried the dress on she unintentionally asked the saleswoman, “Could you give me a discount?”

The saleswoman put on an icy face, “No discount. Three thousand and eight hundred yuan in all.”

“Let me think over.” The girl in the mirror made Jiang Youyou hardly recognize that it was herself. It turned out that women were fashion animals after all. If An Hua was still alive, she would certainly accompany her wandering and shopping and finally all dresses she bought would be the style that An Hua loved. An Hua didn’t love such a tight style.

When she was taking off the dress in the fitting room, Jiang Youyou heard one of the saleswoman saying to her colleague, “Another case of showrooming—they try the dress on in our shop, then buy it from ebay.”

She put it on again when taking it off halfway, grasping her own wrinkled dress tightly in hand, she said to the dumbfounded saleswoman, “Wrap it up, I’ll take it.”

“Would you pay by cash or credit card?” The saleswoman felt quite unexpected. She didn’t think the girl would buy the dress.

Jiang Youyou counted out thirty-eight one-hundred-yuan bills and threw them down to the ground. The woman hastily picked them up, looking at the strange customer with a slightly alarmed expression.

Jiang Youyou was surprised to find that when she entered other clothing stores of the same type which sold women’s dresses at the price above one thousand yuan, she was never given the long face mixed with perfunctory and scornful attitude again after she put on this new dress.

She paid two hundred thousand yuan in total for the dress, a silk scarf and a handbag. She didn’t feel reluctant when she swiped the credit card to pay, but when she had to take the bills out of her purse she felt a bit guilty, remembering that Auntie Fang Ruxiang in the welfare home had only five hundred yuan to live on per month.

“To spend money is for the purpose of making more.” Jiang Youyou comforted herself in that way.

The elevator of the employment market was enormous, like a huge container carrying these goods to the factories in demand.

She paid twice as much as others so that she could go to the fourth floor where there was the recruitment zone for high-level personnel. While the so-called high-level, in fact, just meant that the candidates were offered a potential salary twice or even higher than those who paid only five yuan to enter the market.

But there were still a lot of people going to the fourth floor for the job and there were more women than men; most of them were well dressed and had elegant temperament.

A large-scale spray painting advertisement saying “OSY Foreign Trade Corporation looks for administrative clerks with a monthly salary of eight thousand Yuan” attracted a lot of people.

A monthly salary of eight thousand Yuan, it would be a satisfactory sum for Jiang Youyou. All the money in the card would be spent in less than half a year if she just sat idle. In this city, the food was so delicious, the dresses were so beautiful and the housing was so expensive.

Sitting at the recruitment desk, Zhao Lan was putting on an air of a queen. Her hair was tightly bound at the back of her head like a Taoist nun. She had a serious expression and upwardly bending eyes and wore a small purple crystal hairpin next to one ear. She kept looking at her watch, hoping that such a crowded situation would be over and she could soon go to the hospital. According to the procedure, she could get off work ahead of time after collecting 200 resumes at the employment market. And she estimated she had already got almost enough now. She didn’t have time for lunch although she had bought a bowel of coix seed porridge, but before she finished it there was a large crowd coming to ask for information and send their résumés.

Jiang Youyou went up to her, swallowed hard and said, “Hi, good afternoon! Can I have a try, please?”

Zhao Lan was counting the fat stack of the resumes. One hundred and ninety-seven, one hundred and ninety-eight, one hundred and ninety-nine, two hundred… She raised her head, “No. We collect only two hundred resumes today. Come earlier next time.”