Private Label by Kelly Yang

Author:Kelly Yang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

30

Lian

I LOOK UP the address Serene gave me on Baidu. It’s an old apartment building, built after the Cultural Revolution in the 1980s. That gives me hope that maybe Serene’s right. This is her grandparents’ house.

If only I could catapult myself over to Beijing right now and go knock on the door. That would be a lot faster than a letter. I start texting my friends in Beijing, Lei and Chris. I open WeChat. To my surprise, Chris is still online. Quickly, I explain the situation to him.

I can try to go next weekend, he writes back.

Next weekend? I ask.

Sorry, I’ve got this thing due.

What thing? I text.

Remember the sign thing we used to do?

Oh yeah. My friends and I, we’d go around town and take pictures of hilariously mistranslated signs in English, like road signs that say “Temporary Park Only, for Getting Off” or “Fresh Crap ¥12/kg” in a seafood restaurant.

I’m compiling them for this magazine. I wrote the editor an email and sent him some pics. They’re paying me ¥300! I just need five more signs, he texts.

I feel a twinge of jealousy and missing out. That was our thing. But then I remind myself to be happy for my friend. He’s going for his dream, just as I am.

That’s great, I text back.

How are things with you and that girl?

Great!

You ever coming back? Are we going to get to meet her?

I hope so, I text. I smile at the idea of walking around Beijing with Serene, introducing her to my friends. I’d love nothing more than to introduce her to my city. Perhaps in the summer we’ll go together. And she can be reunited with her dad properly.

If I can play even a small role in giving that to Serene, that would be amazing. And it’s not just the reunion with her dad, it’s the many reunions that will follow. I think of all my aunts and uncles and cousins back home, all the Chinese New Year dinners where my uncles would let me drink beer and my aunts would sing bad karaoke—I can’t imagine not having that. And to grow up instead in Sienna Beach, having to justify why you deserve to take up more space than a tree. And yet she and her mom stayed.

I think of the character for “strong” in Chinese, tie.

On the left of the character is the radical for “gold,” and on the right is the radical for “lose.” I don’t know why exactly “lose” is there, I guess it’s a reminder to people that sometimes if you’re too strong-willed, you might lose.

In Serene’s case, I know she won’t.

I get off WeChat and switch over to Weibo, where I type in “Li Jin.” There are about five thousand people with that name—everyone from basketball players to binge-eating online stars who can stuff a hundred baozis in their stomach.

As I’m wading through the profiles, an ad pops up for a relative-finding agency.

I’m a private detective in Beijing. Reuniting families since 2005! Contact

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