"Jing Shu really does have this kind of strength. Stop looking down on her."
As they walked, Jing Shu counted. One row had thirty seats, two rows made sixty in all. The two rows were telling. One row looked like pre-apocalypse dignitaries, neatly dressed and formal. The other row wore mismatched clothes and, almost without exception, shaved heads.
In the second year after the apocalypse, you could judge a household by the haircut. People with standards and means refused to let red nematodes exist in their living spaces, so they did not have to shave their heads.
So one row was bald, one row had styled hair.
At one o'clock sharp, most tables were filled. Su Mali announced, "Thank you all for accepting my invitation. I now declare my housewarming and the First Su Mali Auction officially open. Please enjoy your meal while we begin the trading and auction."
The hall fell quiet as the background music changed.
Su Mali continued, "First, the rules. We are not doing a traditional auction. Prices will be set according to the seller's needs. You can set a minimum price, you can shout a price in virtual coins, or you can name what you want to trade for.
Since the currency system is still in testing and only a few government personnel can process exchanges, I have invited an internal officer, A Yu, to handle virtual coin transactions for everyone."
A Yu, the graceful gentleman Jing Shu had met earlier, stood and bowed. "Miss Mali, are your rules finished? I have a few words."
At her gesture, A Yu lifted a gift box from beside his chair.
"Today is also Miss Mali's housewarming, so I brought a present. I hope she likes it. If anyone else prepared a gift, bring it up now. Otherwise it will not be fresh in a moment."
Good-natured smiles circled the hall. In these times, what is most valuable? Food. But these families had stockpiled richly before the apocalypse. What was precious to ordinary people was routine to them.
So what was truly rare? Fresh fruit and living things. Those outshone any long-stored rations.
A Yu's gift was two fresh ginseng fruits shaped like small gourds, set on a bed of red grapes. It looked beautiful.
"I know you love strawberries. Here, a bouquet of strawberries." It was arranged like a floral spray, studded with fresh berries.
Others brought candied hawthorn skewers, cherries laid out in patterns, and more. The scene was a real everyone-shows-their-tricks moment. In one circuit around the room, they practically covered the whole catalogue of pre-apocalypse fruit.
What struck Jing Shu most about the class divide was that it was as if they had coordinated it all in advance. Most impressively, no two gifts were the same. Before long, Su Mali's table was heaped with fresh fruit. Someone even brought a darling little white goose.
A little white goose was very valuable, even more so because it was a hen.
The classmates stared wide-eyed at the mountain of fresh food, swallowing hard. Look at that. One housewarming and Su Mali harvested this much. Envy burned.
Wait.
They had not brought gifts.
They had come with their mouths, expecting to eat.
When the opposite row finished, no one said, Your turn, but the looks they cast across the aisle asked it plainly: are you giving or not?
Jing Shu sat calmly beside Su Mali. If classmates gave, then Jing Shu would give. If no one did, Jing Shu would not stick her head up. Offending the whole class would be awkward.
Seeing the stalemate, A Yu said, "Looks like that is that. Shall we move to the next part?"
Su Mali's lips pouted. From childhood she had been taught: when visiting someone's home, especially for a housewarming, you bring a small gift. A handkerchief, a pen, it does not have to be expensive. It is about courtesy.
Watching her expression, Jing Shu could not help a smile. Young Lady Su Mali truly did not eat the bitterness of common life. She did not grasp how hard her high school classmates had it. The housewarming-gift habit had long since been pushed out of their minds.
The classmates were stunned. Now that others had presented gifts, how could they refuse? But what could they possibly give?
Still, a few had prepared something.
Xie Zihao offered a big assorted-nuts box. It was storage food, but in the apocalypse it was valuable.
Yao Zixin brought a PVC folding rain-shelter hut that could open and close at will. It was handy. Su Mali said she loved it and finally smiled.
Mu Xiaoxuan presented a peach seed in a small gift box. "With all this rain, it should sprout next year. To eat peaches, it may take three years."
"Thank you. We will plant it in the villa yard. I like it very much." Su Mali beamed. She cared about the thought. She might be naive, but she liked to see effort repaid.
Jing Shu eyed Mu Xiaoxuan. Was Mu Xiaoxuan from a fruit-growing family with all kinds of seeds? Jing Shu made a note to ask later about rarer seeds. Back when she bought in bulk, she had stocked Chinese medicinal and edible seeds. She had not bought ornamental or other plants. Thinking about it now, many plants could play big roles in the apocalypse.
Others, in twos and threes, produced whatever they had planned to trade. A vase. A bit of gold. A hairpin.
Some of it was laughable, perhaps, but it was still a gift. Jing Shu noticed the looks from the opposite row were already a little strange.
And those who had come with nothing but a mouth kept their heads down and said nothing.
So the circle went round until it reached Jing Shu.
The potted plant was out of the question. It was medicinal. Without Spirit Spring to nourish it, if Jing Shu gave it away, Su Mali would never keep it alive. That would be a waste.
Jing Shu frowned in real headache. What to give? Fruit had been exhausted by the opposite row. Food with long shelf life, those families had in bulk. Poultry, she had, but big livestock could not be produced from thin air, and she could not say, "Wait here, my house is next door, I will fetch it." That would be even more embarrassing.
It had to be something small, but worthy.
Jing Shu rifled through the Rubik's Cube Space, turning it upside down. Suddenly her eyes lit. She knew exactly what to give.