Honestly, my life before high school was nothing like the cushy existence kids have now. I had zero pocket money. Not “very little” — literally none. Picture my elementary and middle school years. My parents weren’t completely against giving me money, but occasionally handing me one or five yuan was already the biggest concession. Going out to buy a shaobing or a youtiao egg pancake counted as a fancy purchase. I had no money of my own to buy what I wanted. I used to envy friends who had their own wallets and allowances, who could just buy stuff. Me? Anything I wanted had to go through parental approval. Sure, I only wanted things like Mini 4WD cars, but obviously my parents weren’t going to buy them on a whim. Back then a pirated “Auldey” car cost 10 yuan, and I only had 1-2 yuan in coins. Out of reach. “Man, if only I had ten yuan.” That was my wish. Simple, direct, pure.

In high school I heard a thing: in the class next to ours, there was a girl who would have sex with people for money. “See, that’s her.” My deskmate pointed at the back of a girl from the next class and told me she was the subject of the “school secret” he’d described to me before. Honestly, I saw her face later. Not pretty, thick lips, but skinny, pale, a ponytail, always smiling. My biggest takeaway was: I can’t believe she’d do something like that.