【02】To put it simply, their relationship is just “people who know each other”
If the school is dozens of miles away from a bustling city, it is a relatively quiet town within the metropolitan area. Fortune is a billiard hall located in an even more prosperous area. Because of its spacious space and reasonable prices, it is packed every Friday night. Thanks to Ye Xin's ride, Liang Zhiyao arrived earlier than usual today. She slowly finished the homemade sandwich in her bag in the empty parking lot. When she entered the store, there were still many empty tables. She greeted the uncle at the front desk and went to the American pool area as if she knew the place well. After sitting on the sofa in the lounge for a few minutes, an American man came up to her and said, "How about five games, three wins? The loser pays $200, plus table fees." "No problem," she nodded. Although the gossip in the elevator was mostly nonsense, as "Amanda" said, she was really looking for ways to make money. Since the change in her family, Liang Zhiyao has tried various ways to make money in the past few months. Since the beginning of this semester, she has been working part-time at the campus coffee shop for four hours every Tuesday and Thursday, and eight hours straight on Sundays. This, combined with her teaching assistantship for a basic course at the college, barely exceeds the maximum number of hours allowed for international students under US law. This presupposes finding a job on campus; if she wishes to work off-campus, she needs to provide additional documentation proving her family's financial hardship to be approved. However, these sporadic part-time incomes only provide a small surplus beyond rent and living expenses, far from enough to cover private university tuition. International students rarely qualify for financial aid, and the extra $5,000 her parents exchanged last year when the exchange rate was low is her only remaining lifeline, but it's not even enough to cover a single semester's tuition. They've been borrowing money from everywhere, even considering taking on additional debt, but Liang Zhiyao has refused. She knows her parents have already borrowed heavily from relatives and friends this year due to company problems, and their current situation is equally difficult. The first tuition payment after the mortgage payment is relatively easy to come by; they can just rely on their savings. She sold the scooter she'd bought freshman year, and with the $5,000 she'd saved and her summer internship income, she could barely get through the first semester of her junior year. The remaining semesters seemed far off. Simply being a cheap laborer wasn't an option, but all the internships she'd applied for for the new semester had fallen through the cracks. Thinking it over, she realized only her less popular skill, billiards, had any real potential. Ye Xin said she was "working" at the pool hall, but that was just her way of...
If the school is dozens of miles away from a bustling city, it's a relatively quiet town within the metropolitan area. Fortune is a billiard hall located in a more prosperous area. Because of its spacious space and reasonable prices, it is packed every Friday night.
Thanks to Ye Xin's ride, Liang Zhiyao arrived earlier than usual today. She slowly finished the homemade sandwich in her bag in the empty parking lot. When she entered the store, there were still many empty tables. She greeted the uncle at the front desk and went to the American billiards area as if she was familiar with the place.
After sitting on the sofa in the lounge for a few minutes, an American soon came up to chat with me: "How about a best-of-five game? The loser pays $200, plus the table fee."
"No problem." She nodded.
While the elevator gossip was mostly bullshit, as "Amanda" said, she was genuinely trying to make money.
In the months since her family's tragedy, Liang Zhiyao has tried various ways to make money. Starting this semester, she's been working part-time at the campus coffee shop for four hours every Tuesday and Thursday, and eight hours straight on Sundays. Combined with her teaching assistantship for a foundational course at the college, this barely exceeds the maximum number of hours allowed for international students under US law.
The prerequisite for doing this is to find a job on campus. If she wants to work outside the campus, she needs to provide additional materials to prove that her family is in financial difficulty before she can be allowed.
But these sporadic part-time incomes can only ensure that she has a slight surplus after rent and living expenses, which is far from enough to save enough for private university tuition.
There are very few eligible scholarships for international students to apply for. The extra $5,000 that my parents exchanged last year when the exchange rate was low has become my only lifeline now, but it is not even enough to pay a fraction of one semester's tuition.
They borrowed money from everywhere, intending to find a way to raise tuition for her by taking on more debt, but Liang Zhiyao refused. She knew that her parents had already borrowed a lot of money from relatives and friends this year due to company problems, and their current situation was just as difficult.
After the mortgage default, the first tuition payment was relatively easy to raise, relying on her savings. She sold the car she had bought freshman year, and with the $5,000 she had saved and her summer internship income, she could barely get through the first semester of her junior year.
The next few semesters seem like a distant prospect.
Being just cheap labor is not a solution, but all the internship resumes she submitted for the new semester have fallen into the sea. After thinking about it, she thinks that only her unpopular skill of billiards can be cashed in.
Ye Xin claimed she was "working" at the billiard hall, but that was just a pretense. Liang Zhiyao's hobby was quite niche, but she had persisted for many years and developed quite a good skill. When pondering ways to make money, she fantasized about recruiting a few students with her skills and then teaching them in exchange for payment.
But her ambitious plan was quickly dampened by reality: the sport was too niche in the United States, a country known for its intense physical confrontations. The number of Americans keen on playing billiards was already very limited, let alone the money required to learn it. Even if there was a market, it would be difficult for international students like her to find the right channels.
Therefore, what she eventually stumbled upon was a more “gray” way of earning money – betting in a pool hall.
Whether in China or the United States, billiards often seems to have a less serious image and is often associated with gambling, which lies in a gray area. Friday night is the default exclusive time for this entertainment activity, when strangers tacitly strike up a conversation with each other, join in the betting and compete with each other.
Honestly, the short-term lucrativeness of this gray income was even greater than she'd imagined. Perhaps most people were prejudiced against women's billiards skills, or perhaps seeing that she didn't even bring her own cue and had to use the store's public cue, she didn't look like she was particularly skilled. She discovered that her amateur skills, which were only passable back home, were surprisingly impressive here.
In a place like a pool hall, where the gender ratio is so disproportionate, her behavior felt a bit like playing on stereotypes. Deep down, she knew this was a shameful act, but the urgency of paying her tuition bills overcame all concerns. If survival was a problem, how could anything else matter?
Before every game, Liang Zhiyao would habitually get nervous, constantly scratching her palms with her fingernails like she was in a compulsive state. It wasn't until the game started that she gradually calmed down.
This person seems to be called Charles. I have seen him once before.
His skills haven't improved much since then, and his awareness isn't great either. He often has problems with the cue ball's movement during play, forcing him to interrupt his attack.
They finished the game in just four rounds and less than half an hour.
Charles smiled helplessly and said, "At least I won a game, 3:1, not too bad."
Unlike the atmosphere of billiard halls in China, where people enjoy chatting, bragging, and joking, Americans value a false warmth and decorum. No matter what they think, they must always put on a good front. So Liang Zhiyao enthusiastically praised his opponent's skills, saying he had better luck.
"100, 120, 140, 145..."
After the bet, they usually settled their bills using an online money transfer app. But Charles didn't pull out his phone. Instead, he pulled a large wad of cash from his wallet. Only one of the bills was a $100 bill; the others were small 20s, $5s, and even $1s.
He held a dozen banknotes in his hands, counting the total amount while muttering to himself, looking a little embarrassed.
September was a perfect time for comfortable temperatures, but Americans, always afraid of heat and mindful of body odor, stubbornly kept the air conditioner on. As soon as the counted bills were placed on the pool table, a sudden gust of air from the air conditioner blew several of them away.
Most of the bills fell to the ground, and one of them was accidentally stepped on by a customer who had just walked into the store. Her opponent looked a little embarrassed.
Although the owner always tacitly allowed customers to bet on football, it was still a tacitly accepted, shady practice. With so much money flying around, it would surely attract attention. It would be fine if he won, but he was on the losing side, which was even more embarrassing.
Liang Zhiyao quickly bent down to help pick up the bills. She squatted on the ground and saw that the bill that had been stepped on happened to be the largest, a $100 bill. Just as she was about to reach out to grab it, the person who had accidentally stepped on it picked it up first.
What caught her eye was a familiar face. It was none other than Tan Xu, the man who had offered Ye Xin a water cup and saved her a seat that afternoon. He was carrying a long bag that looked like his golf clubs.
"Hey - hi, what a coincidence." The boy took the initiative to say hello.
In fact, their familiarity cannot be classified as friends, but after all, they see each other often and know each other's names. They are the kind of people who will not nod to each other when they see each other on campus, but will say hello if they happen to meet outside. In layman's terms, they are "acquaintances."
Liang Zhiyao hadn't expected to run into a classmate at Fortune. Compared to the billiard parlor where she usually taught, this place was a bit far from school. If she hadn't wanted to gamble somewhere less crowded, she wouldn't have chosen such an inconvenient location.
"It's quite a coincidence," Liang Zhiyao nodded, "Oh yes - thank you for the water cup this afternoon. Ye Xin was saving a seat for me."
"Ye Xin?...Oh, you mean Evelyn." Tan Xu seemed unfamiliar with his roommate's Chinese name. After a two-second pause, he revealed a look of sudden realization. "It's nothing. You're welcome."
I don't know when this trend started, but when studying abroad, only the closest Chinese people know each other's Chinese names. Casual acquaintances call each other by the English "Preferred Name" they give themselves, so that Americans won't be confused by the bunch of pinyin names starting with QXZ.
Liang Zhiyao remembered Tan Xu's name simply because he hadn't chosen an English name, using pinyin everywhere. Since he wasn't particularly familiar with either her or Ye Xin, it was normal for him to only know the English name.
The pleasantries after the chance encounter were quickly over, and Charles came over with the remaining money: "Aria, this is the other $100. Together with the $100 in this gentleman's hand, it makes exactly $200."
Only then did Liang Zhiyao realize that the situation was a bit awkward.
She had never told anyone about her gambling on football. Even someone as close as Ye Xin only thought she was doing it "part-time". Perhaps she could never get over the hurdle in her heart. Although she knew that the most important thing at the moment was to make money, she was still ashamed to share this experience with others.
But things then took a turn for the worse.
Tan Xu seemed a little confused. He clearly saw the bills being blown away from Charles' hand, but now he saw him give all the money to Liang Zhiyao. He didn't know who to give the $100 in his hand to.
Charles kindly explained, "Give the money to the lady. It's the way it is on Friday nights. I'll take the bet."
——Thus, any possibility of deceiving people was eliminated, and her "guilt" was completely confirmed.
When Liang Zhiyao took the banknote from Tan Xu, she couldn't help but think wildly: Maybe, the next time she heard the rumor somewhere, there would be another piece of latest information about the billiard hall?
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