Chapter 77

Having got the sea buckthorn information from the shop, and needing to attend to every detail and technique in between, the pace of the sunscreen work delighted Zhang Lin regardless. At first she'd wanted to ask about it daily; then, afraid of putting too much pressure on Li Lan, she'd reduced it to one oblique enquiry a week — and at the end of March, looking at the small bottle of sample in her hand, she asked, delighted, "It's done already?"

Li Lan looked at the shop's scan, completion 80%, and nodded. "More or less. Going further would put real demands on the raw sea buckthorn, though. It would need growing by a particular method." That was one of the thoughtful things about the shop: buy a functional product and it throws in the relevant cultivation method — the sea buckthorn sunscreen's method strengthening the plant's photoprotective properties specifically, as with the mint, calendula and roses. Without a specific requirement you got the free general method.

Feng Jiang, who'd come over on the same news, was surprised; he hadn't expected improving a sunscreen to involve growing the berries. Then again, plant-based cosmetics needing particular growing conditions isn't unusual, and plenty of companies have their own bases. Whether Cerulean needed one depended on sales. "If we grow the berries your way, how much better does the sunscreen get? Does the rating go up?"

Li Lan thought, and said it hesitantly. "The rating wouldn't go up. It might just work slightly better."

Seeing his puzzlement, she found an analogy. "It's like the same dish. Depending on the ingredients you use, it might taste slightly better." And felt awkward saying it, because put that way, investing in a growing base to improve the flavour — no, the effect — slightly sounded like a poor bargain.

Zhang Lin didn't know whether to laugh. "What a way to put it." Not wrong. Rather too blunt.

Feng Jiang, however, grasped it instantly, and considered. "It isn't out of the question. There's certainly no time to grow them this year, and whether we look for a base depends on how it sells."

Zhang Lin nodded. "Yes. If sales are ordinary the base can wait. If they're good—"

She didn't finish and both of them knew how it ended. If they were good, of course they'd want a base — and then a second generation, and a third.

The sunscreen existing, the rest wasn't Li Lan's department. Feng Jiang looked at the bottle on the desk. "Then Sister Lin sends these for testing, and if they're clear I'll tell the factory to produce. Anything else, Sister Lin?"

She was about to say no when it occurred to her that if they did look for a base she didn't know the requirements. "Actually — Lanlan, does the sea buckthorn need anything particular from its growing conditions?"

"Yes. Not a great deal, though more than I can say in a sentence or two. I'll write it out and email it to you."

Watching her prepare to throw herself into it, and looking at the size of her, Li Lan couldn't help saying, "Sister Lin, do be careful. Isn't it nearly time?"

Zhang Lin waved it off. "Hardly. Eight months. It's due at the end of next month. Don't worry."

---

It was eight in the evening when she got back to the dormitory, and all three of the others were surprised to see her. A month and more into the second term, this was the earliest she'd appeared; having left first thing she generally came in as the doors were being locked, and sometimes not at all. University students they might be, but the other three were one term in and hadn't finished being schoolgirls, and had never met anybody so openly in breach of the rules; all three having been good students, they were curious and obscurely impressed.

Ni Xing broke first. "Lanlan, why are you back so early?"

Li Lan opened her computer, smiling. "I finished what I was doing, so I came back."

Ni Xing wanted to ask what that was, but a decent upbringing stopped her; she exchanged a look with Luo Yu and changed the subject.

Xia Yanyan had something on her mind and hadn't joined in, and looking at the three of them each occupied, she sighed. The other two turned round, and Luo Yu asked, concerned, "Yanyan, still not sorted?"

Xia Yanyan propped her chin up, bothered. "No. I still can't bring myself to say no. He means well, but investing — it sounds so unreliable."

Ni Xing looked at her sympathetically. "Saying no is awkward. It isn't a loan, but a thousand yuan is a lot for students. Think about it properly — though somebody that impressive presumably wouldn't cheat you."

Xia Yanyan nodded. "Exactly, which is why I can't decide. And I don't understand bitcoin at all." Refusing meant a thickness of skin she hadn't got.

The three of them put themselves in her position, found it difficult, and sighed together.

Li Lan, writing her email and not following any of it, caught three familiar syllables and turned round at once, bright-eyed. "Yanyan, Xingxing — what did you just say?"

Ni Xing didn't know why she'd suddenly taken an interest, but trusting as she did anybody with the nerve to defy the university's rules, she explained. Xia Yanyan had joined a computing society last term, and the president — an older student in her own department — had suggested a few days ago that everybody buy bitcoin as an investment, offering to open accounts for anyone interested and suggesting a thousand yuan each. Everybody else had declined politely or ignored it; only Xia Yanyan, he being her own department's senior and she being thin-skinned, had been unable to say no and had been dithering ever since. The other two had heard about it and, understanding bitcoin no better and assuming from the name that it was much like QQ coins, had thought it a swindle throughout, and had at one point wondered whether the president had been recruited into a pyramid scheme.

The three of them didn't know. Li Lan, who had lived through bitcoin going up, did — it had been on her list when she was first reborn, and she'd been too busy and forgotten, and only Xia Yanyan mentioning it reminded her how nearly she'd missed it. So she joined in. "Your society president can buy bitcoin? Can people outside computing buy it?"

Seeing her interest, Xia Yanyan said doubtfully, "I should think so. Lanlan, do you want to?"

Li Lan nodded firmly. Yes, she did.

The three of them looked at one another, and Xia Yanyan, who at least knew something about it, chose her words carefully in case of a misunderstanding. "Lanlan, do you know what bitcoin is?"

Everybody who lived through 2018 has heard of bitcoin; hardly anybody could tell you what it is. Which didn't matter — though if she said she didn't understand it they'd find her buying it odd, so she nodded. "I've read a bit. It seems reasonably sound. The internet's growing so fast, a currency like that is bound to appreciate. Yanyan, Xingxing, Xiao Yu — you could buy some too."

Xia Yanyan looked at her. "You sound exactly like our president."

She was wavering, though. It wasn't that she grudged the thousand; she was afraid of losing it. She'd been about to agree anyway, and hearing Li Lan she felt obscurely relieved — if Lanlan and the president both said so, it couldn't be too bad.

With two of them buying, it was Ni Xing and Luo Yu's turn to have nothing to say. Watching Xia Yanyan pick up her phone, Ni Xing said, conflicted, "Are you really buying? Aren't you worried it's a con?"

Xia Yanyan had talked herself round. "I've thought about it, and he's right and so is Lanlan. The internet's growing this fast, it might genuinely go up. A thousand's a thousand. I've hardly spent my New Year money."

People follow crowds and she was no exception, and thinking about it now, bitcoin didn't seem so unreliable after all.

Luo Yu and Ni Xing looked at each other, still unable to work out how she'd talked herself round — and Li Lan, who'd only just heard about it, wanted in as well. Was it really not a con? Ni Xing hesitated; Luo Yu, seeing both of them buying, joined the party. "If you're both buying, I might as well." She had plenty of New Year money left and a thousand was nothing.

Which left Ni Xing, and the three of them turned to look at her. Under the collective gaze she swallowed. "I'll buy some too." And then felt vaguely lost as to how it had come to this. Hadn't they been discussing how to say no?

Xia Yanyan closed her fist happily. "Right. I'll ring him now."

Ni Xing was still fogged, and tracing the strangeness to Li Lan's arrival in the conversation, leaned over and nudged her. "Lanlan, why do you want bitcoin? Is it really all right?"

Watching Xia Yanyan on the balcony, Li Lan could practically see it landing in her account, and nodded cheerfully. "Perfectly all right. Don't worry, you won't lose."

Xia Yanyan came back, phone in hand. "He's agreed. He'll open the accounts and buy for us tomorrow morning."

The three of them being in different departments, she paused. "None of you has lectures tomorrow morning?"

Luo Yu rolled her eyes. "Yanyan, has the holiday gone to your head? It's Saturday."

She caught up and laughed awkwardly. "Er — Saturday, yes. Tomorrow morning, then?" Seeing the other two nod, she turned to Li Lan, who at weekends was a dragon nobody saw the head or tail of. "Lanlan, have you got time tomorrow?"

Li Lan nodded. It was other people's turn to be busy at Cerulean; she had nothing on for the moment.

Xia Yanyan smiled. "Then I'll text him. Tomorrow morning."