Relief sings through my body when I see two familiar figures heading out of the market just ahead of us. Oliver is carrying a single, half-empty basket, which he swings about as he walks, with Daisy following after him, her head down and elbows squeezed in to move past the other shoppers.

“That’s all you got?” I ask Oliver, peering around him in the very unlikely event that he might be hiding a cart of vegetables behind his back. “Did you guys lose your money halfway through?”

“Don’t even,” Oliver says, setting their basket down. It’s so light that it doesn’t even make a sound when it lands on the concrete. “Daisy refuses to bargain—”

“I didn’t refuse,” Daisy protests feebly, her round face flushing.

“No, no, listen to this, guys,” Oliver goes on, holding up his hands as if getting ready for a dramatic reenactment. “I had just managed to convince this man to drop the price for the radish down by fifty cents—he’s literally about to hand the radish over to us—when Daisy pops her head in and tells him that it’s okay. As in, it’s totally okay to sell the radish for the full price. Then she apologizes. For volunteering to pay him more money. Before she offers to pay him extra. Have we time-traveled straight to Christmas or something?” he asks, deadpan. “Because I don’t recall it being the season of giving.”

“He said that he had children,” Daisy mumbles.

“Didn’t you hear Wang Laoshi say that everything’s been prepaid for us? Plus, I’m sorry to break this to you, but a lot of people have children,” Oliver says. “If you really think—”

“Oliver has no concept of money,” Daisy blurts out.

Oliver’s jaw drops, obviously stunned that he’s not the only one doing the tattling.

“It’s true,” Daisy insists, her face turning almost the same red as the single tomato in their basket, while Cyrus and I watch the exchange with growing amusement. “He kept asking me, ‘Is two yuan cheap?’ ‘Is three hundred yuan cheap?’ It’s like he’s never been inside a market before.” Somehow, this commentary is a thousand times more entertaining when delivered in her quiet, tentative voice. “He nearly had a mental breakdown when he discovered the price of an egg. There were tears in his eyes.”

“Just goes to show I’m in touch with my emotions,” Oliver says without any shame. “But also, like, we couldn’t find half the things on the list. We looked everywhere for the jackfruit, and every time we thought we’d spotted it at last, it turned out to be durian.”

“Well,” Cyrus says casually, locking eyes with me, “if you’re ever searching for shampoo, we know just the place.”