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"Ni shi jiejie". You're the older sister.
 

xiao Fu had no response, turning her head and staring moodily at the wall.
 

The matriarch of our little clan, at twenty four she had been four years with the company and we generally indulged her maternal bossiness. I in particular had been taken under her wing, a twenty two year old arriving in a new country with little understanding of how 'things work'. She called me meimei from the start, and after a period of awkwardness I fell into the practice of calling her jiejie as well. I alone of we girls did so, however, and xiao Li's gentle reprimand was not indicating the dynamics of our dorm-room interrelationships.
 

Of course you have to work and support her.
 

Like most of the girls, xiao Fu sent a significant portion of her meager earnings home to her family living on the outskirts of Beijing. Much of those earnings went to putting her twenty three year old sister through college, and now that the sister was working as well went to the sister's boyfriend's efforts to start his own business. Efforts, xiao Fu felt, that were squandering her hard-earned cash.
 

It's your responsibility.
 

xiao Li was a younger sister, though she too sent money home each month. Her own jiejie lived with the family a six-hour train ride into the country, but her jiefu, sister's husband, worked as a security guard for the company and would come to visit her, occasionally bringing small gifts.
 

She's family.
 

Following such an outburst, xiao Fu's silence could only be read as sulky. She was in the wrong, and knew it, picking at the cloth of the bedcovers.
 

I just love buying things for my little brother. Mmmm, every time I go home, it makes him so happy! I see something in the store and, oh! I just have to buy it. That's what it's about, really, you know?
 

xiao Shan, of course, had her two cents to contribute. Older than xiao Li, and with a higher position in the company her voice took on a tone that even I could recognize as smug. It was not often that the matriarch could be brought down on charges of selfishness.
 

I know it doesn't seem fair now, you can't do or have all the things you want, but who else are you going to turn to when you're in trouble? Who else is going to pay for your wedding someday?
 

The parents, of course. Not the sister. But it was the parents' will that the sister be supported.
 

And who else is going to help her out, if not you?
 

Those 'things' were a chance to travel beyond Beijing for the upcoming holiday. Something I did without thought. For xiao Fu it would have been a first.
 

The conversation continued, but the answer remained the same.