by Sheng Keyi
‘Come on. Don’t keep secrets!’ she prodded. ‘Tell me all about it. And don’t leave out the juicy stuff.’
‘This, uh… well, once…’ Sijiang suddenly developed a stammer that made it sound like she had a mouthful of shredded radish.
Xiaohong moved closer. ‘Here,’ she said, snuggling up to Sijiang, ‘feel my boobs.’
Sijiang’s hand didn’t move to accept the invitation, so Xiaohong grabbed it and brought it to her own chest. The hand lay there lifeless for a moment, then hesitatingly it moved to the curve of the breast.
‘It’s really big,’ Sijiang whispered. ‘Don’t they get kind of heavy?’ She asked, with just a touch of awe. ‘Here, feel mine. They’re like oranges.’
Xiaohong reached out her hand. It really was like the difference between oranges and melons.
‘I guess I should give my brother-in-law credit for that,’ Xiaohong said, giggling. ‘Ever since I was ten, that bastard couldn’t keep his hands off me. With all the touching and rubbing and kneading he did every chance he got, I guess they grew into it. It was when I was fourteen that he really did me, though.’
She started to cry.
‘That bastard. What a piece of shit.’
V
The scrawny fellow who couldn’t fill out his trousers came a couple of times to have Xiaohong wash his hair. As soon as the plaster-faced woman heard, she put a stop to it, applying layers of jealousy in an attempt to seal him to her.
After completing their probation period, Xiaohong and Sijiang came up with a buddy system, or what the locals called ‘all for one and one for all’. Unexpectedly, it was Sijiang’s pretty face that caused them real trouble. She caught the eye of a young man working in his girlfriend’s shop next to the salon. His future was bright, thanks to his business-savvy girlfriend, a burly woman who knew exactly how to manage him. He used to sneak over to the worker’s quarters at the salon to see Sijiang, and the two of them liked to go to the movies. Until his girlfriend found out. She stormed in, all flab and provocation, pointing a finger of her overworked hand at Xiaohong and shouting, ‘You slut!’
She didn’t really know which shampoo girl she was looking for, but a glance at the rack on Xiaohong was all the evidence she needed. Xiaohong just shook her head, not quite sure what to say. Finally she shrugged and asked, ‘When your bull starts nibbling in your neighbour’s garden, do you blame the bull or the neighbour?’
The woman, too choked with rage to speak, looked ready to pull the girl’s hair out. Xiaohong wondered if she had gone a bit too far.
‘Sijiang,’ she said later when they were talking about the incident, ‘he’s got no balls. He’s totally under that woman’s thumb! And here he is playing both of you, hedging his bets, but he’s not even worthy of hooking himself to either of you.’ Xiaohong remembered the northern man back at that hotel, and how he’d said he’d give her money for ‘hooking’. She figured it meant being paid for making love or something like that.
‘But he said he likes me, not his girlfriend,’ Sijiang said, utterly confused.
‘He’s toying with you. Us women, we’re too easily flattered. This guy is just one big prostate problem!’ Xiaohong didn’t quite know what a prostate was or what sort of problems it caused. She only knew that, what with the sorts of cures advertised on all the posters along the roadside, it must be something serious and something that nearly all men suffered from. She had her own way of thinking, and gradually her influence over Sijiang grew to the point that the girl adopted her ideas on any and every subject.
One day while entertaining a customer, Sijiang blurted out, ‘You got any trouble with your prostate?’ The man didn’t quite catch what she had said, thinking she had asked him to sit up straight. Before she could repeat herself, Xiaohong smacked the back of her head, and so she swallowed the question.
All the same, they were thirsty for more information on the subject so they spent their after-work hours scouring posters on poles along the street outside the salon. They focused on those with headings like, Good news for prostate patients. Some were only half exposed, while others had so many layers of glue on top that it was impossible to make anything out. When they finally caught sight of one nearly-intact sheet, they were able to put together enough of what they had seen to figure out where the prostate was located.
Sijiang shook her head, ‘A man’s thingy sure is complicated.’
VI
Winter came suddenly, but nothing seemed to dampen the spirits of the two girls. On cold days, their feet were stuck inside shoes that didn’t quite manage to keep them warm, and their fingers, constantly immersed in water as they kept at the hair-washing trade, suffered even more. Each day passed without incident, and Xiaohong began to grow restless. It was as bad as letting one’s sex life fall into a mind-numbing routine, without change of position, pattern or partner. She was bored sick. Even the nice things began to seem like chaff to her. She continued to chat up customers as she scrubbed their scalps, all the while staring out of the window in boredom. Watching the people walking along the street, she felt they all knew what they were doing in life.
‘Why not go to Shenzhen? It’s Hong Kong’s nearest neighbour, so wages there are about ten times what they are here,’ said one of her regulars, Li Mazi.
‘I’ve seen that place on TV. All I know is that the sky is always blue, the buildings are tall, people work like cows and the men have lots of wives. I don’t know if they need shampoo girls, though,’ she said, languorously.
‘Sure they do. Plenty of hair to wash there too. And not just on the head. The local girls are ugly. If someone like you or Sijiang were to go, your stock would be sky high, for sure,’ Li Mazi said proudly, adding that he would be willing to help them make the journey to Shenzhen if they wanted to go.
His words lit a fire under Xiaohong, making her huge breasts heave with enthusiasm, leaping like rabbits trying to escape from the confines of her blouse. As she began to get a clearer idea of the situation, she saw an image of Shenzhen before her eyes, a romantic city that seemed to have risen right out of the lines of a poem, its streets filled with dignified men. When she had finished washing Li Mazi’s hair, she stretched and began to think how good it would be to see the world. The main problem, she thought, was not one of money. She had already saved enough to make it work. What she needed was a companion. She pulled Sijiang aside to talk it over.
‘How far is it?’ Sijiang asked.
‘By train, it’s an overnight journey.’
‘How much is the ticket?’
‘About 80 yuan, I think.’
‘Where will we go when we get there?’
‘Li Mazi said he’d arrange it for us.’
‘Let me think about it.’
‘What’s to think about? If you don’t want to go, I’ll go by myself. And don’t you go accusing me of abandoning you once I’m gone!’
When the end of the month came and Sijiang was still hesitant, Xiaohong lost her patience. She said hotly, ‘Sijiang, it’s a good thing you aren’t in labour. You’re taking forever.’
But her friend remained undecided, wavering back and forth between the two options.
That night in the dorm, Xiaohong settled on a plan.
‘Hey Sijiang, tomorrow morning can you tell the boss I’ve quit? Then at night, I’m going to meet Li Mazi at the train station. You just keep washing, and who knows, maybe one day you’ll be the shampoo queen.’
Her final words pushed Sijiang into action. Her fresh, round face reddened. She said, ‘I’m coming with you!’
Two
I
‘What on earth does he do in Shenzhen?’ Sijiang asked.
‘Whatever the hell he does, it’s none of our business. We’re just there to wash hair. We’ve got enough to worry about, what with sprucing everyone up, adding colour, long hair, short hair, massaging scalps of every shape and size, applying a bit of acupressure here and there. With all we’ve got on our plates, it’s scary enough to t
hink about how we’re gonna keep our own heads above water,’ Xiaohong answered heatedly. Sijiang thought she was sounding more pompous by the minute.
As the train clanked noisily along, the passengers dozed, each drifting off into his or her own dreams. In sudden excitement, Xiaohong elbowed Sijiang in the ribs and said, ‘Hey, tell me what you think we’ll be like when we come back from Shenzhen five years from now.’
Sijiang opened the eyes set so delicately in her apple-shaped face, turned a bewildered gaze on Xiaohong, and then closed her eyes again.
‘God! Wake up, will you? Can’t you just stay awake for a while?’ said Xiaohong, poking Sijiang a couple more times.
‘I’m awake,’ Li Mazi said, leaning closer to her. The light from the window flickered over his form as the train sped along. Xiaohong felt he was getting a little too friendly.
‘Oh! We’re moving so fast. I think I’m going to be sick.’
Xiaohong covered her mouth and ran to the washroom.
‘We get off here!’ called Li Mazi.
‘What? We’re there?’ Xiaohong was startled out of her sleep. Looking out of the window, she saw the words Guangzhou Station, and turned away to go back to sleep.
‘Let’s go!’ Mazi shook Xiaohong.
‘It’s still dark. Where are we?’ Sijiang said, wiping a bit of drool from her chin and looking out of the window. The light fell on a crowd of people carrying bags big and small, parents with children in tow.
‘Come on! We’ve got to change trains here at Guangzhou!’
‘Oh. Huh? Hey! Where’s my wallet? Crap! I can’t find my wallet!’ Sijiang, fully awake now, was feeling all of her pockets frantically. Finding each one empty as she felt it, she let out a cry of distress.
‘Can’t be! Look carefully. Where did you put it?’ said Li Mazi.
‘Right here,’ Sijiang said, raising the corner of her shirt and showing him the front pocket of her trousers. Li Mazi, reaching over to pat it, found that it was empty, just as she had said.
‘Five hundred yuan! I can’t believe this!’ Sijiang sobbed, her tiny eyes turning into two narrow slits as she cried. To add insult to injury, all the other passengers in the carriage struggled to hide their knowing smirks, turning to look stoically out of the windows.
Xiaohong felt her friend needed a shock, like a bucket of cold water splashed in the face. ‘How could you just sleep like a pig? You think this is your own house? Your own room? Your own bed? Do you know why there are criminals? Because people like you create opportunities for them to take advantage of! If you aren’t on guard, it’s like you don’t even mind. It’s practically an invitation!’ She knew that if she comforted Sijiang, she would cry even more. She may not have had much of an education, but she knew how to take measure of the people around her.
As disembarking passengers took their luggage from the overhead compartment, a bag hit Sijiang on the head. She resisted the urge to cry out, though the tears still dribbled down her face as she stumbled off the train.
It was hot. They staggered along the platform, peeling off layers of coats and sweaters as they went. Sijiang touched all of her pockets again, suddenly feeling that her clothes were very outdated.
‘Don’t fret. We’re here now. It’s alright,’ said Li Mazi.
‘Hey, Sijiang, he’s right, y’know. Just keep moving forward. Here.’ Xiaohong gave her two hundred yuan. As soon as the money was pressed into her palm, Sijiang started crying again, her young face displaying a whole host of emotions.
‘Alright. Let’s get on the train to Shenzhen now. And stop speaking in our hometown dialect. Here it’s just plain ol’ Mandarin.’ Li Mazi had spent a lot of time outside of Hunan and spoke Mandarin fluently. Xiaohong and Sijiang, on the other hand, were constantly tickled by their own attempts when they first started. Later, they just found it bewildering. Everything flowed fine in the Hunan dialect but when it came to Mandarin, they were tongue-tied. The words just got stuck. They were afraid no one would understand them, except Li Mazi. Xiaohong, recalling her primary school lessons word by word, played teacher, with Sijiang her only student.
‘You. Are. Li. Si. Jiang. I. Am. Qian. Xiao. Hong. He. Is. Li. Ma. Zi. We. Are. In Guangdong. Wah! Look at all them banana trees! They’re covered in fruit!’ The last observation came out in a sudden burst of flowing Hunanese. Sijiang doubled over with laughter. Li Mazi put a finger to his lips, reminding them that there were other people on the train. Xiaohong glanced around and noticed a manual labourer sitting nearby, openly laughing at her through his leering, lecherous expression. She turned away, silently cursing him.
Sijiang began to feel her pockets again, top and bottom, inside and out, not missing a single one.
‘Hey Honghong, when we’ve made a bit of money, I want to buy a whole load of beautiful clothes. What we’ve got on now screams ‘country bumpkin’. You think we’ll get laughed at in Shenzhen?’ Sijiang moved a little closer to Xiaohong as she spoke.
‘We’ve got to wash tons of scalps first but then there’ll be plenty of new clothes, plenty of good food and plenty of men to choose from too,’ Xiaohong drawled, chattering idly.
‘Hey, come on! I keep telling you to use Mandarin,’ interrupted Li Mazi, his eyes springing open from his nap.
‘Alright, if we have to. We. Will. Soon. Be. In. Bea-U-ti-ful. Shenzhen. Si. Jiang. You. Happy? I’m. Hoppy. I’m. Not. Even. Nervous. I’m. Easy,’ said Xiaohong. And so they made their journey, brushing up on their language skills as they went. Whatever they saw they called it by its Mandarin name, Li Mazi giving guidance when they were wrong. By the time they reached Shenzhen, the two girls’ tongues were completely tied in knots. Li Mazi said, ‘Keep practising. It’ll get smoother as you go along.’
II
The rickety bus rolled along, pulling over at each stop as it went. The young fellow collecting tickets stood up for the whole journey, welcoming those coming aboard and bidding farewell to those alighting. He had a small black bag clasped between his thighs and one hand pressed over it, making it look as if he were touching himself in a less than appropriate manner. When Xiaohong saw him, she fought to suppress her smile.
Seeing the girl’s response, Li Mazi pontificated, ‘For a man, money is a lifeline’.
‘And a woman’s lifeline is…?’
‘A woman’s lifeline is her man.’
‘Oh God! A woman’s lifeline is also money! You think a woman should rely on some guy? No way!’ she said unequivocally. To herself, she thought, Looking at the desperation of that guy who couldn’t fill out his trousers, or that under-the-thumb man who was so keen on Sijiang, you’d think it was men who counted on women for survival, not the other way around.
‘To get money, women always have to go through men. You’ll understand before long,’ Li Mazi retorted haughtily.
‘So, whoever holds the money is in control?’ Sijiang said, as if feeling her way through a fog.
With a surprised gasp, Li Mazi said, ‘That is profound.’
‘Sijiang is right. It is a simple matter,’ Xiaohong said, speaking rapidly in their hometown dialect.
‘Passengers going to Magang get off here,’ called the conductor. The bus spat out the three passengers and pulled away in a cloud of black smoke that choked them half to death.
‘Where the hell are we?’ The two girls were perplexed. The air here was rotten, filled with a yellow dust turned up by the tyres of passing cars as they came off the flyover and onto the open road. The buildings were arranged in a random, disorderly fashion. Sijiang stuck close to Xiaohong, who felt she was drifting about in an odd place.
‘This is the outskirts of Shenzhen. We’re only a short distance away from Magang town centre here,’ Li Mazi pointed vaguely in the direction they’d been travelling in. The landscape seemed to be made up of patches of mist, fog and various shades of grey. There was no sign of the skyscrapers they’d heard so much about. Four legs suddenly felt heavy with exhaustion and disappointment as they trudged along beh
ind Li Mazi through the town to a desolate wasteland. Eventually, they saw a white sign with red lettering, Waste Collection Station.
‘You’re a rubbish collector?’ Sijiang asked, deflated.
‘No. It’s a recycling station,’ Li Mazi replied indignantly. ‘I just help the boss out a bit. Don’t look down your noses at this place or at my boss. He makes a lot of money at this.’
Xiaohong mused to herself, I’ve heard of a rag and bone man saving up enough to build a small house but I never imagined a rubbish collector could amass a fortune. Sijiang was hungry and discouraged, though not nearly as disappointed as Xiaohong, who said loudly, ‘What the hell kind of backwater joint have you brought us to? Hey Sijiang, let’s have a look around first, then we’ll talk about what to do next.’
And so the three of them proceeded down the dirt road towards the waste collection station, in single file, carrying their variously sized baggage. They passed a European-style building, then a small square, then, on rounding a bend, came upon a makeshift shack.
III
‘I’ve told you before. No overnight guests! I’d have to pay a fine if I let anyone stay.’ A rough-featured man with a square head was lecturing Li Mazi in Mandarin that had a heavy Cantonese accent, his arms and legs waving in a furious display of anger. Li Mazi, deftly avoiding the flailing limbs, kept calling him ‘Mr Zhuang’ and ‘Boss’ which seemed to appease the man to some degree. Mr Zhuang’s face visibly brightened when he saw the two girls enter the room behind Li Mazi, only to become tainted by a lecherous cloud.
‘Well, Li Mazi, we really do need you here. There’s lots of work piled up waiting for you.’
‘Mr Zhuang, Boss, these girls are from my hometown.’ At the boss’s softened tone, Li Mazi spoke with a little more confidence.
‘Oh! In that case, welcome, then! Must’ve been a rough trip. Why don’t you take them in to get some rest?’