by Sheng Keyi
When Xiaohong left, she carried three books in hand. Having gone at it with Mr Pan, she was the very image of youth. When she passed the reception desk, Wu Ying stopped her with a dignified call then waved at her, hands flailing like a bear’s claw, making Xiaohong uneasy.
‘What’s up?’ Xiaohong asked, going behind the counter with a smile.
‘The situation looks bad. I went to the finance office today to reconcile the accounts. The old man there was suspicious. He asked how come there were so many twenty per cent discounts. He said Mr Pan had too light a hand. He looked at each piece, one by one. I was so worried he would notice and that would really mean trouble.’ Wu Ying’s voice changed in her anxiety.
Xiaohong, feeling Mr Pan was attached to her, felt she was on solid ground. She knew no hint of fear. She thought, It was good timing to be with Mr Pan now. If he wants to make a scene, I can make it disappear just like that.
‘Wu Ying, how much for each of us? Is it a large amount?’ Xiaohong had never kept count.
‘More than ten thousand,’ Wu Ying answered quietly.
‘Huh? For six of us, that makes sixty or seventy thousand! We’re so evil!’ Xiaohong was genuinely surprised. In a week of forging signatures, she had actually signed away tens of thousands.
‘But Ah Hong, if we suddenly cut down, it will be obvious. We have to keep close to the current ratio and then cut back slowly.’ Wu Ying had obviously given this a lot of thought.
‘I think we’ve gone too far. If we stay at the Qianshan Hotel, we’ll be in constant fear. Why don’t we make a quick killing, then all resign?’ Xiaohong’s eyes sparkled.
Wu Ying nodded vaguely. ‘But you know this job is not bad. It’s a waste to give it up.’
‘We’ll make a bit of money and we’ll buy a bit of time. Wu Ying, think about it – ten thousand! We’d have to work two years to make that much! The Qianshan is just one station and we’re all just passing through. It might be sooner, it might be later, but eventually we’ll all be gone.’
It was Xiaohong who forged the signatures, so the bulk of the responsibility lay with her. She was clear about this. She began to prepare. The first thing she did was to remit eight thousand yuan to her father and then she secretly began looking for a job. She couldn’t tell Sijiang about it yet, since Sijiang was, after all, also a member of the staff at the Qianshan Hotel. What if she wavered? No matter how close they were, this was a matter best not disclosed. It didn’t matter if she left. Especially since those who stayed behind might just be left empty-handed.
VI
For two days, they did not see the quivering sensuality of Julia Wilde, which left the dorm feeling a little empty. If Julia had got entwined with some big-wig, it would not have been unusual. But while indulgence was one thing, it was unlike Julia to be absent from work. She needed this job more than anyone. She wore her work permit every day, silent proof that she had legitimate employment. It made a good cover for her part-time career. Xiaohong had a vague idea about what went on in Julia’s part-time working life. She suspected Julia desperately made use of her flesh to earn some money. Occasionally, she probably even played at love, such as the time she’d offered emotional comfort to that fellow who guarded the west gate.
‘Wu Ying, this guy of Julia’s wouldn’t try anything funny, would he? There’s something not right about her being gone all night. And she never misses work without reason. Something’s wrong!’ Looking at Julia’s bunk, an inexplicable sense of foreboding overcame Xiaohong.
Wu Ying disagreed. ‘Julia is a sharp girl. You don’t need to worry about her. And she’s always been loose. I’m sure she’s just in bed with someone somewhere.’
‘You don’t know her like I do. Julia actually has very strict rules. There are some things she takes very seriously. She’s a straightforward and good person.’
‘I still say she’s not as lovable as you. I don’t like her melodrama or her promiscuity either.’ Xiaohong had no response to this.
When Liao Zhenghu came into the dorm with a group of cops, Wu Ying and Xiaohong were so frightened their insides turned to jelly. The twenty per cent discount racket was always on their minds, a bomb ready to explode at any minute. They both stared open-mouthed at the cops entering the room, frozen speechless.
Liao smiled a greeting at Xiaohong.
‘Which bed does Julia Wilde sleep in?’ asked one of the cops.
Xiaohong pointed, not daring to speak.
‘What sort of people does Julia mix with? Is there any way we can contact them?’
‘Over at the Deer Hunt Bar, there’s a fellow from Sichuan. He’s her boyfriend. I’ve seen him, but I don’t know his name.’
‘Anyone else?’
‘No.’
‘Help us sort out her belongings. We’ll bring them to the police station for her family to claim.’ And with that, it seemed the police were done.
‘What? Her belongings? All her clothes and stuff?’ Xiaohong jumped to her feet. Wu Ying’s face blanched with shock.
‘Her belongings. Julia Wilde’s belongings.’ Liao’s tone was unmistakeable.
‘Julia’s dead? She’s dead? This… what happened?’
‘Yes. It’s a murder case and an open investigation. You two are not to discuss it with anyone.’
The police, taking possession of Julia’s belongings, filed out of the room.
‘Wait for my call. We’ll need an interview.’ Liao left a pager with Xiaohong.
Suddenly the room was filled with an icy chill.
‘She can’t be dead, Wu Ying. That little Jezebel was careful about who she went to bed with. That little slut! She said she’d take me to Mount Emei!’ Xiaohong cursed softly, not even realising that tears were flowing down her face. She paced about the room, suddenly feeling that the empty bed had the vice-like grip of a coffin. Looking across at it, she could still see the shadowy form of Julia masturbating behind the mosquito net. Despite the hot day, Xiaohong shuddered and her hair stood on end.
‘Ah Hong, the fengshui of that bed is no good. We shouldn’t stay in this room. It’s bad luck. We ought to get out of here or the sight of the cops might drive us mad.’ No sooner had Wu Ying said this than the pager sounded, scaring them both out of their wits. Xiaohong clutched her chest with her left hand as her right hand held the pager. The screen displayed the message:
Hurry to The Storm Shelter teahouse. I’ll meet you there.
‘You want to know Julia’s situation?’ Liao asked carefully, his tiny eyes unusually quiet.
‘Yes, I really do. She was my friend. Is she really dead? How did she die? Who did it?’ Anxious and afraid, Xiaohong wanted to know the truth, even if it was worse than what she had imagined.
‘Ah Hong, first I want to tell you that cases like Julia’s happen all the time, mostly due to the influx of people from outside the city. That adds to the difficulty of investigating these cases. Like with Julia, we don’t know who they mix with, what they do day in and day out. That leaves us with few clues and a lot of doubt.’ Liao sipped his tea and sighed, both his voice and his eyes solemn. ‘Julia’s body was found five miles outside of town in the woods. She was naked and there was semen on the body. There were a lot of cuts and injuries to the lower body. The preliminary findings are that she was raped then killed. If we hadn’t picked up her work permit in the field, she would have been treated as another Jane Doe.’
Thoughts of that night long ago when the tall fellow and Shorty had dragged her to that dark wilderness sprang to mind and Xiaohong shuddered.
‘Do you want to see Julia? We took some pictures of the crime scene.’ He took a stack of photos from his pocket and said, ‘I’ll pick out a couple to show you that aren’t quite so upsetting.’
Xiaohong took one from him. It showed the upper half of Julia’s body, her two large breasts bruised, one black and one red. There was a deep contusion around her neck. Apparently she had been strangled.
The other was a side shot of Julia’s face, presse
d against the ground. Her earring was missing, torn violently from the blood-covered ear. The mix of blood and pale skin on the corpse turned the contents of Xiaohong’s stomach, making her want to vomit. She took a drink of water. Swallowing it, she finally said in a low voice, ‘Oh God.’
What kind of place was this? What happened under the cover of darkness here? The dark of night took away real people. It placed a sort of fear and insecurity in those who woke up and went about life the next day. It left the friends who survived with a sense of confusion and mystery.
‘God, I can’t stay there. I’ll have nightmares that will scare me to death. Julia liked to sleep naked, like in the photos. I don’t dare go back to that dorm!’ Xiaohong’s speech was incoherent, her mind spinning as if she were drunk.
How she came to spend the night at Liao’s, she couldn’t quite remember. There was an unknown wind pushing her as she drifted and he was an island. The island was breezy and sunny, with a sentimental charm. Xiaohong’s nerves were on the verge of collapse and the relaxation of the flesh provided a slow release. He had meant to sleep on the floor but Xiaohong said, ‘This bed is so big. Are you sleeping on the floor for appearance’s sake? Julia’s dead. Who knows when it might be me?’
When she’d said this, the atmosphere turned plaintive and sad. Infected by the mood, Liao suddenly said with feeling, ‘I want to do right by you.’
He placed a special emphasis on ‘do right’, naturally overcoming his earlier inhibitions. He wanted to do it right and proper, like a man and a woman, like a lover and his mistress, like a husband and his wife. When Liao heard Xiaohong’s moans of pleasure, he knew there was nothing fake about it. It wasn’t difficult to hear the difference between the real thing and a fake. False moans of pleasure were for the benefit of another. True groans of pleasure came from deep inside, full of ecstasy. Xiaohong, trembling, called out an unfamiliar name. When they’d finished, he asked her about it.
Xiaohong answered, ‘I called someone? Who did I call?’
‘I didn’t hear clearly, but it was definitely a name.’
‘I called a name? I didn’t call anyone at all!’ Though Xiaohong firmly denied it, she was interested in whom she might have called when she was moaning. She thought carefully over every man she knew, but just shook her head at the possibility that she had called any of them. ‘Forget it. No point arguing. Go to sleep. I’ve still got to look for a job tomorrow.’ Xiaohong was a little irritated. She would really like to know whose name she had called.
‘Why look for work? Aren’t you doing well and getting plenty of time for your studies too?’ Liao’s big hands felt Xiaohong blindly.
‘Julia’s dead. I saw how she was when she was alive and I saw how she was when she was dead. I’m scared and I’m sad.’ In a way, Julia’s death was timely, giving Xiaohong a reason to leave the Qianshan Hotel on good terms. Liao lay thinking it over silently for several minutes, then felt that Xiaohong’s idea was not unreasonable.
‘Then do you have any interest in going over to the women and children’s hospital as a receptionist?’
‘Where is it?’
‘In the suburbs. My uncle is chairman there.’
‘Is it like a regular hospital?’
‘Yeah, a hospital where you have to wear a big white lab coat. It’s a much more serious occupation than working at a hotel. Of course, I’m not saying you’re not serious. It’s just that when you hear “I work at a hotel”, it’s not always actually the case.’
‘Hmph! You’re so biased.’ Xiaohong rolled over and pressed against him.
‘To tell you the truth, there are many university students waiting to get this job. If you don’t believe me, go and have a look at the pool of talent available. They’ll all be squeezed out of a job before they even apply.’
Nine
I
Sitting at a ninety-degree angle to the eight-story women and children’s hospital were the staff quarters. The main building was a mottle of colours, giving it the flavour of a site with some history. The structure that housed the staff quarters was like a new branch sprouting from an old tree, its white tiles always sparkling after a rain shower.
No one knew why the fifteen-year-old salon girl Ah Yue chose the women and children’s hospital as her diving board. But there she sat, perched like a bird on the edge of the roof, crying, ‘Don’t come any closer! I’ll jump!’
A crowd had gathered on the ground below and stood looking up at Ah Yue. Other than those patients who could not get out of bed, the hospital was empty. Doctors in white coats mingled with the crowd, mouths wide open in dismay. People seemed to be hoping for a quick resolution to the drama, preferably something shocking and exciting – the sort of thing that, even as they feared it, would satisfy those secret hopes they harboured for something out of the ordinary. Upstairs, along with the chairman of the hospital, Mr Liao, and those in charge of its offices, the emergency response police force had come, and more than ten people now stood facing the ledge where Ah Yue sat, all of them powerless to do anything. With Ah Yue sobbing as she despairingly talked about her conditions for surrender, no one could understand the rural dialect she spoke. Not understanding the dialect, the office manager reached out her right hand and kept saying, ‘Come on, dear, give me your hand and we’ll talk.’
Ah Yue, seeming to see this only as the right hand of deception, really let her tears fly then. Giving an untrusting shake of the head, she talked nonstop, apparently wanting them to promise to meet her demands. Another member of the hospital staff, upset, cursed, ‘Shit! The city’s top officials will be here soon to do a spot check. Why did she choose this place to jump? Why did we have to get mixed up in this nonsense?’
The more people gathered downstairs, the more nervous Mr Liao grew. For something like this to happen on hospital grounds, whether or not the person had anything to do with the hospital, would have a big impact. As word spread, things would be bad. And yet, he had no means of communicating with this girl.
‘Mr Liao, I understand what she is saying.’ Xiaohong stood on the floor below looking at the ledge where things were unfolding.
‘Hurry, then, tell her not to jump!’ Mr Liao wiped the sweat off his brow. It was a warm day, the sun at eight or nine in the morning already beating mercilessly down. The girl’s dyed hair glistened in a golden fringe on her forehead. She was just a small thing – in years and in stature. Just a little child wearing a fashionable sleeveless t-shirt and cut-off denim shorts with long, frayed edges that barely covered the curve of her rump. Her face was black with dirt. She was not at all sexy. The clothes lay, practically empty, on her flat chest. She’d clearly experienced an earth-shattering disaster.
‘Hey, little girl, don’t move. Are you from Liqing?’ Xiaohong asked, using her hometown dialect.
Ah Yue hesitated, then nodded.
‘What’s wrong? You can tell me and we’ll all try to help you. Don’t be afraid.’ Xiaohong moved a couple of steps closer.
‘Don’t come over here. You can’t help me!’ Ah Yue shouted, taking a half step back.
The crowd downstairs roared.
‘OK, you talk and we’ll do what we can. You can trust me. I’m also from Liqing. Don’t move. I really want to help you.’ Xiaohong was also anxious. If Ah Yue jumped now, it would be a huge black mark against her, too.
‘I… I was cheated into coming here. I work at a salon… I’m pregnant. The salon sacked me. I got no money… I… ah…’ Ah Yue broke off, sobbing. Though she gave it her best effort, trying to burst into tears, the well had run dry. She maintained a posture of readiness, prepared to jump at any moment.
Xiaohong briefed the chairman on Ah Yue’s situation. He finalised everything on the spot, saying, ‘Tell her not to worry. The hospital will help her, without charging her a penny. We’ll also help her solve her economic difficulties with a donation of a thousand kuai.’
Xiaohong relayed the chairman’s message to Ah Yue, making his commitment known publicly. Ah
Yue hesitated, still sceptical, but she had already let Xiaohong move closer to her and they stood together on the brink of death. Xiaohong pointed into the distance and said, ‘Look over there. See that?’
Ah Yue looked around as Xiaohong pointed, then collapsed with a loud cry. Her wailing was like that of a motherless child.
When they had managed to pull Ah Yue back inside, the people downstairs poured into the hospital, clogging up the corridors so that it took some time for the blockage to clear. The doctors nervously examined Ah Yue, administering pregnancy tests and other health checks. They decided to do her procedure that very day then let her recuperate at the hospital for several more days. After that, they would give her a little money and send her on her way, hoping she would take the bad karma along with her.
Xiaohong was like an interpreter, following along in Ah Yue’s wake.
‘What kind of parents raised a child like this? She’s infuriating!’ Dr Chen Fangyuan said, shaking her head as she questioned Ah Yue.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Lin Zhongyue.’
‘How old are you?’