Sheng Keyi - Northern Girls - Life Goes On

Once their money had been collected, the owner wiggled her well-rounded hips as she made her way out the door.

‘Well, it’s got a strong perfume smell,’ said Sijiang, wrinkling up her nose. The room was messy, but too dimly lit to really see how dirty it was.

‘They’ve still got mosquito nets up. That’s weird.’

‘The mosquitoes are even worse in winter than other times of the year. Stay here long enough and you’ll see for yourself,’ a female voice said in their hometown dialect.

Xiaohong stared at Sijiang. ‘Did you say that?’

‘You mean it wasn’t you?’

They were both bewildered.

‘Eh. It was me.’ A head popped out from under the mosquito net on one of the upper bunks, a pair of bleary eyes looking out from a pretty face.

Such an angel! But what kind of girl would be hiding in bed asleep in the middle of the day? Xiaohong thought, wearing an expression of surprise mingled with scepticism. Sijiang looked even more perplexed.

‘I said it. So, what are the two of you doing here? Take my advice and go back home,’ the pretty girl said lazily, and retreated behind the mosquito net. The two girls stood where they were, confused.

‘Hey! I’m sleeping! Keep it down, will ya?’ another girl said in a muffled voice.

Xiaohong’s stomach started rumbling. She stretched out her upper body, gave an exaggerated shrug, and whispered, ‘Hey Sijiang, at least it’s not expensive. Let’s give it a try and see how it goes. We’ll have a look around the area while we wait for news from the Lucky Duck Handbag Factory. Maybe we’ll even meet some guys who want to hang out for a couple of days and buy us dinner.’

After going out for some fried noodles, they returned to the dorm and found the other girls sleeping soundly. The leisurely lifestyle was apparently contagious. When Xiaohong and Sijiang lay down on their bunks to daydream, they, too, ended up sleeping until dinner time.

When the three other women in the room got up, they took the cups and bowls beside their beds and, rattling them, flip-flopped about the room. A thick smell of perfume filled the quarters. Sijiang, with a nose like a dog’s, was sensitive to the heavy smell and sneezed several times. The three women in their fine-quality sleepwear were all very good-looking. They twisted their bodies lazily inside their pyjamas, showing off their supple forms. When they’d finished washing, they sent out for dinner.

‘You two eat yet?’ the first girl to speak — let’s just call her Li — directed the question towards Xiaohong.

‘We’re not hungry. We had a snack,’ Xiaohong waved her off, while Sijiang stared unblinkingly at Li’s pretty clothes and pretty face. They ate hurriedly and without expression, as if merely going through the motions. The second girl, Lu, cleared the dishes and took out the rubbish when they had finished. The third, Liu, opened a small handbag and removed three bottles, laying them on the table. They placed three stools in front of the table and dropped three derrières onto them. Xiaohong and Sijiang stared at the backs of these graceful figures. The mirror reflected the entire room. Sijiang sat with her feet dangling off the bed, the mosquito net covering half of her shape. Xiaohong leaned against the bed, gazing at the three girls in the mirror. Each clutched a small hand mirror, inspecting first the right cheek, then the left, using it like a magnifying glass. They lightly touched here, carefully pinched there, applying this and that to their faces, then tapped the skin lightly.

‘Fuck. Last night, my damned rich uncle and his dirty mouth… it made me want to puke.’ Li applied the tweezers to her eyebrows, bit by bit, like a chicken pecking at grains of rice.

‘His Hong Kong dollars aren’t bad, though. You score a bull yet?’ Lu bared her teeth, using her fingernail to pick at a spot as she hissed.

‘A bull? Without going to bed, you think a rich uncle’s going to part with a bull?’ Liu said, who was stouter than the other two. She teased her short hair to stir a little life into it.

‘Hey, you two girls, what the hell you doing, so young and here on your own? It’s hard to get out once you start working in this line. I suggest you both go back home,’ Li said, using her fingertip to pick something out of a little bottle and apply it to her half-opened eyes as she swept a glance over Xiaohong and Sijiang.

A bull? And what the hell line of work is this? Xiaohong thought to herself.

‘Oh well. Why don’t you both wash and get made up? You can come to the Sea Pearl Hotel with us tonight and sing,’ Li said.

‘We don’t have any makeup.’ Sijiang looked enviously at the newly-constructed faces. She had always wanted to experience such a makeover.

‘You can sit here. I’m done. I’ll get dressed now,’ the short-haired Liu got up and stripped naked. She displayed her bare chest proudly, looking first for her bra, then her panties, searching through a row of underclothing hanging on a line stretched across the room, her large breasts jiggling as she moved. Sijiang, unused to seeing other women’s naked bodies, stared right at her. She found that all the essential parts were the same as her own, but not identical. As she looked, her face burned with embarrassment, and she couldn’t help but take a second look at such an attractive physique. Feeling dwarfed, she forgot to close her mouth, which was gaping in astonishment.

‘Go on then,’ Xiaohong said, nudging her. Sijiang clamped her mouth shut and her throat issued a little gurgling sound. She walked to the table. Seeing the bottles that covered it, she was stupefied.

‘Apply this first. You got any other clothes?’ Li asked, handing Sijiang a bottle of toner.

‘Some, in my luggage. Wow, your eyes are so dark, and your lashes are really long. And your skin is so fair,’ Sijiang said, enviously.

‘Here. Do the foundation, then a little powder.’ Li, seemingly used to hearing such praise, pushed the case of powder toward Sijiang and continued, ‘The lights are dim at night, so you need plenty of makeup if you don’t want to look pale as a ghost.’

Sijiang nodded and rushed to put a layer of powder on her face. Looking at the mirror, she added an additional layer.

‘Hey Sijiang, don’t overdo it,’ Xiaohong stood to one side, stifling a laugh. Just at that moment, she noticed several dark red scars on the inner part of Li’s arm. Obviously, they were cigarette burns. She looked at Li in surprise, but only received an indifferent smile in return.

‘Working in this line, there’s no place for any real feelings. Showing true emotion is a sign you’re finished,’ Li said, placing a white pearl earring on her left earlobe.

There it was again, ‘this line’. What exactly was ‘this line’? Xiaohong wanted to ask, but thought better of it.

Lu, her fingers bent back at an awkward angle, applied a heavy coat of varnish to each nail, the brush licking at them like a cat. Finishing the job, she held them to her lips and blew gently. The sharp claws looked like a ready defence against any attacker.

Liu, facing the mirror, put on her bra. Twisting her arms behind her to close the clasps, she entrusted the care of her breasts to the garment. She turned sideways as if posing, then said to Xiaohong, ‘Why aren’t you getting ready?’

‘I only need ten minutes to get made up,’ Xiaohong gazed at Liu’s bust to see the effect. The embroidered, lacy bra gave her chest a boost and Xiaohong suspected it was not a cheap piece of clothing.

‘Nice bra. Expensive?’

‘Embry brand. It cost me a hundred.’

‘Wow, that’s pretty steep,’ Sijiang said, startled.

‘These briefs, fifty-eight. Oh well, at least it’s not cold.’ Liu wiggled her hips. Both cheeks were exposed, with a small strip of cloth cutting up the median line between them, converging with another string around her waist.