Sheng Keyi - Northern Girls - Life Goes On

‘Ha, that’s ridiculous. You may as well wear nothing!’ Xiaohong said, talking straight, even to a stranger.

‘It’s sexy, don’t you know? My rich uncle loves it that way, and so do the young guys!’ Liu took a long, admiring look at her buttocks then turned around to put on her jacket. Sijiang, her makeover finished, showed off the results of Li’s basic operation. Her tiny eyes looked considerably bigger, her skin a powdery white with a rosy tint to the cheeks. Her hair was let down and combed out. When she looked in the mirror at her apple-shaped face, her eyes filled with excitement.

‘Oh yeah, I forgot to ask — are you two virgins?’ Li’s expression was serious.

‘I was, once upon a time,’ Xiaohong said, giggling.

‘Then it’ll be easier. Go and get dressed.’ Sijiang grabbed her crumpled jacket. Li looked at it and said, ‘Don’t wear that. I’ll find something for you.’ She turned and asked Xiaohong, ‘And you?’

She just shrugged. ‘Me? I’ll just wear what I’ve got on.’

II

Sea Pearl Night Club flashed on and off, first green then red. Seen from a distance, it dazzled like an elegant woman walking at the end of a long country road, but upon drawing nearer, it was clear just how thin the layer of glitz really was. Everything around it was desolation and construction work, making one wonder what the owner had seen in the location. Xiaohong was awed by the grandeur of the place and suddenly felt shabby standing beside it. She regretted not dressing better for the occasion. Seeing Sijiang in her white jacket pulled snug around the waist, she thought the younger girl looked like a star.

‘You look like you could party all night. I mean it,’ she said, fingering the fine fabric appreciatively.

Her friend, obviously aware she was just stating the facts, pouted and said, ‘When we make a little money, I want to buy tons of nice clothes.’ Sijiang was always saying this sort of thing, as if she were afraid she would forget why she had left home.

‘Come on you two! People’ve been asking and we told them we had some new girls,’ Li called back to them over her shoulder. ‘You don’t need to pay the cover charge.’

When the waitress opened the heavy wooden door, the powerful beat of the music flooded over them, startling Sijiang. She clung to Xiaohong’s hand. Shadows flickered in the strobe light as it played over the crowd. Sijiang, spooked by the quick switches between starkly lit images and sudden darkness — making everyone look like ghosts — was too disoriented to make out any faces. She could only see flashes of teeth and the whites of strange eyes, unable to tell who anyone was.

‘Hang on a while,’ Li shouted to them. ‘There’ll soon be people looking for a little company while they sing. There’ll be plenty of chances to pick up some cash then.’

‘Don’t we have to pay to sing?’ Xiaohong asked.

‘Pay? The guests should pay you to sing!’ Li retorted.

Xiaohong had put her foot in it again. Ever since meeting Li, she had committed too many blunders and been confronted with too many ominous sounding terms. Like, what did she mean by ‘bull’ or ‘this line’, and now ‘guests’? They not only didn’t have to pay to sing, but they would get paid for it. Was this some kind of scam? Her eyes scanned the crowd as it grew, seats gradually filling up. Groups of girls scattered, each gravitating to a different table. Some were invited to sit with the men, whose arms quickly snaked intimately around their bodies. Some couples made their way to the dance floor, embracing each other feverishly and swaying to their own rhythms.

Sijiang’s palms were sweaty. She shivered.

‘You cold?’ Xiaohong asked.

‘No. I’m just scared some guy’s going to ask me to dance and I don’t know how to.’

‘You call that dancing? Looks to me like they’re just groping each other.’

A man came over and led Li and Lu away. Li turned back and said to Xiaohong, ‘When you finish singing for your guests, remember to get a tip.’

So that’s what she meant by ‘guests’.

Before long, Liu was led away as well. Sijiang clung even more fiercely to Xiaohong. ‘Let’s sing together, OK? I don’t want to split up.’

‘Yeah. I know.’

It wasn’t long before a tall guy approached and politely asked, ‘You ladies waiting for someone?’

The two girls shook their heads and followed him to a private room. Inside, a short-legged man sat on the sofa, one leg dangling over the arm, singing a drunken raucous tune. The tall guy nudged Sijiang toward him.

‘Dude,’ Shorty said in Cantonese, ‘you got a good eye. Keeping Big Tits for yourself, huh? How about you let me at her when you’ve had your fun?’

‘You beauties understand Cantonese?’ the tall guy asked, fingering a strip of long whiskers growing out of a mole on his chin.

‘Not a word,’ Xiaohong answered, eyes glued to the black strands of hair.

‘It’s your first time here?’

‘How’d you know?’

‘Because I’ve never seen you before. How long have you been in Shenzhen?’

‘Just a coupla days,’ popped out of Sijiang’s mouth before Xiaohong could answer.

‘Come and pick a song to sing for us.’ The tall guy handed the song list to her, lit a cigarette, and started chatting with Shorty. Sijiang sang the 1980s Taiwanese hit Innocence , while Xiaohong searched frantically for some familiar tune to sing.

After a while, the tall guy put out his cigarette and asked, ‘Hey beautiful, how about some tea?’

‘Yeah. Tea and a late night snack,’ Shorty chimed in, pulling at his waistband.

‘Tea? They serve tea in places like this?’

‘I didn’t mean here. Let’s go out for dim sum and a drink.’

‘Go out? Where d’you have in mind?’

‘Not far. Come on, it’ll be fun!’

The girls followed them to a van in a dark corner of the car park. They piled into the vehicle, and Shorty squinted through the windscreen as he drove, trying to find his way through a series of twists and turns in the unlit streets. After several minutes of driving through the darkness in silence, he came to a sudden stop in a deserted area.

‘Where are we? What are you doing?’ Xiaohong said, voice pinched in anxiety. It was beginning to dawn on her that they had been misled.

‘What are we doing? You can’t see for yourself? We’ll save money on the room and give you two a little extra. Win-win, right?’ The tall guy laughed cruelly, voice quivering with desire. Unable to wait any longer, he pushed Xiaohong from the van and banged the door shut. Shorty grabbed Sijiang and held her tight.

‘Just cooperate, you fucking bitch, and you won’t get hurt,’ the tall guy forced Xiaohong up against the back of the vehicle.

‘Don’t! I’ll scream!’ she said, struggling against him.

‘Scream your fucking heart out. It won’t do any good.’

She looked around. There was no light anywhere.

‘Please,’ her voice cracked, ‘just let us go. We don’t want any tips.’

She struggled to get away, but he was strong. He pressed himself more violently against her, kneeing her hard in the groin.

‘Bitch! Don’t try and tell me you’re not a hooker!’

He pinned her to the vehicle, his knee pressed firmly between her legs. He dug his fingers into the flesh under her arms. She couldn’t move. He freed one hand to yank her pants down, renewing in her the will to fight back.

‘Keep struggling and I’ll stab you.’ Her resistance seemed only to serve as further stimulation. It was like he had lost all reason, roaring at her viciously. The two were at a stalemate against the van when it shuddered with a few random shocks before settling into a steady rhythmic rocking — up and down, up and down. The movement invigorated him further, and he rammed himself as hard as he could against her. She lost the power to resist, or even to cry out. Dizzy, she fell limp. The tall guy let her go, ready to proceed now that he had her where he wanted her.