Sheng Keyi - Northern Girls - Life Goes On

‘Shut up and get out!’ The manager put on a stern face and started shooing the man out, as if he were a stray chicken that had wandered in from out the back.

Xiaohong was puzzled by the man’s comment. Things that attracted men didn’t seem to go down so well with women, she thought. Male tastes were forever at odds with what women liked.

The man slouched, his trousers slithering lower over his scrawny backside as he turned to shuffle out from under the manager’s on-slaught. Lost in thought, Xiaohong nearly gave herself a black eye when she ran into the diner’s glass door as she made her own way out.

Back on the sunlit streets, with every step, her foot landed right on the head of her shadow, shortened in the midday glare. Dazed, she nearly stepped into the gutter, barely managing to avoid a lump of rotten watermelon. Its mushy red pulp was spotted with a smattering of black flies that she at first mistook for its seeds. They buzzed about, scattering away from the squishy mound as she stepped over it, only to fly in a circle before settling back down to their putrid meal once again. She averted her eyes, looking up into branches too withered to offer any relief from the heat. Her stomach churned. I’m so bloody thirsty, she thought.

She dug out a coin and bought a banana-flavoured ice lolly. Sucking on it, she began to take note of the posters plastered on the wall beside her, promising miracle cures for sexually transmitted diseases, prostate problems, syphilis symptoms and the like. Nothing that seemed to indicate a demand for her services.

‘Hey!’ Was that someone calling her, or was she hallucinating in the heat?

‘Hey!’ he called again, this time beckoning her to come over. The man with not enough backside to hold up his trousers had followed her, now slouching so much that he almost looked like a hunchback.

‘Why don’t ya see if my friend has work at his place?’ he said, in a suggestive tone that let her know what he hoped the night had in store.

Xiaohong took one more merciless drag on the ice lolly, leaving only a tiny sliver of ice, which she withdrew just long enough to say, ‘Lead the way.’

She continued to relish the remnants of the ice lolly in the way she’d done since childhood, sometimes sucking on it vigorously, sometimes slowly licking its length. The man looked straight ahead, his Adam’s apple bobbing frantically up and down.

‘You thirsty?’ she asked. ‘I’ll get you an ice lolly.’

‘No thanks. Let’s just get to my friend’s place and I’ll get some tea,’ he said. ‘And, uh, when we get there, just say you’re my niece, alright?’

She stole a glance at him, nibbled at the wooden lolly stick and gave a sly giggle.

‘Look. We’re here.’ He pointed. ‘The City Hair Salon.’

She was taken aback. She’d expected to see a restaurant. The entrance was pretty large and there were shadows of people moving about behind the shop’s frosted glass face. Red letters on the door proclaimed:

Help Wanted — Shampoo Girl — 16–20 yrs old — No experience necessary

‘Let me see your hands.’

Xiaohong obediently spread out her fingers.

‘Very sensual. Clip your nails,’ the boss said upon examining her hands. ‘You’ll need a day of training.’

He was a twenty-something, long-haired androgynous sort: from the front he looked neither male nor female, from the back he could pass for either. Xiaohong secretly wondered what lay behind that image.

Including herself, there were four shampoo girls and a man to train them. Xiaohong began the third stage of her career with a sense of pride. Within an hour, the girls had all warmed to each other. Within a fortnight, the male customers had all warmed to Xiaohong, each dragging out his visit, waiting his turn until she was free.

She was a natural shampoo girl. A customer would settle into her chair, keeping his head at just the right angle, aligned perfectly against her ample bosom. He would sit, scalp covered in bubbles, chatting to her. After a rinse would come a fifteen-minute massage, throughout which he would lean back, cushioning his head upon her chest. Seeing the customers comfortable pleased the boss, who would quietly reward Xiaohong, reaffirming her sense of self-worth and confidence in her ability.

Xiaohong got along especially well with her bunkmate Li Sijiang, a simple, honest girl. She was as pure and beautiful as a mountain spring, with an unspoiled sweetness. Sijiang was a year younger than Xiaohong and had a face as fresh as apple pie.

One night, Sijiang said, ‘You don’t have to sell yourself like some porn queen.’

‘Oh, come on! It’s not like I sleep with people for money.’ Xiaohong smiled, ‘You still a virgin?’

Sijiang didn’t respond. Xiaohong got out of bed, turned off the light, and climbed into the younger girl’s bunk.

‘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.