Sheng Keyi - Northern Girls - Life Goes On

‘Don’t. It’s addictive.’

‘How will I get addicted? I’m going to smoke this one. You afraid I’m going to smoke us into the poorhouse? Silly girl. Wait till we get our eighty thousand. We won’t be poor then. By the way, what do you want to do once we’ve got it?’ Specs seemed to have all sorts of plans, as if he already had the cash in his hand. He dragged on the cigarette like an old pro.

‘I’ll go to beauty school. I want to open a salon. There should be plenty for a salon. Then we’ll rent a nicer flat too, save some money, and buy a place later.’ Sijiang’s calculations were always very down to earth.

Specs released a smoky breath, not quite agreeing with Sijiang’s plan. He inhaled so deeply that his eyebrows wrinkled up and his eyes narrowed to a thin line. His Adam’s apple moved up and down, as if swallowing a word. Catching a glimmer of hope in his face, she began to initiate some affectionate intimacy with him but he was not particularly interested. He held the cigarette butt, dragging on it desperately. Even when it had burned nearly all the way down, he still put it fearlessly to his lips. Sijiang took it and tossed it to the floor, placing her own mouth to his. Specs sat passively, like a woman waiting to be stirred to the point of excitement, numbly waiting for the feeling to find him.

V

Dr Lei had been looking haggard recently. With the peak season of surgeries over, he seemed on the verge of mental collapse. In fact, it was quite odd to see him like this. The other doctors had been through the same peak season and none of them were showing signs of collapse. As head honcho, he could have easily taken some time off. All the doctors who met him would say, ‘Dr Lei, you’re overworked! Take a few days off!’

It was as if all the work had been done by him, all those tubes cut by his own hand. Dr Lei would just put a smile on his hairless face and say, ‘Everyone’s in the same boat. We’re all overworked.’

Three days after Xiaohong had left, a new girl of twenty-two or — three was promoted to the publicity department. Xia helped her clear out Xiaohong’s desk, putting everything from the drawers into a pile and laying it aside. The girl sat on Xiaohong’s chair. Rolling it back and forth over the floor a couple of times, she said to Xia, ‘I don’t like these moving chairs.’

‘Then we’ll buy one that doesn’t roll,’ he said.

‘I don’t like the desk facing the door,’ she said, still not satisfied.

‘Then we’ll move it,’ Xia said and immediately got to work moving it.

When Liao and his partner entered the door of the publicity department, they heard the sound of desks being dragged across the floor. Liao knocked on Dr Lei’s door. The chairman was sitting in his large boardroom-style chair with his eyes closed. When the two armed police officers came in, Dr Lei stood up hurriedly, nearly sweeping his mug off the table as he did so.

‘What do you need… can I help you?’ He started to pour tea for them.

Liao held out a hand to stop him. ‘Sorry to trouble you. We need you to find Yu Youqing for us. We need her help in our investigation of a case,’ he said.

‘Yu Youqing? The lab technician? Oh, well, wait a moment.’

He picked up the phone and called the lab. ‘Ask Yu Youqing to come to my office, please.’

As they waited for Youqing, Liao asked the chairman a few simple questions about the girl’s situation. When he asked about her love life, Dr Lei said, ‘I don’t get involved in the private lives of my employees. I don’t know anything about that. You’ll have to ask her yourself.’

Liao nodded, appreciating Dr Lei’s respect for his employees’ privacy.

There was a knock on the door. Dr Lei’s ‘Come in’ seemed to get stuck in his throat. At first glance, Liao noticed that she was wearing the light green earrings.

‘You’re Yu Youqing?’ Liao began. She nodded, looking at each person with an exaggeratedly bold expression.

‘Please take off your earrings and let me have a look,’ Liao said, pointing at Youqing’s ears.

She removed the earrings and put them on Dr Lei’s desk. Liao picked them up to have a closer look, put them back down, then stood up to top up his tea with water.

‘Where did you buy these?’

‘I didn’t buy them,’ Youqing said.

‘Please explain in more detail.’

‘Why should I? It’s my own private business.’

‘We’d appreciate your cooperation. It is crucial that you tell us.’

‘A friend gave them to me for my birthday.’

‘Who’s your friend?’

‘A man.’

‘Be more specific. Give me his name. Occupation. Employer.’

Youqing did not say anything. She wore a pained expression.

Liao glanced at her. She was staring at Dr Lei.

‘I think this is a matter of Ms Yu’s privacy. We should respect that. We cannot let this matter violate the privacy of innocent people,’ Dr Lei said, thinking the police had pressed too far.

‘Dr Lei, the case we are investigating has cost another woman her life. Life or privacy? Which is more important? Ms Yu, please continue. We need you to cooperate.’

‘Her life?’ Youqing’s shocked expression made her face taper to a point at the chin.

‘Yes, her life. It’s a serious matter.’

The water in the dispenser started to gurgle, bubbles rolling to the surface. A car horn sounded as it passed beneath the open window. A breeze came through the window, ruffling the official documents on the desk. It was warm. Dr Lei’s pale face began to sweat, perspiration trailing down along his ears, drawing two thin streaks down the sides of his face. He shifted his weight in the chair, remaining seated behind his desk.

Youqing twisted her fingers together uneasily and faced the window. The clock on the wall ticked crisply as it marked time.

‘It was… Dr Lei who gave them to me,’ she finally said.

Dr Lei’s chair creaked underneath his weight.

VI

Aunt Chun and her long triangular tear streaks changed her tune very quickly. Because of her daughter’s situation, she was especially critical of Xiaohong, who hadn’t found a job for her daughter. It eventually developed into contempt for the whole city of Shenzhen and a complete rejection of Xiaohong. She looked down on anyone who left their home soil and went far away to hang out with God-knows-what-kind of people. She said Xiaohong’s nose had turned up, just like a monkey’s. And so, Aunt Chun didn’t bother to visit Xiaohong anymore. She scorned the girl, as if in an attempt to recapture her own lost dignity. When Xiaohong’s father died, Aunt Chun still said, ‘My daughter won’t set foot in that little goblin’s place. Who knows what sort of misfortune might come her way there? If she does, her father will beat her half to death!’

Whenever Aunt Chun got excited over such things, she had a habit of spreading the word around, as if she would choke on it if she didn’t. At the funeral, when she saw Xiaohong, she thought the girl’s mourning was not sufficiently distraught and began once again to spread news of the girl’s misdeeds. The story she cooked up this time was that Xiaohong must have borne a bastard child in Shenzhen and that was why her breasts were so swollen now. Even outside of the village, news hopped from here to there, like corn popping in a pan. Even when the scrap metal collectors came round, Aunt Chun told them all about it, letting the topic slowly wander to Xiaohong’s body. She relished this rendition of the tale and when she had concluded, both speaker and listener were satisfied, each enjoying their own role in the game.

‘Things in Shenzhen are not normal for Qian Xiaohong.’