“She doesn’t like Meng Jin here?” Zhuang asked.
“You have no idea how many times we’ve fought over this. He’s my son. Is there a father who doesn’t love his son? But he’s very smart, and you know how smart kids tend to make mischief. His mother can’t control him, and she’s worried he’ll turn bad, so she wants me to rein him in. But the moment the boy is in the house, Xia Jie hurls veiled abuse and scowls at me.” Meng fumed as he stuck his head under the faucet for a drink of cool water. “Let’s not talk about that. I wanted to show you a good time so you’d forget your troubles, but now I’m ranting about my own troubles. Why don’t you take a rest here while I go see Hong Jiang about something. Don’t lock the door.”
Zhuang was napping when he heard a knock at the door. He thought it was Meng, so he said, “Come on in. The door isn’t locked.” But it was a woman with a heavily powdered face, two tiny eyes, and boldly painted brows. After looking around the room, she asked, “I’m looking for a Mr. Meng.”
“Who are you? Where are you from?”
“Are you Mr. Meng?” With a laugh, she swayed her way into the room, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She sat on the edge of the bed and stopped him when he tried to get up and get dressed. Then she stripped. “You sure know how to enjoy yourself, waiting at home instead of going out for the fun. I thought maybe you were a cripple.”
When she was nearly naked, Zhuang saw a magic health sack around her waist. Finally realizing what was going on, he silently cursed Meng Yunfang for sending him a prostitute. He studied the woman’s figure, which was average except for her full hips. She wore a thong, the back part of which was buried between her cheeks, while the front had an embroidered pink lotus flower. Keeping the thong on, she said, “Why don’t you come to bed? It’s for an hour, so when the time’s up, I’m done whether you are or not.” She pulled back the blanket, got into bed, and took off her thong under the blanket. At a momentary loss as to how to react, he said, “Let me see that flower on your panties.” He pulled the blanket away. She was holding her legs tightly together. So a woman like her knows to be shy, he thought to himself, as a strange desire rose inside and he reached over to spread her legs. With her legs apart, she said, “Don’t look. Let’s get on with it.” When he took a closer look, he was stunned by what he saw. There were sores all around her genitals, and one spot that seemed to be rotting away, apparently caused by a sexually transmitted disease. Gripped by fear, he pushed her off the bed and had her put her clothes back on. “Take your business elsewhere, all right?” He tossed her thirty yuan. “Go on now.”
She whimpered as she picked up the money and looked at the bills before laying them down on the edge of the bed. “I’ve been paid already. On my way over, I thought I’d get you to pay me, too. But when I got here and saw you, I realized that I’ve never seen a man so attractive and told myself that I wouldn’t leave after an hour. I wanted to have fun with you for two or three hours with no extra pay, never expecting that you wouldn’t think I’m worthy of you, just someone you paid for sex. Well, you can keep your money.” She got dressed and walked out.
Unable to get back to sleep, Zhuang felt sorry for the woman. Soon Meng came in to say, “You’re done already? Why was she crying?”
“You’re a whoremonger, Meng Yunfang. How could you send a woman like that?”
“To help you forget your troubles.” Meng laughed. “I’m not interested, and I don’t have a lot of extra money or troubles like you. Look here. I did get myself a set of boxing gloves and a sandbag, like that Director Wang. That’s enough for me. Nowadays, who doesn’t go whoring once he has the money? With prostitutes you pick up on the street, you don’t have an emotional investment, so it can’t affect your marriage. You pay for play, no worries. So what are you mad at me for?”
“Did you see the condition she’s in? It’s rotting away. Did you want me to be infected?”
Meng rued the forty yuan he had paid before saying with a laugh that it was Zhuang’s bad luck to meet someone like that on his first try.
“She ruined my nap and my mood. Now you have to stick around. Didn’t you say there’s a place I haven’t visited yet? Now I’m ready to check it out.”
“You say you’ve been everywhere. You turn your nose up at the train station hotels, and I don’t have the connections to get you into Zhongnanhai.” Then it came to him: “An emporium!” he said emphatically. “Do you know what that is?”
“No, what is it?”
“You’ll see. I said you’ve never been to this place, and it’s true.”
Instead of riding his bicycle, Meng climbed onto the back of Zhuang’s scooter and pointed the way as they headed to the north of the city. It turned out to be a large trading post dealing in rare domesticated animals and fowl, cultivated flowers, birds, insects, and fish, along with water and food vessels, plus animal feeds and supplements. Visitors and idlers swarmed to the place, carrying bags and baskets, until it nearly burst at the seams. It was hundreds of meters long, a noisy, thriving place of business.
“So this is an emporium,” Zhuang shouted to Meng.
“Don’t shout, or people will spot you as a greenhorn. Take a good look around. It might appear to be teeming with shady dealings and turmoil, but in fact it’s well organized and ordered based on unwritten conventions. There are people from all walks of life and backgrounds, local hooligans and gangsters, small merchants and peddlers, profiteers and minor criminals.”
They walked in, and indeed, the merchants, brokers, and peddlers were hawking their wares and shouting at friends while keeping a close eye on their territory. Confined to a small space, they handled their own business, rarely arguing with each other. The first spot they entered was a fish market, where large aquariums edged in gold with aerators stood in front of each stand. Aquatic plants glimmered under flickering lights, while graceful tropical fish swam up and down, displaying silvery, scaly bodies. After looking them over, Zhuang said happily: “See how happy the fish are, like they have no worries.”
“Want some? Set up an aquarium and you’ll become a fish yourself.”
“People seek peace in noise and noise in peace. When we watch the fish here, I envy them, but if I took them home, I’d think fish were better than people. I’d be even more annoyed at being jealous of fish, with nothing to distract me.”
After the fish came the crickets. Zhuang owned several cricket jars passed down from earlier generations, and he had caught a few crickets by the city wall, but he had never seen such ornate jars. Picking up a dark green one for a closer look, he praised the design and the inlaid descriptions on the side: “King Cricket with a Golden Head” and “Invincible General.” The owner was all smiles. “Want to buy one?”
The two friends smiled without answering, erasing the smile on the vendor’s face. “Please move to the side, then, gentlemen, so you won’t stand in the way of people who want to do business.” He turned to two new customers with a cordial greeting and handed them a jar. “Magical Heaven-Sent Insect,” he called out.
Bending over to remove the lid and examine the insect, the two men smiled broadly, bent down for a closer look, and asked the price. The vendor took of his straw hat and reached into the jar with both hands. One of the swarthy men gaped in surprise.
“Now you’ll see its quality.” The vendor dropped the insect into a box the size of a rice bowl. Zhuang and Meng cocked their heads to watch, while everyone around them held their breath. Immediately there was a thumping noise as two crickets were locked in battle, following a well-orchestrated format of attack and defense. One of them cunningly feigned defeat and faked a retreat, but then sneaked around to attack from the rear. Zhuang was captivated by the fight when Meng tugged at his lapel.