“No! Please…” Her eyes are wide, and her shaking is about an 8.9 on the Richter scale. I look down and realize I’m still holding the emerald slice of glass against her throat. I pull it away.
“What are you doing here?” I look around at the ruins of her tray, answer my own question.
“You’re Mei Yee’s boy, aren’t you?” The girl’s eyes narrow. “The one who wanted the book.”
Out of reflex, I look into the hall. Not that it really matters if anyone heard; this whole plan’s gone to shit anyway.
“Something like that.” I pull myself away, and the girl sits up, her bangs dropping like curtains over her face. She looks over at the chair, the frayed rope, and back to me, meat shoulder and all. I can see the waver in her eyes, the almost-yell swelling in her lungs, ready to warn the entire brothel about my escape.
She takes a breath. “You told Mei Yee you could get us out. Were you telling the truth?”
“Got her out, didn’t I?” The adrenaline of the moment is wearing thin, letting the pain back in. And snarky-Dai with it.
The girl frowns. “And the book. You still need it?”
I slip the shard into my hoodie, keep my eyes fixed on the empty hall. It’s only a matter of time before someone walks by. “Yeah.”
She’s studying me, like I’m some kind of viral strain on a microscope slide. Fascinating, dangerous if not handled properly. She reaches into the folds of her dress, pulls out a ring of brass skeleton keys. “Take these. The key to Longwai’s office is the third one from the right.”
The girl with the keys. Yin Yu. The one who ratted out Mei Yee. The one we never should’ve trusted.
I don’t know if I should trust her now. She could be one of Longwai’s puppets, baiting me to show my secrets instead of tell. I snatch the keys anyway. “Change of heart?”
“I never meant…” Her voice falters. She swallows and tries again, but there’s still a rattle in her syllables. “They shot Sing right in front of me. Just like that. She was dead.”
It’s all she says, but I understand. I’ve seen dead bodies. I know how they change you, turn your guts inside out with their stillness and not-life.
This is what Sing’s body did to Yin Yu. It undid her.
“I don’t want to die here,” Yin Yu says. “In one minute I’m going to scream and tell them you jumped me and stole the keys. Longwai’s in the lounge facing the entry hall.”
Of course he would be watching the way in. The way out. What are the odds that I’ll get past him unseen?
“Go,” Yin Yu says simply. “Your time is running out.”
JIN LING
Mei Yee’s off faster than a hare. And the guard after her. I slip out of my hidden corner. Shuffle in battered slippers across the street. Through the dragon’s door. My sister’s advice loops through my head as I go: Take small steps. Fold your hands in front of you. Keep your head down.
I pass some of Longwai’s men in the first hall. Walk by open doors where girls stare out. No one seems to notice the dirt under my fingernails. The coarseness of the horsehair on my scalp. The sad state of my silk footwear. The patch of blood blooming like a flower from my side. Subtle darkness on the fabric.
I want to move fast. Even though my side feels as if it’s splitting apart. With every step, I fight the urge to run. It takes me longer than I’d like to reach the lounge. Longwai is on the couch, lips wrapped around the end of a long pipe. He doesn’t notice me slink in from the entry hall. Mei Yee did her job well — my dress, hair, and makeup blend in. Seamless. I’m just another faceless serving girl.
Book first, then Dai. I trace out the plan in my head and skirt the edge of the lounge. Toward the hall on the right, where the ledger is. I’m almost there, just passing the girl playing her stringed instrument, when Longwai calls out. “You! Girl!”
I freeze. He’s looking straight at me.
Before my hand can flash down to Dai’s gun, Longwai lifts up his glass. “I need more wine.”
Wine. He singled me out for wine. I scurry over to the serving cabinet. Try frantically to make sense of the mess of glasses and bottles there. I wish I’d been paying more attention to the way Yin Yu served it. The first time I was here.
“The bottle on the left,” the girl at the instrument whispers. Her words are barely louder than the pluck of her strings. I glance over. Her eyes meet mine. She nods, fingers still moving, moving, moving.
It’s so easy for her to tell I don’t belong. What chance do I stand against Longwai?
I grab the wine bottle by its neck. Turn and get ready to pour. What I see stops me in my tracks.
It’s Dai. Very alive and edging through the room’s unlit corners. Hoodie up. Trying his best to get to the east hall.
“Is there a problem?” Longwai shifts on his couch.
“No!” My reply is sharper than I mean it to be. It steals the sleepiness out of the drug lord’s eyes, makes him alert. He starts to stand.
One turn. One look behind his shoulder. That’s all it would take for Dai to get caught.
I let go of the bottle. It plummets to the floor. Crimson wine bleeds across the rug, all the way to Longwai’s slippers. He snarls. Stands up all the way.
“That rug is worth ten times what I paid for you!” Longwai seizes my arm. It takes everything I have not to pull away. Fight back. His fingers are freckled with spots of stale blood. I try not to think of where those stains came from.
“I’m sorry, sir.” Saying these words feels like pulling out my own teeth with rusty pliers. I look down at my feet, where the wine bottle is still vomiting its contents. Push back the very strong urge to reach for Dai’s gun.
“Sorry?” The drug lord leans down. Catches my eyes despite my best efforts to look away. “I don’t remember asking Mama-san to assign serving duties to a new girl. In fact… I don’t remember you at all.”
My heart drops. There’s a glint in his eyes. A tightness in his fingers. He’s putting the pieces together — suspicions shaping up like potter’s clay.
Maybe I’ll get to use the revolver after all.
“Her name is Siu Feng.” The girl has stopped playing her music so she can address the drug lord. “She was with the girls who came a few months ago. The group Wen Kei was with.”
This throws Longwai off a bit. His brow furrows, second-guessing. Those fingers loosen. His back straightens. He points at the rug. “Fix this. And don’t bother with the refill. I have business to get back to.”
I look up, relieved to see that Dai is gone. The shadows are empty. Longwai doesn’t head toward his office, as I fear he might. Instead, he disappears into the north hall.
The girl doesn’t go back to her music. Instead, she comes over and picks up the wine bottle by my feet.
“Thanks,” I tell her when she hands it to me.
She puts a finger to her lips. Motions to the lulling clients around us. Men so still I forgot they were there. “You’re with the boy, aren’t you?” she whispers.
I nod and glance back down the east hall. Wonder if I should follow Dai there. A wail of a scream rises from the north hall. A girl’s voice babbles about attacks and keys, followed by Longwai’s slurred roar, “Where is he?”
I’m about to race off. Warn Dai. But Longwai is already bulling through the lounge, face redder than the dragon on his door. His gun is out. Ready and trembling in his fingers. He disappears as fast as he came. Swallowed by the dim crimson glow of the east hall.
MEI YEE