preface
Lin Qing is not yet 20 years old, in the old street KTV karaoke shop as a waiter, for the guests point songs, accompany the guests drink, play, every night in the drunk smoked among men, often drink themselves up to vomit. Unexpectedly, Lin Qing didn’t mind me writing her story.
1
Laojie is located in the northwest corner of the city and belongs to the earliest developed commercial block. Over the past 20 years, wind and rain have eroded away. Most of the two-story buildings on both sides of Laojie have shed the wall skin, exposing the gray cement foundation, which is mottled and decadent. City planning three times five times to change, and finally decided to expand to the southeast, the old street gradually was left out in the cold down, the initial settlement of a few department stores, children’s clothing stores business day by day.
Lao Jie, however, is not alone. At first, the old street is lively and fragrant foot bath shop, I do not know when to start, the door head next to one, colorful light box trees in front of the street, ambiguous light reflected the words “foot massage”.
Summer, the woman of long hair leans on the side of the door, white face red lip is held by lamplight from night come out, face, eye is full of enthusiasm, taking a bit to be indifferent again. Under the heavy makeup, you can’t see their age, only a strong temptation emanates, rippling in the night.
As the young pass by, they are tempted to slacken their pace. Some pass and come back, loitering as if they had lost something.
There was a period when the wind tightened, and these small shops with little background were mostly crowded out by the rise of bath centers and pedicures. Those who do not know where from the women, do not know where to go scattered.
But the Old street was the old street, and soon, like a dead bird, it began to grow splendid feathers again. This time, those stores into the KTV, the light box into a delicate neon signs, the light tube composition of “never night”, “small Shanghai”, “dream xinyuan” this kind of store name, strong color constantly circulation change.
2
Night draws in to cover the decay of the old street by day. Gray, dirty shutter doors were pushed up, and a half-bright, half-dark glow lit up the store, as if the whole street were shimmering. In the street there were still several men with shaved heads and inches of hair hanging about, their eyes hard and fierce and straight, their arms curling like crabs along the sides of their bodies.
“Gold drill” KTV is in the middle of the old street, the pattern is similar to other shops, the front hall of the first floor is very small, on the right side of the wall placed a foreskin stretched sofa, on the left side of a mahjong pieces spread a low square table, a few low stools, the rest no room to move.
Lin qing sat on the sofa, eyes staring at the screen of the mobile phone, in the WeChat group to play the game of grabbing red envelopes, she always lost more win less, white to take money. Around the other sisters, some in a daze, some are also playing mobile phones. This is not a busy time, when men will come here to have fun after they have had enough to eat and drink.
At nine o ‘clock, a bald man pushed open half of the door and came in. He set his eyes on Lin Qing. She is young, with white skin, large eyes and long hair. She is often the first choice of customers and has many repeat customers. A guest once said to her, “You should go to the KTV in a five-star hotel. You can match the girls there.”
She led him up the dark, steep, narrow stairs to the second floor, and within a few steps the guest was beginning to pant. On the second floor there was a smaller entrance hall, leading to several small boxes with old curved sofas; Singing equipment is long overdue. Of course, the men here are not in the mood to sing and don’t care.
men do not want to point wine, claiming that the KTV is full of fake wine, Lin Qing less a commission. When singing, the man short of breath, on the gas not up and down the gas, simply threw the microphone, to free a pair of hands to Lin Qing groped.
Two hours, touch the hand, hug the waist, hug the shoulder are all within the allowed range, service fee 80 yuan, other don’t think. Lin Qing instinct left against right block, the man would not give up, like octopus wrapped around her body, strong smell of alcohol and stench from his mouth to spray her face. A pair of hands are still trying to explore, suddenly get an opportunity, on the flaw chuai on.
In the first few days of the evening, she would shudder uncontrollably under the control of strange and rude hands. Now she has learned to live with it.
3
Lin Qing hasn’t been in the business very long. Like the other sisters, she was a stranger.
Two years ago, she was a sophomore in a high school in her hometown. At the end of the semester, the school told her to pay for the next year’s tuition, but she did not ask her father for money. The younger brothers and sisters were all in junior high school, and the harvest in the field was not enough for them to spend. Mother’s stomach trouble again, to buy medicine also have to spend money. Dad said the family was in debt.
She peeped into his face, and he did not look at her, but his face tightened and shut up. Maybe dad thought that at her age, she would go to work and earn money like other girls. Her cousin worked in Shanghai, sending money home every month, and neighbors praised her filial piety and sensible.
As the elder sister, Lin Qing also does not want to do the burden of the family. She went back to school, went to the head teacher’s office and told him she was dropping out. In this country school, girls drop out of school is nothing new, the head teacher is not surprised, only a few words to stay. She said goodbye to her teacher, then went to the dormitory and the classroom to pick up her things, and gave some newly bought review questions to her good classmates. He said to them, “I worked to earn money and brought you gifts.”
A few days later, Lin Qing left the village and began to work. She has moved to many cities, worked as a waitress in a restaurant, factory worker, income is not satisfactory. Later, she went to work at an electronics factory in Suzhou, testing computer memory chips on assembly lines, working 12 hours a day, repeating the same movements. Factory to open more than 2000 wages, except for their own expenses, can send home not much money.
When my brother entered high school, the family’s expenses increased. Lin Qing home for the Chinese New Year, her parents will arrange her to go on a blind date, the eight word has not been written, father said: “Take the gift, I take it for you first, and so you get married, pass safe to give you again. Lin Qing understood at that time.
A long-lost classmate who had dropped out of junior high school called her and invited her to work as a waitress in a KTV in this small city in the north. “I’m not selling myself but singing. Don’t be afraid.”
Lin Qing, intent on making money, did not hesitate to agree. She told her family she had switched to selling cosmetics.
Before walking into the old street, Lin Qing was not good at singing, let alone drinking, but in the evening performance, the new is always very popular, awkward awkwardness has become a lovely place.
The first night she went to work, she made three points in one go, plus drinks commission, a total of four hundred yuan, and that night, the guests were very well-behaved, not difficult to deal with. Though her stomach burned with the first drink of alcohol in her life, she was filled with excitement: money had never been so easy to earn.
She lived with her sisters in a bungalow provided by the owner and went to bed in the wee hours of the morning and got up after 2pm. Most of the time, we only have one dinner a day.
A guest once told her that you should go to a KTV in a five-star hotel. A guest once told her that you should go to a KTV in a five-star hotel.
Soon, Lin Qing knew that it was just one of those lucky nights.
Men were hard to deal with, and any one was stronger than her. Some men would ask her to drink a lot of wine, and some men would hold and feel as soon as they entered the box, for fear of losing the eighty yuan service fee. When she couldn’t cope with anything too out of line, she ran downstairs and replaced her with another girl.
The income is not always as good as at the beginning. Sometimes Lin Qing doesn’t make a single point for two days in a row, but it’s still a little more than when she was in the electronics factory. She kept enough for her own living expenses and sent the rest home.
She also learned to hang on to men who were coveting her, letting them hold on to hope for more tips and red envelopes.
Half bald man and a few times, plus Lin qing WeChat, from time to time send a yellow video to her, late at night will also cold send a message: “why? Can you stay with me tonight?”
The half-bald man paid some money for her to sleep with him. But she would not consent, for she knew that there was no turning back. She also knew that even if she set her mind to it, the moment men got hold of her body, they would shift their interest to other women, perhaps even stop singing.
4
There was a young man who was different from everyone else.
The first time to sing, ordered her, after a period of time often come to the shop, to her service. He respected her — that was all she valued — and came only to sing, drink, and talk, and never to take advantage of her. The young man, short and with thick shoulders, sat at arm’s length on the old sofa, making her feel safe and relaxed.
He likes to pour out his feelings to her. He said that he had suffered a lot in the car repair business, and that he was suffering in the middle of a fierce and unfilial wife. He had to save his family and try to bear it for the sake of his children.
When talking about these, the young man is very heavy, Lin Qing accompany sad. When the conversation moved on, he became humorous again and made her laugh all the time. Lin Qing felt very real and happy with him.
The landlady had already confessed: “Do this line, do not go too close to the guests, they are all experienced, you girls must not take advantage of.” Madame also told a frightening story. A few years ago, there was a pretty waiter and guest good on, often go out for the night, and then the guest lied to her said to travel together, the result took her to the mountains, sold to the family as a wife. Fortunately, two years later, she ran out on her own.
Lin is confident that she is not so stupid, but she is also secretly careful not to go out with guests.
But young men are different. He confides in her like a big boy, showing her pictures of his children, telling her where he lives and talking to her about his friends’ misdemeanours, looking so unreserved. She also turned on her mobile phone and showed the young man what she thought was the most beautiful photo. It was an artistic photo taken in the ancient town of Tongli in Suzhou. That day, she had passed the bus station and walked a long way back to Tongli.
Her relationship with the young man progressed quickly, and within two months she had turned herself over to him.
Lin Qing saw the young man’s sweater a piece of small wool ball, know that he did not have much money, they go shopping to buy things, she never let him pay, also did not ask him to red envelope. Once, Lin Qing decided to go home the next day, to the supermarket to buy some food for his parents, pay the bill, the young man said: “Let me pay.” Although Lin Qing finally settled the account, but she felt that this sentence is enough.
She doesn’t let him come to the music store because she’s afraid he’ll spend money. On dates, she’ll skip sleep and get up early to meet him.
On Valentine’s Day, Lin Qing bought a sweater for the young man and called him to ask him out. But she waited a long time at the end of the old street, and then he hurried up. She was thinly clad and shivering from the cold wind. He stood opposite, uneasy, did not say a few words took the sweater and left, “Valentine’s Day out of the wife will be suspicious.”
She had expected a bouquet of flowers or a small gift for Valentine’s Day, but she still treated him like a child who would never grow up and could not resent him, even though he was years older than her.
A few days later, the young man came to him again, said a few humorous words, and made her laugh again.
5
About one day in the third month of their relationship, Lin Qing received a call from a young man. When she answered, a woman’s voice came from the other side, making her hang up in terror. Soon, the phone rang again, at this time Lin Qing has thought of a good solution, she pressed the answer button, quickly said: “This is my husband’s phone, he is not in.” Then she turned off her phone.
The next day, the young man came to her with a solemn face, saying that his wife had discovered their affair and was divorcing him. The faint hope in Lin Qing’s heart was suddenly amplified, and she made up her mind to say: “If I can’t live together, I will leave. And you said she was fierce and bad for your mother.”
The young man said, “How can that be? She wants me to get out of the house.”
“What is there that leaves the house? Let’s get married and I’ll stay with you.”
“But how shall we get through it? No money, no house.”
“I can earn it.”
The young man stopped talking.
Lin Qing said: “Don’t want to leave even, you don’t embarrass.”
“The wife say I betrayed her, want to be reconciled also have to compensate her two hundred thousand.”
Lin Qing did not understand the meaning of his words and did not know what to say.
The young man never contacted her again. But Lin Qing still miss him, “he is not bad, at least did not sell me.”
One day, a sister in the shop celebrated her birthday by inviting several people to a restaurant for dinner. During the meal, the sisters’ “love” gave her a “1314” birthday red envelope, which attracted a burst of astonishment on the table.
Lin Qing thought of the young man and felt sad. She drank a lot of wine. She never deleted his phone or WeChat in the hope that one day he would send a message out of the blue. She looked down and fiddled with her phone, and saw a message from a half-bald man, “Are you free tonight?”
“Have you two thousand dollars?” she replied.
“Not so much now.” After a while, the half-bald man ran after him and said, “I’ll give it to you later.”
Lin Qing did not answer him again, she can not say his idea, maybe she just want to test his value; Maybe the half-bald man promised her two thousand dollars, and she would go with him, and let it be.
It’s late at night back in the old street. She left the order on purpose on the pretext of going to the shop. This street is not long, but the trance of neon lights into a colorful world, as if there is no end, no end.
Lin Qing stopped at the end of the alley that connected the old street, held her hand against the wall and began to vomit. Then she sat in the corner and began to cry.
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