Chapter 9: A Friend Out of Reach

Chapter 9
He picked up the phone.
“Supervisor Cai, come to my office, please.”
Four or five minutes later, a woman in her thirties entered, wearing a black knee-length skirt suit with her hair pinned up.
“You wanted to see me, sir?”
“Take her to the kitchen to wash vegetables.”
Then he added, very deliberately, “Vegetables only. Whatever you do, don’t let her wash dishes.”
Supervisor Cai led me downstairs to the back of the kitchen, where a group of older women were already hard at work.
“Li Ping, show her what to do.”
With that, she went off to attend to something else.
Several baskets of plump white radishes stood before me. Never had I seen so many in one place.
“The people in this hotel eat like pigs!”
“Just wash them in the water and get the dirt off.”
“Oh. All right.”
How hard could washing radishes be?
Apron on, I sat on a low wooden stool and bent over a large basin. The radishes were so white they looked clean enough already.
Perhaps Ji Feiyang wasn’t so bad. At least he’d given me an easy job.
His earlier instructions came back to me.
“Vegetables only. Whatever you do, don’t let her wash dishes.”
How funny. Afraid I’d smash his precious plates, was he?
By the end of the morning, the job no longer seemed so easy. My back ached terribly.
And there I’d been, thinking he’d developed a kind streak.
Someone called us to lunch. Getting to my feet, I stretched my stiff limbs.
Mom, Dad, Big Brother—even that awful Tong Xueyou—would never believe I’d spent an entire morning here washing radishes.
The afternoon brought more of the same.
Enough was enough.
“Couldn’t I do something else?” I asked Li Ping. “My back hurts from bending over.”
She gave me a displeased look. Apparently, I was being picky.
Cleaning fish? Absolutely not. Too fishy, and there were sharp fins to worry about.
Chopping vegetables? No good at that. The results looked dreadful. With something hard like a radish, making neat slices was only part of the problem. Even if I could do it, I couldn’t keep it up for long.
It wasn’t an art exhibition anyway. Why did everything have to look so pretty?
In the end, she gave me leafy greens to tear up. That could be done sitting down, without bending over.
Song Jiajia really had vanished from the face of the earth.
A few recent newspapers from the hotel turned up no missing-person notices about me. With Dad’s standing, surely my disappearance ought to have made the front page.
Perhaps he wanted to keep it quiet and had people searching discreetly.
How was Mom doing? She probably couldn’t eat or sleep.
Sorry, Mom. I’d listen to you more from now on.
“Tang Yijun, they’re waiting for those greens!”
For two whole days, I’d been doing as I was told. At the reminder, my hands moved faster.
When nobody was looking, I dunked the greens in water and lifted them straight out again. They looked clean enough. A little water on them, and everyone would assume they’d been washed properly.
“Ah!”
I sprang up.
“There’s a bug!”
Laughter broke out around me. Apparently, greens without bugs would have been the real surprise.
That was it. No more putting my hands in the water, and no more touching those leaves.
At her wits’ end, Li Ping sent me to wash dried seaweed instead.
“No bugs in that,” she said. “Never met anyone so delicate.”
Then my careless washing caught up with me.
A guest found a bug in a dish, and the complaint made its way back to the kitchen. Only two of us had washed those greens that day: me and a plump older woman.
She swore the badly washed vegetables had to be mine.
Fine, I hadn’t cleaned them properly. But who could say that particular bug had come from my batch? With all those greens, how could she be so sure she hadn’t missed one herself?
Her absolute certainty annoyed me most of all.
With my temper, an argument was inevitable.
Another person offended.
Ji Feiyang threatened to stuff the next bug found in the vegetables into my mouth.
So I stuck to seaweed.
An hour’s work took me two, but even then there was a problem. All that soaking had turned my hands white, and the skin was peeling. They needed a rest.
Telling the kitchen staff would get me nowhere. I went to Ji Feiyang.
“If you can’t take it, go home.”
“You don’t want your money anymore?”
“Where do you live? I’ll have someone take you back. Getting it from your family would be quicker.”
A smile.
“I think I’ll get back to work.”
At the door, another question brought me around.
“Has Jiajia called?”
The same answer as always.
“No.”
My suspicious stare had no effect on him. His expression remained perfectly calm, hardly the look of someone lying. Besides, what reason did he have to deceive me?
Back to the seaweed.
The whole problem came down to money. If I had any, would I be suffering here?
Then an idea struck.
Borrow enough for the fare, find Jiajia, and I’d be saved. Much more of this work might finish me off.
Supervisor Cai dressed better than most of the others, and she was a supervisor. Surely she could spare a little money.
During the break, pride had to take a back seat.
“Could you lend me a little money?” I asked quietly. “I’ll pay you back double.”
She gave me a sidelong glance, but her answer came readily enough.
“All right.”
Money in hand, I hurried outside.
The guard stopped me.
“The general manager said you’re not allowed to leave.”
Now he was taking away my freedom?
Outrageous.
Back to his office I went to argue.
“If you run off, Miss Tang, who am I supposed to collect from?” he asked.
“Send someone with me.”
“That costs money. And it’s too much of a risk.”
His voice was cold.
My palm struck his desk.
“You have no right to keep me here!”
“You’d better get back to work. Once you’ve paid what you owe, you’ll be free to go.”
As though it were some universal truth. As though I was the one being unreasonable.
I stormed out and slammed the door. The crash brought heads turning all around me.
“What’s going on?”
A middle-aged woman approached, dressed much like Supervisor Cai. The staff all seemed to wear similar outfits, though her suit looked more expensive. She had an imposing air, too.
After giving me a couple of looks, she walked straight into Ji Feiyang’s office without knocking.
My sixth sense said she was his mother.
At the entrance, a few warm-up movements prepared me for a hundred-meter dash.
Then I waited.
The guard’s attention wandered.
Off I shot like a rocket. Before he’d even registered what was happening, I was through the doors, hailing a taxi and making my escape.
Outside Jiajia’s house, I hid behind a small tree and prayed for her to come out.
Come on. Hurry up.
After an endless wait, the door finally opened.
There she was, her face as plump as ever, her steps as light as ever.
Doing very well for herself, wasn’t she?
Relief and hurt came together. At last, I’d found her. But she’d been home all this time and hadn’t contacted me?
How could she care so little?
Her parents came out with her. Our families had known each other for years, so letting them see me was out of the question.
Behind the tree I stayed, watching.
They got into the car first. Seizing the chance, I waved urgently at Jiajia and tried to catch her eye.
For one brief moment, our eyes met.
Thank goodness!
Then she lowered her head and pretended not to see me.
She had seen me. I was sure of it.
Without a flicker of concern, she got into the car and drove away.
For a moment, I couldn’t move.
She’d seen me. How could she pretend she hadn’t?
A painful tightness rose in my chest.
Song Jiajia had gone too far. You could know someone’s face without ever knowing what lay beneath it. Now I’d finally seen her for who she was.
Then Ji Feiyang’s debt-collecting face came back to me.
People were cold as ice. Ruthless, every one of them. From now on, I’d be at his mercy.
Song Jiajia, you and I were finished.
Silent curses accompanied me down the street.
It was still broad daylight. No way was I going back to work now. Evening would be soon enough.
A long bench stood by the roadside, with a small park behind it. I sat for a while, watching people go past in pairs.
All alone. Poor me.
Mom, Dad… I missed them so much.
Tears began to fall. Curling up, I lay along the bench.
Late-autumn sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead, scattering bright patches over me like tiny sprites skipping across my clothes.
One landed in my eyes.
Squinting, I settled down to rest. Just for a while. I’d go back when it got dark.
After a short nap, my eyes opened to find the day still bright. Children’s laughter and shouting filled the air.
I tugged my clothes closer.
Cold.
A little more sleep, then.
The next time I woke, it was completely dark.
The children’s voices were gone.