First published in The Great Outdoors, 2019
Deng looked for the white people with long noses. They gave more money. He shook the coins in his cup and held it up in front of them as Yi Shen had told him. And it was easy to look sad. Deng was having a good day. He had already taken money from his cup and put it in his pocket. He had enough to buy the dumplings he liked but he could not buy food because Yi Shen was always nearby. Yi Shen took the money and gave him food: congee for breakfast, rice for dinner and sometimes dumplings if he got lots of money.
Yi Shen was not really a doctor. That’s why he laughed when he said he was Yi Shen. Hong Bin did not get so much money today so he took some of Deng’s. Deng tried to keep it but Hong Bin was stronger and he hit him.
Deng’s grandmother had taken him to the hospital because of his sore eye. While they waited Yi Shen came, wearing a white coat and a friendly smile and he took Deng through a door and through another door, outside to his car. Then they went to the big city. Yi Shen took Deng and Hong Bin to the market every day and told them to get money in their cups. He took Deng’s shoes and tied a cloth around his head so his eye was covered. He could not see so well out of that eye anyway and it was not so sore when the sun didn’t shine into it.
For dinner they had rice and bitter greens. Yi Shen and Hong Bin also had dumplings with sweet bean paste inside. Deng lay on the mat next to Hong Bin on Yi Shen’s floor. He wondered if Nainai was still at the hospital waiting. She must have gone back home to the village. She was probably sitting by the gas cooker, cooking noodles and dumplings. In the morning she would feed the chickens, talk to the chickens and to Ayi from next door.
Deng thought about Mama and Baba too but he could not remember them so well. He remembered the sweet oranges, new clothes and the lucky money in the red envelope they brought home at Spring Festival when they came back from the far away city where they worked. But that was not last Spring Festival. They could not get train tickets then. There were too many people for the trains, Nainai told him. Everyone wants to go home at Spring Festival. Deng went to sleep and dreamed of trains with carriages full of oranges and dumplings.
Yi Shen took Deng and Hong Bin to the market in the morning and Hao Ren was already there. Hao Ren had no legs and he sat on a board with wheels and pushed himself along the footpath with wooden handles and parked outside the market with his cup. Again Deng got enough money to put some in his pocket before the end of the day. He ran to the back of the meat market when Hong Bin came to take some of his money. Hong Bin had a crooked leg and could not run fast. Deng picked up the length of bamboo he had seen by the stalls and hit him on the arms and legs. Hong Bin shouted and dogs barked, a black dog and a yellow dog. Yi Shen came running and shouting, grabbed the bamboo from Deng and began beating him. Another dog joined in the barking and the yellow dog bit Yi Shen’s leg. Yi Shen beat the yellow dog and they all ran away, dogs and boys. Hong Bin was quickly caught but the dogs ran through the nearby park, where another man chased the black dog because it ran across the calligraphy he was painting on the concrete; flowing characters, like Nainai’s writing, but it was just water on dust, shining in the sun and soon gone, into the air. The yellow dog ran to the canal and Deng followed it under the bridge and lay down on a ledge. It was a good place to hide.
*
Davis was a conspicuous figure at Dongtai Lu Market in Shanghai, a tall blond laowai, foreigner, browsing the Revolution art and Chairman Mao memorabilia. He put his glasses on to take a closer look at the merchandise: the pictures, T shirts, badges, busts, ceramic figurines of Mao, right arm upraised in a paternalistic wave, and smiling young soldiers sitting astride missiles. Davis considered the robust ceramic Red Guard standing over the prone, bespectacled figure of an intellectual, wearing a dunce cap. But he wanted something small and portable. He chose a Mao watch and haggled with the diminutive shopkeeper.
“One hundred yuan.”
“Tai gui le. Too much,” Davis protested. “Ten. “
“Eighty yuan,” and so on till they settled on 40. Davis didn’t expect the watch to keep time. He just liked it for its kitschiness; Mao Zedong, Father of the nation, his right forearm waving, or maybe admonishing, as he ticked off the seconds.
Davis browsed more stalls, negotiating the crowds and patting his pocket to make sure he still had his wallet. There was some noisy spitting going on next to him; throat-raking snorting and snarling and then the hoik on the footpath you see everywhere. There was a commotion of shouting and dogs barking at the far end of the market. There was also some screaming close by. A man came running down the narrow street, between the stalls that lined both sides, dragging a crying toddler by the arm, pursued by a screaming woman. Davis swung his right arm out and caught the guy across the neck. His legs flipped up like he’d run into a clothes line and he fell flat on his back. The woman picked up the child and ran off down a side street.
Another Chinese guy arrived and fixed Davis with a stony glare as he helped his mate to his feet. Davis made off through the gate toward his hotel across the road but decided to take another side street and go through a nearby park, which was crowded with people, apartment dwellers with no outdoor space: children with their grandparents, picnickers, kite fliers, men playing cards and Chinese chess, people on exercise equipment, some doing tai chi. He strode past an old man, moving with slow grace, half crouching, arms swinging. And a lone artist with a bucket of water and a brush, painting flowing calligraphy on the concrete path. Water on dust, glowing briefly in the sun before evaporating. A small boy and a yellow dog ran through the park toward the canal.
Davis continued through the park toward Xin Tiandi, also crowded, but lots of Europeans. Sitting in a corner of an outside bar, gazing into a glass of cold beer, he thought about what he had done and what he should do next. There had been no time to think about whether it was a domestic dispute or an attempted abduction. Probably the latter, with the second guy a likely accomplice. He hoped the security camera on the park gate caught the action. CCTV cameras everywhere.
After an hour or so davis walked back to his hotel; the hyperbolically named Magnificent Hotel. It was a very budget hotel and, though it was comfortable enough, it was far from magnificent. There in the lobby was that guy, the accomplice; he was sure it was him. Davis went straight out again, hoping he hadn’t been seen, and booked in to another hotel further down the road, The Graceland. Elvis nowhere in sight. Where do they get these names? He went back to The Magnificent later that night, packed up his stuff and slipped out quietly, forfeiting his deposit.
Next day, as he was tucking into his Peking duck and Chilean cabernet back at Xin Tiandi, a middle-aged Chinese guy sat down at his table and introduced himself as James. Davis looked around for an escape route.
“The mother says thank you, James said.”
“Are you a cop?” Davis asked.
“No, but I work with the police. Child trafficking is such a big industry the police need all the help they can get. You helped us get a picture of the ringleader of a gang that steals children. I wonder if you’d be willing to help us a little more.”
“Maybe I’d be better off going back to Hangzhou. I have to go back to work on Monday.”
“You know how many children stolen in China every year? You know what happens to them? You have children?” More Chinese hard sell. “You wouldn’t have to do much. You want to back to Hangzhou? I want you to meet a man in Hangzhou.”
James told him about a gang that stole babies and sold them in other provinces around China; 40,000 yuan for boys, 25,000 for girls, for childless couples, or set to work as beggars. Older girls too, brides for desperate bachelors, but there was a more lucrative overseas market for sex workers. Davis just had to pose as the European buyer for the police to make an arrest.
“I want you to go to the Shi Ba Jia Hotel to meet Miss Xu, your interpreter.”
“The hotel in Liu Xia.”
“Yes, to the restaurant in the hotel. You give me your phone number. I tell you the time.”
James challenged him on his hesitation. “You don’t believe me? You don’t care about little Chinese kids? You afraid?”
*
When Davis got home, Geoff, his Australian flatmate asked, “So how was the week away in Shangas? Get up to any mischief?” Geoff had worked in international schools in various countries and now they were working at the same private school, teaching English. He was a seasoned traveller and full of tales of exploits and adventures in Thailand, Vietnam, Egypt, Honduras…
Geoff listened to Davis’s story and said, “Geez mate, are you really gonna go through with this? Are you gonna meet these people?”
Davis got the call about a week later. Now if Miss Xu had asked him for his number he wouldn’t have hesitated for a moment. He was having dinner in a private room with just the sort of exotic Oriental beauty he had often admired. He asked her about James. “Who does he work for?”
“He work for his self. Well, he work for stolen kids. He save a lot of kids and got a lot of bad guys arrested. He just started taking photos of kids begging in the street and put them on his blog. Some parents recognise their kids and get them back. Ministry of Public Security check their blood for DNA match. James travels a lot and use all his own money.”
“A real saint.”
“A saint?”
“A very good person.”
“Yes, a very good person.”
“How did you get involved?”
“I was sold and force to prostitute when I was 14. They take me to hotels and make me do 12 customers a day, every day and they never pay me. James finds girls on websites photos in hotel rooms and sometimes he finds which hotel from the photos – hotel name or design on something in the room. He came to my hotel with police.”
Her manner was quite matter of fact, until Davis asked her about how she was stolen.
“Not stolen. My parents very poor and they sell me when I was just little, but they didn’t know I was going to be prostitute. They thought I was going to work for a good family. I was sold a few times. I could never get away.”
She was still young and so petite. She looked like a vulnerable child as she recounted this part of her story. It made Davis feel like he was doing a noble thing.
“So when and where do we meet the seller?”
“Here,” she said and looked at her watch, “in 15 minutes.”
“Uh…”
“Didn’t James tell you?”
“He just told me I’d meet you tonight.”
“You ok with this?”
“Yeah, sure, I just didn’t realise… What about the police?”
“They’re here, in the car park. They follow my self phone,”
She gave Davis a bag of money and a set of car keys. He left his Dong Pu pork but finished his wine.
“Just agree there is three girls and the price is 70,000 each. He might want more but you say no and don’t give money till we see the girls. I will do most the talking anyway.”
A young guy in a smart business suit arrived punctually and politely. Miss Xu gave him a cup of tea. They discussed the business and Davis thought there was some disagreement because of their aggressive tone but she said it was all ok and just show him the money.
Miss Xu thought they would drive somewhere to pick up the girls but they just walked across the car park to the other block with the KTV karaoke. Davis glanced around furtively but didn’t see any police. They took the lift to the top floor and an older guy, quite heavily built for a Chinese, let them into a room and unlocked a bedroom where there were three teenage girls who looked like they were from the countryside.
“Are they all right?” Davis asked, because they were so unresponsive.
Miss Xu explained they keep the girls sedated to make them easier to manage.
Davis understood very little of the ensuing discussion but he heard the word laowai a few times. He handed over the money and while the kidnappers were counting it four black helmeted policemen burst into the room. There was a bit of a scuffle, quickly extinguished with the application of long batons and a roll of duct tape; yes, duct tape, just as effective as handcuffs.
So, two more bad guys put away and the three girls taken to a China Social Assistance Foundation safe house, hopefully to be reunited with their parents, and one very relieved laowai; although he played it very cool for the benefit of the lovely Miss Xu and he began to imagine more dinners together. He wrote a statement for the police with all his details, which would be translated and used in evidence.
When they were all done and Miss Xu dropped him off home he suggested another dinner at the same venue to celebrate. Yes, she would love to but she had to be out of town for a while and she would contact him when she got back.
Davis was sure Geoff would be keen to hear how things turned out but when he got home it turned out he was otherwise engaged, with a guest, in his bed.
In the morning he said, “Hey, Geoff, how old was that girl?”
Geoff said, “Aw I dunno, mate, sometimes it’s better not to ask.”
*
Deng had enough money for chao mian and dumplings and he ate well for a few days, returning to the bridge at night. The nights were getting colder and it was good to curl up with Yellow Dog to keep warm. In the morning they sat on the bridge in the warmth of the sun. Deng could still get some money in his cup, but not much because he would not go back to the big market. He went to some other shops and always kept an eye out for Yi Shen. A woman carrying a small dog gave him five yuan. A man just took his photo and didn’t give any money.
At the back of the Zhi Wei Guan restaurant were bins of food scraps. There were bad smells but usually some food he could eat, mostly rice and steamed buns. Yellow Dog also found food there and meat scraps at the market. She had a fat belly.
This morning Deng woke up to whimpering noises.
“What’s the matter, Yellow?”
Yellow was lying on her side and her belly was moving. She lifted her head and looked at her bottom. Deng watched as a tiny dog came out in a bag of water. Yellow ate the bag and licked the pup. A little while later another pup was born, and another. They all wriggled about, blind and trembling, but were soon suckling at Yellow’s teats. Deng brought water and some food for Yellow while she stayed with her babies for a few days. He went out for money and food every day but sometimes the man at the restaurant chased him away and he was awfully hungry.
Deng curled up with Yellow and the pups in the dark, keeping warm, and he thought about Nainai and her dumplings. He felt tired and his stomach felt empty and sore. He wondered where the village was. It was a long way from the city. The city where Mama and Baba worked was even further away. Were they still there or were they back in the village with Nainai? He thought especially about Mama as he snuggled into Yellow’s soft belly with the pups. His mouth found a teat and the milk was warm and sweet.
*
After a few back to ordinary days at work Davis had an early morning visit from the police. He thought maybe they wanted to check his statement or maybe just thank him for his part in the sting operation and rescuing the girls. Well, actually it was a policeman and an immigration official. It had come to the notice of Immigration that Davis had been working illegally in China as he only had an expired Z visa. They were cracking down on all the foreigners living and working illegally in China. The immigration officer, who had quite good English, said he had booked Davis’s flight out of China and he had 30 minutes to pack before they took him to the airport. He also checked Geoff’s passport, visa and foreign expert’s certificate, which were all in order.
Geoff commiserated. “Geez mate, tough break. You shoulda got a proper visa. I heard they were cracking down.”
He came out and waved as the officers drove off with Davis.