It was night when Min Hui came to Jiangzhou, Lanjin Pavilion’s business was in full swing, and the proprietress was busy picking up work and counting money, so she kept waiting for an hour before finally showing up: “The police station called me, I’ve said everything I need to say, the 19th has been with us for more than a year-“
“Number 19?” Min Hui didn’t understand.
“That’s Li Chunmiao.” The lady boss typed on the computer without raising her head. “Conscientious work, excellent technology, and good service attitude—that’s all. I don’t know anything else.”
“I want to go to her dormitory and I heard she still has some stuff there.”
“The bed has been given to someone else. The sheets, quilts, toiletries, etc. have been thrown away. There is only one box left. If you want, I will bring it to you tomorrow on the 22nd.”
“Who is number 22?”
The proprietress pondered for a moment, her brain struggling to switch before the number and name: “…Zhao Yingmei, they are the upper and lower bunk beds.”
“Can I meet Zhao Yingmei?”
“She’s at work, and she ends work at two in the middle of the night.” The proprietress glanced up at her, “Why don’t you press your foot here, rest, and chat with her along the way.”
Really know how to do business and don’t miss every opportunity. Min Hui nodded: “Alright.”
She flipped through the price list: “Then let’s do a hot stone oil and foot massage, 650 per hour, I’ll give you the group purchase price, 400. You can start in ten minutes.”
“Can it be cheaper?” In Bencheng, where Min Hui lives, there are more than 30,000 foot bath shops, and the price of an hour is usually around two or three hundred. The Lanjin Pavilion depends on the appearance, location, and decoration. They are not high-level, Jiangzhou is not yet Bincheng University, she did not expect the fees to be so expensive, she suspected that she was deliberately slaughtering people.
“We use genuine essential oils. Are they expensive? Just two hundred yuan per bottle of essential oil. Looking at your head, one bottle may not be enough.” The proprietress raised her eyebrows, “I heard that she Saved your life?”
“Yes.”
“I gave you 40% off for her sake,” the proprietress sneered, “You still haggle? Where’s your conscience? Does it hurt?”
Pain. Min Hui obediently pays.
***
Zhao Yingmei is a beautiful girl with big eyes and a small face, light makeup and long black hair. She gives the first impression of a pure and quiet student girl.
The student girl wore a tight-fitting, low-cut, short-sleeved cheongsam, and stepped on five-centimeter high-heeled shoes. The scent of perfume was strong, and her hands were so strong that Min Hui screamed “ooh” in pain.
“Sister does copywriting, right? Her back is so tight that she has to rub hard to open the meridians.” Yingmei is skilled, her fingers as hard as iron, rubbing and pinching on Min Hui’s back , and push and press.
“Actually, I’m not here for a massage,” Min Hui said quickly, “I’m here to find—”
“Li Chunmiao, right? The lady boss told me.” Yingmei slowly dripped the essential oil into her palm and wiped it with her fingers interlaced, “You can come to me tomorrow morning at ten o’clock to get the box.”
When she pushed for the second time, she finally relaxed a lot, and Min Hui was so comfortable that she almost fell asleep: “You live with Chunmiao, so you must be very familiar?”
“It’s true that we are together every day. We eat and sleep together, but we don’t know each other very well. She cares about others, but she doesn’t like to talk about herself. You know, every family has a hard-to-read scripture. Her hometown is In Chihe City, Guangxi, there is an autonomous county of ethnic minorities below. What ethnic group is there? I forgot. In short, in the mountains, it can be very poor. She came out at the age of sixteen, and she never went back, saying it was her hometown. There’s no one there.”
“Where is Jiangzhou? Are there any close relatives, colleagues, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc.?”
“No.” Yingmei shook her head decisively, “It’s been less than two years since Rankin Court opened, and I know her the most, and I don’t have much time to communicate. Our wages here are on a piece rate, and the more you earn, the more you earn. The more they get, the more everyone is busy earning money. They work thirteen hours a day. They don’t know what sunrise is, what is breakfast, and they can’t see the sun. After get off work at two in the middle of the night, they fall asleep at the dormitory and wake up to wash up. I’m going to work again soon. There are no holidays, and the more holidays, the busier…”
When it came to the suffering of working girls, Yingmei couldn’t stop. Min Hui listened and looked at this private room, which was less than ten square meters. The air was more suffocating because of the aromatherapy, and there was not even a window in the room. , No wonder the foot-washing girl is pale… She imagined Chunmiao when she was working, with endless customers, endless massage, day after day, year after year, in this dark room, Earthworms generally live.
“Has she told you about her future plans? Since there is no one in her hometown, she must have saved a lot of money over the years, right?”
As soon as the words came out, Min Hui felt a little regretful. She wondered why she was involved in money, and would it make people misunderstood, thinking that she came all the way to covet the savings of a working girl?
Zhao Yingmei didn’t care at all: “There must be some money, and she also saves a lot. Before her mother died, she borrowed a lot of money for medical treatment. The owner of the clothing fell in love with her, her surname was Feng, she lived in Guangzhou, and asked Chunmiao if she would like to go with him. The man’s condition is very good, and he is generous, but he is a little older and has a wife and children at home. He said he wanted to A son, you can buy a house for her alone, and you can open a small shop. Chunmiao doesn’t do anything, you say stupid? The boss screwed up with her and came to her every night. Press it, it takes five minutes to press it, and even if you drink too much, Chunmiao scolded him once, but the lady boss found out, deducted her one month’s salary, and almost told her to get out… In the dormitory I’ll persuade her, Li Chunmiao, Li Chunmiao, isn’t it because you’ve worked so hard to find a good home? What’s wrong with you outside? If you have a son, your status will be stable, and we can still be the main house from the beginning. Madam? Take your time, right? As long as you serve the man well, you can do whatever you want. This is life, not a TV show! Sister, do you think this is true?”
Min Hui listened silently, feeling the urge to slap Yingmei’s head hard, but she resisted. Everyone has their own point of view when looking at issues. There are many people who see things upside down. She is not surprised and can’t control it. So he continued to ask: “Then Chunmiao left Lanjin Pavilion this time, did she resign?”
“I haven’t heard of it. She hasn’t received her salary for this month. She has worked here for more than ten months and never took a day off. This time, she said that she had to go back to her hometown for something. After all, she was an excellent employee. The proprietress immediately Approved.”
“Her home is in Hechi, how could she go to Mushui River?” Min Hui drew a map in her mind: Chunmiao was a bus at Yukong Station, Yukong and Hechi were one in the north and the other in the south, and in the middle Jiangzhou, if you go back to your hometown, how should you go north, and go to such a remote place?
“Who knows why. Don’t look at this Chunmiao giggling and laughing on weekdays. In fact, it’s mysterious and has a big idea. You can see it from Boss Feng. It’s not surprising to me, there are not many people. What about a relative who is working abroad? Maybe the original plan was to go back to his hometown, and the person he was looking for went out to work, so he changed his place.”
Makes sense. Min Hui asked again, “Have you heard her mention anyone? Maybe you don’t know her, but you are very close to her? For example, she has a younger brother who was lost when she was a child? And how did her parents die? “
Chunmiao is 25 years old this year, and her parents should be around 50 years old. Even if her hometown is poor and the living environment is poor, it is rare for both of them to die at this age.
“Does she have a younger brother?” Yingmei shook her head, “I didn’t hear her mention it. It was said that her parents died. Her father passed away when she was a child. Her mother died when she was fourteen, and she has always had She was sick, and spent the last two years in bed. After her mother died, she had nowhere to go. She lived at her cousin’s house for a period of time, and her aunt thought she was a drag, so she beat her at every turn, didn’t give her food, and ran away if she couldn’t bear it. I came out to work.”
“Aren’t you going to school?”
“Let’s go to primary school culture.”
“What about hobbies?”
“Every day I get up early and stay in the dark, and I can’t afford any hobbies. In our dormitory, everyone’s hobbies are similar, surfing the Internet, shopping, putting on face masks, etc. Oh, she has a hobby, like swimming. But I haven’t seen her swim, and the nearby gyms are quite expensive.”
An hour soon ended, and Yingmei sent Min Hui to the front desk to pay the money and then went to another room. Min Hui approached the proprietress and asked for Chunmiao’s last month’s salary. The proprietress gave a “sneer” laugh and put her hands on her hips: “What kind of salary do you need when everyone is dead? Besides, why should I give it to you?”
“First, she didn’t die, she just disappeared. The police station appointed me to take care of her belongings. The salary is the legal income of her labor, you must hand it over, and I will give you a receipt. Second, I I am looking for her family, and if I find it, I will hand over the money to him intact, which will help the family to some extent.”
“Then it’s not too late if you find your family and ask me again.” The proprietress folded her arms and looked at her defiantly.
“It’s inconvenient to go back and forth, I want it now.”
“Miss, for the sake of the dead employee, we have been cooperating with you all the time,” the proprietress sank, “Don’t stare at your face, I don’t know what to do.”
“Then I’ll have to call the police. By the way, I’ll report the situation where you forced employees to provide illegal services…” Min Hui took out her mobile phone, “The Women’s Federation, the newspapers, and the newspapers will all report and report, so as to attract social attention to the greatest extent.”
The proprietress opened the drawer angrily, counted out a stack of bills and threw it in front of her: “This is her salary last month, 6,000 yuan, you can take it.”
Min Hui wrote a few words on a piece of paper and threw it to her: “This is the receipt.”
Speak and walk away.
***
Probably received an instruction from the proprietress. On the second day, Zhao Yingmei kept Min Hui from entering the dormitory to sort out Chunmiao’s belongings. The two met at the gate of Lanjin Pavilion. Zhao Yingmei dragged an old small suitcase from her bicycle: “That’s all she has left. There is a lock on it and no one has touched it.”
“Thank you.” Min Hui reached out to pick it up, Zhao Yingmei shook it hard, then let go and looked at her solemnly, “The lady boss asked me to throw away everything inside, so I’ll leave an empty box for you. I thought to myself, why bother, she is too bad.”
Min Hui looked at her and smiled: “I will keep it properly.”
“Do you think… Chunmiao will come back alive?” Yingmei asked.
Min Hui looked down and said, “I don’t know.”
The two sighed at the same time.
“By the way, this pearl hairpin belongs to her,” Yingmei pointed to her hair, “I bought it when we were shopping together. I want to keep it as a souvenir, okay?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“Goodbye then, take care!” Yingmei said as she was about to turn around when Min Hui suddenly said, “Your hair is so dark, do you often use hair masks?”
“Yeah. How do you know? Do you want to use it? It’s a little expensive. I recommended it to Chunmiao, and she was reluctant. It’s available in the Taobao store.”
“Let’s add a WeChat, you can send Lian to me.” Min Hui said.
“Okay.” Yingmei’s answer was a little reluctant, as if she felt it was unnecessary. But she still scanned the code.
***
Back to the hotel, Min Hui put the box on the bed, picked the lock to open it, and found a stack of clothes neatly placed inside, including suits, sweaters, and silk scarves. It can be seen that the quality is good. All of them have been carefully ironed, probably for interviews, and they are usually reluctant to wear them.
The box has a strong camphor smell, and a thick down jacket takes up a lot of space. There was a blue canvas pouch in the compartment, from which Min Hui pulled out a white enamel water cup, a thick diary, and a yellowed white T-shirt with a huge semicircle printed on it. .
The enamel water cup is a few years old. The words “Yongquan Children’s Welfare Institute” are printed on it, and the word “Xin Qi” is written in red paint in the blank. It can be seen that it is handwritten. The paper of the diary is very thick and has turned yellow. The first page has the words “Su Tian Diary” written in thick and large strokes. Inside is a line-by-line diary, with different font sizes, like a primary school student’s copybook, the beginning date is 1996.
Min Hui calculated in her heart, that year, Chunmiao was seven years old. Who is Su Tian?
I turned a page and was about to look down, when suddenly a folded letter fell out of it. Min Hui unfolded it and saw that it said:
“Su Tian,
You must go to the swimming competition on the day I leave you, are you not willing to see me off? That’s fine, you and I don’t have to be too sad.
I was a little nervous about going that far on a plane for the first time. Thinking of our future, I haven’t slept for several days.
When I’m not by your side, you have to take good care of yourself and live happily. Today, ten years later, I will definitely come back to you. You have to remember to wait for me at the place where we ate ice cream for the first time, put on the clothes I gave you, and bring the cup I gave you, this is the mark of our meeting.
I will marry you, I will love you, and I will give you the home you want.
If I didn’t show up that day, something very serious must have happened, don’t be afraid, I may not die, you have to give me another chance.
Three years later, on the same day, you must do it again. If I still hadn’t arrived by then, I’d definitely be dead. Please forget me and move on with your life.
As for you, you have no reason not to come. You have to come, and you have to crawl.
You are not allowed to like other boys, including secret crushes, before you meet me. As long as I live to see you, they will definitely be inferior to me.
Wait for me and let me take care of you for the rest of your life. I swear.
Xin Qi XXXX, July 7th