Eleven thirty in the morning.
Miss Jiang stood in front of the mirror, staring at the pale blue spaghetti-strap dress she was wearing.
The straps were so thin they were like threads. One wrong move and she’d be showing more than she meant to.
She tugged at the neckline.
No. Too revealing.
She dug out an ivory sun-protective jacket and draped it over her shoulders, letting it hang loosely.
She checked herself in the mirror. This would have to do.
Miss Jiang grabbed the few hundred yuan in cash left on her bedside table, shoved it all into her dress pocket, and headed out.
The stairwell reeked of cooking oil fumes wafting from the apartments, mixed with the sour stench rising from the drains.
Her high-heeled sandals clicked crisply against the concrete stairs.
As she passed the second floor, a middle-aged woman from next door was coming out with a basin of washed vegetables.
She froze when she saw Miss Jiang.
“Well, Little Jiang, aren’t you looking pretty today?” the woman asked with a beaming smile, though her eyes traveled up and down Jiang Li.
“I’m going to buy groceries,” Miss Jiang replied coolly, without stopping.
“Dressing like that just to buy groceries? Who are you trying to seduce…?” the woman muttered. Her voice wasn’t loud, but Miss Jiang heard every word.
Jiang Li paused.
She turned around and flashed the woman a dazzling smile. “Auntie, I could throw a sack over myself and go to the market and still look better than you did on your blind date. It’s called having good looks to begin with. Get it?”
The smile vanished from the woman’s face. She nearly dropped the basin in her hands.
Miss Jiang turned and continued downstairs, her heels clicking even louder.
When she emerged from the narrow alley in the urban village, sunlight came crashing down all around her.
Miss Jiang squinted and raised a hand to shield her eyes.
The market was just two hundred meters ahead.
She could already hear the vendors hawking their wares, mixed with the squawks of chickens and ducks and the roar of motorcycles.
The ground was slick, strewn with wilted vegetable leaves and puddles. The air was thick with the smell of fish, meat, and some other foul odor she couldn’t place.
Frowning, Miss Jiang carefully picked her way around the puddles.
At the fish stall ahead, the vendor was scraping scales off a fish, splattering bloody water everywhere.
She walked around him and went to the meat stall.
Several pieces of pork lay greasy on the chopping board, with a few ribs piled beside them.
The owner was a balding man in his fifties. With a cigarette dangling from his mouth, he scrolled through short videos on his phone with grease-stained fingers.
“What do you want?” Old Zhang asked without looking up.
Miss Jiang took half a step back and pointed.
Her fingertip was painted pale pink, the polish glittering faintly in the sunlight.
“Those ribs.”
Old Zhang looked up.
The cigarette nearly fell from his mouth onto the chopping board.
He stared at Miss Jiang for several seconds. “H-how much should I cut?”
“I want all of them. But cut them about this big.” She indicated the size with two fingers.
Old Zhang looked at her fair fingers, then at her face, and swallowed.
“R-right. Just a moment.”
He hurriedly picked up his cleaver and started chopping the ribs.
He was far more careful than usual.
The owners of several nearby stalls leaned over to watch.
“Old Zhang, who’re you cutting that meat for? Did you measure it with a ruler?”
“My wife buys from you, and I’ve never seen you put this much effort in.”
“What’s this, giving special treatment now?”
Old Zhang ignored them and focused on chopping the ribs.
Ten minutes later, he packed the ribs, each piece almost exactly the same size, into a plastic bag.
“Miss, how do these look?” Old Zhang asked cautiously, handing it over.
Miss Jiang took the bag and glanced inside. “That’ll do. How much?”
“Ninety-eight.” Old Zhang rubbed his hands together. “If you think that’s too much…”
Miss Jiang pulled a red banknote from her pocket and slapped it down at the edge of the chopping board.
“Keep the change. The extra is for your work.”
Then she picked up the bag and walked away.
Old Zhang stood there, staring at the hundred-yuan note in his hand.
“Old Zhang, what kind of damn luck have you got?” a neighboring vendor came over. “A pretty girl actually tipped you?”
Old Zhang came back to himself and grinned. “She’s beautiful. What’s wrong with me doing a little extra work for her? Look at you, acting all pathetic.”
Miss Jiang left the market with three plastic bags in hand.
Ribs, greens, and two tomatoes.
The sun grew fiercer. Sweat began to bead on her forehead, and her sun-protective jacket clung damply to her back.
She stopped outside a pharmacy.
For several seconds, she stared at the glass door.
After a moment’s hesitation, she went inside.
A blast of air-conditioning hit her.
The pharmacy was empty except for a bespectacled saleswoman sitting behind the counter, playing on her phone.
She looked up as Jiang Li entered. “What are you looking for?”
Jiang Li walked up to the counter. “Do you have scar cream?”
“Yes. Imported or domestic?”
“Imported.”
The saleswoman turned and took a silver tube of ointment from a cabinet. “This one works best. Three hundred and eighty.”
Jiang Li picked it up and glanced at the packaging. It was all in English.
“Do you also have waterproof bandages? The large ones.”
“Yes.” The saleswoman took out a box of bandages. “Thirty. Four hundred and ten altogether.”
Jiang Li took out all the money left in her pocket.
It wasn’t enough.
She’d have to pay with a combination of cash and mobile payment.
The saleswoman took the cash, ran it through the bill counter, then put the medicine in a bag and handed it to Jiang Li.
“Thank you.”
Jiang Li carried the bag toward the exit.
All along the way, the neighborhood women’s eyes followed her like searchlights.
“Whose daughter is that? She’s so pretty.”
“She’s not from around here, is she?”
“Look at that little face. So fresh and dewy.”
Jiang Li walked all the way back to the rental apartment.
She opened the door. The place was empty; Huo Yan hadn’t come back yet.
She set the groceries on the small kitchen counter, then stuffed the pharmacy bag into the back of the bedside table’s deepest drawer and covered it with a pile of odds and ends.
When she was done, Jiang Li collapsed onto the folding sofa.
She was exhausted.
She looked down at her high heels. They’d rubbed a red mark onto the back of her foot.
Damn the original host. What kind of crappy shoes had she bought?
Jiang Li kicked them off and stepped barefoot onto the concrete floor. It felt cool underfoot.
She closed her eyes, and a thought suddenly occurred to her: Would Huo Yan really buy a mattress today?
Well, if he did, she’d take it.
If he didn’t, she’d keep calling him poor.
Perfect.
Just then, her phone buzzed.
Jiang Li picked it up. A message had come in from Xu Chaoyang, saved in her contacts as “Fat Sheep No. 6.”
【Xu Chaoyang: Lili, I’ve settled on Jinyue Hotel for my birthday banquet the day after tomorrow. It starts at seven in the evening. I’ll have my driver pick you up.】
Jinyue Hotel?
Jiang Li’s eyes lit up.
It was the most expensive five-star hotel in the city.
This fish looked like it had plenty of fat on it.
【Jiang Li: No need to pick me up. I’ll go by myself.】
【Xu Chaoyang: How can I let you do that? It’s not safe for you to go alone.】
【Jiang Li: Big Brother Chaoyang, I have a boyfriend. It wouldn’t be appropriate for your driver to pick me up.】
【Xu Chaoyang: …All right, then. Be careful on your own.】
【Jiang Li: Mm. See you then.】
After sending the message, Jiang Li tossed her phone aside.
She’d have to wear something nice to the birthday banquet.
Otherwise, how could she make herself look “like a prize worth bidding for”?
But all the original host’s dresses were cheap market knockoffs. She’d only embarrass herself wearing one of them out.
She had to find a way to get herself a decent suit of armor.