A Loyal Character Dancer

Zhou, whom Chen trusted.
     
    “You didn’t have to come all this way,” Chen said. “I will be back at the bureau tomorrow. Nobody knows of your trip to Suzhou?” Chen asked.
     
    “Nobody. Not even Party Secretary Li.”
     
    “Thank you so much, Little Zhou. You are taking a great risk for me.”
     
    “Don’t mention it, Chief Inspector Chen. I’m your man. Everybody knows that in the bureau. Let me drive you back tonight. It’s safer in Shanghai.”
     
    “No, don’t worry. We have something to do here,” Chen said. “Let me talk to the hotel manager. There should be another room available. You can return to Shanghai tomorrow morning.”
     
    “No, you don’t have to. If there’s nothing for me to do here, I’m leaving. But first I’ll go to the night market for some local products.”
     
    “Good idea. Live river shrimps are a must. And Suzhou braised tofu too.” He wrote his cell phone number on a card for Little Zhou. “Both you and Lu can call me at this number.”
     
    He walked out to the door with Little Zhou. “It’s a long drive back to Shanghai. Take care, Little Zhou.”
     
    “Two hours. No sweat.”
     
    Back in his room, he opened the envelope. It contained a cassette tape with a short introduction from Yu.
     
    Chief Inspector Chen:
     
    Following the interview with Zheng, I found Tong Jiaqing in a hair salon. Tong is a girl in her early twenties, charged with indecent practices on several occasions, though discharged soon afterward each time. The following is the interview with her in one of those private rooms. As you did in the national model worker case, I made an appointment at the salon.
     
    Yu: So you are Tong Jiaqing.
     
    Tong: That’s correct. Why do you ask that?
     
    Yu: I am from the Shanghai Police Bureau. Take a look at my card.
     
    Tong: What! A cop. I’ve done nothing wrong, Officer Yu. Since the
    beginning of the new year, I’ve been working here as a law-abiding
    hairdresser.
     
    Yu: I know what you do. That’s not my business. As long as you
    cooperate by answering my questions, I will not bring any trouble
    down on you.
     
    Tong: What questions?
     
    Yu: Questions about Feng Dexiang.
     
    Tong: Feng Dexiang? Um, he used to be one of my clients.
     
    Yu: At this hair salon?
     
    Tong: No, at the massage salon in the city of Fuzhou.
     
    Yu: That’s where the police charged you several times. So did you
    see him a lot there?
     
    Tong: That was more than a year ago. He had some sort of small
    business, trading fake jade bracelets or selling mud-covered crabs.
    So for a while, about four or five months, he came to the salon
    once or twice a week.
     
    Yu: Give me the details of his visits.
     
    Tong: Well, you can guess. Do I need to tell you the details? You’re
    recording my statement. It will be used as evidence against me.
     
    Yu: Not if you cooperate. You know Zheng Shiming, don’t you? He
    gave me your address. I’m on a special assignment here. With
    your past record, you know how easy it would be to put you back
    in jail. No one will be able to procure your release this time.
     
    Tong: Don’t scare me. I was just one of the massage girls. At a
    massage salon, you know, there’s basic service and full service. A
    client pays fifty Yuan for basic, but four or five hundred Yuan for
    full, not including the tip.
     
    Yu: Now at the price of four or five hundred Yuan, Feng came once
    or twice a week for half a year. That was a lot of money. You must
    have some expertise. Feng had a small business, as you said. How
    could he have afforded this?
     
    Tong: I don’t know. Those people never tell you what they really
    do. They only tell you what they want you to do. And then they do
    whatever they like with their stinking money.
     
    Yu: Did you know that Feng was married?
     
    Tong: A massage girl does not ask such questions. But he told me
    about it the first night.
     
    Yu: What did he say about his marriage?
     
    Tong: He said he had lost all interest in Wen. A piece of dead meat
    in bed. No fresh taste or smell. No response. He got those dirty
    videotapes from Taiwan, for her to do the same hot stuff as in the
    tapes. She was unwilling, and he punished her.
     
    Yu: A perverted bastard. What kind of punishment?
     
    Tong: He bound her hands and feet, burned her breasts with a
    candle, struck her body with a piece of firewood, and fucked her
    like an animal. It’s the punishment she deserved, he said—
     
    Yu: Why did he want to