Red Mandarin Dress

the narrator’s face.
    The waiter brought over a large fish platter in hurried steps. It was perhaps the last course.
    “Look at the fish,” Rong said, raising her chopsticks. “Its eyes are still rolling.”
    The bass, covered in brown sauce, appeared nicely cooked with its tail fried golden. The waiter helped with a long spoon, coming up with a white filet. The meat was tenderly done, but the fish’s eyes seemed to be still blinking.
    “There is a special recipe for the fish. You stuff ice cubes in the mouth of the live fish, fry it in a large wok keeping its eyes out of the sizzling oil, take it out in less than a minute, and pour special sauce all over it on a platter. Every step has to be precise and quick. Then serve it hot. That’s why the waiter was trotting out of the kitchen.”
    So Rong proved her expertise in culinary knowledge, and Peiqin had a recipe that might also go into a story, but that was not what she really wanted to learn.
    “Thank you so much, Rong. It is a good story,” Peiqin said, trying to redirect their talk. “But I am still shocked about Qiao. How could a girl like her have come to such a tragic end?”
    “You never know what a customer can turn out to be,” Rong said, looking Peiqin in the eye. “We are not talking about Qiao, are we?”
    “No. I am just using her as an example.”
    “What happened to Qiao is beyond me. Something like that has never happened.”
    “Could she have made enemies because of her service?”
    “No, not that I know of. In fact, of the three-accompanying girls, an eating girl is the least likely to get into trouble,” Rong said. “Not like in a karaoke club, where the fee for a private room can be a huge ripoff. A lot of things are not listed, and you don’t know the expense until they hand you the bill. Here, all the prices are printed on the menu. You lose no face if you say you don’t like a particular dish. I have suggested a house special called live monkey brain, for instance, to god knows how many customers, but none of them ordered it. No hard feelings against them. It’s too cruel, with a chef sawing off the monkey’s shaven scalp, and ladling out the brains in front of the dinners, and the monkey squealing and struggling in pain all the time—”
    “Now back to Qiao,” Peiqin cut in. “Were you with her the night she disappeared?”
    “No. She should have come that night, but she didn’t.”
    “Could she have gone to another restaurant instead?”
    “No, I don’t think so. Competition is fierce everywhere. Among the girls too. Most of them make a point of going to one particular restaurant, and in a more or less organized way. To be frank, that’s how I have helped occasionally. Things can be complicated. A girl has to deal with the restaurant owner and waiters for the profit-sharing; with the local business management bureau for a business license; with the gangsters for so-called protection; and with the cops too, who may make things difficult for her. So if she turned up in a new place all by herself, she could be driven out by the waiters or gangsters, if not by other girls. It’s their territory. She could get into other trouble too.”
    “So you don’t think she fell prey to the murderer during the service.”
    “No, not in our restaurant.”
    “Another question, Rong. Did she have a boyfriend?”
    “No, she did not. It’s not easy for a girl here to keep a steady relationship. What would he think—as a man? She has to lie to him about her profession, and the game never lasts long. Once he finds out, everything is finished—because of his wounded male ego.”
    “Did she talk to you about her future plans?”
    “She said she was saving for a flower shop, she had no plans to be an eating girl forever.” Rong added, “Before she had her flower business, she said she wouldn’t think about other things.”
    “So what do you think of the case?”
    “A murderer might have met her in the restaurant, got her phone number, and asked her out days later. On the other hand, she might also have met her fate in a way unrelated to her service.”
    “That’s true.”
    “You are not a cop, are you, Peiqin?”
    “No, I am not,” Peiqin said. “I have worked at the Four Seas since my return from Yunnan. Our state-run restaurant has suffered losses and our chef suggests that we should run it like a high-end restaurant with fashionable services. You may be able to give us advice.”
    That was a true statement.