now twelve months pregnant. Six weeks after her initial due date passed, she went for a check-up in a backstreet clinic, and the doctor told her she must have got her dates wrong, and that she should relax and let the baby come out when it’s ready. Although Meili was certain that her dates were correct, when she applied for this job, she was worried the boss wouldn’t hire her if he knew how long the pregnancy had lasted, so she told him she was only six months gone. Old Shao has worked in electronic waste for years. He knows how many jin of lead each brand of computer contains, and the function of every component on a circuit board. He told Meili that there are over seven hundred different chemicals in most electronic machines, and three hundred of them are harmful to the human body. He’s always reminding her to wear her face mask.
‘No, you’d be better off paying a snakehead ten thousand yuan to smuggle you to Hong Kong, and give birth there,’ Xiu butts in, rubbing her bulge. ‘The hospital treatment is free, and the baby would automatically get a Hong Kong residence permit, and as her mother, you could apply for one too.’
‘Or you could go to Macao,’ Cha Na suggests, tweezing the last component from a board. ‘It belongs to China as well now, and costs less to get to than Hong Kong.’
‘If I had ten thousand yuan I could pay the illegal birth fine and wouldn’t need to leave the country,’ Meili says, feeling Heaven turn a somersault and kick her in the bladder. She has got everything ready for the birth: sleepsuits, nappies, socks, bibs, even a longevity locket Kongzi bought in the market, but little Heaven still shows no sign of wanting to come out. She wonders whether she did indeed get the dates wrong, or if the pollution she’s been exposed to has delayed the baby’s development.
‘In Guangzhou, the fine for illegal births has risen to twenty thousand yuan,’ Ah-Fei says, pouring herself more American ginseng tea. ‘So it won’t be long before the fines here rise as well.’
‘Prices of everything are shooting up,’ says Cha Na. ‘Have you seen how much nappies cost these days? I’m going to have to stop buying them and put my baby in open-crotch trousers instead.’
‘Go to the market in Confucius Temple Road,’ Xiu advises. ‘You can buy a top-brand pack of thirty-two nappies for just forty yuan.’
‘No, I bought some there once for a friend,’ says Pang, waving the blue fumes away from her face. ‘They’re fake, filled with mouldy rags.’
‘Remember the family planning officer who came here last month?’ says Ah-Fei, her nostrils flaring above her face mask. ‘I bumped into her the other day. She’s been promoted to chair of Heaven Township’s Women’s Association.’
‘So they’ve set up a Women’s Association here?’ says Old Shao. ‘That means Heaven will soon be granted county status. That’s all down to the hard work of us migrants.’ Old Shao walks along the table emptying the cups of sorted components into baskets which he then takes outside and tips into bamboo crates.
‘You mean the woman with the long skinny neck who comes here before public holidays to hand out condoms?’ says Ah-Fei. ‘She’s not too bad. When she asked me when I had my last period, I told her I hadn’t had one for months, and she didn’t kick up a fuss.’
‘Spring Festival’s only four weeks away now. Will you be spending it with your family this year, Old Shao? If so, please bring me back some salted pickles.’ This woman, Yazhen, is from the same region of Jiangxi Province as Old Shao.
‘No, the trains will be packed. I doubt I’d get a ticket. I think I’ll just stay here.’ Hearing the girls shriek in the backyard he goes to the door and shouts, ‘Nannan and Lulu, get off those boxes! If you break them, the boss will blow his top.’
‘Own up, Old Shao, you’ve got a mistress here, haven’t you?’ Yazhen says, raising an eyebrow. ‘It’s always the same: when men leave home, they forget all about their wives.’
‘And if they do live at home, they just come back for dinner, then run off to sauna houses and nightclubs,’ says Ah-Fei.
‘Aagh!’ Pang yelps, burning her fingers again.
A worker shuffles into the room, takes the empty circuit boards into the yard and dunks them into basins of sulphuric acid to retrieve any remaining scraps of gold. Immediately,