sitting in the garden of the Sky Beyond the Sky Hotel at the time, facing the setting sun. The magazine had been left behind by a guest from a distant city.
The cabin is filled with the smell of someone’s fish and red turnip soup, and the deep-fried meatballs Kongzi bought at a stall near the wharf. The meatballs will be delicious once they’re reheated: crisp on the outside, with a soft, piping-hot interior. She can almost taste them in her mouth now. Kongzi is kneeling by the kerosene stove, tossing chopped spring onions into the wok.
‘Have a glass of Addled Immortal with us, Mr Kong,’ calls out one of the four men who live in the cabin next door and work for the same demolition team as Kongzi. On the dirty wall behind them is a pin-up of a Chinese model with peroxide hair.
‘No, you carry on without me,’ Kongzi replies, dropping the meatballs into the sizzling spring onions. His greasy hair is thick with dust. The only clean thing on his body is the sweat running down his face.
As Meili gets up to fetch some bowls, she feels the blood rush to her head. The fetus kicks her low in the abdomen, making her lose balance. She has to remind herself that this isn’t their kitchen back at home. There is no table to lean on. They have left the village and are now living on a barge hotel.
‘Why not have a shower before we eat?’ she says to Kongzi. After he grabs a towel and wanders off, she sits down and hums along to the song playing on the distant cassette player. Closing her eyes, she imagines herself onstage belting out the ballad wearing an elegant silk gown. But soon two men on the deck below start arguing over a stolen leg of ham, a child cackles in the corridor and a soap opera’s theme tune booms from the television in the meeting room. Annoyed by the din, she wraps a rag around her hands and carries the stove onto the deck. The air is fresher outside, although smells of rust and mould from the cabins leak out now and then.
‘I know there’s no family planning squad here,’ Meili says to Kongzi when he returns from his shower, ‘but I still feel nervous, living on this boat like outcasts.’
‘You’ve no need to,’ Kongzi says, sitting down, bare-chested, beside the cardboard box they use as a table. ‘We’ve been in Sanxia almost four months, and haven’t been approached by one family planning cadre. Your hormones are making you overly anxious.’
‘Have you called home recently?’ she asks, slipping her shoes off and rubbing her bare feet on the metal deck.
‘Not since last month. Father said the whole of Nuwa County is under martial law. Riot police have been stationed in every village. He told me not to phone them again until the baby’s born. I don’t know why he’s so nervous. The county authorities would never turn on a war hero like him. The school’s summer term has started. Kong Dufa has taken over my post.’
‘That po-faced bore – what does he know about teaching?’ Meili says testily, whisking a mosquito from her face. ‘If only we’d waited five years before having a second child. Look at all the sacrifices we’ve had to make to bring little Happiness into the world. When is this going to end?’ She sits on a stool, bending her legs behind her so that her knees don’t press into her large belly.
‘Don’t worry – we’ll go home as soon as martial law is lifted,’ Kongzi says, trying to sound confident.
‘The baby is due in three months, but this town is a demolition site – it doesn’t even have a hospital. I think I’m developing a fever. You must buy me some Yellow Ox pills tomorrow to bring it down.’ Meili feels stifled by the darkness surrounding her, and wishes something stimulating could break the atmosphere. She looks over to the boat near the wharf which has been converted into a video parlour. Three coloured light bulbs are flashing above its entrance. It screens martial arts films during the day and porn movies at night. Kongzi sneaked off to watch one a few nights ago without telling her. When he returned to the cabin afterwards he made love to her like an animal.
‘I’ll find a hospital for you when the time comes, I promise,’ he says to her. ‘I earn ten times more as a demolition