‘Put all your cash and valuables on the table, then,’ Old Wu says, pointing at her aggressively. ‘If you try to hide anything from me, I’ll fucking kill you!’
‘All I have is the thirty yuan I made from selling eggs this morning. Comrade, can I ask you something?’
‘What?’ the officer behind the desk says, looking up.
‘The sign outside said Custody and Repatriation Centre. So is this a prison? Have I committed a crime?’
‘No, it’s not a prison.’
‘What is it, then?’ Meili says, her voice shaking.
‘It’s a place that houses undesirables like you. We’ve been ordered to evict 300,000 peasants and vagrants from the city before the National Day celebrations next week, and you’ve fallen into our net, I’m afraid.’ He hands her the registration form, tells her to sign at the bottom, then passes her a sponge filled with red ink, two blank sheets of paper and tells her to sign and fingerprint these as well.
‘But there’s nothing written on them. What am I signing for?’
‘None of your business. Just get on with it.’
Meili does as she’s told.
‘Now take her to the warehouse!’ The officer files away the forms, brushes some orange peel from his desk and takes a sip from his mug of tea.
Meili follows a policewoman into a warehouse in the backyard. The interior is dark and cavernous. A single bulb hangs from the high ceiling. There are no beds, just numbered rectangles painted in yellow on the concrete floor. Meili is taken to number 15. A narrow path between the rectangles leads to a large plastic bucket at the far end for the detainees to use as a toilet.
‘Where do we go to make telephone calls, comrade?’ Meili asks a girl with glasses who’s lying on the rectangle next to hers.
‘You’ll have to wait until the morning.’
‘Where do you come from?’ Glancing around her, Meili notices that all the detainees are women. Some are crying, others are eating and chatting, but most are curled up like shrimp on their yellow rectangles.
‘Me?’ the girl says with a look of unease on her face. ‘I’m a graduate. I came to Changsha to find work.’
‘Ah, you must be very knowledgeable then. So can you tell me, is this a prison?’
‘Look at point number 8 of the notice on the wall: “Voluntarily confess your crimes and expose the crimes of others.” So it’s obvious they consider us to be criminals.’
‘I’ve only had one baby out of quota,’ Meili says. ‘Is that enough to get me locked up?’
‘It’s nothing to do with family planning. You’re here because you’re a peasant, and peasants aren’t allowed in the cities unless they have a temporary urban residence permit. Surely you know that?’
A female correctional officer sticks her head round the door and shouts, ‘Shut up and lie down, you scum. The light goes out in five minutes!’
‘I beg you, government lady, let me go home,’ a voice cries out. ‘My son’s alone in the flat. What if he walks onto the balcony and falls over the rails?’
‘You can’t just abduct people in broad daylight and lock them up for no reason,’ another woman says. ‘You’re behaving like gangsters.’
‘I’m not a peasant. I was just having a meal in a restaurant after work. Is that against the law now? Please let me go. Look, I have a train ticket to Guangzhou. It’s leaving in two hours. My uncle will be waiting at the other end to collect me.’ This girl has a fashionable bob and a smart dress and could easily pass for a city dweller were it not for her thick rural accent.
‘It’s strange that they should arrest you – you don’t look like a peasant at all,’ Meili says to the graduate, then scans the room again while the light is still on, breathing the unfamiliar, pungent smells of perfume and unwashed bodies. The graduate looks away, her expression blank. ‘So, when were you arrested?’ Meili asks her.
‘Three days ago,’ she replies. ‘There’s no one in this city who can help me. I warn you, if your family or friends don’t bail you out, you’ll be sent to a labour camp for three months. You must phone someone and ask them to rescue you.’
‘No, I’m a family planning fugitive. If any of my relatives turn up here, they’ll have to confirm my identity, and I’ll be sent back to the village and be forced to pay a huge fine.’
‘To think that we’re illegal residents in our own country!’ the