The Interior (Red Princess 2)

“Oh, I don’t think it’s that,” Hulan said. “She’s just young.”

“She’s older than me,” Peanut corrected.

“In years, yes,” Hulan said. “But unlike you, she’s insecure. We should try to make allowances for that. She’ll grow up in time.”

“You say that after the way she treated you today?” Peanut asked as they walked toward the exit. “You’re a good person.”

“Not so good,” Hulan responded, “just old like Tang Siang said earlier today.”

Peanut giggled, then turned serious. “What I told you before about sneaking out of here…”

“Yes?”

“It’s not as easy as I said.”

“I didn’t think it could be.”

“Actually, I’ve never done any of those things that I said before,” Peanut admitted.

“I won’t tell.”

“And only a handful of women have ever left the compound,” Peanut said.

“Maybe some have kept it a secret.”

“You think anyone could keep a secret around here?” Peanut quipped. “I’ll tell you this: All of us have plotted ways to leave, but only a few have had the courage. They’re so strict here. You would lose your job for sure if they caught you. That’s why it’s safer to be in the compound. It’s easy to hide in here. Even if they spot you during lights out, you’re only docked pay. On the other hand, if someone sees Tang Siang with the manager, no one will report them.”

They stepped outside. The sun hung low in the sky, but the heat had not begun to abate.

“Funny, though,” Peanut mused. “She’s in love with the same village boy that Ling Miaoshan was supposed to marry. Now she’s going off to do the house thing with Manager Red Face.”

“When you’re held under water, you only think of air,” Hulan recited. “She thinks she’s trapped, and like the lowest rat she’ll do anything to get free.”

“It’s not for me.”

“Or me either,” Hulan agreed.

“Yet you’re going to try and leave the compound tonight.” With Peanut’s eyes boring into her, Hulan couldn’t lie. Peanut accepted the news with an abrupt nod of her head, then added, “I’m the designated room watcher. It’s my responsibility to report you.”

“But you won’t.”

“I never reported Miaoshan, because she always said she would report me as retribution even though I’d done nothing.”

“I’d never report you even if I caught you.”

“Be careful,” Peanut warned. “You’ve already been given one chance. It’s just like what happens if you’re injured. You hurt your hand but not badly, so you can stay—for now. If you have a more severe injury or if you get hurt more than once, you disappear. The same goes for sneaking around. If they find out, maybe they’ll give you another chance; maybe you’ll disappear like the others.

“I’d just go home to my family.”

“Maybe.”

Hulan frowned, then asked, “The other women do go home to their families, don’t they?”

“Sure. I’ve seen people go back to the villages around here, but how do I know what happens to the girls from far away? The factory hired them from a distant place and paid their way here, but how do I know what happens if they want to go home? For all I know, those girls go on to Beijing or south to Guangzhou or out in the fields here and die. I’m not there. I don’t see it. All I’m saying is that if you get in trouble, you’re gone. If you get hurt like Xiao Yang today, you’re gone forever.”

“If what you say is true, maybe you should report this to the Public Security Bureau,” Hulan suggested in a mock serious tone, believing Peanut’s words to be as much of an exaggeration as her various sexual escapades.

“Me? Never!” Peanut laughed. “Don’t take everything so seriously.”