The foreman held out his five-fingered hand, and when I reached for it, my body rebelled and listed to one side.
Somehow Kaiser Shih caught me and held me upright. Ah Seng rushed over with a tin cup of water, which Kaiser Shih pushed away, shouting, Get her bottled water. She’s a foreigner.
He helped me into the corridor, where it was significantly cooler. With my back pressed to the wall, I let gravity take my seat to the ground. Inside that infernal room, the whirring machinery never slowed.
Ah Seng returned with a bottle of water, which I gulped down.
I’ll drive you to the hotel, Kaiser Shih said.
There’s a driver, I managed to get out.
Then I’ll accompany you there.
In the car, he told the driver to turn up the air-conditioning and then trained the vents on me.
How can they work like that? I asked.
What do you mean? said Kaiser Shih.
It’s way too hot.
They’re used to it.
It’s inhumane.
He snorted. It’s much, much better than many I’ve seen. His gaze skimmed over me. Winnie didn’t tell you?
I knew I should stop, but I couldn’t help myself. How old was the girl in the corner?
What girl?
The one missing two fingers. Twelve? Thirteen?
He made a sound halfway between a sigh and a groan. Ava, he said, if those girls could get legitimate work, why would they be there?
To this I had no answer.
The car pulled up to the Sheraton, a 1970s-era circular monstrosity the color of an overcooked salmon fillet.
Get some rest, he said. Your driver will pick you up for dinner.
In the cavernous atrium, the hotel receptionist assured me that my Chinese was good for an American and came out from behind the desk to personally escort me up to my top-floor junior suite. She droned on about the wraparound views of this grimy, smog-enveloped industrial city, the complicated system of light switches and dimmers on the wall, the complimentary platter of pears and apples and mangoes, carved to resemble local flora and fauna. At last she left, and I chucked every last apple-swan into the trash (a precaution I always took in China, along with boiling water in an electric kettle to brush my teeth). I lowered the thermostat, drew the blackout drapes, and slid into the bed. A dozen tiny fists pounded at my temples, and when I touched the back of my hand to my forehead, it burned. My body screamed for me to break loose, while my brain retorted that it was too late. I’d scrawled my name across that contract; I’d shaken each and every hand. People like these, with their money and their contacts and their illicit dealings, did not take kindly to being crossed. Hadn’t Winnie herself turned on me the instant I dared rebel?
At the designated hour, I trudged out into the still-hot day to meet my driver, who ferried me to another of Dongguan’s large luxury hotels. My strategy was to be supremely affable and uninteresting; I would get through the evening without asking inconvenient questions, without pissing anyone off. The elevator disgorged me into a palatial rooftop restaurant with brushed-gold walls and a mirrored ceiling inlaid with bronze dragons. I was led to a massive private room that could have easily sat fifty, but which currently contained a single table in the very center, around which sat three ordinary-looking men in dark blazers and one young woman.
Recognizing the woman’s ballerina bun, I cried out, Mandy, I thought you were in Milan.
The woman turned. It was not Mandy, but another young woman in a tight black bandage dress, accessorized with a heavy gold chain-link necklace. Two of the men chuckled uncomfortably, and the third said, This is Linlin, my girlfriend.
Despite both Winnie’s and Oli’s descriptions, I could not reconcile Boss Mak’s thick head of silver hair and well-groomed mustache with the sickly yellowish cast of his skin and eyes, with the way his thin shoulders swam within his jacket.
I ducked my head, mortified, and apologized to the girlfriend, who didn’t seem offended, and then I took Boss Mak’s hand. I hadn’t expected him to be well enough to come.
His grip remained commanding. He said, How could I miss the chance to meet you in person? Please thank your husband again for his time.
The other men introduced themselves. The one with the sly eyes and the garish orange tie was the recently appointed vice mayor of Guangzhou. Clearly, Boss Mak had strategically invited him to invest in our business. The older jowly man with the jet-black comb-over was the retired police chief, who received a monthly retainer in exchange for keeping all necessary parties abreast of scheduled raids.
The vice mayor cheerfully warned me that none of them spoke English, while the police chief leaned over and poured me a glass of white wine—a Burgundy grand cru.
Everyone clinked glasses and sang gan bei, including Boss Mak, who drank with almost exaggerated gusto, perhaps anticipating that if Oli agreed to take him on as a patient, he’d be required to abstain from alcohol for at least six months.
Despite the Advil I’d downed earlier, my temples throbbed like stereo speakers. I took small sips of my wine whenever pressed and hoped they’d be satisfied.
After his initial introduction, Boss Mak spoke sparingly, perhaps to preserve his energy. He all but ignored Linlin, who refilled his glass and asked if he felt chilly and wanted the air-conditioning turned down, and then, when he said no, wound a camel cashmere scarf around his neck. If anything, she seemed to be more nurse than mistress, and I couldn’t decide which was worse.
Very quickly we ran out of topics commensurate with my language ability, so I was relieved when the door to the room swung open and in walked Kaiser Shih, still dressed in the same Prada polo in lieu of a blazer.
Hello, hi, sorry I’m late, Kaiser Shih said in English.
The police chief, whose complexion glowed crimson with drink, said, At last our English expert has arrived.
Boss Mak wagged a finger at Kaiser Shih, though he spoke to me. As you probably already know, my deputy manager here talks way too much, but since I don’t know English, I only have to listen to about fifty percent of what he says.
Kaiser Shih accepted the ribbing with good-natured resignation. He asked if I was feeling better, and I lied that I was.
The vice mayor called for the waitstaff to serve the food and to open another bottle of white Burgundy. When a waitress approached with the wine, the vice mayor seized it from her, filled Kaiser Shih’s glass to the brim and said, in English, Bottoms up.
Bottoms up, the police chief cried. You’re the youngest and the tallest so you must drink the most.
Dutifully Kaiser Shih raised the glass to his lips and downed the pricey wine in one long pull, while the two men cheered him on. They reminded me of the first-year associates at my old firm—type A about everything including partying.
Now you two, Kaiser Shih said, filling the other men’s glasses. You, too, Ava, he said, pointing at me.
Weakly, I lifted my glass. A hint of menace hung over the festivities, as though at any moment, the mood might swerve from jubilant to belligerent.
Meanwhile, Boss Mak observed the proceedings with a distant amused expression, like a king gazing upon his subjects from a high perch. Each time his wineglass touched his lips, I pictured his scarred liver, shrunken and hardened, unable to clear the toxins building up within. Oli had once showed me a picture of a pair of livers, one healthy and one damaged. The good organ was smooth and pliant and a deep glowing red; the bad one pallid, rigid, brutally marred. Boss Mak looked at least a decade older than my mom, even though they’d have both been seventy. And yet here he was, being fussed over by this pretty, young woman, while what remained of my mother sat in an urn on the living room mantel of my childhood home.