The Scenery of the Lake and the Mountain

by Zhou Daxin

  In the evenings, Kaitian would often return very late, always being hosted for a meal at this house and at that house, and would often return late, get in bed and fall asleep immediately. Nuannuan felt as though her life was without flavour. But regardless, the days wouldn’t stop coming just for her sake. She was still determined to work every day, but she no longer felt happy or trusting. People seldom heard her laughter any more, and even the sound of her voice grew rare. Fortunately, the first snows had arrived, and with that the tourists vanished. In accordance with last year, Nuannuan shut Chu Di Ju. Xue Chuanxin also closed Shang Xin Yuan and began to balance the accounts. Before Xue Chuanxin left for the provincial city to spend the New Year, he put the Kuang’s initial investment to Shang Xin Yuan, 123,000 Yuan in cash, into Nuannuan’s hands, and said, laughing: “You’ve made your investment back. Next year we can start earning profit, and if the year is good, we will make a big one!”

  With the money in her hand, Nuannuan felt a brief consolation. A year of hard work had paid off. She returned 34,000 yuan of the village money to the village accountant, signing off the receipt of loan. Combining the remaining 89,000 yuan with the 30,000 yuan earned this year from Chu Di Ju, she piled the cash together underneath her mattress. When Kaitian returned home that night to get into bed, Nuannuan held up her hand to stop him and, without a word, she lifted the mattress up for him to see. Kaitian looked at the pile of cash for a moment, then said: “Sleep.”

  They lay together over the money. Kaitian was snoring soon, but Nuannuan did not fall asleep for a long time …

  Chapter 44

  First the ice on the Red Lake began to slowly recede, then the snow piles on the mountainside gradually melted. The first sprouts of grass appeared by the lakeside, followed by red mountain peach blossoms, and then the migratory birds returned to the mountain forests. The season could wait no longer, as spring gently arrived to the west bank of the Red Lake.

  The inhabitants of Chu Wang Village again became busy with the spring sowing. On the lower reaches of the mountains, people were planting sweet potato, eggplants, chives, seeding corn, putting down pumpkin seeds and spreading rapeseed. As farmers, the year would balance on the work of spring, and as the annual spring festival was at a time of crucial importance for the crops, people slept late and rose early to tend the fields. While the other families of the village were at their busiest, the Kuang’s family carried on at the same pace as before, awakening at the same time for breakfast, without haste or hindrance. The reason for this was that Kaitian and Nuannuan had leased their plot of land to Zhan Tongfang in order to grow crops. Nuannuan had signed a contract of loan for use with him: The Kuang’s would lease their land to Zhan Tongfang for his use, with all harvests belonging to Zhan Tongfang and all taxes in proportion to the size of the land on Zhan too, and at any time the Kuang’s could claim the land back for their own usage.

  Without a plot of land, Nuannuan felt at ease, and no longer needed to worry about unpredictable weather. Nor would she have to wake up early and return home late, burnt by the sun, stung by winds and soaked by rain. Although she would not leave Chu Wang Village, her days of toil in the fields were finished.

  As the weather slowly grew warmer, tourists’ arrivals also began to grow on a daily basis. Some were individuals and some were group tourists; some had contacts beforehand and some came on the day without previous contacts. Tourists with more money went to stay at Shang Xin Yuan; those with less money stayed at Chu Di Ju. On one particular day, eight middle-aged men had arrived to Shang Xin Yuan, and after arranging their accommodation and dinner, one of them called over to Nuannuan: “Hey boss, we have spent the whole day in our cars and on the boat, and are very tired. Can you arrange eight massage girls to serve us in each of our rooms?” Nuannuan was confused: “Massage?” “Yes, we will pay the standard price!”

  “We don’t do massages here.” Nuannuan answered a matter-of-factly.

  “No massages? During dinner I noticed your female staff are all very beautiful, just like gorgeous birds from the remote mountains. I never expected your women here to be such beauties!”

  “What does their beauty have to do with a massage?” Nuannuan was taken aback, and explained: “They have not trained in massage, and would not know how to perform it.”

  “Hey check out this boss, now do you really not get my meaning, or are you pretending?” The man said with an unusual laugh. As he said this, his voice dropped to a whisper, and the men around roared with laughter.

  Nuannuan didn’t know what to make of their laughter. Had she made a mistake? She stood there dumbstruck.

  “Now I know you are pretending to get out of negotiating the price,” the man laughed again: “So name the price then, how much for one hour with one girl? And how much for one night? We are straight-talking people, so let’s be clear with the price.”

  Only then did Nuannuan realize what they wanted, and the blood rushed into her face. She had never encountered this before. Such men exist?

  “Don’t be shy, I will name a price to get started: how about 50 yuan for an hour? 300 yuan for the night? That’s about the current rate in the city! It wouldn’t be hospitable to charge more.”

  “Fuckers!” Nuannuan’s face was twisted: “Go and negotiate with your own sisters!”

  The man and his friends were shocked stiff by Nuannuan’s reaction, and their smiles vanished immediately; for none of them had encountered such a boss before.

  “And if you don’t want to stay here, you can fuck off too!” Nuannuan called out in a strict voice audible outside. Having heard the noise, Xue Chuanxin entered the room and escorted Nuannuan out whilst laughing and nodding his apologies: “Sorry, so sorry! Our manager seems to have had a bit too much to drink …” “I’m not drunk!” Nuannuan called back as she was pushed outside the room.

  Xue Chuanxin pushed Nuannuan into the office and said with a severe expression: “You think that you can behave in such a way to guests, just because you are the deputy manager? We are running a holiday resort business here. Don’t you know that our customers are our bosses? Speaking to guests in such a way, with all that shouting and cursing, who would want to come and stay at our Shang Xin Yuan after such an outburst? The reputation of a resort relies mostly on word of mouth, and after your rudeness to those eight people, their eight mouths will get to work telling everyone what a bad place this is. That would be even more serious than a bad review in the newspaper. Got it?”

  “But how can they dare to ask me for a woman like that?” Nuannuan was still brimming with rage, although her voice was lower now; for she knew Xue Chuanxin was right. All of the hotel management books she read told managers that above all else, never to loose your temper at a customer.

  “Guests have the right to make any request, and you also have the right to refuse their requests, but you have no right to shout unreasonably. Rather you simply explain that we have no massage service, and no female accompaniment. Is that not reasonable?! The way you just acted was in no way resembling the way a deputy manager of Shang Xin Yuan would act, it was more like a quarreling rural wife!”

  “Okay, okay, I made a mistake.” Nuannuan began to feel embarrassed.

  “Let’s go, come with me and let’s apologize to them.” Xue Chuanxin raised his hand to gesture in their direction.

  “An apology?” Nuannuan did not particularly want to apologize.

  “An apology now will quickly prevent any hard feelings, otherwise what ever would we do if tomorrow those guests decided to leave? In the tourism hotel management industry, this is known as the ‘zero leavers policy’. If you are not careful and let one guest go today, tomorrow a tide of 10 will follow. Have you completely forgotten your studies at the provincial city hotel?”

  “Okay, I’ll go.” Nuannuan could only nod her head in agreement, and follow Xue Chuanxin as they headed out to the rooms of each guest …

  Not long after this event, something very similar occurred. After dinner one night, thr
ee young men staying in Shang Xin Yuan called down to reception, and asked for three women to accompany them for a drink. They would pay 100 yuan per woman. The on-duty staff reported this to Nuannuan, who was immediately unhappy to hear about it: If you want to drink, just do it already by yourself in your own damn room. Since when did women have to come and accompany? She wanted to refuse the request, but was afraid that Xue Chuanxin would again complain that she was disrespecting the guests, so reluctantly said: “Tell them to wait.” Nuannuan called the female staff together, and asked who amongst them has the stomach for alcohol. Only a girl called Xiang Xiang said she did; when she was little, her parents would wet a chopstick in alcohol and give her a taste. She said she could drink a bit, and that alcohol was no big deal for her. Nuannuan said: “Okay, Xiang Xiang, take two others to accompany them to drink. The money they pay for this is yours, but resist offers to drink as much as possible, and if you have no other choice but to drink a little, you absolutely must not become drunk, otherwise as the women of this village, you will bring great shame to the people of Chu Wang Village.” Xiang Xiang said fine, and along with two other women they followed Nuannuan to the rooms of the three young men. On entering, they saw alcohol and snacks already arranged on a small table. Nuannuan spoke first: “The girls of our village are under the strict supervision of their parents, and do not drink alcohol. Certainly they are not used to drinking alcohol with strangers. On your request, I have brought these three girls, but please do not pour drinks for them.” The three men replied happily: “Relax, relax! As for girls like these, we will care for them as much as you do.”

  Nuannuan left the room and went off to manage some other things. Just as she was preparing to go home and relax, suddenly Xiang Xiang and the other two girls ran out of the rooms shouting, their hair disheveled and clothes all out of order. Nuannuan grabbed them quickly and pulled them to the side, asking them quietly what had happened. Xiang Xiang replied in tears: “They are bad men, they forced us to drink and tried to kiss us, put their hands into our clothes and pushed us onto the beds.” On hearing this, Nuannuan exploded with rage. Okay you wild animals, you think you can get away with such despicable acts in our Chu Wang Village! If this isn’t indecency, then what is it! Running with heavy steps, she kicked open the door to find the young men still drinking and laughing. She roared: “You despicable louts! Think you can bully my girls! Fuck off! Right now, get the fuck out of Shang Xin Yuan! We don’t accept animals as our guests!” The three men were stunned. One explained quietly: “We had already paid, so they should let us have a bit of fun!” “Bullshit!” Nuannuan was becoming more and more irate, and just as she was to let fly another outburst, Xue Chuanxin, who had heard the commotion, hurried in and pulled her into the office again. Xue Chuanxin, his face again severe, said: “How can this recklessness be proper for any manager? Haven’t we been over this already? You must smile when dealing with guests. Go and look in a mirror, you call that a smile on your face!? And to kick out guests so late in the night! There is no precedent in all of China for such an action. After turning them out, who would be brave enough to stay at Shang Xin Yuan ever again? Do you want our Shang Xin Yuan to collapse? I tell you, the boss of Five Continents is calling me every day on the phone, asking about the management here. Do you want us both to be finished here?” This time Nuannuan did not back down, asking: “So, as far as you are concerned, just let them commit despicable acts on our girls?” “Of course not, this whole alcohol accompaniment is only acceptable if agreed by both parties, and if the girls do not agree, then they are wrong to force anything. It seems that nowadays, in order to bring in more guests, and to keep them for longer stays at our Shang Xin Yuan, we must think of ways to supply such services.” “Like what? Wouldn’t it be hard to search for such girls as drink accompaniment?” Nuannuan’s eyes were wide open. Xue Chuanxin sighed, and said: “Don’t worry about this, I will work it out.”

  At the end of each month, Xue Chuanxin would always return to the provincial city to manage business, and visit his family, as arranged by Five Continents Company. Who would have known that this time on his return from the city, he actually brought back six gorgeously dressed girls with him. There could not have been a bigger difference between the clothes of these six and those of the local village girls, and when they arrived to the village lakeside wharf, every villager that spotted them stared in shock, mouths wide open gaping. The six girls were wearing bright coloured mini-skirts that exposed long white legs, with low-buttoned shirts baring cleavage for all to see; each one wore make-up, with red lips; one pulled along a suitcase whilst another shouldered a leather bag. The girls followed Xue Chuanxin with much excitement and laughter, like some sort of old theatre troupe, and the men who had been attracted by the scene fixed their eyes on them. At that moment, Nuannuan was by the reception desk of Shang Xin Yuan briefing some of the staff, and was quite startled to see Xue Chuanxin entering with all of these strange girls. At first she thought them to be a female tour group, and only when Xue Chuanxin had arranged for them to stay in the staff quarters did she begin to understand. She first asked: “They are —?” Xue Chuanxin laughed his reply: “These are girls I have found especially from the city; they will be responsible for massage and drink accompaniment, and will collect the same pay as our room service staff. Any additional payment the guests make outside of this is theirs to keep. Every time they serve one customer, we will earn 100 yuan.” Nuannuan replied “Oh …”, and then said no more. She did not believe there to be girls out there willing to do such things. Yet they do exist, and here they are.

  From that day on, things changed dramatically at Shang Xin Yuan.

  The first change was the noticeable increase in the daily income of Shang Xin Yuan. In the past, the main income came from accommodation, meals and tours. Now, service income from the six girls was added. At the beginning Nuannuan took no notice of this income, thinking that it wouldn’t bring much in. What she did not expect, however, was how quickly this service would develop. On average, each of the six women would serve guests twice a day with massage or drink accompaniment, and each service would provide 100 yuan. Each day, that would be 1,200 yuan, after one month, about 36,000 yuan, and after paying the salaries of the six girls, 500 yuan per person per month, or 3,000 yuan all up. This service alone, was bringing in 30,000 yuan a month to Shang Xin Yuan!

  The second change that occurred at Shang Xin Yuan was that the male guests almost completely stopped complaining. In the past Nuannuan would spend every effort to ensure that staff were providing the best service possible, yet every evening there were always male guests who would be unsatisfied with this or that, and lodge various complaints. Once the six girls arrived, the complaints were rarely heard, and instead, laughter was often heard from the rooms. Nuannuan did not expect this.

  Yet, another change was that on hearing that Shang Xin Yuan offered massage and drink accompaniment girls, some of the male tourists staying Chu Di Ju moved especially to Shang Xin Yuan, happily spending more on accommodation. Nuannuan thought this inexplicable: As far as men are concerned, is massage and being accompanied to drink really that important?

  Another change occurred in Kaitian. In the past, after the Farewell performance finished, Kaitian would drink a cup of tea at Shang Xin Yuan and then leave. Sometimes he would ask about the income and expenditure, but always only stay for a little while, as Nuannuan and Xue Chuanxin were managing everything in Shang Xin Yuan. After Zhan Shideng’s letter, Kaitian spoke much less to Nuannuan, and spent very little time at Shang Xin Yuan, sometimes leaving right after Farewell had finished. But after the six girls arrived, Kaitian’s visits to Shang Xin Yuan gradually increased, sometimes coming twice in a day, asking Xue Chuanxin about the service of the girls, sometimes occupying a room with Xue Chuanxin and joking with him for half of the day. Nuannuan was happy about this. It was good that Kaitian, Village Leader and head of the family, was here at Shang Xin Yuan.

  Another big change occurred i
n the local Chu Wang Village girls working at Shang Xin Yuan. The Chu Wang Village local girls originally looked at the six girls from the provincial city with curiosity, thinking they wore unique clothing and provided unique service, and one or two even looked down on them, thinking that what they did was hardly a normal job. But slowly, feelings of envy crept in. The reason for this was that the six girls collected a very high income. Although they received the same monthly salary as the others, they would also receive tips from their clients. At the beginning, the Chu Wang Village girls thought nothing of these tips, probably just a few yuan and nothing more, but on asking one of the six, a girl called Blossom, how much she would receive per service, she replied with a laugh: “There is no standard price, and it depends on whether the client is happy or not. I’ve taken 100 yuan before, but usually about 30 yuan, never less than 20 yuan.” The girls who asked were shocked and quickly calculated on the lowest figure that if every customer gave 20 yuan, and they provide the service twice a day, that’s 40 yuan, and after one month, that’ll be over 1,000 yuan! Adding salary on top of that, it’s almost 2,000 yuan! God, for doing practically nothing they collect such a high sum? The women felt it unfair. With more income, the six girls spent more on food and clothing, and would often go into the small shop within Shang Xin Yuan and buy snacks like plum candy, chocolates, and custard tarts. Initially sold to the guests of Shang Xin Yuan, the six girls were now buying and eating them instead! They would also take turns riding with Chef Bo on his three-wheeled motorbike to Ju Xiang Street amongst the meat and vegetables, and once arrived they would buy colourful clothing and leather high-heels. This attracted the utter jealousy of all of the female staff at Shang Xin Yuan …