by David Jurk
“Like what?” she asked.
“Like they’re super soft. You can push the ends in with your finger, like rubber or something.”
“Well, look it up on the web.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“And…” he started, then stopped.
“Qiang,” she insisted.
He sighed. “Well, it might be lots of stuff, but it could be avian flu.”
An immediate silence descended, a profound stillness broken only by baby sounds from Jiao as she played with the old lady’s hair, pulling it out of the bun, grey strands standing free like straw from a bale. No one said anything for several very long moments.
Finally, she said very flatly, “Shut up.”
“Xiao…” he started.
“No,” she interrupted, “I mean it. Shut up.”
She was furious. “What’s wrong with you, saying something like that out loud? You put that out into the open air, you can make it happen!”
He laid his forehead into his hands. “Saying something doesn’t make anything happen other than sound,” he replied tiredly. “We may have a problem and if we do, we’ll need to deal with it. You can’t deal with it if you don’t discuss it.”
“Just don’t jinx us,” she said. Before he could say anything, she asked, “And anyway, why would you assume the worst?”
“I’m not assuming the worst. I said it could be several things. One of them happens to be avian flu.”
“Stop saying that! Do a Skype with the vet or something. Take samples.” She thought about it. “Send one of the dead chickens to the University. Just stop saying anything like that until you actually know something.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I’ll box up one of the dead chickens and ask for a drone to deliver it today.” He swung around to look at Xiao directly, his face stern. “But I’m telling you, I don’t like how it looks. And we need to be prepared.”
“Prepared? Prepared for what? Having the Committee kill every single one of those birds?”
His voice was low; he knew he was on shaky ground. “There would be compensation if it happened.”
She exploded. “Compensation? One fen to a yuan? That’s not compensation, you idiot. That’s robbery.”
She leapt to her feet. “Out there, playing with your chickens – do you know how much money there is out there in those pens?” He knew better than to answer. “Let me tell you how much,” she shouted. “Everything we owe on this farm!”
There was silence then and in a moment she sat down. She’d done a pretty nice job of quelling any more discussion; they finished what was left of the meal in silence, and Qiang rose without a word and went back outside. She imagined him digging some rotting chicken carcass out of a bin and wrapping it up, summoning a delivery drone. How long would it take? A few days? A week? And however long, what if it were true? Nope, not going there, not giving it life like that. No way.
Then she thought, what if this has to do with that fucking red eye? This ugly thing shows up and three days later we face possible disaster? Too close to be a coincidence, right? She was in over her head and knew it. There it was then; she needed Lin, plain and simple.
She rose and went into her bedroom and locked the door; this was one thing that Qiang would not deal with very well if he stumbled in on her. She lay on the bed and unrolled her phone to its largest size, found the picture of the pretty woman with short hair and round glasses, smiled at the familiar features, at the lovely pouting lips. She began to move her fingers in the air, forming her message; watched as it appeared on the screen.
Hey, long time! How RU? Shy smiley face emoticon.
She stared at the screen, waiting, feeling her heart beating, her breathing quick; she was ridiculously anxious. She waited endlessly, more and more concerned as time lengthened. She couldn’t be ignoring her. Not Lin. Then she had a horrible thought; what if someone was with her? A lover. It was like a dark blanket being pulled down over her, and she struggled to maintain the feeling of anticipation, of confidence in her power, banking on love, on lust, on need. Then, finally, a response.
U R nervy bitch. Devil face emoticon.
She smiled; confidence flowed back in a warm, exhilarating rush. All she needed was to be answered, the words themselves didn’t matter.
Don’t B that way. Missing U.
Lying cunt. Pussy with a skull and crossbones emoticon.
Love U talking dirty.
LOL. How R U and mr cock?
She needed to be a little careful here. Too much could tip this down a slippery slope.
OK I guess.
Wow, try to stay calm.
Can I see U?
Another considerable pause but this time she knew what the answer would eventually be and she waited patiently.
Why? Want ur rocks off so U can tell me to FUCK OFF?
No! I need U. Sorry about before. Hard day.
U think hard day for U? Weepy face emoticon.
So sorry for that. Love U. Heart with arms emoticon.
A last small pause, nothing more than yummy icing on the cake.
OK. When? Where?
She lay back in relief. There would still be some hell to pay, but Lin had the answers she needed. She knew it.
CHAPTER TWO
ALL DAY XIAO struggled with competing emotions, vacillating between her very unpleasant worries over their tenuous situation and that revolting omen in the sky, and the delicious bemusement with which she would forcibly push it all away; the anticipation of her upcoming meeting with Lin. And she admitted, her thoughts of Lin were increasingly encompassing more than just her need for occult services. In that vein, a running montage of comparisons had been jumping into her head; sex with Qiang, sex with Lin. He wasn’t faring very well. Big dick with weird bend, rough skin, bad breath, grunts, were running a distant second place to slippery labia, firm thighs, sensuous tongue and erotic moans. It is what it is, right?
Though it was normally her favorite place on the farm, she avoided the back of the house with its sweeping view of Poyang Lake like the plague; the last thing she wanted was this red devil eye on her as she went about her business. Thinking about the unfairness of all this, it occurred to her with sudden alarm that the stress of it all was releasing free radicals; she was being undone! She definitely needed – and deserved – a spa day! Not only neutralize the wretched little free radicals, but prepare herself for Lin. A double win!
She summoned UberCar and stood waiting in the small front yard, ignoring the raucous din of the thousands of chickens and their few hundred captured wildfowl on both sides of her. Had Qiang seen her there waiting? Probably – who cared? He wouldn’t dare come and ask what she was up to after the crap he’d pulled this morning. When the little three-wheeled UberCar arrived, she waited impatiently for the stupid thing to sense her, then climbed in the back, and had her phone going by the time the panel slid shut. No need to give instructions – AI would know her destination from the summons.
It was always enjoyable to her, the quiet ride in the empty little vehicle; so smooth and luxurious, anticipating the hours to come, body and mind refreshed. Of course, the expense at the spa was considerable but she resentfully pushed that thought away. Fuck that. With everything on her plate, are you kidding?
She spent the half hour ride texting with friends and studiously ignoring two calls from Qiang, his dumb face in the corner of her screen making it hard to concentrate. Finally, her irritation at a peak, she just blocked him for the next three hours.
At the spa, she decided on the whole enchilada and fifteen minutes later she lay in her favorite virtual world – the beach at Bali, while back in the spa her real body lay suspended in the TCell diffuser chamber, gel tubes smoothly inserted up her vagina and anus, the former tightening and scenting, the latter emptying and regenerating. Thinking of Lin, she added the labia plump option, which in itself turned out to be a pretty pleasant treatment as therapies go.
Three
hours later, having had her best day of surfing ever, her groin still feeling a bit as if she were wearing two small balloons, she was back in UberCar, fighting a sense of depression as she headed back to the farm.
With good reason; the moment she stepped from the little vehicle she spotted Qiang waiting, arms crossed, standing between her and the front entry. He had some nerve, intercepting her like this – as if she were a wayward child.
“You blocked me,” he said accusingly, as she reached him.
“What did you expect me to do? You kept pestering me with calls. I was busy.”
“Busy how?”
She didn’t deign to answer, tried to walk around him, but he stepped in front of her, the big ape.
“Where did you go?”
She put a look of astonished insult on her face.
“I’m sorry,” she replied. “Have I been late with my regular hourly update?”
This sort of haughty sarcasm was always effective; Qiang melted like old snow in Spring rain. His anger morphed into wounded petulance.
“I needed to tell you something,” he said.
She stood, hands on hips, waiting.
“The ducks are all dead.”
Ducks? She tried to return herself from hours of surfing perfect waves on Bali. What ducks?
“Dead?” she said numbly.
“Dead. All of them.”
Her head was spinning. “All the wild ducks are dead?”
The wildfowl they captured – illegally, of course – represented serious money, black market money. The rich wanted free range birds, especially the endangered species – ducks, geese and swans. One wild duck was worth ten domestic chickens. A goose, one hundred chickens. A swan – well, a small fortune.
“When I went to get a chicken carcass,” Qiang was saying, “I decided I ought to check on them. It was bad, I’m telling you – carcasses all over the place and the live ones were falling over right in front of me, like Mahjong tiles.”
How absurd. “How many?”
“One thousand.” He paused. “Give or take.”
She had always been spotty with math, but one thousand times anything was easy. Thirty yuan per bird. Thirty thousand yuan. What had the spa visit cost? She wasn’t sure; she just signed a chit. Who cared about such things?
Qiang was saying something.
“What?”
“I said, I sent one of them to the University, along with the chicken. But the ducks dying like that – I don’t think there’s much question. We’re in real trouble.” He laid a supplicating hand on her arm, but she pulled away. He probably had dead duck stuff all over him.
She was suddenly very, very tired and her labia didn’t feel puffy and delicious anymore, just weird.
“Leave me alone,” she cried. “I don’t want to hear about dead ducks!” And she dodged around him and ran into the house, ignoring grandmother and Jiao and going directly to her bedroom, where she locked the door and flopped like one of the ducks onto the bed. She grabbed frantically in her nightstand for one of her QuikNap pills and was out in seconds.
Much later, she woke with all the worries still right there in her head. The nightstand again; this time for a Smile! When she emerged from the room, she found the table readied for dinner, grandmother in the kitchen and Qiang and Jiao in the VR room. From their movements, she assumed they were playing Queen in Her Castle, Jiao’s favorite. She sat, relaxed and comfortable, giggling as she watched Qiang obviously playing manservant to the imperious Queen Jiao.
At dinner, there was no mention of chickens or ducks or testing. Qiang was perhaps a little withdrawn, but grandmother made up for it, chatting away in her broken English. The old girl did have her uses. Afterwards, in a magnanimous gesture toward peace and harmony, Xiao shooed grandmother out of the kitchen and took care of disposing of plates and utensils herself, enjoying the feeling of order restored as they disappeared down the evaporator. She sprayed sanitizer over the counters and table and stood back appreciatively, surveying the little kitchen. It was all so silly, worrying over stupid things happening to chickens and ducks.
Later, after Qiang had joined her in bed, he’d put his heavy arm around her and pushed his thing against her. She felt sufficient patience to let him do it to her, but she was a little worried about the new labia; she’d forgotten to ask if penetration spoiled the puffiness and she wanted it perfect for Lin. But she was determined that things stay peaceful, so she used her hand and in like, ten seconds, he was grunting away, and she had to suppress a laugh. There was his sticky mess all over her hand and he got up without a word to get a wash cloth. While he was gone, she slipped a NightyNite into her mouth, and was out before he returned.
Over the next two days, peace reigned – through a combination of her growing excitement as the meeting with Lin approached, her absolute refusal to look to the east during the day, and Qiang’s studious avoidance of any mention of chickens, ducks or disease, her mood stayed positive. True, there was an unsettling expectancy hanging in the air, a vague feeling that there was a shoe hanging somewhere, about to drop, but she adroitly managed to ignore it.
But the day arrived at last. The moment she opened her eyes, she thought, it’s Lin Day! Breakfast flew by, and she made up some story to forestall any last-minute questions about her absence, and by the time she’d bathed and prepared herself for the luncheon with Lin, she’d forgotten what story she’d invented. No matter, she thought, heading out the door to wait for the UberCar, he wouldn’t have the nerve to ask.
Approaching Lin’s apartment, her anticipation reached the level of outright arousal, and she kept reaching up under her skirt to check on the condition of her labia. It felt great, she thought, wet and slippery; Lin was going to love it.
The portal slid back and there she was; just as she remembered. Well, OK, if she were to be completely honest, Lin did seem a little thinner, a little older. But the glasses were still there, the short hair – with fashionable streaks of red – and most of all, the dark points visible through the sheer blouse.
There was just a moment’s hesitation, then she walked in and let Lin fall into her arms. Or maybe it was the other way around – who cared? After some very nice kissing and the usual murmurs: “it’s been so long”, “too long”, “you look amazing, you little bitch”, etc., etc., Lin took her hand, walked her over to the couch and sat her down, twisting to face her.
“Xiao.”
“Yes, darling?”
“Why are you here?”
She smiled in what she hoped was beguiling fashion.
“What do you mean? I’m here to see you! I’ve missed you.”
Lin laughed, maybe just a little too highly pitched.
“After two years, it suddenly became too much to bear?”
“Yes,” Xiao replied, her smile one of desperate admission. “It became unbearable.”
She watched Lin examine her, wondering what course she ought to pursue. Would they make love first? Have lunch first? Or should she push for the reading first, in case a problem arose? She opted for lunch followed by lovemaking.
Three hours later, lying in bed happily sated, limbs interwoven with Lin’s, she decided she’d made the perfect choice. And, she thought, the labia had been a fantastic hit; Lin hadn’t been able to keep her hands or mouth off them. Perfect, just perfect. But time was wasting; she must move on.
“Darling,” she said, stroking a now-soft nipple, “do you know what would be lovely?”
Lin smiled and slid two fingers into her. She squeezed her thighs tight around them.
“That, of course,” she continued, giving her a quick kiss, “but I was thinking of something else, something interesting.”
Lin’s eyebrows rose speculatively. “Really?”
She smiled, pulling her knees up, keeping Lin’s fingers tight inside her.
“Yes,” she whispered dramatically. “I want you to do a reading.”
Lin looked at her blankly.
“A reading?”
“Yes! Wouldn’t that be a trip? You’ve always wanted to. No time like the present!”
Lin was completely silent, watching her closely. Those dark eyes, so penetrating. She was doubly penetrated, and suppressed a giggle, squeezed Lin’s fingers with her vagina, and was surprised when Lin withdrew them.
“That’s why you’re here,” Lin said flatly.
She smiled and reached out for Lin’s hand, pulled it back between her legs, nestling it against herself. She must be careful, Lin could sniff out a lie.
“Partly,” she admitted smoothly, and felt Lin’s fingers involuntarily probing into her, and gently pushed her pelvis forward onto them.
“But mostly this.”
Lin suddenly thrust her fingers inside as deeply as she could. Xiao gasped.
“Why a reading, then?” asked Lin calmly, eyes boring into hers.
Xiao arched her back away from the pressure, unable to look away.
“The red eye,” she whispered. “I am afraid.”
Lin continued to stare into her eyes for several seconds, then finally nodded, easing the pressure of her fingers, then pulled them free. She put her hand behind Xiao’s head and leaning back against the couch, gently began guiding her downward, between her knees.
“Well, then a reading you shall have, dear Xiao,” she said smoothly. “Just as soon as we complete full payment. Yes?”
Xiao nodded, rose to her knees and bent forward. As payments go, she thought as she nestled her face between Lin’s thighs, this wasn’t bad.
Half an hour later, both still naked, they sat on either side of a small table; a pile of Yarrow sticks between them. It was all very exciting; this was a method Xiao had never seen Lin use before. She was to toss the sticks down, Lin would count them up on the basis of how they fell to the table and write down a number. It was all really mysterious and very cool, and she actually was getting a little wet again watching Lin’s breasts as she got everything ready.
