Chapter 8 The Street Girl in the Dark Alley for @Huoxi Xianjia

  I hastily checked if he had left his address, but it seemed that the campus network didn't even have this column.

  His page is empty and basically has no other useful information.

  However, he added several good friends. I added all the males among them.

  The charm of a beauty is infinite. Soon they also passed my verification.

  I found this person's QQ number on one of their pages and entered his QQ space.

  In "His Visitors", Wang Yongshun's campus network avatar is listed prominently.

  However, after clicking on this avatar, I was unable to enter Wang Yongshun's QQ space. His space had been set to allow access only to QQ friends.

  My gaze turned to the address bar of the browser. In that long string of URLs, I quickly found Wang Yongshun's QQ number after "uin=".

  I opened a new QQ application, searched for this QQ number, and found that its level was very high, indicating that Wang Yongshun had been using it all along. But in order to avoid startling the snake by hitting the grass, I didn't go to add friends. Then, I copied it into Baidu and searched for it. Soon, several related web pages appeared. I quickly scrolled through the mouse and started searching for useful clues.

  One of the web pages is Baidu Tieba's "Corpse Lover Bar". He once left his QQ email in a post looking for like-minded people. Okay, this guy is indeed a genuine corpse lover.

  When I turned to the next page of search results, I found that he had left his address on another seemingly very old webpage called "Nanshi District Same City Encounter": Nanshi District Baituo Road 255 Alley A

  201 ("nong" is a special term in Shanghai, equivalent to "road number" elsewhere). I took a glance and this post was published at the beginning of 2000.

  Nanshi District? I don't seem to have heard of Shanghai having this district.

  I just searched Baidu and found out that in 2000, Nanshi District was abolished and merged into Huangpu District. At that time, I was still carefree in college, unaware of the outside world, focusing only on studying law books.

  Huangpu District? I immediately thought of famous scenic spots like Nanjing Road, the Bund, Yu Garden, and City God Temple. That place must be so prosperous! This guy actually lives in the central area of Shanghai?

  I roughly calculated that if he is 30 years old this year, he graduated from university at around 22 years old... So in the year 2000, it was just one year after his graduation. I'm amazed, a young graduate who came to work in Shanghai just moved into such a luxurious area?

  Looks like he's not a loser after all...

  Has he still been living in this place for 7 years?

  In any case, I'll go and take a look myself.

  This place is really far. After checking the map, I decided to take Metro Line 2. Got on at Beixinjing Station and sat for nine stops before arriving at Nanjing East Road. Then hailed a taxi and headed straight to Baodu Road.

  The taxi drove through the narrow alleys (called "Hutongs" in Beijing) all the way, without double yellow lines or sidewalks. The cramped roads and low-rise houses made me wonder if this was really downtown Shanghai, Huangpu District?

  I've always heard of "Shikumen" and "Tingzijian", now I finally get to see it.

  In this land of gold in Shanghai, many non-affluent Shanghainese who still live in old alleys are extremely skilled at a super-strong skill that makes the most of space - "doing a dojo in a snail shell". A small room, just a few to over ten square meters, can accommodate 5 or 6 people. Now thinking back, there was a TV series called "Snail Dwelling" that was popular in 2009, where Li Lao Tai Tai pointed at the small room and said that at most, 7 people had lived inside, with people squeezed against each other, stacked on top of each other. When her husband passed away, she wasn't sad at all, because finally she could stretch out her legs to sleep.

  I gazed at this cramped and cluttered alley, where Wang Yongshun lived.

  The houses here are mostly two-story, at most three-story, with red-painted doors and windows that have faded and peeled off; the walls are made of cement or yellow mud, which has been neglected for years. Under the dim streetlights, they look very old and dilapidated. The space between the houses on both sides can only accommodate four people standing side by side. On the edges of the walls, there are flower pots, chamber pots, stools, bicycles, trash cans, and all sorts of things scattered around. Bamboo poles stick out from the second floor, with a few clothes hanging randomly, not yet taken back home. If it were a sunny day, these bamboo poles would definitely be filled with sheets and quilts, colorful and vibrant, known as "flags of all nations". Various illegal constructions keep popping up, and incredibly, someone has even built a corridor in the middle of the second floor... no, that's not a corridor, it's actually another room.

  It's hard to imagine that if this thing is not built firmly and falls down, and there are people passing by underneath, it will be a matter of several lives. In this place, human life is far less important than a place to live.

  It was already half past ten at night, and there were still people coming in and out. In this space without any hiding place, I don't know how many people were squeezed in, even if it was a couple's private room, they would have to keep their voices down to the lowest level. If Wang Yongshun brought the corpse back home to play with, how could he avoid so many prying eyes? I silently recited the address in my mind, counting house by house until I found Wang Yongshun's room.

  The lights in this room are off, he should not be back home yet.

  I decided to wait for him here and make sure.

  The problem is, although I deliberately wore a hat and mask when going out, in such a narrow space, if I happen to meet Wang Yongshun face-to-face, I'm afraid it will still attract his attention.

  I made up my mind and left the alley, walking quickly for a while, deliberately taking small roads.

  After walking a few steps, a woman who appeared to be around 24 or 25 years old with hair like clear broth noodles and a relatively delicate face but wearing sexy silk stockings and a short skirt suddenly jumped out from somewhere, looking slightly shy yet very straightforward, asking: "Handsome guy, do you want service?"

  She must be a street girl. I pointed at the mask on my face and waved my hand, saying: "I have a cold today, I'm not feeling well, forget it."

  The street girl won't let go of any opportunity, seeing that I didn't strictly refuse, she came up to me and said: "Let's have some fun, sweat it out, and get well soon."

  My heart skipped a beat with joy, but I still pretended to be hesitant and said, "Well... okay, how much?"

  "Fifty."

  I nodded and said, "Okay. But I'm not used to doing this with strangers, can you act a bit more like my girlfriend?"

  After hearing this, the street girl didn't hesitate to hold onto me, her head leaning on my shoulder as we walked towards the alley where Wang Yongshun was.

  As I approached the entrance, I pretended to be hesitant and slowed down my pace. I turned to the street girl and said, "To be honest, I'm not really in the mood today, but you look like someone I'd like to get to know. Would you mind accompanying me downstairs for a chat? Fifty bucks for half an hour."

  Everyone, you think street girls like doing that kind of thing? She was eager to hear me say this, and she got paid without having to pretend, it's a great deal. She hastily agreed. So I pulled her into the alley, found a place where the streetlight wasn't shining, and started chatting casually.

  With this street girl with a flirtatious face covering for me, I feel much more at ease.

  A long time after the whole thing was over, I once talked to a friend about it. He didn't understand: "Why didn't you just cover your face with a newspaper? Isn't that how they do it on TV? Wear sunglasses, a mask, and a scarf, hold up a newspaper, pretend to read it, and you're fine! What's the point of finding a street girl? You little rascal wants to take advantage of her, huh?"

  At that time, I punched him and said: "You're standing under such a dim streetlight, wearing sunglasses to read the newspaper? Do you think Wang Yongshun is an idiot?"

  In a chat, the street girl told me her name was Hao Ling, from Sichuan Province, and that she came from a very poor family. When she was young, she followed a group of boys to learn bad things and didn't study well, so she didn't attend high school. She then went to Dongguan with some friends to work as a laborer. Unable to resist temptation, she eventually became a prostitute. First, she worked at a massage parlor doing handjob services, and later she sat on stage at a KTV bar. Although over the next half year, she frequently had close contact with men, even in her most private parts being touched, she always maintained her bottom line. About a year ago, an owner offered a high price to her pimp, who arranged for her to go alone to this owner's club. The owner gave her cigarettes, and then for some reason, she lost control of herself and was taken advantage of by the owner, who deflowered her. She then became his mistress. However, their glory days didn't last long, as they got into a car accident, and she lost consciousness. Half a month ago, she woke up in a hospital in Shanghai, but the owner was nowhere to be found. With no relatives or friends around, and not daring to go back home, she had no choice but to start working in this line of business.

  I heard a heart-wrenching story. Some people say that prostitutes are heartless and actresses have no integrity, and the stories of streetwalkers can't be trusted 90% of the time. But I think she was telling the truth. Because throughout her narrative, her eyes kept darting to the right, hardly ever moving to the left, and she didn't touch her neck or shrug one shoulder.

  She finished speaking, with a hint of tears in her eyes, which made me believe she was a sincere person, a person with stories. No matter who it is, everyone has the desire to pour out their heart, and everyone needs to be understood and cared for. I couldn't help but gently put my arm around her waist. But then I thought about it, wait a minute, she didn't attend high school, so at that time she was probably 15 or 16 years old, now she should be no more than 20, how come she looks like she's 5 or 6 years older than her actual age? So I asked: "How old are you?"