Shanghai Redemption by Qiu Xiaolong Page B

doing the same thing as all the others. Though I will say that there’s no such thing as ‘too expensive’ for that crowd.”
    â€œThank you. That helps. You know what? I thought about coming by to get a haircut at your place, but then I realized I wouldn’t have enough time. I have to prepare a talk about Eliot for tonight’s party.”
    â€œCome by any time you like. We have a number of well-trained hairdressers. Or, if you prefer, I’ll take care of you myself.”
    He thanked White Cloud again for her help and they said their good-byes.
    While there wasn’t time for a cut today after all, it might not be a bad idea to pay her a visit someday, he thought, as he put down the phone. Certainly before he officially started his new job and put in an appearance at the new office.
    He picked up the phone and called the convenience store again, this time asking them to deliver the printed photos to his mother. It was already five thirty, and he wouldn’t have the time to take them to her himself.
    Chen stared out the window and watched a lone bat flipping by, flying erratically. The light outside was getting dim.

 
    FIVE
    SHORTLY AFTER SIX, CHEN was sitting in the backseat of a taxi crawling along Wuning Road. Neon lights began appearing against the city’s night sky like stamps on a huge somber-colored envelope. He couldn’t shake off an uneasy feeling about the party at the Heavenly World.
    â€œYou’re going to Wuning Road near the Inner Ring?” the taxi driver said, looking over his shoulder.
    â€œYes, I’m going to a nightclub there.”
    â€œWow, the Heavenly World.”
    Chen didn’t respond immediately. The notoriety of the club was a given, and he didn’t have to justify going there to the cabdriver. Chen looked out the window instead. The streets seemed to be continuously rediscovered in the ever-changing fantasies of neon lights.
    â€œThe cover charge alone is more than what I make in a month. You’re a rich man, sir.”
    Shanghai taxi drivers could be either garrulous or grumpy. This one obviously belonged to the former group.
    â€œI have no idea. I’ve never been there before.”
    â€œ Spring warm, flowers blossom . It’s a different world, that Heavenly World,” the driver went on. “You’ll enjoy yourself to the fullest.”
    â€œOh, I’m going there for business,” Chen said.
    â€œBusiness, you say. And you’re no ordinary businessman, I say.”
    Perhaps it was sarcasm on the part of the taxi driver. But the ex–chief inspector wondered if his long immersion in the system had left something recognizable in his look or his manner.
    â€œI’m going to a book launch party there this evening. I’m a translator.”
    â€œA book launch party there?” The driver sounded incredulous. “What will the girls do tonight—demonstrate all the positions in the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor ?”
    â€œYou’ve read some books,” Chen said, surprised. The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor was sometimes compared to Kama Sutra , though to do so was to take the work grossly out of context.
    â€œWhatever kind of a party it is, the place is untouchable. It’s connected with both the police bureau and the city government.”
    Chen thought back on what he’d learned from White Cloud. Under Chinese law, organized according to what the government called “Socialism with Chinese characteristics,” prostitution was still forbidden. But customers at the Heavenly World didn’t have be wary of police raids.
    â€œMoney-intoxicated, gold-dazzled,” Chen said, thinking of two Tang lines: “ Those Shang girls know nothing about the doom of the country, / still singing about the flower blossoming in the backyard. ”
    â€œThe flower blossoming in the backyard—that’s so vivid, so true to life.”
    â€œSo true to