Skeleton Women by Mingmei Yip

Author:Mingmei Yip [Yip, Mingmei]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780758273536
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

At eight in the evening, my slender frame wrapped in a red, low-cut, Western dress, my feet in matching high heels, and my gloved arm around Lung’s, I walked with the gangster to the ship’s casino. Zhu, Gao, and the three other bodyguards trailed behind with bulging pants pockets—guns, knives, daggers, or other lethal devices.

Inside the gambling den, low-hanging chandeliers cast light on the numerous tables crowded with rich customers. Laughter, heated whispers, and lamenting exclamations were emitted here and there as one person won and others lost. Golden curtains and mirrored pillars reflected the light from the chandelier’s many crystals, turning the whole place into one huge glittering diamond.

Despite my training not to become emotional under any circumstances, in this setting I felt an artificially induced excitement, even a fleeting moment of happiness.

Lung and I approached a table surrounded by a small group of richly attired couples, all clutching cards, chatting, drinking, and smoking.

Spotting us, the white-shirted and black-vested dealer asked the other guests to make room for us to sit down at the best fengshui place, facing the entrance. He smiled obsequiously as he held out the cards for Lung to cut. When the dealer’s eyes met mine, his smile faded by half. For him, I, like the other beautiful women accompanying their important-looking men, was but decoration—like the big diamond ring on the hand of the lady next to me, or the gold and diamond Rolex watch sparkling on her patron’s wrist. Women like us are commodities; we come and go like a merry-go-round. No reason for the dealer to waste any effort pleasing us, when next time it would be a different woman next to the high roller. That was just as well. So long as I seemed a mere adornment, no one would guess my deadly mission.

Over the next hour, Lung won two thousand dollars, a small sum for him, but gave a tip of fifty, a big sum for the dealer. The money meant nothing to Lung, but the good luck did—brought by me, since I was sitting next to him the whole time.

He pinched my bottom and whispered into my ear as a licentious smile bloomed on his broken-browed face. “Tonight, since I won all this good-luck money, I’ll have a good-luck fuck.”

His good-luck fuck meant to have sex with me in yet another odd position.

I didn’t answer directly but instead asked, “Where’s the young master? Isn’t he your fengshui son?”

The old man spat a bitter chuckle. “Ha! You know my son. He disapproves of gambling and refused to come. ‘To assist in doing evil?’ he said. Ha! If he was not my son ...”

He turned to Zhu, who had been content sitting at his boss’s side, refilling drinks and lighting cigarettes. “Zhu, where’s my son?”

His right-hand man said, “In the concert hall, listening to his favorite Western classical music.”

Lung laughed out loud. “Ha! Classical? To me, it’s absolutely nonsensical!”

A few guests at our gambling table smiled at Lung, then at me.

Lung burst out laughing in response.

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