Four days later, Spring Festival has come and gone. Wei pieces together some rides and heads back to work in Gujiao to make up for the time he lost getting Yong out of jail.
A couple hours after Wei leaves, I notice Yong furtively gathering up his stuff—his phone charger, a jacket he always leaves draped over a kitchen chair. While Ma’s busy cooking and Luli is out using the toilet, I whisper, “So you found a buyer?”
Irritation flashes across his face. “Keep your voice down.”
“I am. When are you going to take her?”
“Tonight.”
I nod. “Okay. I’ll take my share of the money now.”
His frown deepens. “I don’t have it yet. I won’t get paid till I’ve made the delivery.”
“Fine. Then I’ll go with you tonight.”
“What? No.”
“Either you front me the cash now, or I go along and get paid when you do.”
He narrows his eyes at me, trying to scare me into backing down, but I only say, “Unless you want me to report you?”
That settles it.
***
In the dead of that night, I hear the creak of Yong’s bedroom door. The nightlight by the bed throws shadows as Yong comes through and puts a finger to his lips.
I slip noiselessly out of bed and pause to make sure I haven’t disturbed Ma and Luli. Luli’s smooth face has a faint line at her forehead, as if she’s having a bad dream. Ma snores softly. A twinge catches in my throat, but I swallow it down.
Yong clicks on a flashlight and sweeps it low across the room. He picks up the baby in her basket while I put on my coat and shoes and grab my purse. We’re at the door when we hear a distant crack of fireworks. The baby shifts in her basket. I glance back at the bed, but Ma and Luli don’t move. Spring Festival is over, but people are still setting off their leftover bangers. I’m used to the noise.
We steal outside. I wind my arms around myself and shiver in the wind that whips along the alley. Overhead, only a tiny slash of moon is visible in the black sky. I hold the flashlight for Yong as he straps the baby’s basket to the motorbike in front of the seat. After he straddles the bike and jounces it off its kickstand, I edge sideways onto the seat behind him, wincing with soreness. He starts up the engine. The baby starts to whimper.
The door to Ma’s house swings wide, and Luli is there in her T-shirt and long underwear. Her clothes are too thin, rippling in the cold wind, but she stands there, with her bare arms at her sides, as if she doesn’t feel the cold. I have the strange thought that even though I’m yards away, I can feel heat coming off her body.
Someone sets off more firecrackers on another lane, the pops echoing off the brick of the buildings. Yong guns the throttle and we take off, but I peer back at Luli, her face pale and white. The light comes on in the house, framing her and Ma, who crowds into the doorway with a blanket over her shoulders. Right away, she’s yanking on Luli’s arm, nearly pulling her over.
I want to shout to them that it’s better this way. That the baby will have a better home. That we won’t have to worry about money. That now we can go back to how things were before.
But we round the corner, and they’re out of sight before any words came out.