Blue Gold (5 page)

Laiping stared with surprise at her name on the certificate. “But the date is wrong.”

“Of course it's wrong, dummy! It's a fake—because you're underage. When you get paid, you owe me ten yuan for that.”

As Min disappeared down the ladder, Laiping stretched out her cramped limbs. She must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing she knew she was startled awake by the sound of a shrill whistle coming from some distance—loud enough to wake the ancestors. She was disoriented for a moment, unsure where she was or what she was doing here. Then she found the fake birth certificate beside her and everything came back to her. She'd come to Shenzhen to find a good job in a factory, like Min's. Unless Laiping wanted to spend her life like her parents, knee deep in muck in the rice paddies back home, it was time for her to get up and apply for that job.

At the elevator, she asked a girl how to find the factory's employment office. When the girl heard Laiping's country accent, she was a little snooty, but she gave Laiping the directions she needed. Laiping waited for the girl to press the button on the elevator, not yet trusting herself to push the right one. Inside the elevator car, girls chattered about which cafeteria they would go to for breakfast, which reminded Laiping that she was hungry. She was tempted to follow them and try to get something to eat, but she was afraid of being caught and somehow spoiling her chances of being hired.

The morning sun was baking hot as Laiping retraced her steps, making her way back to the broad boulevard where the busses stopped. There were even more people on the sidewalk now, lining up for busses. There were more girls than boys, many of them with neatly styled hair, makeup, and frilly tops. Min had mentioned that the really good jobs weren't in the factory, but in the office. She wondered if that's where these girls worked. There were a few couples holding hands as they strolled down the sidewalk—a public display that wasn't done back in the village. But here, stylish girls seemed to show off their boyfriends the same way they did their pretty blouses and new shoes.

Laiping followed the wide boulevard past one of the giant white factory buildings, the sun gleaming off its large square tiles. She saw a sign for the employment office, just as the girl in the dorm said she would, and followed it down a street flanked by more blockish white-tile buildings, all of which looked the same. But she could tell she had reached the employment office by the long line of job-seekers outside. Laiping followed the line around the corner of the building. Most of the people looking for jobs appeared to be a little older than Laiping, but a few looked younger. She took her place at the end and waited for her turn to be called inside the building.

“How long have you been waiting?” she asked a tiny girl in front of her who looked like she belonged in middle school.

“Not that long,” she replied. “But they're only taking a few people at a time. I hope we're not here all day.”

The girl looked anxiously up the line, craning her neck. From her plain and worn clothing, Laiping guessed that she, too, had come out from a village to find work in the city. Laiping could tell from her accent that she was from Guangdong Province, just like her.

“My name is Laiping,” she said.

“Yiyin,” replied the girl.

“Are you here alone?” Yiyin gave a quick nod. “I'm staying with my cousin,” Laiping told her. “If they won't give me a job, I'll have to go home to my parents near Heyuan.”

“My mother told me not to come home unless I send money ahead of me,” confided Yiyin. “All she cares about is paying for my brother to go to school. I was better in school than he is, but she made me leave after grade seven.”

Laiping remembered how her own mother cried at the train station, and thought,
Yiyin's mother must be mean
. But then, Laiping's parents didn't have a son to favor. She was their only child.

“Where are you from?” she asked.

“Dongzhou, a village near Shanwei,” Yiyin replied. Laiping had heard Min talk about girls she'd met from Shanwei—it was one of a dozen manufacturing cities, like Shenzhen, in the broad Pearl River Delta. According to Min, though, the factories there were lower quality and didn't pay as well as Shenzhen. “My father was a fisherman,” said Yiyin. “Then they started filling in the bay to build more factories, and the fish disappeared.”

In front of them, a girl of about twenty was fanning herself in the growing heat of the sun. She gave Yiyin a sharp look. “I'd keep quiet about being from Dongzhou, if I were you. They don't hire protesters and troublemakers.”

Yiyin was suddenly fierce. “Mind your own business,” she fired back. “I'm not a troublemaker.”

The older girl made a face and turned away, still fanning herself. Laiping didn't understand why she was calling Yiyin and her father troublemakers just because they were from Dongzhou, but she admired the way Yiyin stood up for herself and her family.

“What does your father do, if he can no longer fish?” she asked.

For a moment, Yiyin turned the same fierce look on Laiping, but when she saw that Laiping meant no offense, she dropped her eyes. “He went away,” she said, then she fell silent. Laiping wondered what she'd said wrong.

“What's taking so long?” grumbled Yiyin after another half hour went by, the hot sun beating down on them. “I have to pee.”

“Go. I'll save your place,” replied Laiping.

Yiyin gave Laiping a distrusting look, but her bladder seemed to decide for her.

“Don't go in without me,” she said, then darted away.

The line suddenly lurched forward and rounded the corner of the building. Now Laiping could see the entrance to the employment office, where several people were being ushered inside. She was starting to feel anxious. What if her turn came and Yiyin had not come back? She didn't want to risk her chances by letting others go ahead of her, but she had promised to save Yiyin's spot. Laiping shifted from foot to foot, glancing over her shoulder every few seconds for Yiyin.

Down the line toward the corner of the building, Laiping noticed a guy in a blue hoodie approaching people. She thought it was strange that he was wearing a hoodie in this heat. She noticed how people turned away from him.

“Keep moving!” shouted a security guard up near the entrance.

The line moved forward again. Laiping closed the gap with the girls in front of her. When she turned back to look for Yiyin, the guy in the blue hoodie thrust a pink flyer into her hands.

“If they hire you, there are things you need to know,” he said.

His eyes were intense and his face lean and handsome. Laiping glanced at the sheet and saw written in large characters:
Know Your Rights!
She looked around and noticed that nobody else had taken the flyer. Then she heard someone shout,

“You!”

The security guard at the entrance had spotted the guy in the hoodie and was blowing a whistle. Several other guards emerged from the building and started chasing the guy, who took off running. Just before the guards reached the spot where Laiping was standing, the girl with the fan snatched the pink paper from her hand and threw it to the ground. The guards ran right past Laiping. The guy in the hoodie was yards ahead of them now, sprinting like a deer—losing himself between the buildings before the security team could catch him.

“Stupid hick,” said the older girl in disgust.

It took Laiping a moment to realize she meant her.

“Did I miss anything?” asked Yiyin when she returned to the line several moments later.

Laiping saw the flyer on the ground near her feet and was about to tell Yiyin about the guy and the security guards, but the words “stupid hick” rang in her ears.

“No,” she said. “Hopefully it won't be much longer.”

 

AT LAST LAIPING
and Yiyin's turn came to enter the employment office. They were told to line up again, this time in a large room with several wickets. The woman behind the wicket in their line asked them if they were together when they reached the front. Before Laiping could speak, Yiyin answered for both of them that they were.

“Have you worked in a factory before?” asked the woman. Her manner was severe and suspicious. She was seated on a stool behind a desk, while Laiping and Yiyin stood.

“No,” answered Laiping, “but I am a very hard worker and I learn quickly.”

“I have!” declared Yiyin. “I worked in a factory in Shanwei making purses.”

Laiping wished she had factory experience to boast about.

“Why did you leave there?”

Yiyin didn't miss a beat. “Everybody knows that Shenzhen is the place to be. In Shanwei there are posters everywhere saying so! Besides, I want to make high tech.”

“There are posters in my village, too,” Laiping piped up, hoping to appear every bit as eager as Yiyin. The image of a girl on an assembly line rose in her mind, smiling with pride above a caption that read, “
Come out to the city to work!
” Laiping had always admired the girl's smart white smock and cap.

The woman made notes on their application forms. Without looking up she said, “Identification papers.”

Laiping pushed the fake birth certificate Min gave her under the glass. The woman gave the girls' documents a quick glance. “Which one of you is Fen?” she asked.

Laiping was confused. Who was Fen? But Yiyin answered promptly, “I am.”

The woman looked her up and down, seeming to note for the first time how tiny she was. She read Yiyin's identity card to confirm, “You are sixteen?”

“Yes.”

The woman seemed satisfied with her reply. She didn't even bother to question Laiping about her age.

“Education?”

“I finished middle school,” replied Laiping, which was true—she had graduated from the ninth grade last month. But to support the lie about her age, she added another lie: “A year ago.”

“So did I,” concurred Yiyin.

Laiping and Yiyin spent several anxious minutes while the woman made notes on each of their forms. “Since you are both from Guangdong Province,” she said, “we will place you in the same division. Report to Building 3 for training at one o'clock today.”

Laiping and Yiyin were over the moon. The woman placed them in the same dormitory, too, and although Laiping was disappointed that she wouldn't be in the same building as Min, she was happy she'd be with her new friend.

“Because you are inexperienced, you will be paid the basic wage,” the woman continued. “You must sign a contract stating that you will stay here and work for two years.”

Laiping's smile faded slightly. She had been so caught up in the excitement of working in Shenzhen that she had never considered she might be required to stay for a certain period. Two years seemed like a very long time to be away from home.

“I'll stay here forever!” declared Yiyin. “I love the big city.”

“You will stay here until the company gives you permission to leave,” stated the humorless woman, “and you will stay in the dormitory we assign to you. There's a list of rules posted on every floor of each dormitory. Make sure you obey them. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” replied Yiyin, chastened.

“Yes,” replied Laiping, forcing a smile.

The woman pointed toward another room to her right.

“Go in there and have your pictures taken for your company ID tags, then you may eat in the cafeteria before reporting to the Training Center.”

 

BY THE TIME LAIPING AND YIYIN LEFT
the employment office, they had just enough time for lunch, so they headed immediately to the nearest cafeteria, proudly wearing company ID tags on plastic strings around their necks that would allow them access to the company's facilities. They entered to find a vast room lit by high windows, with row upon row of tables at which thousands of people were seated, eating quietly. A worker checked their ID tags before they were allowed to get in line. On Yiyin's tag, she was identified as Fen.

“Why are you called Fen when your name is Yiyin?” asked Laiping as they chose the shortest lineup they could find to wait for their food.

Yiyin shrugged. “That's the name on my ID card.”

“Is that you?”

“It is now.” Yiyin grinned.

Now Laiping understood—the card was a fake, just like her birth certificate.

“How old are you really?” she asked.

“Fourteen. You?”

“Fifteen. Where did you get that ID card?”

Yiyin took a fraction of a second before answering, “I found it.” Her hesitation made Laiping think she was lying.

“Did you really work in a purse factory in Shanwei?” she asked, wondering what else Yiyin had lied about.

“No, but my mother does,” she replied. “That's how I know it's better to work here in Shenzhen, making high tech. By the way,” she added, “from now on, my name is Fen.”

Laiping and Fen slowly shifted forward in the line, worrying that they would be late for their training. At last they reached a steam table where a worker behind the counter filled their plates with rice and vegetables and a portion of meat that looked like chicken, but might have been pork. To Laiping, it was a feast, but Fen complained that the portion of meat was small. They found a spot at a table of girls. Both were so hungry that not a word passed between them while they clacked chopsticks.

At a nearby table, a girl raised her voice in protest at something another girl had said. A security guard, a middle-aged woman wearing a severe expression, stepped toward the offending girl, pointing to a sign on the wall that read,
Eat Quietly and Quickly
. The girl bowed her head.

“Sorry,” she said softly. “Sorry.”

The matron retreated to her post by the wall, but she kept her eye on the girl. Laiping and Fen, mouths full, exchanged wary looks. Laiping counted a fourth lesson she had learned since arriving in the city: obey the rules, and avoid the attention of the security guards.