After eating and drinking our fill, Xiao Ya Jie and I arrived at her shop.

It was a massage and therapy parlor with pretty decent decoration, called “Xiao Ya High-End SPA.”

“Massage… therapy?” I looked up at the sign, then looked at Xiao Ya Jie. “We didn’t come to the wrong place, did we?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” She took out her keys and opened the door. “Just follow me in. Am I going to sell you or something?”

The three of us followed her into the shop. I turned to look at Xiao Sha and Lan Lan. It turned out I wasn’t the only one feeling surprised—both of them also showed expressions of confusion.

There was a corridor here, with two small rooms on each side. Inside were massage beds.

“Jie…” Lan Lan spoke up. “What kind of business is this… I’ve never seen this before…?”

“Yeah.” Xiao Sha chimed in. “Are they all using this kind of storefront now?”

“Our industry also needs to transform.” She shook her head helplessly. “Normally we do specialized massage therapy, but there are also other services we can provide. Comparatively speaking, it’s safer and we can earn a bit more.”

Taking advantage of the long night, Xiao Ya Jie introduced us to the business operations of her shop.

Under normal circumstances, regardless of whether the customers were male or female, we would only do regular massage therapy. Xiao Ya Jie would also teach us some basic massage techniques.

These generally included essential oil back treatments, therapy, Thai-style, acupressure, and so on.

In special circumstances, we could use our own observations to confirm whether certain male customers had other needs. If we felt we could close the deal, we could remind them to add time for other services.

Of course, the add-on services were also divided into many types, but there were too many things I needed to learn, and I didn’t quite understand it all at once.

Xiao Ya Jie repeatedly emphasized that we needed to make it clear to customers that this was the technician’s personal behavior and had nothing to do with the shop. If the customer had concerns about this issue, we just needed to switch technicians to solve it.

Fighting.

It was said that Xiao Ya Jie had saved his life before. Since he couldn’t find any legitimate industry, he came to help out.

She had us sleep in the massage rooms after work. We just needed to spread out the bedding and could sleep on the massage beds. Not only was the environment cleaner, but each person also had their own room.

“You, Tiantian.” Xiao Ya Jie pointed at me and said, “Right now you can only do massages. If customers have other needs, you come out and call Lan Lan and Xiao Sha. If that doesn’t work, then call me.”

“How much money can I make?” I asked.

“Definitely less than them.” Xiao Ya Jie answered. “If you can’t do it, then get lost.”

“…Alright.”

“Let me say this up front. Big jobs all go according to my price list. Even if it’s ‘technician personal behavior,’ the prices must be unified. After the deal is done, I get forty percent, you get sixty percent. If you charge less, it’ll be deducted from your wages as a penalty.”

In the days that followed, Xiao Ya Jie patiently taught us massage techniques. She said that learning a skill now meant that even when we got old, we could continue doing this kind of legitimate work.

I gradually discovered that although Xiao Ya Jie had a fierce mouth, she was actually a good person. Every few days she would take us girls out to eat together.

And Xiao Sha and Lan Lan were also different from what I had imagined.

Under normal circumstances, they were what others often called “three accompaniments”—reviled by everyone, just like me.

But they were friendlier than many people I had met. They wouldn’t probe into your past, and they wouldn’t say hurtful things.

Lan Lan liked to read books. The next day she got a library card at the provincial capital’s library, and whenever she had time, she would go borrow books. Xiao Sha liked to watch TV. She said her family couldn’t afford a TV, so whenever she saw one, she couldn’t walk away.

This small shop became a safe haven for the several of us.

As for me…

I was just an ordinary massage therapist.

Just as Xiao Ya Jie had said, the shop would have both male and female customers. Xiao Ya Jie understood beauty treatments, so female customers were usually received by her, while the several of us were responsible for receiving male customers.

Male customers were also roughly divided into three types. One type had done a lot of physical labor or exercise and genuinely wanted to find a place for massage therapy. These customers spoke little and were exhausting—usually requiring you to massage them for a long time without saying a word.

The second type had clear objectives and came looking for big jobs as soon as they entered. Generally, Lan Lan and Xiao Sha could identify these people at a glance. After they negotiated the price, they would actively receive them, lead the customers into the massage room, and then use towels to cover the small window on the door. That’s when the service would begin.

As for the third type, they were hard to distinguish. They walked in with serious faces, saying they wanted a massage. But while you were giving them therapy, they would make teasing remarks or even get handsy. When you actually recommended they switch technicians for other services, they would decline in every possible way.

At first, I was somewhat resistant to this type of person, but over time I got used to it.

It was just making money. I had lived through many years of even harder days than this.

This day we got off work and sat in the shop resting, but the TV that had been sitting there broke. The picture kept flashing between black, white, and color.

“Oh no! What should we do?” Xiao Sha walked up and patted the TV. “Xiao Ya Jie! The TV seems to be broken!”

“You fucking…” Xiao Ya Jie walked over to look. “I bought this TV for two hundred yuan… That person told me it was eighty percent new!”

“How much would it cost to fix this?”

The two of them fiddled with the TV somewhat frantically, while Lan Lan flipped through her book on the side, saying, “I told you this high-tech stuff is unreliable. Reading books is more practical.”

I glanced at the book Lan Lan was reading and found she was really reading some high-end stuff. A few days ago she was still reading romance novels, but these past few weeks she had moved on to “European History.”

“Xiao Ya Jie, do you have a screwdriver?” I asked.

“Screwdriver? What do you need it for?”

“I can fix this TV.” I said. “Just give me a screwdriver.”

“Huh? You can fix this too?”

I took the screwdriver, studied it briefly, then took apart the TV and looked at the circuit board and the picture tube.

“Xiao Ya Jie, you were definitely cheated. If this TV is even ten percent new, that would be pretty good.”

They watched in stunned amazement as I removed parts from inside the TV. They were covered in grease and dust. This thing was essentially just a more sophisticated LED screen, no different from the ones I had worked on. Perhaps I could figure out its structure with my eyes closed.

Before long, I had picked out all the grease and dust from inside the TV, carefully cleaned the circuit board, then reassembled the TV and pressed the power button.

Sure enough, too much dust and grease had contaminated the circuit board. Now it could display images normally.

“Xiao Ya Jie, although it’s fixed now, it probably won’t last more than a few months. If it doesn’t work out, you should get another one. This time I’ll go with you to help pick one out.” I wiped the dust off my hands and said.

“You damn girl… such skilled hands?” Xiao Ya Jie said to me with a cigarette in her mouth, smiling. “Let’s go! I’m in a good mood today. I’m taking you all out for skewers!”

“Skewers…?”