Chapter 9: Fascinated Mimi

Mimi seemed particularly nervous.

Mimi's skin was very tense to the touch, she couldn’t relax.Her whole person was curled up like a shrimp.She didn’t seem very reassuredaboutthis strange ritual of yin and yang Tattoo.

Being so tensed up would make the tattoo not look good, because once the skin was relaxed, the pattern would deform.

I talked to her and distracted her, “Mimi, how much do you make in one month?”

“Forty or fifty thousand.”

"Is that all?" I laughed, “Everyone says you earn four or five thousand a day, sometimes I hear that you can get ten thousand a day."

Mimi smiled, said that it was true;she had very high fees, so by gross incomeshe could get two or three hundred thousand in one month, but in the end she could only keepforty or fifty thousand.

I was surprised, and asked, “Zhangtakes so much off of you?”

The owner of the massage parlorgota percentage from them every time. But was his cutso high?

“No, Zhang earnsmore than ten thousand, but I took the rest of the money to support some Hope Project children.” Mimi was not nervous anymore, speaking with a smile.

What? Hope project?

I was a little surprised that Mimi would subsidize the Hope readingproject for children. This... This... Why did she do that?

When Mimi spoke about theHope Projectchildren, herwhole face was filled with a smile. She said that she used to read a lot when she was a child, but when she was in high school, herfamily didn’t let her read.They said,“Girl, why doyou read so many books?”It was nouse, her parents forced her to work in the city.

Whileworking, she started to like a man.Her story was just liked Bai’s, and she was forced into prostitution in Yang City.

Mimi was not like Bai, she adapted to it after a period of time. Slowly, she took up prostitution as her main job.

But Mimi,like Bai, was very stubborn.

Mimi was not willing to give away her own hard-earned money, and suffered insultsfromher boyfriend. One night, she walked out of the brothel, casually boarded a train, and came to southern Fujian.

“When I came here to work, one day, when I was solicitingpassersby to come into the shop, two seven or eight-year-old girls came to me and asked me, “Sister, can I sit at your door for a few hours?” Mimi said, “I asked them, whyyou want tosit at the door?”

The two little girls said to Mimi, “It is bright at the door.Wewant to read a book here.”

After saying that, the two girls pointed to a dilapidated house across the street andsaid, “We live there. There areno lights, so we can’t finish our homework.”

Mimi saw the two children, remembered how she could not read books, and then she made a decision to spend some money each month to help poor children read.

Mimi's face showed a little brilliance as she talked about this.

When she talked about subsidizing poor children to study, I really couldn't keep the sameimpressionof her in my mind.

Mimi said more and more proudly, “When I just started, I only spent two or three thousand a month, then more and more, four thousand or five thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand... I spent one hundred thousand last month. When I was a child, because my parents did not let me read books, my life had become disenfranchised.Now, I would like to use my meager strength so that these children could read the books andgoto university;at least they won’t end up as scum, like me.”

After hearing that, I was painful, and asked Mimi, “Then you can spend a little money.Whydo you spend so much? Doing good thingsjust forpeace ofmind, it’s good to spend a bit of money, but youneedn’t spend too much.” 

I really didn’t understand.Mimi began to donate only four thousand or five thousand, and then donated ten thousand? Was it addictive? What did she want?