There’s a boy that makes deliveries for his mother’s shop in Chengdu. It’s not a place to dine-in, but the food is good. He knows the way through town and he has an eye for most kinds of trouble, which is good since he doesn’t always stay out of it.
As he made his way, with sweaty palms clinging to plastic bags of food that each weighed a little more than they should, he passed by an old store front. He was familiar with it. A new crew had recently taken it over. They wore brightly colored streetwear with wild bleached or blackened hair styles like a cartoon-manga mashup. There were enough of them taking turns at the door that he rarely saw the same people twice. They would talk with people, sometimes letting them in, other times sending them away. He hardly cared.
The boy passed by and turned on the next corner where a businessman stepped out in front of him. He came to an abrupt stop and listened as the man offered to buy the food. It wasn’t unheard of and as long as he had the money to give to his mother, he figured she wouldn’t care. He asked for more than the ticket was worth and to his surprise the man gave it to him just like that.
Now that he had some time on his hands—no delivery to finish—he watched the man take the food back around the corner to the manga crew’s door. The bouncers spoke harshly and laughed, but let him through. The food was left as an entry fee.
A boring businessman walking in on a street crew was worth seeing, but the boy had more to do with his short-lived freedom so he didn’t wait to see when the man was pushed out into the street where he fell on his hands with blood running down the side of his head. When he got up limply, the bouncers threw crumpled food wrappers at him as he turned and started to walk away.
A few days later a large order came into the shop. Shortly, the boy was loaded up and on his way. The delivery address was the new crew’s place so he was only slightly surprised when the businessman pulled him to a stop before he arrived.
He apologized for surprising the child and promised him payment and additional money as a reward while he added a note to one of the food bags. The bonus would be for bringing a message back from “the one in charge”. He walked him most of the way and then left him to finish the delivery before he could be seen from the door.
The boy made it past the bouncers with the food and was ushered through battered rooms filled with people engaged in various activities—some of which the boy understood. He knew violence and he had seen some romance in the streets, but was confused to see them combined.
The sounds of dubious coupling faded as he approached the back end of the space. It was replaced by mannequins, fashion, smoke, obscene colors and art, the smell of alcohol and friendly chatter—so much to process, that the senses were overloaded and he had to be pulled along by his escort for the last ten meters.
There he met the woman in charge who laughed after reading the note—she had sparkly silver hair in the crew’s fashion that curved around to bounce in her face. After she and her friends stopped laughing, she said, “He’s a persistent piece of shit isn’t he.” Noticed the confusion on the boy’s face, she said to him, “Don’t worry little one, we’ll make him pay you what he owes.”
In the end, the boy did bring back another note, along with his escort. It read, “You can’t own me like this boy. He wants your money, so give him everything in your wallet. I never want to see you around here again. Tell my friends if you understand.”
The boy went home with enough money for the delivery and the promised bonus pay—it would last him for months. The businessman went home with a no money and a broken nose to remind him that his money doesn’t spend everywhere.
Street Life in Chengdu
