Dongguan Bella

Wu Siying emerged from a mass of grease, her features gradually coming into focus, like a rose in full flame. She wore only a sports bra, her shoulders bare, and Chunlai's treasured work pants on her lower half. Now, they were stained with black machine oil, like an expressive ink painting. She held out her hand to Li Qianhui. “Hello, ma’am!” “Who is this young woman?” “Just a kid helping me with some design work.” “What do you mean, ‘just a kid’?” Wu Siying snapped, then politely held out her hand to Li Qianhui. “I’m the chief designer. You can call me Xiao Wu.” Chu Li watched her move between machine tools, steel ingots, wires, and drilling rigs like a mechanical sprite.