by Ian Hamilton
“We should do the deal with Xu,” Ava said.
“Just like that?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“You told me it was my decision. Well, I’ve made it.”
“No doubts at all?”
“Why do you ask? Are you having second thoughts?”
“Not at all. It’s just that last night you seemed so tentative.”
“My head is clearer this morning. Xu wants to give us the money, so let’s take it, let’s use it.”
“I agree.”
“We can use it to fund Suki’s expansion.”
“Turning Suki loose could chew up a lot of Xu’s money.”
“As long as we have enough left for the Pos, I don’t mind.”
“Speaking of which, I just got off the phone with Amanda. Chi-Tze is arriving right about now. Amanda is already at the airport to meet her and will take her directly to the factory.”
“I’m glad Chi-Tze is here, but I don’t want her to complicate the Po deal. Unless there’s something that screams, ‘Don’t do it,’ I want to go into business with them.”
“You certainly are a risk-taker this morning.”
“I don’t think investing in Suki and the Pos is a risk. Do you?”
“No, actually, I don’t.”
“So please tell Chi-Tze to work as quickly as possible. Let’s get this done in the next few days.”
“I’ll talk to Amanda and I’ll give Suki a call as soon as I get off the phone with you. She’ll be ecstatic.”
“Our profit-sharing structure with her will have to change with this new insertion of capital. The additional money will dilute everyone’s percentage.”
“I’ll get the accountants to put together a spreadsheet so the share structure is completely transparent and traceable.”
“But no mention of Xu.”
“Of course not.”
“I’ll have to contact him,” Ava said. “Where do you want him to transfer the money?”
“We have two bank accounts for Three Sisters: one in Hong Kong, the other in Wuhan. We funded Suki and the Borneo business from Wuhan, so until we set up other banking arrangements I think we should move Xu’s money there. We’ll use the Hong Kong account for the Pos once we finalize the amount we’ll be investing in their business.”
“I’ll give Xu the information he needs to do the transfer.”
“When you do, mention the possibility of synergy. The clothing factories interest me, and if he doesn’t have his own warehousing and distribution network set up, maybe he can arrange to throw some additional business to Suki.”
“May, maybe we should wait until we actually have the money and Chi-Tze is finished and we know for sure that Suki will be okay with the decrease in her profit-sharing percentage.”
“Back to being cautious?”
“It’s my nature and I can’t be any different. You know that once I make a decision I commit to it completely, regardless of the possibility of a negative result, but I hate creating expectations. Once we know that Suki is in agreement and that we’re going ahead with the Po deal, then we’ll talk synergy.”
“You’re right, of course. I’m just a touch excited by all this.”
“Me too. Now let me call Xu.”
“When?”
“As soon as we hang up.”
“And I’ll phone the girls. Amanda and Chi-Tze can handle the Pos, but I’ll have to sit down with Suki. Do you want to join me?”
“No, you and she have a great relationship. It should be easier if you’re one-on-one.”
“Like you and Xu.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, after you left the bar I thought about our dinner with him. It seemed to me that his sole interest was in how you were reacting to his proposal.”
“I didn’t get that feeling.”
“For someone who’s as sharp as you are at reading other people, you can be completely oblivious to the effect you have on them. He was fixated on you. His eyes hardly left you.”
Ava felt her face flush. “He knows I’m a lesbian,” she said.
“The attraction doesn’t have to be sexual. Look at you and me.”
“I wish you hadn’t said that. I mean about Xu, not us.”
“What does it change?”
“I need this to be just about business,” Ava said.
“And so far that’s all it’s been. There’s no reason we can’t keep it that way.”
“Uncle didn’t come to your room last night,” Ava said under her breath.
“What are you mumbling?”
“Nothing.”
“You’ll call him?”
“Right away.”
“I have to say I have a very good feeling about this.”
Ava looked at her notebook and her list of pros and cons. The word triad suddenly seemed more ominous. “Me too,” she said.
( 12 )
Ava showered, dressed, downed another coffee, and then looked through her bag and found the card Xu had given her the night before. She dialled his home number.
“Wei,” he answered.
“I hope it isn’t too early for me to call,” she said.
“Not at all. I have been up for a while.”
“May and I just finished talking about your offer.”
“Yes?”
“We’ve reached a decision —”
“That is either wonderful or dreadful,” he interrupted. “But whichever it is, I do not feel comfortable speaking about it over the phone.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Have you had breakfast?”
“No.”
“Then why not join me?”
“May has other plans.”
“We do not need May.”
“I’m not sure that’s a great idea.”
“Mei mei, I would like you to see my home, and my housekeeper can make us breakfast.”
“I’m not your little sister.”
“No, but you are the closest thing I have to one. Besides, I think you might like my house. It is in the French Concession, not too far from you. Have you been to the French Concession?”
“No.”
“Then you must come. It is like no other part of Shanghai, like no other part of China.”
He spoke in the matter-of-fact way she had come to associate with him, and she felt slightly foolish for having let May’s opinion colour her own view of him. “Is it within walking distance?”
“Yes, but it is a complicated route that has many twists and turns through small streets. I will send my driver for you. He will be in a silver Mercedes.”
“Okay, tell him I’ll be at the front of the hotel in half an hour,” Ava said. “I’ll be wearing a black T-shirt and Adidas training pants.”
“I am sure he will find you. Now, the housekeeper has a pot of congee on the stove. Will that do?”
“That’s perfect.”
“See you then.”
Ava hung up and pushed her chair back from the desk. So far in their relationship, it seemed to her she had done just about everything Xu wanted. She would have to draw some lines, although to create boundaries around what she wasn’t exactly sure.
She went into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was pulled back and secured with her favourite ivory chignon pin. She removed the pin and tied up her hair with a simple elastic. She slipped on a black T-shirt and the Adidas pants and then pushed her sockless feet into her running shoes.
She sat at the desk and looked through her computer files for the Wuhan bank account number. She recorded it in her notebook and then on a piece of hotel stationery that she would leave with Xu. She put the notebook and the paper into her Chanel bag and then called May.
“I’m meeting him for breakfast,” she said.
“How did he react to our decision?”
“He didn’t want me to talk about it over the phone. That’s why we’re having breakfast.”
“That’s cautious. But given his line of work, I guess it’s also prudent.”
“He’s sending a car for me. I have no idea how long I’ll be there.”
“There’s no rush. I’ve spoken to Suki and set up a meeting. I imagine I’ll be with her for most of the day. We can catch up later.”
The hotel lobby was crowded with a lineup waiting to get into the coffee shop. Ava circled the line and was halfway towards the front entrance when she heard her name being called. She turned and saw Suen sitting next to the fireplace in one of the red velvet chairs. He looked enormous squeezed into it.
“Hi. So we meet again,” she said.
“Under much nicer circumstances,” he said, putting his hands on the chair’s arms and pushing himself up. He smiled and walked towards her with his hand extended. He was wearing grey slacks and a sky-blue golf shirt; like all of Xu’s people that she had met, he had no visible tattoos. When she took his hand, he bowed his head ever so slightly — a subtle sign of respect.
“Are you my driver?”
“No, he’s outside in the car.”
“Both of you didn’t have to come.”
“Xu wanted you to see a familiar face.”
They started towards the entrance. Ava could feel eyes on them, and she knew that Suen was the attraction. There couldn’t be many men in Shanghai larger than him. He was at least six foot six and had to weigh close to three hundred pounds, she guessed, with arms that were thicker than her thighs.
The driver, in black slacks and a white golf shirt, stood by the rear passenger door of a Mercedes S-Class. He opened the door and stood to one side. Ava climbed in and slid across to the other side, expecting Suen to join her. Instead he tipped the doorman with what looked like two one hundred–renminbi notes and walked around the car to the front passenger seat.
The car pulled away from the hotel, drove down the Bund, and turned right, then right again. Ava almost immediately lost her sense of place. At one point the car travelled along Huaihai Road, a major boulevard in the Concession, but it veered off again, cutting through a series of streets and lanes. Neither of the men spoke, so Ava was able to concentrate on the passing neighbourhoods. The Concession, she knew, was more than 150 years old, but even after passing through French, Chinese, Japanese, and now Chinese control, the area had managed to retain some of its original charm. There were the inevitable high-rise condos and office buildings, but low-rise buildings predominated, with rows of boutiques, restaurants, and antique shops intermingled with street-vendor carts and stalls. The tree-lined smaller streets were lined by a mixture of English Tudor and French colonial houses, Spanish-style villas, and rows of bungalows hidden behind stone walls and iron gates.
At the end of one of the small streets the car paused in front of a fruit stall. Suen raised his index finger in the direction of the vendor. The man nodded, Suen nodded back, and the car turned left into a narrow laneway that threatened to scrape the paint off both sides of the Mercedes. Three-metre-high stone walls were broken only by the occasional iron gate. They drove for about a hundred metres — almost to the end of the lane — before the car stopped just in front of a gate. The driver squeezed out of the car, punched a code into the security system, and the gate swung open. Then he turned and looked towards the opposite end of the lane. Ava saw another fruit stall positioned there. That vendor was looking at the car and nodding his head.
The car pulled into a paved courtyard that had room for two or three more vehicles. On her left was a Japanese-style garden with a pond fed by three small waterfalls. The house looked like an English country bungalow, with red-brick walls, a red tiled roof, a large oak door with a brass knocker, and one immense leaded window with wavy glass. It was hardly the kind of place she had envisioned him living in.
The door opened and Xu stepped into the courtyard. He was wearing black slacks and a white shirt unbuttoned at the neck.
“Welcome,” he said.
“This is surprising,” Ava said.
“My house?”
“The entire neighbourhood.”
“If you have the time, you should take a tour. Within walking distance are the former homes of Sun Yat-sen, Soong Ching-ling, and Zhou Enlai. They are museums now, but you can sense that they were really lived in.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“Ten years. I needed a place where I could have privacy.”
“Is that why you have lookouts at the ends of the lane?” she asked, thinking of the fruit vendors.
“And two-and-a-half-metre walls all around the house that are topped with a metre of electrified razor wire.”
“Is all that necessary?”
“Not so far,” he said with a smile. “Now, please come in.”
Xu’s home went from English-style cottage on the outside to classical Chinese decor on the inside. The living room was furnished with carved wooden benches and chairs that had thin, flat seat cushions. An old tea chest doubled as a coffee table, two corners were occupied by stone lions, and the walls were decorated with paintings of rushing waterfalls, rice paddies, and dragons.
“Mei li de nu ren,” a voice said. Ava saw a slight, small woman with grey hair standing in the doorway.
“This is Auntie Grace. She was my father’s housekeeper and now she is mine,” Xu said. “Auntie, this is Ava Lee, the woman you heard Uncle Chow speak of.”
“He said you were pretty. He didn’t lie,” Auntie Grace said.
“He wasn’t always objective where I was concerned.”
The woman waved her hand dismissively. “You need to learn how to accept a compliment.”
“Yes, Auntie, you may be right,” Ava said.
“Speaking of compliments, I have to say that Auntie Grace makes the finest congee in Shanghai,” Xu said.
“And it’s waiting for you,” she said, turning and leading them to the kitchen.
Ava was startled by its plainness. The appliances looked as if they were twenty years old. The white-tiled floor was stained and chipped, and a folding table — the kind brought out for a game of mah-jong — had been set up in a corner with two folding chairs. Xu guided her to one of the chairs. As soon as they sat, Auntie Grace placed two big, steaming bowls of the boiled rice porridge in front of them. Between Xu and Ava she placed smaller plates of fried dough, salted duck eggs, bamboo shoots, lettuce, and pickled tofu, a bottle of soy sauce, and a shaker of white pepper.
“I ate breakfast with Uncle many mornings in Tsim Sha Tsui,” Ava said. “He loved congee, especially with duck eggs . . . though at the end all he could manage was the porridge. Did he try yours, Auntie Grace?”
“Once. He said it was the best he’d ever tasted,” she said, and then chuckled in disbelief.
“Now who can’t take a compliment?” Ava said as she shook white pepper into her bowl.
Xu poured tea into both of their cups, and Ava tapped her middle finger on the table in thanks. “I do not think I can eat until I know what your decision is,” he said.
Ava had a stick of fried bread in her hand, ready to dip into the congee. She paused, holding it in midair. “We’re going to take your money,” she said.
“Just like that?”
“Yes. Unless your terms have changed since last night.”
“They have not.”
“Then after breakfast I’ll give you our banking information and you can make the transfer.”
“That is wonderful.”
“To be fair, you may not say that when you see one of the investments we’re thinking of making with the money. It’s quite speculative.”
“You mean when the co-operative sees
?”
“Sure.”
“That sounds like it could be fun.”
Ava smiled. “Actually, it might be.”
Xu raised his teacup. “To an exciting new venture.”
“Yes,” Ava said, raising hers.
They ate silently, Ava staying with plain congee and bread while Xu ate duck eggs, tofu, and bamboo shoots. The moment her bowl was almost empty, Auntie Grace was at her side. “More?”
“Yes, just a little,” Ava said.
“Not for me,” Xu said, pushing his chair back from the table. “I need a cigarette. But even here in my own house I have to go outside, because Auntie disapproves. Join me in the garden when you are finished.”
Ava watched Xu walk through the living room and out the front door. He held himself erect, almost stiffly.
“He was very pleased when you agreed to come for breakfast,” Auntie said, her eyes glittering.
“I’m not his girlfriend, you know, and there isn’t any chance of my becoming one. We’re going to be business partners, and that’s all.”
“He has a girlfriend — several, actually. They come and go as he needs them. I hear them in his room making noise. Sometimes they stay for breakfast, but I don’t mind as long as they’re dressed properly. More than once I’ve had a girl sitting in your chair without any underwear on,” Auntie Grace sighed and shook her head.
“I don’t need to know those things,” Ava said.
“It doesn’t matter to me, and I know it won’t matter to him that you do.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I know you like women.”
“How do you know that?”
“He told me.”
“And why would he do that?”
“When he said you were coming for breakfast, he told me about who you are. I mean, I already knew things about you from Uncle, but nothing that private.”
“So tell me, Auntie, what motivated Xu to share that information with you?”
“He wanted me to understand that you aren’t like the others, that you are someone I have to respect as much as I respect him. He said he hoped you would be in his life for a long time, but that I shouldn’t start dreaming about children because you are a lesbian.”
