The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai

by Bangqing Han

  “I’ve been to Constance’s and spoken with them.”

  Lotuson acknowledged this with a nod but said nothing, so Talisman helped him prepare to turn in for the night.

  The fifteenth was an auspicious day for moving house. Lotuson was up by half past ten. After having a wash and some breakfast, he went to return Elan Ge’s call. Talisman followed him to High Honor Bank in Eternal Peace Alley and delivered his master’s card. A servant came out to tender his regrets, saying, “Sorry, sir, my master is not at home.”

  Lotuson then ordered the sedan chair to turn to East Co-prosperity Alley. When they got there, he saw from his sedan chair a black lacquer plaque hung high over the door, with the words “Constance Zhang’s residence” written in gold on it. He got down from the chair and walked into the courtyard. Some musicians were there, and a small stage had been set up, decorated in gold, green, vermilion, and blue; it was all very bright and gay. On seeing him, a new manservant rushed forward to offer his formal greetings, bowing down with one knee on the ground. A new serving woman standing on the staircase invited Mr. Wang to come up. Constance also came out from her room in welcome. She was dressed in brand-new clothes from top to toe, and it seemed to Lotuson that she looked more attractive than ever. Embarrassed by the way he stared at her, she suppressed her laughter, pulled at his sleeve, and pushed him into her room. Inside, everything was in perfect decorative order, which pleased Lotuson enormously. The only thing he could fault with was that the calligraphy and painting scrolls had just been bought from a store and were not very artistic.

  Constance hid her mouth with a handkerchief and offered him watermelon seeds on a plate.

  “So ceremonious!” he teased her.

  She almost laughed out loud. Then she turned abruptly around, pushed open the panel of a folding door, and stepped out.

  Lotuson saw that the folding door opened onto a corner balcony right above the entrance and overlooking the alley. Snow Scent’s house was directly opposite. Seeing her plaque, Lotuson called out, “Talisman, go and see if Mr. Ge is there. If he is, ask him to come over.”

  Talisman went to deliver the message, whereupon Elan Ge immediately ambled over to greet Lotuson. Constance came up to offer watermelon seeds.

  “Is this your lady love?” Elan asked, scrutinizing her, and then sat down.

  Lotuson mentioned how he had just called to see Ge, and then they chatted about other things. Just then Snow Scent’s maid, Little Sister, came to tell Elan Ge lunch was ready.

  Hearing this, Lotuson suggested to him, “Since you haven’t had lunch either, let’s eat together.”

  “Good.” Elan told Little Sister to bring his lunch over, while Lotuson told the maid to order a couple of dishes from the Garden of Plenty. In a moment, the food was all delivered and set out on the table by the window. Constance came up and poured two cups of wine, saying, “Please have some.”

  Little Sister also helped for a while. “Enjoy your meal, sir,” she said. “I’ll go now and do our maestro’s hair. We’ll come over after that.”

  “Please ask your maestro to come and visit,” Constance said.

  Little Sister answered yes as she left.

  Having had a cup or two of wine, Elan Ge felt a little dispirited. It so happened that someone was singing a tune from a Kun opera on the stage downstairs, and Elan beat time on the table with his fingers.1 Seeing he was out of sorts Lotuson suggested, “Let’s play a few rounds of the finger game.”

  Elan stuck out his fist and drank a cup at every round. After seven or eight rounds, they suddenly heard Constance call out at the upstairs parlor window, “Do come up, Snow Scent, my peer.” Lotuson looked downstairs, and, seeing it was indeed Snow Scent, he said smiling to Elan, “Your lady love has come looking for you.” This was followed by the sound of bound-feet shoes tripping up the stairs and Snow Scent’s voice saying, “Hi, Constance, my peer.”

  Constance invited her into the room. Elan had just lost another round, so he called out to her, “Come over here; I want to tell you something.”

  Snow Scent was leaning on the end of the table for balance. She asked, “What is it? Do tell.”

  Elan knew she would not come over. He waited till she was off guard and reached for her wrist. With just one pull, she lost her balance and toppled into his arms.

  “What d’you think you’re doing!” she cried out desperately.

  “Nothing,” he said smiling. “I just want you to drink a cup of wine.”

  “Let go; then I’ll drink.”

  He would not let go but instead brought a cup of wine to her lips. “Drink this first.” She had no choice but to gulp it down from his hand. Then she quickly struggled to her feet and ran off.

  He resumed the finger game with Lotuson while she went to look at herself in the mirror, turning this way and that and then reaching her hands to the back of her head to feel her hairdo. Constance hurried over to help tighten her chignon, removed a narcissus blossom, tidied her hair, put it back, and then looked her over again. Seeing the smoothness of Snow Scent’s elaborate chignon, she asked, “Who does your hair for you?”

  “It’s just Little Sister,” replied Snow Scent. “She’ll never learn.”

  “I think she’s quite good. This style is rather shapely.”

  “Look, it’s so puffed up. Isn’t it ugly?”

  “It’s a bit puffed up, but it looks fine. She’s used to doing it this way and probably finds it hard to change, don’t you think so?” said Constance.

  “Let me look at your chignon.”

  “At first, my old grandmother did my hair; it wasn’t bad. Now I have the maid do it. Does it look all right to you?” She turned her head to Snow Scent.

  “It tilts too much to one side. Though there is a style called the lopsided look, if it tilts too much, it doesn’t look right.”

  The two of them got on so well that Elan Ge and Lotuson Wang stopped their finger game and drinking to listen to them. When they heard the bit about the lopsided look, they both laughed.

  “How is it you two aren’t playing anymore?” Constance asked with a smile.

  “We forgot to, listening to the two of you chat,” replied Lotuson.

  “I’m not playing anymore. I’ve had more than ten cups,” said Elan Ge.

  “Do have a couple more,” said Constance as she picked up the wine pot to pour for him.

  “Please don’t, Constance,” Snow Scent broke in. “He loses his wits when he drinks. Why don’t you offer Mr. Wang some instead?”

  “Would you like some?” Constance turned to Lotuson, smiling.

  “Five more rounds, and we eat. It won’t hurt, will it?” said Lotuson. He then turned to Snow Scent, “Don’t worry, I won’t let him drink too much.”

  Snow Scent could not very well stop them. She looked on as they played five more rounds. Constance poured the wine and then handed the wine pot to the maid, who took it away.

  Lotuson also called for rice to be served. “We’ll drink again in the evening,” he said with a smile. So they ate, wiped their faces and left the table after it was cleared.

  Snow Scent immediately urged Elan Ge to leave with her. But he said, “Let’s rest a while.”

  “Why rest? I won’t have it!”

  “In that case, why don’t you go back first?”

  She stared at him. “You’re not coming?”

  He just smiled and refused to move. She got in a huff and pointed a finger at his face. “Watch out if you do show up later!” Turning around, she said to Lotuson, “Do come by, Mr. Wang,” and then, “Come and visit sometime, Constance.”

  Constance promised and hurried off to see her out, but she was already on her way downstairs. When Constance came back to the room, she looked at Elan Ge and let out a titter. He felt fed up and ill at ease. It was Lotuson who said, “You’d better go over there. Your lady love is a bit upset.”

  “Nonsense. Who cares if she’s upset or not.”

  “Come on! She only asked
you to go back with her because she’s fond of you, so why not do as she asks?”

  Only then did Elan get up. Lotuson saluted him. “Please come early tonight.”

  Elan smiled and took his leave.

  ::

  1. Kun opera was a type of regional opera originating from Jiangsu province that achieved a fairly high status nationally.

  CHAPTER 6 :: A playful belle calls her client her son, and a phenomenal girl dominates her madam

  Elan Ge sauntered over to Snow Scent’s house. When he walked into her room, he found it deserted and dead quiet, so he lay down by himself on the divan. Then the maid Little Sister came in, her rice bowl in her hands, and said to him, “Please sit a while. The maestro is having lunch.” While she was there, she emptied the cup of tea that had stood there since morning, put in new tea leaves, and shouted for the manservant to bring hot water.

  In a moment, Snow Scent drifted in. Seeing him, she said loudly, “Didn’t you say you’d sit in that house across the way? What are you doing here now?” So saying, she pulled him up from the divan and tried to push him out the door. “Back you go. You can sit over there. Who asked you to come?”

  Unable to make her out, he stood there, nonplussed. “Constance across the way has nothing to do with me. Why should you be jealous?”

  Snow Scent was stumped. “You must be joking! Why should I be jealous of Constance?”

  “Why are you telling me to go to her place if you aren’t jealous?”

  “Just now, you sat there and refused to budge, so I’m suggesting you go back there now. What’s it got to do with jealousy?”

  Only then did he understand what had upset her. He gave her a smile, sat down, and asked, “You mean you want me to sit with you all day long. You don’t want me to go to other houses, is that it?”

  “If you do as I say, you can go anywhere. Why won’t you ever listen to me?”

  “When have I not listened to you?”

  “When I told you to come over just now, you refused.”

  “That was because I had just finished lunch. I wanted to sit for a bit before coming back. Who said I wasn’t coming?”

  Still unconsoled, she sat in his lap, took his hand, and kneaded and squeezed it hard, grumbling all the while, “I won’t have it! You must give me your promise.”

  “What promise?” He lost his patience.

  “Next time, no matter where you are, if I tell you to come, you have to come at once. And no matter where you want to go, if I say don’t go, then you’re not to go. Do I have your promise?”

  Seeing he was no match for her, he had to give her his promise. Satisfied, she let go of his hand and walked away.

  “Even my wife never says anything about my comings and goings, and now you want to control me!” he said smiling.

  “You’re my son,” she laughed. “Why shouldn’t I control you?”

  “The things you say! Is there any sense to it? You’re shameless!” he said.

  “I’ve brought up a son who’s now old enough to go to dinner parties and tea parties in sing-song houses. I’m quite proud of myself. Why d’you say I’m shameless?”

  “I’m not talking to you anymore.”

  It happened that Little Sister had just finished her lunch and was getting changed in the back room. Snow Scent called out, “Little Sister, come and have a look; is this son of mine any good?”

  “Where is he?” asked Little Sister.

  Snow Scent pointed to Elan Ge, laughing, “There.”

  “What nonsense!” Little Sister said. “How old are you yourself to have such a fine big man for a son?”

  “What’s so fine about him? When I do have a son, he’ll be more presentable than him.”

  “Then have a son with the young master. That’d be a wonderful thing,” said Little Sister.

  “If my son went to sing-song houses like he does, I’d beat him to death.”

  Little Sister burst out laughing. “Did you hear that, young master? It’s a good thing you have nostrils for ventilation, otherwise you’d be sure to explode.”

  “She’s gone crazy today,” he said.

  Snow Scent rolled into his lap and put her arms round his neck, chortling like a child. He fooled around with her for a while. They only separated when a manservant came in with the water kettle to make tea. Elan stood up as if to go.

  “What are you doing?” Snow Scent asked.

  “I need to do some shopping.”

  “Not allowed.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  “Says who? Sit still for me.” She pressed him back on the seat and whispered, “What is it you want to buy?”

  “I’m going to Hope Brothers to get some odds and ends.”

  “Shall we go together in a horse carriage?”

  “Fine by me.”

  So Snow Scent called out for a carriage. A manservant answered and went to fetch one.

  “Would you like to wash your face?” Little Sister asked. “You just had lunch.”

  Snow Scent took a look at herself in a hand mirror and said, “Never mind.” She just wiped her mouth with a napkin and dabbed on some lip rouge and then went and got dressed.

  “The carriage is here,” the manservant came back to report.

  “I’ll go out first.” Elan got up to go.

  Snow Scent hastened to stop him. “One minute. Wait for me.”

  “I’ll wait for you in the carriage.”

  She stamped her feet in protest. “I won’t have it!”

  He had no choice but to come back. “Look at her,” he said to Little Sister, smiling, “she behaves like a child herself yet talks of having a son.”

  Snow Scent retorted, “You’re the child, no sense whatsoever! What right do you have to lecture me?” She turned her profile toward him, nodded twice, and said in a low voice, giggling, “I’m your real mother, don’t you know?”

  “Hurry up!” he snapped at her, smiling. “Stop babbling.”

  After this, she finally finished dressing. Little Sister carried her silver water pipe, and the three of them went out together. They got into the carriage at the entrance to the alley and instructed the driver to go first to the Hope Brothers Company on First Avenue. Once past the Bowling Alley junction, they did not have far to go. When they had alighted, the driver pulled the carriage aside to wait for them, while the three of them wandered into the foreign store. They were greeted with such strange and fantastic things that their eyes were dazzled and their heads spun. They looked briefly at item after item, most of which they could not name and had no time to inquire into. The salesclerks in the store put on a free display of clockwork toys: toy birds that beat their wings and chirped and toy animals that danced rhythmically. There were even four or five bronze foreign figures sitting in a row, blowing the trumpet, playing the lute, and beating on various brass and wood instruments to perform a set of tunes. As for the ships, carriages, dogs, and horses that could move or walk, they were too numerous to mention.

  Elan Ge just picked the things he needed. Spotting a bracelet watch, Snow Scent said she wanted to have it, so Elan Ge bargained over the total price and made a deposit with a bank draft. He also wrote a slip and told the store to send the things to High Honor Bank and collect the rest of the bill there. Having made these arrangements, they left together. In the carriage, Snow Scent took off her bracelet watch to show Little Sister.

  “It’s only a pretty gewgaw. There’s not much to it,” said Elan.

  It was five o’clock by the time they got to Luna Park by the Bubbling Well Temple. Though most visitors had gone and the horse carriages were thinning out, Elan Ge ordered a pot of tea on the ground floor of the foreign-style building. Resting her hand on Little Sister’s shoulder, Snow Scent took a turn around the winding corridors and pavilions and then said she wanted to go home. Elan, not in the mood to linger there, was agreeable. As they turned from the Bund into Fourth Avenue, the gas streetlamps were already burning bright. Back home, the menservants a
t the door reported, “Invitations from across the way have come twice already.”

  Elan sat for a moment before he took his leave from Snow Scent and walked across the alley. Lotuson Wang welcomed him into Constance’s room where several guests had gathered. Aside from Amity Zhu, Cloudlet Chen, Benevolence Hong, and Whistler Tang, there were two young men from a local official family. They were the Tao brothers, named Cloud and Jade. Both of them were under thirty and were close family friends of Elan Ge. After deferring to one another in terms of seating order, they all sat down. A moment later, Prosperity Luo also arrived.

  “Who else is coming?” Cloudlet Chen asked.

  “There’re my two colleagues from the bureau, said to have gone to Sunset’s place first,” said Lotuson.

  “Then let’s send someone to remind them,” said Cloudlet.

  “I already did. Let’s not wait for them.” Lotuson told the maid to set the table and asked Whistler Tang to write out the call chits. Since each man was calling his usual girl, Whistler got it all done without having to ask. Prosperity Luo took the tickets to look them over and withdrew the one for Green Phoenix.

  “Why?” Lotuson asked.

  “Didn’t you notice yesterday that she came late and left after only a little while?” said Prosperity Luo. “Who feels like calling her!”

  “Don’t be angry with her,” Whistler Tang replied. “She probably had to go to another party.”

  “What other party! She was just living up to her name!” said Prosperity Luo.

  “Don’t you enjoy making them go green with jealousy?” was Whistler’s answer.