The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai

by Bangqing Han

  Green Phoenix also gave him her advice. “Mr. Wang, I think you should go to the party. If you don’t, you’ll be laughed at by Little Rouge and her people. I suggest that you act as if nothing has happened and just go to the party as usual. And then you can arrange with a couple of friends at the party to go with you to Little Rouge’s afterward. What’d you think?”

  Lotuson knew she was right and decided to follow her suggestion. He hastily smoked a couple more opium pellets before his departure. Meanwhile, Talisman had come with his sedan chair as well as an invitation from Benevolence Hong.

  “Let’s go together,” said Prosperity.

  Lotuson gave his assent, and Prosperity called out to summon Promotion. “Your sedan chair is waiting, sir,” Promotion reported.

  So Lotuson and Prosperity went in their sedan chairs to Twin Pearl’s in Sunshine Alley. Benevolence Hong welcomed them upstairs and, seeing that everyone had arrived, told the maid Golden to call for hot towels and then invited them into the room. The guests who had already arrived included Elan Ge, Cloudlet Chen, Whistler Tang, and two strangers—Rustic Zhang and Simplicity Zhao. Introductions were made, and they all saluted each other and urged each other to take the seat of honor. Meanwhile, the menservants had come with the hot towels.

  “Who are you calling?” Whistler Tang hastened to ask Lotuson Wang.

  “I don’t want a girl,” said Lotuson.

  “Why not?” Twin Pearl broke in.

  “Perhaps you should call a virgin courtesan,” Benevolence Hong suggested.

  “I’ll introduce one to you, guaranteed to be excellent,” said Whistler Tang. He pointed, “Look.”

  Lotuson Wang turned around and saw there was a virgin courtesan sitting next to Twin Pearl. The girl lowered her head shyly and did not look up again.

  Prosperity Luo walked over to take a look at the girl. “I thought it was Twin Jewel, but it isn’t.”

  “She’s called Twin Jade,” said Twin Pearl.

  “A girl from the house is good. Let’s put her name down,” said Lotuson.

  Benevolence Hong waited for Whistler Tang to finish writing the call chits and then asked everyone to come to the table.

  The servant girl Clever Baby, who was standing beside Twin Jade, asked, “Would you like to go and get changed?” At this, Twin Jade got up and turned to leave the room.

  CHAPTER 10 :: A new girl is given strict instructions at her toilet, and old debts are lightly dismissed by a hanger-on

  After Twin Jade had gone to her own room, Clever Baby came in after her, asking, “Did Mother give you party clothes?”

  Twin Jade shook her head.

  “I’ll go and ask for you. Now you comb your sidelocks.” Clever Baby then hurried downstairs to consult with Orchid Zhou.

  Twin Jade moved the paraffin table lamp to the dressing table but, instead of attending to her sidelocks, sat down on the bed and inclined her head to listen. Her room was directly above that of the madam’s, while the room that Twin Jewel had moved into was under Twin Pearl’s.

  Now she heard Orchid Zhou tell Clever Baby to hold the lamp while she opened the wardrobe and the trunks. After a lot of rummaging and murmuring, they left the room and headed for Twin Jewel’s. Twin Jade had no idea what that was about, and she couldn’t hear anything at all. Only then did she give up and settle herself in front of the mirror. She found that her sidelocks had come loose, so she picked up a small brush and smoothed the hair down with a few light strokes. Now Clever Baby came in with the party clothes in her arms, followed by Orchid Zhou. Twin Jade put down the brush, ready to get changed.

  “Wait a minute,” said Orchid Zhou. “Your hair’s no good. It looks all fuzzy!” She put down the nutmeg box she was holding to fix Twin Jade’s hair for her. She twirled and pulled at Twin Jade’s sidelocks and then sank the hairbrush into a basin of water soaked in wood shavings and worked it through her hair and bangs. The water from the brush dripped down Twin Jade’s neck, and her forehead glistened with water marks. Twin Jade reached a hand up to wipe them off, but Orchid Zhou stopped her at once, saying, “Don’t.” She then lightly pressed a towel on Twin Jade’s face and neck and told her to turn around. After careful scrutiny, she said, “That’ll do.”

  Clever Baby held the clothes up and helped Twin Jade change into them. The padded silk jacket had a pale turquoise background and pipings with a woven pattern of gold potted orchids.

  “I don’t think I’ve seen this one before,” Clever Baby said.

  “How could you have seen it? Now you mention it, this was the eldest maestro’s,” replied Orchid Zhou. “My three girls are all a bit odd. Be it clothes or jewelry, they only wanted things bought with money they’d earned and would never touch anything that had belonged to someone else. Twin Pearl has a good collection of jewelry, but if we just look at clothes, there’s no way she can compare with her two elder sisters. They had so much more! When they got married, they only took the things they liked best, and what was left was enough to fill several trunks. I packed them away and never had any use for them, for who else was there to wear them? I did give a few things to Twin Jewel to wear, but that didn’t even scratch the surface. There’s still a lot that Twin Jewel hasn’t seen, let alone you.”

  Twin Jade put on the padded jacket, walked a few steps toward the full-length mirror, and held up an arm to see whether the jacket fit. Orchid Zhou went over to smooth out the crinkles on the side and began nagging again, “You should aim high and work hard to please your clients, understand? In my eyes, there’s no difference between my own girl and an adopted girl; they’re all my daughters. If you follow the example of your elder sister Twin Pearl, all these clothes and jewelry left by Eldest and Second Maestro are yours to pick and choose from. But if you end up like Twin Jewel, even if you were my own daughter, I wouldn’t give you anything.”

  Twin Jade listened to this silently, so Orchid Zhou asked her, “Did you hear what I said?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then answer me. Why didn’t you utter a sound?”

  Clever Baby could hear that the outside girls called to the party had all arrived. She hastily took the nutmeg box, hurried them up, and managed to cut Orchid Zhou short. Holding Twin Jade by the arm, she was about to go when she suddenly remembered that the girl needed a silver water pipe. “Let’s just get one of Third Maestro’s,” she said.

  “No,” Orchid Zhou said. “Go and get Twin Jewel’s. Let her use that. I’ll get another one for Twin Jewel.”

  Clever Baby rushed off to get the water pipe, while Orchid Zhou continued to instruct Twin Jade about rules and manners at the dinner table. “If there’s anything you don’t know, ask your elder sister. You should pay attention to everything Elder Sister says. If you don’t, it’s you who’ll suffer for it, and it’ll all end badly for you. Don’t say I haven’t warned you in advance.”

  Twin Jade made an affirmative noise to everything she said. Shortly, Clever Baby came back with the silver water pipe, and Orchid Zhou went downstairs. Clever Baby hurriedly took Twin Jade to join the guests in the other room. They saw that one girl was already there; it was Cloudlet Chen’s girl, Clever Gem, who lived by the entrance of Co-security Alley. Since she only had to cross Third Avenue to come over, she came on foot and was early. As they walked in, Clever Gem had just started singing an aria from Beijing opera. This put Prosperity Luo in excellent spirits, and he started a finger game with himself as banker. Simplicity Zhao and Rustic Zhang, who did their best to get into his good book, showed much energy and gaiety. The others went along with them, except Lotuson Wang, who was so restless he could hardly sit still. Twin Pearl knew he was bored. “Would you like to go and sit a while in the other room?” she asked.

  It was exactly what he wanted, so he left the table instantly. Clever Baby led the way over to Twin Jade’s room, lit the opium lamp, made him some tea, and said, “I’ll go get Twin Jade.”

  She was gone before Lotuson could stop her. Now Twin Jade came unobtrusively back
into her room, changed her top clothes, and sat down solemnly a long way from him, keeping him company in silence. Naturally, he did not try to engage her in conversation. In a moment, Clever Baby rushed in to see to things, told Twin Jade to entertain him, and then went away again.

  He smoked a couple of opium pellets and was somewhat irritated by the noise of the finger game and singing in the next room. The way that Twin Jade just sat there quietly, with her head bowed, her feet tucked under her skirt, and her hands playing with her handkerchief seemed most appealing to him. He sighed and couldn’t help but admire her sensibility.

  He suddenly heard the maid Golden come out to the landing and call loudly for hot towels. In a moment, there was the patter of men and women walking around, the sound of curtain hooks, and the voices of guests and host taking leave of each other, all mixed up together. He had no idea who had left, but it certainly became a lot quieter. Then Whistler Tang ambled over to the room, his face bright red from drinking. Picking his teeth with a toothpick made from willow, he lay down casually on the humbler side of the divan to watch Lotuson heat up the opium.

  “Is Prosperity gone?” Lotuson asked.

  “They’ve got another engagement; he’s gone with Elan and Cloudlet.”

  So Lotuson asked Whistler and Benevolence Hong to go to Little Rouge’s with him. Whistler understood and promised to go. They did not return to the table until Clever Baby came to invite them to have rice. Whistler Tang whispered something in Benevolence Hong’s ear, whereupon Benevolence smiled.

  Twin Pearl also nodded and smiled. “I have some idea of what this is about.”

  “Do tell; let’s see if you’re right,” said Whistler.

  Twin Pearl jerked her head toward Lotuson. Everyone smiled, and they finished their rice. Rustic Zhang knew they had something afoot, so he and Simplicity Zhao said good-bye and left.

  “Let’s go, too,” said Lotuson Wang.

  Whistler Tang and Benevolence Hong answered in the affirmative, so Twin Pearl hastened to call Twin Jade over and they saw the guests off at the head of the stairs.

  The three men walked leisurely ahead, and Talisman told the sedan-chair bearers to bring the empty chair in their wake. They came out of Sunshine Alley and went down Co-security Alley into West Floral Alley. Here, they were spotted by the maid Pearlie’s son. The boy ran off to report it, and Pearlie came out the door in welcome, saying with a grin, “I was just saying Mr. Wang should be here soon, and here he is.”

  Lotuson led the way in, followed by Whistler Tang and Benevolence Hong. Pearlie brought up the rear, and they all filed up the stairs. As they came up, they heard the sound of high-heeled bound-feet shoes making a racket in the room. When Lotuson came through into the middle room, Little Rouge, with unkempt hair and a dirty face, rushed out and sprang at him like a monster possessed. He backed away, flabbergasted. The servant girl Goldie dashed forward and put her arms round Little Rouge, restraining her from behind and yelling, “Maestro, don’t!”

  Thoroughly alarmed, Pearlie rushed forward to pin down Little Rouge’s arms, also yelling, “Maestro, not so quick, wait and see!”

  Little Rouge gnashed her teeth. “Let go of me! I want to die! What’s it got to do with you?”

  Pearlie tried to calm her down. “Even if you die, it shouldn’t be like this. Now that Mr. Wang is here, you should at least hear him out. If you don’t like what he says, there’ll be time enough to kill yourself.”

  But Little Rouge, set on having it out with Lotuson, was not about to give up. Seeing her make such a scene, Whistler Tang and Benevolence Hong couldn’t very well say anything, so they just smiled ironically. Lotuson, a prey to shame, anger, and fear, became quite desperate. The pressure actually brought out his temper. He sneered and said, “Fine, just let her die!” Then he turned around to leave. Whistler Tang and Benevolence Hong could only follow him.

  This looked bad to Pearlie, who immediately let go of Little Rouge to try and detain Lotuson. With a fling of his arm, Lotuson freed his sleeve from Pearlie’s grasp and went down the stairs.

  Suddenly there was a loud banging against the partition wall in the middle room. The noise shook the house. Goldie could be heard shouting desperately, “Oh, no! The maestro is battering herself to death!”

  That alone was enough to rouse three or four menservants downstairs. Thinking some disaster had struck, they ran upstairs, blocking the way for Lotuson and the others. Pearlie pulled and hauled at Lotuson with all her might, dragging him back. Whistler Tang and Benevolence Hong realized that there was no getting away, so they, too, urged Lotuson to go back upstairs. There, they saw Little Rouge still trying to knock her head against the partition wall, while Goldie held her across her chest from behind to pull her away, but to no avail. Nearly frantic, Pearlie grabbed Little Rouge around the waist and lifted her off the ground.

  “Little Rouge, what d’you mean by this?” Whistler Tang and Benevolence Hong said in unison. “Whatever you want to say, just say it. Acting like this is beneath you, you know that.”

  Pearlie felt Little Rouge’s head and found she wasn’t really hurt. One side of her forehead was scratched by a nail on the wall, but it was a mere scrape, and she wasn’t bleeding. Goldie rubbed it with her palm, saying, “That was close! What if the nail had hit your temple?”

  Lotuson just stood on one side, at a loss. Pearlie gave him a contemptuous look and said, “Mr. Wang, if anything happens, you’ll be in it too. Don’t take this lightly.”

  The menservants, seeing that it was nothing serious, all smiled. “You surely scared us to death. Quick, help the maestro into her room.”

  Pearlie carried Little Rouge in her arms, while Goldie dragged Lotuson, Whistler Tang, and Benevolence Hong along, and they all went in. Pearlie lay Little Rouge down on the divan. Goldie set out the teacups and told the menservants to make tea.

  “Now be careful, you two,” the menservants said to Pearlie before they went downstairs, smiling sheepishly.

  Lotuson, Whistler, and Benevolence sat down in a row of chairs along the wall. Little Rouge turned to the wall, covered her face, and wept. Pearlie sat down beside her and said to Lotuson in a measured voice, “Mr. Wang, it really is your fault; you figured it out wrong. If you had told our maestro right from the start, it wouldn’t have mattered even if you were to take up with ten Constances. But you kept it from her, and that did it. When our maestro learned that you were with Constance, she said, ‘I just know Mr. Wang won’t come to us ever again. Constance’s people have dragged him off….’”

  Benevolence Hong cut her short. “Mr. Wang only gave a party at Constance’s last night, and now he’s back here at your place.”

  Pearlie stood up, walked over to Benevolence Hong, and said in a low voice, “Mr. Hong, you’re a most understanding person. Our maestro is not to blame really; she’s at the end of her tether. When Mr. Wang first started to see our maestro, we had several long-term clients. But when she fell in love with Mr. Wang, some of them got angry and stopped coming. We wanted to invite them to come back, but Mr. Wang said to our maestro, ‘If they want to stay away, let them. I’ll keep your show going by myself.’—Mr. Wang, wasn’t that what you said?—Having got Mr. Wang, our maestro’s heart was at ease; she never even bothered to ask the others to come back, so one client after another left us. By now, there’s no one except Mr. Wang. Now, Mr. Hong, do you wonder why our maestro got desperate when she learned that Mr. Wang has taken up with Constance?”

  Whistler Tang took it up from there. “Don’t let’s talk about it now. Constance has been humiliated, and Mr. Wang is still here, so it doesn’t look so bad for Little Rouge after all. Let’s say no more, all right?”

  Little Rouge, with tears streaming down her face, felt she had to speak up when she heard this. “Mr. Tang, why don’t you ask him and see what he says? It was he who told me to get out of the business, to take my nameplate down from our door. I listened to him and turned down all the party invitations. He also said to me, ‘Wha
tever debts you’ve run up, I’ll pay them off for you.’ I was so happy to hear that, I had eyes only for him, thinking he’d settle my debts, and I’d finally see some good days. But he has been deceiving me all along! And now he’s actually cast me off and taken up with this Constance!” At this she drummed her feet in fury, pushed herself up, and started rocking her body and wailing her heart out. After a while, she said, “It’s all right for him to take up with Constance, but I can’t help thinking about myself: my clothes are all worn out, my jewelry pawned. With not a client left and loaded with debts, I’m left stranded. What am I to do?”

  Whistler Tang replied light-heartedly, “There’s nothing for you to do. Mr. Wang is still here. If you need clothes and jewelry, tell Mr. Wang to get them. If you have debts, have Mr. Wang pay the lot. Isn’t everything all right?”

  Little Rouge replied, “Mr. Tang, to tell you the truth, Mr. Wang has been coming here for two-and-a-half years, and everything he’s ever given me is here right in front of your eyes. But with Constance, he’s not been there ten days, yet he’s decked her all up from head to toe. Then there’re his lickspittle friends and cronies who eagerly bought her furniture and had it delivered to her new rooms. Oh, Mr. Tang, you’ve no idea!”

  At this, Benevolence Hong cut in. “Mr. Wang certainly handled things badly. It’s only right that anyone who sees a courtesan should pay the bills. But what have the courtesan’s debts got to do with the client, and why should he pay them off for her? Frankly, a courtesan doesn’t depend on just one client, nor does a client see just one courtesan. If one feels like it, one comes frequently; if not, one comes less often. There shouldn’t be so many complications.”

  Little Rouge was about to retort when Pearlie hurriedly cut in, “Mr. Hong is of course right. A courtesan doesn’t just depend on one client. Our maestro had several, so how come you, Mr. Wang, are keeping the show going by yourself? And even then, if you hadn’t mentioned paying our maestro’s debts, would she have asked you to pay them even if her debts amounted to ten thousand? It was you, Mr. Wang, who spoke to our maestro about it; you wanted to pay her debts for her. If only Mr. Wang had paid up, would our maestro be making any complications? Even if you take up with Constance, a client doesn’t just see one courtesan—can our maestro say anything? But you, Mr. Wang, still haven’t settled any of our maestro’s debts, and now you’ve taken up with Constance. Think about it, Mr. Wang, is it our maestro who’s making complications, or is it you, Mr. Wang?” Having said that, she fixed Lotuson Wang with a basilisk look. Lotuson turned his face up and said nothing.