The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai

by Bangqing Han

  She still said nothing.

  Script Li kept urging her, “Speak up. Are you willing?” She replied in vexation, “Your Excellency, is it reasonable to ask me about something like this?”

  “Am I to ask your mother then? You have a point there. Once you’ve agreed, naturally I’ll go and ask your mother.”

  She remained silent, her head still turned away.

  Second Sister Bao happened to come in with tea, so Twin Jade changed the subject and said playfully, “Do have some tea, Your Excellency.”

  He reached out for the teacup and asked Second Sister Bao, “Where’s everybody?”

  “They’re chatting in the study. Shall I ask them to come over?”

  “Don’t bother.” He handed her the teacup and lay down on the sofa. Once Second Sister Bao was gone, it was quiet in the room. Before he knew it, everything grew blurred; his mouth fell open, and his eyes closed.

  Taking this in from the corner of her eye, Twin Jade tiptoed off. Modesty Zhu remained seated there, afraid to leave. As he hesitated, he heard Script Li starting to snore. He coughed deliberately, and the noise did not wake Li, so Modesty also slipped out of the room. He wanted to find Twin Jade and talk to her. When he walked over to the study, he saw the younger men were seated around Old Merit, deep in conversation. Bright Pearl put in a word from time to time, but Twin Jade was not there. He was just going to withdraw when Bright Pearl spotted him and asked, “Is His Excellency alone in there?” He nodded. She rushed over, all flustered.

  Modesty took the opportunity to retrace his steps. He stood at the door trying to figure out where Twin Jade had gone. As he chanced to look that way, he caught sight of someone leaning at a window on the east wing. On looking more closely he found it was none other than Twin Jade. Overjoyed, he made bold to skirt round the back. When he entered Bright Pearl’s own chamber, he tiptoed up behind Twin Jade, but she had sensed his approach and just pretended not to notice. As he slowly reached out a hand for her wrist, she suddenly snatched her hand away and shouted, “Don’t horse around!” Never expecting such a reaction, he got a real shock and stumbled back a step or two. Cowering before the divan, he stood in a daze, his face frozen.

  She waited a moment. Seeing that nothing was happening, she turned around to find out what he was doing. To her surprise he seemed to be in a state of shock. Realizing she had been too brusque, she felt quite apologetic. But how was she to console him? She could not come up with an idea, so she just shot him a sidelong glance with the flicker of a smile.

  Reassured, he sighed. “You’re a fine one! You almost scared me to death!”

  Holding back her laughter, she said in a low voice, “If you have enough sense to be scared, why don’t you keep your hands to yourself?”

  “How would I dare do otherwise? I just wanted to ask you something.”

  “What is it?”

  “I wanted to know where Sunshine Alley is. How many people are there in your place? Would it be all right if I came?”

  She did not answer. He repeated his questions, and finally she said in vexation, “I don’t know!” Then she stood up and walked out of the room. Modesty just stared after her, bewildered, and could not very well stop her.

  When she got to the door curtain, she turned around and asked him with a smile, “Are you close to Benevolence Hong?”

  He thought for a moment. “Benevolence Hong? No, not really. But he and my brother are old friends.”

  “Just go and find Benevolence Hong.”

  He wanted to ask her why, but she had walked out of the room. He followed her back to the study. Clever Baby had just come to fetch her, so she made ready to say good-bye.

  “Go and tell His Excellency,” Amity Zhu said.

  “Never mind. His Excellency is asleep,” said Bright Pearl.

  After a moment’s reflection, Amity Zhu said, “In that case, you can go now. We’ll call you again later.”

  Twin Jade had just left when a maid came peeping around the edge of the curtain. Seeing her, Jade Tao hurried outside, and they talked for a while in undertones, after which he returned to the study to sit with the others. When Cloud Tao saw the expression of uncertainty on his brother’s face, he asked, “More trouble?”

  “No,” Jade Tao mumbled. “It’s just that Water Blossom is not feeling well.”

  “She was fine just now,” Cloud Tao said.

  “With her, it’s hard to say,” Jade replied glibly.

  Cloud sneered. “If you want to go and look in on her, do it now when we’re free. Come back early.”

  This was just what Jade had been hoping for. He immediately excused himself, went downstairs, got into the sedan chair, and made straight for East Prosperity Alley. As he walked into her room, he saw Water Blossom lying in bed, hugging the quilt. Only her younger sister, River Blossom, was there, propping herself up on the bed by the elbows, keeping Water Blossom company. He reached out to feel her forehead, which was slightly feverish.

  “Sister, Brother-in-law is here,” River Blossom called out repeatedly.

  She opened her eyes and saw him. “You shouldn’t have come right away. Won’t your brother scold?”

  “It’s all right, he told me to come.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “He told me to come here first and then go back there early tonight.”

  After a long pause, she said, “Your brother is a nice man. Don’t be stubborn with him, just do as he says.”

  He did not reply, just bent down, put her hands under the quilt, and tucked it up firmly around her neck and shoulders, leaving a little gap for air circulation. Then he suggested that she take off her earrings. But she refused, saying, “I’ll be all right after I get a little sleep.”

  “Just now, you were perfectly all right. Did the wind get at you in the sedan chair?” he said.

  “No, it was just that awful play, Tianshui Pass. It made such a racket, my head was bursting.”

  “Then why didn’t you leave early?”

  “The girls hadn’t all arrived. How could I leave first?”

  “That doesn’t matter really.”

  River Blossom broke in, “Brother-in-law, you should have said something. If you did, then Elder Sister could have left first while I stayed a little longer. That’d have been all right, wouldn’t it?”

  “Then why didn’t you say so?” he asked.

  “But I didn’t know Elder Sister was unwell.”

  “So you didn’t know, but I was supposed to know?” he said with a smile. At this, River Blossom also smiled.

  Jade Tao sat down on the bed, and River Blossom leaned against his knees. Neither of them spoke. Water Blossom remained wide awake, unable to sleep. By the time the lamps were lit, Cloud Tao’s sedan-chair bearers came with a message: “The table is set. Second Young Master is requested to go over right away.”

  Jade Tao answered in the affirmative. Water Blossom happened to hear this, so she said, “Hurry up, or else your brother will lecture you again.”

  “There’s ample time.”

  “It’s not that. If go early, you can come back early. That’ll also give your brother a good impression, won’t it? Otherwise, he’ll go on about your being bewitched and say you won’t even attend to serious matters.”

  After a moment of reflection, he turned to River Blossom, “Then you keep your sister company. Don’t go away.”

  “No,” Water Blossom said quickly. “Let her go and have supper. After that, she’ll have to answer party calls.”

  “I’ll eat here,” said River Blossom.

  “I have no appetite. You go and eat with Mother.”

  “Have something, all right?” he tried to persuade her. “If you don’t eat, your mother will worry herself sick.”

  “All right, now off you go.”

  Thereupon he went by sedan chair to Tripod Alley for dinner at Bright Pearl’s, while River Blossom lingered by the bed, asking questions about this and that.

  “Go and tell Moth
er I want to sleep for a while. I’m not feeling unwell, but I don’t want dinner,” Water Blossom said.

  At first, the young girl refused to go, but finally Water Blossom made her.

  A moment later, Water Blossom’s mother, Fair Sister Li, pushed open the back door and came in. Seeing there was no one with her, she asked, “Why isn’t Second Young Master here?”

  “I told him to go. He’s the host today so he should go and entertain.”

  Fair Sister Li walked up to the bed to look at Water Blossom’s face and touch and feel her all over.

  “Don’t, Mother, I’m all right,” she said smiling, trying to stop her.

  “D’you feel like eating anything special? I’ll tell them to make it. The cook is not doing anything just now.”

  “I have no appetite.”

  “There’s some five-spiced pigeon. I’ll tell them to make a little congee, and you can have it later.”

  “You eat it yourself, Mother. Just the thought of it makes me unwell, so how could I get it down?”

  Fair Sister gave her some more advice and then turned up the lamp on the dressing table and lowered the wick of the paraffin lamp in the side chamber. She also let down the curtains before she went out through the backdoor to go to supper. Water Blossom was alone in the room.

  ::

  1. [This is in contrast to Chinese custom, which leaves such preparations until after the arrival of the guests. E.H.]

  CHAPTER 20 :: Water Blossom, aggrieved, rages at the mirror, and Jade Tao, deeply in love, shares her nightmare

  As Water Blossom was ill, she preferred to rest in peace and would not even let Beckon and Big Goldie wait on her. She lay in bed with her eyes wide open, all alone. After lying like that for a long time, she wanted to relieve herself, so she pulled a jacket over her shoulders and got up. She stuck her feet into a pair of slippers and, holding on to the railings of the bedstead, groped her way to the area behind the bed. She had just sat down on the chamber pot when she heard the back door to her room creak open a little.

  “Who is it?” she asked quickly.

  No one answered. She became anxious and made haste to get up. Just then, she saw a dark ball roll in through the slightly opened door and go under her bed. Water Blossom was so flustered by this that she even forgot to tie up the sash of her trousers but just stumbled back into the room, only managing to steady herself when she reached the round marble table at its center. She was about to strike a match to see what had come in when a big black cat with white fur on its belly crawled out from under the bed. It gave a yowl and stretched itself in front of her. In anger and frustration, she stamped her foot. The cat bolted toward the door but then turned round to stare at her out of luminous, tigerlike eyes.

  There was nothing she could do about it. When she got back to her bed, her heart was still pounding. She wanted to call for somebody to keep her company but was afraid to alarm her mother, so had to give up the idea. Instead, she just sat on the bed, hugging the quilt. It happened that Jade Tao’s call chit came just then for River Blossom. The young girl came in dressed in party clothes and said to Water Blossom, “Elder Sister, I’m off. Have you got any message for Brother-in-law?”

  “Nothing. Tell him not to drink so much and to come back as soon as dinner is over.”

  The young girl answered yes and made to leave, but Water Blossom stopped her to inquire, “Who is going with you?”

  “Beckon.”

  “Tell Big Goldie to go along, too. She can do some of the drinking for him.”

  She promised and left.

  Water Blossom felt she could not bear up anymore and had to lie down. She had not foreseen that the black cat was a real troublemaker: it sneaked back into her room. Lying facing the wall, she was unaware of it. The cat quietly jumped on to the dressing table from a high-back chair and sniffed endlessly at every object on the table: mirror, lamp stand, teapot, clock, and so on. Water Blossom saw a black shadow like a man’s head flicker across the bed curtain. This so frightened her that a chill went through her and her hands and feet trembled uncontrollably. She could not even manage to call out. By the time she sat up, supporting herself by her arms, the cat had leapt away. She gnashed her teeth and cursed, “The damned beast! It deserves to die!”

  After a moment’s reflection, her mind settled somewhat. She picked up a hand mirror from the dressing table to look at herself. The thin sallow face was flushed like a Fuzhou tangerine. She heaved a sigh, put down the mirror, and turned to lie down facing the door, her eyes wide open, waiting for Jade Tao to return from the dinner party. The hours passed, but there was no sign of either him or River Blossom.

  Just as she was consumed with anxiety, her mother came in to ask her, “The congee is ready. Would you like a sip?”

  “Mother, I’m all right. I’m not hungry just now; I’ll eat later.”

  “Then tell me when you feel like it, for they’ll never think of it after I’ve gone to bed.”

  She promised and asked her in return, “River Blossom has been gone for a while now; hasn’t she come back yet?”

  “She has to go on from there to another party.”

  “In that case, you might have sent a manservant to go and look in on Second Young Master.”

  “The men have all gone out. Big Goldie is over there with Second Young Master.”

  “When the men are back, tell them to go there right away.”

  “Who knows when they’ll be back! I’ll tell the cook to go.” So saying, Fair Sister went out to the parlor to summon the cook and instructed him to “go and look in on Second Young Master Tao.”

  The cook was about to go when Jade Tao arrived in a sedan chair, with Big Goldie in tow. Fair Sister was overjoyed. “He’s here! He’s here! You don’t have to go now.”

  Jade came straight to Water Blossom’s bed and asked solicitously, “I kept you waiting a long time. Are you bored?”

  “It’s all right. Is the party over?” she said.

  “Not yet. The old man was in such good spirits, he picked a dozen operas to be performed. The whole thing will go on till dawn.”

  “So you left early. Did you tell them you were leaving?”

  He answered with a smile, “I said I had a slight headache and I wasn’t up to drinking either. They said, ‘If you have a headache, you should go home.’ So I left.”

  “Did you really have a headache?”

  “It was real all right. I did have a headache when I was there, but as soon as I left, it was gone,” he replied.

  “You’re a crafty one. No wonder your brother scolds you,” she said lightheartedly.

  “Well, he just smiled at me and didn’t say anything.”

  “Your brother was so angry, he was at a loss for words; that’s why he smiled.”

  He responded with a smile and then sat down at the edge of her bed, felt the palm of her hand, and asked, “Feeling better?”

  “Just about the same.”

  “How much did you eat at supper?”

  “I didn’t have any. Mother made some congee; d’you want some? If you do, I’ll have some, too.”

  He was going to call for Big Goldie when she happened to come in on orders from Fair Sister. She asked, “Would you like some congee?”

  He told her to bring it at once. Then he turned around and said to Water Blossom, “Your mother has a difficult time getting you to eat the smallest morsel. You’d make her very happy if you’d just eat a little more!”

  “You make it sound so easy. I’d like to eat, too, but what can I do when I’ve got no appetite?”

  Big Goldie brought in a large tray, which she put on the dressing table; she then lit a second paraffin table lamp. Jade helped Water Blossom sit up in bed and just sat on the edge of the bed himself. They each picked up a bowl of congee and started eating. He saw there were four very nice vegetarian dishes on the tray, together with a small bowl of spiced pigeon that was very light, so he tried to persuade her to have some. But she shook her head and j
ust had a little salted vegetable to go with the congee.

  As they were eating, River Blossom came home from the other party. She came in to ask after her elder sister even before she got changed. Seeing Jade Tao, she said joyfully, “I knew Brother-in-law would have been here for a while. What are you eating? I want some, too!” She turned to call for Beckon, “Quick, fill a bowl for me.”

  “You should get changed first. What’s the hurry?” Beckon responded.

  River Blossom hastily took off her party clothes, handed them to Beckon, and repeatedly urged Big Goldie to hurry up and give her a bowl of congee. She ate leaning against the dressing table and as she did so started laughing at herself. This made Jade and Water Blossom laugh, too.

  Soon, everybody had finished eating and had cleaned their faces. Big Goldie came in again to say, “Second Young Master, Mother requests a word with you.”

  He had no idea what it was about, so he told River Blossom to keep Water Blossom company and went out by the back door for Fair Sister Li’s room.

  Fair Sister greeted him and asked him to sit down. She then said, “Second Young Master, her illness doesn’t look good to me. If it was just a fever, I wouldn’t worry, but this illness of hers doesn’t seem like fever. She’s been ill since the first month, and she’s completely lost her appetite. She’s wasted away so much that she’s just a bag of bones now. Second Young Master, could you please persuade her to see a doctor and take a couple of doses of medicine?”

  “This illness of hers should have been tended to by a doctor last winter. Actually, I’ve spoken to her about it several times, but she’s set on refusing treatment. There’s nothing I can do.”

  “She’s always been like this. When she’s ill, she won’t tell you, and if you ask her, she always says she’s better. If you do get a doctor and prepare the medicine for her, she gets upset about it. But I’ve been thinking, this illness is not like any other; if she still refuses to take medicine, Second Young Master, I’m afraid she may succeed in doing away with herself!”

  He hung his head in silence.

  “You go and talk to her. You don’t have to go on about it; just tell her to see a doctor and take a couple of doses of medicine so she’ll get well faster. If you told her the truth, she’d get worried, and if the worry brought on some other complications, she’d end up even worse. And don’t you worry about it, either, Second Young Master, for no matter how much you worry, it won’t help her. After all, this illness of hers will not last long. A couple of doses of medicine will see it ease off.”