The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai

by Bangqing Han

  Mama Zhao took a cup from the table and drank it.

  Cloud Tao goaded Willow Yang, “You really count for nothing. It’s just the same wine, but when Mr. Qian tells her to drink it, she complies right away.”

  Green Phoenix responded, “You certainly have the gift of the gab; that’s a lot to say about a cup of wine. They’re both your friends, but you take Mr. Yang’s side to lecture me. Isn’t it the same as lecturing Mr. Qian? Well, talk away, it’s got nothing to do with me.”

  Eminence Lü said, “Now I’ve lost, you should take a cup for me, too. Then he won’t be able to pick on you.”

  “Mr. Lü, I would have drunk it for you. But now that he’s lectured me, I’m certainly not going to do it,” Green Phoenix replied.

  Willow Yang hurried Eminence Lü, “Oh, just drink up! After that we’ll play mah-jongg.”

  “Have you started?” she asked.

  “We finished four rounds. There’re four more to go,” said Vigor Qian.

  Eminence Lü drank up and pointed at Cloud Tao. “It’s your turn to Catch the Winner.” So Cloud Tao turned to play against Willow Yang.

  Afraid of having to take more wine for the losers, Green Phoenix pretended to inspect her surroundings and disappeared into the study to the left of the parlor. She saw that the tables and desks had been moved to the center of the room and chips and mah-jongg tiles were scattered on them. The four mutton-fat candles had been blown out, however, and only the opium lamp on the divan was burning bright. She sat down on the humble side of the divan. Presently Vigor Qian also came in and lay down beside her to smoke.

  She asked, “Did my mother borrow any money from you?”

  “Not exactly,” he replied. “But the night before last when I was chatting with her, she said expenses were high and money was tight, that she couldn’t make ends meet. It seemed that she was going to ask for a loan. Then we got talking about something else, and she didn’t mention it.”

  “My mother is a deep one! You’ll have to watch out for her. The last time you had a pair of bracelets made for me, she said to me, ‘Mr. Qian hasn’t been doing much business recently. I wonder where he got all this money?’ I said, ‘What do you care where the clients get their money from?’ She said, ‘We’re really short of money. I wonder where it’s all gone to.’ This so enraged me that I just had to let it go. What d’you think she meant by that?”

  “You said I should watch out; are you worried that she’d borrow money from me?”

  “If she tries, don’t you lend her any. And don’t you ever buy anything for me, either, for whatever you give me will sooner or later end up as hers anyway. People like that have no idea what gratitude means. It’s as if you’re to blame for having such a lot money because it makes them green with envy. If you don’t buy me anything, there won’t be any trouble.”

  “She’s always treated you quite kindly, though. What’s got into her now that makes her suspicious of you, I wonder?”

  “You’re right about that. These days, she deliberately makes things difficult for me. At the end of last month, a client left town, and before he went he settled his bills. It was a hundred dollars. When she got her hands on it, she lent it all to her lovers, ten dollars here and twenty dollars there. Today when the tailor came for his fees, she didn’t have it, and she actually turned around and cadged off me. I said, ‘How would I have any money? It’s your responsibility to pay for party clothes. You knew the tailor had to be paid today, so why did you give all the money to your lovers?’ I made such a big deal of it that she got scared and held her tongue.”

  “So did you give her anything today?”

  “Because it’s the first time, to keep up appearances for her, I borrowed ten dollars from Luo. But in her heart she doesn’t want it from Luo. She wants me to come to you for a loan, the more the better.”

  “If that’s the case, she’ll never be satisfied until she gets at my money. If she does ask me for a loan, I can’t very well say no, either.”

  “It’s all right for you to refuse her; why shouldn’t you? Just say, ‘I haven’t been doing much business recently, so I haven’t got any money.’ That’d be quite nicely put, don’t you think? By the time the festival comes round, all you have to do is promptly settle your bills for the party calls. Then she’ll have no excuse to bad-mouth you.”

  “Then she’d hate me. The way I look at it, if all she wants is to borrow some money, then just lend her a little. It won’t come to much. Just play along for a couple more seasons, until you’ve redeemed your freedom.”

  “No, I won’t! What’s she to you that you’re so keen on lending her money? Are you really flush with money? If so, wait till I’ve got back my freedom; then lend it to me.”

  “Are you going to redeem yourself soon?”

  She silenced him with a gesture of her hand and then peeped outside and caught sight of a shadowy figure standing behind the green gauze screen. “Who is it?” she demanded. On hearing her, the man came out, clapping his hands, laughing. It turned out to be Eminence Lü.

  Vigor Qian put down his opium pipe and sat up smiling. “You’re trying to scare us.”

  “I’m here to catch the adulterers. Shameless, the two of you! Even if you want to have a rendezvous, you can at least wait until we guests have left and then go to it in comfort. How come you can’t even wait a moment?”

  Green Phoenix muttered, “Ivory certainly never grows in a dog’s mouth!”

  Before Eminence Lü could retort, Vigor Qian had dragged him back to the dinner table in the parlor.

  Willow Yang said, “We lost at the finger game, and there was no one to drink for us, while you, the host, went off to have fun.”

  “You’re welcome to have fun now. Later, you’re bound to lose heavily at mah-jongg,”1 said Cloud Tao.

  Vigor Qian did not protest but just asked about the finger game and the wine. The four of them immersed themselves in the game and the drinking before they had supper. After the meal, they went to the study, lit the candles, and played mah-jongg.

  As Vigor Qian had to smoke his fill, he asked Green Phoenix to play in his stead. After two rounds, she had won a tidy sum. Delighted at this, she called Mama Zhao over and whispered some instructions to her. Mama Zhao then walked home by herself and headed straight upstairs to look for Prosperity Luo. To her surprise, he was not in the room; there was just Pearl Phoenix bent over the table, dozing. Mama Zhao pulled her up by the ear. “Where’s Mr. Luo?”

  Pearl Phoenix, having been woken abruptly, was still dazed and unable to answer. After being questioned repeatedly, she finally said, “Mr. Luo is gone.”

  “Where to?”

  “I don’t know.”

  In anger, Mama Zhao jabbed a finger at her temple and then went downstairs to ask Second Sister, who told her, “Mr. Luo was invited to a friend’s party at Snow Scent’s. Go and tell the eldest maestro to come back earlier for the other party.”

  “I’ll wait till Mr. Luo’s call chit comes and then take it to her. She won’t come back just yet anyway,” said Mama Zhao.2

  Second Sister agreed. After a long wait, they finally received Prosperity Luo’s call chit, and it was indeed sent from Snow Scent’s at East Co-prosperity Alley.

  Chit in hand, Mama Zhao returned to the Qian residence on Avenue Road. As she went in, she saw all the lights had gone out in the study. She realized the mah-jongg party was over and the guests had left, so she headed for the room on the right. Here, she saw Vigor Qian’s wife and greeted her, “Madam.”

  Mrs. Qian was all smiles. “Are you here to fetch your maestro? She’s upstairs. Just wait a while here.”3

  Mama Zhao had no choice but to sit down. Gradually, she got round to mentioning the call to another party.

  “In that case, the maestro mustn’t delay. It won’t do for her to be late,” said Mrs. Qian. “Why don’t you give a shout at the bottom of the stairs?”

  Mama Zhao hurried off to the back and shouted in a loud voice, “Eldest M
aestro!” No answer came from upstairs. She called again twice, saying, “There’s another party call!” The silence remained undisturbed.

  Mrs. Qian stopped her. “Don’t call anymore. I’m sure the maestro heard you.”

  Mama Zhao could only return to the front room to chat with Mrs. Qian. After a while she heard Green Phoenix coming down. She hastily collected the pipa and water pipe bag and went up to meet her.

  “What’s so urgent that you had to make such a racket?” Green Phoenix said in a huff.

  Mrs. Qian interceded pleasantly, “You might say she did right, too. That call chit came a while ago, so she was afraid you’d miss the party. That’s why she asked you to go earlier.”

  Green Phoenix could not very well say much after that. She exchanged a few words with Mrs. Qian, thanked her, and took her leave. Mrs. Qian walked her out all the way beyond the parlor and watched her get into the sedan chair.

  Mama Zhao walked behind the sedan chair, and they went straight to Snow Scent’s in East Co-prosperity Alley. Green Phoenix leaned on her as she made her way to the table. They saw that guests, courtesans, maids, and servant girls had crowded around it; there was no space left. Prosperity Luo’s seat was right next to the dressing table, and Mama Zhao found it impossible to squeeze in. He happened to be sitting next to Lotuson Wang, whose companion that night was Constance. Seeing Green Phoenix, she moved her own stool over and called out, “Green Phoenix, my peer, come over here.” She gave Mama Zhao a very warm greeting as well.

  Green Phoenix saw the glitter of Constance’s jewels and realized that they were new. She took Constance by the hand and had a look and then said, “These name rings are getting a bit out of fashion.”

  Seeing the pair of green jade hairpins in the shape of lotus pods that Green Phoenix was wearing, Constance wanted to look at them. Green Phoenix pulled one out and handed it to her. “Not a bad coloring,” said Constance.

  It happened that Lotuson Wang was sitting next to the host, Elan Ge. His girl, Snow Scent, seated behind him, heard Constance’s praise and poked her head over for a look.

  “How much did you pay for this?” she asked.

  “Eight dollars,” replied Green Phoenix.

  Snow Scent hastened to pull out her own hairpin for a comparison. Seeing it was all green, Constance said, “That’s not bad either.”

  Snow Scent retorted angrily, “Not bad either, eh? Mine are worth forty dollars. ‘Not bad either,’ is it?”

  Hearing this, Green Phoenix took it from her and examined it carefully and then asked, “Did you get it yourself?”

  “It was a client who got it for me, at the teahouse in the city god’s temple. Everyone said it was a good price. The jewelry stores would have charged a lot more,” said Snow Scent.

  “I can’t really tell the difference,” said Constance. “Compared to hers, this does seem a bit better.”

  “With green jade, it’s hard to tell the value,” said Snow Scent. “A little difference in quality makes a piece really rare. These hairpins of mine are very special; nothing can compare with them. Forty dollars is about the right price.”

  Green Phoenix smiled, remained quiet, and handed her back the hairpin. Constance also gave Green Phoenix’s back to her. Elan Ge, engaged in the finger game, did not hear everything that Snow Scent was saying. When he had finished playing, he turned around to ask her, “What cost forty dollars?” She handed him the jade hairpin.

  “You’ve been taken for a ride! How would that come to forty dollars? It’s only worth about ten,” he said.

  “What d’you know? You’re no expert, so stop criticizing. I’d like you to go and get something like this for ten dollars,” she retorted.

  “Give it here. I’ll have a look,” said Prosperity Luo as he snatched the hairpin.

  “You’re no expert either. What d’you want to see it for?” Green Phoenix interceded.

  Prosperity Luo laughed. “It’s true I’m no expert!”

  He passed the hairpin to Lotuson Wang, who said to Constance, “It’s much better than the pair you’re wearing.”

  “But of course. How could mine compare?”

  “Oh, so you have a pair, too?” Snow Scent cut in. “Let me see if they’re any good.”

  “Mine are no good at all. Now I want to get another pair,” Constance said as she pulled one out of her hair and handed it to Snow Scent.

  “How much did this cost?” Snow Scent asked.

  “For what you paid for yours, I can get ten pairs of these,” Constance replied pleasantly.

  “Four dollars! Naturally, you won’t get anything nice at that price. If you get another pair, you should go for the expensive ones. High prices mean high quality,” said Snow Scent.

  Smiling, Constance took the hairpin from Lotuson Wang and handed it back to Snow Scent in exchange for her own.

  It was Prosperity Luo’s turn to be the banker. The loud cries of the finger game rang out like spring thunder and managed to cut short Snow Scent’s discourse on hairpins.

  Aside from Prosperity Luo and Lotuson Wang, everyone at the gathering was a friend of Elan’s in the money shop business. Knowing that Elan Ge’s heart was more preoccupied with Snow Scent than with the wine, they tried their best to make things easy for him; none of them indulged to his full capacity. For the sake of form, they took turns playing against Prosperity as banker and then hastily wound up the party.

  Snow Scent waited until all the guests had left before she set upon Elan Ge again. “When I say something, you should take my side and put in a word or two to support me; that’s how you show your affection. But just now you actually picked on me—wasn’t I surprised! I said the hairpins cost forty dollars, and that was the truth; I wasn’t fooling you. If you don’t believe me, ask Little Sister. But you were so worried that I’d make you come up with the forty dollars, you said at once they were just worth ten. Even if they cost no more than ten dollars, did you buy them for me? Even that foreign copper bracelet watch that you bought me was said to have cost thirty odd dollars, so why is it that when it comes to my own things they must be common? In your heart, you think of me as a cheap courtesan, so I can’t possibly afford forty-dollar hairpins. I’m only good enough for a copper bracelet but not a gold one, is that it?”

  Her incoherent nonsense amused him. “What’s all the fuss about? Even if the hairpins cost forty dollars, it has nothing to do with me,” he said.

  “Then why did you say they’re only worth ten? Since that’s what you said, you go and buy me a pair exactly like this for ten dollars. It so happens that I want to buy another set of jewelry. I’ll pay for it myself. You go and get it for me.”

  “Say no more. Consider it done,” he said smiling.

  “You’re just playing for time. I want it tomorrow, no later.”

  “I’ll go and get it tonight, all right?”

  “Yes, fine.”

  He actually took his jacket and put it on. Little Sister happened to come in just then and asked in alarm, “What are you doing, Second Young Master?” She was about to stop him when Snow Scent signaled with her eyes for her to desist.

  Elan put on his thumb ring, hung his watch on his jacket, picked up his folding fan, and said to her smiling, “Well, I’m off.”

  Snow Scent grabbed him. “Where’re you going?”

  “You told me to go shopping.”

  “All right, I’ll go with you.” She took his hand and made for the door.

  He stopped at the door curtain, while she struggled to pull him out the door. Little Sister clapped her hands laughing behind them, saying, “A fine thing if you get hauled off by the police.” The menservants in the parlor, puzzled by all this, came in to find out what was going on. Little Sister had to cajole and scold to get Elan and Snow Scent back into the room. She removed his jacket for him.

  Snow Scent sat down to one side pouting in silence, while Elan smiled awkwardly. Little Sister said cheerily, “The two of you are just like children, crying and laughing al
l the time, and for no good reason at all. Isn’t it a joke?”

  “Sorry, it must be hard on an old lady like you—aggravating,” he said.

  “Exactly. I’m so aggravated, it’s killing me.” So saying, she walked out of the room.

  He went over to Snow Scent and said gently, “Did you hear? They take us for a joke. A silly row over nothing at all. What d’you suppose we look like?”

  She could not suppress a giggle. “Are you going to be stubborn with me again?”

  “You win. You’re in luck this time.”

  Only then did she make up with him. He heard the sound of the menservants shutting the door and looked at his watch; it was already past one o’clock. “It’s getting late; let’s go to bed.”

  “Would you like some congee first?” she asked.

  “No, not really.”

  She called for Little Sister to come and tidy up. Little Sister came in with hot water for the washbasin and then made the bed. In the midst of the bustle, a servant girl suddenly pushed the door open and ran into the room. At the sight of Little Sister, she called out “Aunt,” and covered her mouth with a sleeve, ready to burst into tears. Little Sister saw it was her husband’s niece, named Clever, a live-in girl at Sunset’s.

  “Why are you here at this hour of the night?” she asked at once.

  Clever wanted to reply, but the words would not come.

  ::

  1. [This alludes to the belief that sex brings bad luck to a gambler. E.H.]

  2. [Obviously, everyone in the Huang house knows that Green Phoenix is not just playing mah-jongg in Vigor Qian’s house, and no one wants to irritate her by telling her to leave early. E.H.]

  3. [This can mean only one thing: Green Phoenix is in bed with Vigor Qian in his house. In doing so, she causes the brothel to lose income, as Qian only pays three dollars for a party call to get her to his house. He would have had to pay a lot more (including tips for all the servants) if he had gone to the brothel. That Mrs. Qian and the brothel maid tacitly concur with this arrangement makes the case even more interesting. E.H.]

  CHAPTER 23 :: A young girl overhears things said behind her back, and a jealous wife courts insult in a brothel