by Bangqing Han
“A virgin courtesan at first, but virgin no more once you started seeing her.”
He guffawed. “You’re speaking of yourself. That only applies to Jewel. She was a virgin courtesan at first, but virgin no more once I started seeing her.”
She broke out in silly giggles and reached a hand inside his sleeve to pinch his arm. He took the opportunity to hug her and was just going to feel her up when the spoilsport Mama Yeung came in with the message, “Young Mr. Zhang asks you to go over.”
He sat up, but Jewel pushed him down again. “What’s the hurry? Just let them go on ahead.”
He had to answer, “Ask Young Mr. Zhang to go ahead. I’ll be there shortly.”
Mama Yeung assented, all smiles, and went out. Locked in an embrace, Fortune and Jewel kept quiet and listened carefully to what went on outside. After Mama Yeung had delivered his message, they heard Rustic say, “Let’s go then.” Crane Li and Cloudlet Chen, who had their ricksha and sedan chair there, were the first to leave. Rustic Zhang then led the way for Benevolence Hong, Pine Wu, and Lichee Zhuang. The three proceeded slowly downstairs, talking and laughing all the way.
“They’re all gone,” Fortune whispered in Jewel’s ear.
She pretended to be offended. “So what?” She had scarcely finished speaking when unexpectedly Woodsy came in after having seen the guests off. Her desire now kindled, Jewel hated this intrusion. She clenched her teeth and pushed Fortune Shi away with all her might and then stamped her feet and dashed over to the dressing table, her bound-feet shoes making a rickety noise. She stood in front of the foreign mirror to tidy up her hair.
“Young Mr. Zhang told me to tell you it’s the third house in Auspicious Cloud Alley, in case you don’t know the place,” Woodsy said to Fortune.
“Got it, got it,” he said repeatedly, his eyes glancing sideways at Jewel. Woodsy turned around and saw that Jewel was all red in the face. She said no more and withdrew in haste.
He lay down on his side on the opium divan and beckoned to her slyly, calling in a low voice, “Come here.”
She cast a fleeting glance at him but then stamped her foot and said in a pet, “Not coming.”
Taken aback, he sat up cross-legged, patted his thigh, and pleaded, “Don’t be like that! I’ll kowtow to you on behalf of your sister. Don’t be angry, for my sake.”
Hearing this, she almost laughed, but she suppressed it. Her little mouth pouting, and balancing first on one tiny foot then the other, she shimmied and swayed as she moved reluctantly toward him. When she was only three or four paces away from the divan, she suddenly launched herself at him. Unable to block her, he fell back spread-eagled. She pressed her head tightly against his chest, lay on top of him, and held his body down so he could not move. Despite a thousand protests from him, she refused to budge. Helpless, he managed to free his right hand, which gradually felt its way along her midriff under her blouse. Suddenly, it came across the knot of the sash of her trousers. He meant to pull it undone, but she became aware of what he was doing and gave a screech like a whistle. At the same time, she gripped his hands and looked up, staring at him eyeball to eyeball.
“Why are you still resisting?” he whispered. Despite his repeated questions, she would not answer.
After a long while, she finally murmured, “You’re going to the party. When the party’s over, come back early, all right?”
“We’ve got nothing to do now. Why does it have to be later?”
Hard-pressed and unable to find the words to explain the situation, she just pointed at her own bosom. He was still puzzled.
Getting desperate, she let him go and got up from the divan, frowning. “You! How can anyone make you understand?”
He thought for a moment and then sighed helplessly, grumbling, “All right, I’ll let you off now. Later, if you still resist me, I’ll show you who’s boss.”
She pulled the corners of her mouth down. “You reckon you’ve got what it takes?”
He said smiling, “Nothing spectacular, but I can make you die.”
“Aiyo! You certainly can talk. Let’s hope it won’t turn out later to be all talk.”
“Why not try it now and see.”
Hearing this, she backed off in a hurry. He pulled a long face. “Running away before I’ve even touched you, huh? You little tease—I’ve never seen the likes of you!”
She was about to answer back when the menservants called out, “Mama Yeung, an invitation and a party call!”
Jewel said, “They’re asking for you.” When Mama Yeung brought the invitation in, it was indeed from Rustic Zhang.
“Shall we say you’ll be there right away?” Jewel asked.
“Since you don’t want me, naturally I’m going,” he said.
“Oh, goodness! You’re such a—” she exclaimed loudly but did not finish what she wanted to say.
Seeing this, Mama Yeung laughed foolishly in sympathy and then called down the stairs without being instructed, “The guest is coming right away.”
Fortune did not react, while Jewel went and got herself ready. Seeing that he was still lying on the divan, she asked, “Aren’t you going to the dinner?”
He said coldly, “I’m not going. I’m already filled up with empty words and have lost my appetite.”
She at once hit the roof, stamping both feet on the floor and heaving a sigh. At last, she climbed onto the opium divan and whispered in his ear.
He finally saw the light. “Then why didn’t you say so before?”
She walked away without explaining herself. He stood up and straightened his clothes, preparing to go, but then turned to her and said, “I’ll be frank with you, too. Since you’re not well yet today, I’ll come tomorrow. After the dinner party, I’ll go home.”
She glared at him “What are you saying?”
He said appeasingly, “Well, I’m just consulting with you. I’ll definitely come tomorrow.”
“Who’s asking you to come tomorrow?” she shouted. “If you want to go home, just go!”
Having no time to argue, Fortune turned his head away and, in imitation of her, stamped his foot on the floor and heaved a sigh. Even Mama Yeung was tickled by this.
He turned around and begged Jewel’s pardon and then took out her party clothes and obsequiously draped them over her shoulders. She pretended to ignore him and arranged to go together with Woodsy. The two women went downstairs by themselves. Fortune followed them to the door, where he watched them get into their sedan chairs. He followed them on foot with Mama Yeung.
Just as they walked past the Galaxy Jewelry Store, a young maidservant dashed toward them and grabbed Mama Yeung, saying, “Grandma, wait!”
Fortune could not wait for Mama Yeung as the sedan chairs had gone far ahead. He hurried after them. When he reached Auspicious Cloud Alley, he saw the sedan chairs were standing in front of Cassia’s door, and the girls were looking for Mama Yeung. He explained how a maid had stopped her on the way. Woodsy, enraged, got off the chair and went in by herself. He asked Jewel, “Would you like to take my arm?”
“No, you go in first,” she said at once.
He followed Woodsy in. When they entered Cassia’s room, the others were already seated, leaving the seat of honor vacant. Fortune Shi could not very well refuse, so he reluctantly took it.
After a long wait, Jewel finally came in, leaning on the arm of Mama Yeung. The minute Woodsy saw Mama Yeung, she lashed out, “Have you taken leave of your senses? You’re supposed to follow the girls to a party. Where did you make off to?”
Mama Yeung explained with a smile, “The young kids get scared stiff if the least thing happens. I told them not to worry, but they won’t believe me. They’re asking me to go back.”
Woodsy was still going to complain when Fortune Shi interrupted, “What happened to them?”
Mama Yeung took her time in telling them the story.
CHAPTER 26 :: Nocturnal sounds show a couple’s real prowess, and a lustful look betrays a woman’s fa
lse modesty
Mama Yeung said, “It’s none other than Aroma Su. She’s said to have been arrested by the new police.”
Cloudlet Chen said, suddenly alert, “Aroma? Is that the runaway concubine from a Ningbo family?”
“That’s her, but she’s no runaway. The wife of that family couldn’t get on with her, so her husband let her out and told her to marry again but forbade her to return to the business. Since she’s now back in the business, her husband is on her trail. It so happens that my granddaughter has just become a maid at her place. Now isn’t it rotten luck?”
“Did your granddaughter pay her a premium?” Lichee Zhuang asked.
“You’ve put your finger on it,” replied Mama Yeung. “It’s a bit awkward for somebody who’s got money invested. For someone like me, what would it matter? Would I be afraid that the new police would arrest me?”
“Aroma has always been too big for her boots. Now she’s going to suffer,” said Crane Li.
“She’ll be all right. I heard that His Excellency Qi is in Shanghai,” said Mama Yeung.
“Is it Harmony Qi of Pinghu?” Benevolence Hong asked.
“That’s the one. In the Su house, only Aroma and Essence, Mr. Qi’s concubine, are real daughters of the family. All the other girls are just bought by the house.”
Lichee Zhuang suddenly thought of something he wanted to ask, but Pine Wu and Rustic Zhang, who had their minds set on mah-jongg, deliberately started the finger game to cut short the conversation. As soon as the summoned girls had all arrived, Rustic Zhang urged Cloudlet Chen to play mah-jongg. Cloudlet asked how much they were playing for, and Rustic told him that each player would start with a hundred dollars’ worth of chips.
“That’s too high,” said Cloudlet.
Rustic pleaded hard for him to play along just the once, and Pine Wu joined in to persuade him. Cloudlet Chen then asked Benevolence Hong, “I’ll be partners with you, all right?”
“What partners, when I don’t even know how to play?” said Benevolence. “Perhaps you could team up with Lichee.”
Lichee turned to Fortune Shi. “Why don’t you take a share as well?”
Fortune had something more important than this on his mind. He hastily held up a hand to indicate his lack of interest and refused to join in. That being the case, Cloudlet Chen and Lichee Zhuang agreed to take equal shares in a hand and to play four rounds each.
“Since we’re going to play mah-jongg, don’t let’s drink any more,” said Crane Li.
Fortune Shi took the opportunity to say good-bye and left with Jewel. Rustic Zhang, not knowing what they had in mind, was very apologetic. Afraid also that Benevolence Hong would feel let down, he hastily filled several large tumblers with wine and offered Hong five shots at the finger game, after which Pine Wu also offered to play Benevolence Hong five shots on behalf of the host. When the ten tumblers of wine were gone, so were the girls, except for Grace Yang, who stayed on on a mah-jongg party call. After everybody had had a little congee, the table was cleared and the mah-jongg game began. Rustic Zhang asked Benevolence Hong, “Feel like playing a couple of games?”
“I really don’t know how.”
“Look on and you’ll learn,” said Pine Wu.
So Benevolence Hong pulled over a stool and sat between Rustic Zhang and Pine Wu, looking at both their hands. Grace Yang naturally sat behind Crane Li. Lichee Zhuang was in a hurry to smoke and asked Cloudlet Chen to play first. A throw of the dice decided that Cloudlet should be banker.
Cloudlet grunted the minute he looked at his hand. “How come I got such a hand?” The other three kept pressing him to discard a tile. He finally did. But after he had taken his turn, picking up three or four new tiles, he again hesitated and suddenly called out to Lichee Zhuang, “Come and have a look, I have no idea how to deal with this.”
Lichee got up from the opium divan and ran over to the table. He saw the fourteen tiles were all of a kind and there were many possible winning formations. After shifting the tiles around to check the different formations, he finally picked up a six-circle, telling Cloudlet to discard it. The others immediately guessed they had an all-circle hand.
“They’re fishing for either four- and seven-circle or five- and eight-circle. Be on the lookout everybody,” said Rustic Zhang.
It happened that Rustic had a one-circle. Since an identical tile was already lying in the discarded pool, he threw it out without much thought.
“Game!” Cloudlet exclaimed. When his winning hand was laid out, the triplet formations pushed the total points to eighty. The other three paid up in chips.
Lichee Zhuang commented, “With this hand, it was right to discard the six-circle, wasn’t it? When he did that, he could win the game by going either for one-, four-, seven-circle or two-, five-, eight-circle. There were so many tiles that could complete his hand.”
Pine Wu pondered. “I think he should have discarded the seven-circle. In that scenario, every circle tile except for seven and eight would have made him a winner, and the same one-circle would have given him three more triplets, meaning a hundred and seventy-two extra points. Figure it out yourself.”
“You’re right. Cloudlet made the wrong move,” said Rustic Zhang. Lichee Zhuang was also full of admiration.
“You people make so much of it! Who’s got the patience for all this calculation!” said Crane Li, who started shuffling the tiles for the next game.
Seated to one side, Benevolence ruminated over the winning hand. He felt there was something to everybody’s remarks and came to realize that mah-jongg was no easy game. It was better to plead ignorance and remain a nonplayer. He lost interest in watching them and took his leave with his spirits a bit dampened. After sitting for a while, Grace Yang also left.
By the time the eight rounds of the game were finished, it was past two o’clock. Pine Wu and Rustic Zhang were both pressed to stay by Cassia Ma. The other three took their leave before congee could be served. Crane Li’s sedan chair and Cloudlet Chen’s ricksha went their separate ways, and Lichee Zhuang walked alone at a leisurely pace back to the Hall of Beauties on West Chessboard Street. He groped in the dark to find the door and knocked. When he had done so a dozen times or more, it was Woodsy who heard him. She pushed her window open and called out for the menservants downstairs to get up and welcome him in.
Seeing it was Lichee Zhuang, the man hastily lit a match to light the foreign lamp and show him upstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, they met Mama Yeung, who had tottered out from her room, squinting her eyes and dragging her feet along in a pair of old shoes. The manservant handed her the foreign lamp, and Lichee said to him, “Never mind about bringing hot water. Go to bed.” The man withdrew.
After Mama Yeung had seen Lichee into Woodsy’s room, he told her to go to bed as well. She hovered around a bit and left. All the paraffin lamps in the room had been put out except for a long-stemmed lamp on the dressing table. Woodsy had removed her jewelry and makeup and was sitting idly, smoking a water pipe. On seeing Lichee, she asked, “Did you win at mah-jongg?”
“A little.” Then he asked her, “Why aren’t you in bed?”
“I was waiting for you.”
He smiled and thanked her and then took off his jacket and hung it on the clothes rack. She handed him the water pipe and lit the opium lamp. He followed her to the divan and was delighted to see a boat-shaped glass container already filled with toasted opium pellets. The water pipe was immediately put aside, and he lay down to satisfy his craving. She moved a teapot with its hexagonal Suzhou-embroidered tea cozy toward him, asking, “Would you like some tea? It’s still nice and hot.”
He shook his head. After he had finished two pellets of opium, he handed her the pick, so she lay down on the left side of the divan and filled the pipe for him.
Lichee Zhuang got up and went behind the bed to relieve himself. There, he heard the faint sound of panting from the next room. He suddenly remembered that Fortune Shi was staying the night. Having finished his
business, he tiptoed out of the room to peep in through the window along the corridor. Unfortunately, in the dim, flickering lamplight he could not see anything behind the pale turquoise bed curtains. All he heard was a low voice saying, “Are you still resisting?” It sounded like Fortune Shi. Jewel said something in reply, but her voice was even lower, and he could not make out what she said. Fortune Shi said again, “You talk tough, don’t you? Such a little thing like you, d’you really want to die?”
At this, Lichee Zhuang could not repress a chuckle. They heard him in the room. There was a whisper, “Quick, stop. Somebody’s looking in.”
But Fortune Shi responded loudly, “Let them look!” He then shouted toward the door, “What’s there to look at? If you want to look, just come in!”
Lichee Zhuang did his utmost to suppress his laughter and turned to go. Woodsy, who had filled his pipe and had guessed from his long absence what he was up to, tiptoed out of the room just then. She pulled at his ear and dragged him back into her room and then gave him such a hard shove he almost fell down. She slammed the door shut. He was still laughing hard, his body bent over and a hand covering his mouth.
She scowled and scolded him, “You unlucky wretch—it would be hard to find your likes again!”
He just grinned all over his face and drew her to him with both hands. Sitting beside her on the opium divan, he repeated in detail what he had heard, reconstructing the imagined scenes and imitating the action. She turned her head away in fake anger. “I don’t want to hear.”
At this rebuff, he lay down to smoke opium. Putting frivolity aside, he composed his face and chatted with her. Gradually, the subject turned to Jewel. He happened to praise Fortune Shi, “He can count as a good client.”
She made a dismissive gesture. “Shi’s disposition is no good. He’s just like a sack of lime that leaves its mark everywhere. Now he shows considerable affection because he has just started seeing her. When they’re better acquainted, he get bored and stop coming.”
“That’s hard to say. I think the two of them are so well matched, they’re inseparable. Even if Shi wanted to get another girl, a lesser courtesan wouldn’t be able to take it from him.”
