by Bangqing Han
Flora cut in quickly, “It’s Fortune’s house, so there’ll be no rent to pay. If we cook for ourselves, it’ll only cost us two hundred copper coins a day. That’s a lot cheaper than staying in the inn, isn’t it? Well, I told him yesterday that we’d take up his offer. What d’you say?”
Second Treasure backed her up. “Board and lodging for four in this place come to eight hundred a day. If we move, we’ll save six hundred. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”
How could he object? Simplicity just bowed his head and agreed.
After lunch, Fortune Shi brought a manservant to the inn and asked, “Are you all packed?”
Flora and Second Treasure both laughed and said, “We don’t have that much to pack, do we?”
Fortune told the manservant to carry their things out. Simplicity helped to tie up the trunks and baskets and roll up the bedding. Then he called a pushcart and, together with the servant, went to Tranquillity Alley to set up the rooms.4 He saw the two-storied house had two main rooms on each floor. The windowpanes were crystal clear, and the wallpaper brand-new. The kitchen was fully equipped with pots and pans, and the two rooms upstairs were furnished with brand-new furniture from Ningbo. The beds, divans, tables, and chairs were neatly arranged; the rooms even boasted paraffin lamps and full-length mirrors. All that was lacking were paintings and calligraphy scrolls, curtains and drapes.
A short while later, Mrs. Zhao, Flora Zhang, and Second Treasure arrived in the company of Fortune Shi. Mrs. Zhao walked all around the house, marveling, “Down in the country, we’ve never seen houses like this! Eldest Young Master, you’ve really been far too kind to us.”
Fortune responded with the greatest humility. After some consultation, it was agreed that Flora and Second Treasure would each occupy one of the main rooms upstairs, Mrs. Zhao would take the little mezzanine room, and Simplicity and the manservant would live downstairs.
Soon evening came, and a banquet was delivered from the Garden of Plenty. Fortune had it laid out in Flora’s room, saying it was for housewarming. Mrs. Zhao again thanked him profusely. Everybody sat around the table, uninhibited and carefree, drinking to their heart’s content.
When they were all slightly tipsy, Flora suddenly said, “Oh, we forgot! We should have called a couple of courtesans here for fun. That wouldn’t have been a bad idea.”
“Do call them now, Fortune. We want to see what they’re like!” said Second Treasure.
“Stop that, Second Treasure,” Mrs. Zhao barked at her. “No more tricks from you. Your brother Fortune is a respectable man. He doesn’t go to sing-song houses. How can he summon courtesans here?”
Simplicity had something to say to this, but guilt and embarrassment stopped him.
Fortune said smiling, “It won’t be much fun if I call them by myself. Tomorrow I’ll invite a couple of friends to have dinner here and ask them to summon some courtesans here on a party call. That’d be much better.”
“My brother can call one, too. I’d like to see if they’d come,” said Second Treasure.
Flora patted her on the shoulder, saying, “I’ll call one, too; I’ll call Second Treasure.”
“There’s never been a courtesan with the name Second Treasure. Your case is different, though, for there’re three or four Flora Zhangs, all fashionable courtesans who are called to parties all the time.”
Riled by this remark, Flora tried to pinch Second Treasure on the mouth. The latter laughed and ran away. Fortune got up from his seat to stop Flora and make peace, and the two of them went over to the divan to smoke opium. Seeing that the last four courses had been put on the table, Mrs. Zhao told the manservant to bring rice. Simplicity, who had sought relief in drinking, was now feeling the effect of the wine. He had some rice to keep his mother company and then saw her into the mezzanine room and went downstairs himself. After he had lit the lamp and loosened his clothes, he stopped worrying and went to bed. When he woke up, the effect of the wine had worn off, but he felt very thirsty. Draping some clothes around his shoulders, he put on his shoes slipper-fashion and groped his way into the kitchen. There, he found a big yellow clay teapot, lifted it with both hands, and drank his fill from the spout. The manservant was sitting bolt upright on the covered water jar, dozing. Simplicity woke him and found out from him that, though dinner was over, Fortune was still there. Simplicity went back to his own room, where he could hear whispers and the sound of laughter coming from upstairs, mixed with the wheezing of the water and opium pipes.
Simplicity trimmed the lamp and went back to sleep. This time, it was the sleep of oblivion. He was dead to the world until the manservant woke him. Startled, he asked the man, “Did you sleep at all?”
“It was dawn by the time Eldest Young Master left. Couldn’t very well go to bed then, could I?”
After he had washed in the kitchen, Simplicity tiptoed upstairs. Mrs. Zhao was alone in the mezzanine room, combing her hair. In the front room, where the opium lamp was still burning, Flora and Second Treasure were sleeping on the divan fully clothed. Simplicity lifted the curtain and entered the room. Flora woke up first. She sat up and took out a guest list from her inner pocket, telling Simplicity to write the word “Seen” to acknowledge the invitation. Simplicity saw that Fortune Shi was borrowing their place that night to invite Cloudlet Chen and Lichee Zhuang to dinner. Simplicity and Juvenity Zhang were to keep them company.
After pondering for a while, he said, “Tonight, I really have to beg off.”
“Why?” Flora asked.
“It’ll be too embarrassing for me.”
“D’you mean seeing my brother will be embarrassing?” she asked. “No.”
“Then what is it?”
He would not tell her the truth. It happened that Second Treasure had been wakened by the sound of their conversation, so he turned to her and whispered his reasons in her ear. She nodded, saying, “That makes sense.”
Flora could not very well put pressure on him. She summoned the manservant, gave him the guest list, and told him to deliver the invitations.
Simplicity hung around the house until two in the afternoon and then picked up his courage and asked his sister for thirty cents. With his mother’s permission, he left the house. First, he took a turn on Fourth Avenue, going back to Treasured Merit Street, where he dropped in at the Welcome Inn, thinking he would have a chat with the bookkeeper. But as he approached the entrance, a man charged out right in his path. The man was wearing a Chinese shirt and trousers of old blue cotton and was carrying a little bundle on his back. His short whiskers seemed to be standing up in anger, and his face was contorted in rage. Simplicity was startled to find that it was Old Wu, the barber.
The minute Wu saw Simplicity, his expression turned joyful. “I came looking for you. Where have you moved to?” he asked.
Simplicity gave him a brief account of events. Old Wu took his arm and, standing by his side, embarked on a long harangue.
“Let’s go for a cup of tea round the corner,” Simplicity said.
Old Wu was agreeable to the suggestion, and Simplicity led the way to the Wind in the Pines Teahouse at the corner of Pebble Road. They walked up the stairs and ordered light lotus tea. Old Wu put down his bundle and sat across from Simplicity. They each took a small cup and poured the tea out for each other as politeness required.
Suddenly anger flared in Old Wu’s eyes, and he rolled up his sleeves as if getting ready for a scrap. “There’s something I want to ask you: have you been going around with Pine?”
Taken by surprise, Simplicity had no idea what Old Wu wanted. His heart started beating wildly.
Old Wu pounded the table with his fist, his face in a deep frown. “Don’t worry! I’m just worried that a young man like you, alone in Shanghai, might have been swindled by him. It’s best if you don’t take up with vermin like Pine.”
Simplicity still stared in silent incomprehension.
“Humph! I’ll tell you this: he won’t even acknowledge me, his own
father. D’you think he’d do anything for you, who’s just a friend?”
This began to make sense to Simplicity. He smiled and asked what had happened.
Old Wu spoke more calmly. “I’m his father. Now, I may be poor, but I still manage to earn a bowl or two of rice to eat, if not much else. I came to Shanghai not because I wanted anything from my son but because he’s made a fortune and I thought it’d be right and proper to look in on him. I didn’t know he’s such a rat! I went to his shop three times, but the accounts office said he wasn’t there. Well, that was all right. But the fourth time I went, he was there, and he didn’t come out. He just took four hundred copper coins from the accounts office and had them handed to me, telling me to take the ferry boat home. Was I desperate for his four hundred copper coins? If I wanted to go home, I could have done so even if I had to go begging all the way. Did I have to depend on his four hundred copper coins?”
As Old Wu told his story, he started wailing bitterly. Simplicity comforted him as best he could and tried to find excuses for Pine Wu. After a long time, Old Wu controlled his tears. “I’m partly to blame as well, for telling him to come to work in Shanghai. These foreign settlements are really no good.”
Simplicity expressed admiration for Old Wu’s sentiments and hid his real opinion. After their tea had been freshened up with hot water five or six times, Simplicity settled the bill, which came to ten cents. Old Wu thanked him as a matter of course, put his bundle on his back, and parted company with him outside the teahouse. Old Wu headed for the pier in search of an inland riverboat to go home, while Simplicity Zhao wandered down Treasured Merit Street wondering what to do about supper.
::
1. An episode from the novel Shuihu zhuan, or The Marshes of Mount Liang, in which Shi Xiu rejects the advances of Pan Qiaoyun, his adopted brother’s wife. Naturally, she accuses him of attempted seduction. Episodes from this novel—one of the four fiction classics of traditional Chinese literature—are the basis for a large number of short operas.
2. Apparently, the shape of the bean curd dumplings carried sexual connotations.
3. [This is similar to having a godmother in the West, though there is no religious dimension to the Chinese practice. The child stays with his/her own parents and only visits the adoptive one occasionally. E.H.]
4. [The phrase “setting up a room” is the technical term for a courtesan furnishing a room to set up her own establishment. Tranquillity Alley is of course part of the brothel district. This is made clear in chapter 31, which states that all the houses there have lamps hanging at the entrance. E.H.]
CHAPTER 31 :: An uncle’s reproaches lead to the severing of family ties, and a difference in taste frustrates a would-be matchmaker
With only two ten-cent pieces and some copper coins on him, Simplicity Zhao had little option other than to dine in a small restaurant on Pebble Road, where he had a piece of yellow fish served with soup and rice. He then went to Panorama Garden on Treasured Merit Street, where he saw an opera, sitting in the cheap section behind the center tables. When he walked home after the show, it had struck midnight. The door of every house in Tranquillity Alley was illuminated by a glass lamp. His door, however, was pitch-dark and tightly shut. He knocked a couple of times, and the manservant let him in. He asked, “Is the party over?”
“It’s been over for a while now. Only Eldest Young Master has stayed behind,” the manservant replied.
Simplicity saw that at the stairway a new tin-plate wall lamp was shining brightly. He walked upstairs at a leisurely pace and, hearing voices in the mezzanine room, lifted the curtain and went in. His mother was sitting up in bed, with Flora Zhang and Second Treasure sitting side by side on the edge of the bed chattering away.
Seeing him, Mrs. Zhao asked, “Have you had supper?”
“Yes,” said Simplicity. “Is Fortune gone?”
“Not yet, he’s asleep,” said Flora.
Second Treasure broke in, “We’ve just hired a servant girl. See what you think of her.” She called out loudly, “Clever!”
Clever came over from Flora’s room and stood to one side. Simplicity scrutinized the little servant girl. She looked familiar, but he could not place her right away. Then the name Clever jogged his memory. “Have you just left Sunset’s place?” he asked her.
“I worked at Sunset’s for a couple of months, but I’ve just come from Constance’s. Where have you seen me before? I don’t remember you.”
Instead of telling her, he dismissed the matter with a smile. Flora and Second Treasure did not try to get to the root of the matter, either. Everybody went back to talking about the party. “How many girls did they call?” he asked.
“One each. But it seems to us none of them was much good,” said Flora.
“I think the two from the second-class house weren’t so bad,” said Second Treasure.
“Did Juvenity call a girl?” he asked.
“Juvenity was busy, so he didn’t come,” said Flora.
“Who did Fortune call?” he asked.
“Jewel Lu,” Second Treasure replied. “She wasn’t so bad.”
“Was it the Jewel from the Hall of Beauties on West Chessboard Street?” he asked, startled.
Flora and Second Treasure exclaimed in unison, “Exactly. How did you know?”
Simplicity smiled awkwardly. How could he dare tell?
“It seems that after a couple of months in Shanghai, you’ve got to know quite a lot of courtesans and servant girls,” Flora commented with a smile.
“Huh! Knowing a few courtesans and servant girls is nothing to brag about!” Second Treasure jeered.
Embarrassed, Simplicity unobtrusively withdrew from the mezzanine room. Then he sneaked into Flora’s room, where he saw Fortune Shi sprawled on the divan, snoring. His drunken face was damp from the effect of too much wine. The two paraffin lamps had been turned up high and looked dazzling against the new wallpaper. The large shiny round tabletop placed on the square table had not yet been removed. Beside the door lay a big heap of watermelon seed shells and chicken, fish, and meat bones. Without disturbing Fortune, Simplicity went back downstairs to his own room. The manservant had long since stretched out stiff on a plank bed. Having trimmed the wick of his bedside lamp, Simplicity undressed and retired for the night.
By the time he woke up, it was past noon. He made haste to get up. As soon as the manservant had ladled a basin of water for him to wash his face, Clever came in and said, “You’re wanted upstairs.”
Simplicity followed her up to Flora’s room, where Fortune Shi lay smoking opium. Although he did not get up, he did nod at Simplicity. Flora and Second Treasure were both doing their hair in the outer room.
In a moment, Mrs. Zhao was also invited over. Clever placed five sets of cups and chopsticks on the round table, while the manservant brought in a huge tray on which were placed all the leftovers from the party: pig’s knuckles, stuffed duck, Yunnan ham, and fish were on four big dishes, while all sorts of appetizers and vegetables were served up in a large bowl. Fortune, Mrs. Zhao, and Simplicity sat down informally. Flora and Second Treasure, their toilet not yet finished, were both dressed in blue sleeveless cotton jackets, their hair held in place with two bone hairpins. When they came in, Fortune lifted his cup and said, “Have some wine.” But Flora and Second Treasure adamantly refused to drink. They told Clever to bring rice and started on the meal with Mrs. Zhao. Only Simplicity poured some wine to keep Fortune company.
Simplicity took a sip of wine and frowned. “It’s too hot.”
“I seem to have a bit of a cold. Hot wine suits me quite well,” said Fortune.
“It’s your own fault,” Flora said. “Clever came to call you and ask you to sleep in the proper bed. Why didn’t you listen to her?”
“The two of us sleeping in the outer room heard you coughing till daylight. What were you doing all by yourself?” said Second Treasure.
Fortune smiled but said nothing.1
Mrs. Zhao nagged,
“Eldest Young Master, your constitution is on the frail side, so you should take better care of yourself. Take the night before last, for example. You insisted on going home at dawn. Wasn’t it cold? It’d have been quite all right for you to have stayed here.”
Fortune straightened his gown and put on a solemn expression. “Mother is of course right. I should take better care of myself. If only I knew how!”
“If you have a cold, you shouldn’t drink so much,” said Flora.
“Brother should stop drinking as well,” said Second Treasure.
Naturally, Fortune and Simplicity complied.
After lunch, the manservant and Clever came in to tidy up. Simplicity had slipped downstairs already. He wiped his hands and face with a wet towel and then picked up a water pipe and sauntered out into the parlor, where he sat down majestically with legs crossed. Bored with the solitude, he tried to find some excuse to go out and look around.
Just as he was racking his brain, suddenly somebody came knocking on the door. He shouted, “Who is it?” and as he did not quite catch the answer, he had no choice but to put down the water pipe and go to take a look. The visitor was none other than his uncle, Benevolence Hong. The color drained instantly from Simplicity’s face. He greeted his uncle, at the same time retreating to a safe distance.
Benevolence paid him no attention. He bellowed angrily, “Tell your mother to come out.”
Simplicity assented repeatedly and then went upstairs in a fluster to announce him. Flora and Second Treasure had both changed into very fashionable clothes and were sitting with Mrs. Zhao helping her entertain Fortune. When Simplicity told them the state Benevolence was in, Fortune and Flora, beset by guilt and fear, dared not show their faces. Afraid that her mother would be indiscreet, Second Treasure followed her downstairs to meet Benevolence.
Benevolence did not even observe the rules of normal greeting. He asked Mrs. Zhao in a huff, “Has old age robbed you of your senses? Aren’t you supposed to have gone home? D’you have any idea what kind of a place Tranquillity Alley is?”
