The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai

by Bangqing Han

The two of them had barely sat down when they saw Simplicity Zhao, also dressed in a pale blue gown of mandarin gauze, come in alone. With an ivory cigarette holder with a lighted cigarette in it stuck in his mouth and a pair of dark glasses adorning his ruddy and radiant face, Simplicity carried himself with a new air. He walked straight upstairs and looked right and left. Seeing him as a good connection, Rustic Zhang raised a hand in greeting, but Simplicity ignored him and instead walked around the opium den at the rear before strolling toward the tea tables. When he saw Rustic Zhang, he asked, “Have you seen Fortune Shi?”

  Rustic rose to his feet. “Fortune isn’t here yet. If you’re looking for him, why not wait right here?”

  Simplicity had meant to cut Rustic Zhang, but the chance to show off in front of Clement Zhou made him accept the invitation to join them. Rustic ordered the waiter to bring another cup of tea while Clement went to get a water pipe and a spill for him. Simplicity saw his limp and asked the reason for it.

  “I had a fall and broke my leg,” Clement replied.

  Pointing to Simplicity, Rustic said to Clement, “He’s the luckiest of us all. You and I have had rotten luck. You broke a leg, while I’m plain broke.”

  Simplicity asked how Pine Wu was faring.

  “Pine has been unlucky, too. He was locked up in the police station for a few days and has just come out. His own father tried to borrow money from him and made a big row. Lucky the foreigners didn’t know, otherwise he’d have lost his job, too,” said Rustic.

  “Did Crane Li come to town again after going home?” asked Clement.

  “Old Mrs. Guo told me he’ll be here soon. His uncle is coming to Shanghai to see the doctors because he has syphilis, and Crane will be coming with him,” Rustic replied.

  “Where did you see this Old Mrs. Guo?” Simplicity asked.

  “She found her way to my inn to say her niece is in a second-class house and asked me to look in. I went with Clement and ordered a dish of nuts and sweetmeats just now.”

  “So that was Old Mrs. Guo!” Clement said in astonishment. “I didn’t even recognize her. Now that was an oversight. In a case I handled two years ago, I sentenced this Old Mrs. Guo for abduction.”

  “No wonder she was a bit frightened to see you.”

  “And she was right to be. If I want her imprisoned for life, all I need do is file a report,” said Clement.

  Something had just occurred to Simplicity, who tilted his head in thought. As he remained quiet, Clement and Rustic also stopped talking. The three of them drank five or six refills of their tea and saw that it was getting dark. Simplicity Zhao realized it was quite impossible to track down the wandering Fortune Shi, so he bade Clement Zhou and Rustic Zhang farewell and returned directly to Tripod Alley off Third Avenue to report to his sister, Second Treasure, that he could not find Shi.

  “Then go to his house early tomorrow to invite him,” Second Treasure said.

  “If he doesn’t come on his own initiative, why bother to invite him? We’ve got plenty of good guests.”

  Second Treasure looked displeased. “I’m just asking you to go and invite a guest, and you’re refusing to do it. All you do is eat your fill and have fun. What else are you good for?”

  He changed his tack in a panic. “I’ll go, I’ll go! It was just a thought.”

  This placated Second Treasure. By now she was extremely popular, with bookings for mah-jongg parties and dinner parties every night. The leftovers from the parties were sent over to Mrs. Zhao’s room, where Simplicity was free to munch his way through all the delicacies. Stuffed to the gills with food and drink every night, he would fall on his bed and go out like a light, thinking that he was in paradise.

  The next day, Simplicity went as instructed to the Old City to invite Fortune Shi, but Fortune was not home, and he just left a calling card. If he went home immediately, he thought, he was bound to be told off again. It’d be far better to go to Second Wang’s and renew their friendship. When he got to New Street, he was specially careful because he had met with violence last time and had his head smashed. He went first to Old Mrs. Guo next door; with her as a go-between, there would be room for withdrawal. Old Mrs. Guo welcomed him joyfully, as if he had dropped out of the sky. She told him to wait there while she fetched Second Wang.

  Seeing it was Simplicity, Second Wang minced over to him, all smiles, and said coaxingly, “Let’s go to my room.”

  “It’s all right here,” Simplicity said as he took off his gown and hung it on the bamboo pole that held up the bed curtains.

  Second Wang asked Mrs. Guo to have a word with the old maidservant, while she made Simplicity sit down on the edge of the bed. She then settled herself in his lap with her arms around his neck. “I’ve missed you so badly, yet you never thought of me after you made a fortune. I won’t have it!”

  He took the opportunity to put his arms around her and asked, “Does Mr. Zhang come here?”

  “Don’t even mention him! He’s down and out now. He owes us more than ten dollars, and we’re yet to see a cent of it.”

  Simplicity told her everything that Rustic had said the day before. She jumped up at once, saying, “So he goes to a second-class house when he’s got money! Tomorrow I’ll see what he has to say about that.”

  Simplicity made her sit down. “If you go, don’t mention me.”

  “Don’t worry, this doesn’t concern you.”

  As they were talking, the old maidservant brought opium and tea and then went back to keep an eye on the empty house next door. Old Mrs. Guo, hearing that all was quiet inside, figured that the ship was well docked. To prevent anyone from disturbing them, she stood at the front door to keep watch. After a long while, she suddenly heard a scuffling of feet in the rear room. Puzzled, she went in and saw Simplicity trying to put on his gown while Second Wang was snatching it away from him. The two were tangled together in a struggle.

  “What’s the hurry?” she intervened.

  Second Wang complained in a huff, “I asked him nicely for a loan of ten dollars, which we’d count toward his opium bill. He told me he hasn’t got it and then stood up to leave!”

  “I really don’t have it on me. When I have the money in a couple of days, I’ll bring it over, all right?” Simplicity pleaded.

  Second Wang would have none of it. “In that case, leave your gown here. You’ll get it back when you bring me ten dollars.”

  Simplicity stamped his foot in frustration. “You’ll be the death of me. What am I to say if I go home without my gown?”

  Old Mrs. Guo assumed the role of the good guy and offered to be Simplicity’s guarantor. Asked to fix a date for delivering the money, Simplicity said the end of the month. “That’s all right, but you’ve got to keep your word,” Mrs. Guo said.

  Second Wang gave him back his gown and also told him emphatically, “If you don’t bring the money at the end of the month, I’ll be coming to Tripod Alley to have it out with you.”

  He made his promise repeatedly before finally getting away. On his way home, he bitterly regretted having gone there, but what was done was done. As he approached Tripod Alley, he saw two mandarin sedan chairs standing at his door and a white horse tethered there. When he entered the parlor, he saw a steward occupying a high-back chair, with four sedan-chair bearers seated on either side of him.

  Simplicity went upstairs to make his report. Second Treasure was entertaining guests, however, so he dared not disturb them. Stealing a look through a gap in the door curtain, he saw two guests but only recognized Elan Ge. The one he did not know was handsome and well-built and had a distinguished air. Simplicity had never come across anybody comparable. He quietly went back downstairs and invited the steward to go sit in the bookkeeper’s office at the back. Upon inquiry, Simplicity learned that his master was Third Young Master Shi, widely known for his wealth and connections. A native of Nanjing, he started his career as an official in a scholarly post in the capital. Now aged about twenty, he was known by the name Nature. H
e was visiting Shanghai for health reasons and had rented a grand foreign-style house at Big Bridge, which was cool and breezy. There, he spent his days conversing with a couple of close friends over a cup of wine. The only thing lacking now was a girl after his heart who could keep him company and add to his pleasure so that the romantic hours of the day would not be wasted.

  When Simplicity heard this, he did his best to get on the good side of the steward. He found out that his name was Wang. Known to all as Little Wang, he was Third Young Master’s personal steward and had responsibility for his money. Simplicity plied him with endless rounds of tea, opium, and snacks in order to please him, and sure enough Little Wang was delighted.

  Soon it was time to light the lamps. The maid, Tiger, relayed the order for the menservants to send for dinner and deliver the invitations. When Simplicity heard this, he asked his mother’s permission to order separately four cold platters and four main dishes for the steward. Mrs. Zhao readily agreed. By the time dinner was served upstairs, a table was also set in the bookkeeper’s room, with Little Wang in the seat of honor and Simplicity at the humble end. The food and drink put them in excellent spirits, and they indulged their appetite without the least inhibition.

  In contrast, the party upstairs had only two guests—Iron Hua and Amity Zhu—so things were on the quiet side. What was more, Third Young Master disliked the heat and was not inclined to stay long. The departure of the summoned girls was the cue for hosts and guests to leave the table together. They gave orders for their sedan-chair bearers to light the lanterns. Little Wang had no choice but to take a little rice in a hurry and then rush out to stand at attention. After Third Young Master had seen the others off, Little Wang attended on him as he got into his sedan chair and then mounted the horse himself. They left in a file.

  CHAPTER 38 :: Second Treasure hopes for wedded bliss in the Shi family, and Harmony Qi hosts a party in Rustic Retreat

  Simplicity Zhao watched Little Wang flourish his whip and ride out of the alley and then returned to the house to tell Mrs. Zhao about Third Young Master Shi’s background. Mrs. Zhao, delighted by the news, made no mention of his fruitless mission to find Fortune Shi.

  Unfortunately, the next three days were unbearably hot, and Third Young Master Shi never turned up. The fourth day was the thirtieth of the sixth month. Simplicity got up at the crack of dawn and put together the money he had managed to save, which came to ten dollars. He took it to New Street, where he knocked at Old Mrs. Guo’s door and counted it out for her, telling her to take care of things for him. After that, he returned home immediately, convinced that his mother and sister were still in bed and that he had covered his tracks. To his surprise, the servant girl Clever, a hard worker, was already standing in the parlor yawning, her hair uncombed.

  “You’re up early. You should go back to bed,” he tried to make conversation.

  “I’ve got work to do,” she replied.

  “Need some help?”

  She thought he was flirting with her and turned away. Simplicity congratulated himself for having diverted her attention.

  As noon approached, a wisp of dark cloud spread from the northwest across the sky, hiding the scorching sun. In the midst of thunder and lightening, the skies opened. The downpour lasted for two hours, after which the sun came out again. Second Treasure had just finished her toilet and was cooling herself in the breeze that came through the window when she saw a man, panting and perspiring heavily, rushing into the parlor holding a call chit. Then Simplicity came upstairs to formally announce that Third Young Master Shi was calling her to the Shi residence at Big Bridge. Delighted, Second Treasure proceeded there by sedan chair.

  By nightfall, there was still no sign of her returning. Worried and agitated, Simplicity was on the point of going to fetch her himself when the maid Tiger and the two sedan-chair bearers returned by themselves. Simplicity turned pale and, staring wide-eyed at them, asked, “Where is she?”

  Tiger was amused. She turned to Mrs. Zhao and said, “Second Miss is not coming back. Third Young Master has asked her to spend the summer at the house, at the rate of ten party calls a day. I’m to fetch her clothes and her toiletry set right now.”

  Mrs. Zhao had little to say in response, but Simplicity rebuked Tiger, “You’re a bold one! How could you have left her on her own?”

  “Second Miss told me to come back,” she replied.

  “Now be more careful next time. If something should go wrong, you, as the maid, would be held responsible, too.”

  Tiger looked displeased. “There’s no need to get into a state. I have four hundred dollars invested in this, too, so would I be careless? I’ve been in the business since I was little, making my way up to be a maid. You go and ask around—what trouble did I ever get into?”

  Simplicity had no answer to that and withdrew in silence. To make peace, Mrs. Zhao said, “Don’t pay him any attention, just get the things and go.”

  Tiger went upstairs, grumbling all the way. She put everything onto two pieces of foreign wrapping cloth that she tied up into two bundles and then bade Mrs. Zhao good-bye and went out.

  Feeling unsettled, Simplicity did not get any sleep all night. The next day, after consulting his mother, he bought a lot of fresh peaches and lichees that he put into two boxes and a tall basket and then set off to pay his sister a visit. A ricksha took him past Big Bridge to the door of the Shi residence. It was indeed a grand foreign-style house. Four or five hulking fellows were seated on the benches on either side of the door. Thickly built and wearing black leather boots, they looked like army officers. Simplicity hesitantly explained to one of them the purpose of his visit, but the officer just kept fanning himself and ignored him. Simplicity stood there, his body bending forward respectfully to await instructions.

  Suddenly, another officer turned around and barked at him, “Wait over there.”

  Simplicity withdrew to one end of the wall, his face flushing in the full glare of the sun. Fortunately, he saw the man who had brought the call chit yesterday plodding toward him, leading a horse. He went up, saluted the man, and asked him to notify Little Wang. The man merely shot him a glance and continued on his way. A while later, a boy of thirteen or fourteen rushed out shouting, “Where’s the man named Zhao?”

  Not daring to answer, Simplicity peeped into the house. The officer glared at him and shouted again, “You’re called!”

  Simplicity picked up his basket and made to leave.

  The boy seized him. “Is your name Zhao?”

  “Yes, yes, it is,” he answered.

  “Follow me.”

  As he followed at the boy’s heels and entered the first gate, he saw a courtyard of about an acre where rare flowers grew. The main building had three stories while the two wings had one. He walked along a multicolored cobblestone path that led to a covered walkway along one wing. He saw dimly through the window that there were many people in the room, all dressed casually, discoursing in a lofty manner.

  The boy led him to a bungalow behind the main building, where Little Wang was standing at the curtained door to welcome him. Simplicity hastened to greet him, first setting down his basket, and then made a salute.

  Little Wang invited him into his bedroom and said, “They haven’t come downstairs yet. Take off your gown and have a smoke. There’s time enough.”

  The boy served Simplicity ready-made tea in a lidded cup. Little Wang then sent him off to keep watch.

  “Let us know as soon as they come down.”

  The boy made an affirmative noise and went off. Little Wang said to Simplicity, “Third Master is really fond of your sister, says she’s like a respectable woman. If it works out, then you have it made.”

  Simplicity said “yes” repeatedly. Little Wang then taught him some basic etiquette for the meeting, which he took to heart. Just then the boy called outside. Little Wang knew that meant Third Young Master had come downstairs. He told Simplicity to sit for a while and then rushed off himself. A moment
later, he rushed back, lifted the curtain, and beckoned for Simplicity. Carrying his basket, Simplicity followed him to the main building. At the door, Little Wang took the basket from him and led him in. Third Young Master was sitting on the lounge at the center of the room, all smiles, attended by two pages with shaven heads.

  “Third Master,” Simplicity greeted him, walking up sideways and then bending down on one knee to salute him formally.

  Third Young Master just nodded. Little Wang drew near to report briefly. Third Young Master turned to Simplicity with a frown, “There’s no need for presents.”

  Simplicity dared not utter a sound. Third Young Master glanced at Little Wang, who immediately brought a low stool, set it down on the humble side of the lounge, and told Simplicity to sit down.

  Soon they heard the steps of bound feet coming down the stairs behind the parlor. Then Second Treasure walked leisurely in, leaning on Tiger’s arm. Simplicity stood up with bated breath, not daring to look directly at her.

  Second Treasure greeted him and then asked after Mother. That was all she said.

  Tiger put in, “Isn’t Second Miss quite well here?”

  Simplicity had no choice but to bear with her.

  Third Young Master gave orders to Little Wang, “Take him to sit outside for a while. See that he has lunch before he goes.”

  Hearing this, Simplicity withdrew, walking sideways. He then returned to Little Wang’s bedroom.

  “Make yourself at home. If you want anything, say so. I have something to attend to,” Little Wang said. He then called in the boy to wait on Simplicity while he himself hurried off.

  Simplicity paced the room. Not until the wall clock had struck one did a manservant bring in a tray of food and wine, which he set out on the table in the outer room. The boy asked Simplicity to take the seat of honor and drink alone. Simplicity just wet his lips and then made an excuse, but the boy urged him solicitously to drink more. Loath to refuse, he downed three cups in succession. Just then, Little Wang rushed in and insisted that Simplicity finish what was in the wine pot; he poured himself a cup to keep Simplicity company, so Simplicity had to do his best to comply.