by Bangqing Han
When they returned home from seeing Shi off, Simplicity Zhao went to Flora Zhang’s to recommend the servant girl Goldie, while Second Treasure went to confer with her mother. “He said the trousseau can wait until he comes back, but I think the bride’s family should pay for it. If we let him do it, I’m afraid his servants would talk and we’d feel humiliated,” she said.
“Well, in that case, you won’t be able to have the best, for we only have four hundred dollars,” Mrs. Zhao said.
“Humph! You’re always like this, Mother! How can you have a trousseau for four hundred dollars? What I’m thinking is: we’ll borrow the money to get things ready and then pay it back when he brings the bride price.”
“Well, that’s all right, too,” Mrs. Zhao replied.
Second Treasure turned to Tiger. “D’you know where we can borrow some money?”
“You can’t really borrow very much,” said Tiger. “It’d be better to get things on credit. We know people in all the silk shops, import shops, and furniture stores, so we can just pay up at the end of year.”
Delighted, Second Treasure sent Tiger out every day to get all the necessary articles for a trousseau from the various stores on credit. She herself was kept busy evaluating and selecting the things brought back to her and was only interested in the most fashionable items of the highest quality.
With nothing to occupy him, Simplicity Zhao became deeply entangled with Clever. The two were like a pair of lovebirds, inseparable. Knowing that he would become Third Young Master’s legitimate brother-in-law, Clever tried harder than ever to please him. Simplicity made a secret vow to marry her. And once married, she would be a lady, sister-in-law to Shi. Second Treasure was too preoccupied to pay attention to them, and the others naturally did not bother.
One day, a manservant from the Qi residence suddenly turned up to deliver a letter from Third Young Master. Simplicity read it and then related the contents in detail to Second Treasure. Shi spoke first of his safe arrival and of having asked a matchmaker to propose to the other family. Then he said that autumn was a most enchanting time and if Second Treasure was bored at home, she could go and amuse herself in Conical Hat Garden. Having received this letter, Second Treasure speeded up the purchase of her trousseau, thinking that once Third Young Master returned, she would have her perfect marriage.
Not having seen Qi’s steward, Xia, for some time, Simplicity asked the manservant about him and was told that he was drinking tea at Splendid Assembly Teahouse just then, so Simplicity went to look for him right away. Sure enough, he found Felicity Xia and Loyalty Hua at tea at Splendid Assembly.
As soon as Loyalty saw Simplicity, he asked, “You haven’t been out and about all this time; what’s happened?”
Felicity Xia jumped in with an answer, “He’s got a little game going at home, understand?”
“What game?” Loyalty asked in surprise.
“It’s not clear to me, either. You’ll have to ask Little Wang,” said Felicity Xia.
Simplicity just smiled awkwardly and sat down. The waiter brought him a lidded teacup and asked, “Would you like to order tea?” Simplicity waved his hand to indicate there was no need.
“Let’s go then,” Loyalty suggested.
“Fine, let’s look for some fun,” said Felicity Xia.
The three of them came out of the Splendid Assembly and turned into Treasured Merit Street, where they spent some time observing the courtesans in their carriages. Then they ambled into the Virtue Tavern, where they ordered three bottles of warmed Peking wine and three small dishes of food. After supper, Felicity invited the others to smoke opium. He led them to Third Pan’s in Security Alley and knocked on the door. The maid answered from inside but did not come to the door for a long time. Felicity Xia knocked again.
“Coming! Coming!” the maid said repeatedly. She came out very slowly and opened the door.
When they went in, they could hear the scuffling of feet in the bedroom; it sounded like two people pulling and tugging at each other. Felicity Xia knew there was another client and stopped at the door of the room.
The maid closed the front door and said, “Please go in.”
Felicity Xia lifted the curtain and ushered the other two into the room. They heard the other guest going out via the back door and then the thumping of his footsteps as he went up the stairs. The room was dark, lit only by an oil lamp on the dressing table. Third Pan closed the back door and came up smiling to greet “Master Xia.” The maid hurriedly lit a foreign lamp and the opium lamp and then went to get more teacups.
Felicity Xia asked Third Pan in a whisper who the guest was who had gone upstairs.
“It wasn’t a guest; it was the friend of a guest,” she replied.
“That’s a guest all the same, right?” Felicity Xia said. He pointed at Loyalty Hua and Simplicity Zhao and asked, “Don’t you consider them your guests?”
“Enough of your nonsense. Now have a smoke,” she said.
Felicity Xia lay down on the couch. Just when the pipe was ready, they suddenly heard someone knocking at the door.
“Who is it?” the maid called out loudly in the parlor.
“It’s me,” a man answered.
The maid let him in. Instead of coming into the room, the man went straight upstairs. Knowing that he must be from the same clique as the guest upstairs, they did not pay him any attention.
Felicity Xia’s opium habit was slight, so after two pellets he invited Simplicity Zhao to smoke while he took a water pipe and moved over to the humble side of the couch. Loyalty Hua and Third Pan sat side by side by the window chatting. Suddenly, they heard somebody knocking at the door again.
“Aiyo!” Felicity Xia exclaimed, “your business is certainly booming!” So saying, he put down the water pipe and stood up to peep out the window.
Third Pan came up to stop him. “What’s there to see? Go and sit down!”
Felicity Xia heard the maid open the door and go out to talk for some length to the man, whose voice sounded familiar. Felicity Xia pushed Third Pan aside and rushed out to see who it was, but the man had made off to avoid him. Felicity Xia ran out into the alley and by the light of the glass oil lamp hanging over the door recognized the man as Verdure Xu. He called out his name.
Verdure Xu had no choice but to turn around. He called out, asking quite unnecessarily, “Is that you, Felicity?” When Felicity replied in the positive, Xu saluted him repeatedly, saying, all smiles, “I never expected to see you.” He followed Felicity Xia into the room and greeted Loyalty Hua and Simplicity Zhao.
Simplicity recognized Verdure Xu as the man who had brutally beaten him up, wounding him in the head and face. He was scared stiff by this unexpected meeting. Verdure also recognized Simplicity but pretended he didn’t.
After a round of mutual introductions, everyone settled in their seats. Felicity Xia asked Verdure Xu, “Why did you run away when you saw me?”
Verdure blustered, “I didn’t know it was you. I just came to ask whether Yang from Hongkou was here; when I learned he wasn’t, I turned to leave. How would I have known you were here?”
“Humph!” was Felicity’s only response.
Verdure looked at Third Pan and grinned. “I haven’t seen you for a long time, Third Miss. Looks like you’ve gained weight. Is it because our friend Felicity has been giving you something nice to eat?”
Third Pan glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. “Because you haven’t seen me for a long time, you miss my scolding and are craving it, right?”
“Exactly. Bull’s-eye,” Verdure Xu said, clapping his hands. He then turned to Loyalty Hua and Simplicity Zhao, gesticulating and laughing as he spoke, “The last time when Felicity was in Shanghai, Third Miss was the only one he visited, so our gang all came here to look for him several times a day; it was as if this were the Splendid Assembly Teahouse. We all got cruelly cursed by Third Miss. Now Felicity doesn’t come anymore, so none of our gang comes here either.”
Loyalty Hua and Simpli
city Zhao made no comment. Verdure Xu turned to ask Third Pan, “Why did our friend Felicity stop coming here? Did you offend him?”
Before she could reply, Felicity Xia shouted at him, “Cut the cackle. I have official business with you.”
::
1. [In an extended family where only one brother had male progeny, it was a common practice for his son to carry on the lines of his brothers as well, particularly if his brothers had died. Nature Shi is obviously the only male child of a man with two childless brothers; his “adopted mothers” are his aunts. E.H.]
2. [One of the most valiant generals in the Three Kingdoms Period (221–265), Guan Yu was deified in later generations and worshiped as an icon of loyalty and justice. Interestingly, both the police and gangsters adopted him as their guardian god. Operas performed on temple grounds (to entertain the gods) were a major entertainment for Chinese villagers. E.H.]
CHAPTER 56 :: Third Pan, the underground prostitute, plots a theft, and Yao, the daytime patron, stays the night
As Felicity Xia mentioned that he had official business, Third Pan left the room and went upstairs to entertain her other guests. Verdure Xu solemnly asked what business it was.
“What kind of police work are you people supposed to be doing? Did you ever go and investigate our Rustic Retreat?” Felicity Xia.
“Has anything happened there?” Verdure Xu asked, aghast.
“I have no idea,” Felicity said with an icy smile. “But this morning, His Excellency told us that a gambling den in Rustic Retreat draws a big crowd and goes on day and night, and a single game of dice has a stake of thirty to forty thousand. He said things are getting completely out of hand. I’ve been told to ask you if you know about that.”
Verdure laughed. “Hasn’t there always been a gambling den in Rustic Retreat? I thought a bandit was holed up there! You gave me a real fright. I’ll go there tomorrow and tell them to stop gambling, all right?”
“Don’t you take it lightly. If anything went wrong in the future, it wouldn’t reflect well on anybody.”
Verdure moved his chair closer. “Felicity, my friend, I’ve never taken a single dollar from the gambling den in Rustic Retreat. You know very well who’s running it. Lots of their customers are officials, some from our yamen as well, so how dare we say anything when we go there? Now that His Excellency wants to bring them in, nothing’s easier; I’ll gather my team right away and go and arrest the lot of them, how about that?”
Felicity pondered. “If they stop gambling, His Excellency is not actually set on punishing them. Go and pass the word around first. If that doesn’t put an end to it, naturally you should arrest them.”
Verdure slapped his thigh. “That’s what I meant. Several of their customers are actually His Excellency’s friends. We’re not in the same position as the police in the foreign concessions; things are very tricky for us.”
Felicity was clearly displeased by what he said. “The only gambler among His Excellency’s friends is Eldest Master Li, and that has nothing to do with us. Who in our house has been gambling? Let’s hear it.”
Verdure tried to excuse himself at once, “I didn’t say it was anybody in the house. If that had been the case, wouldn’t I have told you?”
Only then did Felicity drop the matter.
Verdure Xu turned to Loyalty Hua and Simplicity Zhao and said jovially, “Our friend Felicity is a man who has what it takes! There’re over a hundred people in the Qi residence working under him, and nothing has ever gone wrong.”
Loyalty Hua made some noise to show polite agreement, while Simplicity Zhao rose from the opium couch and asked Verdure Xu to take his place. Xu deferred to Loyalty Hua. Just as they were pulling and tugging to make each other take precedence, the back room door suddenly creaked open, and somebody tiptoed in, making straight for the couch. They saw it was Longevity Zhang and asked in surprise, “When did you get here?”
Without a word, Longevity bowed low and grinned, turning his eyes into mere slits. Loyalty Hua asked him to lie down and smoke.
“Who is it upstairs?” Felicity Xia asked in a low voice. Longevity responded similarly, saying it was Second Kuang.
“Well, then he should come and sit here with us for a while,” Felicity said.
Longevity immediately held up a hand to stop him. “This is like an underground whorehouse for him. Don’t let’s disturb him.”
“Humph! People are behaving very strangely lately. I wonder why!” Felicity pointed at Verdure Xu. “Just now he came to talk to the maid, and when I called out for him, he tried to run away. Isn’t that strange?”
Verdure Xu grinned at Longevity Zhang. “Our friend Felicity has been rebuking me all this time, as if I looked down on him. I put it to you, is that possible?”
Longevity Zhang smiled but said nothing.
Felicity Xia said, “A brothel is a place where everybody comes to have fun. If Second Kuang thought I’d be jealous, he’s got it all wrong.”
“He’s not hiding from you, though; he’s afraid that if his employer learned about this, he’d get a lecture,” Longevity replied.
“There’s something else I’d like to tell him,” Felicity said. “He should give his employer a word of advice: don’t go to the gambling den in Rustic Retreat anymore.”
Longevity promised to relay the message. After smoking a pipe of opium, he thanked the four of them and took his leave to return upstairs, where he found Second Kuang and Third Pan rolling around in a heap on the couch. On seeing Longevity, Third Pan sat up unhurriedly and said to Second Kuang, “I’m going downstairs, but you’re not allowed to leave. I have something to say to you.” She turned to Longevity and said, “Sit for a while, don’t go.” After that, she went downstairs.
Longevity took the opportunity to have a quiet word with Second Kuang. Half an hour later, they heard the confused noise of the four men downstairs taking their leave. Third Pan ritually tried to detain them, and then the maid saw them out. The door was closed.
“Come on down,” Third Pan called out.
Second Kuang invited Longevity to come with him to the downstairs room, but the latter had to leave because he still had duties to perform. Second Kuang thought he’d go with him, but would Third Pan let him go?
“Have another pipe of opium, do,” she urged Longevity Zhang as she pulled Second Kuang by the hand and made him sit down in the rattan chair by the bed and then settled herself in his lap for a lengthy heart-to-heart. Longevity could only wait. She talked for a long time, but he did not know what it was about. He saw Second Kuang nodding repeatedly in agreement but making no reply. When she finally finished, she walked away, but Second Kuang was still preoccupied with what she had said, looking lost.
“Are you coming?” Longevity Zhang called out, which alerted Second Kuang. At the door, Third Pan whispered into his ear, and he again nodded in acknowledgment. Finally, he walked out of Security Alley with Longevity Zhang.
“What did she say?” Longevity asked.
“It was a lot of tripe! She said once she’s paid her debts, she’s going to get married.”
“Why don’t you marry her then?”
“Where do I get all that money?”
Presently they separated; Second Kuang went to Grace Yang’s in Generosity Alley while Longevity went to Green Phoenix’s in Prosperity Alley. From the distance, he saw seven or eight courtesans’ sedan chairs at Green Phoenix’s door. He guessed that the party was still going on. As he went in, he met Talisman.
“Are all the girls here?” Longevity asked.
“The party is about to end,” Talisman said.
“Who did Mr. Wang call?”
“He called two of them: Little Rouge and Twin Jade.”
“Is Mr. Hong still here?”
“Yes, he is.”
Longevity Zhang thought that Golden must have accompanied Twin Pearl to the party. He took the opportunity to slip upstairs and peep in at the edge of the door curtain. A loud and energetic finger game w
as in progress, and the fumes of heated wine hovered over the table. Prosperity Luo and Mallow Yao joined forces to form a bank of unlimited penalty, calling themselves “the bottomless pit,” which naturally aroused the indignation of the others. Lotuson Wang, Benevolence Hong, Amity Zhu, Elan Ge, Whistler Tang, and Cloudlet Chen formed a united front and took turns to do battle. No one allowed their lovers, maids, or servant girls to drink in his stead. Everyone was loud and aggressive, each trying to best the next man. It was an even merrier crowd than usual.
Seeing that Twin Pearl’s maid, Golden, was standing idly to one side, Longevity Zhang took a small whistle from his pocket and blew it softly. Nobody at the table noticed, but Golden heard it and slipped out of the room. She made a secret appointment with him to meet the day after the next. Overjoyed, he went back to stand by downstairs while Golden returned to the room. Those at the table, engrossed in the finger game and drinking, paid them not the slightest attention.
This rowdy dinner party did not break up till midnight, when all the guests were more or less drunk. As the girls called to the party were eager to please, not one left before the men.
About to leave, Mallow Yao saluted Lotuson Wang and the others, saying, “Please honor me with your company tomorrow. You gentlemen are all invited to keep him company.” He turned around to point to the girl he had called to the party, “At her place, Auspicious Cloud Alley.”
Everyone assented and asked, “Is your lady love called Cassia Ma? None of us has met her yet.”
“I’ve only just started seeing her. Originally a friend of mine called her to parties, and then he recommended her to me, so I thought I’d give it a go,” replied Mallow Yao.
“She’s very nice,” they all said. After that, everyone took his leave, and they trooped downstairs one after another. With the maids and servant girls supporting them in front or covering them from behind, no one was in danger of falling down drunk. Having seen them off, Prosperity returned to the room. Green Phoenix took a glance at him and saw that he was not too drunk, so she sat down to keep him company.
“Why is everybody giving dinner parties in honor of Mr. Wang?” she asked.
