“I can’t for I have to talk to Chou Luk when he comes on board.” Robert stood by the ship’s side as Patridge went down the ladder to his waiting boat. At the bottom, the captain gave Robert an odd look before the boat left.
Robert’s heart beat faster when he saw a small junk with a central cabin covered in bamboo matting moving toward the Maryann. After it came alongside, the first face to appear on deck was Ayaou’s father, Chou Luk. His younger daughters, Lan and Shao-mei, were close behind him.
Unwyn appeared. “All right, Hart,” he said in a tone full of malice, “you tell Chou Luk that Captain Patridge went ashore to finish some business with Boss Takee. He’s to wait for the Captain’s return. After you have done that, take these two girls below to the main cabin and see they don’t leave it. They are the Captain’s new concubines. The Captain does not take kindly to anyone spoiling the goods but a little touchy feely never hurts.” With a lecherous look on his face, he winked at Robert, as if he were considering it for himself.
Robert didn’t like the way Unwyn was talking to him but didn’t want any trouble. He just wanted him to leave.
He didn’t see Ayaou, which made him wonder where she was. He started to worry. He told the girls to follow him below. Once they were in the captain’s cabin, Robert said, “You will stay here for your master.” He looked around the cramped space. When his eyes returned to the girls, he asked, “How is your sister, Ayaou?”
The sisters, who were standing close together, didn’t move and kept staring at the floor. Shao-mei, the older one, looked terrified.
“I’m Hart,” he said. “Robert Hart. Do you remember me?”
Shao-mei’s eyes came up. She shook her head.
“I’m Ayaou’s friend. I carried your father to safety during the fight against the Taipings.”
“We don’t know what happened to Ayaou,” Shao-mei said. “Our father doesn’t share with us his business. He said that we have been bought. We haven’t seen Ayaou since last night. Maybe you’ll be able to find her. Will you?” She stepped closer to Robert and looked boldly into his eyes. Her fear had vanished.
“What kind of man is Captain Patridge?” Lan asked. “Will he beat us?”
“He won’t beat you if you do what you’re told. You’ll not go hungry and will always have a comfortable place to live.” Robert thought of Willow and the other concubines staying at Patridge’s summerhouse and the life they lived entertaining his guests. He hated lying to these girls.
Clearly, Shao-mei still had a young girl’s dreams, where Willow’s dreams were dead. Shao-mei and Lan’s innocence struck pain inside him as if an ice pick had pierced him. Soon Shao-mei’s eyes would be dull like Willow’s. He wanted to save Willow but didn’t know how. No, Robert could not tell them the truth. What purpose was served by scaring them?
The cabin was oppressively hot, so Robert went to the windows running across the stern and opened them letting in the sluggish breeze. It improved the situation a bit. The sun wasn’t beating on them in here.
Back on deck, he waited and hoped for Ayaou to arrive. The minutes dragged like hours. He couldn’t wait any longer. There was another Chinese girl beside Chou Luk. She couldn’t have been much older than Ayaou.
Robert bowed to the old man, and said, “The weather is hot this time of year, and the air is thick with moisture.” He dreaded asking about Ayaou. It also didn’t help that his conscience was berating him for wanting to buy a woman. To think such a thing was foreign to the way his father and mother raised him.
“I have seen years where it is worse and some where it is better,” Chou Luk replied.
“Have you noticed the prices in the market since the Taipings have been here?” Robert hated himself for not getting to the point.
Chou Luk nodded. “The farmers are afraid. If they pick their crops and attempt taking them to the cities, the Taipings steal the food.”
Robert found it difficult to swallow. He ran a finger around the inside of his tight collar to loosen it, but that didn’t help. It was blasted hot. He was streaming with sweat. “Over here is some shade,” he said. “We can sit and talk in comfort.”
Sitting was a relief as his legs had turned to water and were trembling from nervousness. He ordered a deck boy to bring tea and biscuits.
“Is this young lady your daughter too?” Robert asked, and nodded toward the new girl sitting behind and to Chou Luk’s right.
“No.” Chou Luk smiled. “This ugly girl is my new daughter-in-law.”
“I’m sure she’ll provide many healthy grandchildren for you.”
“Sons, many sons.” Chou Luk smiled revealing a mouth filled with rotting, blackened teeth. “She’ll also help take care of me in my old age. What about you, young man? Got a wife yet?”
Now was the time. “I have been thinking.” He tried to smile, but his jaw felt locked. “If I may, I’d like to purchase your daughter, Ayaou. I’m willing to pay whatever price you ask.” He knew it was stupid to say such a thing. What if her father asked for too much, and Robert didn’t have the yuan.
“You want Ayaou!” The old man looked surprised.
“What is a suitable price?” His hands started to shake. He hid them in his pockets.
Chou Luk gestured for his new daughter-in-law to pour more tea in his cup. He then spent a long moment sipping as his eyes avoided Robert. A boat bumped the side of the brig. Robert heard Captain Patridge’s voice. Ayaou’s father handed the cup to the girl and looked toward the opening in the rail. His leather-skinned, narrow face was blotched with age reminding Robert of a picture from the Dark Ages of starving people. Chou Luk’s hollow eyes had dark fleshy bags under them. A large half-inch mole sat securely on the left side of his jaw between his mouth and ear. He had stringy, dark hair with strands of white showing through.
“Ayaou,” Robert said in an insistent voice. “I want to buy Ayaou.”
“Ayaou is no longer available,” the old man said. He didn’t look at Robert.
“What did you say?”
“Frederick Ward bought her last night for three hundred yuan, much more than I expected,” Chou Luk said. “She’s not my property any longer. Frederick Ward is a wealthy, powerful man. He’ll make a suitable son-in-law.”
“But you said the bidding would last until noon,” Robert said. “I heard you say that.”
Chou Luk ignored him. The anger simmered and thickened in Robert’s belly. Chou Luk walked to the rail to greet Captain Patridge.
Robert stared into the two empty teacups wanting to smash them. What was he going to do now? He didn’t move while he listened to the drone of their voices. Money exchanged hands. Chou Luk left.
“Why are you sitting there, Robert, looking so forlorn?” It was Patridge.
Robert scrambled to his feet holding back tears of disappointment and suddenly realized how much Ayaou meant to him. She had been his first virgin. She had picked him. That thought alone caused his guts to knot up in pain like a wet, twisted dishrag. He grimaced.
“What is it?” Captain Patridge put a hand on his shoulder. “My god, you look like you were tortured. Maybe I can help.”
How could he? How could anyone do anything for him? He had allowed himself to blunder into a situation that he couldn’t control. Robert wanted to escape this horrible place but at the same time, he didn’t want to go. If he left Shanghai, he might never see Ayaou again. Feeling lost, he sat on the deck and stared into nothingness.
“We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.” Captain Patridge squatted beside Robert. “I’ve negotiated for a cargo of silk that’ll go to England after the brig drops us off at the Lookong receiving station. With the silk already at the station and the lot I just bought, we’ll have a full load and a profit.”
Robert couldn’t bear the idea that what he’d started with Ayaou wouldn’t continue. His expression must’ve given him away, because Patridge looked at him with compassion.
“It’s Ayaou,” Robert said. “I wanted to make her my c
oncubine, but Ward bought her. Chou Luk didn’t keep his word. I miscalculated. I’m a fool.”
“No, Ward is the fool,” Captain Patridge replied. “He has a dozen whores as concubines, and he paid more for Ayaou than I paid for both of her sisters. He’s drunk from power and wealth. Did you know that they call Ward the Devil Soldier behind his back? By the way, where are my two concubines?”
“In your cabin.”
“Chou Luk should have waited,” Patridge said. “Though you don’t have the wealth Ward has, you’re a dependable man. It probably has not crossed Chou Luk’s mind that we think differently from the Chinese. He sold three of his daughters to men he believes are going to help take care of him. You think that I will. He’ll get no help from Ward either. Ward is a lunatic bent on self-destruction. He’s taking his army to Sungkiang before the week is out. I wouldn’t take that rabble to the latrine. They’re worthless. Did you see how they acted at the Taiping camp?” Patridge shook his head.
Robert’s mind was stuck on Ayaou. Patridge’s voice droned on. “And as for me,” Patridge said, “I expect to return to England a wealthy man. None of my concubines will go with me. I will sell them to someone else. I plan to get my capital back and make a profit.” He laughed. “After all, I taught them how to please properly. How about you, Robert? When the time comes, I’ll sell Willow to you at a reduced price just because you are a friend.”
Robert coughed up some mucus and spit it over the side. Women in China were treated like furniture. No, they were treated worse. He was disgusted.
A few years later Robert learned how wrong he was. Family was more important than the individual in China. It was explained by the simple fact that the last name came first. After he learned Chinese ways and mastered the language, Robert introduced himself to a Chinese person as ‘Hart, Robert’ instead of the other way around.
It was unthinkable for a daughter or a son, no matter what his or her circumstances, not to take care of a parent. To the Chinese, piety was more important than one’s comfort or situation.
Emperors of the Han Dynasty were known to have sold their daughters but the price was different—it was peace instead of silver. One day Robert heard a singer storyteller present the story about Princess Wen-cheng, who lived about sixteen hundred years in the past. The singer sat with an audience around him. He had a pipa propped on his lap. The pipa was a four stringed instrument similar to a guitar but the strings ran the width instead of the length. He’d sing the story and pause while he strummed the pipa for a dramatic touch.
Princess Wen-cheng was sold to a warlord in Tibet, and she was the only Han living there. Before she left her father’s court, there was a parting between the emperor and the princess full of tears and sobs. The Chinese had a term for this type of purchase. It was called ho-phan, which in English translated to barbarian harmony.
Robert eventually learned that Chou Luk, like the Han Emperor, also suffered. He had two choices. He could sell his daughters and gain the money to take care of his medical needs and buy a wife for his son or die and possibly leave his family to starve. He could have earned more if he’d sold his son, but without a son no one would carry on the family name.
Patridge squeezed Robert’s shoulder. “Cheer up, Robert. You’ll get over that Chinese siren. I predict that in a few weeks you won’t remember her. I suggest you find an experienced whore. One who is beautiful too. I’m going ashore soon to conduct more business. Come along. I’ll show you around. After I’m finished, we can have some fun. After all, everything is for sale in Shanghai.”
“I’m tired.” His despair was like a ball and chain.
“You have my permission to use my cabin to sleep. I won’t be back for several hours.”
“Lan and Shao-mei are in there!” Robert said swiftly.
“That’s right,” Patridge said. His face brightened. “Come with me. I know what will free you from the doldrums.”
Robert followed the captain below to the cabin where the two sisters huddled side-by-side on the window seat holding hands. Their eyes, both frightened and confused, studied Captain Patridge. They’d worn cloaks when they’d come aboard, but the cloaks were off. They were dressed in the skimpy outfits they’d danced in the night before.
“I paid eighty yuan for the pair. The father did me a favor, because he works for me. That’s why they were such a bargain. Shao-mei is fourteen and she’s just blossoming. Lan is thirteen.” Patridge put an arm across Robert’s shoulders and pulled him closer. “I like you, Robert.” He whispered like a conspirator. “Listen, I’ll sell you Shao-mei for the same price I paid. She looks like her older sister anyway and because she’s younger, she’s tastier, more desirable—fresher meat. I’ve always liked the younger ones. That’s why I’m keeping Lan.”
Robert wanted to say how disgusted he was but didn’t.
Patridge stepped toward the sisters and leaned over Shao-mei. He took her chin and tilted her face toward his. “I’m selling you to Mr. Hart here.” Her frightened eyes shifted to Robert. The captain squeezed her chin and shook her head a bit as if to scold her. She strained to stand on her tiptoes. Her shoulders tightened from pain. Robert was tempted to say something but decided she was in no danger. He saw no need to intervene. What Patridge did with his property was none of Robert’s business. It didn’t matter that the property was human. It still didn’t feel right though.
“He’s going to be your master,” Patridge said. “Make him happy. If he isn’t happy, he might not want you.” A lecherous grin spread across his face. “I’ll keep you if that happens.” He released her, and Shao-mei lost her balance and staggered back. There were red spots where his fingers had squeezed her chin.
“You’ll go with me,” Patridge said to Lan. “Get your cloak.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her off balance, so she stumbled. A startled look flashed across her face.
“Shao-mei,” she cried in desperation. “Don’t leave me alone.”
After they left, Robert was alone with Shao-mei. He saw the shock on her face as she stared at the closed door. Robert was amazed at how much she resembled Ayaou. She had a round face with full cheeks and a lovely pair of dimples, but her shoulder length hair wasn’t as dark and shiny as Ayaou’s. The only blemishes were two pimples on her forehead. Though Shao-mei still hadn’t filled out completely as a woman, her developing breasts were small. Her hips were shapely and she had a slender waist and muscular legs.
She came to kneel at his feet and touched his ankles with her fingers. She looked timid but with a twinkle in her eyes. “I’ll do whatever you want, Master.” There was relief in her voice. Robert was struck speechless and stared.
After an empty moment, she asked nervously, “Why have you no words? You don’t like me?” Doubt appeared on her face.
A shiver rushed through him as her fingers gently crept up his legs. He stumbled back to get away from her and sat abruptly on the window seat. He buried his face in his hands.
Robert jerked as Shao-mei rested her head on his lap and circled his waist with her arms. “I do a good massage,” she said in a small voice. “I’ve practiced on cabbages daily. My fingers will relax you. I also do pressure-acupuncture. It’ll make you feel as if you just ate a chicken full of vitality.”
“No.” He pushed her away. Robert thought of the carrots Ayaou practiced sucking and kissing. He felt guilt from the fact that he had an erection.
“You are unhappy with me?” she said, while tears filled her eyes.
He made no reply.
“You don’t find me pleasing.” Her lower lip trembled.
“It isn’t that. You’re lovely, Shao-mei. It’s just that I’m tired and want to sleep.” He stood and walked to the bunk nestled against the starboard side of the cabin. He slipped onto the bunk and closed his eyes.
“I’ll keep you company.” Shao-mei joined him. Her slender, young body molded to his. She buried her face against his chest.
He pushed her away.
Shao-mei propp
ed herself up on one elbow and wiped the tears from her eyes. “You’re sweating, and your face has turned red. Is it too hot? Let me take off your jacket and pants.”
Robert felt as if he were dreaming when Shao-mei pulled off his boots and took hold of the cuffs of his pants. Ignoring his protests, she undressed him leaving his legs and feet naked. A tug of war raged inside him. His mind was in shock although his body was stimulated and delighted. His erection swelled toward the bursting point. He was glad that he had on baggy underpants to hide it.
Her fingers unbuttoned his shirt. He was like a helpless baby in its crib. She pulled the shirt off, and when her fingers went to his underpants, panic threatened to castrate him.
“Stop!” He was desperate, grabbed her hands, and locked them in his. Touching her excited him. “Look, Shao-mei, you don’t know what you’re doing.” His heart thundered inside his chest. He was having trouble breathing. Good Lord, this was the sister of the woman he had deflowered. It wasn’t right.
“I know what I’m doing,” she said in a frustrated tone. “If I can’t make you like me, you won’t keep me. You’re thinking about returning me to Captain Patridge. I don’t like him. He already hit me once last night after he bought me. I made him angry. He threatened to pull the nerves out of my body and make them into a rope to hang his clothes on. You can’t give me back to him!”
“This is making me crazy.” Robert let her hands go. He stared at the crisscrossing timbers of the cabin’s ceiling. “Stop bothering me,” he said, controlling the expression on his face. “I’m going to sleep.” He shut his eyes.
It was quiet. The only sounds were his heart and his ragged breathing. Then he heard the soft sound silk makes when it slides across smooth skin. He cracked open an eye and saw that Shao-mei was naked. He stopped breathing. His stealthy eye traveled the length of her taking in the smooth, tanned skin and the gentle curves.
“Don’t worry, Master,” Shao-mei said, trying to sound confident and brave. “I’m not a finished woman, but I am a woman.” She slid her hands down the length of her nude torso to her vulva. “Two months ago, I had the hot tide for the first time. I’m ready to have babies.”
My Splendid Concubine Page 9
