The Goddess of Yantai

by Ian Hamilton

  “I like congee. I used to eat it with Uncle. There was a shop in Kowloon near his apartment that we went to virtually every morning towards the end, when he was really ill. I haven’t eaten it much since then.”

  “Were you afraid it would trigger bad memories?”

  “I have no bad memories where Uncle is concerned. I think I just needed a break from congee.”

  “You don’t have to eat any.”

  “Don’t be silly. It smells wonderful, and I’m hungry — although I’ll pass on the duck eggs.”

  “Then let’s eat,” Fai said.

  Ava sat down while Fai spooned the white gruel into bowls that were so large she had to carry them to the table one at a time.

  “I added some double-smoked ham and spring onions,” Fai said. “It makes it less bland.”

  Ava sprinkled white pepper across the top, stirred it in slightly, and then took a stick of youtiao and dipped in the fried dough. “This is really good,” she said after taking a bite. “I think I can even taste the smoked ham.”

  “Adding this and that is the extent of my cooking skill.”

  “I can’t even do that much,” Ava said.

  The congee was hot, so they ate slowly, hardly saying a word. When the bowls were empty, Fai refilled them and they resumed what was becoming a long, drawn-out breakfast.

  Ava glanced at Fai from time to time. Whenever she did, she saw that her friend’s focus was on the congee. “Do you want to talk about your panic attack?” she finally asked.

  “It came and it went.”

  “You’re okay?”

  “Maybe I’m just becoming fatalistic. You know, ‘what will be, will be.’ And if I’m really being objective, that might not be such a bad outcome.”

  “Are you up to phoning Mak Guang now?”

  “Am I ever.”

  “Her husband will have gone to his office by now, so we can call anytime.”

  “Then let’s get it over with,” Fai said, picking up her bowl and carrying it to the sink. Her phone lay on the counter nearby.

  “Do it the way we did with the blackmailer.”

  “Speakerphone?”

  “Yes, and let Mak know that I’m on the line and I’m a friend who’s helping.”

  Fai brought the phone back to the table, found the text from Popo, and punched in the number.

  “Yao residence,” a woman answered.

  “Can I speak to Mak Guang, to Mrs. Yao?” Fai said.

  “Who’s calling?”

  Fai drew a deep breath. “Pang Fai.”

  “Just a moment,” the woman said hesitantly.

  They waited for a minute that seemed like ten.

  “Fai, is it really you?” another voice said. “My housekeeper thought someone was playing a joke on her.”

  “It is me.”

  “I’m flattered that you’ve called, but I can’t imagine why you would.”

  “Are you alone? Are you free to talk?” Fai said.

  “Yes, but why do you ask?”

  “I should have told you before I asked that question that I have a friend, Ava Lee, with me here, and that we’re on speakerphone.”

  “What difference does that make?”

  “None, really, but I don’t want you to think I’m trying to do anything underhanded,” Fai said. “Ava is more than just a friend, actually, and she’s helping me with a problem. She has some questions she wants to ask you.”

  “Why would I think you’re being underhanded, and what kind of questions could she possibly have for me?”

  Fai looked across the table at Ava.

  “You and Fai both have a problem that you may not want anyone else to know about,” Ava said. “The fact that I do know might make you uncomfortable.”

  “What problem?” Mak said.

  “You can’t imagine what it might be?”

  “No.”

  “You slept together.”

  “As I remember,” Mak said, “we didn’t sleep.”

  “I’m glad you can make light of it, but it isn’t such a trivial matter on Fai’s side.”

  “Why? What does it matter?”

  “She’s being blackmailed because of it.”

  “What!”

  “By your reaction I’m assuming that you haven’t been contacted. You haven’t been threatened?”

  “Of course not.”

  “How fortunate for you. Fai hasn’t been so lucky.”

  “She’s being blackmailed because of our adventure together?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you suggesting that I somehow had something to do with this?”

  “No, but why do you ask?”

  “Because who else knows what happened that night? It was just Fai and me, just the two of us.”

  “That’s not precisely true. Someone else was there — in person or by proxy. A video exists of what you refer to as your ‘adventure.’ A copy was sent to Fai on a DVD, along with a request for a substantial amount of money.”

  “That’s impossible!” Mak blurted.

  “What is? That a video exists or that someone is using it to blackmail Fai?”

  “I’m telling you, there was no one else there.”

  “Which raises the question of exactly where ‘there’ was. Was it your apartment you were in?”

  Mak paused, and Ava knew the answer before she gave it. “It belonged to a friend,” she said.

  “What kind of friend records your sexual exploits?”

  Mak went quiet again. Then she said, “I find all this confusing, and quite disturbing.”

  “Who was the friend?” Ava pressed.

  “Is Fai going to pay?”

  “What does that have to do with my question?”

  “Nothing. I’m just curious, because if she does pay, maybe it will go away.”

  “That’s wishful thinking,” Ava said. “The only chance for it to disappear is for us to find the person who has it. And even then there’s no certainty we’ll be successful.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Help. You could start by telling us who lived in that apartment.”

  “I’m not sure I should be getting involved in this,” Mak said carefully.

  “You do understand how damaging the publicity could be to Fai?”

  “Yes, but she’s a star — a huge star — and I’m sure she’ll be able to get past this after a while.”

  “How about you? Will you able to get past it?” Ava said. “We know your husband is the deputy mayor of Tianjin. How is he going to react when the video becomes public? What’s the mayor going to say? What’s the provincial Party secretary going to do? He’s got instructions from Beijing to uphold — publicly, at least — the highest standards of morality. It would be a mess.”

  “No one would care about the other woman in that video. The spotlight would be completely on Fai.”

  “We’d make sure you got your fair share of the limelight, particularly with people who matter politically.”

  “Guang, how can you be so self-centred? How can you be so fucking dumb to think that you wouldn’t be smeared as well?” Fai exclaimed.

  Ava looked at her. Throughout the conversation with Mak she’d sat quietly, her face impassive, but now her lips were drawn tight and her jaw was clenched.

  “We need your help if we are to have any chance of keeping this thing private for both your sakes,” Ava said.

  “I need to think,” Mak said.

  “About what?”

  “How to help.”

  “Tell us the name of the friend who had the apartment. That’s a good start.”

  “But then you’d want to talk to her, yes?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m uncomfortable about that for a
number of reasons, one of which is that I don’t believe she knew Fai and I were together in her apartment that night. I kept my little romances secret, even from friends, and I’m quite sure she thought I was with a man,” Mak said. “Another reason is that I’m convinced she knew nothing about any recording system . . . but she might be able to point us in the direction of who did. In the end there could be multiple conversations. If you truly want to keep Fai’s name out of this, you might be wise to let me have them.”

  “That actually makes some sense,” Ava said.

  “Assuming we can trust you,” Fai added.

  “As you said, I have almost as much to lose as you.”

  “I’m sorry I had to point that out the way I did,” Ava said.

  “No, you were right to do that. I have a tendency to hide from unpleasantness.”

  “So where does this leave us?” Ava said.

  “I’ll make some phone calls and get back to you as soon as I can.”

  “We have a deadline, and not much time to waste,” Ava said.

  “I’ll start as soon as we hang up.”

  “Is Fai’s number on your screen?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s how you can reach us,” Ava said. “I’d like to hear from you today. And please, don’t make us chase you.”

  “You didn’t have to say that.”

  “Sorry,” Ava said, and ended the call.

  “What do you think?” Fai asked. “Will she help?”

  “Is she smart? Is she really self-centred?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then she’ll help.”

  ( 28 )

  The call from Mak Guang came in less than an hour. Ava and Fai were about to leave the house for a walk when Fai’s phone rang. She answered, listened for a few seconds, and then said, “You’d better speak to Ava.”

  “This is far quicker than I expected,” Ava said, after putting the phone on speaker.

  “I had one person I needed to talk to, and I got hold of her right away,” Mak said. “She’s the friend who loaned me the apartment.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Is it really necessary that you know?”

  “Guang, we need to trust each other.”

  “Her name is Ren Lan. She was — and is — an actress. Fai knows her,” Mak said. “But I promised her I’d keep her out of this. She doesn’t want to create enemies.”

  “Did you tell her it was you and Fai in the video?”

  “No, I just said I’ve been told there’s a video of me in circulation that I’m sure was made at her place. I said the other party in it is someone important enough to have vengeful friends.”

  “Well, she doesn’t have to worry if she had nothing to do with the recording.”

  “But she did, indirectly.”

  “Meaning she knew that whatever went on in that bedroom was being recorded?”

  “There was a switch on the wall linked to the camera. She turned it off and on as she saw fit. It was always off when she was in the bed and it was on when she knew someone else would be using it.”

  “Why did she do it?”

  “Money.”

  “Yes, of course it was money, but how did she make money by doing that?”

  “She was being paid by the person who installed the camera.”

  “Did she see the recordings?”

  “No, she let him know whenever there had been action in the bedroom, and he’d come by and pick them up.”

  “So she wasn’t selling the videos herself?”

  “No.”

  “What did she think was being done with them?”

  “She thought they were being sold as porn films.”

  “They would have been unscripted, amateurish. Who would have any interest in them?”

  “There wasn’t much else available. Besides, maybe the people buying them liked the fact that they were natural rather than contrived.”

  “But if that was the case, why hasn’t this one surfaced until now? Surely a video of Pang Fai with another woman would have attracted a lot of attention.”

  “I can’t answer that question.”

  “Then answer these: who installed the camera and who was paying her?” Ava asked, bracing herself for a reply she didn’t want to hear.

  “Bai Lok.”

  “Who?”

  “Fai will probably remember him. He was an AD.”

  “What’s an AD?”

  “An assistant director. He worked on a lot of films, and I’m sure she was in some of them.”

  “Did you talk to him?”

  “I couldn’t.”

  “You couldn’t or you didn’t try?”

  “I said I couldn’t. He died of cancer three years ago.”

  Ava sighed. “Great. So that means all we have is the word of this Ren Lan,” Ava said. “That’s convenient for her, isn’t it.”

  “You’re very cynical.”

  “My life experience has taught me that you can never be too cynical,” Ava said. “Now tell me, how receptive was Ren Lan when you called her?”

  “Not very at first, but I was insistent, and I think I scared her a little,” Mak said. “She lives on the outskirts of Tianjin, so she knows my husband’s position and knows that things can be made to happen.”

  “So you believe her?”

  “I do.”

  “What else did she tell you?”

  “Like what?”

  “How long did this scheme go on?”

  Mak hesitated and then said, “Ren claims it was for a year. It stopped when she gave up the apartment. She figured Bai must have had ten to fifteen recordings by then.”

  “Was there anyone else taped who might be worth blackmailing?”

  “I did ask her that question, as much for my own peace of mind as anything. She said she’d never heard of anyone being blackmailed before, and that she couldn’t remember everyone who used the room.”

  “When precisely did the recording end?”

  “It would have been about seven years ago.”

  “And for seven years nothing happens. How strange is that?” Ava said.

  “Stranger than I care to think about. It’s several lifetimes ago for me. I have a husband and two kids now; the last thing I want is for this to become public,” Mak said. “Why doesn’t Fai just pay the money to make it go away? If she needs help, maybe I could chip in.”

  “That’s generous of you,” Fai said.

  “Yes, thanks for the offer, but it isn’t going to come to that, because paying won’t make it go away. All it will do is encourage the scum who’s blackmailing her to ask for money again at some point in the future. She — and you — can’t have that hanging over your heads indefinitely,” Ava said.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Find the blackmailer and eliminate that possibility.”

  “To find him you’re going to have to talk to a lot of people who knew Bai Lok. You aren’t worried that that will draw attention to the situation, to Fai and to me?”

  “I’ll do everything I can to avoid that.”

  “That’s not encouraging.”

  “It’s the best I can promise.”

  “Fai, I don’t know who this Ava Lee is, but it seems to me that she could land you in a heap of trouble,” Mak said. “Please reconsider paying the blackmailer. If you decide you’re going to and you need help, give me a call.”

  “I’m following Ava’s advice,” Fai said. “If anyone can resolve this, it’s her.”

  “Okay, but if things start to go sideways, could someone call me to let me know? The last thing I need is for my husband to hear about this from someone other than me. If I’m going to become collateral damage, at least I deserve a chance to minimize it.”

  “
You’d get a call,” Ava said. “And from our side, we want to hear from you if you can think of anyone or anything else that might help us. I know this has been sudden. As you think more about it, you may remember extra details.”

  “Well, let’s hope for all our sakes that we never have to talk again,” Mak said.

  Ava turned off the speaker and ended the call. “That went reasonably well. After the initial shock, I think she realized she was at risk. Her co-operation seems genuine,” she said. “It’s too bad we have only one lead and he’s dead, but he did leave a legacy — even if it’s in the form of just one video — and there’s bound to be a trail of some kind attached to it.”

  “I worked with him a couple of times,” Fai said. “He was the AD on Peasant Songs, and before that he was the AD on one of Lau Lau’s films.”

  “What was he like?”

  “He was a little guy, maybe five three or four, but he had a thick moustache and a crazy, floppy head of hair that he was always running his fingers through,” Fai said. “He was a yes man, an ass-kisser, and that made him a good AD, since his main job was to keep the director happy.”

  “Did Lau Lau know him well?”

  “Not particularly. They only did the one film together that I know of, and I can’t remember them socializing off set,” Fai said. “Bai was one of those people on the fringes of the business who know they’re never going to make it big, so he just tried to hang on. He did work on a lot of films, though, and he knew a lot of people.”

  “From our viewpoint, that’s not necessarily a good thing.”

  “I can see that.”

  “Was he married? Did he have a partner of any kind?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Who would?”

  “I can look online. There are quite a few websites devoted to Chinese filmmaking, and many of them have bios, even of people like Bai Lok.”

  “See what you can find,” Ava said. “Do you mind if I go outside for some fresh air while you look?”

  “Not at all.”

  Ava left the kitchen, put on her Adidas jacket, and went outside. She was starting to walk across the courtyard when a thought came to her. She stopped, turned, and headed towards Fan’s green door. She rapped the lion knocker. The door opened almost at once; she figured Fan had been watching from the window.