The Darkest Hour

by Roberta Kagan

  Wen-Ying relaxed with a sigh. The houseboy was gone. Could they be this lucky? She looked at Bao Gong askance. “Do you have a hand in this?”

  “Me?” He pointed at himself, indignant. “What do I have to do with him eating dog meat?” He asked, but his conspiratorial smile told her otherwise. His face then turned serious. “Ah Xia will make sure most of our staff remain in their common room after the feast is over and before the performances start. With such an important guest here, they can’t be wandering around anyhow, and they need to be in one place where they can quickly respond if they’re called on. This should get them out of your way, as well as making it easier to run them out of the house once the fire starts. Also, Little Yin will be the designated attendant in the dining room throughout the night.” He lowered his voice and said to the troupe leader. “She will give the signal when you put on the red mask.”

  “Thank you.” Wen-Ying looked gratefully at Ah Xia and Little Yin. Bao Gong’s entire family was risking their lives. If their plan succeeded tonight, all three of them would be out of their livelihood. And yet, here they were, doing everything to help. The conviction on their faces did not waver.

  There was still hope for the Chinese people yet.

  Huang Jia-Ming came in, dressed in a cook’s uniform. “Golden Phoenix,” he called out to Wen-Ying. In operations involving outsiders, Tian Di Hui members never referred to each other by name, but rather, by their ranks or code names. “I’m sorry. White Paper Fan decided not to come tonight.”

  “What?” Yao Kang wasn’t coming?

  “He said this is a mission for lower level members. At the last minute, he told us his role as the current highest ranking member is to stay behind and supervise. He said if we fail, he will lead everyone else and decide what to do next.”

  “How could he?” Yu-Lan asked.

  Wen-Ying wanted to ask the same. Clearly, Yao Kang meant to defy her. He wanted to show he didn’t need to submit to her authority. Rather than helping them to succeed, he had decided to use this mission to stake his claim as Tian Di Hui’s next leader.

  All that was beside the point. What distressed her most now was that he had put their mission in jeopardy. He and Huang were supposed to lead four other members to assassinate the Japanese guards outside. They had planned on splitting into groups of two with one person shooting a guard dead and taking the body away. The other person would stand in and take the guard’s place to avoid suspicions and to assist when they set the outside entrances on fire. The Japanese army uniforms hidden in the trunks’ concealed compartments were brought for this specific purpose.

  “I need someone on your team to take Yao Kang’s place,” Huang said to Wen-Ying. They looked at the three Tian Di Hui members who had come in disguised as troupe hands. She needed them too to set the house on fire.

  “Take Ah Green,” said Yu-Lan. Ah Green was the best shooter among the three designated to carry out the arson part of their operation with Wen-Ying. “I’ll take Ah Green’s place here.”

  Wen-Ying and Huang looked at each other, then back at Yu-Lan. It didn’t feel right to task a dainty girl like her in such a role.

  “There’s no other solution.” Yu-Lan urged. “It’s the only way.”

  She was right. They had to make do whichever way they could now. Wen-Ying turned to her team. “Ah Green, go with Huang.”

  With a firm nod, Ah Green stepped forward.

  “Bring out the fake uniforms,” Wen-Ying ordered. The troupe hands pulled the bags of uniforms from the trunk and gave them to Huang and Ah Green.

  “Go!” she told both of them. With no further delay, Huang and Ah Green left. Everyone else in the room stared at Wen-Ying, waiting. Wen-Ying didn’t know for sure what she should say, but in the air, she sensed their anxiety. They were all waiting for someone to take charge. She closed the door and walked to the center of the room. “The rest is up to us. Bao Gong, Ah Xia, Little Yin, you can return to work. We’ll be fine here.” She looked over everyone out the window. The warm rays of moonlight shimmered through the panes like a sign from Heaven. A surge of strength rose within her. Drawing on it, she began to find her voice. Invoking one of Tian Di Hui’s covenants, she said, “Those with compassion and righteousness shall pass below the bridge. Those without compassion and righteousness shall die by our blade. We are the guardians of heaven and earth. We are zhonghua’s sons and daughters. Tonight, no obstacle can stop us. On this full moon evening of August fifteenth, we will eliminate these beasts. You all know your roles. When the time comes, we will act according to plan.”

  A chorus of “yes” answered her. She could feel it. The group’s determination, temporarily shaken, once again took on momentum. Their will swelled, like scattered wind coalescing around the eye of a typhoon. Together they stood, an unstoppable force driving in one direction, ready to storm those in their path.

  Bao Gong gave Wen-Ying one last look. His face glowed with pride. “Take care of yourself.”

  “You too,” Wen-Ying said. If they both survived this night, she would personally offer him an eternal promise to always come to his aide whenever he needed.

  Excusing themselves, Bao Gong, his wife, and daughter left the room. Now, there was nothing left for them to do but wait.

  “Watch over everyone,” Wen-Ying said to Yu-Lan. “I’m going to take a look around.”

  “By yourself?” Yu-Lan pulled Wen-Ying’s sleeve, worried.

  “That’s the best way. I know my way around this house. I want to scout out the place before we start.”

  “What if someone sees you?”

  “I’ll say I got lost.”

  Yu-Lan hesitated, then let go. “Be careful.”

  “I will,” Wen-Ying promised, then quietly went out to the corridor.

  Chapter 11

  After checking left and right to make sure no one was around, Wen-Ying tiptoed past the back stairway toward the dining room. The silence in the hallway and rooms felt odd for an evening when a family was planning to receive an important dignitary for a celebratory feast. Only the voices of the kitchen staff and the clings and clangs of pots and pans could be heard at the back of the house. Then again, the tight control of everyone’s whereabouts made sense. In their world today, there were eyes and ears behind every wall. Liu Kun and Kazuki wouldn’t want any idle people roaming around.

  Quietly, Wen-Ying passed by the study. Unable to resist, she pushed open the door. To her surprise, the furniture and their arrangement remained the same, although the valuable paintings, decorative ornaments, and books on the shelves had all been replaced.

  A gnashing pain wrenched her heart. This room was where her father would retreat to every night after dinner to review the accounting books. She could still hear the loud ticks and tacks of the abacus as his fingers pushed the beads at flying speed.

  Closing her eyes, she shut the door and moved on.

  The staff’s voices grew louder as she approached the dining room. From its nearest doorway, she peeked inside to watch the servants hustling back and forth setting the table and preparing the room for tonight’s feast. Again, the similarities between the dining room’s decor and the way her family had arranged it surprised her. Every piece of furniture and artwork, it seemed, had remained in its place. Or rather, the old furniture and artwork were gone, likely looted by the Japanese. Instead, replicas and other similar items had been put in their place. Like the large painting of mountains and a waterfall on the main wall, and the antique porcelain vases on the console, and the golden laughing Buddha with many children on the display shelf. At first glance, she could almost believe she had stepped back in time to the Yuan’s dining room.

  This had to be Shen Yi’s doing. Liu Kun wasn’t a friend of her family. He had never been to her home. He could not have known what the interior of the Yuan mansion looked like.

  Wen-Ying slid her fingers down the door frame. Goosebumps crawled on her skin. Shen Yi. This venomous woman. Her ire ran so deep. This was her act of r
evenge. Her parade of victory. It wasn’t enough that she took over this villa and now ruled it as its mistress. She had to replicate the inside this way as if she were the rightful Madam Yuan. She would live the life owed to her, even if Guo Hui denied it from her.

  Putting her thoughts of Shen Yi aside, Wen-Ying took note of the dining room’s layout. Her family’s beautiful hand-carved rosewood table was gone. Where it used to be, a marble dining table, framed by mahogany wood, filled the half of the room. Behind the table was the door with access to the kitchen. The other half of the room, where the performances would take place, had a door on the right and a door to the left. The door to the right led to the sitting room where the troupe was waiting and the servants’ entrance. The door to the left led to the main drawing room.

  If Bao Gong could keep both of those doors closed except when the performers were entering and exiting the door on the right, she and her team could pour kerosene quietly around the dining room while the targets watched the entertainment inside. When the last performers left, they would immediately seal the three doors with fire. By the time those demons realized they were trapped, the fire would quash any hope they had to escape.

  Thinking about this, Wen-Ying’s hands and body sweat. Hold it together, she told herself. She must hold herself together. The lives of all her Tian Di Hui brothers and sisters depended on her. And the lives of Bao Gong’s family and the performance troupe too.

  Those without compassion and righteousness shall die by our blade. She repeated this in her mind, trying to calm her breath.

  “The General is here!” A male servant standing watch by the front door shouted. “Go tell Master and Madam.”

  The servants' footsteps pounded the hallway and up the front staircase toward the master bedroom. Wen-Ying looked ahead to the front door and the main drawing room, then backward at the sitting room where the troupe was confined.

  Which way to go?

  Abandoning the way back, she dashed up the back stairway just as Liu Kun, Shen Yi, and a maidservant were walking down the front staircase to the first floor to greet their guests. Her heart pounding, she moved as lightly as she could to the landing area at the top of the front stairs and crouched down. A servant opened the front door and the Japanese General Kazuki entered, followed by Takeda and the unforgivable traitor, Tang Wei.

  Fury burned inside her as Wen-Ying looked at Tang Wei’s face. The son of a bitch. He sure looked well. Healthy and in good spirit. Must be so good to have another person serve as his substitute to die in his place. Mei Mei rotting in what should have been his grave so he could live to spread lies and propaganda for the Japanese crushing his own people. This score had to be settled tonight.

  Liu Kun and Shen Yi bowed to greet Kazuki, the Japanese commander. Watching them, Wen-Ying sneered. These two. Kowtowing to their oppressor and accepting humiliation on behalf of the entire country of Chinese people.

  Not too big a price to pay for these two, perhaps. What was humiliation of your own kind when one could bathe in cash in exchange? Look at Shen Yi. The huge pearls of her necklace hanging like rings of iron chained around her neck. The heavy golden bracelets handcuffed around her wrists. Not to mention the diamonds on her rings. Every time she turned her hands, the sparks of the stones flashed under the ceiling light. Maybe when one exposed her eyes to such lights long enough, the eyes would turn blind. Blind to their enemy’s savage cruelty, and blind to the thousands of victims’ bitterness, cries, and pains.

  Shen Yi gained some weight too. The body fitting silk qipao revealed not the slender shape which she once proudly showed off. Too many days spent playing incessant hours of mahjong and eating the eight treasured cuisines had rounded her out from top to bottom. Who cared if the rest of the world was starving?

  Enjoy your last meal, Wen-Ying cursed Shen Yi in her thoughts. It will be your final taste of comfort before the king of the underworld banishes you to the eighteen levels of hell.

  And Liu Kun. That one with the face of a human and the heart of a violent beast. She knew how he tortured and killed those who tried to rise up against their enemy but unfortunately got caught. The time had come for Liu Kun to pay the price for his crime.

  At the front door, Takeda, acting as translator, spoke to both the hosts and the Japanese guest. A male servant came and brought slippers for the guests. Kazuki turned. For the first time, Wen-Ying got a good look at his face. She braced herself for the sight of a cold-blooded animal. Maybe a demon with eyes of a snake. But what she saw instead was a round-cheeked little man. A long, thick mustache hung above his mouth, making him look slightly comical. The creases on his forehead showed an aging uncle rather than a predator in his prime. His soft, almond-shaped eyes looked almost benign.

  Not possible. Not possible. Kazuki, one of the masterminds who led thousands of troops in the rape and massacre of Nanking. How could he appear so mild? How could he have a face that elicited sympathy?

  Deception. It was all a deception. Those Japanese dogs. Their faces lied. And Kazuki. That benevolent face masked the dark, evil heart of a man who brutally took hundreds of thousands of lives.

  Wen-Ying grabbed a spindle. Her heart would not soften. Tonight was for all those whose lives were taken and destroyed by his hand. Tonight, she would avenge them all.

  The servant put the guests’ shoes neatly aside. Continuing their small talk, the guests and hosts downstairs proceeded into the main drawing room. For a brief second, Takeda glanced up. His eyes met Wen-Ying’s and a shade of shock registered on his face. Instinctively, Wen-Ying held her finger to her lips. Her heart thumped. Luckily, he maintained his composure and no one noticed the slight wavering in his voice.

  Did he really recognize her in her disguise?

  It didn’t matter. Even if he didn’t, he knew she was one of the assassins tonight.

  In the drawing room, Liu Kun and Shen Yi invited their guests to sit down while a maidservant brought out a tray of tea. Kazuki spoke, and Takeda said to the hosts, “The General thanks you for your great hospitality tonight.”

  “It is our utmost honor he would join us this evening for our Mid-Autumn Festival celebration.” Liu Kun opened his palm. To better hear what they were saying, Wen-Ying kneeled lower on the floor.

  Takeda repeated Liu’s words to Kazuki. Serving as their intermediary, he facilitated their conversation. “The General is pleased to partake in this opportunity of cultural exchange. Going forward, he hopes China will also observe Japanese cultural practices as a way to strengthen our mutual ties and commonalities. Take for example Korea. After it became a Japanese protectorate, that region has fully embraced its new Japanese identity. Their people have adopted Japanese names. They’ve discontinued using the Korean language in favor of the Japanese language. Even their old royal palace had been demolished. This spirit of unity will surely help to foster the Greater Pan-Asian Co-prosperity Sphere as our great Emperor Hirohito envisioned.”

  Those sickening words, couched in such flowery speech. Worse yet, she had to hear them from Takeda’s mouth. It hardly helped that he was merely translating someone else’s words. Everyone knew Japan was actively purging Korea of its culture. They forced the Koreans to take on Japanese names and forbade them from speaking their own language. Those who refused to comply were punished. They confiscated Korean archaeological treasures and artifacts to deprive the Koreans of their entire history.

  Without knowing it, Wen-Ying clenched her fist. The Japanese were delusional if they thought they could do the same to China. China would not succumb so easily yet.

  Takeda put down his cup and the maid refilled his tea. Wen-Ying watched him thank the maid.

  How hard it must be for him to serve as the voice of these demons day in and day out? How much strength did it take for him to hold on to faith in humanity while surrounded by these beasts? What did he need to do to keep his hope for a victorious end on their side when he had to witness every day evil hands getting their ways? She never knew the magnitude of a
nguish he had to go through. She didn’t cherish him enough.

  “The wisdom of Emperor Hirohito will benefit us all,” Tang Wei said.

  Wen-Ying swung her head toward him. What did he say?

  “President Wang Jing-Wei and the Reorganized National Government of China is committed to support Emperor Hirohito in the establishment of the Pan-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. United, all Asiatic countries will stand as a single formidable force, never again to be disrespected by the West.”

  Takeda repeated in Japanese to Kazuki what Tang Wei said. Liu Kun and Shen Yi smiled and nodded in agreement as they took their tea. How Takeda could hold back his true feelings, Wen-Ying did not know. If she had a knife in her hand, she would stab Tang Wei in the heart right now with her own hands.

  Kazuki then spoke at length. Sadness overtook his face. Takeda explained, “General Kazuki said, it’s too bad not all Chinese think the same as you. To this day, the General deeply regrets the incidental suffering of the Chinese people when the Imperial Japanese Army had to defend themselves and the Emperor’s acts of greater good for the Asiatic region. He especially regrets what happened in Nanking seven years ago. If only the Chinese understood back then like you do now what Japan was trying to achieve for all of us. If they hadn’t incited the Japanese troops and put up such a fierce fight when our troops came to implement the Emperor’s order, things wouldn’t have gotten out of hand. The General’s heart still aches when he thinks of all those who were harmed.”

  His heart still aches? The phony compassion of a cat crying over a mouse. Squinting at the scene down below, Wen-Ying wanted to spit in Kazuki’s face before torching him in flame.

  Liu Kun lowered his cup of tea. “There’s no need to talk about things that happened in the past anymore. When we defeat Chiang Kai-Shek and what remains of his Nationalist Government, and when we wipe out that nail in the eye, Mao Zedong and his little red party, our new government will see to it that China will cooperate and ally with Japan in the most peaceful, orderly manner.”