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6

It being her first child her brother's wife was asked to come and stay to look after her during the confinement. It turned out to be a boy. She was happy for the first time since she was married. As Bingfa's wife put it, 'Gu Nana's belly has shown them.'
Old Mistress was very pleased. At last her blessings were complete. Even her poor blind misshapen son had an heir to carry on his branch of the family. She was only a 'flowered' or 'patterned' vegetarian instead of a year-round one, abstaining from meat only on specific days. Still her cleanliness as a vegetarian forbade her to enter the maternity 'blood room'. She just stood at the door held up at the elbows by two strapping slave girls who dwarfed her, shouting at the amahs inside to open a window at a certain angle.
'There won't be a draught, it's south-west wind today and this room faces north-west. What do you feel like eating? Send word to the kitchen. But no ducks or your head will wobble like a duck's head. You can catch all sorts of sickness just now, you'll feel it when you get older.'
She thanked Bingfa's wife. 'She's lucky to have Mistress-in-law with her. Mistress-in-law must be worried about things at home but perhaps it would be possible to stay on a little longer, at least until the month is over. Don't act like a guest here. This is just like your own house. Be sure to ask for anything you need.'
The baby was carried to the door for inspection, bundled in red silk and tied up straight as a board in the style called 'candle package'. He had a touch of asthma. Old Mistress had heard that he had to have opium smoke breathed into his face for relief but she pretended not to know.
Second Master had moved downstairs. Yindi was happy to have him out of the way. The world was suddenly wider. She enjoyed showing her brother's wife everything. Her bridal rosewood bed was as big as a room, with framed embroidered pictures of the four seasonal plants across the front tipping forward. There were built-in shelves for vases, clock, tea set and knickknacks. The tiers of tiny drawers inlaid with mother-of-pearl figures waving swords─the hundred and eight brigands─reminded her of all those little drawers at the pharmacy, especially the smell of one of the sweetmeats he kept there, plums cured by the sweet herb used to sweeten all medicines. Now she and her brother's wife talked all night and nibbled at the cakes and candies like two children. She had never dreamed she would ever be so close to her sister-in-law. She poured out all her complaints and often ended in tears. They felt safest whispering in bed inside the turquoise glass cloth curtains. Two little gold baskets with a touch of blue enamel stuffed with jasmine blossoms hung down from the top of the bed on thin gold chains. Every now and then came a whiff of the heavy cool fragrance. The little broom for sweeping the bed sheet had a crude tassel of red rags tied on its handle.
'Really no need to get up for days,' her sister-in-law said.
She got prickly heat from the yards of white cloth wound tightly around her to keep her figure. She had to sit up straight all day so as to bleed as much as possible and be rid of the unclean blood. She had a pleasant sense of anonymity as just a new mother. From the sunny street outside came the tinkle of ricksha bells, the plod-plod of horses' hoofs and faint rumble of carriage wheels. A man's high voice sang tunefully, 'Buy . . . washboards!' A rattle drum thumped idly, 'Dlung dung dung. Dlung dung dung.' It was the man who sold cosmetics, garters, spools of thread and loosely braided silk thread, announcing himself by shaking a rattle-drum, treating women as children.
The Full Month gifts for the baby were coming in, first sent to Old Mistress's room to be inspected, then brought to Yindi's room to be displayed on the dressing-table with the mirror covered by a piece of scarlet cloth. The new baby and its mother were both still weak and frail, their souls might wander in sleep and get trapped in the mirror. The gifts were gold and silver padlocks each with its own chain to be worn around the baby's neck and flat pendants of green jade shaped like padlocks. The baby might escape if not locked up and chained down to this life on earth. Some of the nearer relatives sent a red lacquered trayful of these trinkets.
Bingfa's wife got a little worried with so many valuables lying around. 'I hope the newcomer is reliable.' She was referring to the wet nurse in a less noticeable way if they should be overheard.
'She's all right,' Yindi said at once. 'Fresh from the country and frightened to death. The servants here haven't had time to teach her any tricks yet.'
The wet nurse was naturally more respectful than the others, not knowing anything about her. So she liked her, they never had any new faces in this house. Wet nurses were traditionally pampered. They got new clothes and gold jewellery and ate by themselves with special dishes to 'generate milk'. This one had enough to spare and milked herself into a cup for Old Mistress to take first thing every morning, the best tonic. Yindi had reason to be proud of her. Old Mistress could not abide cow's milk.
Big Mistress, Third Mistress and the old concubines came in to see the presents. Another time Third Mistress showed them to visiting cousins.
'Are these from Maternal Uncle?' somebody pointed to a set of loaded trays. The maternal uncle had to give a number of gold chains and padlocks, bangles, anklets, pendants, medallions for hats, embroidered suits with hats, cloaks and shoes to match and silk blankets for all seasons.
`No, those aren't here yet,' Third Mistress mumbled looking away as if embarrassed.
Yindi got really worried after they were gone. 'Not here yet,' she whispered to Bingfa's wife.
'If it's not here by tomorrow I'll go back again and see.' 'You heard those people.'
`People are envious.'
'Of course, some have been here for years without letting out a fart, not to say a son. And their husbands aren't coffin-stuffing either.'
Third Mistress had no children.
Bingfa came the next day instead of sending the presents. Male relatives were generally not taken upstairs but this was a special occasion.
`Master-in-law brought this,' said Old Cheng behind him carrying a heavy double-decked container of bamboo strips and wood trim painted a brownish-crimson.
'Ai-ya, what ever for?' Yindi spoke from her bed. 'Really, Brother shouldn't have gone to all this trouble.'
'Let's see what you have here.' His wife lifted the lid off. There was a big plate of steamed pork wrapped in lotus leaves. The lower deck had a glazed earthen pot with a whole hen and half a ham in soup.
'Old Cheng, give some of this to the wet nurse,' Yindi said.
Bingfa wore a formal black gauze jacket over his gown and sat waving a plain black fan. His wife showed him the baby.
'Everybody well at home?' she said. She waited until the amahs were gone before she asked, 'What about the Full Month gift? We're worried to death here.'
`That's why I'm desperate. I had to come and talk it over with Gu Nana.'
They spoke in whispers, a pause after every sentence. Sitting far apart they all bent forward to hear better, he with elbows planted on spread knees, the folded fan held in between. Nobody was fanning so as not to make the least noise.
'Sister-in-law knows I have no money,' Yindi said. 'She's seen for herself now.' But what did she see except the way they lived? Who would believe that all she got was her tiny monthly allowance, no more than a servant's pay?
'Gu Nana has no money in hand,' Bingfa's wife told him as if imparting fresh news.
'I've tried everywhere,' he said.
'Wong won't?' his wife mumbled gazing at him.
He gave his head a shake and batted his eyes once. 'Went to Fung Yungta yesterday.'
'Who?' said his wife.
'Got his name from Little Soochow.'
She knew her brother's difficulties, the shop was already mortgaged. What she could not understand was they had always made much of the Yaos being known everywhere, then how was it that a Yao's wife's family did not have enough credit to borrow on? Her brother may be a simple man, he was after all a native of Shanghai and had managed all these years. It must be that this time husband and wife had decided to make her pay, since she had to have it.
'Perhaps if Gu Nana talks it over with Gu Ta,' his wife said.
'Him!' she spat out the word.
`It's difficult too, Gu Ta lives downstairs just now,' Bingfa's wife said to him. 'Best if Gu Nana speaks to him in person.'
Yindi said nothing. Second Master did not like any mention of money. He was defensive about it, never having handled any. If pressed he would resort to officialese, that it does not matter what they give, it is the thought that counts.
'Maybe Gu Ta can draw from the book-keeper's office.' She had heard about Third Master haunting the place.
'It won't do, he's never done that before. Everybody will know what it's for.'
'Well . . . keep it from the top, not the bottom.'
'You can't keep it from top or bottom. And just when everybody is waiting to pick on me.'
'Gu Nana has pride,' Bingfa's wife explained to him.
'Maybe Old Mistress won't mind if it's not the complete set,' he said. 'It's not as if she doesn't know how things are with us.'
'Him!' she spat out the word.
`It's difficult too, Gu Ta lives downstairs just now,' Bingfa's wife said to him. 'Best if Gu Nana speaks to him in person.'
Yindi said nothing. Second Master did not like any mention of money. He was defensive about it, never having handled any. If pressed he would resort to officialese, that it does not matter what they give, it is the thought that counts.
'Maybe Gu Ta can draw from the book-keeper's office.' She had heard about Third Master haunting the place.
'It won't do, he's never done that before. Everybody will know what it's for.'
'Well . . . keep it from the top, not the bottom.'
'You can't keep it from top or bottom. And just when everybody is waiting to pick on me.'
'Gu Nana has pride,' Bingfa's wife explained to him.
'Maybe Old Mistress won't mind if it's not the complete set,' he said. 'It's not as if she doesn't know how things are with us.'
'Old Mistress won't say anything but the others will laugh till their teeth fall off.' In fact she herself had toyed with the idea of going to Old Mistress─an awkward thing to do. She would never be taken seriously again. Although well-disposed towards her just now, Old Mistress was fickle with her favours just so that nobody would be too sure of himself. Besides she was bound to take the official line. 'Tell your brother it doesn't matter. No sense in slapping your own face to make it swell and look fat.' And she would give a little money, not being familiar with current prices. When the present turned out to be cheap and incomplete she would put it to their lack of taste and not knowing how to do things properly. Same with the trousseau the Yaos had bought for her, only she did not know who got the blame then.
'Best to ask Gu Ta. After all it's all for Gu Nana's face.'
'It's not just my business.' She did not have to remind them of their stakes in it. They wouldn't be the first people to get into debt to keep up with relatives. The connection may well mean a future for all their sons, official posts even. She did not want to make promises where she wouldn't have much say. But she was furious with them for not having the pluck to see it through. Now was the time to make an effort, while she had just had a son and everybody had face. If they always wanted special consideration how would they expect to be taken as real relatives?
The wet nurse came in, having had her lunch. She took the baby to the other room for its feeding but the amahs kept going in and out. Her brother could not stay upstairs for long. 'I'd better be going,' he said.
They were leaving it to her.
'Take my pearl cap and pawn it,' she said not looking at him. 'I can't get it now, Sister-in-law will take it home tomorrow.'
His wife whispered in consternation, 'Gu Nana will have to wear it to go out.'
'If anything comes up I can always say I'm not feeling well and stay in bed.'
They were clearly reluctant. If she had to pawn something, why must it be a thing she had to have back before long?
'There's not a thing here that will not be missed. Old Mistress even asks why you haven't been wearing such and such a ring. At least the pearl cap is only for big occasions. The furs won't be needed until winter but they're bulky. How to get them out?'
His wife sighed. 'It's a lot of responsibility. What to do if we can't redeem it?'
'What to do? I'll hang myself, I've had enough of this anyway.' She burst into tears.
'Now, now, Gu Nana,' his wife begged.
'You people know what kind of a life I live here? What do you care?'
'Gu Nana, people will hear.'
'It was all for your sake. What did we get out of it?' he said.
'You're sorry now,' she said. 'Better to have sold her outright.'
He stood up. 'I'm going.'
'Go, and never come again. I'd rather you don't.' Every time she saw him it brought everything up all over again even when nothing was said. After all he was her brother, the only family she had.
'So I shame you by coming. Even emperors have relatives in straw sandals.'
His wife said, 'You two seldom get to see each other, can't you even keep peace when you do?'
'Whoever comes again is no man,' he said on his way out.
'Ai-ya, if you're going, go quick,' his wife said. 'All you do is make Gu Nana angry.'
That night when room doors were finally shut and latched Yindi took her jewellery case out, wrapped up her pearl cap and put it in the lower deck of the basket her brother had brought. His wife took it home the next morning. She came back in the afternoon and the present arrived two days later. It was taken upstairs to the anteroom. Old Mistress was not up yet. Big Mistress and Third Mistress were the first to see it. The green of the jade pieces was not deep enough. They weighed the gold padlocks and chains in their hands and examined the embroidered goods.
`Soochow embroidery, no less.'
`Hunan embroidery is better, more shadings, the flowers more alive.'
'This costs enough.'
'It doesn't hurt them to give the lamb back some of its own wool. Bringing food and all, who knows what's taken back in the basket?'
'Yes, I've noticed too, all this coming and going. One day we'll wake up in an empty house.'
The wet nurse had come as usual to milk herself in the anteroom so it would be still warm when Old Mistress got it. Waiting in the hallway she heard everything and later repeated it to Yindi and Bingfa's wife and made them very angry.
The day before the Full Month feast Third Mistress called in a woman to restring her pearl flower.
'She can work right here,' she told her amah, Old Li. `It won't wake up Third Master. If you don't talk. But stay around, you know what I mean?'
'I know. With all sorts of people going in and out these days, it's best to be careful.'
'She knows the pattern I want. Same as the one I saw on Young Mistress Hsu.'
The rough-work amah came in to empty the spittoon and sweep the floor as she did every morning after her lady had gone to Old Mistress. Old Li spread a little purple rug over the table where the jeweller was to work. She wrapped the pearl flower with its cotton-wool pads in a big silk handkerchief and placed it on the rug. She folded up clothes and tidied up after the mistress. The rough-work a mah bent down to straighten Third Master's heelless slippers which her broom had disturbed and got a scare when he parted the bed curtains yawning, feet groping for the slippers.
`Third Master is not going to sleep some more?' Old i asked in surprise.
'How can I with this racket going on?'
`I'll go and fetch hot water.' The rough-work amah quickly made off with the basin to be out of the way of his wrath.
He stood before the wardrobe mirror retying the wide grey-green belt of stiff webbing that tied under his shirt and hung down, the fringes almost brushing the knees. `Hurry up, get breakfast,' he said.
'What will Third Master have?' Old Li said.
`Go and see what there is. Hurry, I'm going out.'
Old Li called out for Juyi but the slave girl must have been having breakfast downstairs too. The others were either breakfasting or waiting on Third Mistress. She herself had to go down as fast as her age, bulk and bound feet would permit. He never seemed to remember that she was no ordinary amah but someone from his wife's family, practically his mother-in-law's representative. She was constantly vexed at her young lady's inability to stand up to him. She got his own bowl, filled it with rice gruel from the common pot and waited for the cook to arrange some cold dishes on a tray. She heard people shouting for Ahfu.
'How would Ahfu be here at this hour?' said somebody in the kitchen. Third Master's ricksha-puller only came on duty in the afternoon.
'How is Third Master so early today?' the rough-work amah waiting for hot water said to her at the stove. She just grunted. She did not want the servants of the other branches to hear about him rushing out at all hours, mad about some singsong girl.
'He's down,' now they were saying. 'Call a ricksha for Third Master.'
'Going out without breakfast, without even washing?' she could not help saying to the rough-work amah. It suddenly occurred to her that if he was gone there would be nobody in the room.
She puffed upstairs. The room was empty, so was the bright purple work rug on the table by the window. A thunder clap in her ears weakened her legs. She looked on the bureau and dressing-table, behind the bed curtains as if he might have gone back to bed, and in all the drawers in case she had put the pearl flower away after all. The rough-work amah brought up the hot water and helped her look, setting the kettle down on top of a spittoon.
'Strange,' she whispered, 'I came up right away, Third Master couldn't have been gone for more than a minute─how so bold?'
'Could it be Third Master took it?' said the rough-work amah.
'Hush. If these people hear you they'd say even your own people say that. They'd be bolder than ever.'
After searching all over she had to go and tell Third Mistress, first skulking at Old Mistress's door, peering around the curtain waiting for an opportunity to catch her eye. They came back together and turned the room upside-down looking. Finally Third Mistress sat down in the midst of the debris and cried.
'There's a ghost around!─in broad daylight,' Old Li said.
'I told you not to leave this room on any account.'
'Third Master wanted his breakfast in such a hurry. Old Chou had gone for hot water and there was nobody else around.
'How is it he went out so early, today of all days?'
'Third Master is like that. Probably afraid he won't get away otherwise, with the feast coming up and all.' Both fell silent for a moment .
'Miss, this has to be reported to the police. If we don't get to the bottom of this I'll never wash the mud off me, not if I jump into the Yellow River.'
'I'll have to tell Old Mistress first.'
'Ask Old Mistress to lock the front door and have the whole house searched from top to bottom. Nine out of ten it's still here.'
Their eyes met. 'They have a gall,' Third Mistress whispered between clenched teeth.
'Getting bolder and bolder.'
'It's that sister-in-law of hers.'
'Who else is there?'
'It's not the wet nurse. She's over there giving milk.'
'It's that sister-in-law.'
Third Mistress rushed back to Old Mistress's room.
'What's the matter?' Big Mistress whispered seeing the look on her face.
She did not say anything. So Big Mistress left the room on some excuse. The slave girls also slipped away one by one. She told Old Mistress when they were alone together. Old Mistress sat perched on the edge of the rosewood couch hunched up and frowning, her long pipe in one hand and a round fan in the other. She gave her head a slight shake at the talk of getting the police, batting her eyes at the same time and looking away, making it clear that it was out of the question.
Third Mistress started to weep again. 'Nothing of the sort has ever happened before. Old Li has been with my mother for thirty years and the others have been here as long. The slave girls we've watched them grow up. They'll all get a bad name if the matter is not cleared up. Old Li is in such a state she wants to hang herself.'
'It's up to you to reassure them and keep them quiet,' Old Mistress said. 'This is not a thing you can say of anybody, high or low. And what if there is real proof? The matter will really get out of hand then. If word gets out nobody will have face. Things are a small matter after all. Something lost, just call it a loss and let it go at that.'
Third Mistress still stood there crying.
'Now don't feel bad, just be more careful in future. In a big family like this with so many people around you just have to be careful of your things. Go and speak to your servants before they start talking wildly.' She rapped her pipe on the rosewood knocking off the ashes.
Third Mistress had to go back to her room and tell Old Li to send the jeweller away when she turned up, just say it did not need restringing. Instead Old Li whispered the whole story to her downstairs, growing more and more excited with the telling. After the woman was gone she started to yell around in the kitchen, 'This is too much, to get a tooth knocked off and have to swallow it. What about us servants? We're all under suspicion when anything gets lost. I'm supposed to look after my young lady's things, how am I going to face my mistress?' She was speaking of Third Mistress's mother. 'But who would have thought we'd fall into a den of thieves? One can be a thief forever but one can't be on guard against thieves forever. They got used to taking things from their own rooms, no wonder they've got bolder and bolder and started on other people. My young lady happens to be good-natured. Eating persimmons you pick the softest. I'm not to talk but what do I care? So long as you'd risk being cut into little pieces you can even drag the emperor off his horse.'
When Third Mistress got to hear of it she told Old Li, 'You're making things impossible for me. Haven't I got enough to bear as it is?'
Old Li said no more after this but the news was already out. Yindi wanted to go and have it out with Third
Mistress in front of Old Mistress at once. Bingfa's wife had to hold her back bodily.
'You'd put yourself in the wrong to begin with. They'd say you lower yourself to argue with servants, and make a scene in front of Old Mistress because of some servants' gossip. You'd play right into their hands. These people are always the worst. Their mistresses wouldn't dare say such things and Old Mistress would never listen. As long as Old Mistress knows.'
Yindi did not answer. The trouble was Old Mistress must also think the same.
She wept all night. The feast next day was difficult play-acting although she was not given any special attention, just one of the busy daughters-in-law. The baby appeared briefly carried by the wet nurse. Her brother dined with the men downstairs knowing nothing and sent word up to ask his wife to get ready to leave. His wife could not wait to go but she was a bit afraid to leave Yindi alone just now. She gave the wet nurse a special tip secretly asking her to keep watch at night. A good thing Second Master was moving back tomorrow. On her way down she was asked to take home a big barrel of watermelons and another of assorted fruits fresh from the family land. For the children, Old Mistress sent word through the amah. The men servants got them two extra rickshas to carry these.
Third Master had to be home for the feast. After the party his wife was in tears again telling him about the pearl flower; she had scarcely had an opportunity before this.
'The servants are not going to let it go at that,' she said. 'They're going to hire a round lighter. Old Li is going to pay half, the others pool together for the other half.'
He looked at her from under knitted brows. 'What a silly waste of money. These people. Their money doesn't come easy and they go and waste it like this.'
'It's their money. They just want to clear themselves.'
The round lighter cuts out a round piece of white paper, sprays it with a mouthful of water that he had made sacred by some ceremony and sticks it on the wall. He gets a little boy in the audience to stare at the paper. If he stares long enough he sees the image of the guilty person.
'I'm not going to have all this hocus-pocus in the house.'
`Oh, I suppose they'll do it in the kitchen after dinner. It won't interfere with anything. Old Mistress knew. She didn't say anything.'
While he had never believed these superstitions he felt uneasy. Though not much of a scholar he was familiar with the quotation from a famous Confucian with regard to the supernatural, 'Better to believe there is than to believe there is not.' It was only sensible to play safe. The next day when he was playing mahjong in a singsong house he asked Tien, one of the hangers-on, 'You know anything about this round light thing? Is there anything to it at all?'
Tien immediately cited a few cases in which people had turned to the round light as a last resort and found the thief although more often it did not help to know what he looked like when he came from outside.
'Is there any way to break the spell?'
Tien saw that he had got him frightened. He had guessed why he asked. Young men who did not have enough money to spend often stole things from home to pawn or sell. 'There is a way but I don't know if it works. Smear pig's blood on the face and the face won't appear.' Pig's blood is one of the filthy things used as antidotes for witchcraft. It seems that only filth can kill the mystery, the aura. The day that the round lighter was to come, he went and got a room in a small hotel where there was no danger of running into anybody he knew. He asked for a bowl of pig's blood. Without turning a hair the bellboy answered that this was not the hour for slaughtering pigs. The blood left over from this morning would have been sold out long ago. However a big tip worked wonders. The man returned with a bowl of blood but what was it really, he thought, and whose?
He asked for a mirror, locked the door and applied the thick liquid to his face generously. It smelled foul. He lay down but could not sleep, lying on his back careful not to rub against the pillow and spoil the crimson mask. As it dried it tightened and pulled at his skin. It was the busiest time of night at the hotel. Several mahjong parties were going on. Mahjong tiles being stirred for another game sounded like surf. Every now and then a tile was slapped on the table with its name barked out. In other rooms girls were singing bawdy songs, the mincing falsettos quite drowned by the accompanying Huns' fiddle. The window opened to an alley smelling of urine. He tried to keep it closed but it was too hot, he was afraid his perspiration would ruin the make-up.
A hawker went down the hotel corridor chanting, 'Duck gizzards! Ducks' ten odds and ends!'
'Buy white orchids!' a young girl peddled flowers from room to room. She tried his door, then banged on it. 'Want white orchids, Mister?'
These flower girls were not above stealing if you let them in and fooled around with them.
The noises subsided somewhat in the small hours. Some of the unwanted women still loitered in the hallway chatting and flirting with the bellboys putting off the beating that awaited them when they went home emptyhanded.
He had no intention of staying all night. Judging that the danger was well past he unlocked the door and called for a basin of hot water. Somebody down the hall was ordering two bowls of pork chop noodles and shuffling back to bed in slippers. After he washed the water was red. The room reeked of blood as if there had been a murder.
He brought a few bedbugs home with him. Third Mistress soon woke up scratching. She rang for Old Li to help her look in the bed. Old Li pulled the lamp cord to bring the light over and searched sleepy-eyed all over the blankets, turning back the soft Formosan mat of purple and yellow plaids.
'How did the round light go?' Third Mistress asked. 'Move over,' she told him.
'One thing about it, there's no trickery. He just picked a little boy out of the crowd, a child from across the street, eight years old, and told him to watch the paper on the wall.' Children are pure, so they have clean eyes able to see ghosts and spirits invisible to grown-ups. Virgin boys are specially pure.
'Did he see anything?'
'At first he couldn't. It took about an hour, then he said he saw a red-faced person.'
'Does it sound like anybody we know?'
'That's the funny thing. He said there were no eyes or nose, just a big red face.'
'Why, it's frightening,' Third Mistress said half laughing. 'What else did he see?'
'That's all, nothing else.'
'How do you mean red-faced? Just ruddy or really red, like the mask worn on stage?'
'Very red he said.'
'Well, the thief should be red in the face. Was it a man or woman?'
`He said he couldn't tell.'
'What's the matter with this boy? Is he near-sighted?'
Third Master suddenly said with a giggle, 'Maybe he's not so pure and his eyes are not so clean.'
'You!' she spat the word at him.
He was exhilarated by his narrow escape. A good thing he had taken precautions; he had felt such a fool going through all that.