LOVE IN A FALLEN CITY

SHANGHAI'S clocks were set an hour ahead so the city could "save daylight," but the Bai family said: "We go by the old clock." Ten o'clock to them was eleven to everyone else. Their singing was behind the beat; they couldn't keep up with the huqin of life.
When the huqin wails on a night of ten thousand lamps, the bow slides back and forth, drawing forth a tale too desolate for words—oh! why go into it? The tale of the huqin should be performed by a radiant entertainer, two long streaks of rouge pointing to her exquisite nose as she sings, as she smiles, cover­ing her mouth with her sleeve ... but here it was just Fourth Master Bai sunk in darkness, sitting alone on a ramshackle balcony and playing the huqin.
As he was playing, the doorbell rang downstairs. For the Bai household, this was most unusual; people didn't pay social calls after dark, not in the old etiquette. If a visitor came at night or a telegram arrived without warning, either it meant that some event of huge import had transpired or, most probably, some­one had died.
Fourth Master sat still and listened, but since Third Master, Third Mistress, and Fourth Mistress were shouting all at once as they came up the stairs, he couldn't understand what they were saying. Sitting in the room behind the balcony were Sixth Young Lady, Seventh Young Lady, and Eighth Young Lady, along with the Third and Fourth Masters' children, all growing increas­ingly anxious. From where Fourth Master sat on the darkened alcony, he could see everything in the well-lit 10om. So when the door opened, there was Third Master in his undershirt and shorts, standing on the raised doorsill with his legs stuck out wide, reaching behind his thighs to slap at the mosquitoes, and calling out to Fourth Master: "Hey, Old. Four, guess what? That fellow that Sixth Sister left, well, it seems he's caught pneumo­nia and died!"
Fourth Master put down the huqin and walked into the room. "Who brought the news?" he asked.
"Mrs. Xu," said. Third Master. Then he turned to shoo away his wife with his fan. "Don't tag along like this just to gawk at things! Isn't Mrs. Xu still downstairs? She's a big lady, doesn't like climbing stairs-why aren't you looking after her?"
Third Mistress left and Fourth Master mulled things over. "Isn't Mrs. Xu a relative of the deceased?"
"Indeed," said Third. Master. "It looks like their family has specially asked her to bring us the news, and that means some­thing, of course."
"They don't want Sixth. Sister to return and go into mourn­ing, do they?"
Third Master scratched his scalp with the handle of the fan. "Well, according to the rules, it would only be right ..."
They both looked over at their Sixth Sister. Bai Liusu sat in the corner of the room calmly embroidering a slipper; her brothers, it seems, had been so intent on their conversation that they hadn't given her a chance to speak. Now she simply said, "Go and be his widow, after we've divorced? People will laugh till their teeth fall out!" She went on sewing her slipper, apparently unperturbed, but her palms were clammy and her needle stuck-she couldn't draw it through anymore.
"Sixth Sister, that's no way to talk," said Third Master. "He didn't do right by you back then, we all know that. But now he's dead-you're not going to hold a grudge, are you? Those two concubines that he left behind, they won't go into widowhood. If you go back now, all serious and proper, to lead the mourning for him, who's going to dare to laugh? It's true you didn't have any children, but he has lots of nephews, and you can pick one of them to continue the line. There isn't a lot of property left, but they're a big clan; even if they only make you the keeper of his shrine, they're not going to let a mother and child starve."
Bai Liusu laughed sarcastically. "Third. Brother has certainly planned out everything," she said, "but unfortunately it's a bit late. The divorce went through some seven or eight years ago. Are you saying that those legal proceedings were empty non­sense? You can't fool around with the law!"
"Don't you try to scare us with the law," Third Master warned. "The law is one thing today and another tomorrow. What I'm talking about is the law of family relations, and that never changes! As long as you live you belong to his family, and after you die your ghost will belong to them too! The tree may be a thousand feet tall, but the leaves fall back to the roots."
Liusu stood up. "Why didn't you say all this back then?"
"I was afraid you'd be upset and think that we weren't will­ing to take you in."
"Oh? But now you're not afraid of upsetting me? Now that you've spent all my money, you're not afraid of upsetting me?"
"I spent your money?" Third Master demanded, pressing his face close to hers. "I spent your few paltry coins? You live in our house, and everything you eat and drink comes out of our pockets. Sure, in the past, it was no problem. One more per­son, two more chopsticks, that's all. But these days? Well, just go and find out for yourself—what does rice cost now? I didn't mention money, but you had to bring it up!"
Fourth Mistress, who was standing behind Third Master, laughed. "They say you shouldn't talk about money with your own flesh and blood. Once you start the money talk, there's all too much to say! I've been telling Fourth Master, telling him for a long time now: 'Old Four, you'd better warn Third Master. When you two buy gold, or buy stocks, don't use Sixth Sister's money. It will bring you bad luck! As soon as she got married, her husband spent all his family's money. Then she came back here, and now her family, as everyone can see, is going bank­rupt. A real bad-luck comet, that one!'"
Third Master said, "Fourth Mistress is right. If we hadn't let her into those stock deals, we never would have lost all our property!"
Liusu shook with fury; her lower jaw quivered so hard that it seemed ready to drop off. She clamped the half-embroidered slipper to it.
Third Master continued: "I remember how you came home crying, making all that fuss about getting a divorce. Well, I'm a man with a heart, and when I saw that he'd beaten you up like that, I couldn't bear it, so I struck my chest and said, All right! I, the third son of the Bai family, may be poor, but my home shall not lack my sister's bowl of rice.' Still, my thinking was: `Oh, you young married folk what hot tempers you've got! It's never so serious that, after a few years back with your parents, you won't up and change your mind one day, and be perfectly ready to go back.' If I'd known that you two really wanted to break it off, do you think. I would have helped you get a divorce? Breaking up other peoples' marriages means there won't be any sons or grandsons. I, the third son of the Bai family, am a man with sons, and I fully expect their support in my old age."
Liusu had now reached the height of fury, but she simply laughed. "Yes, yes, everything is my fault. You're poor? It's be­cause I've eaten you out of house and home. You've lost your capital? It must be that I've led you on. Your sons die? I've done it to you, I've ruined your fate."
At this, Fourth Mistress grabbed her son's collar and rammed his head into Liusu, shouting, "Cursing the children now! After what you've said, if my son dies, I'll come looking for you!"
Liusu quickly dodged out of the way, then clasped Fourth Master and said, "Fourth Brother, look, just look, and be fair about it!"
Fourth Master said, "Now don't get so excited. If you have something to say, then say it, and we'll take our time and con­sider the whole situation carefully. Third Brother is only trying to help you ..." Liusu angrily let go of him and headed straight for the inner bedroom.