Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [168]
When they reached Nanking he took her ashore and they walked together along the same streets he had once run through with his young sister, fleeing from the flesh-peddler. Francie heard the depths of grief in his voice as he spoke of Mayling and she guessed each time he took the journey he still hoped he might find her, even though he knew in his heart it was impossible.
The broad river flowed on, sometimes between high banks ten times as tall as their little ship, and sometimes so flat that only the reeds showed where the river ended and the land began. As they approached the little jetty nearest his village, Lai Tsin changed into his embroidered blue robes and put on his hat with the button of rare white jade. The beautiful white ship edged its way to the rickety wooden jetty and the smart sailors leapt to tie her up.
A crowd gathered as the gangplank was lowered and Lai Tsin and Francie stepped on shore. Astonished, they stared at the strange barbarian woman with the pale hair and eyes of piercing blue fire, turning away their heads in fear because they had never seen a gwailo woman before. Many of them kowtowed before such important personages, as they walked amongst them and Lai Tsin gave them coins from his purse. And then with Francie by his side, he set off on the long, familiar walk to his village.
On the way he pointed out all the things he had mentioned when he told her his story the night Ollie was born: the duck pond glowering like a sheet of steel under the gray skies and the sleepy white ducks, the endless gray-green rice fields and the children working in them, the desolate fung-shui grove where the body of Little Chen, with his merry eyes and his face as round and flat as a pancake, was left in a wicker basket for the birds and the dogs to take, and in the distance, glowing like an icon on the hill, the vermillion ancestral hall of Lilin.
The yellow-clay walls circling the village were now only a pile of stones and rubble and many of the tumbledown dwellings stood empty. Only Elder Brother’s house had strong rice paper in its small windows and a charcoal brazier sending smoke into the cold air. Elder Brother’s young wife had quickly swept the outside when she glimpsed them from a distance and now she lurked timidly behind her husband in the doorway, for the Mandarin never set foot over their threshold. Her eyes grew wide with astonishment as she saw the barbarian woman walking at the Mandarin’s side and Elder Brother shouted an oath. “Will the mui-tsai’s son never cease to bring shame on the name of Ke Chungfen, bringing a gwailo to his family home.” But he said it softly enough that Lai Tsin would not hear and cease paying him the money that filled his rice bowl each night and replenished his flask with rice wine more frequently than it should.
His young wife ran from behind him and knelt before Lai Tsin and the barbarian woman. She touched her forehead to the ground and said, “Welcome, welcome Honorable Younger Brother Ke Lai Tsin, and welcome his Honorable Guest.”
Lai Tsin smiled gently at her, and taking her hand he helped her to her feet, thanking her for her kind welcome. Elder Brother bowed stiffly, trying his best not to look at the barbarian woman, yet his eyes were drawn to her. He had never before in his whole life seen a gwailo woman and he thought she must be the ugliest creature on earth, with eyes of such terrifying blueness they must be a devil’s and hair so pale she must surely be a hundred years old.
“Welcome, Younger Brother,” he said, smiling at Lai Tsin and ignoring Francie. “We have expected your visit and you will see that the ancestral hall of Lilin is swept and kept clean. The gilding was worn away by the big winds of the winter and I was forced to spend money to replace it. Each week Number One wife goes to pay her respects to your ancestors and you will find everything as you would wish it.”
“Thank you for your report, Elder Brother,” Lai Tsin replied. He turned to Francie and said in English, “This is the second son of Ke Chungfen by his Number One wife. The