Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [77]
He replaced the box carefully in the straw pannier and Francie noticed he was no longer carrying the red bundle.
“Do not worry,” he said, reading her mind. “I went to the most Honorable Chinese Elder. I showed him my twelve thousand dollars and told him I wanted to become a merchant, importing goods from China. He saw that the opportunity was right and agreed to lend me twelve thousand more dollars from the credit. The numbers are auspicious, two pairs of double sixes. Twenty-four thousand dollars in all.” She smiled at him, thrilled, and Lai Tsin added, “I am not yet a rich man because the money is borrowed. And I am not yet a successful man because my stake was not earned and came from a game of chance. But because of your wisdom, Francie, today I became a man of respect.”
His almond eyes were gentle as he looked at her. He said, “When I met you I recognized you. You were like the lost soul I had once been. Now we are turning fate around into fortune. From today I am no longer Lai Tsin, the peasant and the gambler. I am Lai Tsin, the merchant.”
Lai Tsin immediately set about his work. He found out what ships were coming in from the Orient, telegraphing his orders to them in Seattle and New York and Los Angeles. He rented a small warehouse facing the harbor, which had barely been touched by the earthquake, to store his goods in when they arrived and he hung a mirror over its door to drive away the bad spirits and protect the good fung-shui, the good spirit of the place. He leased a small plot of land in Chinatown, just a tiny corner at the end of an alley where two roads met, but he knew that the two roads were favorable to his business because many people would walk by his store. Within a couple of weeks a makeshift wooden store was erected on it and the name, FAVORABLE TRADING COMPANY, was painted in black Chinese letters over the door. Long red banners printed with encouraging Chinese slogans, “Long Life,” “Success,” “Happiness” and “Filial Piety,” were stuck on the windows and a sign calling for “The Five Blessings” to fall on it was stuck over the door. The Five Blessings were a long life, riches, a serene mind, a healthy body, and love of virtue.
A young man was installed to serve the customers and the Chinese population flocked to buy Lai Tsin’s spices and dried mushrooms, preserved duck and ginger and sesame oil. They bought charcoal for their stoves and new stoves to put the charcoal in, they bought cooking pots to put on the stove and new rice bowls to serve the food in. Within weeks he was forced to expand his shop and as life drifted back to normal his customers returned to buy new bedmats, ricepaper screens, tea kettles, padded quilts, and wooden-soled shoes.
In two months a second store was opened and another warehouse rented where people could buy larger goods: tables and cabinets and sewing machines and chairs. There were racks of embroidered silk jackets and black cotton coolie smocks and trousers—anything and everything could be bought from Lai Tsin’s Favorable Trading Company.
Annie and Francie moved into a small, hastily refurbished apartment on Kearny Street and Lai Tsin took a room next door. Francie began to teach Little Son to speak English and she was also helping Lai Tsin with his reading and writing. She was thin and pale and always tired and Lai Tsin knew she was in despair, yet he could not allow her to lose face by mentioning her problem first. He must wait for her to tell him.
They heard that the city’s records had all been burned and thousands of Chinese rushed to claim they were American by birth. Lai Tsin went with