Gold Mountain Blues - Ling Zhang [56]
Looking through the paper, he discovered it was all local gossip of this sort. There was very little about national politics. There was one small news item at the bottom of one page saying that Japanese “pirates” were defying the Imperial government in northeast coastal waters. General Li Hongzhang had reviewed the Beiyang fleet, and ordered that they should maintain calm and bide their time. Ah-Fat felt that nowadays the Peking of the Empress Dowager amounted to no more than a bit of windblown fluff. Even lowly Japanese pirates dared to lay their hands on it. And when news of these tumultuous events in the capital city of China finally arrived in South China, they merited no more than a brief exclamatory note following the advertising and tidbits on sing-song girls. He put down the paper, lost in thought, then quoted bitterly to himself two lines from the ancient poet Du Mu: “Singing girls care nothing if national calamity looms/As, on the far bank, they sing the lament Courtyard Blooms.”
He suddenly thought of his childhood tutor Mr. Auyung, who would get into passionate arguments about national affairs, thumping the table until his writing brush jumped. He was never afraid to speak his mind. After Ah-Fat went to Gold Mountain, he kept up a correspondence with Mr. Auyung, and learned about his old teacher’s wanderings around China and beyond—from Canton to Shanghai, and south to Annam. Quite recently he had come home and reopened his tutor school in the town. In one of Ah-Fat’s twenty trunks there was a gift for Mr. Auyung—a map of the world. Mr. Auyung took a lively interest in Western sciences. Once he had recovered from the journey, he would go and pay his respects to Mr. Auyung.
He got up from the chair and went into the reception room.
The room was darker than the courtyard outside and it took a few moments for Ah-Fat’s eyes to become accustomed to the gloom.
There was a young woman in the room. She was dressed in a long blue cotton gown with piping round the edges, and stood on a stool hanging a picture. Her hair was braided into a long, thick plait fastened with a red felt flower. She was holding a scroll painting depicting bright green bamboos tipped with fresh shoots, and guava trees. The reds, greens and blues were vivid and festive without being vulgar. The calligraphy on the painting read “What joy that the guava is about to set seed and the bamboo to give birth to grandchildren!”
After she had finished hanging the painting, she stepped down from the stool and took a few steps back to see if she had hung it straight. In her haste, she trod on the hem of Ah-Fat’s gown, almost falling over. She turned and then leapt back as if she had seen a ghost. Her eyes grew round as saucers and she clasped her hands over her heart.
It was the scar which had startled her, Ah-Fat knew. Over the years, far from fading, it had grown more prominent and more twisted. Now it looked rather like a centipede. Ah-Fat put his hands over his face and laughed. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I’m not a ghost. Look at my shadow. Ghosts don’t have shadows, do they? I’m Fong Ah-Fat.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed. She relaxed her hands and rubbed them against the front of her gown. “So you’re young Master Fong! How did you get here so quickly? The steamship company said you wouldn’t be arriving until next market day. So your mum and your uncle and the family have all gone to the Tam Kung Temple in town to light incense and pray you have a safe trip.” Ah-Fat guessed the woman must be a servant. “Why didn’t you go along with the mistress?” he asked. “The mistress wanted me to stay and get all the calligraphy and painting scrolls properly hung so they’d be ready when you arrived, but you got here before I’d finished.”
“Who wrote the couplets?” asked Ah-Fat. “He got it wrong. I’m obviously not a newcomer, I’ve just been away a long time.” She gave a slight smile. “The newcomer is not you, it refers to your … your … intended.” And two vivid spots, as bright as the red in the painting, rose up her cheeks. It suddenly dawned on Ah-Fat that