A Concubine for the Family: A Family Saga in China (24 page)

“Oh Father, you brought my pets! Look, they didn’t grow much during the last months! Peony must have neglected them!” Silver Bell rushed the silkworm basket to the library and cleared out the rice paper littered with the worms’ droppings. She lined the basket with fresh paper and replaced the worms. She then picked up a few and held them against the window light. The worms were now snowy white, but not translucent and pink, which meant they were not ready to make cocoons.

“I don’t think Peony fed them regularly. Look how they weave their heads back and forth looking for leaves!” Silver Bell quickly spread out the fresh supply her father brought. A soft crunching sound sifted through the human voices.

“My lord, what was the state of our home when you left?” Purple Jade asked. In the cramped disorder of her quarters, she yearned for the serenity of her Hangzhou home.

“Everything is under lock and seal at home, but already we hear the distant rumble of guns,” answered Righteous Virtue. “There is sad news from the Northern Village. Hoping for leniency, the villagers formed a welcoming party for the East Ocean Devils. They waved the Japanese white flag and treated the soldiers to wine and meat. But the soldiers demanded women, and the people didn’t have enough time to hide.” He looked at his family, uncertain if he should continue.

“Tell us all,” his wife said. “It is worse to leave things to the imagination. We hear the guns and wait in apprehension.”

“You can hardly imagine such horror — rape and rampage all over. Our national army lacks the firepower to protect us, but the peasants are resisting valiantly.
Hai
, there is such suffering and loss.” He sighed, looking at the worried faces of the women dear to him. “We’re safe in the French concession. Technically, this is French territory, so the East Ocean Devils would not dare to commit atrocities here. We did right in coming here.”

“Our home is in the hands of fate now,” Comely Brook said as she served tea. “I’ve moved all your personal belongings to your room upstairs, my lord.” Household chores occupied her mind.

“I’ve learned to handle the stairs slowly, with no unnecessary trips,” said Purple Jade. “Brook-
mei
and I share a room now and the girls and Iris share the third bedroom.”

Purple Jade dutifully gave a positive picture of their lives in this small house. As the virtuous wife, she would neither burden her husband with her feeling of stifling confinement, nor whine about the thin walls and her negligent daughters who sometimes talked too loudly in their room. Many days and nights she had sat up longing for the scent of bamboo, cherry blossoms and cedar. On moonlit nights, she remembered the hourly change of shadows playing outside her windows. She yearned for an accounting. Did they buy the spring wheat to brew the special liquor? Did the cook smoke the hams? Did they catch enough fish to salt?

With an impatient flourish of her hand, she smoothed the side of her hair. “As you must have heard, Iris is working as a receptionist in our factory, and the girls are doing well in the Chinese-Western school.”

“The McTyeire School is very hard, so I’ve been tutoring Silver Bell in English,” Golden Bell added.

“Is she a good student?” her father asked.

“Oh Father, I can sing all the songs from the movies!” Silver Bell ran to the piano. “Uncle Dragon is so much fun! I can’t read the music he bought me, but I can always pick out the tune. I’ve been practicing every day! Let me sing for you:

‘
Come, come, I love you only, my heart is true
. . .’”

Her father laughed. “Golden Bell, does she know what she’s singing?”

“I’m not sure,” answered Golden Bell mystified. “She is always more interested in the music.”

“Hush, Silver Bell, your father needs to rest. What are you singing anyway?” asked Purple Jade.

“Oh, it’s about a calm, calm peaceful evening.” Golden Bell improvised, giving her father a conspiratorial look.

“My lord, the girls have gone to so many movies! I think it is shameless and
sour meat
to watch the foreign devils hug each other and dance with hardly any clothes on. But Dragon loves to indulge the girls, and there is so little for them to do in this small house.”

“It is amazing how Silver Bell can pick out the melody with her right hand and improvise with the left. Has she had lessons?”

“No,” answered his wife. “Should I inquire about getting a teacher for her?”

“No, it doesn’t seem necessary. Jade, you’ve managed well. The girls are thriving here, in spite of the chaos outside.” Righteous Virtue smiled and sipped his tea. He was feeling at home already.

His wife nodded. “I do hope the silkworms will remind them of home and who we are.”

“Oh thank you, Father, for bringing the worms. I do miss climbing the mulberry tree. But Father, I simply adore Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddy!” gushed Silver Bell.

“My favorite is Loretta Young!” Golden Bell said. She brought her father a scrapbook of movie-star photos and playbills.

“
Lo-eh-lee-tai-Yah!
” Purple Jade said, trying to pronounce Loretta Young’s name.

Righteous Virtue smiled and the girls laughed.

Golden Bell called out: “That is ‘Sixth Moon’s Sun’! Mother, your Chinese translation from English sound is so funny!”

“Really, I don’t see what’s the use of bothering. They all look the same: such big eyes, noses, and mouths. It is most uncouth to have so many pictures taken showing all those teeth!” Purple Jade grinned in mock horror.

Everyone broke up laughing again. “Oh Mother, you’ll have to go to the movies more often!”

“Now that you’re here, my lord, we should hire a cook. So far Winter Plum has been a ‘one foot kick’: cooking, cleaning, and washing. Perhaps we should bring Peony here to help. It is safer for her here as well. Brook-
mei
is working too hard —”

A loud banging at the door interrupted her. Glorious Dragon rushed in with a large package under his arm.

“I’m in danger!” He huffed. “Girls, go into the library. Sing as loudly as you can and lock the door. Jade, Virtue, don’t let anyone get in there! I have no time to explain.” He ran past them into the servants’ quarters.

Winter Plum ran in shouting: “There are soldiers in the front and back streets everywhere. Some are at the front door now!”

“Oh my lord, the East Ocean Devils have come! Girls, go! Do as your uncle said.” Purple Jade herded her daughters into the library. The girls locked the door. Silver Bell banged on the piano and sang as loudly as she could:

“
Come, come, I love you only
. . .”

Righteous Virtue went to the window to look. He mumbled: “No, they can’t be the East Ocean soldiers. They’re wearing the uniforms from our warehouse.” He opened the door.

“I am Huang Righteous Virtue of the Hangzhou legislative council. Why are you here?”

“We have General Chin’s warrant to arrest Chou Glorious Dragon. He has committed acts of high treason! We’ve seen him enter the house!”

Righteous Virtue could not utter one word of protest as the soldiers brushed past him and strutted into the house. Purple Jade and Comely Brook stood guard in front of the library door, stretching out their arms to block the soldiers. Inside, Silver Bell finished one song: “
Oh come, he— ro mine.
” Then she proceeded to a new tune: “
Give me some men, who are stout-hearted men
. . .”

The soldiers faced the two women immediately. “Open the door; we have orders to search the house!”

“Oh spare them, they’re my only daughters!” Purple Jade began to wail. “Take me, take me, I am an old woman.”

“Take me!” Comely Brook threw herself at the captain. “I’m a pregnant woman. Your ancestors will curse you, you beasts!”

Taken aback by the hysterical women, the soldiers turned to Righteous Virtue. “Please calm the women! We’re not the East Ocean Devils. We won’t harm your daughters.”

The women cried and wailed, releasing weeks of tension and fear. Righteous Virtue attempted to calm them. When they were finally led away, the soldiers found the library door locked from the inside. The girls continued to sing. They ignored the knocking and commands to open the door.

The soldiers bunched together and rushed the door with their shoulders. Purple Jade and Comely Brook screamed as the frightened girls banged the piano in a frenzy, though no more sounds came from their mouths.

The door caved in with a loud crash as the soldiers fell into the library. They found the two trembling girls huddled by the piano, a basket of silkworms on the table, books and movie star pictures by the chairs, and no place anyone could hide.

“Where is Chou Glorious Dragon?” the captain demanded.

Everyone looked on with terror-filled eyes, but no one answered. The captain spat in disgust and ran out of the room. A quick search was made of the rest of the house. In the end, the captain said: “The spy was mistaken. We must have entered the wrong house. Our deepest apology.” The soldiers bowed as they left the house.

While the house was in turmoil, a soldier had slipped out the back door. He had helped the guards on the back street disperse the curious throng that had gathered. When Glorious Dragon reached the end of the street, he melted into the crowd, hailed a pedicab, and took off his uniform. Soon, he arrived at the river and disappeared.

“I
T SEEMS I’VE arrived just in time. I’ll have to manage the factory somehow without Dragon,” Righteous Virtue said, wiping his damp brow. “It must be General Chin’s order to arrest him.”

The women were shamefaced at the spectacle they had caused. Still shaken by the ordeal, Purple Jade mumbled: “These stories of rape and disaster must have unnerved me. I didn’t even notice that the soldiers spoke Mandarin with a southern accent.”

“My poor country.” Righteous Virtue avoided looking at the embarrassed women. “The East Ocean Devils are devastating our land, while our best soldiers are settling quarrels between jealous lovers!”

“Does anyone know where Uncle Dragon is?” Golden Bell asked.

“It is best not to know,” her father answered. “In fact, I’d better put up a reward by the East Asian Uniform for any information leading to our manager’s arrest!”

“Dragon is so clever.” Purple Jade grimaced. “He told us to do just the right thing.”

“I think the bundle under his arm must have been a uniform from our factory,” Comely Brook added.

“That is such a clever way to escape.” Golden Bell giggled.

“I wonder where he is?” Purple Jade looked from face to face, sharing the bewilderment.

While the Japanese laid siege to the harbor, refugees from surrounding towns and villages poured into Shanghai, clogging the streets of the foreign concessions. As bombs and guns exploded, a parade of men, women and children plodded the tree-lined streets, their possessions strapped to their backs. Men were haltered to wooden carts, their veins bulging from their necks. They strained under their burdens of tables and chairs and looked for a safe location to set up camp. Other family members pushed from behind, repelling the grasping hands of the desperate.

People with untreated wounds and lurid deformities lay everywhere — under trees, against buildings. Some sat in a stupor, catatonic from shock, trodden by crowds, harassed by flies. The blind stared into passing faces, holding out broken bowls, moaning for alms. Men with missing limbs told tales of horror: the bombs that fell from the sky maimed and mutilated with a swiftness they could not comprehend. The elusive enemy stayed miles away, killing with impunity, sitting in the gun turrets of battleships or airplanes. The stench of unwashed bodies, excrement, oozing wounds, blood and saliva permeated sidewalks. The more robust homeless swarmed like buzzards, harassing those who looked more prosperous. Hungry children snatched whatever edibles they could pry loose from clutching hands. Many uprooted plants and others gnawed on tree bark.

Aggressive hustlers set upon those in motorcars. They threw themselves into the car’s way, spitting and lunging at the vehicles. Ah Lee carried a short whip to deter the troublemakers. His invectives and the lashings of his whip chilled Purple Jade. The dispossessed mobs filled her with both pity and repugnance. Totally unprepared for the scenes of desperation she saw around her, she felt the anger and frustration of helplessness. Bereft of her old home, she shared in the pathos of this wartime calamity. Yet she was thankful for the chauffeur’s callousness: Righteous Virtue must leave for work every day; food must be purchased for the family.

The English officers sat in their armored cars to keep order. Sikh noncommissioned officers brandished rifles. The wretched Chinese vagabonds gawked at the maroon-colored turbans and shrank away. The French flourished their tricolor all over their concession, informing one and all that this was French territory. The muscle men of the Chinese underworld repelled the mobs. Thereafter, Purple Jade forbade any unnecessary trips by any member of the family. They became virtual prisoners in their own home.

While her daughters attended the McTyeire School, Purple Jade spent many hours teaching Comely Brook the Tang Poems. In spite of herself, Purple Jade became aware that she was often annoyed when Comely Brook did not know her lesson perfectly. One day, the lesson seemed to be more tortuous than usual.