“What invitations? Oh, yes. I posted them.” I had completely forgotten about them.
“Then I don’t understand. The concubines’ families said they didn’t receive them. I’d rather they not come, such pests as they are, but it seems not a single relative has an invitation. It has been more than six months. They should have received them by now.”
“It’s the Japanese. They suspended the mail.” Sinmay had entered the room.
“What are we going to do, husband?”
“Send another batch.” He stopped beside me and sniffed. “Were you smoking?”
“What? No. I went to see Emily. She was smoking.”
He frowned. “Why did you go see her? Leave her alone.”
“Will you order your factory to print new invitations, husband?” Peiyu lifted the satiated baby off her chest; her previously perfect, giant breast had become a distant memory.
“After I pay the workers’ wages.” Then he went to my Nash and pulled up his long robe to get in. His own car had run out of gasoline, so he needed to borrow mine, he said.
“The wedding is coming up in two months, husband!”
“It looks like we need to postpone it,” I said, and hurried to my room.
32
ERNEST
Two weeks later, Ernest was walking down the sidewalk at the waterfront when he heard the drone of a plane overhead. It was a Japanese fighter with the red rising sun logo. The aircraft turned above the river and circled over the majestic Shanghai Club building with its twin Baroque-style domes, where the municipal council members and other powerful businessmen held their meetings. Before he figured out what was going on, the streets around him seemed to convulse. The cars swerved on the street, horns blasting; people ran amok, screaming.
In front of the building, a group of Japanese soldiers were shouting, their bayonets pointed at several policemen kneeling on the pavement. Jyo was among them, his arms behind his back in surrender. From the building stomped more Japanese soldiers accompanying dozens of businessmen in suits. Ernest spotted Sir Sassoon, his walking stick stabbing the ground, hobbling at such a fast pace that he almost tripped.
Ernest’s heart chilled. The Shanghai Municipal Council functioned as an administrative government, rectified laws, drafted trading permits, and even issued identity cards to refugees like him. Now all the British and American members were being driven out at gunpoint.
Later that evening, the bar boiled with men’s curses. Sassoon slumped at a table, surrounded by his bodyguards and his cousins who managed the hotel. His face livid under the light, Sassoon gulped down a drink and smashed the empty glass on the ground. He rarely left his hotel, only going to the Shanghai Club for meetings; now he was kicked out.
“The Japanese cut off the legs of the pool tables in the club because they were too tall,” someone said.
“The Japanese have organized their own police,” someone else said.
“They’re asking for war,” another said.
All quieted, their heads down.
Ernest looked at one wary face after another. Sassoon’s plan to protect the Settlement had failed, their Seaforth Highlanders had left Shanghai, and Britain was fighting for its life in Europe. All Britons in the Settlement were on their own.
The next day, the bar was unusually quiet. Only three customers came, eating peanuts and drinking red martinis. Colonel William Ashurst arrived late, ate his favorite spaghetti, and left in a hurry. Ernest hoped quiet evenings like this wouldn’t become a pattern. If no one came to the bar, then there was no need for a pianist.
When he left the bar after midnight, Ernest put his Leica around his neck and went to the pier where the Japanese cruiser was docked. Through the lens of his camera, he could see the marines patrolling on the deck. At dawn, just after the bell on the Customs House struck five, a motorboat, loaded with German beer and boxes of frozen steak, reached the cruiser.
He pressed his camera shutter.
33
AIYI
By the light through the window, I wiped off the powder and lipstick and took off the pearl hairpin, the gold necklace, and the gold leaf earrings. I stared at myself in the mirror. I rarely frowned to keep crow’s feet from creeping up around my eyes, never did laundry or scaled fish to avoid roughening my hands, and only drank warm rice milk to keep my skin free of black spots. For I had learned, even though I had the business acumen that Sassoon praised, my looks were valued most by my customers.
I took off the skintight dress and stood in front of the mirror. My figure was lean, lithe; my waist was slim; and my breasts were small but pointed. My body was not plump and voluptuous like Emily’s, my breasts not dramatic like Peiyu’s, but I was youthful and beautiful.