Chapter 64 The Trials of Luk Yee
Luk Yee turned quickly when Ming-tsu at last opened the door. "Forgive me,
but may I come in for a moment? I am hoping that you can help me."
Ming-tsu gave her young guest the warm seductive smile she had used on a
thousand customers at her club and gestured for Luk Yee to enter her house.
Looking furtively over his shoulder at the people in the street, Luk Yee
ducked inside the doorway and closed it softly behind him. When he turned to
face Ming-tsu he drew in his breath suddenly as he realized that she was
somewhat carelessly dressed. Her dark green dressing gown was belted casually
at her waist; beneath it, her long lithe legs peeked out through the folds of
the gown. Above the waist, the negligee descended from her rounded shoulders in
a deep V. In the middle of the V Ming-tsu's breasts, their smooth honey-gold
upper slopes eye-catchingly bare, pressed proudly against the shimmering black
silk which fought to contain them.
As Luk Yee stood there, breathing heavily from his long walk, the strange
events of the prior evening raced through his mind...
********
The past twenty-four hours had been even more difficult for Luk Yee than
they had been for Ming-tsu. He had fled the neighborhood when the Scorpions had
come for him, {Chapter 44} succeeding in losing himself among the throngs in
the Shanghai streets.
But no sooner had he reached relative safety in the anonymity of the
crowded market district than he began to berate himself for fleeing. His
initial reaction to the advent of the Scorpions had been that they were not
likely to have any interest in Qieu. They would ask her a few questions,
perhaps, but then they would leave.
But now, as he wandered aimlessly through the narrow, bustiling streets,
dark doubts gnawed at him. What if they did not?
Luk Yee had heard whispered rumors of the outrages the Black Scorpions had
committed on young women. The Chans were clever -- many of their victims had
either been shamed or terrorized into silence or had disappeared altogether.
Some into local opium dens that offered the added enticement of female flesh,
some into sailors' brothels, and some unfortunate young women had found
themselves in faraway slave markets, or perhaps, in a few cases, in the next
world. No one could know the true extent of the Scorpions' power, the true
depth of their depravity.
Luk Yee realized regretfully that no matter how troubling his thoughts, it
would be suicide for him to try to return to his own neighborhood at this time.
The Scorpions would certainly be watching his house. But, desperate for news of
his wife, Luk walked up and down the crowded market streets, past the countless
stalls of greengrocers, flower-sellers, butchers, fishmongers and the like,
hoping to encounter a familiar face from his own quarter of the city.
Just before darkness descended, as if in answer to an unspoken prayer, he
spied the familiar stout figure of Mrs Fong, the gossipy baker's wife, who lived
only a few doors from them. He did not know her well himself, but remembered
that Qieu had laughingly told him of Mrs Fong's tenacious tediousness any number
of times. A woman to be avoided at all costs.
The formidable Mrs Fong had worked for many years as a housekeeper at the
residence of a rather mercenary, mid-level employee in the British foreign
office. Gradually, over the years, the Chinese matron had adopted both the
middle-class complacency and the condescending attitude and manner of speaking
of the attache's wife, a meddling woman from the outskirts of London with a
bourgeois sense of self-importance.
Taking a deep breath, and muttering 'any port in a storm' under his breath,
Luk Yee approached the redoubtable matron while she was midway through the
process of squeezing a table-full of mandarin oranges within an inch of their
lives.
"Mrs. Fong..." he began.
"Haven't you any decent fruit?" the baker's wife bellowed at the proprietor
as she adjusted her over-sized bonnet. "These are all soft and bruised."
Luk glanced at the beleaguered countenance of the wizened greengrocer who
was sorting through a large basket of shallots. The old man's pained expression
betrayed his certainty that the oranges had been of admirable quality until Mrs.
Fong had groped them into submission.
"I shall see if I have any others, Madam," the elderly grocer said as he
bowed and retreated toward a stack of dilapidated fruit crates against the back
wall, grateful to be out of range of Mrs Fong's strident voice.
"Mrs Fong..." Luk Yee tried again.
"Swindling merchants," Mrs Fong grumbled in her robust voice. "Ought to be
shot, the whole lot of them!" Then the fearful termagant looked up and saw Luk
Yee standing alongside her. "Oh, it's you. What do you want? Can't you see I'm
trying to find some decent fruit?"
"I wish you luck in that search, of course, Mrs Fong, but I wonder if I
might have a word with you? It's a matter of great importance."
"I'll certainly need some good joss to find a firm piece of fruit in this
den of thieves. Hmmm. I think I see some plums over there," And the heavy-set
woman brushed past him, pinning him against a table of papayas with her huge
handbag, until she freed herself and set about mangling a cartonful of bright
red plums, giving each one a rather brutal squeeze before setting it aside
disgustedly."
Luk Yee followed her. "Mrs Fong. It's about my wife..." he began
uncertainly.
The baker's wife manhandled another plum, and set it down with a
contemptuous scowl, before giving Luk Yee her attention. "Yes, not a bad sort,
your wife. She talks too much, of course, and if you ask me, she's only
interested in herself. But that's to be expected of these young girls,
nowadays. They all think that they're the center of the universe. They don't
realize that some of us have more important things to do than chit-chat and
complain about the neighbors and spread rumors. Why, do you know what that
dreadful Mrs Lee on the corner told me just yesterday?"
Mrs Fong rattled on in this vein at some length before the laws of nature
asserted themselves and she was compelled to take a breath to restore some
oxygen to her massive but newly-depleted lungs. At which point Luk Yee seized
his opportunity and interjected, "Mrs Fong, have you by any chance seen my wife
since dinner tonight?"
"Why, yes!" Her lungs having re-loaded, Mrs Fong began issuing broadsides
again. "About an hour ago it was. I had just finished explaining to Mr. Fong
that his brother's daughter was a dreadfully ill-mannered little brat -- a
monster, really -- in my day girls were brought up to respect their elders, not
given license to do whatever they wished. A young woman knew her place in those
days, I'll have you know. It's no surprise that these modern girls are
disrespectful daughters one day and disrespectful wives the next. All they
think about is themselves!"
Mrs Fong gave Luk a meaningful glare to make sure that he understood that
his own wife was to be included in that number.
Luk Yee winced in discomfort. He had come to have doubts about Qieu's
capacity for affection, but he had never considered her to be the least bit
self-centered. But in the face of Mrs Fong's supercilious stare, he kept his
peace.
In the days ahead, when Luk Yee came to learn of his wife's courage in the
dungeons of the Black Pagoda, and of the horrors she had endured to protect him,
he had looked back on this conversation with Mrs Fong with a degree of shame.
He was to reproach himself endlessly for not having defended his wife's honor
more forcefully.
Mrs Fong, meanwhile, was off and running again, "When those three men in
those shiny black uniforms came for her -- your wife, I mean, not my niece --
although they'll be coming for her soon enough, too, I dare say. Quite snappy
those uniforms -- most young people don't care how they look nowadays." Mrs
Fong paused to squint at Luk Yee rather disdainfully -- his sudden flight had
left him looking rather disheveled.
"They came for "her", you say?" Luk Yee asked with alarm.
"Oh yes, and took her away with them afterward. Everything was all very
proper and official of course -- they seemed to have all the necessary
documents."
Luk Yee nodded gravely. He and Li Chang were aware that the Chans
operated hand-in-glove with the notorious Hsi Fong, the Commissioner of the
Imperial Seal and close confidant of the much-feared General Wang who reported
to the Emperor himself. Forged documents came as easily to the Chans as houris
to a Turkish pasha.
"Was she all right when you saw her last? Had she been harmed?"
"No, she seemed fine. A bit nervous, though." Mrs Fong leaned forward
conspiratorially. "What did she do?" she uttered in a stentorian whisper that
could be heard for ten yards in any direction. "Poison one of her in-laws?"
"No, of course not." Luk Yee, embarrassed, noticed that some of the
grocer's customers were backing away from him gingerly. He was barely able to
restrain himself from blurting out that if his wife ever were to take up
poisoning as an avocation, he would be happy to nominate the first candidate on
whom she might practice her venomous arts. "She has done nothing. It's all a
terrible mistake."
"Well," Mrs Fong exhaled in a tone of voice that clearly expressed the
sentiment, 'That's what they all say.' Then she looked over Luk Yee's shoulder
and said, "Is that all? I think I see some persimmons over there."
"Yes. Thank you, Mrs Fong." And with a polite bow, and a silent prayer that
Mrs. Fong might extend clemency to at least a few of the persimmons, Luk Yee
turned away crestfallen.
********
Luk had continued to prowl the streets for much of the night, hoping to
find another neighbor who had strayed from the proximity of his home, but
without success. Finally, his legs tired from the endless walking -- he had
long since forgotten that he had spent much of the day touring the city
conferring with his cell leaders, before returning to the splendid dinner with
his wife that had been interrupted by the advent of the Scorpions -- he found a
place to rest in the doorway of an abandoned warehouse and he curled up in it
for an hour or two of fitful sleep.
Upon waking, desperate for reassurance and/or advice, Luk Yee made his way
to the home of Wen-chi once again, but there was still no one there. None of
the neighbors had seen either the old man or his grand-daughter for two days.
With Wen-chi not at home and Li Chang presumably in Formosa, Luk Yee was at
a loss as to how to proceed to secure his wife's release. He needed Li Chang's
advice badly. Then it occurred to him that there was only one person, other
than the missing Wen-chi and Liu, and himself, with whom Li Chang was likely to
have communicated.
Thus it was that Luk Yee had hied himself to the home of Ming-tsu on the
morning after Qieu's 'arrest' -- not knowing, of course, that Richard Chan had
ordered Dao to release his wife from the cruel embrace of the Mongolian
Nipple-Gag several hours earlier, in the hope that the tortured bride might soon
lead him to her husband.
