The woman’s face goes slack before she drops to her knees, scattering the long bamboo strips leaning against the wall, the baskets piled high on the ground. She prostrates herself over her wares, and kowtows furiously. ‘Honourable sirs and ladies. Be merciful. I did not know.’
Curious onlookers pause to watch the old woman.
‘People are staring. Stop it,’ I hiss at her. It only seems to make her more hysterical. ‘Gigi, do something.’
Gigi flicks her water sleeves back in a practiced motion and they pool at her wrist. She folds her arms. ‘Get up, Auntie. No amount of begging will make me accept that price. It’s insulting. Twelve cents.’
The woman sits back on her haunches, her gaze darts to me, then back to Gigi.
‘Twelve cents or I walk away,’ Gigi insists, playing the role of a hard-nosed shopper. The onlookers shuffle away.
The woman picks up her abandoned weaving, runs her fingers along the pale strips of bamboo. She licks her wrinkled lips. ‘I have a dear granddaughter who has only me to take care of her. Please, I would never cheat Yan Luo Wang.’
‘Twelve cents,’ Gigi says.
More quietly, I say ‘We only want the truth. We are not here to give you any mafan.’
The old woman holds my gaze, testing my sincerity. Finally, she nods and slowly pushes herself to standing.
‘May I see that?’ She holds her hand out and I place the fake talisman in her palm. She turns the biaround, gazing at it. ‘It is always the same handsome young man who delivers the talisman, Brother Zhu. He gives me a parcel filled with silk pouches. They each have a name attached to them. I give them out according to the names.’
‘Do you ever look inside the bags? Maybe they could have gotten mixed up somehow,’ Ah Lang says.
The old woman shakes her head. ‘I never look in the bags, it is not my place. Only once was I given a talisman to hold. It was heavy and had a warm energy to it. But this one’ – she nods to the bi in her hand – ‘it does not feel the same at all. I am sorry, I did not know.’ She hands the fake talisman back to me.
She is telling the truth, I have no doubt. Which means either Brother Zhu swapped the talisman, or the hulijing did.
Eighteen
Hungry
Gigi insists on returning to the stalls with the hair pins, the painted jewellery boxes, the perfume bottles, the cloisonné mirrors and knick-knacks and we stand around forever while Gigi haggles with the stall keepers. When we finally get back to the car, we are laden with parcels and I’m hungry as well as grumpy.
Willie takes pity on us and drives us to Nanxiang, a canal town not far from Shanghai, and parks in front of a single-storey dark wood pavilion in the centre of a large and pretty garden.
‘These are the best xiao long bao around,’ Willie says as a young woman in a black qipao seats us at a round table by the window. I gaze wistfully at her hair, bobbed short and set in those fashionable marcelle waves.
‘Did you enjoy the market, Lady Jing?’ Ah Lang asks as towers of steaming baskets are placed in the centre of the table, along with side dishes of sliced cucumber with Szechwan peppers and cold jellyfish.
‘Yes, thank you for accompanying me. Though, I think Gigi had the most fun of us all, judging by her many purchases.’
‘Big Wang said we should have fun, not spend our time trying to find out if some mortal swindled him,’ Gigi says.
I glance at Willie, in case he twigs I’m following my own agenda, but he doesn’t seem bothered. I guess today is the last day of the Mahjong Council, so whatever I do here is unlikely to affect what Big Wang needs to do back in yin Shanghai. Brother Zhu will have answers – I need to find a way to talk to him, but I still haven’t figured out how to broach the subject without giving myself away.
‘I want to go dancing,’ Gigi continues.
Ah Lang’s face cracks into a bright smile. ‘I know a great place for dancing and music.’
‘You do?’ Gigi asks.
‘A friend of mine likes to spend time in the jazz bars here. We often play music together. I strum my pipa, and he plays his bamboo flute.’ He chuckles. ‘We sometimes even play the Paramount—’
Gigi is staring at Ah Lang like she’s never seen him before. ‘You’ve been to yang Shanghai?’ Her voice is sharp and high.
Ah Lang seems oblivious to Gigi’s rising anger. ‘Yes, a few times a year my friend invites me.’
The temperature around the table drops noticeably. ‘I’ve been sitting in Hell, waiting for that window once a year when I’m allowed back into the Celestial realms to see you, my darling.’ The way Gigi bites out the last word does not bode well for Ah Lang. He pales noticeably. ‘When at any time, I could have popped over to yang Shanghai, and watched you and yourfriendplay the Paramount.’
