Peach Blossom Pavilion (58 page)

Suddenly I thought: Could I use my handkerchief to strangle this heap of moving wrinkles right now?

Eyes glazed over with alcohol, he said, "Is that true, my little fox spirit? "

I nodded, flicking my eyes to meet his.

"Why didn't Mama punish you?"

I chuckled. "You think they're so stupid as to punish your fa vorite sister? I'm but a worthless whore; it's you they're afraid of, Big Master Fung."

Fung first looked pleased, then lost in thoughts. He sipped more wine, and when he looked at me again, his expression turned serious.

My heart almost stopped. Did he sense something wrong?

But he said, "Xiang Xiang, why don't you marry me?"

I was so surprised to hear this that I didn't know how to respond.

"Xiang Xiang, why hesitate? I'll give you a very good life. I love you.

Right then Teng Xiong's image flashed across my mind. Had he caught and murdered her? I conjured in my mind pictures of her body-gnawed by wild dogs; hanging limp from a tree; floating on a river turned red from blood spilling from her mutilated torso.

To collect myself I took a sip of my wine, popped a piece of dried bean curd into my mouth, and chewed meditatively. I refilled Fung's cup, then threw him a glance horny enough to melt his heart while hardening his stalk. "Big Master Fung, how do I know that you really love me?"

"Xiang Xiang," he pulled out from his pocket a velvet box, "open it; see what I've brought to prove my love for you."

When I clicked open the box, my eyes fell on a dragon. Though small, it was exquisitely crafted and animated with qil I could almost see the energy emanating from the sinuous body inlaid with hundreds of pave diamonds. The dragon's eyes were two big rubies, and its gold claws and tail stretched elegantly. I picked up the brooch and moved it this way and that for the diamonds to cast their brilliance on the mirrored wall. A dragon! Fung had remembered I was born in the year of the dragon and so he'd brought me one to celebrate our reunion day.

Tears pooled in my eyes. Fung could not have known why the gift touched my heart. It made me remember how Baba would tell me that any baby born in the year of the dragon was considered extremely lucky. That was why he had always predicted I'd become the first eminent woman zhuang yuan, who'd bring prestige and glory to our family and ancestors. "Feilong zaitian-dragon soaring in the sky" had been Baba's favorite phrase to predict his daughter's bright future.

Tenderly Fung reached to wipe my eyes with his handkerchief. "Don't cry, Xiang Xiang, your suffering will soon be over. If you marry me, not only will you have the best clothes and food and jewelry in the whole world," he paused, then spoke again his voice filled with passion, " I'll also pamper you like you were my daughter."

His daughter! I bit my inner lip till I tasted blood. I looked at Fung-a ghost coming back to haunt me from a past life. We stared into each other's eyes for what seemed an entire incarnation before he suddenly pulled me into his arms. "Oh Xiang Xiang, Xiang Xiang." He kept cooing as if he were singing a lullaby for his dead daughter.

Then, very gently, he wiped the blood from my lips with his fingers. After that, he began to kiss me passionately. And I let him. In his delirious state, he carried me to the bed, took off his clothes and mine, pressed me down, and thrust his filthy stalk into my precious gate ...

When I woke up, Fung was sound asleep, or dead drunk, next to me in bed. There was not a single thread on his body, nor on mine. My gaze surveyed the gaping mouth, sagging skin, and tofu stalk as disgust rose inside me. His clothes, lying on the floor in a heap of wrinkles, matched their master's face. Cautiously I got off the bed. When I was tiptoeing toward my coat, where I'd put my knife, I spotted something bulging underneath the crumpled heap.

With my toes, I lifted the clothes and saw what I'd dreamed of-Fung's pistol.

My heartbeat accelerated like the tick tock of a clock gone awry.

I imagined the loud "bang!" shattering the evening and ending my agony. I could almost see Fung's blood-like crimson serpents returning to their holes-quickly filling all the creaks and cracks in the room. I could also see his eyes, protruding with shock and disbelief, stare at me as if I were his daughter's ghost emerging from the yin world to smother her father's soul. I imagined my delirious, victorious laughter startling everyone from their lantern riddle reading ...

I bent to pick up the gun. It was the first time that I had held one in my hand. I now possessed the power to kill. My hand began to tremble.

The rustling leaves outside the window cried Sha! Sha! "Kill! Kill! "

Now the gun suddenly looked small and insignificant.

Can this little pathetic thing take away life?

I held it with both hands and aimed at Fung's head.

A loud bang cracked the evening sky. I let out a sharp cry. The next moment I realized it was only the fireworks. And a startled but alive Fung was staring incredulously at me.

"For heaven's sake don't play around with that! Xiang Xiang, that's not a toy!"

Although my hands continued to tremble, the "toy" was still held tightly in my grip, aiming at Fung.

"Xiang Xiang, what's the matter with you? I told you to drop that gun. It's loaded. You might shoot me by mistake! "

"Big Master Fung, then it'll serve you right!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm going to kill you."

To my surprise, instead of looking frightened, he burst into laughter.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Xiang Xiang, what's the matter with you? Are you drunk or out of your mind? Come, let's make love again, you look so lovely with no clothes on, and so much like my daughter."

I felt queasiness simmering in my stomach. My fingers tightened on the trigger. "Damn you and damn your daughter! "

Fung stared at me in silence for a moment. Then his expression changed; now he looked scared. "Wait a minute, Xiang Xiang, what the hell-"

"Big Master Fung, I've been waiting for this moment for ten long years. Once I pull this trigger, all my shame will be behind me."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Beads of perspiration were forming on his forehead.

"Does the name Rumbling Thunder sound familiar to you?"

He didn't respond.

I went on, "That was my father. Ten years ago you had him executed for a crime you committed. That was why I was sent into this prostitution house, because you destroyed my family. Now it's time for you to pay for your evil deeds. It's your Karma that you became my favored guest so I have the chance to kill you tonight."

It seemed Fung was still too shocked to say anything. He shifted his body like a snake trapped in a cage.

I tightened my grip on the gun. "I'm going to kill you. Right now! "

"Xiang Xiang, please don't! I'll give you whatever you want."

"Can you give me back my parents?"

He was speechless.

I squeezed the trigger. Again. And again. And again. Until I realized I just couldn't pull it to release the "bang!"

My back and armpits were soaking wet and beads of perspiration gathered on my forehead. I felt my throat burning while chills seeped into my marrow. Everything around me seemed to be frozen in time and space.

Seeing that I was not able to shoot, relief washed over Fung's face. He stood up and walked toward me.

"Stop right there, or I'll really shoot!"

To my surprise, he burst into delirious laughter. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Xiang Xiang, I dare you to go ahead and shoot me! Come on! Shoot!" Then his voice turned fierce and mean. "You ungrateful bitch! You try to kill me after what I've done for you?!"

Fung dashed forward and snatched the gun from my grip. "Fuck your mother's smelly cunt! You dead bitch! Next time when you try to kill someone, be prepared. Take some shooting lessons first! Damn you and your whole family!"

He looked at me with disgust. "You know the saying `Some would rather drink the wine of punishment than that of respect'?"

I didn't respond. He spat, "That's you! I treated you well, bought you all these expensive gifts, and loved you like my own daughter, but you tried to kill me! You cheap, dog-fucked bitches would rather be punished than respected! That's why you're all whores! " He spat again as loudly as the fireworks, "Smelly cunt!"

Suddenly I no longer cared if Fung sent me right to the yin world. Maybe if I ended this way, I'd unite with Baba, Pearl, and even Guigui, my puppy whom I'd eaten with relish when I was thirteen.

I spat back with full force, "It's stinking males like you who turned me into a whore! I was supposed to be a female zhuang yuan!"

He stared at me incredulously for seconds before bursting into laughter. "Oh, is that so?! Then Fate surely knows how to play tricks on you, eh? So that's what your father hoped his whore daughter would be! A zhuang yuan. Ha!" He paused to think, then, "Yes, now I remember him; he was a cripple."

I trembled with anger, yet I couldn't deny the fact that Baba had been a cripple-after he'd broken his leg during the fateful Peking opera performance.

Fung went on thoughtfully, "I wonder how a cripple could have fathered such a beautiful daughter like you. It must be your mother." He threw me a licentious glance. "I'm sure she's a great beauty; where is she-"

My whole body seized by horror, I blurted out, "No! She's a nun!"

"A nun? That'll be more exciting! "

I lunged at this incarnation of evil. Fung pointed the gun at my head. "All right, Xiang Xiang, enough of all this nonsense! If you didn't remind me of my daughter, I'd already have put a bullet in your pretty head. Now listen very carefully. You better be out of Shanghai within three days. If I, or any of my men, see you here after that, then you're asking for an interview with the King of Hell." He tilted my chin with the gun's barrel. "Xiang Xiang, I don't want to have to shoot my `daughter' a second time." He paused, his hand jerked the gun to fire an imaginary shot. "Bang! That's how I put a hole between my fourth concubine's pretty brows. Ha! Ha! Ha! Too bad she didn't look a bit like my daughter, otherwise I would have spared her life as I did yours."

"You killed Teng Xiong! " I spat hard on Fung's face. He flinched.

Suddenly I remembered my "melon chopping" night-accidentally I'd kicked him in the face.

I gathered all my strength and drove my foot into his filthy stalk.

"Ahhhhhhh!" he screamed, clutching his private parts. The gun dropped to the floor. I snatched it up and aimed at his heart.

He looked up, sneering despite the pain, "Go ahead, shoot! Don't be a coward this time!"

I pulled the trigger.

The "Bang!" was so loud that I thought I had turned deaf.

But Fung's inhuman, explosive cry jolted me right back to the here and now.

Fung didn't crumple to the floor as my father had when the bullet hit his head. Like a ghost struggling to return from hell, Fung now stood in front of me, blood sprouting from the side of his head. As he extended his hand pleading with me not to shoot again, I realized his ear was gone!

I closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger to release another deafening "Bang!"

When I opened them, I didn't see the incarnation of evil breathing his last agonizing breath on earth, nor a dead body shattered like a slaughtered beast. Fung was simply gone! Only a zigzag trail of blood witnessed his malevolent presence in this murderous room. I'd missed his evil heart a second time-maybe because he didn't have one!

As agitated as if a cat were being beaten in my pants, I dressed hurriedly, then sprinted out of the welcoming-guests room and ran toward the kitchen. I knew I should escape right away. But I had to see Ah Ping one last time-for Pearl.

With not a soul around, the turquoise pavilion had the appearance of an ancient mausoleum. Outside the window, the sudden thunder of firecrackers broke up the ghostly silence.

My mind would not let go of the image of Fung with a missing ear and blood all over his face. Why, Heaven, didn't you direct the bullet right between his eyes-as he'd done to Teng Xiong!?

Then I imagined I saw Teng Xiong with a big hole in her third eye. She looked too stunned to die; her lips stirred as if saying, "Precious Orchid, please love me in this life. Even for a moment."

I was running, trembling, and muttering, "Oh Teng Xiong! Teng Xiong!" Finally I reached the kitchen. With a slight push, the door creaked open to reveal a room bathed in pale moonlight.

I moved cautiously and spoke in a heated whisper, "Aunty Ah Ping?!"

There was no response, the only sound being the Sha! Sha!"Kill! Kill! "-from the rustling leaves outside the window. I called several more times but still to no avail. As I was about to give up, I noticed in a far corner a figure crouching next to a huge cauldron.

I hurried toward the container and screamed. "Aunty Ah Ping!"

The figure jolted. She blinked hard, as if to shake away the still lingering dream. She stared at me with startled eyes for long moments, then suddenly said, "Are you Xiang Xiang? What are you doing here?"

I was shocked beyond myself. Wasn't Ah Ping mute and crazy?

Like two frightened cats, we stared at each other for an entire incarnation. Finally I spoke, "So Aunty Ah Ping, you're ..."

"Yes, I'm not mute and I'm not crazy."

"Good Heavens, Aunty Ah Ping, then why did you-"

She waved a dismissive hand, then went to get a clean towel and a basin of water, and started to clean my face. After that, she asked, "Xiang Xiang, why have you suddenly turned up here?"

Breathlessly, I told her everything.

"Oh heaven, Xiang Xiang, please leave right away! Big Master Fung is too evil and powerful! He'll have to explain to everyone how he lost his ear. When he catches you, he'll be merciless!" Abruptly she stood up from the chair and pulled me along. "Come, follow me to where you can hide safely for a while."

Ah Ping led me all the way to the haunted garden. We entered the deserted temple and knelt down in front of the altar.

She said, "We'll pray to my two daughters in the yin world and ask them to protect you."

After we finished, I threw myself into her arms and blurted out, "Ma!" on behalf of Ruby and Pearl.