My Splendid Concubine (23 page)

They left the building, and Robert breathed the ou
tside air as if it were nectar.

“
At least we know you won’t become addicted to opium,” William said. They returned to the British consulate where Robert found an empty bed.

The next morning Robert was up early. After eating, he went looking for William. “What do I do now?” he said, after finding his friend at his desk.

William knew Shanghai
, and Robert wanted advice.

“
I asked around, and Ward’s second-in-command, Henry Burgevine, is on board an American ship that’s bound for California. He’s sailing tomorrow morning, so you had better see him today. He may know where Ward is?”

William took a piece of paper and handed it to Robert.
“That’s the name of the ship. I regret I cannot come with you today. I can’t afford to take more time away from my work.”

“
I am grateful for your help, and I’m sorry if I caused you any difficulties.”

“
It was nothing,” William replied. “What are friends for? I’m sure you would do the same for me if I were in your shoes.” He put a hand on Robert’s shoulder. There was genuine concern in his eyes. “Robert, if you can’t find Ward today, leave Shanghai and forget him. Ward and his kind are the wrong sort to deal with. You have your girl now.”

Robert asked,
“What about the Chinese? How do they look at Westerner’s that own their women?”

“
The Chinese do not judge a man’s physical needs as in Victorian England. Here a man can have as many women as he can afford, which is a sign of his status.

“
It’s a Chinese tradition that a wealthy man has both wives and concubines, and they live under one roof. Even after a wealthy man has both wives and concubines, he’ll still visit courtesans. There is no religious sexual repression in China. In fact, it’s impossible for an official in the government to avoid dinners with female entertainers.”

He tapped the desk for emphasis.
“However, any girl bought by a foreigner
loses face
with other Chinese women and will never be able to live a normal life again. You see, most of us leave China eventually, and the women stay behind. It isn’t an appealing fate.”

“
What do you mean by
losing
face
?”

“
That’s complicated,” William replied. “As I see it,
gaining
or
losing face
has something to do with your influence and power but even a penniless monk can have
more face
than a powerful general or governor depending on his reputation. I think it means to take a risk to achieve something. If you succeed, even if it means breaking a few laws and hurting or killing innocent people along the way, you
gain face
but if you take the risk and lose, you end with
no face
. With
no face
,
a respectable Chinese man will probably hang himself.”

Robert shook his head.
“A difficult concept.”

“
In China,
face
is everything, because what one man does can destroy an entire family or clan.”

“
You mentioned most foreign men leave their women when they return home. What happens to the women?”

“
After the foreigner leaves, the Chinese woman does not live a normal life. Most become dockside prostitutes. And if the woman had children by the man, the children suffer a worse fate.

“
I’ve seen beautiful half-breed girls as young as eight or nine hooked on opium selling their bodies to any man that pays. They do it to survive. When most of these half-breeds get old enough to have babies, the baby usually ends in the river.”

“
It sounds like Chinese women have no value,” Robert said, shocked.

“
Not so.” William shook his head. “If you are the dowager of a large, respectable family, you have power in the home.”

William laughed at the confusion on Robert
’s face. “Let me explain further,” he said. “The man could be a peasant farmer or the governor of a province appointed by the Emperor, and that governor commands an army and collects hundreds of thousands of taels in taxes each year. He married because of an arrangement made soon after his birth. Besides that first wife, he could have married two or three others and maybe has a few concubines. He also plays around with a singsong girl now and then, who is of course hoping he buys them and makes them his concubines so their status improves.

“
However, once that first wife gives him a son, she has the power inside the home. She can make life wonderful or miserable for the entire family, including the husband. There is nothing the man can do about it. It’s the Chinese way.

“
When a son marries, he hasn’t gained a wife—he’s given a daughter-in-law to his mother. The horrible part is that the daughter-in-law can be treated like a slave, and the son can do nothing about it. The son won’t cross his mother.

“
Then the daughter-in-law gives birth to a son. One-day her husband’s mother dies and suddenly the wife, who was the daughter-in-law, is now the dowager and has the power inside the home. Now she can make life miserable or wonderful for the family. When her sons marry, she has daughters-in-law to boss around until she dies, and the power inside the home passes to someone else. It can be a vicious cycle.”

Everything Robert heard confused and bothered him at the same time.

William put a hand on Robert’s shoulder. “Welcome to China, Robert,” he said, with a big grin.

“
What will I learn next?”

“
From all the questions you were asking about the women here, I think that’s what you were looking for. Go back to Ningpo and enjoy your concubine. I suspect you worry about what your family and friends back in Ireland might think of you, but this is China. No one will condemn you here. I will not.”

William knew Robert better than he knew himself. What would William have thought if he knew the truth
—that Robert had two women instead of one? Would William have condemned him and seen him for the depraved man he was?

For the truth was that before Ayaou had fought her way into his heart, Robert
’s desire for women kept him awake nights and filled his thoughts during the days. Every time he saw a woman with a beautiful neck or delicate hands or pixie ears, the temptations that had ruled him in Belfast returned. All he wanted was to touch his lips to the lips of every appealing woman he saw and send his exploring hands over their naked bodies. Those demands had made him a slave to his libido and had driven him into the arms of Me-ta-tae and Willow. If Ayaou hadn’t come along, there would have been others. Robert was sure of that.

On the other hand, he was fooling himself thinking that Ayaou was going to suffice, because Shao-mei was there too. Robert couldn
’t deny that he also wanted the younger sister. It was against everything he’d been raised to believe. He hated himself for it. This constant battle with the flesh was exhausting.

He wondered again what Shao-mei had meant by the Ch
inese phrase
Wu Hei Nee
. He couldn’t get those words and the inviting tone of her voice or that adoring look in her eyes out of his head. And every time he closed his eyes, he saw her naked body getting out of the bed.

Robert kept a straight face and hi
d the turmoil boiling inside. He thanked his friend again and went on his way. It felt good knowing he had William on his side. Only a friend would have done what William had done last night.

At the s
ame time, it hurt to think he’d fooled himself into thinking that Patridge was a friend. Robert would be doubly cautious in the future before he let anyone else get close to him. Now he trusted two people—Ayaou and William. He wasn’t as lonely as he had been.

Shanghai was different in the day. It wasn’t as threatening. With the ship’s name in his hand, he walked to the far side of Shanghai and found it anchored in the river. He paid a man to take him out in a sampan. Before he went up the ship’s ladder to the deck, the unwashed bodies of hundreds of men assaulted his sense of smell.

“
You taking coolies to America too?” a ship’s officer asked Robert as he set foot on deck. “Well, we’re full. Find another ship.”

“
I’m here to see Burgevine,” Robert said. “I don’t know anything about these coolies. Why are you taking them to America?”

“
To build railroads,” the man said. “They work harder than slaves and cost less. Feed them a bowl of rice and they’ll work all day and half the night for next to nothing.” The officer nodded toward an open hatch in the deck. “Take that ladder down to the first deck and walk aft. Burgevine’s cabin is there.”

The space
between decks was cramped. Robert walked stooped over. There were bales of cargo but no coolies. They must have been crowded into the lower decks below the waterline. The foulness of unwashed, sweaty bodies was stronger here. There was also the sharp stench of urine. It was all Robert could do to refrain from retching.

Burgevine was
alone when Robert entered the cabin. The man’s big form was crammed into a small bunk. He was picking at his bare feet. The room smelled of sour, spoiled milk. With this stink and the reek of hundreds of unwashed bodies, Robert’s skin was crawling as if he were covered with flies, fleas and lice.

“
What are you doing here, Hart?” Burgevine said. He didn’t look at Robert when he passed a loud fart.

The stench was worse than the flatulence from a full-grown swine. Robert had to step
back so he wouldn’t gag. “Good god, Burgevine,” Robert said. “Did you have to do that?”

Burgevine
let out a belly laugh, and said, “State your business or get out.”

“
I’m looking for Ward, so I can pay him for Ayaou,” Robert said, struggling to ignore the man’s repugnant, rough manner.

“
You won’t find him here,” Burgevine replied. “He’s out in the countryside with his favorite concubine and a Chinese doctor to help with the healing. Give me the money. I’ll see Ward gets it.” He pulled one of his filthy feet closer to his eyes, tore off part of a toenail, and tossed it on the floor. “Damn things won’t stop growing,” he said.

Robert was disgusted at the sight of the accumulated black grime b
eneath the man’s toenails. “May I ask how you intend getting the money to him if you’re going to California?”

“
I’m making this one voyage to deliver these coolies for the railroad. It’s good money. Once that’s done, I will be back. By then, Ward will be ready to build another army. Trust me. I’ll get the money to him.” Burgevine sat up and held out a hand.

“
I won’t leave the money with you. I must put it in Ward’s hands myself.”

Burgevine
’s face turned scarlet. He stood fast and banged his head hard on the low ceiling timbers then dropped to his bunk with a stunned look on his face.

Robert was tempted to use the Colt revolver to pry Ward
’s location out of this louse that called himself a man. Instead, he backed from the cabin. In the hall, he looked both ways to make sure no one was sneaking up on him. Robert left feeling frustrated, angry and relieved at the same time. Once off the ship, he took William’s advice and booked passage to Ningpo, where he planned to find a house and fetch Ayaou and Shao-mei from Patridge.

Leaving Shanghai without completing his purchase of Ayaou left him feeling empty and threatened. His goal was to build a safe nest with Aya
ou and Shao-mei in it. However, with Ward out there like a vulture waiting to swoop and eat them, how could he relax? Life was turning into a nightmare—one Robert couldn’t escape.

Robert arrived at Ningpo late in the evening. He went straight to Guan-jiah’s house. Until he had his two girls with him, Robert wanted to avoid the consulate. If he went there, the missionaries and the European merchants would know he had returned. There would be questions. He didn’t want anyone prying into his private life. Since there were no hotels in Ningpo for foreign devils, he’d ask Guan-jiah to put him up for the night. The only places available for a night’s rent were for Chinese. It was stupid to attempt to stay in a place like that. Someone would slit his throat while he was sleeping. His body would end in the river as fish food.

The house Guan-jiah and his family lived in was a two-room space shared by a crowd of people, which included his grandpa
rents, parents, sisters, brothers, and their wives, husbands and children.

Robert arrived in the middle of dinner. When he knocked, Guan-jiah was the one who answere
d. His eyes expanded. “Master, what are you doing here?”

“
I came from Shanghai. I’m exhausted, and I want a safe place to sleep, Guan-jiah. Put me in a corner, and I won’t be a bother. I’ll pay. I couldn’t think of any other place to go.”