Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang

Author:Eileen Chang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2016-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

11

Shijun’s maternal uncle, Feng Jyu-sun, had come to Nanking to avoid any birthday fuss, but Shijun’s family held a party for him anyway. They didn’t let their whole social circle know; it was to be just a small family gathering. Even so, it kept Mrs. Shen very busy. She couldn’t have asked for better timing: these were the happiest days of her married life, and she wanted her brother to see how much she was thriving, basking in this late-in-life good fortune after years of undeserved suffering.

Jyu-sun brought with him a couple of tins of imported sweets and biscuits. “My daughter-in-law sent these for her godson,” he said. Vim had always been such a weakling that his parents had feared he wouldn’t make it to adulthood, so they set him up with multiple godmothers, among them Jyu-sun’s own daughter-in-law. The boy’s mother was happy to see signs of affection for her son, and promised to have a photograph taken and sent to the godmother, as soon as the boy’s health permitted.

When Jyu-sun saw Hsiao-tung, his private thoughts ran thus: It’s really an awful thing when a man our age gets sick. One bad spell, and he looks positively geriatric!

Meanwhile, Hsiao-tung was thinking, Those false teeth make Jyu-sun look like a buck-toothed granny. What a decline since I last saw him!

But these thoughts could not dampen the pleasure they felt, as brothers-in-law, upon seeing each other after so many years. Jyu-sun asked after Hsiao-tung’s health, and heard that the latter was greatly recovered, except for some numbness in one finger of his left hand. Jyu-sun said he’d wanted to come and see his brother-in-law during his illness, but feared it would upset his concubine-wife. “I didn’t think she’d want to see me at her door—she’s really got the wrong impression about me, you know. I think you must have put all the blame on me, that time you went down on your knees and begged her forgiveness.”

Hsiao-tung laughed. Just thinking of that adventure made his mind reel: he’d gone off to Shanghai for a good time and she’d chased him down, and thrown a huge fit. Going over it again with Jyu-sun—all that tricky ground they’d covered on that pleasure trip—was almost too much to process. Then suddenly he thought to ask: “Do you still remember a girl called Li Lu?”

Before the question was even out of his friend’s mouth, Jyu-sun was slapping his thigh and exclaiming, “I almost forgot to tell you! There’s news about her, not recent news, it’s been a couple of years already. People say she had a wedding of some sort, but never really left the business. She’s not a taxi-dancer anymore, she’s a privately owned, ah…entertainer. So I said, well, let’s pay her a visit—I’d like to see what sort of front she puts up now!”

“Did you really go?” Hsiao-tung asked.

“No, no. I’m an old man now, not as frisky as I used to be. Back in the day, I’d have been on her doorstep

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