Strangers on the Shore by Adrien Brooke

Author:Adrien Brooke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Strauss Consultants

Once they’d agreed to a plan and Yukying left, Tinseng collapsed back into his chair, exhausted. Yukying had never been the impulsive one or the one with the temper. But she’d seen just as much destruction, he realized. Not as much death, maybe, but perhaps more devastation: Over the last few days, as she’d shared stories about families she’d helped, she’d been careful to only share happy endings. But sometimes the silences spoke for her. In all the time he’d known her, he couldn’t think of a time when her kindness had really wavered. For the first time, he wondered how exhausting that must be. He was angry, so angry, that she’d taken this risk. But wasn’t she doing exactly what he would have done? Wouldn’t that be too hypocritical, even for him, to deny her the right to action?

He sighed as he sat back with his cigarette and wished that just one time his plans would turn out the way he wanted.

Jinzhao had been quiet since Tinseng agreed to let Yukying help, withdrawing in on himself. Tinseng had ignored it, but now his time had run out. His head dropped back against the chair’s back.

“What happened to doing it my way?” he asked the ceiling. “You wanted me to tell her no? After how determined she was to help yesterday? Trailing you, dancing with Grodescu. She was already thinking of befriending Mrs. Grodescu; she would have done it with or without our permission.” He rolled his head to peer at Jinzhao. “Better to have it in our control, trust me.”

“She believes this is for you.”

“You think she wouldn’t do the same for you? Didn’t you hear her before? You’re practically family. You’re going to love the dinners,” he snickered. “Besides, it’s okay to help those you love.”

“Even if it violates her principles?”

“Some principles are more important than others,” he said slowly, knowing they weren’t talking about Yukying anymore. “Her first priority is to her family. She loves me, and to her, that’s more important than lying to a stranger.”

“What about lying to her husband?” Jinzhao pushed.

“It won’t come to that.”

“What about lying to the authorities?”

“I won’t let it get that far.”

“What about—”

“Jinzhao.”

They both breathed heavily.

“It is wrong,” Jinzhao asserted.

“What’s wrong?”

“To selfishly insist on one’s individual gain at the expense of others. To have others suffer for my secrets. They’re my responsibility; to make others bear them is immoral.”

“Tsk. Who knew Mei Jinzhao would be such a martyr? Have you always been this bad at sharing your things?”

Tinseng closed his eyes and waited for the rebuttal, then drifted a little until he sensed something wrong about Jinzhao’s silence; he couldn’t articulate why, only that he’d learned the sound of his silences, a dialect all its own. Tinseng peered over to find pain twisting Jinzhao’s face like silk clenched in a fist. Tinseng immediately dropped into a state of panic, agitated into an explosion of movement that propelled him in front of Jinzhao.

“Hey, hey, no, no, no being sad.” He shook Jinzhao’s shoulders a little, as if he could rattle the sadness out of him.

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