Gunpowder Alchemy by Jeannie Lin

Author:Jeannie Lin
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-10-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

When I returned to the parlor, Burton had risen to take his leave. I stood back as the men shook hands and the foreign businessman departed.

Chang-wei appeared bright eyed at my approach. “Mister Burton has offered to hire bodyguards to take us to your village.”

“I don’t trust him,” came my immediate reply.

He was taken aback. “I do trust him.”

Ming-fen, my newfound guardian, watched with interest from the table in the corner. I could imagine how the cautionary tale she told me would play out. To her, I looked like a young woman lured into the arms of the lover only to be abandoned to the wolves in Shanghai. Sadly, I suspected it was a common occurrence in this port city.

“Mister Chen, do you truly believe that your associate has become wealthy by purely trading tea and silk?”

“I believe he deals in many goods in the course of his business,” he replied stiffly.

I glared at him. “Chang-wei.”

“I understand Burton likely has his hands in opium and there are plenty of our own countrymen who have done the same. But Mister Burton and I have established an understanding. He is an ally here in this city. One of the few I can trust to help us.”

I told him about Ming-fen’s warning. Rather than dismissing my fears, he listened to me patiently.

“I can guarantee Burton is not involved in the coolie trade, Miss Jin.”

“And the armed escorts he’s hiring? Do you know anything of them?”

“He has contacts that I unfortunately do not have. Remember that you were the one willing to seek out less reputable parties to get you home.”

It seemed like so much bravado now, lost in this strange settlement without a friendly face in sight. Chang-wei knew how to survive in this new place that had become our homeland, and I did not. Sadly, the one lesson I was learning quickly was to turn a blind eye when a blind eye was needed.

Otherwise there was nothing to see but rage and sorrow. And defeat.

***

Burton arranged for a room in one of the hotels along the river. Stone steps led up to the front entrance, which was graced by a pair of carved lions. Unlike the guardian lions I was accustomed to seeing, these were lions of the West, large and shaggy haired.

I stood back from the desk as Chang-wei spoke in a foreign tongue. There was some problem, and the exchange went on for longer than I had anticipated. At one point, the clerk’s voice rose loud enough for me to hear.

“No Chinese allowed,” he said, breaking out in the Canton dialect.

I tensed, but Chang-wei remained unfazed. He continued in a firm and composed manner. All I could discern from Chang-wei’s response was Burton’s name, but apparently that was enough for the clerk to begrudgingly hand over a key.

Chang-wei took my side as we ascended the staircase and spoke apologetically as he worked the key into the lock. “There is only one room. He assumed we were husband and wife.”

He

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