Mingmei Yip - Memoirs of a Courtesan

When she was in front of me, the columnist reached out her hand. ‘It’s such a pleasure to meet you here again, Miss Camilla. I am Rainbow Chang, remember? We met at Bright Moon.’

On the surface, I stayed calm. ‘Yes, of course. What a lucky encounter!’ I said, feeling her fleshy palm tightly squeezing mine. ‘I’ve been a fan of your column.’

‘Really? The most famous Heavenly Songbird, my fan? I’m flattered.’

Underneath our polite words, we were scrutinising each other like two unneutered cats under the full moon.

She gave me a meaningful once-over. ‘Wah. Look at you, Camilla. May I call you Camilla?’

‘Of course.’

‘No other singer in Shanghai has your kind of presence.’

Of course she was referring to my expensive clothes and even more expensive jewellery, and on top of that, my much-envied position beside Shanghai’s number one gangster head.

I decided to play modest. ‘I owe it to the help of your column.’

‘Hmm … is that true? You’re not offended by my writing? You know, sometimes I can be pretty straightforward.’

Now I’d play the flatterer. ‘If you had never mentioned me in your column, I would not be so famous today.’

Her expression turned mischievously delightful. ‘Then maybe we should be friends, or at least business partners?’

What did that mean?

‘You know, Camilla, we could build a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.’

Oh, heavens. This was exactly what I didn’t need: one more complication! I knew I had better tread this path with utmost caution. While Lung could kill with a knife or gun, this Rainbow could do the same with her pen, without even having to waste a bullet!

I asked, feeling a little nervous, ‘But how?’

She looked at me deeply, as if I were her lover. ‘I’ll tell you if you let me take you to dinner. I’m sure we’ll enjoy each other’s company. What about next week?’

I sighed inside. I was sure many people wanted to meet this famous gossip columnist and her pink entourage, but I couldn’t wait to get rid of her.

‘Thank you for the invitation. I would love to have dinner with you. But I hope you will be free some other time?’ I gestured to Lung’s back in the distance. ‘Right now my schedule won’t even afford me the luxury to breathe—’

Before I finished my sentence, I felt a large hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw Gao’s concerned face. He leaned down to whisper into my ear. ‘Miss Camilla, the ceremony is to begin in fifteen minutes. Master Lung’s good friend the police chief has arrived, and Master Lung would like to introduce you.’

I turned to smile at Rainbow Chang. ‘Sorry, Miss Chang, but I have to excuse myself.’

‘No problem.’ She winked. ‘Go ahead. Lairi fangchang .’ Time is aplenty in the future.

I stared at her retreating back and felt a chill. Would she prove yet another rival in my life?

With this new worry, I let Gao steer me back to Lung, who was now standing beside a stout, uniformed man. Gao stepped back to join another bodyguard, both men watching us closely.

Master Lung turned to grab my waist. ‘Please meet my beautiful Camilla.’

Although I’d never met the police chief in person, I’d seen pictures of him in the newspapers. I also heard rumours about his proclivities, most infamous being that once, when he and Lung were drunk, they threw their respective ex-mistresses to Lung’s pet tigers, whom they kept starving for just such occasions.

Chief Li cast me a licentious glance and shook my hand hard, as if he were tormenting a helpless kitten.

‘Miss Camilla, I have heard your name for a long time, but you are much more beautiful in person than in your pictures.’

I returned him a demure smile. ‘Thank you for your praise, Chief Li. Likewise I’ve also heard your name like thunder in my ears.’

Together we walked into the newly built wing. A crimson signboard with four big gold characters, huakai fugui, ‘Flowers bloom and fortune looms,’ hung above the portal. Fortune really meant making money . Many Chinese believe that donating to temples will bring them good fortune, so perhaps the temple wanted to be sure they would not forget that. Monks, of course, have no desire for riches, but donations to their temple in the form of checks, jewellery, gold bars, antiques and land are always welcome.

Inside, the hall decor resembled a Western casino, with red and gold as the main colours, for double luck. Male staff in black tuxedos and female staff in pink and green cheongsams flanked the entrance, nodding and exclaiming, ‘Welcome, our honourable guests!’

We nodded and smiled back. Inside, scrolls of calligraphy adorned the walls, proclaiming auspicious sentiments: ‘Invite money; welcome treasures;’ ‘Gold bars fill the house;’ and ‘Money flows in like rushing water.’

As I was wondering what these phrases were doing in a temple, my eyes spotted men throwing dice and playing mahjong in the distance. In one corner, a uniformed man was shaking a cylindrical tube and exclaiming, ‘Big! Big! Big!’ followed by another man’s louder, ‘Small! Small! Small!’ After that, the first man threw the contents of the tube onto the table as the customer yelled, ‘Big!’

The uniformed man smiled cunningly at the anxious customer. ‘Sorry, sir, but it’s small.’

After that, the pile of money immediately shifted from in front of the client to in front of the uniformed man.

I realised that this was none other than a casino! But inside a temple?

Then my eyes landed on red lanterns hanging low from the ceiling above the gaming tables. Could cameras be hidden inside to catch cheaters?

‘Master Lung, so this is a …’

‘Yes, my new gambling den.’

‘But in a temple?’

He laughed, his belly trembling. ‘Ha-ha-ha! For the gods’ protection and blessings, what else?’

Thinking about that, I realised that a temple was, in fact, a perfect place to operate a gambling den. If a gambler won, part of his winnings would be donated to the temple as a token of gratitude. If he lost, he’d also donate as a bribe to the money gods so that next time they would direct the propitious winds to blow in his direction.

What other kind of business could be win-win like this? I smiled, toying with this ‘win-win’ idea. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could also put myself into a win-win situation – successfully completing my mission and escaping from both the Flying Dragons and the Red Demons?

As soon as we finished touring this sacred casino, we were all ushered back outside to the courtyard, ready for the auspicious opening ceremony.

It was three minutes to two o’clock. Our mandatory early arrival had been to make sure the ceremony would start exactly at the time calculated by the fortune-tellers, not a minute early or a minute late. Otherwise the auspicious moment would be missed, possibly ruining Lung’s gambling business even before it started.

According to these fortune-telling savants, the first moment of an event determines everything. Unfortunately mothers couldn’t choose the time of their babies’ birth; otherwise they’d all grow up to be kings and queens, dragons and phoenixes. Perhaps my parents hadn’t believed in fate calculation, and that was why I’d ended up having this horrible life. But I hoped someday to undo my inauspicious beginning. After all, as the ancient Yijing tells us, ‘Everything changes.’

Lung, Zhu, Chief Li, me and a few other honourable guests were led to stand at the front of the newly opened temple wing. Two girls placed red ribbons with a wreath at each end into our hands. Photographers and reporters streamed in, snapping pictures and taking notes. I spotted Rainbow Chang furiously scribbling in her notebook. Scattered around were Gao and his team of bodyguards, all dressed in black, eyes continuously scanning the crowd.