Memoirs of a Courtesan - Mingmei Yip

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of ambiguous gender.

      Chang smiled an elegant smile. ‘Master Lung, Mr Zhu, Miss Camilla and Miss Shadow, what an honour to meet you all tonight after I’ve heard so much about you.’

      Zhu smiled stiffly. ‘Miss Chang, please take a seat.’

      The gossip columnist said, ‘Oh, please don’t let me take up your precious time. I came over to propose a toast to Miss Shadow’s brilliant show.’

      Shadow barely acknowledged her compliment with a slight nod. Didn’t she know that this was the heartless reputation-killer Rainbow Chang? Or was she too distracted and eager to butter up Lung? However, her bad manners could only be to my advantage.

      Then the columnist turned to the gangster head. ‘Master Lung, you have an excellent eye. Our Heavenly Songbird is beautiful as well as talented.’

      Lung patted my back affectionately. ‘I do have a good eye, especially for women. Ha-ha!’

      Rainbow Chang smiled. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the rest of the evening.’ After that, she went back to her table, where the group of pink-clad ladies awaited her.

      I turned to my patron. ‘Master Lung, had you known that Rainbow Chang dresses as a man?’

      Lung shook his head, while Zhu cast me a disapproving look and said, ‘Maybe you also don’t know that she’s calling you the skeleton woman, eh?’

      Of course I knew. In the less than a year I’d been singing and dancing at Bright Moon, one man had killed himself over me, another had divorced his wife and yet another had gone bankrupt after selling his apartment to buy me a flawless, eight-carat diamond ring.

      If a skeleton woman had to destroy a family just for one night’s shelter, she wouldn’t hesitate for a moment. Words like compassion, kindness, love or generosity did not exist in their dictionaries. For them, it was either win or lose, succeed or fail, destroy or be destroyed.

      However, I was never sure: was being called a skeleton woman an insult, a curse or a compliment?

       5

       The Young Master

      As I’d feared, Shadow was dangerous, and something needed to be done about her. And soon. As the Chinese say, suzhan sujue, ‘Quick battle, quick victory.’

      So as soon as I arrived home, I took out all the books of strategy I’d collected over the years and flipped through them for possible solutions. Judging from how Shadow had orchestrated her debut on the Shanghai scene, she was talented and imaginative. Though she said she was not from Shanghai, she was as scheming as the best of us. However, her bold interaction with Lung and her casual negligence of Rainbow Chang showed she still had a lot to learn. So now was the best time to crush this poisonous weed, before it grew out of control.

      But I needed to figure out what she was plotting: to usurp my fame, to steal Lung from me or to supplant me as the ultimate skeleton woman.

      Most likely, it was all of the above.

      Most important, I had to look for her weaknesses. To achieve that, I would become her close friend, to control my space and invade hers. To become master of her fate.

      So I invited the magician for a chat at the famous Chocolate Shop located on Jingan Ci Road, in the International Concession. She accepted without hesitation.

      I preferred the quieter, upper floor of the cafe and arrived fifteen minutes before we were to meet. The ambiance was elegant but relaxed, with young Russian waitresses in white and green striped uniforms silently serving the customers. A white-gloved waitress led me to sit at a round table next to a floor-length window framed by grass-green curtains. Here I watched life pass by outside on the busy Tranquil Peace Temple Road. From the street below, the tune of ‘I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,’ wafted up.

      I’m always chasing rainbows,

      Watching clouds drifting by.

      Some people look and find the sunshine.

      I’ll always look and find the rain …

      Soon I spotted Shadow getting off a rickshaw and hurrying inside. A moment later, she made her magical appearance on the upper floor.

      Precision, a trait necessary for both magician and spy. We smiled at each other as she was seated by the same Russian waitress. After our orders were taken, we politely complimented each other on our good taste in clothes – she was clad in a black-dotted pink dress with a rather plain gold pendant, and I in a beige, lacy cheongsam with matching pearl earrings and necklace. We chatted until the waitress arrived with a layered silver tray with our drinks – cafe crème for me and vodka for her – together with Russian bread accompanied by butter and jam. Sipping my coffee, more bitter than sweet, I studied her smooth, lightly made-up face, and smiled, hoping she would break the silence.

      She smiled back, her face as inscrutable as her magic. ‘What an honour to be seen with Shanghai’s Heavenly Songbird.’

      ‘Overpraise.’

      Her eyes penetrated mine. ‘Don’t be modest, Camilla. You know you’re way ahead of me.’

      And you’re desperate to take my place.

      She sipped her much stronger and more expensive vodka. Then she tilted her head, her waves of shoulder-length black hair glowing in the early-afternoon sunlight. ‘May I know the purpose of this invitation?’

      What a blunt question! I’d better get used to her brusque style. In replying, I was careful not to sound too eager or too cold, in order to maintain just the right distance. ‘Shadow, I am most impressed by your talent, and I still would like to know: how did you do it?’

      Of course I didn’t expect an honest answer, or any answer at all. My goal was to evoke a response, to get a sense of how she handled things.

      This time she let out a soft laugh, revealing rows of smooth, pearly teeth. ‘This will be my secret, unless someday I encounter a worthy student to pass on my teacher’s heritage. Or if I have a child.’

      ‘Do you have a father in mind?’

      ‘Camilla, do you think women like us can find someone suitable?’

      The idea of having a husband and a family was as alien to me as going to America someday in the future, but I asked, ‘Why not?’ just to hear what she would say.

      ‘How long do you think people like us will stay in our prime?’

      ‘We’re both still young.’

      ‘You know, time never waits for anyone, especially not for glamour-girls like us.’

      ‘You’re right,’ I said, suddenly feeling older. ‘Just like the Huangpu River flowing on forever and, with it, our youth and beauty.’

      Would this be her weakness – fear of losing her beauty, her possible fame and fortune, her magic? But why was she so fearful when she was yet in her prime?

      She cast me a curious glance. ‘Camilla, I’m sure you’ve been carefully planning out your whole life, and that’s how you’ve got to where you are now.’

      She was wrong, of course. But how could she have guessed that my life was not my own and that it had been strategically mapped out by others?

      ‘Shadow, I’m not as much in control as you think.’

      ‘I doubt that.’

      After a pause she blurted out, ‘Camilla, do beauty and talent give you the happiness you’re looking for?’

      Again, what a question. She must know that a pretty young girl like me would not really be in love with the old, puny, monkey-faced

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