AAE Making Deals
2003/4
Author: Cynthia Muak
(Special Note: Text marked between # means Mandarin conversation.)
July, one Sunday afternoon at Youido Park, Basketball Courts area.
Zhen Shan Mei had just finished her first 60 minutes of lesson at a basketball court especially reserved on Sunday afternoons for the Youido Youth Welfare Association; this arrangement commenced 2 weeks ago. She gathered the boys together in the middle of the court, sat them down, for drinks and snacks. Shan Mei always used this time to interact with the kids, like asking them whether they felt they had enjoyed their play and whether they felt they had improved their game in any way. If they had not it was okay; there was absolutely no pressure for them to feel they must do well. It was more important for them to find enjoyment in their play.
“Anybody did anything interesting this week that he wants to share with us?”
One hand shot up.
“Yes, Tee Min?”
“My mother asked me to keep watch over my little sister for 15 minutes while she went out to the corner grocery store to get some fruits. She said I was now old enough to be responsible.”
“Oooh, Tee Min, this is wonderful! It’s a big step for you. Remember, when you are watching over the little ones, you must always keep your eyes on them. They need watching all the time.”
“Miss Zhen, what is the meaning of ‘responsible’?”
“It means you are a big boy now, and can be trusted to do errands because you can tell the difference between right and wrong. You do what is right, and ignore what is bad or wrong. Being polite is the start of being responsible. Understand?”
Tee Min nodded his little head, trying to figure out whether he really understood.
Shan Mei handed out to the boys packets of individually-wrapped peanut butter sandwiches that she had prepared and was about to take a sip from her water bottle, when a stray basketball hit her at the back of her head. She choked on her water; her water bottle went flying, spilling water all over her and on to the ground. Luckily no one was sitting in front or at the back of her, otherwise the water might have spluttered on the kid, or the ball might have hit him, and not her.
When the stray ball stopped in front of Tee Min, he rolled it back to Shan Mei. The other boys stood up, looked around and pointed their fingers to a basketball court behind Shan Mei, on her right. The players in that court had stopped playing, standing there with their hands hanging loosely on their hips, as if waiting for Shan Mei to return the ball to them.
Shan Mei was furious. “Playground bullies,” she hissed. They didn’t even have the common decency to come over to apologise or check whether anyone was hurt. She hugged the ball to her side, as she walked over to the court, her troop of little players following behind her in a line.
When Shan Mei stopped at the outer perimeter of the court, the biggish and tallish players laughed at Shan Mei and her little troop.
“Hey, Miss, throw the ball back.”
“I don’t think you guys deserve the ball, seeing you don’t know how to play properly, or have the good manners to apologise for hitting someone.” Shan Mei said in an even tone; she was trying very hard to hold on to her anger.
“Hey Miss, don’t talk so condescendingly. Your boys don’t know how to play properly too, why are they occupying a proper court, and using a proper ball?”
“Because we are aware of our limitations, we bring our own backboard stand, custom made to suit our size and our height, not like some people, trying to overshoot beyond their limited capabilities.”
“Don’t talk so much! Are you going to return the ball or not?”
“No, I am not! This ball is now in my hands, so it is mine. We just came over to inform you of this – unless you apologise nicely, you are not getting the ball back.”
By now, a crowd had gathered. Some spectators had seen the incident, and were pointing to the rogues, shouting to them to apologise to the little Miss. Some were calling out to Shan Mei, asking her not to be so petty minded, and spoil other people’s games. Such incidents were common, in a public playground.
Just then a tallish young man, about 31 with pleasant features and a ready smile, came running towards the group. He stopped in the midst of the crowd and with hands casually resting on his hips; he asked the biggish players, “What’s up boys? I just disappeared for 30 minutes to run an errand and you managed to stir up trouble? Didn’t I tell you to concentrate on shooting hoops?”
He then looked over to the little group that had gathered in front of his players. If not for her shapely pink-coloured sleeveless T-shirt and baggy pants, he would have mistaken the leader of the group, as another boy. She was slightly taller than the tallest boy in the group, a cap sitting snugly on her head, her hair neatly tucked in under the cap. Otherwise they were all dressed similarly, all of them wearing Ts and baggy knee-length shorts and sporting baseball caps on their heads.
Looking at Shan Mei and her little boys, the man asked politely, “Anything wrong, Miss?”
“Apparently your players were not concentrating on shooting hoops while you were away. They were so out of range when they fooled around with their ball, that the ball hit me in the head when we were sitting so far away over at that court.” As she said that she turned around and pointed to a court on her left way back – it was almost sitting near the edge of the grounds. “They didn’t even bother to apologise or check whether anyone was hurt. You’re their trainer? How do you train?” As Shan Mei was complaining, she gave the man the look-over, a slightly wry grimace on her face.
“I’m only substituting for a friend who has gone off for his holiday. Anyway, I apologise on behalf of my boys. Can we now have the ball back so they can continue their practice?” This man was Yin Xiang Zhe, a very good basketball player, and he used to play every weekend at this court with his high school mates, before he went overseas for his tertiary education.
“Sure, you can have the ball back now that you have apologized although this fracas was not any of your fault, but only on one condition. You win me! You win; you get the ball back for your boys. I win; the ball will go to my boys.” Shan Mei felt she had proposed a very fair deal.
“What? Are you challenging us?” Xiang Zhe asked, his pair of eyes having grown big with shock and mocking laughter not believing what he had just heard. He continued in an amused tone, “I’ll feel like we are bullying little children. Just give the ball back. I’ll give you guys a treat of ice lollies later, okay?”
“No way!” Shan Mei was firm in her stance. “These playground bullies have to be taught a lesson.”
“Okay, how do you want to play?” Yin Xiang Zhe was about to call their weakest player forward, when he swiveled around almost immediately to face the little Miss, not quite believing what he was hearing.
“Trainer to Trainer!”
“You want me to play against you?” Hands again resting on his hips, Xiang Zhe sounded so incredulous. Not only that, he looked just as incredulous, his eyes gone big on the little Miss, one hand sweeping a loose fringe of hair off his forehead, thinking she must have gone quite mad – with anger, presumably.
Scratching at a spot atop his head, unsure of what was the most sensible thing to say, he continued, “Hey Miss, standing next to me, you already lose. I don’t want to take this advantage.”
“Mister, I am not suggesting that we try to dunk the ball into the hoops so height does not matter but skill does. We shoot for 3-point hoops, from any one of the 5 usual positions along the court perimeter circle, okay?”
Xiang Zhe combed his fingers through his hair; at one point, again scratching at a spot on his head, as if he couldn’t decide what to do. He rolled his eyes and his head at the same time at this unbelievable challenge, thinking, “This girl from Mars or something, not knowing what’s been going on in Seoul?” He was not being boastful, but he was one of the better players who could have made it to professional level, after he finished senior high school, if he had wanted to, but he opted to refuse the local university scholarship offer and enrolled instead with a university in England. No doubt about it, this girl was a stranger around these public courts – he had never seen her before.
“You’re sure you want to do this in front of so many people? Okay, how about this final olive branch. You return the ball, I’ll take you and your little troop to MacDonald’s after we finish playing. How about it boys?” Xiang Zhe turned around and directed his gaze and question at the little ones.
One little guy was about to clap his hands in glee, when he discovered 10 pairs of angry eyes glaring at him with disgust. He dropped his head in shame and quietly stepped back into line.
Xiang Zhe shrugged his shoulders. Even though he felt sorry for the little Miss, he marveled at the solidarity stand of her and her little troop. As far as sportsmanship was concerned, they were already the winners.
The young Miss clapped her hands together briskly for attention, then indicated to her little troop to sit down orderly and quietly at the spectators’ stand – the crowd was 100% behind them – seeing their leader was the underdog.
Xiang Zhe removed his loose short sleeve shirt, revealing a loose, white sleeveless singlet underneath. His bare arms were long and firm, not overtly buffed or hard-muscled. He threw his shirt over to where his boys were sitting, and then he turned his attention again to the young Miss.
“Hey, Miss, how about I give you a point advantage. It’s 10 baskets for me and 6 for you.” Xiang Zhe thought he was being very fair and gentlemanly.
“I don’t need favours from you!” she shot back curling her lips at him in disdain. “Go ahead, you shoot first. Oh, one more thing before we start….”
Xiang Zhe looked at her. A soft chuckle escaped his throat. “You want one of my boys to carry you on his shoulders when it’s your turn to shoot?” The players and the crowd roared in uncontrollable laughter. Xiang Zhe felt so low after he made that remark; he had wanted it to sound light and teasing, instead the remark sounded so crass.
Ignoring his jibe, Shan Mei continued, “Nooo. I want you to aim seriously. This is no game but a challenge. If we equalise, we continue until one loses.”
By now, Xiang Zhe couldn’t help himself and was almost doubling up with laughter. He looked at her – the little Miss really looked serious. Okay, he’d better humour her and play seriously, so they could finish off with this joke as quickly as possible, and they could get their ball back and continue with their training session.
The crowd became quiet as Xiang Zhe concentrated on shooting. After he made 10 shots, he got 9 in the basket, and missed 1. He felt relaxed; he had missed the 5th basket. That was pretty impressive play for an average day; he had nothing to worry about. Even Michael Jordan would have been pleased!
Now it was Shan Mei’s turn. She removed her cap and left it with one of her boys. A luxuriant flowing mane of dark, glossy hair cascaded down her back, making a great difference to her look. Xiang Zhe chewed at his lower lip. With that hair, those dark, mischievous sparkling eyes and those soft, luscious lips, she looked anything but a ‘boy’! She bunched up her hair, twisted it into a knot and secured it tightly with an elastic ribbon she took out from her pants pocket. She then took the ball that Xiang Zhe had returned to Tee Min after his play and ran on to the concrete-paved court.
She gestured to her boys to remain quiet. “Remember, no chatter, no applause, no nothing, so I can concentrate.” Her little ones nodded their heads in unison, knowing this was serious business. If Miss Zhen won, they would get to keep the ball.
Shan Mei stood still, eyes closed, for a minute as she fought for calm and absolute concentration within herself. It was not simply a question of teaching those rough-neck players a lesson; it was also pride when she had noticed the derision in their condemning eyes. Not believing a woman was capable of being as good as a man in whatever needed to be done. She wanted to show them sometimes a woman might even be better. In that instant, she decided she would go a step further to show these chauvinists. “Oh Lord, help me,” she prayed over and over in her mind. She would need all the concentration, inner calm and spiritual help she could muster.
When Shan Mei got her 8th straight basket, Xiang Zhe was getting rankled. The crowd became very quiet. Those ill-mannered players sitting by the sidelines of the court also had kept quiet since she began shooting, silently admiring the little Miss in their hearts for her guts and her skill. The little girl was putting on an incredible and improbable show.
When Shan Mei got her 9th basket easily and equalised, the crowd went wild, until her 10 little supporters stood up and shouted to the crowd, “Quiet!”, their fingers firmly placed against their tight-lipped mouths.
Shan Mei glanced towards Xiang Zhe who was now sitting on the lowest bench of the spectator stand and sullenly cupping his jaws with his hands. The look on his tightly-drawn face was incomprehensible but his eyes gleamed with reluctant admiration. Xiang Zhe was thinking, “Who is this little Miss? No wonder she dared to throw me such a challenge. What is she doing, deliberating with the ball, all hunched over in that posture and dribbling around? It seems as if she wants to shoot from another position.”
Instead of dribbling at the 3-point position where she had aimed her 9 other shots, this time, she dribbled along the semi circle for a while, and then stopped to stand at another position further away outside the perimeter circle.
Xiang Zhe’s jaw tightened as he began thinking again. “What’s the Miss trying to prove? That she can aim accurately even when she’s further away from the hoop? She thinks she’ll get 4 points? A six-footer could hardly make the ball soar accurately for such a height to reach the hoop from such a distance, how could she?” From his seat, he quickly sized her up. She was 5’6” or 5’7” max or thereabouts? Bah, let her try. If she fell flat on her face, at least he would get the last laugh. That would be some saving grace. He smiled wryly to himself, as he leaned forward in his seat, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped before his mouth, and he looked at the girl steadily.
Before Shan Mei aimed for the basket, she looked at Xiang Zhe in the eye and gave him a smirk. His mouth twitched up at the corners at her childishness.
She ran forward, ball grasped tightly between her hands, to stop dead-on at a 3-point position. In a doubly low hunched-up position she stomped both her feet heavily on the ground, then elevated herself into the air with a jump letting out a loud yelp, twirled around in mid air, and flung the ball outwards and upwards from her hands. The ball whizzed in perfect loft towards the basket, bounced lightly on top of the metal rim a couple of times tantalisingly, then very obediently dropped through the basket.
The little troopers were jumping about in wild frenzy, clapping their hands and shouting, “Miss Zhen is the best! Miss Zhen is the best!” The crowd was too stunned to utter a sound. This had all happened too fast and was so unexpected.
The little stunt had caught Xiang Zhe totally by surprise. He was overawed. He stepped up to the little Miss, grabbed her in his arms and swung her around in mid air a couple of times, before setting her down back on the ground. He was laughing and praising her skill. What spunk and what an incredible player! “Miss, that final shot was fantastic, if I may say so.” He was eager to know where she had learned to play like that.
She didn’t give him an answer, but she left him with something else worth pondering: she cocked her head slightly to an angle, raised her brows at him, widened her eyes and instead of a smug grin as he had expected, she gave him a beautiful, megawatt smile! Then she dribbled off the court with the basketball that was now rightfully theirs.
At a small hand signal from Shan Mei, the little troopers lined up, gave a polite bow to the ‘enemy’ team, another bow to the crowds, before walking back in line to their court. As they marched along, they tossed their caps up in the air, chanting deliriously over and over again, “Miss Zhen is the best.”
“Enough drama for the day,” Shan Mei decided while pulling her cap back on. They packed up, dismantled their backboard stand, and helped Shan Mei pick up and throw their odds and ends into a carrying bag. They made their way back to the van, Tee Min clutching the ‘trophy’ with both his hands, telling the others that he was now a real responsible ‘man’.
Looking over to their court, Xiang Zhe noticed that they were packing up, ready to leave. He went running after them. He took the custom-made backboard stand from the little guys and walked back to their van with them. At the van, he helped them store the stand properly into the back of the vehicle. He gave one of the boys a ruffle on his head just as the little one was climbing back into the van.
Shan Mei thanked Xiang Zhe for his kind help. As she drove away, she gave him a small wave of her hand, and a sweet smile. He stood there watching, a hand shoved in the back pocket of his jeans, a crooked, shy boyish grin on his face, as he returned the wave with his other hand. Soon, the van and the little Miss disappeared from view.
Back at the basketball court, Xiang Zhe gave his players a disgusted look and commented that even little boys had better manners than they.
“You’re lucky you lost just a basketball. Was it so difficult to say sorry when you’re actually in the wrong? If you had hurt their leader…”
He didn’t even want to finish the sentence; the very thought was too frightful to ponder.
“Anyway, you’re supposed to show up here next week. Let’s see which one of you can come up with a basketball for next week’s practice.” He gave the group a wave as he walked off. The group of players simply stared after their substitute trainer wondering why he had gone off in such a huff – most probably because he had lost to the little Miss. Then the boys began discussing very animatedly between themselves as they sat on the benches about the way the girl had played, especially the last basket.
The crowds had dispersed and many of the other players from the courts had left. Xiang Zhe was still sulking at the ungentlemanly behaviour of the group he had been told to train. “Let them work it out for themselves; big bullies!” he muttered to himself as he walked off with compulsive haste. If they thought he was going to replace the basketball, they were mistaken.
The spot where Xiang Zhe had parked his car by the park was cool and quiet. He sat in his car, quietly smoking a cigarette, still staring at the empty space where the little Miss had parked her van. He stroked his chin absentmindedly, as he tried to figure out what the girl was trying to do, giving lessons to ten little boys, each not even 9 years old, and having their own custom-made backboard stand!
Was she training a future team of professional players, starting them young? If they played exceptionally well and could get passable grades at senior high, the 10 boys would be riding through universities on scholarships without any financial worries. Was she planning for this eventuality? Obviously, this was not the first time the little Miss had performed this afternoon’s stunt. Her little troopers had expected it, getting the crowd to maintain silence.
Xiang Zhe leaned back against the seat, continued to gaze at the empty car park space and contemplated the little Miss. She was more than brave, too fearless, in fact. She was also full of life. He thought about her eyes – the eyes of an honest person, a person of deep, unshakable integrity. There was, he realized, an earnest, thoroughly wholesome quality about the little Miss that he found inexplicably enthralling. There was no artifice in her actions. He thirsted for a taste of her refreshing goodness even as he mocked it. He wondered why he found himself so captivated by the Miss. For captivated he was. Was it because she was such a natural?
After he finished his cigarette, he took out a slip of paper from his shirt pocket. He had written down the number plate of the van. He couldn’t forget the smirk she gave him, or her radiant smile which came so naturally and readily to her mouth even when she was in ‘fighting’ mood. He had thought she was so childish. Now, he knew better!
He whipped out his mobile phone and called his good friend Kim Zian Da, a lawyer by profession. “Hi, it’s me. Need a favour. Can you check the owner of this van?” Xiang Zhe rattled off the number plate to him. “I saw a girl in her early 20’s driving it. No, there was no car accident. Nothing of that sort.” He laughed lightly.
“Then, why the interest?” Zian Da asked. He would not let Xiang Zhe off so easily, waiting for a satisfactory answer.
“Erh…. Nothing serious. I haven’t seen her around before here at Youido. She was here training a group of youngsters. I was curious, that’s all.”
“Nothing serious? Curious, that’s all? So it seems you are not prepared to tell the truth. If it’s a traffic accident, you’d better be more open with me, so I can prepare you properly when we lodge a statement with the police,” Zian Da persisted.
“Zian Da, believe me, no traffic accident occurred, okay?”
“Tell you what. I’m clearing some papers from my office desk and I’ve 45 minutes to spare before meeting up with Yong Xi for dinner at the club. Want to meet up for a drink or join us at the club?”
“No thanks, about the club I mean. If I’m there, that Yong Xi will think I’m really interested in her, when I’m trying to shake her off my back. I’ll meet you somewhere in town for a drink or something.”
They agreed on a place to meet, then Xiang Zhe disconnected the line.
He dragged his shirt off his arms and back, pulled the sweaty sleeveless singlet over his head, and changed into a fresh shirt he found in his carry bag sitting beside him on the passenger seat.
Fifteen minutes later when Xiang Zhe entered the Soho Bar a few blocks down the road from Zian Da’s office, Zian Da was already waiting for him at the counter, nursing a glass of frothy beer. He slid into a high stool by the bar counter, and ordered a whisky-on-rocks from the bartender who had appeared immediately to take his order. Zian Da didn’t wait for preliminaries but straight-away plunged in and pumped Xiang Zhe for details.
“Come on, man. I’m not your Senior all these years for nothing. Spit out all the sordid details about this vehicle accident. I’m all ears, but I’ve got only 20 minutes. You know how Yong Xi gets into a ghastly temper if I’m late and you know I can’t afford that since I’m trying to get into her good books.”
Xiang Zhe didn’t answer right away. He only gave Zian Da a mysterious look and a quiet smile. He waited until his drink arrived. After swirling the glass tumbler around a couple of times, he held it up and wolfed down the contents in one fiery gulp.
“Woh, woh, woh, man, take it easy! I don’t want a drunkard on my hand.” Zian Da could feel Xiang Zhe was affected in some kind of strange way. He didn’t dare jest any further, only quietly sitting by, waiting for Xiang Zhe to talk when he was ready.
Xiang Zhe trifled through his shirt pocket for his packet of cigarettes. He lit one ciggie up and dragged on it slowly, blowing out a string of smoky ‘loops’ through his mouth which had rounded into an ‘O’, his eyes half closed, his mind seemed to be wandering off to some place else.
“Well….,” he began slowly. “It’s not a car or traffic accident. It’s an accident of another kind.” Xiang Zhe stopped to scoop a small cube of ice with his fingers from his glass tumbler and popped it into his mouth, as if it needed cooling.
After playing around somewhat with the ice in his mouth, Xiang Zhe continued.
“This afternoon at the basketball court, I don’t know what happened or how it happened but that girl managed to slam right smack into my heart.”
“Hey, brother! From what you’re telling me, we don’t need the police here. What we need is a doctor. Does your heart hurt very badly now? When was the last time you did an ECG on your heart? Do you want to sue this girl? Do we have eye-witnesses?”
Xiang Zhe looked at Zian Da steadily with amusement in his eyes, as he brushed Zian Da’s nonsensical chatter away with a slight wave of his hand.
“No, not to sue her unless we could cite trespassing into private bodily premises….. with unintentional purpose to steal a heart, as the tort in the law-suit?” Xiang Zhe laughed softly, and then shook his head mindlessly. He swiveled his stool around to face Zian Da with seriousness in his eyes.
“No, I definitely don’t want to sue her. I… I … erh….want to date her!” He finally admitted shyly.
“What? Am I hearing right, Mr. Confirmed Bachelor?” Zian Da immediately put the glass of beer back onto its coaster on the counter top.
Xiang Zhe nodded his head slightly and laughed in embarrassment, he himself not even believing his own words.
“I better get working on this case right away first thing in the morning. Can’t let this idea cool! I’ll call you as soon as I find out something about the van.” Zian Da was all excited. This was news, really heart-stopping news!
“Hey, please keep this information P&C. I trust you that’s why I’m asking you to check instead of going to a private investigator,” Xiang Zhe warned Zian Da, before he reminded Zian Da of his date with Yong Xi, his mouth sporting a secret smile.
Xiang Zhe stayed awhile at the bar after Zian Da had left, to finish off another cigarette before he pushed himself off the stool after he decided he would drop by MacDonald’s for a burger. He recalled that little boy’s eager face this afternoon in the park, when he had offered burgers as a peace offering. He would make a note of finding out that boy’s name when he was at the park again next week.
==
The next morning at Wen Rong Cannery office.
Yin Xiang Zhe was chairing a meeting in Wen Rong’s Sales Meeting Room, when Zian Da’s call came through. He felt the call was important enough to ask his staff to take a 5 minute break, so he could have a private moment.
“Sorry to interrupt your sales meeting, brother. I just feel the information I’ve been able to rake up this morning is too important to wait. The van is registered under the Youido District Youth Welfare Association. Since two Sundays ago, Miss Zhen Shan Mei, a personal assistant to the Foreign Trade Minister in his China Division with the Korean Foreign Trade Ministry, has been using the van to take a youth group for basketball training at the Youido Park.
It seemed yesterday afternoon they encountered some trouble at the park. She was hit by a basketball. Last night, when she was at her Auntie’s place for dinner, she felt unwell and was admitted immediately into hospital. The Youido District Youth Welfare Association Director and the police were at the park last night and this morning to make enquiries, hoping to haul up some witnesses for questioning.
She lives on her own in Seoul, and Zhen Shan Mei is the only daughter of the current South Korean Commercial Attaché based in Shanghai.”
Xiang Zhe was not interested to hear more. He was more concerned about Miss Zhen.
“Which hospital?” His stomach had tightened, fearing the worst.
“Youido General Hospital. I don’t know whether she has since been discharged?”
Xiang Zhe thanked Zian Da for the information and then buzzed his secretary, instructing her to get the company car ready and waiting for him at the main entrance. He then told his staff to carry on with the sales meeting. Li Qing Xi, the Sales Manager, would now be in charge of the sales meeting.
At the hospital, he had a difficult time tracing Zhen Shan Mei when it dawned on him to mention Korean Foreign Trade Ministry. He was given her Room number, located on a private ward on the 4th floor of the hospital building.
==
“Come in,” Shan Mei answered delicately to a hesitant knock on her door.
She, just finishing off her mid-morning snack of milk and a slice of buttered toast, was surprised when the trainer from yesterday’s ball game at Youido Park strode into her room.
“Good morning. Remember me?” Xiang Zhe greeted her with a smile as he handed her his personal name card, and a bouquet of very fresh, mixed flowers. Shan Mei took a look at the card which read YIN XIANG ZHE, and accepted the bouquet.
[“How did he know I’ve been hospitalised?” she asked herself]. She gave a polite nod in acknowledgement and raised a hand to indicate a visitor’s chair.
“Thank you for visiting and for the beautiful flowers, Mr. Yin.”
“You’re admitted because of that accident at Youido yesterday?”
“Please don’t alarm yourself unnecessary. I was admitted for nothing serious. I think I ate something wrong last night. I threw up everything at dinner. The report should be coming out soon. I hope to be discharged later this afternoon.” She reassured him with a friendly smile in answer to his query.
“Do you need help to get home? Is there someone to look after you?”
Shan Mei thought it was strange this Mr. Yin was asking these questions, as if he knew she was alone in Seoul, living on her own.
“I’m fine. Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Mr. Yin. My uncle and auntie will be here later this afternoon.”
“I’m so sorry for the rough manners of those boys. When their regular trainer returns, I’m going to recommend that he terminates training for them.”
“Oh no, Mr. Yin, you must not do that. If they have no one to train them, even for one Sunday afternoon a week, they’ll get up to more mischief. Sure, they need discipline, but they need love and caring even more.”
Xiang Zhe looked at Shan Mei and kept quiet. So, she was a youth counsellor or something along the same vein, in her spare time? An angel out to save souls?
What if he told her he needed counseling and saving too?
His father had left his mother for another woman when he was 15 years old. His mother became so heart-broken, she couldn’t find the inclination to care about anything else, not even him, her only son. He had felt so neglected, he ran off to London for studies when he was in his late teens. He kept to himself and found it difficult to open up his feelings to anyone he was unfamiliar with.
Since he had few friends, it was easy for him to keep his feelings or his anger buried inside himself. He pretended everything was alright.
At times, he had felt he was unattractive, that was why his father abandoned him. He also felt he was not as worthy as his father, that was why his mother couldn’t carry on when his father left? That was one of the reasons he ran away to London. He didn’t want to be reminded by the misdeeds of his father or the uncaring from his mother. Most probably, they had found him inadequate in some ways.
He felt utterly unloved and neglected. No one could understand the pain and the loneliness inside his heart. Nor could he find the answer to his eternal question, “Weren’t my mother and I good enough for my father? He loved the other woman so much he didn’t mind the scandal he created by leaving home?”
Yin Xiang Zhe was afraid to love since his teens. Love could be here one day, and be gone another day. Safest was to keep himself insulated against emotional entanglements. This way no one could hurt him. This was why he kept himself all these years from any emotional entanglement. He was safe from hurt. Hurt was a slow, crippling disease that attacked a person’s sanity, a person’s well-being.
==
He didn’t want to stay in Miss Zhen’s room and tire her further. He wished her an early recovery and left soon afterwards. After he left Shan Mei’s room, he called Zian Da. “Zian Da, do you have contacts in this hospital? The girl is not telling me anything. I want to be here when she’s discharged. Can you find out who her doctor is and see what he says? Thanks.”
Within a few minutes, Zian Da was on the phone back to him. “Hey, you’re so lucky. The doctor has her scans. The impact from the ball was quite strong. She was shaken. If the ball has hit her further down her head, somewhere between the base of her head and her neck, she might have gone into a coma. The doctor understands she stays by herself, so he will want to keep her in the hospital a few more days for observation.”
“That’s good. She told me she wanted to go home this afternoon. If she insists, he must let you know. I’ll send a maid from home to look after her.”
“You’re really that serious about this girl, uh? She’s a beauty?”
“I don’t know whether she’s a beauty or not. Yesterday, when I saw her, she looks more like a tomboy, but she is someone very special. Okay, keep me informed. I’ve got to go back to the meeting I just left. My old man is giving me flake for things that are his fault. No fresh seafood supplies come in and he accuses me of mishandling the situation. He doesn’t see reason when I tell him, it’s the currency situation. Our money is not buying as much as it used to. Only those able to buy from China can make it in the market. Supplies from our regular sources are costing way too much, making our products no longer competitive.”
“Aiya, please don’t keep harping on the same old story to me. I’ve heard it all before about your father and his unreasonable demands. Okay, will contact you once I receive more news from that doctor. Meet up with you one of these days. Bye.” Zian Da hung up the phone, his mind on Xiang Zhe’s current pathetic situation.
When Xiang Zhe graduated from Cambridge, he remained in England not wanting to return to Seoul. Xiang Zhe was one of the lucky ones born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had the money and the means to do whatever he liked, even if he never worked another day, seeing he kept to himself most of the time, and he was never one to spend money mindlessly.
When his father had a heart attack two years ago, Xiang Zhe was summoned back to Seoul to take over as the Chief Executive Officer of the family business, regardless of how reluctant he was to do so.
That lucky dog Xiang Zhe, not only had money but good looks as well. He was now 31, the age expected by his family to take a wife. Many families had sent marriage brokers to propose marriage but he was not interested. He especially had a distaste for over sophisticated, perfectly made-up ladies whose vocabulary range never went beyond the words ‘Shopping’ and ‘Cool’, and whose voices sounded gratingly cloying. No character!
Liu Yong Xi, who attended the same high school as Zian Da and Xiang Zhe, and whose family enjoyed rather close friendship with the Yins, had been attracted to Xiang Zhe since she was a teenager, and she was still hanging around waiting, because her father had harboured hopes of the two youngsters marrying one day.
Yin Senior had refused to broker the marriage proposal for the Lius, claiming his son had a stubborn mind of his own. His son definitely wouldn’t accept any recommendation for proper choice of wife from him. Yin Senior didn’t have the heart to disclose to Liu Senior that Xiang Zhe had already refused several times to consider Yong Xi for marriage, claiming he didn’t want to marry her; he didn’t have that kind of feeling for Yong Xi. If they forced his hand, they could go ahead and arrange the marriage ceremony without a groom. Yong Xi would be married in name only, because the groom would disappear to some far-flung corner of the globe where no decent human being had ever dared to tread.
Xiang Zhe, knowing about his good friend’s feelings for Yong Xi, had consoled Zian Da constantly, asking him to hang in there, if he really wanted Yong Xi, even though he couldn’t understand how a nice guy like Zian Da would want a wife like this stuck-up woman. Xiang Zhe kept saying, though he didn’t believe it would happen, that one of these days, Yong Xi would wake up from her dream, stop using Zian Da as a back-up date, and realize that he was a wonderful and special man in his own right. Served her right if she lost Zian Da to another woman who appreciated him for the special man he was, one of these days.
Two weeks later, after his visit to Youido General Hospital ……
Xiang Zhe was sitting in his office, going over yesterday’s sales sheets. His mind kept wandering, his face all sullen, with deep, anxious furrows on his forehead, his mouth tight with anger. The more he thought over the situation, the angrier he became. He was mad because Zhen Shan Mei got discharged from the hospital before he managed to hear about it. The doctor in attendance was not in a position to divulge further information, like her personal details, address, telephone numbers, etc.?
He leaned back on his high back executive chair, closed his eyes and expelled a heavy sigh, telling himself he had to forget the girl for the time being; he must concentrate on how best to turn Wen Rong’s business around. He must do something drastic to make his father sit up and heed his recommendations.
But, without realizing what he was doing, he automatically reached for the phone on his executive desk. He punched in his friend Shen Qi Tong’s number impatiently.
“Hello, it’s me.” Without preamble, he launched into a verbal attack. “Tell me how long have you been training those boys at Youido?”
“Every Sunday for about 6 months.” came Qi Tong’s reply. He wondered what had come over Xiang Zhe. He was usually rather soft spoken. This Xiang Zhe on the phone today sounded really mad and had growled like a bear.
“Six months? They didn’t seem to have caught on to the game at all. And they are not disciplined. Two weeks ago, they fooled around on the basketball court when I had to deliver some important legal papers to my company’s accountants. While I was gone they hit a trainer in another court.”
“Oh, you mean that little girl?” drawled Qi Tong, laughing slyly. “I’ve been told a lot of stories about the challenge she threw at you….”
“Hey, Qi Tong, be serious. That same night, the girl was admitted to hospital. The doctor attending her informed us if the ball had hit her further down her head, she would have gone into a coma. What do you have to say to that?”
“That serious, huh? Gosh, I’m sorry to hear that.” But from his tone, he didn’t sound genuinely sorry. That alone was enough to raise the hackles in Xiang Zhe.
“Yes, that serious! What kind of people are your boys? They come from questionable backgrounds? What do they do for the remaining 6 days of the week? Maybe they shouldn’t be playing basketball, but be trained for something else more labour-intensive to work off their extra energy. Some officials in the Youido District have suggested closing the courts to them. You know there’s a group of 10 little boys training there on Sundays and these kids have the support of the Youido District officials. They don’t want to see these boys hurt in any way. You think over how you want to handle your boys and let me know. I would seriously suggest they do at least 10 laps of the ground before they start their ball game.” He slammed the phone down.
==
It had now been a month. Xiang Zhe had been back to the Youido park the past 3 Sunday afternoons. The girl and her little troop had not shown up. He was worried.
“Is Miss Zhen still not well, she cannot continue with training? Or have they moved somewhere else?” The people at the Youido District Youth Welfare Association were no longer forthcoming with info. They had been instructed to keep their mouths shut.
When Zian Da gave this bit of information to Xiang Zhe this morning, he became so frustrated, he slammed down his phone and almost threw the whole instrument out of his office window.
His call to Shen Qi Tong didn’t help. Qi Tong was again hinting about how he had to fork up the cash to buy another basketball just because Xiang Zhe couldn’t beat the little girl. “Buddy, did you purposely lose to Miss mini-mouse so that I would have to fork out money for a new basketball? Just because you’re chained to your desk everyday, you can’t stand to see me go on holiday, right? And just because you’re off women, you can’t stand to see me going off with one and having a good time, correct? You want those boys to change, how about you change your ‘dog-in-the-manger’ attitude? Have a lot of work to do, cannot spare more time to grouse with you.”
Instead of being helpful, Shen Qi Tong had thrown Xiang Zhe spinning into any curve. With trembling fingers, he rummaged inside his trouser pocket for his packet of cigarettes, took out 2 cigarettes, lit them up, and puffed on them taking alternate turns. After he finished with them, he ran his hands impatiently through his hair, wanting to tear out tufts of it.
Finally, he managed to talk himself into calming down. What was the matter with him? It was pointless taking his anger and frustration out of himself, out of Zian Da, out of Shen Qi Tong, out of those rough-necks who didn’t know any better.
Maybe, instead of going to Youido Park to wait for Zhen Shan Mei, he should go this Sunday to the Youido District Youth Welfare Association to wait for her. Yes! He would do just that!
==
The next morning, to keep himself busy so that he would stop thinking of this Zhen Shan Mei, Xiang Zhe decided to go to the Foreign Trade Ministry personally to find out more about import opportunities from China. At the busy Enquiry desk, he was advised he had to fill out forms to declare officially his company’s intention to participate in China-related activities if they were especially interested in importing from China.
Since his return to Seoul 2 years ago, he had spent time getting himself familiar with his family’s business, and realised they had missed many purchasing opportunities by not joining official trade delegations to China.
Now, standing at the front entrance of the building waiting for his driver to come along, he was getting fidgety and fed-up. He had wasted half a morning at the Trade Ministry, being pushed from one department to another, since he first entered the building at 11 a.m. It was now 12.30 and he still had not managed to submit any official forms because he was told all applications had to be supported by his company chop. How was he expected to be carrying his company chop around with him – for heaven’s sakes, weren’t those morons aware Directors of companies never do such things?
“What’s taking the man so long?” he fumed, suspecting his driver must have gone to sleep after parking the car somewhere shady. It was hot and humid; he had removed his suit jacket, slung it over an arm, and he was getting very impatient.
A chauffeur-driven limousine pulled up by the curbside at the entrance. Xiang Zhe stepped aside as the car stopped in front of him. A young woman stepped out. She gave a respectful bow to the man inside the car before walking off. The man wound down the car window, poked his head out and called out to the girl.
“Shan Mei, Shan Mei, you forgot this.” The man handed a small beautifully gift-printed paper bag to the girl, through the window. “Don’t forget to take your lunch afterwards. And don’t forget dinner this Sunday.”
“Yes Uncle, I won’t forget. And thank you for this,” she said, smiling softly and waving the little bag at the man. “Please let Auntie know I’ll be there early to help her.” She stood there and watched the car being driven away.
Xiang Zhe looked at the girl. Her voice had grabbed his attention. Yes, he was sure it was that voice! The voice, “you win me” that had been spinning in his mind, 24 hours of the day, day after day, night after night since that fateful afternoon at Youido Park. As she turned to walk towards the lift lobby of the building, Xiang Zhe shook himself into wakefulness from his stupor.
He moved a little further into the main lobby. “Miss Zhen Shan Mei?” he called hesitantly after her.
Shan Mei stopped in her tracks and turned around. As soon as she saw Xiang Zhe, she gave him a smile. She retraced her steps toward him. “Mr. Yin, what a pleasant surprise? You’re here on business?”
Looking bashful, and surprisingly pleased that she still remembered him, Xiang Zhe gave her a shy smile before answering, “I’m interested to join the next trade delegation to visit China. I was upstairs filling out some forms.”
“Mr. Yin, are you interested to import or export?”
“Import.”
“You don’t need to fill in forms! I’ll take you to the person in-charge of taking down the details.”
She looked at her watch. “Drat! It’s her lunch time now. Mr. Yin, if you’re not busy this afternoon, maybe you can come back at 2. If you’ll wait for me at the Guest Reception Area over at that corner, I’ll take you to China Import. She can arrange things for you very easily.” She was about to point out to him the Guest Reception Area, when Xiang Zhe interrupted her.
“Miss Zhen, while waiting for 2 p.m. to come by, maybe you can join me for lunch? I assume you haven’t eaten? I’ve been meaning to call on you and see whether you were alright but didn’t know where to find you. I went back to the playground the past three Sunday afternoons, but you and your little ones had not been there since that fateful Sunday.”
Shan Mei was embarrassed and was about to refuse, when Xiang Zhe pursued the matter.
“Miss Zhen, afraid to accept the invitation?”
Shan Mei hesitated just slightly. She was never one afraid to accept a challenge. “Thank you Mr. Yin for the kind invitation to lunch.” At that moment, Xiang Zhe’s car appeared. Xiang Zhe opened the door for Miss Zhen, and then got in after her.
While they were enjoying lunch at his favourite Japanese restaurant, Xiang Zhe was thanking his dead mother for his good luck.
Back at the Ministry’s building earlier, he couldn’t recognise Shan Mei. In her working suit, she looked so elegant and poised. Her tailored suit in that colour brought out the peaches and cream in her complexion. Her face had on the barest of make-up. Her high heels accentuated her slim, long legs. Her long hair was caught up in a neat chignon. Her big clear eyes were honest and expressive. When she smiled at him, all the surliness of these past few weeks in his heart immediately vanished. Her delicate features belied her strength, the strength she displayed so subtly, yet so clearly that day on that basketball court. She had stamped her indelible mark in his heart, when she gave him her sweet smile and a small wave of her hand, as she drove her van away that Sunday.
Shan Mei herself was silently thinking along similar lines of Yin Xiang Zhe. That morning when he came to visit her at the hospital, she didn’t at first recognize him because he looked so different in his city attire. He had his dark hair neatly slicked back from his forehead, and he was dressed very smartly in an expensively-tailored suit, very Saville Row. She had thought because of the medication she had taken, her mind was getting woozy, thinking that Mr. Yin looked so handsome and yet daunting!
Earlier at the Ministry’s lobby and now sitting across the dining table from him, she had to admit he not only looked handsome, he was well-mannered, soft spoken and caring. She was surprised by all the attention he was showering upon her, because before he asked her to proceed with her soup, he checked whether the soup was too hot for her. Later, after he mixed the wasabi with soy sauce, he test-tasted it to see whether the mixture was too spicy for her, when he found out she didn’t like her Wasabi too strong.
She couldn’t help but feel a bit pampered by all the attention.
Shan Mei looked around the nice, quiet Japanese restaurant where they were having lunch. She admired the ambience of the place, praised the quality of service and the attractive presentation of the dishes. Amusement flickered across Xiang Zhe’s face, as he sat opposite her, watching her and hearing her talk.
When they finished their meal and was enjoying coffee, Shan Mei opened the little attractive carrier bag given to her by that man in the car she had referred to as Uncle, and brought out some chocolates. She handed a few to Xiang Zhe.
“Your uncle still treats you like a little girl?”
“Yes, every time he takes me to the doctor.” She laughed softly at that, her eyes, suddenly bright and luminous, seemed to recall many secret incidents from the past.
“Miss Zhen was at the doctor this morning?”
Shan Mei nodded her head. “Follow-up check.” When she saw the concern in Xiang Zhe’s eyes, she smiled and reassured him, “Don’t worry for your players. Dr. Cho says everything is fine.”
“I’m not worried for them. I’m worried for you!” His voice was very soft and full of concern.
“Thank you Mr. Yin. I’m fine now.”
“Have you not been training with your boys?”
“Someone has taken over to help me. I’m only supervising. My uncle nags me and tries to keep me busy on Sunday afternoons with errands, so I can’t go with the boys. Anyway for the safety of the kids, we’re now training at Youido No. 2 High School.”
“May I ask where did you learn to play basketball like that? You were brilliant.”
Very bashfully, she answered, “In Shanghai. And if you’re referring to that final hoop, it came with a hundred thousand hours of practice on a trampoline, and a few thousand hours of being lain down with ankle and hip injuries.” She laughed unconsciously, and Xiang Zhe simply loved the tingle of her laugh, thinking her perfect mouth showing the slight attractive unevenness of two of her front teeth was made for laughing and kissing, if the kisses only came from him! Suddenly, he couldn’t stand the thought of another man kissing her, touching her.
“You live in Shanghai?”
“I spent my final 2 years of senior high in Shanghai’s Fudan Senior High School, then 4 years at Shanghai’s East China University of Politics and Law and a further 1 year, apprenticing with their Foreign Ministry Export Trade Department.” As an afterthought, very slowly she shook her head. “You think I’m brilliant? You haven’t seen how the girls at my university play. They are formidable. The Chinese players are not known as the Great Wall of China for nothing.”
“Do you go with the Korean delegations to China?”
“Very seldom. My main duty is to assist the Foreign Trade Minister in welcoming and keeping company with the Chinese dignitaries visiting Korea. Since I’ve lived in China 7 years, I’m considered to be familiar with their customs and habits, so it’s more comfortable for the visitors if I accompany them during their visits in Seoul. If I don’t have any visitor in that month, I may join a delegation, to update myself with the latest developments in that country. More and more opportunities are becoming available to the Chinese manufacturers or suppliers as well as to foreign investors as China opens up.”
“So, you are an expert in trading for the China market?”
Shan Mei smiled shyly and looked down at her hands. “I wouldn’t dare claim to be a China expert but my father expects me to follow family tradition and join the diplomatic corps. My grandfather was an ambassador in Japan for many years, before he retired.”
“What about you? What do you want to do for yourself?”
“I want to keep my options open.” As she said that, she wished she could be more assertive in her answer, not the uncertainty conveyed by the tone of her voice. Xiang Zhe didn’t pursue the matter; he just gave Shan Mei an understanding smile.
Shan Mei glanced at her wrist watch and thought Xu Ying Mei should be back from her lunch.
==
Xiang Zhe was disappointed by the reminder. He had waited so long to see her. Now that he had caught her by perchance, he was reluctant to let her go so easily. He wanted to hear her talk; he wanted to know more about her. He tried detaining her. “Do you mind if I have another cup of coffee? I know it sounds silly, but I’m trying to delay my visit to China, this vast unknown land.”
“Why?”
“My father never liked dealing with the Chinese ever since the border war. He had so many opportunities to visit China with official delegations when they first opened their doors. He ignored them all. Now, our competitors who had their feet in there first, are reaping the benefits. I insisted that we should do a trial run at least. That’s why I had to personally go to the Ministry’s office to ask about the trips. My father thought the idea of importing from China was folly and told me, in no uncertain terms, that I would be personally responsible if I messed things up.”
“What does he mean by that?”
“Any loss sustained by the company, I have to cover from my own pockets.”
“Oh? That’s so unfair to you. You’re only doing it for the company. I’m sure your father is a very experienced businessman but the adage “no risk no gain” still holds true. I don’t have much time today, but I hope one day when I have, we can sit down and you tell me what you hope to achieve in China, and I’ll see how we can help you. If your father really means what he has said about you repaying the company for the deals he expected you to mess up, then I hope he also means you can keep all the profits from the fantastic deals I expect you to be making soon.” Her eyes and her smile showed him she was just jesting.
Xiang Zhe grinned broadly at this. Shan Mei then handed him her business card.
“Call me when you have a day free. If I don’t have visitors, you can come up to my office and we’ll see how we can assist you.”
Xiang Zhe was not too keen on the idea of meeting at her office, so business-like. He was thinking more in line of a quiet romantic dinner somewhere, where they could talk uninterrupted. Anyway, something was better than nothing. He put the card away very carefully in his wallet.
At the Foreign Trade Ministry building, they went up to the 15th floor and went through to the Import Department. The girl handling the first-time visitors to the China Trade Division was Xu Ying Mei.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Shan Mei introduced Ying Mei to Mr. Yin.
“Ying Mei, this is Mr. Yin Xiang Zhe. Mr. Yin is interested in pursuing import opportunities from China. He would like to join a suitable trade delegation. Can you please take down what commodities his company is interested in so your department can assist him properly. Thank you.” After leaving Xiang Zhe with Xu Ying Mei, Shan Mei went back to her office on the 28th floor of the same building.
As Shan Mei was making the introduction, Xu Ying Mei was pursing her lips, arching her brows, inclining slightly her head to one direction, then back to another direction, sometimes shrugging at her shoulders. All these little mannerisms irritated Xiang Zhe. He found these mannerisms quite familiar, when he was having tea with those girls his father and step mother were forever trying to foist on him. Those girls behaved exactly the way this Xu Ying Mei was behaving.
On Xu Ying Mei’s side, one look at this Mr. Gorgeous Moneybags, she was captivated. She went out of her way to be extra pleasant. However, she failed to use her normal tone of voice. When she started talking in her pretentious sensual cloying voice, Xiang Zhe found it grating on his ears, and couldn’t concentrate. He sat there, trying to find an excuse to leave as quickly as possible.
Very sneakily, he pressed slightly on the button on his hand phone now in his jacket pocket that would connect him to Zian Da. He then disconnected the call. As expected, Zian Da soon called him back. Xiang Zhe excused himself to take the call. After he returned to Miss Xu’s desk to continue giving her what items he was looking for in China, he told her, “Sorry for the interruption during our conversation but something very urgent has cropped up in my office that needs immediate attention. I apologise but I have to leave right away. Maybe you can forward the details regarding seafood to me whenever the Ministry is planning a trade delegation to China.” Then he hurried off.
“Whew,” he let off a low whistle as he entered the elevator. Once downstairs, he told his driver to take him to Mr. Kim Zian Da’s office, after that the driver could return to the Wen Rong office.
==
“What happened brother? What game were you playing, first disconnecting the line, then when I called back, you simply took the call but remained uncommunicative except answering with an occasional ‘yes’, ‘uh’?” Zian Da fired his questions when he noticed Xiang Zhe was excited about something.
“Oh that! I was just trying to get rid of this silly girl at the China Trade Import Dept. I was there trying to tell her what Wen Rong was interested in importing and she tried to side-tracked me by asking all kinds of irrelevant questions.”
“I think I know the one you mean. Many of my clients have complained about her. As soon as she is told how much the company is worth, her eyes sparkles with greed and wants to get personally involved, even though her job is only to take down the details and pass them on to the officers-in-charge of the various commodities. So what else is new?”
Sitting in front of Zian Da, Xiang Zhe could only smile and said not a thing, but his eyes sparkled with intrigue.
“Hey, if you are not going to tell me some juicy gossips, I’m going to start charging by the hour,” Zian Da threatened and was about to turn his hour glass, when Xiang Zhe gave him a shy grin and confessed, “I had a long, long lunch with HER this afternoon.”
“By HER, I assume you mean Miss Zhen. Is this all you’ve got to tell?”
“More….” Xiang Zhe sounded very mysterious.
“Come on, old boy, spill. You know I can’t wait. Waiting stresses me out.”
Xiang Zhe leaned forward in his chair. His eyes were brimming over with undisguised joy. He bit at his lower lip, wondering whether to tell all, but the news was too big to keep to himself. Very slowly, he said, “She’s going to be the future Mrs. Yin Xiang Zhe.”
Zian Da almost fell off his chair. He righted himself, and after positioning himself firmly back into his chair when he asked, with a dose of skepticism, “What? She has accepted you? Today’s lunch was only the second time you saw her!”
“Third time…..! She has sort of accepted.”
“Okay, third….. And what do you mean by sort of?”
“She promised to help me import from China. We’re going to meet up to discuss this in detail. You get the picture? First she helps me with my business, and then after a few twirls around the town wining and dining, I’ll make her my wife; helping me in the office and giving me tender, loving care at home.”
“As easy as that, eh? Mr. Yin, can you please go walk around downstairs in the vicinity of my office, get a passably good looking girl up here so she can help me in my business. I’ll wine and dine her a few months, then ‘presto’, she becomes my wife, and stays home and takes care of me and my household.” Zian Da shook his head slowly at the impossibility of this silly notion.
Xiang Zhe ignored his teasing. He thought most probably Zian Da was envious. He had been running after Yong Xi, a common friend of theirs, for years. Still she hadn’t encouraged him in the least, except telling him they were merely good friends.
“And Zian Da, remember you asked whether she was a beauty? Today, I have the chance to talk to her and look at her up close. I can tell you quite truthfully, she’s the most beautiful girl walking the face of this planet.”
One look at his love-struck buddy, Zian Da gave up arguing. This was no time to talk sense into this man. Had he been charmed? He used to say he didn’t know what love was, he didn’t want to marry, he didn’t want children, and he simply wanted a peaceful existence!
Xiang Zhe had been chanting this mantra for the past 15 years since he was 16. He was the official flag carrier for all their bachelor friends. He was a stalwart in their ‘Singles’ club. Now, in a span of just over 4 weeks, he wanted to date this girl he just met, then he wanted to marry this girl.
Yeah, he did mention the girl was special. Zian Da wanted to know what was so special about the girl that Xiang Zhe could flush a 15-year old mantra down the toilet, blithely moon-talking and moon-walking himself all the way to the bathroom.
Zian Da got up from his chair, feeling a little bit uncomfortable. He couldn’t bear to see that silly grin on his buddy’s face anymore.
“Xiang Zhe, let’s go grab some really extra strong black coffee at this new coffee house next to Soho’s. I think you need a wake-up call to your dream.”
==
Two days later, in Wen Rong office. Xiang Zhe’s secretary put a telephone call through to him.
“Good morning. Yin Xiang Zhe here.”
“Mr. Yin? This is Xu Ying Mei. I have gathered together some useful information regarding imports of seafood from China into Korea. Maybe we can meet this evening for dinner, so I can explain the information in greater detail to you?”
“Is it possible to come over to my office?”
“I’m not supposed to leave my office during office hours.”
“How about meeting in your office?”
“I have 3 other companies coming up for meetings.”
“Okay, if this is the case, I’ll ask my import division manager whether he could spare the time for dinner this evening. Can you please hold on a second?”
“Erh… Mr. Yin, I thought I would be seeing you this evening? I want to personally hand over the information to you.”
“But Miss Xu, my division manager Mr. Choo Chen Sui is the one who will be handling the importing businesses and deals. It’s best if you explain directly to him so he can understand the position correctly. For your kindness, it’s only proper that Mr. Choo takes you to dinner. I’ll have Mr. Choo call you to arrange a time. Thank you Miss Xu for your kindness.”
“Whew!” Xiang Zhe let out a loud sigh of relief after he put the phone down. He had expected this. Zian Da had warned him, too. The other girls usually did the same. They would wait one or two days, before phoning him.
He’d always taken his own attractiveness for granted. He had never had to wonder if women find him desirable. Beckoning eyes and plentiful supply of eager females were only too willing to throw themselves at him since his senior high school days. Even Yong Xi, considered somewhat of a beauty in their circle of friends, wanted him and had shamelessly pursued him even though he had hinted many times he was not interested. This very fact alone made him cautious and wary when dealing with the female gender.
With a double degree from Cambridge, a sizeable inheritance from his mother and grandfather, a directorship in one of Korea’s top ten food processing businesses, Xiang Zhe was considered one of the more eligible bachelors in Seoul, not in the same class as those princelings with bottomless inheritances from the few big-family-owned multi-leveled conglomerates; but he was only two or three tiers lower.
“Bah,” he muttered lowly, as he took a cigarette out of a cigarette pack and put it between his lips. He was about to light it, when he wondered whether Miss Zhen liked smokers. He removed the cigarette slowly from his mouth. He had to try other ways to keep his sanity in check before he met her on Sunday. He hadn’t told her, but he had decided to drop by Youido No. 2 High School on Sunday, and then go somewhere quiet with her to discuss ‘import business.’
==
Come Sunday, Xiang Zhe waited by the side of his car for Shan Mei in front of the school. The van appeared at 1 p.m. The little boys recognised him and immediately ran up to him. “Uncle, why are you here? You also want lessons from Miss Zhen too?”
Shan Mei walked towards them, pleasantly surprised, a big smile on her face. “Mr. Yin, you have a very good memory.”
“Please, my name is Xiang Zhe. I want to see whether the boys have improved in their skill.”
“They just finished lunch, so they can’t play yet.” As she said that, she shouted to the boys to rest for 20 minutes, before game would begin. They were sitting at some steps, when a boy ran up to Shan Mei and sat on her lap, and laid his head on her shoulder. Xiang Zhe recognized him as the little boy who wouldn’t mind a burger from him.
“Yes, San-doo, you’re feeling sleepy?” she asked softly as she stroked his stomach back and forth. He had eaten the most at lunch and Shan Mei had wondered when he was going to feel drowsy.
“No. I want some help.” Shan Mei gave San-doo a quizzical look.
“I want to buy a birthday present for my mother. Her birthday is next week. What do you suggest I buy?”
“Depends on how much you want to spend.”
“I’ve managed to save 2,000 Won.” He took the money from his waist pouch to show Shan Mei. She pinched his cheeks, telling him he was a good son.
“Let me think. If I were your mother, I wouldn’t want you to spend all your savings on buying me a present, but it will be nice if I receive a present from my son. I can think of him all the time. I know, why don’t you buy her an apron? I know of this new chain of one-price stores. Everything in their store goes for one price, maybe 999 Won or something close. You can save 1001 Won, and maybe leave it for another present another time. Every time your mother has on the apron, she will surely want to make good, delicious food for you. How about that, San-doo?”
“That’s a good idea. Miss Zhen, can you buy it for me, because I don’t know where to go to buy it, and if I leave it in my room, my mother will find it.”
“No problem at all.” San-doo gave Shan Mei 1000 Won, putting the other 1000 Won note securely back into his waist pocket. In return, Shan Mei rummaged around her purse for some loose coin. She found a 10 Won coin and gave this to San-doo, telling him it was the change. After putting the coin into his waist pocket, he ran away happily to play with the other kids, his problem solved and taken care of.
“Hey, children, no running around yet, until your lunch is digested properly,” Shan Mei reminded the kids.
After San-doo ran off, and hearing Shan Mei reminding them about their lunch,
Xiang Zhe looked at Shan Mei and smiled shyly at her.
“Anything the matter, Mr. Yin?”
“Xiang Zhe, please.” He then mimicked San-doo’s childish voice. “Miss Zhen, I’m feeling sleepy, can you stroke me to sleep?”
Shan Mei laughed at his antics. “You’re feeling sleepy? I have just the very job for you. Why don’t you show the kids how to dribble the ball properly? Don’t run around too hard though. I know the ball is too big for them. They always want to rush. Please tell them no need to rush. They must watch the ball fall on its proper spot to get the correct bounce. You can do that until Peter arrives at 2 to help play with the boys.”
“And while I’m doing that, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to watch whether you are giving the proper training.” Xiang Zhe liked the idea very much. He liked to know Shan Mei would be watching him.
“And who is this Peter?”
“Some university student who has volunteered to help.”
Xiang Zhe took the ball and went up to the boys, telling them to watch some dribbling skills from Uncle Xiang Zhe. The boys rallied around him, laughing happily, every time Xiang Zhe threw them the ball, asking them to do something.
Peter Hyun, Shan Mei’s training assistant, arrived at 2. He had walked over from a Christian church he attended every Sunday a few blocks away from Youido High. He was a visiting graduate from Busan Technology University, doing research in Seoul at National Shilla University. Xiang Zhe liked Peter at first sight, and the two of them helped the boys go about at their ball throwing routines. Shan Mei went round to sit under some shade. By 3 p.m. the players were tired and thirsty, and sat down for drinks and snacks.
It was at that time that Shan Mei’s auntie phoned, asking her, “When are you going to arrive at the house?”
“Pretty soon, Auntie.”
Before Shan Mei packed up her things ready to leave, she reminded Peter, “Please send the boys home when they finish with their game, and to be careful on the road. I have to run off now.”
Xiang Zhe stopped playing around and insisted on driving her.
“Are you sure? If you are going to give me a lift, I would like to drop by one of those one-price stores in town to buy San-doo’s present, before going off to my uncle’s house.”
At the Discount Store, Xiang Zhe was surprised. The apron looked good, for 999 Won when he held it up for inspection.
Shan Mei told him, she would embroider ‘Mummy, I love you’, to give the apron that extra special touch.
“You do that for your own mother too?” Xiang Zhe asked, thinking how wonderful it was to have a mother by one’s side.
Shan Mei kept quiet and looked away, not before Xiang Zhe saw her eyes going red.
He remained quiet too. After a little while, he asked her, “Did I remind you of something unhappy? I’m so sorry.”
Shan Mei turned back to face him. “What do you have to be sorry about when you know nothing about my circumstances? My mother has a very weak constitution and the doctors in London were skeptical whether she would be able to recover because she also suffered from high blood pressure. When my father heard that China had a very high successful rate in treating its weak patients with spleen, liver and kidney problems without surgery, he applied for transfer to Shanghai. My mother is currently in Shanghai undergoing various types of traditional Chinese cures and therapy. My father won’t allow me to visit her, saying my presence always made my mother cry and this only stressed her out and would disrupt her therapeutic healing. He insisted her health is showing marked signs of improvements. I missed her very much, but I know this is only for her good. I’m so thankful I have the most wonderful parents in the world. What about you?”
“My mother died when I was 24. I wasn’t with her when she died. That time I was studying in England. I’m sorry I cannot say the same as you about my father. He is a very irresponsible man.”
When Shan Mei didn’t say anything, he continued, “He left us when I was 15 years old to go live with another woman. The woman is now my step mother. There is one son from that marriage. I hate her. Every time I look at her, I remember how my mother had suffered. I never like going to their house.”
Shan Mei kept quiet, as they walked along the sidewalk back to his car. “Hey, how about I treat to you to an ice cooler. All this walking and talking is hot work.”
Xiang Zhe laughed along with her, and they stepped into the first ice cream parlour that came into view. As they talked and laughed, Shan Mei could see that the sad shadows behind Xiang Zhe’s eyes had gone, and she felt relieved.
Uncle and Auntie were in their front lawn lounging in their garden swing, when Shan Mei drove up with a man they had never met before. Uncle was surprised. He had thought his niece would be taking a taxi. Auntie was excited – such a handsome man giving her niece a lift. She was curious and wanted to know more about him. She immediately invited him to dinner.
Xiang Zhe was embarrassed, wondering whether it was polite to accept a dinner invitation at a first meeting. He didn’t want to get into their bad books, thinking he was ill-bred. Auntie insisted. Xiang Zhe did not dare accept, until Shan Mei told him to stay. He tingled with excitement and happiness.
At dinner, Uncle found out Xiang Zhe was the trainer of that undisciplined team.
“You the trainer of those hooligans? Well, Xiang Zhe, I’d better warn you. The Youido District Community Committee members are going to meet at the end of this month to decide whether these rough-necks can continue to play at the park. I have talked to a few of the members and we’ve decided to vote to black-list them. I suggest you better start looking for an alternative venue.”
Xiang Zhe felt so embarrassed, he wished he could crawl and hide under the dining table, because he had surmised, during the course of the dinner conversations that Shan Mei’s uncle happened to be the Director of the Youido District Youth Welfare Association. He cast Shan Mei an uncertain look, wondering whether he was still welcomed to continue his dinner.
“Uncle, you’ve just scared Xiang Zhe off. He was just helping his friend, by taking over the training for 2 weeks while the friend took a holiday. Anyway, when his boys lost their basketball that Sunday, Xiang Zhe told me they didn’t train the following Sunday because there was no ball. A very important fact they had all forgotten. Since they were at the park already, he made them jog round the park for 2 hours before calling it a day.” And Shan Mei laughed softly at that.
Shan Mei picked up the conversation again, after urging Xiang Zhe to continue with his meal.
“Uncle, I’ve told you to handle the situation with more rationale. Those boys do need the time on that basketball court to work out their excess energy, whatever. This would keep them out of mischief. If you really want to help the youths of today, you can suggest that their trainer can still make a reservation to use the court. Instead of the usual 3 hours, he has to sign up for 5 hours. Any time they fall short of the 5 hours, they’re out. I think I’ve seen their trainer from afar once. It seems he can do with the extra time too, he needs to shed some weight off himself. They don’t have to use all the 5 hours on court. They could leave about 2 hours to help clean up all the spectator stands as a community service.” When she made that suggestion, Shan Mei made a slight grimace with her face.
“Anyway, Xiang Zhe is now helping me train my group of boys at Youido High. Peter could do with the extra help.” Then she looked over to Xiang Zhe to give him her grateful thanks.
Uncle felt much better with this new bit of information. He picked up a plate of BBQ beef slices and passed it over to Xiang Zhe, at the same time saying, “Xiang Zhe, why don’t you ask your trainer friend to give me a call at my office sometime next week? I’ll see what we can do for him and his boys, but I can’t promise anything.”
Xiang Zhe felt utter relief. And to help smooth over the awkward moment, Auntie had just come back to the table with a plate of fried meat and vegetable dumplings that she had just heated up in the microwave oven. She placed the plate in front of her husband.
“Here honey, try your favourite dumplings. I used an improved recipe for these.”
“You know something, Auntie? These happened to be Xiang Zhe’s favourite too. The last time he treated me to lunch at this Japanese restaurant, he finished off a dozen of their fried gyoze.” Shan Mei then turned to Xiang Zhe.
“Xiang Zhe, please don’t be shy. Try my auntie’s gyoze. They are absolutely out of this world. That’s how my auntie keeps my uncle in line. No good behaviour, no gyoze.” She turned to her Auntie and coaxed her in siding with her. “Auntie, remember, if Uncle doesn’t allow those rough-necks to play at the park the way I suggested, please don’t give him anymore of your delicious dumplings.”
Uncle and Auntie laughed heartily. Xiang Zhe joined in. He really liked the easy, happy, family ambience around the Kim’s dining table very much. Not like the stifled, uneasy atmosphere at his father’s house whenever he was home for dinner. Stifled and heavy, because no one talked at the dining table.
Auntie agreed with Shan Mei. “Honey, Shan Mei is right. Those boys, whoever they are, definitely need plenty of exercise to work off their surplus trouble-making energy. Making them work around the park as their contribution to the Youido Community is a good idea. I have confidence you can easily convince your friends to accept this.”
Uncle Kim knew when to give up when the two women in his house decided to gang up on him together. He gave Xiang Zhe an eye wink and asked him about his business instead. Xiang Zhe told Uncle Kim of his intention to join a trade delegation to China. Uncle Kim was surprise, then advised him to forget those people at the China Trade Import Department, “Xiang Zhe, don’t bother talking to those people, especially that one who is supposed to take down your company details and inform you of any delegation trips to or from China. Even my wife can do better than that. All they talk about is dinner and meetings which eventually will amount to nothing. My friends have wasted a lot of time and money with them in the past. Eventually, any good stuff will still go the people with the most money.”
When the dinner ended, Uncle Kim suggested having coffee in the garden. He looked at his wife and coaxed, “Leave the washing-up to later. Bring out the fruits and coffee to the garden so we can enjoy the beautiful weather. The kids will have to leave soon anyway, tomorrow being a working day.”
Out in the garden, Uncle Kim again broached the subject of China trade, his face becoming serious as he shook his head at some unpleasant memory. “Xiang Zhe, no doubt about it. Money talks and walks in big business – money making more money.” He turned to look steadily at his niece. “Hey, Shan Mei, why don’t you help Xiang Zhe out? Put him in contact with some reliable Chinese exporters so he doesn’t have to waste money entertaining those guys wanting free meals?”
Auntie was agreeable to the suggestion at once, because she was warming up to this very pleasant, handsome and ambitious young man, thinking to herself, this man would make a good match for her niece. “Yes, Shan Mei, help Xiang Zhe. If Xiang Zhe imports directly from China, he can cut out many middlemen.”
Shan Mei remained quiet and non-committal. She didn’t want to promise something she might have trouble fulfilling. After all, she was the Personal Assistant to the Foreign Trade Minister in the China Division, which meant, her presence was as good as the Foreign Trade Minister’s at functions or meetings where he was unable to attend, in anything relating to China trade. She knew practically everything that was happening to China Trade even before the Foreign Trade Minister did. Colleagues not understanding the situation would accuse her of abusing her position and her employer’s trust. If Xiang Zhe was not a friend, it would have been easier to assist him. She would have to investigate another possible way to help him out.
Sensing Shan Mei’s reluctance, Auntie turned to Xiang Zhe and assured him, “Xiang Zhe, don’t worry. If Shan Mei cannot do it because of her job, Auntie will phone Shan Mei’s father tomorrow morning and then take you to see him directly. He’s my brother-in-law, and he never refuses me anything. And it won’t be the first time he has done this for us. He put one of Uncle Kim’s school friends in contact with a manufacturer of office furniture. That company is now doing very well and, as an appreciative gesture, only recently changed all the office furniture in the Welfare Association for free, right honey? Uncle Kim nodded his head in agreement.
Auntie Kim continued, “You see, when my sister became very ill while they were in London, my husband and I insisted that they send Shan Mei to us so we could care for her until she left for university. It’s only after Shan Mei returned to join the Korean Foreign Trade Ministry that she insisted on staying by herself in their old house.” Auntie turned to Shan Mei and fretted, “We still can’t understand why you want to stay by yourself and not here with us.”
Mr. Kim laughed and pulled his wife closer to him. “Aiya, Honey, Shan Mei is a big girl now and can make her own decisions. Anyway, no matter where she stays, she is still going to be the best in our next generation.” He gave Xiang Zhe a meaningful glance from under his brow.
Xiang Zhe glanced at Shan Mei and smiled sweetly to himself. The first time he set eyes on her, he already knew she was some one special.
==
Eight months later. Xiang Zhe was in his office, wondering whether Shan Mei would be free for dinner that evening, when his mobile phone buzzed. He looked at the ID caller, and became thrilled, thinking to himself: ‘Dreaming of his angel, here she comes a-calling!
“Xiang Zhe, has Xu Ying Mei or her supervisor from the Import Trade Division been in touch with you?” Shan Mei was talking quite rapidly and urgently to Xiang Zhe on the phone.
“Xu Ying Mei has called several times; no one else from her department has,” came his slow, steady reply.
“So you know a China trade delegation will be arriving at the end of next month to Seoul? Members from this delegation are looking for importers of foodstuff. Have you filled in the forms indicating the products you are interested in? I haven’t seen your company’s name on the invitation list for attendees to the welcoming banquet on the first night of their arrival.”
Xiang Zhe sounded surprised. “Her Dept has sent me nothing. Miss Xu has called several times wanting me to take her out to dinners and dance clubs. I feel very uncomfortable talking with her, so I’ve asked my secretary to brush her off.”
“Aiya, Xiang Zhe, you can’t brush these people off. If you’re nice to them, they’ll arrange for you to meet the right people. Otherwise, they can make things difficult for you.”
After talking to this Miss Xu a few times, Xiang Zhe had a pretty good idea that all she did at the Foreign Trade Ministry was to take down details of each company wanting to do business with the Chinese traders, nothing more. Even though she tried to make herself sound and look very important, Zian Da had already told him how the Ministry worked. She was not the one who would arrange the meetings. She simply sorted out the papers and passed them along to the right persons handling the various enquiries. If he had not received anything, it proved that Miss Xu had simply withheld Wen Rong’s application. When Xiang Zhe was there to fill out the forms, he had to state the items he was interested in and the worth in monetary terms he had in mind of importing and the current volume of business handled by his company. She tried to use this knowledge for her own advantage. Obviously, Xiang Zhe, had deduced after all this time, this Miss Xu had liked his looks and his money.
“I’m not going to lower myself to pander to her whims. If that’s the case, then I’d rather give up the company, and return to England. Or, go to live in China to personally handle the export trade directly from there.”
“That’s a good idea, but you’ve got to start off from somewhere. I’ll see what I can do in the meantime. One of the delegation participants is very close to my father. However, if he arrives with the delegation, their programmes will be so tight there won’t be time for him to see you. I’ll ask my Pa to arrange something with him.”
“Shan Mei, do you still recommend I go with Xu Ying Mei even if she suggests I go with her to a love motel?” Xiang Zhe was subtly trying to test waters.
“Yin Xiang Zhe, don’t talk such nonsense. Xu Ying Mei wouldn’t do that.”
“But that was what she insinuated the last time she called. She said after dinner, she was free all night, maybe she and I could go somewhere and have some fun.”
Shan Mei didn’t answer.
“Well?” Xiang Zhe kept pressing down the line for her answer.
“It’s a decision only you can make for yourself.”
“Miss Zhen, if you were my mummy, what would you suggest your son do?” Mimicking little San-doo’s childish voice, he pled, “Please, mummy, please help.”
“That’s enough Son otherwise you’ll get a good smack on your bottom, for fooling around with girls at your tender age. Wait till you’re grown up like 29 or 30, then you can do what you like.” Shan Mei tried to sound as tough as possible, while suppressing her laughter.
Xiang Zhe joined in the laughter, then softly teased her, “I’m so scared, mummy.” After a slight pause, he asked dryly, “Will you be with the delegation that’s coming?”
“Not actually with the entire delegation. I’ll be going around with the top guys accompanying them to visit the presidents and chairmen of Korea’s top food production corporations. Alright, I’ve to go now. I want to call my pa. Take care.”
“That means you may be visiting us. Don’t forget, we’re within the top ten.”
Shan Mei laughed. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Yin. Meetings with the top three only.”
==
Seoul International Airport, Arrivals Hall:
Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei were at the airport waiting for Mr. Chen Min Hui, arriving from Shanghai. While they waited, Xiang Zhe rented a hand phone from one of the mobile phone retail booths for Mr. Chen’s use during his stay in Seoul so he could keep in touch with Shan Mei.
Mr. Chen was part of the trade delegation visiting Seoul in 3 days’ time. Mr. Chen was very close to the Zhen family, and had looked upon Shan Mei as his little sister. Age-wise, he was old enough to be her Uncle, but he looked so young, most people thought he was Zhen Gui Cheng’s son.
Zhen Senior had arranged for Mr. Chen to arrive in Seoul 3 days earlier than the official trade delegation, so Shan Mei would have the time to accompany him to visit Yin Xiang Zhe’s cannery and seafood processing factory.
Zhen Senior had heard a lot about this boy Yin Xiang Zhe from his brother- and sister-in-law. He had asked her daughter about her feelings for this boy. Shan Mei was non-committal, claiming they were just good friends.
Father laughed at his daughter, “Just good friends ONLY but so anxious that he shall not be cheated out of the chance to meet these people who can supply seafood to the Yins?” And he continued to laugh teasingly at his daughter.
Zhen Senior had also asked Chen Min Hui to take a good look at this Yin Xiang Zhe. There was a strong possibility the boy might one day end up as his son-in-law.
==
Shan Mei saw Chen Min Hui emerging from Customs and immediately waved to him.
They laughed and hugged each other. The last time Shan Mei visited him was 1-1/2 years ago. He held Shan Mei a little away from him, and gave her an appraising overall look.
He nodded his head, #“Little sister, you’re looking really good.”#
# “ Thank you, you’re not looking bad yourself. Sorry, Elder Brother, have to rush you. But once the delegation starts to visit potential importers, it will be impossible to get you away.”#
#“No problem, little sister. Anything I can do for you, of course I want to help. Take me to this company.”#
Shan Mei turned to the distinguished-looking man standing beside her.
“Xiang Zhe, this is Mr. Chen Min Hui.” Xiang Zhe gave Mr. Chen a polite bow.
#“Elder Brother, this is my friend, Mr. Yin Xiang Zhe.” #
Shan Mei then handed to Mr. Chen the hand phone that Xiang Zhe had rented for him, explaining his own hand phone could not be used in Korea. Shan Mei gave Mr. Chen her phone number.
==
Wen Rong’s car took them to Xiang Zhe’s office where the cannery was. Yin Senior happened to be there, supervising inspection of stock.
In the large conference room, Mr. Chen went through the range of Wen Rong products. From the samples displayed on the conference table, he put aside the canned products his company would be able to supply – sardines, mackerels, anchovies, and scallops. “Seafood, we can supply fresh, chilled, frozen, or canned. We supply fresh, chilled or frozen yellow croakers. We can supply all of Wen Rong’s requirements.”
He took out from his briefcase several photo albums. Shan Mei asked Xiang Zhe to go through the photos to see other foodstuffs they were interested in. Xiang Zhe handed the photo albums to his father.
Yin Senior became very excited. He pointed out to almost everything like the few types of mushrooms, dried chillies, fresh chillies, all kinds of spices, ginkgo nuts, and pine nuts. Shan Mei translated for Xiang Zhe.
# “Elder Brother, Mr. Yin and Mr. Yin Senior thank you for your kindness. The items they definitely want are their usual range of products. It is not fair that Wen Rong take everything. Some new items for Korea they are not sure of. When Mr. Yin visits you in China, he will go see the new products then decide whether they dare to introduce to the local market.” #
# “Little sister, please don’t stand on ceremony with me. You ask Mr. Yin whether they want snakes. My other friends in the delegation told me the Koreans love snakes. Although the photos are not here, I can arrange for them too, whatever quantity they want. And you can tell him not to worry. I have all the necessary export permits. Once we start working for a period of time, we see what Wen Rong can take, I promise not to sell to any other importer in Korea. No one can beat our low prices. Wen Rong sure will have plenty to sell. They better start building a few more cold rooms.” #
# “Wen Rong has 6 other cold rooms on the outskirts of Seoul. Only, not enough stock to fill them.” #
Elder Brother started laughing heartily, when Xiang Zhe used sign language, like holding his hands, palm to palm, to thank Mr. Chen for his support.
Elder Brother patted Xiang Zhe on his shoulders, using sign language, indicating Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei were together, so he blessed them. Shan Mei went crimson in her face, with Xiang Zhe grinning away like a Cheshire cat.
Yin Senior was very satisfied with the meeting and invited Mr. Chen to their house for dinner that evening.
# “Elder Brother, Xiang Zhe’s father wants to invite you to their house for dinner tonight. We’ll take you for some lunch now, then send you back to the hotel for some rest. I’ll come and collect you at 7. I hope this arrangement alright.” #
In the car back to the hotel, Elder Brother Chen was telling Shan Mei that boy Xiang Zhe was a good man. So well educated, with such distinguished looks, any girl would want to pursue him. She must not make him wait too long. Men like him were few and hard to find. Xiang Zhe could see Shan Mei blushing and smiling shyly all the time in the car. He smiled knowingly inside himself; he must have earned a very good report from Elder Brother Chen.
At dinner, every one in the Yin family was on their best behaviour. Mr. Chen could size the situation up at once, and did not once make any embarrassing comments, because Shan Mei had explained a little bit of Xiang Zhe’s family background situation before they set off for dinner. When Yin Senior brought out his best whisky and cognac, Mr. Chen took them away from Yin Senior, and using sign language, indicated the brown liquor was not good for him. He brought out from his inside breast pocket a flat bottle of deep brown liquor. He told Shan Mei to tell Yin Senior, this was herbal liquor, a 6 generation family secret recipe. Shan Mei passed the message on.
Mr. Chen took from his wallet a few family photos and showed to Yin Senior. # “See, my father who is 75, looks like 50 plus. This, my grandfather who is 100 looks like 70 plus. My elder brothers 50 and 45 look like men in their late 30’s and early 40’s. I myself am 40 look like 30.” # Mr. Chen was not being vain. He was simply stating facts.
Yin Senior took a sip, and gave thumbs up.
“Uncle, Mr. Chen said he can let Wen Rong market this special herbal liquor if Wen Rong is interested. This liquor is so special, it brings down cholesterol level, blood pressure and reduces stress, giving many health benefits and of course prolonging life. In China, this liquor is only available directly from their bottling factory. They produce only 100,000 bottles per month. They cannot produce enough to meet demands. Within the next 6 months, they will expand production, so if Wen Rong is interested, Mr. Chen can let you have 200 bottles a month, no more.”
Yin Senior thought that was good. 200 bottles would be an easy quantity to sell, to start off.
Before he left Shan Mei that night, Mr. Chen told Xiang Zhe he wanted to see their fresh seafood packing plant the next day. Once he has an idea of their operation, he would be able to recommend more products.
That night Father asked Xiang Zhe to spend the night at the family home. He had many things to discuss with him regarding the import from China. He wanted Xiang Zhe to visit Mr. Chen’s place in China as soon as possible, to make sure he had the quality Wen Rong was after.
“What about this Miss Zhen Shan Mei? She’s your girl friend?”
“Of course I want her to be my girl friend, but she only considers me her good friend. She has many suitors.”
“How long have you known Miss Zhen?”
“About 11 months.”
“Well, you better work harder. She seems to be a very nice and capable girl. Will she be able to accompany you to China?”
“I can try to convince her to get holiday from her office. If she gets the holiday, I am sure she’ll go with me because her father is the South Korean Commercial Attaché in Shanghai. Mr. Chen’s trip was especially arranged by him for us. Mr. Chen is his adopted son, so Mr. Chen treats Shan Mei like his little sister. I don’t think there will be trouble there.”
==
Two months later, Auntie was very excited she was accompanying Shan Mei and Xiang Zhe to Shanghai.
After having Xiang Zhe at her home a few times for Sunday dinners, she realised the boy was totally in love with Shan Mei. It was the silly girl, dilly-dallying about. And when she knew Xiang Zhe helped with the training of the basketball youth team, she insisted he must come every Sunday after the training sessions for dinners, even if Shan Mei couldn’t make it because of her work. If she had Chinese visitors in town, she would have to accompany them.
Xiang Zhe became very close to Auntie and Uncle Kim as he helped around their house doing minor repair jobs. Auntie was surprised by Xiang Zhe’s professional finish in the repair jobs. He told Auntie, “When I lived by myself in London, I did everything myself.”
Auntie was surprised by this information. “You used to live in London?”
She told him, “What a coincidence? Shan Mei too lived in London when her father was Commercial Attaché there. In fact, Shan Mei was born in London. When Shan Mei’s mother became suddenly very ill, Shan Mei was only 9 at that time. Her father sent her back to Seoul a year later to be with me, so she could have a mother’s care. Shan Mei stayed with us until she was 16 when she went off to join her father who had been posted to Shanghai so my sister could receive special traditional Chinese medical care and supervision. Shan Mei is our most precious treasure. There is nothing that we’ll not do for her.”
Xiang Zhe thought that was so very obvious from the loving way Auntie Kim was talking about Shan Mei. No wonder Uncle Kim was ready to pull rank to get Shen Qi Tong’s rough-necks kicked out of Youido Park after the callous way they behaved.
Xiang Zhe winced at the thought of the scalding, hot oil he, Shen Qi Tong and the boys would have been fried in, if Shan Mei had been seriously hurt. He heaved a sigh, and said a prayer of thanks.
==
Shanghai International Airport.
Shan Mei was waving excitedly about when she saw her father out in the arrival hall waiting for them. “Pa, I’ve missed you so much,” Shan Mei bemoaned as she ran into his outstretched arms.
“How’s my beautiful princess?” As he asked he held her a little bit away from him, looking at her this way and that way, turning her around, to see whether she had lost any weight. He laughed satisfactorily.
Then he was introduced to Yin Xiang Zhe. Zhen Gui Cheng looked on with approval at Xiang Zhe. Brother Chen on his return to Shanghai could not stop singing the praises of the boy, assuring Zhen Senior Xiang Zhe would make the perfect son-in-law. Shan Mei and Xiang Zhe matched each other perfectly. Pa wouldn’t let Xiang Zhe stay in a hotel and insisted he stay with them claiming the house was big enough for 2 families.
When they arrived home, Pa looked at his daughter and asked, “Princess, do you want to choose the room for Xiang Zhe?”
Shan Mei looked shyly at Xiang Zhe. “I’ll show you the guest rooms, then you decide which one you want. Auntie, I suppose you will be taking your usual room.” She then turned to Xiang Zhe and beckoned, “Come.”
When the kids were out of the living room, Auntie looked at his brother-in-law and asked enthusiastically, “Well, what did I tell you? Isn’t he gorgeous? And so well behaved and polite.”
While they were walking along the corridor on the upper floor, Xiang Zhe pulled Shan Mei aside and asked her which room was her bedroom.
“Not telling you!”
“If I win you, you’ll tell?”
“You win me? What’s the challenge?” Ever since that fateful Sunday, whenever he thought of Shan Mei, her facial expression with her big round eyes rolling at him when she so self-assuredly challenged “you win me”, that look and that voice would play over and over in his mind. Whenever the occasion arose for a challenge, he liked to rile her.
“Into the basket, from anywhere. The one who misses first, loses.”
“Okay,” Shan Mei quickly agreed, then ran to the storage room to rummage for the basketball.
“What are you kids doing? We’re all tired and will be going for dinner soon. Go wash up. Why, you want to play basketball now?” asked Zhen Senior impatiently as he passed by the hallway.
“No, we are playing challenge game. If I lose, I’ll have to tell Xiang Zhe which one is my room.”
“Aiya princess, don’t always give people challenge. You’re only staying one night here. Tomorrow you have to travel to Liuhe. That’s where Chen has his fish farms and other stuff. Xiang Zhe, don’t listen to her. No need to accept her challenge. Uncle will tell you. Her room is the one with the white and pink door. And you can take the next room. Now go wash up and change. I’m hungry. I want my dinner.” Zhen Senior laughed as he shook his head. This daughter of his! Always going around with her challenges. If Xiang Zhe married her, his life wouldn’t be easy. Poor lad!
For dinner that evening, Zhen Senior took them to a traditional Shanghainese restaurant that was famous for its meat dumplings in soup, fried noodles and paper thin sliced pork. Of course they had a Peking Duck done in 2 different ways. The dessert was lightly fried flour balls made out of whipped egg white and rolled in castor sugar. Xiang Zhe enjoyed his dinner very much. It was a pleasant change from his mainstay of Korean meals and kimchi. Shen Mei’s family really impressed him. They were all so friendly and easy going. Already Shan Mei’s Pa was treating him as part of the family. Uncle Zhen was liberal minded. He said he was easy with them, because he trusted them.
==
Zhen Senior had put aside a car for the sole use of Shan Mei and Xiang Zhe. Very early the next morning, Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei arrived at Brother Chen’s farm in Liuhe on the Jiangsu border, just outside of Shanghai. They then took a speed boat to the rows of fishing junks moored further out in the open sea, at the spot where the Yangtze River met the Yellow Sea. The marine fish and shellfish were bred here in underwater cages.
As they were walking along the narrow walk boards where the cages hung from, Brother Chen signaled to Xiang Zhe to hold on to Shan Mei’s hand to help her along. Xiang Zhe was grateful to Brother Chen’s quick thinking. Xiang Zhe inspected the fish and the lobsters as the cages were pulled up. One of the fishermen tending the cages caught a few yellow croakers, a dozen prawns, a kilo of clams and a lobster, and the speed boat then took them back to the farm office.
From there they visited another breeding farm in another village. Emboldened by Shan Mei’s earlier non-protest, Xiang Zhe continued holding on to her hand when they were in the car, and when they walked around the farm for inspection. Brother Chen was laughing inside, congratulating himself for being a very good matchmaker. By the end of the 4-day trip, he hoped to help win over the fair maiden for Xiang Zhe.
#“Shan Mei, can you please let Xiang Zhe know we’re going to another croaker farm. Brother Foo who runs this farm, participated in the selling trip to Seoul. The seafood importers in Seoul asked him to supply yellow croakers. We told the importers we have agreed to supply all our croakers to Wen Rong. I’m sure these importers will contact him soon.
In this region, we are the largest breeder of yellow croakers. We want to export so we can ask for better price. I give Wen Rong best price, we make some profit, Wen Rong makes some profit, and Wen Rong will be holding the largest stock of marine fish in Seoul.”#
After 2 hours’ drive, they reached Brother Foo’s place in Changshu. While lunch was being prepared with the fish, prawns, clams and lobster from Brother Chen’s farm, and some from Brother Foo’s farm, Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei were shown around the area.
Looking at the fish in the breeding farms stretching all around for miles and miles, Xiang Zhe simply stood there overwhelmed, not able to utter a word. If Brother Chen meant what he said about fish supply, Wen Rong would never run out of stock. With the prices indicated by Brother Chen, Wen Rong would have no problem keeping their sole distributors happy.
#“We are in the processing of getting an export permit for Zhejiang Province. When this permit is issued, we will be able to send more fish to Wen Rong. By that time, with supplies coming from us, Wen Rong will be largest importer of yellow croaker in Korea.”# Brother Chen slapped Xiang Zhe on his back, laughing happily. #“You Croaker King, my little sister Queen.”# He wrote in Chinese the character for #‘King’# and pointed to Xiang Zhe. Xiang Zhe understood this and thanked Brother Chen. Then Brother Chen wrote #‘Queen’# and pointed to Shan Mei. No need to ask Shan Mei to translate, knowing she wouldn’t. Shan Mei was blushing profusely.
Xiang Zhe was blissfully nodding his head in agreement with thumbs up. He was enjoying himself thoroughly. He already caught on quite early whenever Brother Chen was not talking business, he would dispense of Shan Mei’s translation service, and wanted to communicate directly with him by signs and gestures.
Shan Mei was upset with them for teasing her mercilessly during lunch and, now after they finished inspecting the farms. In Shan Mei’s mind [That Xiang Zhe is disgusting going along with Brothers Chen and Foo’s encouragement.] Xiang Zhe never took his eyes away from Shan Mei, wanting to see how she was reacting to their teasing.
After dinner of seafood from their breeding farms, Elder Brother Chen and Brother Foo wanted to take Xiang Zhe out for a spot of drinking. Shan Mei went back to her hotel room to rest. She was tired.
It was past ten when she heard Elder Brother Chen banging on her door, calling out to her. When she opened her door, she found Xiang Zhe drunk and the two brothers were helping him into his room across the corridor from hers, and putting him on the bed.
#“Shan Mei, you better have ready some hot tea for your friend. Try to wipe him clean and get him to sleep. He’s a big man; we had a hard time trying to get him back to the hotel. We’re tired too. We’re going back to our room. See you tomorrow at breakfast. Good night.” #
One look at Xiang Zhe on his bed, Shan Mei chided. “Aiyo, if you can’t drink that much, why didn’t you stop. If you’ve hangover tomorrow, I don’t care.” She was grumbling to a dead log, as he lay there in his bed.
Shan Mei rinsed a towel in hot water, and tried to wipe Xiang Zhe clean as best as she could manage. He looked so helpless and vulnerable lying there. Something for him twisted in her soft, compassionate heart. With her fingers, she combed back his hair that kept falling onto his forehead. Again she chided softly, “How can you be acting like this? Have you forgotten what your father said to you: you would be responsible if you messed up the business with your China imports?”
She pushed two pillows under his head, trying to give him a more comfortable position. Good grief, he really was heavy. By the time she managed to get the pillows under him, she was hot and huffing and took the hot tea she had prepared. She sat down at an armchair and watched over him.
“Shan Mei? Shan Mei?” She went over to the bed and shook him slightly when she heard him calling for her. He was still asleep.
“Xiang Zhe, are you alright?” she asked softly and began to soothe his chest gently. She loosened the cuffs of his shirt, to give his arms freer movement.
Xiang Zhe could vaguely make out Shan Mei’s voice, her fragrance assailed his nose, betraying her nearness. He fought for consciousness so he could talk to her. He wanted so badly to talk to her, to tell her what’s in his heart. “Shan Mei??? Shan..Mei….”
Xiang Zhe had been lying drunk in bed for almost 2 hours.
==
Xiang Zhe sat up in bed and saw Shan Mei sitting in the armchair opposite his bed. She was nodding off to sleep, her arm falling over an arm of the chair, a towel still bunched up loosely in her hand.
He tiptoed quietly up to her and whispered softly into her ear, “Shan Mei?” She startled up, opened her eyes and so was relieved to see Xiang Zhe standing in front of her. The smell of liquor was still with him, at least he appeared to be sober.
She laughed weakly at him. “I’m not a very good nurse, am I? At least you’re feeling better now. Go wash up, while I get some hot tea for you.”
“Where are you off to?” he asked when he saw Shan Mei taking a flask and leaving the room.
“This is only a small hotel in a small town. We’ll have to get our own hot water for tea making. Hot water is usually available from the hot water tap along the corridor.”
“I want to go with you.”
“Go wash up. Hurry up, please do as you’re told, and don’t try to deprive me of more sleep-time.”
After she returned with the hot water, she infused a pot of tea for Xiang Zhe. She sat in one of the two armchairs and waited until Xiang Zhe had finished the hot tea. Then she waited for him to get into bed. She pulled the quilt over him, up to his chin, and bade him goodnight. As she was leaving the room, Xiang Zhe called to her. “Shan Mei, can you give me another hour? I’m not sleepy. I want to talk.”
She looked at him softly and wondered what he had mind at midnight. She was really tired and sleepy and she knew even if she stayed, she would not be able to keep awake when the man began his droning. If she guessed right, it would most probably be another monologue about his ‘unreasonable’ father. It seemed poor Xiang Zhe didn’t have many friends he could unburden to. “Tell you what; I can give you 3 hours, but not tonight. Tomorrow, we have a three hour drive to Nantong. You can talk all you want in the car, okay? Now, be good and go to sleep. You need the rest. We’ll be visiting many fish and shellfish farms tomorrow. You will taste the most delicious fresh water crabs from around the Taihu Lake. Then you decide whether you want those crabs for Korea.” When Shan Mei was coaxing him in that sweet and gentle manner, he simply melted and did as he was told.
During breakfast the next morning, Shan Mei didn’t mention about last night or Xiang Zhe’s drunkenness. He looked a bit sheepish. Brother Chen could read the weather very accurately. He’d better stop teasing and remain quiet for a while, otherwise his plan would end up with opposite effect. Instead of Shan Mei softening up, she might decide to abandon all 3 of them, and possibly return to Shanghai on her own.
When they set out for Nantong, Brother Chen decided they should take two cars. Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei travel in their car, while he and Brother Foo travel in theirs. After Nantong, the brothers would travel further east towards the coast to check shipping agents at Tai’angang, and inspect more of their croaker farms, while Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei would travel back to Shanghai.
In the car, Xiang Zhe clasped Shan Mei’s hand in his big one. He closed his eyes and leant back against the back seat as he feigned tiredness and sleep. He was afraid Shan Mei would nag him about his drinking last night. He simply wanted her closeness. He felt so comfortable and relaxed. Shan Mei kept quiet. When she noticed his even breathing, she tried to gently ease her hand away. Xiang Zhe tightened his hold every time he felt her move. After a few times, she gave up. Xiang Zhe smiled secretly inside himself.
Actually, Shan Mei was not angry with Xiang Zhe for his drinking. For a high-profile businessman, he had very quiet tastes. He didn’t like the club scene, he never smoked in her presence, even when Brothers Chen and Foo were smoking. He didn’t like to socialize and kept mostly to himself. Sunday afternoons, he helped her train the little troopers after Peter returned to Busan. After the games, he would send the boys home, be at Uncle and Auntie’s place to see whether any odd jobs needed being done, then stay for dinner. He deserved to let himself loosen up once in a while. He allowed himself only a few luxuries. He loved dressing in Armani suits and shirts and looking good. He loved good food and dining out. He loved his BMW car. How about asking him to organise some basketball matches during weekdays? The basketball court in the Ministry’s sport auditorium was air conditioned and seldom used.
#“How long more, Mr. Chauffeur?”#
#“Another 2 hours, if the traffic is smooth. Don’t worry, we are right behind Mr. Foo. Take a rest, Miss Zhen.”#
Shan Mei decided to close her eyes and rest. Soon, she too was feeling drowsy.
“Sir? Miss Zhen. Sleep.”
Xiang Zhe roused when he heard Mr. Chauffeur addressing him. Shan Mei had fallen asleep, and rolled about, when the car rocked every time it hit some stones on the road. The car had left the main highway, and was going along a narrow road. Brother Foo, ahead in his MPV, was sending dust into their car.
He gently placed Shan Mei’s head against his shoulder within the curve of his arm. He brushed a loose lock of hair from her face. As he looked at her, her childlike innocence touched a cord in his heart, and he let off a soft sigh. Even in her sleep, she was able to tug at his heartstrings. He loathed to think what she could do to him when she was awake and looking at him with her big round, liquid eyes, and giving him her radiant smiles. The very situation he had wanted to avoid – being emotionally entangled – was now an inescapable destiny for him. He was trapped too deep, and, instead of dreading it, he was loving it. He breathed in her light fragrance and delighted in her nearness. He was also tempted to feel the fullness of her lips. He pulled back his thumb and finger just in time.
==
Even though they had left Seoul only 3 days ago, the trip had been a journey of discovery for him. To Xiang Zhe, the past few days’ travel had opened his eyes, his mind and his heart. He didn’t have to worry about the family business anymore. There would be plenty of food products coming in from China, to keep their food processing plants busy all year round. With the low prices given by Brother Chen, Wen Rong could in turn be able to pass on these benefits to their distributors giving their products a competitive edge.
He was no longer worried of his father’s threat. And why should he be, he began to question himself. Wen Rong was inherited by his mother from his maternal grandfather.
Now, it was that hateful woman who was sitting there in the office as if the business rightfully belonged to her. How dare his father tell him he had to be responsible if he messed the business up with unreliable Chinese products? The company was rightfully his to do with it anyway he pleased and he would not want anything bad to happen to it?
More importantly, he definitely wouldn’t want to see that woman sitting in the office. Precisely, what was she doing in the office anyway? This was one aggravating point he was going to thrash out with his father, when he returned to Seoul.
China was no longer an enigmatic place to Xiang Zhe. The people were unassuming and friendly. They had been driving through beautiful flat countryside with beautiful scenic lakes and water canals since the morning. He would be happy living here if there was a need for him to relocate to Jiangsu to oversee the Wen Rong shipments.
The benign company he had recently been keeping was the best of its kind. These people had never once tried to gain any advantage from him, they were only too willing to extend their genuine assistance in all possible ways. He had never laughed or talked so much these past 3 days, more than he did during his 3 years back in Seoul. And the Zhen family had showered him with so much love. They were always hugging, touching and laughing. They were so open and comfortable with one another, not what he could say about his own family. His father was the typical Korean patriarch – aloof, cold and undemonstrative.
In Seoul, Uncle and Auntie Kim were just as caring – always insisting he ate with them every Sunday evening no matter whether Shan Mei was there or not. Whenever Auntie made special soup, during the weekdays, she would call him on his mobile phone, asking him to drop by for dinner, knowing he ate out most of the time.
Uncle Zhen was jovial and supportive, never once making him feel uncomfortable. As soon as Auntie indicated that a friend of Shan Mei’s needed assistance with his business, Uncle Zhen immediately extended a helping hand. He kept assuring Xiang Zhe if Chen was not a reliable supplier, he would not have recommended him. He never once questioned the status of friendship between him and Shan Mei.
And Shan Mei? She had not once openly discussed his antagonistic attitude towards his father, his stepmother and his half brother. She was always sensitive to his moods. She was like a human barometer.
Whenever, she felt he was in one of his dark, silent moods, she would always come up with light suggestions.
“Hey, how about I treat you to…?”
“Hey, what do you think if we…?”
“Do you think you’d like…..?”
“I’ve been cooped up all day. Do you want to go for a drive for some fresh air..?”
“What do you think of this strategy..?” then she would describe some tactical play on a basketball court.
One time when he couldn’t be humoured in any way, after some quarrel with his father, Shan Mei tried to cheer him up. “Xiang Zhe, will you help me select something to wear?” When he didn’t answer, she coaxed him a little, “You have such impeccable taste, please help me, I need advice. I have to attend a dinner function with PJY Group President Park Joon Yong and his directors.”
“In that case I’ll choose for you the ugliest dress.” He had flatly stated.
“Whatever you choose, I’ll wear to the function.”
“Really?” he had asked, his eyes opened wide on her. He actually believed she would.
When Shan Mei had nodded her head and gave him an “I promise” look, Xiang Zhe was happy all over, his dark mood at once banished to Timbuktu.
He then became excited with concentration when he went through some dresses at a boutique he frequented, for his menswear requirements.
“You’re going with a Chinese visitor?”
“No. President Park invited my boss and me because we helped them negotiate a very difficult contract. They will need our services later on, in translation work and entertaining their Chinese guests.”
“I don’t like it when you have to go out with these people.”
“Hey, I’m asking you to help me choose a dress, nothing else. Want to help or not?”
He had peeped at her from under his lashes and silently smiled, “Wow, such a hot temper!” He reminded himself to better concentrate on the job. He ran through the racks, and pulled out two dresses, then asked her to try them on. She looked gorgeous in both of them. Shan Mei couldn’t decide which one to take.
“Take both.” He told the sales assistant to wrap up the dresses.
When Shan Mei heard Xiang Zhe telling the sales assistant he was paying for the purchases by credit card and saw him handing her his card at the same time, she refused the offer.
“No, I don’t want you to pay for them.”
She was going to take out her own credit card, when he stopped her. “Please give me a chance to give you a present. You’ve done so much for me, introducing Brother Chen to me. Please accept it, because I’m going to ask you for a bigger favour later at dinner.”
Shan Mei became nervous from the boutique to the Japanese restaurant, wondering what kind of favour he wanted this time.
“Any holidays due from work?” he hedged about carefully.
“Plenty. For every public holiday I work, I’m entitled to claim 2 days off.” Shan Mei laughed. “These Chinese visitors usually stay the weekends when they visit. I have more than 2 months accrued leave. Why? You want me to go with you somewhere?”
“Miss Zhen Shan Mei, I don’t want to be the party making deals with you. I have begun to wonder lately if you have an innate talent for reading my mind.”
“What is it this time? China?” She looked at him sweetly, her head inclined to one side.
“I want to visit Brother Chen. Whenever you can get your leave, we’ll fly out to Shanghai. I want to invite Auntie Kim along too, to thank her for feeding me all this time. I’m now so used to her cooking, I can’t eat anywhere else, unless the cooking is done by someone who can cook like her, or have been taught by her,” Xiang Zhe sighed, giving Shan Mei a meaningful look.
His coffee cup was still in his hand, when he thought of something. He put the cup down, crossed his arms on the table and leaned forward to Shan Mei, giving her a boyish grin.
“When we’re in Shanghai, how are you going to introduce me to your father?”
“My good friend, of course. What else?”
“How about introducing me as your boyfriend?”
“How can I do that when his daughter is not your girlfriend?”
“Well, you can start considering….. It’s not as if you don’t know how I feel about you?”
Shan Mei didn’t say anything further. She kept her eyes down, and concentrated on her coffee. Xiang Zhe could see her cheeks had gone fiery red, her brows had crossed.
He thought, “Aah, she is considering something. Most probably thinking up of a witty retort to throw back at me to hide her shyness. After that dinner, Shan Mei kept brushing him off with excuses of being ‘too busy’ and not seeing him until, they met up at the airport in Seoul for their flight to Shanghai.
==
After lunch at Nantong, the party visited several supply centres for dried foodstuff. Everything was cheaper than the Korean product by at least 70%. Of course the Koreans would prefer their own country’s product. But there weren’t enough Korean products to meet demands. Xiang Zhe was sure the price difference would make the food products very saleable – especially the big black mushrooms, thickly padded straw mushrooms, large unblemished web mushrooms, big jujubes, algae, everything. Since his ruminating this morning in the car on his obligation to Wen Rong, he decided to order whatever he felt was a good bargain. He was sure if a product was not saleable, Shan Mei would not be so enthusiastic about the products and their prices being fantastic, seeing she was always sitting on meetings with those big guns – of course she would know what they wanted.
Before driving into town, Brother Chen took them to a small eating house by some lake. They ordered fresh water hairy crabs, just coming into season. Xiang Zhe didn’t fancy picking at the bony shells and claws, until Shan Mei showed him the proper way to eat these special crabs. The roe was the prized part of the crab, as special as caviar, but more delicious.
“During such seasons, it is every day occurrence that crab parties are held.”
“Crab parties?”
“You come just for the crabs, each diner taking 5 or 6 crabs depending on the size.”
“And nothing else?”
“You enjoy your crabs slowly, with warm rice wine, ginger tea, maybe some pickles. These crabs are not cheap, so you better eat up the meat, dip lightly in red vinegar. Of course, the diners also order side dishes like noodles and vegetables or friend wheat buns.”
“Now, don’t gulp down the roe. Taste it carefully, with a sip of your wine.”
“Hmm…. The roe does taste different from the usual crab. It’s so smooth and fine.
Shan Mei, how many crabs have I taken already?”
Shan Mei grinned lightly at him, “Five already! You wait till Brother Chen brings the ones from Taihu Lake. Brothers Chen and Foo will continue their journey to some port along the east coast tonight and return to Shanghai via Taihu Lake. Tomorrow, we’ll be driving back to Shanghai. We remain 2 days in Shanghai when Brother Chen will meet up with us, then we go to the Zhoushan Islands where you will see other marine life, apart from croakers.”
That evening after checking in at one of the hotels, after washing, Xiang Zhe called Shan Mei on her room phone. “Do you want to walk around the vicinity of the hotel, to see what souvenirs we can buy?”
Seeing it was only 8 p.m., she agreed but hesitantly. She was afraid to walk around late at night, in a strange town. “What’s there to be afraid of? I’m here to protect you.”
To their surprise, the streets around the night market were brightly lit. Xiang Zhe couldn’t believe the prices. Many things were priced at 100 Korean Won or thereabouts, the price incredibly low for the good quality. Xiang Zhe told Shan Mei he wanted to buy a bunch of the aprons he saw being spread out on the ground. The aprons with intricate embroidery were being sold at 200 Won each. “Let’s buy these and keep for the boys to give to their mothers.”
Shan Mei looked at Xiang Zhe, surprised that he was thinking of the boys at this time of the night out at some market so far away from Seoul. She gave his hand that was holding hers a gentle squeeze. Xiang Zhe was ecstatic. There were plenty of home-made little cakes that Shan Mei couldn’t resist. They bought plenty of snacks and fresh fruits.
They chose a quiet corner in the hotel garden and each took a garden chair to enjoy their snacks and fruits. Looking up at the sky, Shan Mei sighed with contentment. “The stars are just as beautiful here as they are in Seoul.”
“You love stars?”
“Let’s say I love Mother Nature.”
“Shan Mei, we’ve known each other over a year. I want to know what you think of me.”
“How do you want me to answer that?”
“Truthfully. What kind of a man am I? Honest, trustworthy, reliable? Someone a girl will dare entrust her future happiness to? Someone who can make a girl happy?” As he mentioned these qualities, Xiang Zhe looked intently at Shan Mei, hoping his eyes were conveying to her the message in his heart. That some girl was not any girl, but she.
Shan Mei looked down at her fingers now nervously tying themselves in knots. She tried to come up with answers, but the words were stuck at her throat. All that came through her mouth were “Hmm, hmm,” or “errhh… erh.”
“Well????” he prompted softly.
Shan Mei plucked up her courage and looked Xiang Zhe in the eye. “Are you trying to ask me whether I have feelings for you?”
Finally! He got her to give him some answers, instead of trying to evade the issue whenever he tried to hedge around. He nodded his head, his face hopeful and breaking out in a tender smile.
“If I tell you there is no feeling, then I’m not being honest with myself. You have been so generous with your time and efforts in training the little boys. You have shown them you cared for them, and they adore you in return…..Erh….. ”
“Hey, girl, I’m talking about you and me, not about them and me!”
“Please be patient, I’m getting to that…”
“When? Tomorrow morning or next year, the rate you’re going?”
“You’re a wonderful man; you truly are, with all the best qualities any girl would want for a partner. I don’t understand what you see in me. I dare not let myself think beyond friendship. Although I’m just an ordinary girl, I do have my ideals. I’m not going to compromise my principles for anybody.”
“You mean you think we have different ideals? You don’t believe I can see below the surface and recognise you for the kind of person you’re are? You don’t want to accept any thing more from me other than friendship? What different ideals, I want to know?”
“Well, the way you’re always harbouring hatred and anger at your father. I realize that you feel that you have just cause to carry on in such a manner. It is no doubt your way of getting some revenge on your father for the way he behaved before you assumed your position in Wen Rong. I don’t share your reasoning. I cannot be with a person who has such deep-rooted hatred for another person. Sooner or later, your heart will be eaten up alive with all these negative feelings, and it will affect my well being. Like, whenever we are out, something reminds you of your anger, you go into your shell and silently sulk. That kind of attitude affects you, affects me. If we remain as good friends, I won’t be affected so much if you don’t want to share what’s in your heart. I can always walk away. In a way,” Shan Mei said very deliberately, “I am asking you to rise above your inclinations in this instance and behave like the generous, responsible, kindhearted man I know you are capable of being.”
Wicked laughter briefly lit Xiang Zhe’s eyes. “What in the name of heavens makes you think I’m capable of behaving in such a manner?”
“You’re very well-educated; you display a keen intellect; always so generous to my 10 boys and your friends; helpful to my Uncle and Auntie and caring towards me. I refuse to believe you cannot behave with some generosity of spirit.”
Xiang Zhe leaned his head back against the back of the stone chair and gazed up to the stars in the heavens. He didn’t say anything for several unhurried seconds. Then his mouth curved into a humourless smile when he slanted her a strange look.
“Shan Mei, you don’t understand the hurt he………,” he whimpered. Her hands reached out to catch hold of one of his gesticulating hands.
“I understand. Believe me, I do. But your mother is gone. You are still alive! You have to continue living. Let’s assume we are married. Something happens, you become very upset thinking of your past grievances so much you forget I’m there. Won’t this be the same situation where you put me in anguish by your neglect? Will I be happy? Do you want me to end up like you, full of grievances and hating you?”
“Shan Mei….?”
“Wait, I haven’t finished. You told me your mother was so grief-stricken, she couldn’t be bothered with anything, not even running Wen Rong, I presume. That time you were only 15/16? When you returned to Seoul to help run the company, you were 29 years old? So, for 13/14 years your father has been running the company on his own. If he had really been an irresponsible father, he would have run the company to the ground, leaving you with no inheritance, or have taken over the company as his own. He didn’t do that. Instead, he worked very hard so you still had something when you returned from London.
In our lives, we come to this world as someone’s children. This is god’s will, there is nothing we can do about it, just like when a man and woman become husband and wife, it is predestined. We are our parents’ children, so we do our filial duties. We are not here to do a husband’s or a wife’s duty. Leave that to the husband and to the wife. What transpired between your father and your mother, only they themselves know what happened and not for us to question. And that younger brother of yours – he’s innocent, why do you hate him?”
“Shan Mei, you don’t understand the pain and the loneliness I suffered. How can I forget?”
“Xiang Zhe, look at the situation this way. Suffering is a kind of training, like patience and tolerance. It’s like going to university, that’s a kind of suffering, slogging over books and more books. At the end of the suffering, if you pass you get a degree. You don’t, you repeat the process or you give up. If you look upon your suffering as same kind of training, you will know how to value the happiness you’re going to be rewarded with sooner or later in life. You will appreciate that happiness very much.”
“I’ve suffered, but I’m not rewarded by the happiness I know I will enjoy, because you’re giving me this lecture.”
“I’m giving you this lecture, because I really do care for you very deeply. Every time I see you unhappy, my heart hurts. Do you want to see me hurting all my life just because you can’t put your past suffering and unhappiness behind you? You keep telling me you can make me happy. How can you make me happy when you can’t even make yourself happy? Do you get my meaning? If I look upon you as simply a friend, I’ll walk away. I don’t even want to bother giving you such a talk.”
“Shan Mei, you mean you can accept me, if I can learn to get rid of all these negative feelings inside of me?”
Shan Mei nodded her head, her eyes misting, her heart wanting to reach out to him. “Let go, be more forgiving.”
“Shan Mei, will you help me?”
She nodded her head and gave him a reassuring smile.
Xiang Zhe took Shan Mei in his arms, and murmured to her how much he loved her. “Don’t expect miracles, I will need time. Already, I can see from another perspective by your explanation. Yes, my father may not have been a good husband, but that’s not for me to judge. My mother might not have been the kind of wife who could make him happy. You’re right – I’ll never know because I’ve yet to hear my father utter one bad word against my mother. But he has always been a good father to me, although somewhat authoritarian, as most fathers are, from that generation. Shan Mei, I want to be like you, so forgiving and generous. I don’t want to harbour hatred inside of me anymore. I want to be happy. Only in this way will I know how to give happiness to the person I love.”
In bed that night, he slept so well. Once he tried to let go, he already felt less pressure and more light hearted.
After the little chat last night in the garden when Xiang Zhe opened up his heart to Shan Mei, he felt tons better and lighter. At least now he knew why Shan Mei had not reciprocated his overtures. She wanted him to be forgiving. It was something easier said than done. Shan Mei had taught him how to forgive his father. Once that was done, she had said the other things would automatically fall into place. Maybe she was right. This morning he had been so busy trying to learn where to start in the forgiving, he did not once think of his stepmother or his half brother.
On the drive back to Shanghai, Shan Mei was a changed person. She was all smiles, and happy, noticing a slight change in Xiang Zhe already. She began talking and laughing a lot. When they stopped by a roadside stall for fruits, she was very attentive, wiping Xiang Zhe’s mouth when juice spilt over one side of his mouth. Xiang Zhe pointed to the other side of his mouth, wanting her to wipe that side too.
“Baby,” she teased him when she wiped that corner of his mouth gently.
“Yes, your baby,” he gushed and he happily grabbed hold of her hand as they got back into the car.
==
“We’re home!” Shan Mei shouted as the driver drove the car right up the front door of her father’s house and she quickly got out of the car and ran into the house, asking her Auntie what was for dinner. “We had missed your cooking.”
Xiang Zhe followed in with their bags.
“Aiya you, a big girl now, old enough to be someone’s wife, and still thinking only of food.”
“Of course, I think of food all the time, otherwise what’s my husband going to eat?”
“Be serious. Your Pa knows you’re returning tonight. He had reserved crabs for a party at Peace Hotel, so Xiang Zhe can eat at the famous landmark of Shanghai. Go, wash up and then change. I have good news for you. While you were away, we went to see your mother. She really has improved a lot and strong enough to do even some walking exercise. Your father is so happy, suggesting maybe you can go visit her tomorrow morning.”
Shan Mei shrieked joyously, her palms plastered to her cheeks, not believing what she had just heard. Grasping on to her Aunt’s hands, she danced around and asked whether that was true.
“Girl, if you don’t believe me, wait till you hear what your father tells you later. Now, go change.”
These few days during their drive through the countryside visiting the fish farms, Shan Mei had been slumming around in her jeans and tee shirts. She decided to dress up a bit for dinner that night. She wore one of the dresses Xiang Zhe had gifted her. She had a set of matching handbag and shoes and a light shawl to go with the dress.
When she came out of her room, Xiang Zhe was also emerging from his. They looked at each other and laughed. Xiang Zhe had decided to dress up in suit and tie. “Wow, Mr. Handsome, I’m loathed to show you around Shanghai. I’m afraid some beautiful Chinese girl will entice you away, before I’ve a chance to decide whether we can make a go of things.”
“You’re a mischievous imp but you can rest safely on that score. No one can entice me away from your side, even though you may not be that beautiful. You’ve other qualities more important than superficial beauty.” She glanced hard at him for his candidness.
As she came down the stairs, Zhen Senior was waiting in the living room. One look at his daughter, he twirled her around and stated in admiration, “Let your Pa have a good look at you. Hmm, that dress brings out the woman in you. This dress a gift from a man?”
“Pa, stop making silly assumptions.”
“It’s not as if your Pa has never bought any clothes for your mother. I remember that time when I bought that……”
“Okay, you win! One time, I asked Xiang Zhe to help me choose a dress. He selected this and insisted on gifting it to me. Does this satisfy your curiosity?” She didn’t want her father to start on his stories on how he romanced her mother. Once he started going, he wasn’t about to stop and at the end of his stories, he would nearly always end up in tears.
“Adequately.” Then Zhen Senior became serious when he changed to another subject.
“That reminds me, tomorrow morning, we’ll be visiting your mother. Remember, don’t start crying otherwise we’ll be thrown out again.”
Xiang Zhe was coming up behind Shan Mei. Zhen Senior noticed him.
“Xiang Zhe, you have wonderful taste. In that dress, doesn’t my princess look like a most alluring woman, no longer a child?”
The young man only gave a soft smile as he glanced over Shan Mei, too shy to say in front of her father what was in his heart.
Zhen Senior seeing the two of them standing next to each other, agreed that they did look perfect together.
==
Very early the next morning, Shan Mei, accompanied by her father, visited her mother. Her mother had almost forgotten how her daughter had looked. Now, all grown up and so charming and graceful … the teardrops came when her husband lovingly reminded her not to cry, if she wanted to get well enough soon so she could return home with her personal nurse. “Honey, your health is more important than anything. When you’re home, Shan Mei will visit Shanghai more often.” Zhen Senior then quickly rushed Shan Mei out, not wanting to create more stress for his wife. In the car both father and daughter discussed the health condition of Mrs. Zhen Senior. “Princess, your mother, having been wheelchair-bound for so many years will soon have to learn to walk again. But she’s looking very well. Today she was excited by your visit, otherwise she would be doing a bit of exercise in the garden. The acupuncture treatments seem to agree with her. Her blood pressure has stabilized.” Father and daughter comforted one another.
Later in the day, Xiang Zhe wanted to do some shopping so they dropped by a State-owned emporium.
“Shan Mei, what do you think of this T-shirt for the kids,” Xiang Zhe asked. He was looking through the pile, picking out the styles he thought looked good.
#“Madam, your husband can look at that rack over there. Those are of better quality and the prices are about the same. How old are your children?”#
Shan Mei smiled at the sales assistant, and then pushed Xiang Zhe off to another counter.
“Hey, I haven’t made my selection yet, why push me away?”
Xiang Zhe noticed her blushing face and surmised what had taken place. He was enjoying this little game and went back to the sales assistant and gestured with his hands and fingers – age 10, height a little less than 5’, quantity required 10.
The sales assistant looked at them in disbelief. Even if she had misunderstood the quantity, she thought the lady too young to have a 10-year old child. She started to show Xiang Zhe sizes for 10 year olds.
Xiang Zhe laughed happily and chose 10 different styles. He gestured again to the sales assistant, 1 for him and 1 for his wife, same pattern.
“Good. Since you can manage so well on your own, I’ll go browse around on my own.”
“Wait Shan Mei, I want to buy a China-made basketball.”
After they finished shopping at the Chinese emporium, they went to an old part of Shanghai.
Pa’s secretary had told her this was the best place for Chinese cheongsams (qipao). Shan Mei tried on one in one of the tailoring shops. Xiang Zhe sitting on the sofa nearby was stunned when she came out from the changing room. She looked sensational. The cheongsam needed some alterations. She selected silk fabric for 6 other cheongsams. When she mentioned her father’s name, the tailor told her not to worry. They would work overnight to finish the clothes for her.
Outside the tailoring shop, Xiang Zhe whispered into her ear, “You look so beautiful in that sexy outfit.”
“Thank you.”
Xiang Zhe saw an antique reproduction of a tall Chinese tea teacup set that he wanted to buy for his father. He also bought two beautiful pieces of embroidered silk for cheongsam. He had seen one time in a magazine Nicole Kidman wearing a rich chartreuse-coloured double-faced satin silk gown of same embroidered design – exquisite flowers and butterflies embroidery, some parts with small patches of very delicate open lattice work. They went back to the tailor, putting in an order for 2 more cheongsams to be made with these two pieces of embroidered silk.
“You like the two pieces of silk?” Xiang Zhe asked when they continued to browse along the shops along the same street.
Shan Mei nodded her head, spotting a sweet smile. She sincerely declared, “Love them.”
“Love the man who gave them to you too?”
Shan Mei ignored the question as she busied herself looking through the windows of the other nearby shops.
Xiang Zhe didn’t press for an answer but hid a grin when he saw that the colours in her cheeks and behind her ears had turned crimson.
==
Back in Seoul, at Wen Rong office.
Xiang Zhe showed his father the photos he took and described his trip to Zhoushan Islands. It was simply amazing, so many types of fish being bred. Because of the anticipated stock coming in, Xiang Zhe spent all week having meetings with his sales department. Miss Li, his Sales Manager, was to do price comparison and highlight this to their distributors. With so much to sell, the sales office was very active.
==
Unbeknown to Xiang Zhe, Shan Mei had tendered in her resignation at the Ministry. She wanted to go into the fresh water crab business. Because it was seasonal business, her Uncle Kim negotiated with one of the bigger restaurants in the Youido District for simple cooperation. Shan Mei put her crabs there, they prepare the crabs according to her instructions for the diners for a token fee since she would be bringing much business to his restaurant.
The crabs would start coming in mid-September. She told Xiang Zhe of her new venture because he had to import the crabs on her behalf. He was so happy and relieved when he heard she had resigned. “Miss Zhen, I wonder whether you would like to work for Wen Rong now that we have so much Chinese language documentation and daily communication with the Chinese suppliers?”
Seeing Xiang Zhe working so hard and making conscious effort to change his mind set about his father, she agreed to help him out in his office, around her schedule. Xiang Zhe seemed to be more relaxed, not so uptight in the office. Whenever Miss Zhen was in the office, the staff could feel an immediate change in him. He shed his aloofness, and was always smiling. Sometimes he even joked with them a bit.
Of course, Miss Zhen was always friendly, helpful and pleasant to the staff.
Yin Senior could detect the noticeable change in his son, too. He was more forthcoming and open in his discussions, and willing to listen to father’s advice. His attitude had softened. Yin Senior realised Shan Mei was the stabilising and influential force in his son’s life.
One morning, Xiang Zhe approached his father and delicately broached on the presence of his step mother in the office. “Dad, now that the office is adequately staffed and we expect the distributors to drop by all the time, I suggest Stepmother doesn’t come into the office anymore. It’s embarrassing when I have to explain who she is. Also, I need the extra space to partition off a section as Shan Mei’s private office, so she can have privacy when she is communicating with our suppliers in China. After all, information from our suppliers is all confidential stuff. The renovation won’t happen right away because Shan Mei is busy right now trying to set up her fresh water crab business. Brother Chen will be arriving in Seoul soon with the first batch of crabs. When the new office for Shan Mei is ready, I’ll keep the space that is presently occupied by Shan Mei empty for Xiang Jie in case he wants to join Wen Rong after he graduates from university. After we have set up the new space for Shan Mei, if Xiang Jie wants to come in and start learning about the business whenever he can spare the time, I won’t stop him. The choice is up to him.”
Surprisingly, Zhen Senior was not upset when Xiang Zhe made the suggestion. He had been trying to hint to his wife not to come into the office but the woman was hell bent on following him around everywhere. Now, he could ‘officially’ tell her if she wanted her son Xiang Jie to have a future in Wen Rong, she had better do as Xiang Zhe suggested.
==
“Shan Mei, aren’t you hungry?” Xiang Zhe asked her one day, seeing she had eaten very little at lunch time.
“I’m going home for dinner. I’ve prepared something and left it to keep warm in the slow cooker.”
Xiang Zhe waited for her to invite him. When she continued working through her stack of papers without any word, he went back to his desk, to go over the papers needing his signature. “All done!” He stretched out his arms and heaved a tired sigh.
He was happy. He had never been this busy since he joined the company 3 years ago. From where he was sitting, he could see Shan Mei very clearly. She was so right about his father.
Their business was a very precarious business, susceptible to the slightest market change. When only one part of the chain of supply down the line was not performing, the whole business would be affected.
His father must have had a hard time, keeping tabs on incoming supplies and outgoing sales, plus cash flow, credit facilities from the bankers, etc. If he had not been 100% vigilant, the business would have gone down a long time ago.
Xiang Zhe admitted he was young and idealistic. Everything to him was either black or white. If he had a friend like Shan Mei to talk to during those troubled times, his outlook on life would have been totally different. [–big sigh-- Enough of musing for the night.]
He took his jacket from the back of his chair, walked out to Shan Mei’s desk, closed her files, and told her it was time to leave. At the door, he told the security guard to make sure everything was shut down and properly secured.
The car soon arrived at Shan Mei’s house.
Although the thought of Shan Mei’s dinner was very much in his mind, he played it cool and didn’t remind her about it. Maybe, she didn’t want him in her house, seeing the hour was so late. He had only been in her house once, when he helped to bring in her luggage and packages after they returned from Shanghai.
That time, she had offered him a cup of freshly brewed coffee. It tasted divine, the coffee aroma still wafting around in his mind. He was already used to her character. If she was prepared to give, she would share. As she got off the car, she invited him in to dinner. He was dizzy with delirium! He had often wondered whether she knew how to cook, being the pampered princess of the Zhen family and the Kim family.
“Hey, tonight you’re going to be guinea pig. I’ve made this soup with special mushrooms. See whether you like the taste.”
At the dining table, one look into his soup bowl, Xiang Zhe grimaced wryly, “What’s this? Looks like a sponge.”
“It’s monkey head mushroom. Last time we were in Nantong, Brother Chen gave these to me. This has medicinal properties, like nourishing the brain.”
After taking a few spoonfuls, he commented, “Hmmm… it’s delicious, so naturally sweet. Aren’t you afraid I’ll become wily like a monkey?”
“What makes you think you’re not one now?” Shan Mei teased him as she went back into the kitchen to bring out a stew pot and the rice cooker.
Tasting a bit of pork from the pork stew she had laid on the dining table, his eyes sparkled, so delicious. He threw all the rice into the stew pot, mixed round a bit, scooped some into a bowl for Shan Mei, while he ate the rest from the pot. Simply too delicious, he didn’t want to waste even a drop of the sauce.
“Are you going to serve this soup at the restaurant with the crabs?”
“At the restaurant, we’re only responsible for our crabs and the Chinese wine. The restaurant owner will take care of the other dishes from their menu. If I have the soup in the restaurant, it will be for our private consumption.”
Xiang Zhe agreed that that arrangement was good. “It will be too much work for you and Auntie if you want to tackle a wider range of dishes.”
Xiang Zhe’s secretary’s voice boomed through the intercom. “Mr. Yin, a Miss Xu Ying Mei is on the line. Do you want to take the call?”
“Okay, connect her through. Thanks.”
He was surprised by the call and decided to take it to see what mischief this Miss Xu was up to this time. “Hello, Yin Xiang Zhe here.”
“Mr. Yin Xiang Zhe, this is Xu Ying Mei from the Foreign Trade Ministry.”
“Yes, Miss Xu, it’s been quite a while. What can I do for you?”
“You know, there’s a new trend in town, eating Chinese fresh water crabs, considered a delicacy. I know the Chinese exporter very well. We can meet up for dinner and I will give you the details. Three months ago some Chinese exporters were in town. They received a lot of orders from seafood packers. When I told them you were interested in importing from China, many of them said they only want to deal with the largest food processors and packers. Wen Rong was not big enough for them. I was sorry I couldn’t help you then.”
“Luckily Wen Rong wasn’t invited, otherwise I would have died of embarrassment, when those exporters take orders from all food packers present but not from me.” Xiang Zhe lamented with a sarcastic laugh, knowing what Xu Ying Mei was telling him was a lot of bull.
“Now, with these fresh water crabs, if I tell them you’re my good friend, I’m positively sure they’ll supply you with the best quality crabs. They don’t want to make me lose face; they want to make me happy. If you’re free, we can meet up tonight at this restaurant selling the fresh water crabs. You can see whether the quality served meets with your standard after you try them. They are supposed to taste delicious.”
“Thank you Miss Xu for your kind suggestion. Isn’t the person presently offering the crabs at the restaurant getting exclusivity for the import of these special crabs from their Chinese exporter?”
“I am not sure but I think it’s just a sample trial order. Miss Zhen, who used to work with our Foreign Trade Ministry, is the one presently importing the crabs. Once I tell the Chinese exporter I want those crabs, I am sure he’ll give me the exclusivity. We are closer than blood relatives.”
“Sounds like you have a great thing going with those Chinese exporters and it’s very tempting to be offered exclusivity for the import of those crabs. Unfortunately I am tied up with another project for the next 2 months and won’t have time to handle the Chinese fresh water crabs. At a later time maybe. Miss Xu, if you are still going to the restaurant this evening, enjoy your crabs.”
After Xiang Zhe put the phone down, he laughed softly to himself. It had been prudent of him to have avoided any dealings with this Miss Xu right from the beginning, especially after the warning from Uncle Kim to him the first time he had dinner at his house.
“Coming with stories of Fresh Water crab Chinese exporter being her good friend. Bah!” He was so tempted to tell that Miss Xu in her face that Wen Rong was the importer of the crabs! (even though Wen Rong was importing the crabs on behalf of Shan Mei.)
Tonight was the first night Shan Mei was introducing Chinese hairy fresh water crabs to Seoul. Last week Brother Chen had arrived with a promotion team sponsored by the Jiangsu Tourism Board, showing how the fresh water crabs were prepared and the proper way to enjoy them. The media was invited to this occasion. For the ensuing days, the newspapers kept writing about the crabs. Tonight, Shan Mei expected a big turnout. Her colleagues from the Ministry had promised to turn up in force. Uncle and Auntie were at the restaurant to help out.
This business was seasonal, maximum sale period 3-1/2 months out of a year. Because it was against company policy for staff to work outside of the Ministry, Shan Mei had resigned from her job. Due to her legal and economics background, her exceptional proficiency in the Chinese language and her popularity with visiting Chinese high-level officers and the local manufacturers, the Foreign Trade Minister decided to retain her services on a free-lance basis for the China Division. Shan Mei accepted on condition that she no longer wanted to handle China suppliers for seafood, for fear of a conflict in interest. She had always been a popular staff member, so news of her new venture when circulated throughout all departments was well supported.
Xiang Zhe came with Zian Da and Yong Xi. Tonight, Shan Mei was wearing the cheongsam Xiang Zhe saw her buy in Shanghai. She looked so exquisite, with her hair styled neatly into a chignon. She looked like a delicate China doll!
Although Zian Da had heard a lot about Shan Mei from Xiang Zhe -- in fact as if he already knew her rather well – tonight was the first time Zian Da personally met Shan Mei, and he could easily understand why Xiang Zhe was captivated at first sight, and had kept Shan Mei hidden away from him. He was charmed too, but he had to act nonchalant because Yong Xi was there. He didn’t want to give her any wrong impression.
Videos were being shown on television screens mounted at strategic locations from the ceilings showing the proper way to eat the crabs with the sets of cutlery supplied: scissors, pincers and picks.
Mr. Park Soo Yong, the Executive Director of PJY Electronics who was also President Park’s younger brother, arrived with a big group. He had reserved a table for 10.
Shan Mei thanked him for his support and began to serve him. Occasionally, she would look over to Xiang Zhe’s table.
“Xiang Zhe, I think Miss Zhen loves you,” Zian Da whispered softly into Xiang Zhe’s ears. Xiang Zhe immediately looked up from his crab and looked at Zian Da, his big, clear eyes questioning Zian Da for his assumption.
“Miss Zhen has been stealing glances at you, afraid you may get jealous, since she is spending so much time at Executive Director Park’s table.”
Xiang Zhe smiled. How could he get jealous and be upset with Shan Mei when she was doing business? When they were still in Shanghai, he had heard the family discussing the crab business. Uncle Zhen was going to retire in 3 years if his wife was well enough to return to Seoul. Otherwise, he would stay on in Shanghai another 2 years. Shan Mei wanted him to run a small business after his retirement. She would start the venture first. In 3 years’ time, the business should be quite well established.
These Taihu Lake crabs, air flown 3 times a week from Shanghai to Seoul, did not come cheap, about 20,000 Won at least a crab retail. It was the expected norm to have at least 2 crabs. When Xiang Zhe was in Nantong, he had seen a man taking seven Taihu Lake crabs, one after another, slurping up the crabs’ roe.
Executive Director Park would be spending about 400,000 Won at least, more if he wanted the best grade Chinese rice wine and more crabs, by the time he finished his dinner. His word of mouth recommendation was also very important. Since he moved in the upper circles of society, and if he said something was good, the rich and famous would want to try them too.
Yong Xi was unhappy with the open interest the 2 men at her table were showering on that girl in the cheongsam. “Why the sudden interest in the girl?” she asked sullenly.
“Sudden interest? That’s Xiang Zhe’s girlfriend,” Zian Da immediately informed Yong Xi.
Looking at Xiang Zhe, Yong Xi couldn’t believe it. “You’ve got a girlfriend? You’ve never mentioned it.”
“That’s his private business. Why should he be broadcasting it to the world?” Zian Da didn’t like the way Yong Xi was interrogating Xiang Zhe as if he was her private property.
“How long?” she wanted to know. Xiang Zhe ignored her, letting Zian Da do the talking.
“Dating already a year.”
“A year and no one told me?” She sounded so incredulous.
“Hey, relax, the girl still has not accepted Xiang Zhe,” Zian Da chimed in.
“Who is this girl anyway who can make you wait?”
Finally, Xiang Zhe opened his mouth to say something. “She’s someone I love very much, and I’m prepared to wait a life time for her.”
“You know what love is?” she asked, knowing Xiang Zhe’s track record of avoiding commitment.
Xiang Zhe nodded his head and answered softly, “Now I know. I do assure you I’m well able to tell the difference from the woman I love to another that I don’t feel any love for.”
“Is it unrequited love?” Yong Xi laughed hollowly. To think the day would come when Xiang Zhe would pine for some girl.
He lifted his eyebrows, sent a slow, semi-serious grin across the table to her. “No, not unrequited. She cares for me. Except, she is very cautious and shy with her words. In her heart, she loves me.”
“Ha! Such an expert now in emotional psychology? What about all those doubts about not knowing whether you’ll turn out to be like your father, no confidence about remaining faithful to one woman, no confidence in being a good lover, no confidence about being a good father, so no children, etc., etc.”
Xiang Zhe gave Yong Xi a long, penetrating look. He didn’t want to be blunt and hurt her feelings, knowing she had been carrying a torch for him all these years, but he had to, so she should stop hoping she had a chance with him. Zian Da had been waiting for her since college days.
“With Shan Mei, I don’t need or want another woman. I love her and I want to make her happy. She’ll be the only one. I can promise her that. Children? It’s so funny, but suddenly I feel so good, I want to have children with her, lots!” As Xiang Zhe made that remark, he felt suddenly so good. Yes, he wanted to make lots of babies with Shan Mei! He shook his head at the sudden revelation and smiled lazily and secretly to himself.
Yong Xi’s mouth fell open in dumbfounded amazement. She had lost her appetite. After Xiang Zhe’s explosive confession, she spent all night at their table, focussing her attention on this girl. What was so special about her, hopping from table to table serving her guests? And smiling so flirtatiously with that important looking man at the big table, helping him pour out the wine and telling him the wine would taste much better if a dried salted plum was added. The other 9 gentlemen around the same did the same and after a few sips of the warm wine, they agreed the wine tasted different. Soon a waiter arrived with a large tray with several bowls of soup. That witch then served each one of the man with a bowl of the soup.
As Yong Xi watched the goings-on at the big table, she took her mobile phone out of her bag and waited to catch her and that important looking man doing something improper, so she could snap the evidence on her phone and show it to that besotted Xiang Zhe. She waited, nothing happened and the witch had already moved on to another table, until she came to stand next to Xiang Zhe and asked softly whether they needed anything. When she checked the teapot and found that it was almost empty, she took it away and came back with a fresh pot of tea. Xiang Zhe told her they were alright and then playfully shooed her away to take care of her other more important guests, especially those from the Foreign Trade Ministry.
Yong Xi was mad because Xiang Zhe didn’t introduce her to this witch. Was he ashamed of this girl? Suddenly it hit her. “Yes, Xiang Zhe is definitely ashamed to introduce her to me because the witch he professed to be in love with is merely a waitress!” How preposterous! The very thought was too repulsive to imagine. She couldn’t stand it anymore. She dragged Xiang Zhe out of the restaurant and confronted him by his car.
“What’s this?” she pointed to the car. Xiang Zhe was befuddled, but he answered her nonetheless because smoke seemed to be puffing out of her nose, ears and eyes.
“My car.”
“What brand?”
“BMW.”
Directing a superior sort of smile at him, she exclaimed, “Right! And I’m Mercedes-Benz. You’ve always been a BMW, while I’m Mercedes, a level higher than your taste, but you are still up there. How can you now go so low and fall for a waitress? How can you? All my girlfriends know I’ve been waiting for you for years. How can you make me lose face by choosing a waitress, and not me? Xiang Zhe, wake up! She’s not right for you. How can you expect to show her among your friends? Does she know how to behave with proper etiquette in our social circle? Does she realize the high standard of decorum that is required from a woman married into a family of your social status and standing? Waitresses like her only know how to flirt, and they are known to be creatures with loose morals. You’ll be cuckolded, and before you realize it, you’ll be sharing her favours and body with many others. Has she put a charm on you?”
Yong Xi didn’t see the cold fire pooling in Xiang Zhe’s eyes and in a voice imbued with annoyance, he ordered, “Yong Xi, be calm! You don’t know what you’re raving about, and you’re causing a scene.” Xiang Zhe was very angry with her and losing patience.
Xiang Zhe heaved out a stinging breath, then shook his head with deep regret as he took out his mobile phone and called Zian Da.
“Brother, can you please come to where I had parked my car. Yong Xi is losing her cool and going crazy. Can you come and take her home or anywhere she wants to go to? Just get her out of here, out of my sight. Thanks.”
When Zian Da arrived and saw Xiang Zhe’s dangerous eyes, he quickly bundled Yong Xi into his car, and drove off immediately. After he drove around a bit, he parked his car at a nearby quiet street, and then switched off its engine. He let Yong Xi raved and ranted to her heart’s content. When she started crying, he offered her a box of paper tissue.
“Zian Da, can you talk some sense into Xiang Zhe? Do you think that girl has put a charm on him?”
Zian Da laughed in his usual jolly way. Still, he felt he needed a smoke seeing Yong Xi in her present state. He took a cigarette out of the cigarette packet, lit it up and puffed at it a few times before he said in a calm manner, “I think you’ve got the whole picture the other way around. It’s Xiang Zhe trying to put a charm on her. Yong Xi, we should be happy for Xiang Zhe. This is the first girl he has shown an interest in. The first time he saw her, he already decided he want to date her. The third time he met up with her, within 4 weeks, he already decided he want to marry her.”
“What about me? I’ve waited all these years for him. Isn’t he moved?”
“Yong Xi, please be realistic. Xiang Zhe never told you to wait. He rejected you since the first time engagement was proposed between your 2 families. It’s not his fault if you want to wait. If you open your eyes, you can see I too have been waiting for you all these years. If you go off with someone else I cannot blame you because you never ever told me you love me or to wait for you. It’s been my own choice. Accept it and be happy for him, if we are truly his friends.”
“How can I be happy, when he made me lose face, by rejecting me and falling for a waitress?”
“As usual, you are thinking only of your face. What about others? And what is this nonsense? You think Shan Mei’s a waitress? You’ve got it all wrong again. But, even if she’s a waitress, so what? She is one of the most lovable persons ever. And she has made Xiang Zhe so happy. He’s so relaxed now, seldom drinks, and he’s cut off smoking, and playing basketball with her ten kids every Sunday.”
“What!!! She has got ten kids? She started having babies when she was 16 or what? You see, wasn’t I right? I just told him she was someone with loose morals. Has Xiang Zhe gone mad? Is that what he means by saying he wants lots of children with her? By the time she reaches 40, I hope her girth becomes wider than the continent of America from East to West, her breasts hanging down lower than two 100 kg sacks of rice. And he’d look old and haggard and flat out tired servicing her non-stop, he won’t be able to get his thingie up ever again. He would become useless to any woman. I hope Xiang Zhe will live to regret his decision until the day he dies. What an utter fool! I cannot take this insult anymore.” As she was ranting, her tone and the loudness of her voice escalated with scorn.
Zian Da laughed mirthlessly. No wonder Xiang Zhe looked like he was ready to tear her apart earlier. Zian Da who liked indulging her most times, was already getting fed up with her histrionics and wild imaginings. He didn’t want to explain anymore. “Put on your seat belt. I better get you home before you freak out.”
==
Almost all the tables at the restaurant were taken up. Everyone was ordering crabs.
Xiang Zhe with his family was occupying a corner table. He was showing his father how to enjoy the crabs. He cautioned his father about taking too much of the crab roe. It was high cholesterol stuff.
As soon as Shan Mei was free, she came over to the Yins’ table. “Xiang Zhe, why didn’t you tell me you were bringing the family to dinner? I thought you reserved the table for your friends.” Shan Mei chided Xiang Zhe mildly but her mouth was full of smiles.
“Want to surprise you.” With the crabs, Shan Mei served a warm tokuri of Chinese Shaoxing rice wine with a side dish of dried salted plums for the adults and some ginger tea for Xiang Jie.
Xiang Zhe noticed Yong Xi just walked in with 3 of her girlfriends. “Must have told her friends to check out on Shan Mei,” he mused to himself, unperturbed by her presence.
“Wow, look at that beautiful Chinese dress she has on! Doesn’t she look simply stunning?” commented one of the girls who had come in with Yong Xi. The girls had read about the restaurant serving fresh water Chinese crabs and when Yong Xi suggested going for crabs, they agreed at once. It was later in her car, she told them to watch out for the waitress wearing the Chinese garment.
“So what if it looks good on her. It can’t change the fact she’s a waitress,” she snorted with caustic disdain.
Xiang Zhe called Zian Da. “Brother, if you’re not doing anything, hurry down to Shan Mei’s place. Yong Xi just walked in with 3 of her girlfriends. I don’t want her to start talking stupid again and upset Shan Mei.”
Shortly after. “Hi girls!” came a bright, cheery male greeting at Yong Xi’s table.
Yong Xi looked up. Zian Da was standing at her side, smiling down at the girls.
“What are you doing here?” Yong Xi asked impatiently. She was getting irritated.
“Hoping you’ll treat me to a crab. I didn’t get to finish mine the other night, because some one threw a jealous fit.” One of the girls moved over to make space for Zian Da.
“Doesn’t Shan Mei look gorgeous tonight? Hey, that’s Xiang Zhe over there with his family.” Zian Da seemed to enjoy riling Yong Xi. He knew she couldn’t stand it if any other girl got praises and not her. She always wanted to be the belle of the ball, the one grabbing all the attention.
Yong Xi at once looked over to where Zian Da had indicated with his head. She was surprised when she saw Xiang Zhe with his father, his step mother and half brother. Yong Xi was sure Uncle Zhen wasn’t aware of his son’s relationship with the waitress? He would surely have a fit if he knew. Suddenly a sly expression and half crooked smirk appeared on her face.
Yong Xi purposely strode over to the Yins’ table. “Hello, Uncle, Auntie, Xiang Zhe.” She ignored the younger brother. Yin Senior was happy to see Yong Xi. “You’re here too for the delicious crabs?”
Yin Senior beckoned to Shan Mei and she hurried over, thinking he wanted something else. “Shan Mei, meet Yong Xi, Xiang Zhe’s childhood friend. Her family proposed engagement more than 10 years ago, but Xiang Zhe refused to accept the proposal saying he had no feelings for her. I didn’t realize at that time his destiny would lie with you.” Yong Xi fumed inwardly when she heard that kind of introduction.
“Yong Xi, meet Shan Mei. She is Xiang Zhe’s girlfriend.” Yong Xi’s eyes grew big, as she acknowledged Shan Mei with a nod. She then excused herself to go back to her table, her mind thinking how low the Yin family had become.
Xiang Zhe smiled secretly to himself as he gave Yong Xi a defiant look, his gaze very openly declaring, “Don’t try to create trouble around here. We know your tricks.”
Xiang Zhe glanced at his father in a different light. He knew his father had purposely said what he said to put Yong Xi in her place. Yin Senior had heard stories of her going around telling her friends that she and Xiang Zhe would marry soon. The Yins needed the Liu’s financial back-up, since Wen Rong business was no longer flourishing. Their warehouses were stacked up to the ceilings with unsold stock.
If only Yong Xi knew how the phones in the Wen Rong office were ringing non-stop, from their distributors in the various regions. They were fighting for stock so desperately, they even paid in advance, to make sure they get their croaker shipments; no more 90 days terms. On shipment days, Wen Rong guys would be waiting at Incheon Fishermen’s Wharf to supervise the croaker distribution. The container chiller trucks from the distributors were usually standing by waiting so that as soon as the Chinese trawlers arrived and clearance was given by Customs, the croakers were immediately weighed and loaded into the chillers trucks, saving time and ensuring freshness.
At the restaurant Shan Mei brought out special Monkey Head Mushroom soup for the Yins, telling Xiang Jie to take more. “This soup nourishes the brain. Should help you in your studies. Graduate soon so you can help your brother.”
Xiang Jie smiled gratefully at Shan Mei for her friendliness. Whenever his elder brother was around, people seemed to forget he existed.
As Shan Mei walked away, she asked Xiang Zhe, “Do you want your soup now?”
He gave her his boyish grin and her hand a gentle squeeze, blissfully basking in her attention.
“Zian Da, where did Xiang Zhe pick up that girl?” Yong Xi finally couldn’t contain her curiosity and animosity.
“They met on the basketball court. She aced him.”
“You see, all along I said he had been charmed. How could Xiang Zhe lose if he was not charmed?”
“Hey, Yong Xi, that’s not fair. She’s the better player that’s why she won! You ask Shen Qi Tong. He has confirmed many times the girl plays brilliantly.”
“You’ve seen her play?”
“Not yet, but Xiang Zhe is organising a few competition matches for December. You can come and watch.”
The other 3 girls wanted to watch too, so they asked Zian Da to get tickets for them.
“She’s a girl, how can she be stronger than Xiang Zhe?”
“It was just aiming for baskets. She got perfect 10, while Xiang Zhe got 9.”
“Maybe Xiang Zhe relaxed a bit.” She muttered to no one in particular, not believing for a second what she had been told.
==
A few weeks later, Xiang Zhe and Shen Qi Tong were sitting at one of the benches around the basketball court at Youido No. 2 High School, discussing the chances of their teams. They needed 14 signed up members for the two teams – each team’s 5 main players with 2 reserves. So far Qi Tong managed to get only 12 confirmed members. Because December was usually a busy month for most office workers, many of their usual basketball members couldn’t confirm. Anyway, their members had promised if they could spare the time, they would come for practice play in case on the night of the match, they were free to play.
The Foreign Trade Ministry was sending two teams too. Shan Mei told Xiang Zhe her ex-colleagues were very excited with the arrangement and had been practising furiously. Luckily, it was simply 2 against 2, the winners from the 2 matches to meet to determine the winner. This was very friendly, indeed. Nothing drawn out.
On the night of the 3rd Wednesday of December, the court at the Foreign Trade Ministry was booked from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. In Xiang Zhe’s elimination round, his team won and was scheduled to play against the Foreign Trade B team in the finals.
The Yin family also turned up to watch the match. During half time, Xiang Jie was all excited and told Sister Shan Mei he played quite well at school. Shan Mei was pleased and encouraged him to go change into his basketball gear if he had brought it along. After the main match was over, any player could go on and play – the court had been reserved till 10 that night. Shan Mei was pleasantly surprised too when she saw Uncle Yin explaining to Auntie Yin some fine points of the game.
She felt good and very happy for Xiang Zhe. His father was here to show his support. His younger brother was opening up to him, no longer hiding timidly in the background whenever big brother appeared on the scene.
That night, the Director General of ForeignTrade Admininstraton Division was the guest of honour. He presented the winning trophy to the winning team which came from his Division, and commemorative pennants to members of the other three teams. In his closing speech, the Director General also hoped this event could be maintained with once-a-month friendly matches.
It was still early, other players waiting for some game time, rushed on to the court, to sign up for their turn to play, in random teams of 5.
Xiang Zhe was surprised to see his younger brother out there among the players. He was playing not bad. Xiang Zhe’s eyes met Shan Mei’s across the court, and an unspoken message passed between them. He could feel Shan Mei’s approval of him. He was ecstatic. He sneakily went up to the register and put down his and Shan Mei’s names as players in the next group.
After 10 minutes, another 2 teams were called on to court. Xiang Zhe pulled Shan Mei up from her seat and rushed her out to court. Many in the auditorium were surprised Shan Mei was playing so well, technically and tactically, never missing a basket, whenever she took a shot.
At 10 p.m. when Shen Qi Tong arranged for clearing of the court, the leader from the Ministry’s team, Kim Youzhen came looking for Xiang Zhe, wanting to plan for the next once-a-month friendly match. Xiang Zhe agreed to discuss with Kim Youzhen over lunch the next day. Because of this opportunity, Xiang Zhe made many new friends in the Ministry’s Administration division, and they assured him of their assistance if ever he needed information or whatever from their division.
==
One afternoon, Kim Youzhen from the Foreign Trade Ministry phoned Xiang Zhe. “Brother Yin, Kim Youzhen here. Four Chinese engineers now training with PJY Electronics somehow or other managed to hear of our recent basketball matches. They too want a friendly match with the Ministry. Because the department is very busy with so many visiting trade delegations, we want you to make up the numbers in our team. The Chinese side only has 4 players too. Can you recommend some one, not Shen Qi Tong, to make up the 5th player?”
Xiang Zhe laughed softly and suggested Youzhen contact Shan Mei.
On the night of the match, Executive Director Park of PJY Electronics came to watch. After the game, he invited everybody to dinner.
“Zhen Shan Mei, I didn’t know you’re such a good player. We should organise similar matches more often. Mr. Yin, you’re a very good player too. What about Wen Rong, it has its own team?”
“Yes,” he answered without hesitation.
Shan Mei looked over to Xiang Zhe, somewhat surprised with his swift answer.
“When are we going to have a friendly game?”
“In a few years’ time, maybe? The boys are still very young. We are not seriously training them yet. Just letting them play around, teaching them the basic mechanics of the game, like how to handle the ball properly, etc., so they won’t ever get booked for fouls. Maybe this coming summer, we will train them seriously about tactics and strategy, for junior league play at school competitions. Technically, they should have no problem.”
“You mean Wen Rong doesn’t have a senior but a junior team? What’s the name of your team?” Executive Director Park was curious and he was wondering about the boys.
“Wen Rong Croakers, of course.”
“You’re serious about this?”
“Of course.” Xiang Zhe pulled out from his wallet a photo. Shan Mei, himself posing with their 10 kids wearing the new T-shirts he had bought in Shanghai for them.
“Shan Mei, you’re a sly one, training your team in secret. You want to bulldoze every competitor down or what?”
“Nothing of that sort. We want to foster more goodwill. We hope PJY Electronics will sponsor the team one day when we play around the region.”
“No problem with that. If ever the Croakers play outside of Seoul, PJY will underwrite the entire trip. The boys don’t even need to wear PJY colours, as long as they bring glory to our city or our country.”
“Executive Director Park, thank you. You’re so generous, such a worthy citizen of our country. We promise to do well in all regions. But we can't promise to bring anything back except souvenirs from China. They are really untouchable, because they train seriously from very young.”
==
It was quite cold this afternoon when Xiang Zhe drove the van around to collect the boys.
Shan Mei never missed a Sunday afternoon where the boys were concerned. She had brought a big hot water pot along to give the boys hot drinks later. She was really very caring towards them, teaching them how to hang up their overcoats neatly and properly on clothes pegs along one side of the wall in the sports hall. She would make a great mother.
And also a great wife, Xiang Zhe envisioned. Even though she thought he didn’t notice it, every time during Sunday dinner at Uncle and Auntie Kim’s house, she would give him the best portion of soup, the slice of pork with exact lean meat and fat knowing he didn’t like too lean pork. He liked fish but he hated the bones. She would remove the bones from the fish for him and put on a separate plate. Uncle and Auntie noticed this too and kept it to themselves. If they started teasing her, they knew she would……
Since Shan Mei resigned from her job at the Foreign Trade Ministry, she had more time to enjoy her own pursuits. The fresh water crab season was from mid August to end November. She was working less and making more money. Her free-lance job with the Ministry was paying more too. With more time, she began baking cookies for Sundays. She would pack them into 10 bags, one each for the boys.
One Sunday while sitting out to rest from a game, Xiang Zhe couldn’t help himself and asked her, “Why these 10 boys?”
“Their fathers are seamen, away from home 18 to 24 months each time. Boys their age need a father’s guiding hand. Since their fathers are not home, I want to give them something else to keep them out of mischief. You think they’re coming along okay?”
“I think they’re doing extremely well. They’re now growing up fast, maybe the backboard stand needs to be elevated a bit higher. I’ll arrange for that if it’s okay with you.”
“Sure, you do what you want. The boys simply adore you. You be sure to behave responsibly so that they have a good example to look up to.”
“I’m working so hard, but I’m getting no reward.”
Shan Mei passed him some cookies. He shook his head, and pushed the cookies away. Standing up, he clapped his hands for attention.
The boys gathered around him very excitedly, and asked whether he had a new game in mind. Xiang Zhe had been devising interesting games for them that gave tactical training.
“Yes, I want to challenge Miss Zhen.” And he looked at Shan Mei directly in the eyes seriously.
Shan Mei gave him a quizzical stare, her mouth hiding a smile. Throwing her a challenge, huh?
“I win, you kiss me. You win, I kiss you. Three 3-point shots from any one of the usual 5 positions.”
The boys clapped their hands loudly in happy unison. “Yes Miss Zhen, take the challenge, and you must win.”
Shan Mei kept quiet, thinking in her mind, “Yin Xiang Zhe, you’re a sly one.”
When Shan Mei didn’t immediately answer, Xiang Zhe riled her. “Miss Zhen, afraid to take up the challenge?”
“Says who? Tee Min, pass me the ball.”
Of course, only with 70% concentration, she still got her 3 baskets.
Xiang Zhe began to aim. The boys were helping him by making a lot of ruckus to distract him, and shouting to him and clapping away, “Miss! Miss! Miss!” as he jumped up and flung upwards and outwards. The ball knocked at the metal rim a few times, then bounced off court. 10 pairs of arms shot up in the air instantly jubilant, shouting “Yeah,” and ran up to Xiang Zhe and pulled him along to Shan Mei, “Uncle, come, let Miss Zhen collect her prize.”
When they were facing each other, Xiang Zhe turned to the boys. With his forefingers he indicated to the boys to turn the other way. Very slowly, he dipped his head to give Shan Mei a soft, tender kiss on her lips, lingering long enough but not too long. He felt her lips quiver. For the moment, he was satisfied with this.
She became very shy. The boys too became serious and somehow knew instinctively they mustn’t tease Miss Zhen.
Xiang Zhe led them back onto the court and everything went back to normal. But not his heart! It was racing and soaring tumultuously towards endless space. He licked at his lips, to savour the taste of her lips once more.
When training session was over, he looked at his boys and decided to give them a treat.
He took them all to the nearest MacDonald’s outlet, bought each one a MacDonald pack before sending them home.
While they were waiting for their packs, Tee Min gave Xiang Zhe a sneaky look. “Uncle, when you came to play with us at the school, I knew you were not there to take lessons from Miss Zhen. You were there to woo her, right?”
Xiang Zhe gave the kids a sheepish grin, and then tapped Tee Min lightly on his little head. “So, are you guys going to help me?”
Ten pairs of arms shot up at once.
“You better learn fast and play properly; otherwise your Miss Zhen will kick me out for being a lousy coach.”
Ten little heads nodded together, very seriously.
At Auntie’s, Shan Mei was in the kitchen helping her aunt, even when Auntie told her everything was taken care. “Go out there and keep Xiang Zhe company.”
She simply told her aunt, “Auntie, Xiang Zhe is busy talking with Uncle, and I want to leave them to their men’s talk.”
Xiang Zhe was anxious. He wasn’t looking forward to tonight when he would be sending her home. Would she give him flake for his boldness this afternoon at the basketball court in front of the boys? Just when she told him to act responsibly, he began showing the boys how to go about stealing a kiss from a fair maiden. He needed to talk to her. She had considered long enough, but she hadn’t officially told him she had accepted him.
When they reached her house, Shan Mei invited him in. She went to the kitchen to get him a bowl of Monkey Head mushroom soup that she had slow cooked all day. “Take more of the soup. You’ve been working way too hard these past two weeks. Can’t you delegate more responsibilities to Miss Li?”
While spooning the soup into his mouth, his heart filled with sweetness. “Li Qing Xi has been doing as best as she can. It’s when these distributors start talking about payments, that she cannot make decisions. Now that they are paying up front, they try to get some discounts from her, when I’m not around. We’re already passing on to them whatever benefits we are getting from Brother Chen, yet they still want more.”
After a while, he let her know what was happening with Busan. “Busan has contacted us for shipments. Their proposal is not bad. We simply deliver to them at Inchon port; their trawler will be on stand by to take delivery, then sail off. They’ll pay in advance too. They have heard of the quality of our croakers, almost comparable to the local variety but the price difference is huge.”
While waiting for the second bowl of soup to cool, Xiang Zhe went over to sit down on the sofa. He beckoned to Shan Mei, to go sit down next to him.
Shan Mei looked at him with doubts shadowing her eyes. “If you’re going to steal another kiss, I’m not coming”
He laughed sheepishly but his big expressive eyes looked innocent. “I promise not to do anything you will not approve of. Come,” he ordered gently as he patted the space beside him.
“We have no distributor in Busan. They have always been getting their own fish supplies. Now they want our croakers, our prawns, our squids and our regular crabs. I want to set up a company under both our names, to be official distributor for Busan. The discount we normally give to our distributors will go to this company. You’ll deal with the Busan buyers. No point in letting go of an opportunity to make some money. I’ve spoken to Father about this, and he has agreed to the idea. Brother Chen was your contact, you deserve something since our gross sales for the 4 months since the first shipment came from Brother Chen has averaged seven billion Won a month. And you have refused to accept a pay for the work you’re doing for us.”
Shan Mei was silent for a moment as she contemplated what Xiang Zhe had told her. She felt happy, not about the Busan distributorship, but about the new understanding between father and son. “You seem to be getting along well with your Father now?”
“You’re right about letting go of some burdensome feelings. Even Stepmother is trying to make overtures asking me home for dinners. And I really shouldn’t be angry with Xiang Jie. I shouldn’t blame him for what the adults did. Now that I’ve managed to stop stepmother coming in to the office and use that space to set up a new office space for you, I feel so free. And since I told Father Xiang Jie can come into the office and learn about the business, I think he’s beginning to take things a little easier. Soon, we can retire him off too, so he can have more time to pursue his own interests. I don’t want to waste time thinking of the past. I should be thinking of my future, our future, right?”
Shan Mei smiled tenderly as she sat beside Xiang Zhe. Finally, he had found his way out of the maze that had kept him going around in circles all these years. She went to the dining table, to bring his bowl of soup over and place in his hands. “Take this while it is still warm.”
When Xiang Zhe finished his soup, he took Shan Mei’s hand and kissed each of her fingers, then looked at her and said very sincerely, “Shan Mei, thank you for everything.”
Shan Mei was so touched, her eyes brimmed with tears threatening to fall.
Enfolding her within his arms, he murmured gently, “Shan Mei, I don’t want ever to see you cry. I want to make you happy. I promise. So please take back your tears.”
“Even if they are tears of joy? I want to cry because I’m so proud of you. You really have managed to put the past behind you. No more demons, no more nightmares. From now onwards, I want you to share with me whatever happens in your life. I want to share in everything, the good along with the bad.”
“Shan Mei, it has been six months since we have our little talk in Nantong. Have you decided? I’m not rushing you. I can’t sleep properly until I know whether you’ve accepted me. I’m worried when I see how unreservedly Executive Director Park supports you in all your ventures.”
“Aiyoo, you’re always so smart most of the time, even know how to communicate with the sales people in China. Why are you so obtuse all of a sudden?”
“You mean, you’ve accepted me?” A flash of unbridled joy zipped through Xiang Zhe’s entire body.
Shan Mei became shy. She didn’t answer Xiang Zhe, instead took the soup bowl back to the sink in the kitchen.
Xiang Zhe followed her and wrapped his arms around her waist when she was standing behind the sink, washing the bowl. He nuzzled at the sensitive hollow behind her ear and whispered gently, “I love you. I’ll cherish and protect you forever. You can trust me.”
He didn’t let go of her; instead he rested his face against her shoulders. “I’ve never felt so comfortable with anyone except you, like this moment. Shan Mei, please throw me out of your house in 5 minutes time, otherwise I’ll never want to leave. I want to stay and tell you everything that’s in my heart, and that may take me 3 days and 3 nights.”
Shan Mei turned around in his arms. She didn’t say or do anything, except placed her head against his chest – telling herself, “Yes, this chest is broad enough to be my haven, these arms are strong enough to protect me, these hands gentle enough to comfort me, his heart now whole and tender enough to cherish me without reservation.”
After a few minutes of silence, she asked, “Xiang Zhe, are you truly happy?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I’m afraid I may be pushing you to do something you don’t like doing.”
“If you’re worried about my family, don’t. I now realise you are the most important person in my life. I consider you my new family. Other things are of no consequence. If I can’t overlook something so minuscule to make you happy, I don’t deserve your love.”
“Oh, Xiang Zhe…” her voice wobbled.
Xiang Zhe lifted up her face and saw tears rolling down her cheeks. He wiped them away with his pads of his thumbs. “Shan Mei, don’t cry. I can’ bear to see you cry. It’s so heart wrenching for me. Give me a smile.” His arms wrapped around her shoulders tightly, rubbing his chin against her hair.
Slowly, hesitantly, she circled her arms around his waist. As soon as he felt that, his lips sought her mouth. Very gently, very slowly he caressed her full lips; his caresses soon turned to deep kisses.
After a while, Shan Mei pushed him gently away. “It’s 5 minutes already. Didn’t you say you want me to throw you out?”
He laughed and tweaked her nose.
“Do you want me to come by and pick you up tomorrow morning?”
“Do you want to have breakfast here?”
“Of course if you’re sure it’s not too much trouble.”
Before he walked out of the door, he gave Shan Mei another kiss. “Thank you, Shan Mei. Tonight I’ll have no trouble sleeping.”
=
Now that he knew Shan Mei loved him, he couldn’t help staring at her all the time. He watched her all the time through the glass windows of his office.
And he was fascinated by what he saw. When she was concentrating on her work, she sometimes talked to herself. She wrinkled her brows quite frequently, and when she was deep in thought, slight frowns would appear on her forehead. And when she had completed something successfully, she would smile to herself.
Whenever she was on the phone with their Busan distributors, her mouth would curve into a soft smile, while she checked her fingernails. He knew exactly when she took a call from her Pa. She would immediately cover the mouthpiece, and walk quietly and swiftly to a quiet corner, her dazzling smile never disappearing from her face. Sometimes, she would smile softly at whatever it was that came to her mind. He wanted to join in her happiness. He wished to know what was making her so happy. Whenever she finished talking to her Pa, she would put her mobile phone back into her pocket, tilt her head at a slight angle, and then happily bounce away.
He wondered how she would look when she was talking to him? Or receiving a call from him? He picked up his phone and called her number.
“Miss Zhen Shan Mei here, can I help you?”
“Yes, you can. How about a neck massage? All this work is pressing down on my head.”
Shan Mei looked up from her phone and through his office glass windows. He gave her a slight wave of his hand. Shan Mei was tickled and giggled, then solemnly answered him, “I’m very busy, Mr. Yin.”
And she was about to hang up the phone, when Xiang Zhe stalled her. “Hey, don’t hang up yet. I love you,” he whispered softly down the line and gave her a timid, boyish smile.
==
Today Shan Mei had gone to the Foreign Trade Ministry to help entertain some visiting VIPs from China. Xiang Zhe was at his desk, flipping through the special supplement that came with Chosun News, giving readers all the hoopla for Valentine’s Day in two weeks’ time – suggestions on presents, places to eat, etc. All was very confusing to him. This was the first time he was confronted with such a poser.
Of course he knew flowers were important for that day, but where to deliver the flowers? He didn’t know whether Shan Mei would be at the office that day. When he saw Shan Mei a few days later, he tried to hedge around the subject of dinner at same fancy restaurant.
“Eating out? There’s some translation I have to rush out. PJY Electronics need it for their catalogue. I’ll most probably make pork stew for dinner that night. If you’re doing nothing you can come and join me.”
“I don’t want to disturb you when you’re working. What time shall I show up?”
“About 8.30. I should be finished by then.”
==
On February 14th, by mid morning, Shan Mei received Xiang Zhe’s large bouquet of very special roses. These were air-flown directly from Adelaide; very rare roses from the famous David Rustin’s Rose Gardens. Large velvety blooms from a rare old rose tree, white petals tinged with very, very faint green.
When Xiang Zhe found out from Auntie Kim that Shan Mei’s favourite colour was white, whenever he dressed, he would wear something white. He searched via internet for special white roses, and finally managed to locate David Rustin’s rare roses from Renmark in South Australia. He ordered 40 blooms, 3 dozen for the bouquet to be delivered to her house, one he put on her desk in the office, one in his house, one in the car and one he would personally deliver to Shan Mei when he go to her house for dinner later that night.
As soon as he walked through Shan Mei’s front door, the heady scent from the roses pervaded throughout the whole house. He handed to Shan Mei the one bloom he was holding in his hand. Before Shan Mei could thank him, he caught her within his arms and planted a deep kiss on her lips.
Shan Mei was dressed in the exquisite cheongsam tailored from the beautiful embroidered silk that Xiang Zhe had gifted her.
The vision was simply too much for him. He ran his hands down her back, around her waist, smoothing their way down her hips. He drew her closer. He felt intoxicated by the warm, satiny feel of the luxuriant silk. His roses and the silk somehow seemed to blend sensuously so well together to play havoc with his mind and his hands. “Thank goodness Shan Mei cannot read what is running through my mind this minute!” he told himself.
When he released Shan Mei from his hold, she tore a petal off the single bloom and placed it in his shirt pocket. She told him he would soon smell as delicious as the roses.
“In that case, I hope Miss Zhen Shan Mei will enjoy me for dessert?”
“I think I better stop feeding you with Monkey Head mushroom soup. Your retorts are getting better, sharper and faster.”
Xiang Zhe protested at once. “If you do that, I’ll get into trouble with the distributors. Right now, they’re trying to outsmart me every day by complaining about this and that, trying to get me to give them better deals, on our croakers and squids. I am winning our arguments because my brains have been nourished.”
Shan Mei didn’t believe a word he was saying. She turned on the television for Xiang Zhe. “Entertain yourself, while I get dinner ready.” She was all sugary, demure and mysterious.
Twenty minutes later, Shan Mei called out from the kitchen, “Dinner’s ready.”
Xiang Zhe switched off the TV and quickly strode over to the dining table. He was very hungry! One look at the food on the table, he went up to Shan Mei and took her in his arms again. He loved the feel of her in silk. “Are you trying to starve me to death? How do you expect me to eat that?”
Shan Mei looked at him surprised. “Don’t you like any of the dishes I have prepared?”
“They look so beautiful – it’s a crime to mess them up.” He was still in awe.
The soup was green pea soup. The cream floating on top was heart-shaped. Even the tiny watercress petals used as garnish on the cream were heart-shaped.
She had the main course of Kobe beef warming on a hot plate. The beef slices were also heart-shaped, so were the lightly fried mash potato patties. The vegetables in the mixed salad bowl were also heart-shaped.
He bet the dessert would be something beautifully prepared, heart-shaped.
“What’s for dessert?”
“You, yes?”
“You imp! Now you tell me. How can I have the heart to spoil these? And pretending you didn’t care about Valentine’s Day? You’re going to pay later for making me think we are not doing something special for our first Valentine’s Day together as a couple.”
“If we stand here and not start eating, I’m going to die of hunger soon….” Shan Mei put the bowl of soup at his place, and one at her place. She began scooping the soup into her mouth, and exhaled satisfactorily. “Hmmm … this is so delicious!”
Xiang Zhe seeing Shan Mei’s look of satisfaction couldn’t control himself; he too started on his soup. It really was delicious. When he finished his soup, he started on the main course. As he ate, honey was coating around his heart. Soon he finished his 4 thin slices of beef. “Any more beef,” he asked Shan Mei. The beef was so tender, and thinly sliced, it simply melted in the mouth.
“Hey, there’s still dessert, you know?”
“What’s for dessert?”
“Ice cream with hot chocolate sauce!”
“No problem. Just bring out all the beef you have been keeping warm.”
When the meal was over, Xiang Zhe went to the sofa to wait for his coffee. He told Shan Mei in the future, for Valentine’s Day meal, they would only eat at home.
Shan Mei looked at him, her face and her eyes had gone red and in her mind she was questioning to herself, “Who knows what’s going to happen next Valentine’s Day?”
“Can you stop working in the kitchen for the rest of the night? I’ve got something to say to you. Come here.”
Shan Mei rinsed her hands, then wiped them dry and went to the sofa.
Xiang Zhe looked at her, his eyes full of love. He took out of his trouser pocket a little jewelry box. In it was a chain necklace with a heart shaped diamond pendant. He turned her around and clasped the chain around the cheongsam collar. He kissed her jaw line lightly, then her ear and whispered into it “I love you so much, ShanMei. I don’t want to hear anything from you that you can’t accept such an expensive present. Can you please accept it graciously?”
Shan Mei nodded her head, the water around her eyes threatening to fall.
Xiang Zhe could see the love in her eyes. From his other pocket, he took out another box. He opened it. It was a ring mounted with a 3-carat heart-shaped diamond solitaire. He took her left hand in his, his voice shaking with emotion when he looked deep into her eyes. “Shan Mei, I’m asking you to marry me, but I don’t want your answer now. I know how close you are to your parents. I don’t want your father and mother to think I’m so presumptuous that I expect you to wear my ring without first seeking their permission. The day after tomorrow, we’ll fly to Shanghai to see your father. If your mother is feeling better, we’ll go and visit her too. If your father agrees, you will allow me to put the ring on this finger?” He lifted up Shan Mei’s ring finger on her left hand to his lips and kissed it tenderly. “You keep the ring for now and bring it to Shanghai with you, Okay?”
He was so gentle with his words and so tender with his action, Shan Mei was too overwhelmed. She simply nodded her head, as the tears she had tried to hold back began to fall. “Anything else from your magic pockets?” laughing tearfully she asked in a soft voice.
“Yes, one more thing.” He pulled out from his trouser back pocket a handkerchief and began to wipe away her tears.
“Now, for some real dessert.” He drew her into his arms. Tenderly he brushed her stray hair away from her face to smooth it behind her ears. After cradling her face between his hands, he began to kiss her, at first gently and slowly, then increasing the pressure as he felt her response.
When they broke away and came up for air, Shan Mei brushed his lips lightly with hers, and then thanked him for his presents and his love. Seeing the honesty and love in his eyes, Shan Mei simply murmured tenderly into his ear, “I love you, really love you.” Xiang Zhe could see love was radiating from her beautiful face.
Xiang Zhe caught Shan Mei back into his arms and vowed to love her, and love her, as he began another frenzy of wild kisses. How he wished he didn’t have to leave that night; he wanted to feel her, he wanted to lie next to her, he wanted to bury himself in her, oooh, how he wanted to hold her so close not even an inch of space could be found between them! [sigh longingly…]
One day in July, in Shanghai:
Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei were going to get married. The wedding party from Seoul flew into Shanghai airport 3 days before the actual wedding day. Zhen Senior, together with his wife who was in a wheelchair and assisted by her sister Auntie Kim already in Shanghai for 2 weeks to help with the wedding preparations, was at the airport to welcome the guests. This time Mrs. Zhen looked very healthy with a rosy complexion. Shan Mei last saw her mother when she and Xiang Zhe were in Shanghai about their engagement. That time her mother did not cry and when Xiang Zhe was introduced to her as her future son-in-law, she not only smiled and nodded her head in approval, she kept holding on the Xiang Zhe’s hands, not letting go and managed to say very lucidly, “Love is very important. Cherish one another. Now I feel very blessed, Heaven has given us a wonderful son. We will love you the same way we love our Shan Mei.” After that, Xiang Zhe insisted that he helped her with the chair: carried her from the wheelchair into the car, or placed her onto the sofa or to her bed, and vice versa. He became very protective of her when he discovered how very light she was.
==
Shan Mei had arranged with her best friend from senior high school and college, a beautiful Shanghainese girl, Lu Ping Ping, 2 years her senior, to organize some basketball coaching games for her ten young players with the Pudong youth team presently under Ping Ping’s charge. Ping Ping was now PE instructor at Pudong Girls’ High School. After graduation, she had wanted to join the Women’s National Basketball team but was told she was not good enough or tall enough. Zian Da went along to these coaching games so that Shan Mei’s young team would have someone to assist them with language problems – not that Zian Da could converse in Chinese. Luckily for all, Ping Ping and Zian Da could communicate in English.
==
The day of Xiang Zhe and Shan Mei’s wedding was the 2nd anniversary of their first meeting at the Youido basketball court. The venue for the wedding was a beautiful old church built in Gothic style in Shanghai’s Fuxing Park. This church had been bought over by a Hongkong property developer, and had been converted into a very popular venue for weddings and functions.
Xiang Zhe, big smiles on his face, was early at the ‘church’ waiting to close the most important deal of his life. Since the first time Shan Mei threw him her line at the basketball court, “You win me,” had been reverberating in his mind constantly. Now, in less than an hour, Miss Zhen Shan Mei would sign on the dotted line of the marriage certificate. Xiang Zhe would have won her – won her hand in marriage, won the legal right to give her his name, won the legal right to love and cherish her, won the legal duty to provide for her forever. He would be only too happy to provide whatever it would take to ensure her total happiness in this life and the next.
At the wedding, Zian Da was the best man. And Lu Ping Ping was the bridesmaid.
When Ping Ping arrived at the church with Shan Mei, Zian Da didn’t recognise her. Out of her regular sports wear, she looked so beautiful and elegant. He was at once smitten.
Xiang Zhe noticed Zian Da’s interest and asked him whether he needed help. He could send his wife to act as ‘connector’. Zian Da became suddenly shy and quiet, which was not his usual character at all. Xiang Zhe smiled knowingly. After the day of the wedding, when the guests were preparing to leave Shanghai, Xiang Zhe asked Zian Da to stay behind in Shanghai a few more days so Ping Ping could take him sight-seeing. He didn’t have to worry about the 10 boys because Uncle and Auntie Kim would accompany them on the flight back to Seoul.
==
For the Yins’ honeymoon, they spent one week on the main Zhoushan Island. Xiang Zhe had never seen so many types of fishes and shellfish in his life. Every meal, they sampled different types of fish and shellfish; to test which could be a suitable import for Korea.
Zhoushan, in its own way, provided the tranquility and serenity that the Yins craved for their sweet loving together. Indulging in simple pursuits like long strolls along the beach, pebble hunting in the clear, fresh water streams, talking to the friendly village folk, enjoying great seafood was how they spent most of their days.
In the evenings when the sun still had not set, they would explore the many secluded coves near the simple hotel they were staying at. During these times, sitting on the big boulders by the sea, Xiang Zhe, holding Shan Mei snugly and blissfully in his arms, could not help grinning contentedly. In front of him, out in the open sea, large cages housing fishes, prawns and lobsters, oysters and abalone several fathoms beneath its surface, held the source of their fortune.
In time, when Xiang Jie was older and more experienced in handling the business at the Korean end, Xiang Zhe thought he would want to come with Shan Mei and live on this beautiful island a few months out of every year in the summer.
Living with Shan Mei and loving her was all he wanted to do. He recalled fondly one afternoon, three Julys ago at the Youido Park, this little Miss, in less than one hour, had turned his life completely upside-down by making him do several things he had never done before.
First time in his life, he had grabbed hold of a person spontaneously in pure exuberance. Not only that, but that person happened to be a stranger and a girl he had never met or known before. First time, he felt so good having her in his arms, he didn’t want to let her go. First time, he was laughing – really found delight in laughing out loud. First time he was so affected by her presence, her smile; his heart had raced erratically. First time he felt it vital he must not lose her; she was too special for words. They belonged together. That night was the first of many nights to come that he would lose sleep over her. Whisky and cigarettes became his constant nightly companions until he met up with her and her little troop again at Youido No. 2 High School.
And now this little Miss was his newly-wedded wife for 5 days already. As he turned to lay indulgent eyes on her, his breathing became hot, raspy and uneven. “Darling, I want y.oouu.u…u.” Slowly, he pinned her down on the big, flat surface of the large boulder, kissing her, his hand making its way under her blouse to cup a perfect breast.
“Xiang Zhe,..we’re…” Shan Mei stammered, trying to bring some semblance back.
“Darling, don’t worry. The people around here will understand. We’re newly-weds on our honeymoon,” Xiang Zhe whispered back trying to reassure her and he laughed wickedly as his wife tried to fight him off.
After a while of futile struggle, Shan Mei breathed hoarsely, in shy whispers, into his face. “Husband, how did it happen so fast? The sun has already set and the moon is now almost up. I think it’s time to return to our hotel,” she being embarrassingly aware of some other couple’s interest in them.
Xiang Zhe agreed tentatively, aware too of his own sense of excitement and urgency. He let go of his wife, gave her one final deep lingering kiss on her lips, then pulled her up, tidied her hair, and straightened her blouse.
The rose-tinted sunset bathed everything in view, lending a touching beauty and softness. Shan Mei and Xiang Zhe stood in the wondrous solitude of the beach, and watched in silence – her hand in his – while the sunset gave way to dusk. He then hurried her along the beach towards their hotel, laughing blissfully with the cool night sea breeze blowing into their faces, their running care-free forms silhouetted against the big, round golden moon now dancing on the waters in the horizon.
==
On the day of the Yin-Zhen wedding in Shanghai, a full page wedding announcement appeared in many of the major newspapers in Seoul.
Yong Xi, as soon as she saw the wedding announcement was shocked. She was shocked, not because of the wedding. She had expected it seeing the determined look on Xiang Zhe’s face that night he informed her that he was in love in Zhen Shan Mei. It was the information in the announcement, stating that Zhen Shan Mei was the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Zhen Gui Cheng, Mr. Zhen being the current Korean Commercial Attaché based in Shanghai for the past 10 years that had left her bewildered.
It also stated that the groom Mr. Yin Xiang Zhe was a double honours graduate from Cambridge University, England and was now the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the family business Wen Rong Seafood Packing and Cannery; and Director of Zhemei Distribution Corporation. The bride was an honours political law and economics graduate from Shanghai’s East China University of Politics and Law. Her credentials list was long: Foreign Trade Advisor with Shanghai’s Foreign Ministry of Trade Department; Personal Assistant, China Trade Division to the Foreign Trade Minister of the Korean Foreign Trade Ministry; Director of China Trade Division, Wen Rong Seafood Packing and Cannery; Director of Wen Rong Dried Food Sourcing & Packing Factory; Director of Zhemei Distribution Corporation.
Thereafter, Yong Xi began scanning the papers daily for news of the wedding. And after she saw the wedding photos and read the subsequent write-up article on the couple and interviews with people related to the couple in Seoul’s two main daily newspapers 4 days later that left her shaking and cursing, she was ready for admittance into a lunatic asylum.
In the news article, Xiang Zhe’s friends, Shen Qi Tong and Kim Zian Da, were arguing with one another for the right to be acknowledged as being the inadvertent match-maker in this marriage. Qi Tong explained that if he did not ask Xiang Zhe to stand-in for him as trainer that fateful Sunday at Youido Park, Xiang Zhe would not have the chance to befriend Zhen Shan Mei through a most extraordinary twist of fate on a most ordinary day. “So what?” Zian Da snorted, and then claimed that he was the one who managed to find Zhen Shan Mei when Xiang Zhe gave him the number plate of the van Miss Zhen was driving, asking him to trace the owner of the vehicle because he wanted to date the girl.
However, the 10 boys whom Shan Mei had been coaching basketball to claimed they were the real catalysts in this match-making. When Miss Zhen changed their game venue from Youido Park to Youido No. 2 High School and after Uncle Yin showed up one Sunday unexpectedly, they knew he was there trying to court Miss Zhen. They helped Uncle Yin at every opportunity – that was how he managed to win the hand of Miss Zhen.
In the article, the news reporters had asked, “And how are you boys related to Miss Zhen?”
“Our fathers are seamen, always away for about 2 years from home each time. Miss Zhen’s uncle is the Director of our Youth Welfare Association. Miss Zhen wanted to give us something to keep our Sundays busy and happy, so she suggested basketball coaching. On the first day of lesson she told us if we concentrated on the game and played really well yet at the same time do well in our studies, we may be able to go to university on scholarships. Gaining a higher level of education will open up many job opportunities for us, meaning a better quality of life in the future. Uncle Yin and Miss Zhen have been really generous and wonderful with us, giving us this trip to Shanghai. We have never before traveled outside of Seoul, let alone outside of the country.”
“Do you guys pay for the basketball lessons?”
“No. In fact, Miss Zhen provides transport. During half-time breaks, she gives us sandwiches and cookies; and Uncle Yin takes us to MacDonald’s after the games. Miss Zhen also gives us packs of cookies to take home every Sunday.”
“So how do you little guys intend to repay this couple?”
“We want to make the Junior Croakers the best team at the School’s Junior League Basketball Championship next year.”
When Uncle and Auntie Kim were interviewed, they laughed. Uncle Kim said if Mr. Shen and Mr. Kim claimed that they were the inadvertent match-makers, Uncle Kim supposed he and his wife were the inadvertent follow-up. “We insisted Xiang Zhe come to our place for Sunday dinners when he told us he seldom ate at home. Later, when he told us he was encountering some problems with his business, my wife immediately asked her brother-in-law, who is Shan Mei’s father, to recommend a reliable supplier of seafood to Xiang Zhe. Shan Mei had admitted because of her position in the Foreign Trade Ministry, she was not in a position to help much. My brother-in-law immediately recommended his adopted son, Brother Chen in Shanghai. Brother Chen and his associates, with fish and shellfish farms spread over 3 Chinese provinces along the Yellow Sea coast, are now supplying only to Wen Rong.”
Since the newly-weds were away on honeymoon, the news reporters interviewed the father of the groom, wanting to know how Miss Zhen had helped Wen Rong in its business ventures in China. “Because of her generous and unselfish assistance, Wen Rong is now the largest importer in Korea of Chinese yellow croakers. I also believe we are the largest importer of live lobsters from China. The local Japanese restaurants are already taking 60% of our daily 1000 kg shipments being air-flown in. The remaining 30% go to the hotels and 10% to the local restaurants. We hope our suppliers in China will be able to increase the quantity while continuing to assure us of top quality. We now also include dried foodstuff on our sales lists. We have the best grade of ginkgo nuts, 100% dried Shiitake mushrooms, jujube dates, sesame and several variety of nuts, including pine, from China. These are our top sellers.”
Liu Yong Xi was not the only one following the wedding news with envy and hatred in her heart. On the 15th floor of the Foreign Trade Ministry Building, another person was feeling and doing the same.
Xu Ying Ming, impatiently turning the pages of the Chosun Ilbo, could barely believe what she was reading. She couldn’t believe when she read that the Taihu fresh water crabs which Zhen Shan Mei first introduced to Seoul were imported into Korea by Wen Rong, and to think that she had tried to convince Yin Xiang Zhe that her very good friend would supply to him if he was interested. No wonder that Yin Xiang Zhe had dismissed her so casually with a ‘Sorry, I’m busy.’ Xu Ying Ming later became worried Shan Mei’s new husband would lodge a complaint with the Foreign Trade Ministry because she had already been cautioned by her Division Head that he had received many complaints from importers that she had been harassing them for favours and meals outside of office hours. Lunch time meals to talk business, they could accept, but not the nights when she wanted clubbing followed by suppers and activities that had nothing to do with business. She wasn’t aware that Yin Xiang Zhe had already complained to Kim Youzhen of the Administration Division and Youzhen had promised to personally eradicate such abusive ‘blackmail’ from the Foreign Trade Ministry. Executive Director Park of PJY Electronics had once mentioned that he had recommended that one of his subcontractors source a suitable partner in China through the assistance of the Foreign Trade Ministry. His subcontractor ended up with the same treatment. Youzhen thought it was time to introduce a new system for business people to hand in their applications of ‘interest,’ and a venue for them to make complaints.
==
That Autumn, Shan Mei invited Ping Ping to Seoul, to help her out in the restaurant when she had 3 weeks off for school holidays.
Zian Da came every night to the restaurant, and in his spare time, he learnt to play basketball seriously as an exercise. During this short holiday period, Ping Ping also helped to train the Junior Croakers daily.
Before Ping Ping returned to Shanghai after her brief stay, Shan Mei had convinced her to resign from Pudong Girls’ High School and move to Seoul. “Ping, you can see that Mr. Kim is seriously interested in you. Why not give him a chance? When you are here, you can stay with my auntie. This way, besides attending Korean language tuition classes, you’ll pick up the language very quickly. I am sure Mr. Kim will be more than happy to ferry you to and from language classes. With your law degree from East China University, it will be easy to enroll at a local university to take some sort of law qualification once you have mastered enough Korean to follow the lessons. I know many Chinese are eager to invest in property in Korea. You can always work as Zian Da’s personal assistant after your arrival. You need only to translate everything in Mandarin into English for him. After you have some kind of paper qualification from a Seoul university, he can always set up a Chinese section for you handling conveyance and miscellaneous investments for his Chinese clients in his law firm. Right now, they can accept any enquiries from the Chinese only when I am available to help him with the interpretation.”
Lu Ping Ping nodded her head in understanding. She was interested in the idea too, because she was finding herself increasingly attracted to Mr. Kim Zian Da. He was such a friendly, jovial person and such a gentleman. In Shanghai, she was never treated like a lady with so much respect. Not that she had the opportunity to meet many men. All her ex-male university mates treated her like another regular guy. Yes, Ping Ping agreed, relocating to Seoul would be the right decision. She told Shan Mei that she would tender in her resignation as soon as she returned to school.
When Xiang Zhe repeated to Zian Da the conversation between Shan Mei and Lu Ping Ping, Zian Da was very happy. He immediately began enquiring about the most reputable Korean language schools and also gathered prospectus from the city’s universities offering legal studies to foreign graduates who already hold law degrees.
He considered himself very lucky … thinking of the words he had once spoken to Xiang Zhe about finding a reasonably good looking girl, get her to come up to his office. And after he had wined and dined her for a few months, she would agree to be his wife, help him in his office and care for him in the house. It looked as if all this was coming true for him. Ping Ping was a well-educated, well-mannered simple girl, usually falling in with his suggestions without complaining unless he wanted to buy something expensive for her, and not at all bossy like that Liu Yong Xi who felt it was her God-given right that everyone must ‘kowtow’ to her.
A few days after Ping Ping returned to Shanghai, she confirmed to Shan Mei that she would be arriving Seoul at the end of November. Zian Da, when informed of Ping Ping’s plan, immediately set about setting up a place for her in his office. Since he was made a junior partner in the law firm, he met with the senior partner and told him that their law firm would now be able to take on Chinese clients. He has hired a personal assistant who was a law graduate from East Asia University in Shanghai. The senior partner was very pleased.
Xiang Zhe when he met up with Zian Da one evening for a beer congratulated each other on their good fortunes. “Senior, I pray that your Ping Ping can help you the way my Shan Mei is helping me. Since I asked her to take over handling of the distributors, there have been no more arguments from them. They simply accept her explanations like docile little boys. And since Shan Mei began recommending the herbal wine from Brother Chen’s factory, we have more orders than the 1,000 bottles we receive monthly. The funny part is the distributors are not offering the wine for sale on the open market but keep them for their family members and friends only. I tell her to put aside the profits she is making from the wine for her own use. Now I have more time to check on our canning and food packing factories to ensure the workers adhere to our strict standards. No wonder we have been told since Confucian times that a truly good wife is the most precious treasure a man can find. Well Brother, I’ve found mine. I hope you don’t let yours get away. Strike while the iron is hot!”
==
December evening in central Seoul, snow was falling.
One night in busy City central around Myeondong, people were running around doing last minute Christmas shopping.
Zian Da and Ping Ping were out Christmas shopping too, when a familiar voice called out to Zian Da. It was Yong Xi, with shopping bags hanging from her shoulders and her hands.
Her voice sounded reproachful. “Where have you been these past three months? Can’t seem to be able to get hold of you. You missed so many functions at the country club. You’ve been busy? I was calling you about this year’s Christmas Ball. Don’t forget to pick me up around 8 p.m., no earlier because a new stylist is coming to do my hair! Now, how about off-loading these heavy shopping bags from me and give me a lift back home? I didn’t bring my car because my brother borrowed it. If you want, you can buy me a cup of coffee at the new coffee shop next door. Let’s get moving. The crowd seems to be growing by the minute.” Her eyes glanced over to the girl by Zian Da’s side. She didn’t bother to acknowledge her, assuming she was some new girl working in Zian Da’s office.
Zian Da was surprised. He had forgotten the existence of Yong Xi. “Oh hello,Yong Xi. Yes, I’ve been so busy, playing basketball and ferrying Ping Ping to and from her Korean Language classes. Oh Yong Xi, please meet my fiancée Lu Ping Ping.” Turning to his fiancée, Zian Da made introduction. “Honey, this is a long time friend, Liu Yong Xi, the girl I told you I used to have a crush on? You don’t have to worry. My heart now belongs only to you,” he reassured her as he saw the unease in Ping Ping’s eyes.
Lu Ping Ping gave Zian Da an embarrassed look, her eyes telling him to behave. She then acknowledged Yong Xi with a respectful nod, “Nice to meet you, Miss Liu.”
Zian Da’s attention was again focussed on Yong Xi. “Sorry I won’t be able to pick you up. I’ll be taking my fiancée to the Christmas Ball. In fact, we were just in there selecting a ball gown. Oh, thought I’d let you know. Ping Ping and I are getting married on Valentine’s Day. You’re invited to the wedding, of course.”
He glanced at his watch. “Sorry, we can’t give you a lift this time because we are already running very late. We have to go now, we’re meeting up with Xiang Zhe, Shan Mei and Xiang Jie for basketball practice. #Cai Jian.#” With that, Zian Da then waved happily to Yong Xi and taking hold of Ping Ping’s hand protectively within his own, they hurried off to the car parking lot.
Yong Xi was left standing at the entrance of Lotte Department Store loaded down with her shopping bags, stunned speechless, gasping and gaping at the receding backs of Zian Da and his fiancée, Lu Ping Ping who was attracting a lot of attention from by-standers. With her long flowing locks flying about, her even-featured laughing face glowing with a healthy sheen, her slim shapely body snugly wrapped in a cashmere short jacket, her long slim legs in a pair of tight jeans, her feet encased in a pair of the latest style of Italian knee-high boots, she looked a million dollars.
*** And They Lived Happily Ever After ***
YXZ and ZSM