Scarring Jasmine-Chapter Twenty-one Death

08/03/2024 Saturday 74-91F Sunny

The maid reported Jasmine missing to Bai. They had looked for her for about one week but found neither her nor Zhao. Bai had no better choice but get the police involved, hoping that they could help him find Jasmine. However, he checked with the police almost every day but never got anything positive. “Somewhere near Shanghai is in a battle now;” The policeman was picking his teeth with a match, “we have nobody nor time to deal with your shit! If you have no patience to wait for us, then figure it out yourself!” He ended his response to Bai’s inquiry with a spit.

After the typhoid, every Autumn and Winter Bai had a bad cough. And because of the worries about Jasmine’s disappearance, his health condition had worsened. One morning when he was taking medicine, a servant hurried in and reported that there were a bunch of men gathering outside the door wanting to see him. Bai received them in the living room. A man who had a pox face and looked like the head of those guys bid fist-and-palm salute to Bai, then spoke in a thick voice: “Master Bai, my name is A San, people also call me Pox-Faced A San. A friend told me that Zhao is your son-in-law; since I couldn’t find him, I came here and want to have a talk with you. Do you know where he is?” 

Bai shook his head: “No, I haven’t seen him for many days.” 

“So your daughter must know his place.” 

“I am sorry, my daughter has been missing as well. I reported to the police yet no help.” 

A San seemed not surprised to hear that: “If so, she must be gone with Zhao. Then being the father-in-law, let’s make it straight: Two weeks ago, he and his men stole my guns, which caused me at least fifty-thousand-silver coins’ loss. Now I have no money to pay my creditors and feed my men, master Bai, you tell me what I should do.”

Bai frowned. He paced in the room for a short while, then spoke: “Mister, I am afraid you might be mistaken. My daughter is only engaged to Zhao, they aren’t married. And I entirely had no idea about what Zhao did, otherwise I wouldn’t have agreed to this engagement.”  

A San waved his hand as a sign of dismissal: “I don’t care about the story between you and Zhao. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. To pull through this trouble made by Zhao, we would like to borrow the same amount from master Bai. Listen, it is just borrowing. In the future once Zhao compensates this loss, we will return all your money to you.”

“But I don’t have so much money! Even if I want to help, I can’t afford to do it.”

A San sneered: “Don’t fool me! I wouldn’t have come here if you are incapable of doing it. This house, plus your three shops will be more than enough to cover that number. Remember, it isn’t your choice to take it or not; money or peace, you choose! By the way, one more piece of information for your reference: Just a while ago before we came, my men happened to meet your son on the street. Now I suppose that he is drinking tea in my place. Don’t worry, we won’t harm him, at least for the next seven days. Seven days later I will come back here to collect my money; if I don’t get it or get enough,” A San made a stabbing motion in the air with his right hand, “I will let your son be white dagger in, red dagger out!”

Without waiting for Bai’s answer, Pox-Faced A San raised his head to his men: “Let’s go!” They strode toward the door. Before stepping out, A San turned to Bai, threatened: “I have contacts in the police, if you dare make trouble for me, I will take off your son’s legs first!”

A San left. Bai immediately sent servants to the shops to look for Mumei, but all the employees reported that he didn’t show up that morning. After hearing that, Bai spewed out one mouthful of blood and fainted.

The next few days Bai was busy borrowing money from relatives and friends; at the same time he contacted potential buyers for his shops. But due to the bad economy, the few relatives and friends who were willing to help really couldn’t do that much for him; most of them avoided seeing him. Suddenly the whole world became not friendly at all to this reputable man. In desperation, he had to sell his shops cheap and pawn his Moye Lane house. With all that, six days later, he had only forty-five thousand three hundred silver coins. 

Where and how could he get another four thousand seven hundred? Bai pondered anxiously in the room: He had tried to borrow money from all the people he knew, and had pawned whatever was valuable, what else could he do? Just in several days he looked to have aged ten years!

“Did you go to Wang? Perhaps we should ask for his help?” Shen suggested.

“I have thought about that, but he is the last person to whom I want to go. Our two families were not that close in the past, and our daughter was at fault in her marriage. Most likely he will just simply turn me down. Alas, I guess I have to try it since we have no other solution.” 

Bai still hesitated. Then someone was knocking at the door. The servant opened it and found Xue carrying a little parcel on her arm. 

“I am so surprised to see you.” Bai welcomed her and gestured her to a chair, “If I am not mistaken, this is the first time you came to my house. How is Shanyuan in Europe?” 

“He is fine, thanks for thinking about him. He will graduate this Summer and come back to China.” 

“Congratulations! I feel very happy for you to have such a good son!”

“Thank you master Bai.” Xue gave Bai a faint nod, then pushed her parcel on the table to him, “Here are five thousand silver coins. I heard some talk that these days that you sold your shops in a great hurry and were borrowing money everywhere. I figured that you must have something urgent to do. Coincidentally last month someone who fancied old houses offered me a good price to buy my home. Since Shanyuan planned to stay in Shanghai in the future, and my newly widowed younger sister invited me several times to live with her in Zhejiang province, this house became of no use to me, so I sold it. You need money now, please take it.”

Bai was shocked: “I can’t take your money. That’s all you have. Keep it, wherever you go, money will always be useful; or you can leave it to Shanyuan.” 

“I don’t need money; my sister has some land which will be enough to feed one more mouth. Shanyuan won’t take the money either; he will work to make a living. In the past nearly twenty years, you have always been kind to us and cared for us, which can’t be evaluated by anything financial. Money isn’t important; if we can help a bit here, we will feel much more relieved. My husband would make the same decision if he were still alive.”

Bai’s lips trembled. He couldn’t find anything else to say. Xue stood up and bid goodbye. Bai walked to her, wanting very much to hold her hands; but again, he suppressed his emotion. “So, when will you leave here?” He hesitated, “And where can I find you?” 

Xue looked at Bai, her eyes were quiet and smiling: “I will leave tomorrow morning. Please don’t come to see me off, I wish not to say farewell to you. My sister lives in South Mountain village, Yuyao county, household Jiang. You can find me there.” 

“Ok, I promise I will go visit you; I believe it is a wonderful place!”

Xue responded with a slight smile, then walked out of the door. Bai stood under the eave, gazing in the direction where Xue disappeared, feeling terribly lonely. But he didn’t know that there was one more person who had heard the whole conversation at the rear window yet remained silent. It was Shen. 

Pox-Faced A San came the morning of the seventh day. “Where is the money?” He straddled the chair and asked. 

“It is here,” Bai showed the case, “but where is my son?” 

“Your son is outside in the rickshaw. You two, go check the money first!” A San instructed his men. 

The two men leaped to the case and began to count. “Boss, the sum is right!” They reported. 

“Ok, take the case!” A San ordered, then turned to Bai grinning, “Thanks master Bai for your generous help. A San will never forget it. Come along to get your son!” 

Bai followed him. A fully covered rickshaw was stopping outside the door, surrounded by seven or eight men. “Get him out, we can go now!” A San shouted at his men. One man right away opened the top and pulled Mumei out. A San sat in the rickshaw, hurried off.  

“Mumei, are you ok?” Bai squatted down to remove the cloth in Mumei’s mouth and untie the ropes bound on his wrists. All over his body were blood stains from beating. 

“Yes father, don’t worry. But I am afraid I cannot walk. Two days ago, I got a chance and tried to escape. They caught me and beat me. Since then, I couldn’t walk on my left leg.” 

“Ok son,” Bai used his sleeve to dry his eyes; his voice sounded like he was crying. “Now you are home, take some rest; don’t think about anything else.”

After the Lunar New Year Day, all the servants, cooks, and maids were dismissed since Bai couldn’t afford them anymore. Shen and Gao, who never did housework in their lives, now had to take care of the whole family: Bai was ill, Mumei was crippled, plus Mumei’s four-year-old daughter needed childcare. 

Bai’s cough became more severe--He coughed up blood almost every day and got weaker and weaker. The rest of Xue’s five thousand silver coins soon were spent on the doctors, Bai’s family had to tighten their expenses and live on pawns. 

One afternoon, Bai was lying in bed, and heard Shen scold Gao loudly in the kitchen: “You are so stupid! Didn’t your mother tell you that other than the celery’s stalks, you should keep its leaves as well? It is a waste to throw them away.” 

Days of stress had already torn Gao up; to her, Shen’s scold was more trouble, so she took this chance to fight back: “Yes, my mother did never tell me about that! Saving celery leaves isn’t something that I was supposed to know!” 

“You were not supposed to know?” Shen flew into a rage, “So tell me, being a daughter-in-law and a wife, what should be your expertise?” 

Mumei heard their argument too; he walked out of his room with the crutch, trying to stop Gao: “Don’t argue with mother please. Father is ill in bed; we shouldn’t give him more headache.”

“Headache? Can I say that I have more headache than anybody in this house? Your mother keeps complaining that it is my fault because I took Jasmine to Zhao’s house that evening and caused her divorce! Ok, I am done with it! I married a man for a secured life; see what I have gotten now! Your mother always disdains me, your father is dying, and you are crippled; every day I have to work like a cow pinching each penny. This isn’t the life which I expected to have!” 

“Shut up!” Shen slapped Gao’s face. “How dare you curse my husband! At the beginning who begged the matchmaker and salivated to marry into this house? You couldn’t bear a boy, and your ten fingers have never touched any soapy water in the past five years since you married my son. Now you just did a few days’ housework and already have started to complain! Don’t forget who you are! It is your duty to serve your parents-in-law and husband!”

“I can’t live here anymore; it is too much! I must go today and divorce!” Covering her face with her hands, Gao broke away and ran toward her room. 

Shen shouted at her back: “Nobody will stop you from leaving! Never dare come back!”

Bai wanted to struggle up, but he was too weak to do so. He lay in bed and coughed up another mouthful of blood in the handkerchief. Other than the pains inside his body, he had huge pains in his mind. Everything seemed so dark: Jasmine still hadn’t been found; Mumei had to walk with the crutch forever; the business which he built and had run for almost thirty years now all of a sudden was gone; the daughter-in-law was going to leave; the granddaughter was so little; and the house was pawned so he had to find a rental place for his family to move in before the due date…What was the point of life? 

A man had to spend all his life to build something, which could collapse in one day. Children, money, reputation, none of them really belonged to him. He came to the world empty-handed and would be destined to leave it in the same way. Was there anything remarkable, memorable in his life? Oh yes, he had his promise to Xue, to Xiao’s “Little Peach”, who was waiting for him to come to a place called South Mountain Village; and he had his daughter Jasmine. Where was she and what would happen to her? Bai felt his heart breaking into pieces.

Then from the window came another round of noise: It was Shen, who didn’t allow Gao to take all her Jewelry away. “The rings were bought by Mumei; these necklaces were gifted from my family; and this one pair of gold bracelets as you confessed before were from Little Red. You can only take what you brought in!” 

“Ok, now you are not a boss lady anymore, and I saw your true colors. Take what you want! Shame on you!” Gao’s voice was followed by the sound of something dumped on the floor. Right after that, the door banged shut. “She is gone!” Bai murmured.

Bai died at dusk, while the red sun was half sinking in the water, while the dark grey clouds were flying in the western sky, while the neighbors were calling their kids to come home for dinner. At his death bed, on the pillow, when his last moment came, he was still muttering: “Jasmine, South Mountain, Jiang…” The blood ran out from the corner of his mouth and stained the white pillow red. He died with both eyes open.

Shen and Mumei stayed by his bedside, sobbing.