At the back of the house there was a small yard. She stepped into it. Nio was up now, pulling on his shirt. He joined her, disheveled, but eager to make amends.
“I didn’t think you’d get away,” he said, “and with this fog…”
As she stood in the little yard in the morning mist, Mei-Ling looked at him sadly. “So you ran away from home. Is your family looking for you?”
“No. I told my father I wanted to come and see you all. He gave me money and a present for your parents. I said I’d stay here awhile.”
“But you don’t want to go back. Is it your stepmother? Is she unkind?”
“No. She’s all right.”
“I heard you’ve a new little brother and sister. Don’t you like them?”
“They’re all right.” He looked awkward, then burst out: “They treat me like a child.”
“We’re always children to our parents, Nio,” she said gently. But she could see that she wasn’t getting through. There was probably some family quarrel or humiliation that he wasn’t telling her about. “Where will you go?” she asked.
“The big city. Guangzhou.” He smiled. “You taught me to speak Cantonese.”
Guangzhou, on the Pearl River, the great port that the foreigners called Canton. When he’d first arrived as a little boy, he spoke only the language of the Hakka village where he lived. No one could understand a word he said. It had taken her months to teach him the Cantonese dialect of the village—a rustic version of the tongue spoken in the big city, though intelligible there, at least. But the thought of her Little Brother wandering alone in the great port filled her with fear.
“You don’t know anybody there, Nio. You’ll be lost. Don’t go,” she begged him. “In any case, what would you do?”
“I can find work. Maybe I can be a smuggler. Make a lot of money.”
The whole coastline around the Pearl River was infested with illegal traffic of every kind. But it was dangerous.
“You don’t know any smugglers,” she said firmly. “They all belong to gangs. And if they’re caught, they can be executed.” Not that she really knew about the gangs, but she’d always heard it.
“I know people.” He gave a little smile, as if he had a secret.
“No you don’t.”
How could he? She wanted to put the idea out of her mind at once. Except for one thing. Last night, Mother had called him a criminal. She’d said it with conviction. Presumably Nio had let the village know he was running away. That was stupid enough. Now she wondered, had he said something more—some further piece of damaging information that had got back to her mother-in-law?
She gazed at him. She supposed he just wanted to make himself sound mysterious and important. But the thought didn’t comfort her. Had he gotten to know someone in the smuggling business? Possibly. Had he been lured into joining a gang? Had they promised him he’d be a fine fellow and get rich? She had an awful sense that he was about to put himself in danger.
“Nio, you must tell me,” she said urgently, “have you said anything bad, anything to make people talk about you in the village?”
He hesitated. Her heart sank.
“I had a bit of an argument,” he said. “I was right.”
“Who with?”
“Just some of the men.”
“What about?”
He didn’t answer for a moment. Then he suddenly burst out: “The Han are not as brave as the Hakka. If they were, they would not have allowed the Manchu to enslave them!”
“What are you saying?”
“The Manchu emperors force everyone to wear a pigtail. The sign of our subjection. The Manchu clans live at ease and the Han have to do all the work. It’s shameful.”
She looked at him in horror. Did he want to get arrested? And then an awful thought occurred to her. “Nio, have you joined the White Lotus?”
There were so many societies a man might join, from respectable town councils to criminal gangs of thugs. It was the same all over China. Scholars created cultural clubs and recited poems to the moon. Rich merchants formed town guilds and built guildhalls like palaces. Craftsmen banded together for self-help.
And then there were the secret societies like the White Lotus. They were huge. One never knew who was a member or what they might be up to. The humble peasant or smiling shopkeeper met by day might be something very different after dark. Sometimes the White Lotus men would set fire to the house of a corrupt official. Sometimes they murdered people. And Mei-Ling had often heard people say the White Lotus would bring the Manchu emperor down one day.
Could her Little Brother have got himself in with such people? He was so obstinate. And he’d always had his own crazy ideas of justice, even as a little boy. That was how he got the scar on his face. Yes, she thought, it was possible.
“Nothing like that, Big Sister,” he said. And then gave a grin. “Though of course if I had, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Half of her wanted to shake him. Half of her wanted to put her arms around him, hold him close, and keep him safe.
“Oh, Nio. We’ll talk about this in the days ahead.” Somehow she had to find a way to spend time with him, to make him listen to reason. She didn’t know how, but she knew she must.
“I’m leaving today,” he said with a touch of obstinate triumph.
“No, you mustn’t,” she cried. “Wait a little while.” She needed to gather her thoughts. “Stay a few more days. Don’t you want to see me? Will you promise me?”
“All right,” he said reluctantly. And he seemed about to say something more when her father appeared behind them. He looked scared. “Someone’s at the door,” he said.
“Say I’m not here,” she hissed. It could only be Mother. “Quickly,” she begged. But her father didn’t move. Like everyone else, he was afraid of her mother-in-law. “Father, please.”
But it was
