Intersection  

  Lin Yichang

   Translated by Nancy Li

         When the number 102 bus entered the Cross Harbour Tunnel, Chunyu Bai thought about what it was like more than twenty years ago. He had been living in this big city for over twenty years now. Twenty years ago, Hong Kong’s population was only about 800,000; it was nearly four million. Many of the remote districts had become bustling resettlement areas. Old buildings had turned into skyscrapers. He could not forget how he’d arrived in Hong Kong from Shanghai by plane more than twenty years ago. He had wrapped himself in a cumbersome fur-lined overcoat when he boarded the plane, but on disembarking, he saw many Hong Kong people wearing just a white shirt. Winter here was not all that cold. Even on Christmas Eve, people still ate ice cream at dinner. Chunyu Bai arrived in Hong Kong from the North on Christmas Eve. North of the Yangtze River, the flames of war burned higher and higher. The currency crisis was suffocating the public and Shanghai was caught up in the turmoil of war. Many people went south; some settled in Guangzhou; others chose Hong Kong. Chunyu Bai had never been to Hong Kong but he wanted to move there. There was only one reason for this: the stability of the Hong Kong dollar. When Chunyu Bai arrived in Hong Kong form Shanghai, one U.S. dollar was equivalent to 6 Hong Kong dollars; now it was worth 5.625 Hong Kong dollars.

          A large part of the old building’s wooden staircase had been eaten away by termites, and when someone stepped on it, it creaked. These steps should have been repaired or replaced a long time ago. There was only one reason why it hadn’t been repaired or replaced- the owner had already sold this pre-war building to a rapidly expanding developer for good price. This was what Ah Xing’s aunt had told her. Ah Xing’s aunt had been living on the third floor of this old building for more than twenty years, and any particular purpose. Now, as she walked down the wooden staircase, she was holding a pear that her aunt had given her. She walked out of the building at exactly the same time as Chunyu Bai’s bus entered the Cross Harbour Tunnel.

          Turning into a side street, a terribly offensive odour assaulted her nose. It was the public toilet, which made every passer-by cover their nostrils with a handkerchief or their hand. Ah Xing did not like this side street because of the public toilet. Every time she passed it thoughts like this entered her mind: “When I get married and look for a flat, I must find one with a good location. There mustn’t be a public toilet nearby.”

         When the bus turned on to

            Ah Xing saw the black dog fat as a pig come waddling over. It stopped in front of a fruit shop and lifted its hind leg to urinate on a lamp-post. She saw this black dog often and often saw it urinate. She often saw this black dog trotting here and there. In fact, everything which unfolded before her eyes was familiar to her. She even remembered the footprints in the cement pavement.

The bus was speeding along

“Me?”

“Don’t you want to leave Shanghai?”

“I’d like to, but it isn’t that simple.”

“Have you ever been to Hong Kong?”

“No.”

“Many people have gone to Hong Kong, haven’t they?”

“Yes, many people have gone to Hong Kong.”

     Things were tense in Shanghai; the pulse of the whole city had accelerated. Everyone knew the importance of the battles in Xuzhou and Bengbu. The news in the papers might not be reliable and news passed by word of mouth was inevitable spiced up. Property prices suffered the worst fall; a house with a garden was worth only seven or eight gold bars. The rich all took flight. At first, Chunyu Bai didn’t want to leave Shanghai. But one day, a close relative from Nanjing whispered into his ear. “ The situation at the front isn’t too good. You’d better leave.” Only then did Chunyu Bai screw up his courage. He asked a friend to buy him an air ticket and left that never-racking, rumour-ridden city. When he arrived in Hong Kong, he was a total stranger. A fellow, also from Shanghai, who regarded himself as an “old Hong Kong hand” helped him and some others rent flats in Kowloon in a new building with flats of about three or four hundred square feet. They had to pay a commission; besides the first month’s rent, they had to pay an extra month’s rent as down payment. Premiums were very expensive in those days and people had to pay commissions to rent flats. In those days, there were just too many “refugees” swarming into Hong Kong from the mainland. Most of the new building were “crash-course graduates” or jerry-built; speed was all that mattered. The faster the buildings went up, the more money the others could earn. In those days, there were many new buildings in Kowloon; all four-skyscrapers. Nowadays, tall buildings tower everywhere in Hong Kong and Kowloon; all the downtown areas have become “skyscraper jungles”. Obviously, the old building Chunyu Bai had just seen was an exception, and it made Chunyu Bai think of the past. At that time, unable to find a suitable job, he went to the gold exchange almost every day to speculate. Now, sitting on the bus, he suddenly felt as if he were back there once again. He seemed to hear the voice reporting the market price, “3.5…3.75…4.0…4.25…” 

          All women love looking at clothes. Ah Xing was no exception. Her heart beat wildly when she saw a manikin a wedding gown in the window of a photographer’s studio. The gown was made of white gauze as thin as a cicada’s wing; it was beautiful. Ah Xing gazed at the wedding gown wide-eyed. She couldn’t help feeling jealous of the manikin. “Even the ugliest woman will turn into a goddess in this beautiful gown,” she thought. Staring at the wedding gown, her eyes filled with envy. After she’d been staring for some time, a smile appeared on the manikin’s face. A manikin couldn’t smile. The smiling woman in the wedding gown was actually herself. The window before her suddenly became opaque and turned into a mirror. Ah Xing saw herself in the “mirror”, dressed in a white gauze wedding gown, as beautiful as a goddess.

           The bus came to a halt. A sudden impulse prompted Chunyu Bai to get off the bus with the other passengers. He didn’t know why, but that was what he did.

           This was Mongkok. In the past, he had walked along this road innumerable times. There were too many people here. There were too many cars. Mongkok was always so crowded. Everybody seemed to have some urgent business on hand; the rushing, sweaty people were not necessarily all bent on striking it rich. The Japanese dolls in the department stores had lovely smiles. The songstresses at the opera house had eyelids with double folds produced by the plastic surgeon’s knife. A revolving restaurant. The registration for buying next year’s mooncakes by instalments had begun. A thirty-percent discount on all books put out by this publisher. Fresh-water crabs from Yangcheng Lake on sale at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Shrimp dumplings, spring rolls, taro croquettes, steamed rice dumplings, barbecue-pork buns….

         Next to the photographer’s studio was a toy shop; next to the toy shop was an optician’s shop; next to the optician’s shop was the gold and jewellery shop; next to the gold and jewellery shop was a restaurant; next to the restaurant was the grocer’s; next to the grocer’s was a shop selling the latest fashions. Ah Xing entered the clothing shop and saw some weird clothes in the latest styles. One blouse had two hearts printed on the bosom. Too many “ I LOVE YOU”s in English were printed on one outfit. Ah Xing was particularly interested by that outfit printed with the English words “I LOVE YOU”. “Mom doesn’t know English,” she thought, “I’m sure Mom won’t scold me if I buy it. In this outfit, I’d probably attract some strange man to come and talk to me.” Ah Xing hadn’t yet had a boyfriend. Walking out of the clothing shop, she had a strange feeling, it might have been happiness, but there was a touch of melancholy to it. Next to the clothing shop was a liquefied petroleum company; next to the liquefied petroleum company was a gold and jewellery shop; next to it was another gold and jewellery shop; and right next to that was yet another gold shop.

Standing in front of the window of the gold and jewellery shop, Ah Xing stared at the word “double happiness” and imagined what her own wedding would be like. It was the biggest restaurant in all Hong Kong and Kowloon, able to accommodate more that two hundred banquet tables. Hanging on the wall was a silk wedding banner with the words “double happiness” printed in gold. In front of it stood a long rosewood tabke with a pair of wedding candles on it. The tongues of the flames leapt upwards. She and her groom were sitting at a big round table in front of the rosewood table. The bridegroom was very handsome and looked like a movie star—a bit like Ke Junxiong, a bit like Deng Guangrong, a bit like Bruce Lee, a bit like Di Long, and a bit like Alain Delon.

The thud of footsteps brought her back to reality. A long-haired young man came tearing along the pavement and bumped into her; she lost her balance and almost fell down. She felt a sudden surge of anger and uttered some foul expletives. It was a vulgar curse, but by the time she uttered it, the young man had already disappeared into thin air. There was a disturbance in the vicinity, as if a large stone had suddenly been thrown onto the surface of a tranquil pond. Although she didn’t know what was happening, she felt a sense of alarm on seeing the police. The policemen’s legs pumped like pistons; they had guns in their hands. When they brushed past her, her anger suddenly turned into fear and she started to tremble. Her eyes were wide with astonishment. “Someone robbed the gold shop!” It wasn’t clear where these words had come from, but shock and fear made her heart miss a beat; then her heart-beats accelerated, thud, thud, thud, as if someone were pummeling her insides. The people around—Ah Xing included—panicked like a startled flock of birds. She was at a loss what to do. For a while, her reason failed her; she felt numb and wanted to leave the scene of the crime, but her legs refused to follow her will, so she just stood there in a daze. Two men were standing three feet away from her, talking loudly. “That guy has guts!” “Was he alone?” “He had a cleaver and a rock. He flashed the cleaver in front of the counter and smashed the showcase with the rock. He got away with jewellery worth tens of thousands of dollars!” “Tens of thousands of dollars!” “There were eye-witnesses. The robber only grabbed diamonds and jade.” “He sure has guts!” “If you’ve got the guts, you don’t have to pin your hopes on lottery tickets.” Ah Xing turned to look at the two men; one of them was holding a bamboo pole with lottery tickets fastened to it by clothes-pegs. He was a vendor of lottery tickets.

Chunyu Bai walked on. There were too many people on the pavement; there were always too many people in Mongkok. Some idiot was wriggling through the crowd like he was doing a dragon dance; he stepped on a woman’s foot and the woman cried out; he covered his mouth to conceal his smile.

Standing in front of an optician’s shop, Chunyu Bai admired the popular old-fashioned spectacle frames as if they were works of art. “I didn’t need spectacles a few years ago.” he thought. “Now, not only do I have to wear them while watching movies, I even have to have a different pair for reading.” His train of thought was interrupted by a conversation between two men. They were both middle-aged; one was fat, the other thin. The fat man had a tense look about him and when he spoke, his eyes grew round as longans.

  “Haven’t you heard?”

  “What?”

  “A gold and jewellery shop over there was robbed.”

  “Have the robbers been caught?”

  “They snatched some jewellery and disappeared into the crowd.”

  “How much did the shop lose?”

  “Some say tens of thousands of dollars.”

  “Was anyone hurts?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Hong Kong just isn’t safe anymore.”

  The fat man sighed; the thin man followed suit. The fat man said, “Goodbye.” The thin man also said, “Goodbye.” The fat man headed south; the thin man headed north.

Chunyu Bai walked on and saw a black dog. It was fat as a pig and came swaggering over; it trotted up to the bus stop, lifted its hind leg and urinated on the silver-cloured railings. The urine splashed onto a woman’s shoes; she pulled a long face and drove the dog away in a stern voice. Chunyu Bai couldn’t help smiling on witnessing this scene. He remembered a pug-dog called “Mary” and another pug-dog called “Lucky”. He had a pair of pug-dogs at home when he was in secondary school. Later, Mary died. Lucky also died, but by that time, Chunyu Bai had another five pug-dogs. When he left Shanghai, the five pug-dogs ran round him, barking incessantly….

He stopped in front of a clothing shop.

10    When her fear had dissipated, Ah Xing strode on: she glanced a the crowd of people gathered there, and glanced at the lottery ticket pole hoisted in the middle of the crowd like an umbrella. The lottery tickets were fluttering in the wind. The middle-aged lottery ticket vendor was still telling how he had witnessed the gold shop robbery. His voice was very loud. No one bought any tickets from him. Ah Xing thought, “When I win the lottery. I’ll buy three new flats; two in Mongkok, and the other in Mid-levels on Hong Kong island. I’ll live in Hong Kong with Mom, and give the two flats in Mongkok to Dad so that he can live on the rent.” –Ah Xing’s father was a strange man; he went out in the afternoon and didn’t come home until late at night. No one knew what he did, not even Ah Xing and her mother.

Ah Xing came to a halt in front of the gold shop which had just been robbed. A lot of people were standing there watching. The iron shutters of the shop were half-closed. Ah Xing could not see what was going on inside, so she stooped down to get a better look. Although she saw some legs moving about, she couldn’t tell what the people were doing. Some policemen had arrived to maintain order and to stop on-lookers from getting too near the shop. There was a lively discussion among the on-lookers, everybody trying to get a word in; each of them raised his voice in an attempt to drown out the voices of the others.