Ma Chung-yao picked up the phone from its cradle. A girl's voice, familiar and shrill, came through.
"Hi, hi, Chung-shun's eldest brother? This is Yu-wen. Don't ask me where I am. Listen, just listen. I'll take a taxi at twelve sharp—from Chungshan North Road by way of Nanking East Road, then Tienshui Road. From Yenping North Road, I'll cross the railway tracks, continuing through Cheng-tu Road, Kanting Road, Hoping West Road, and crossing the railroad again. From Hoping West Road I’ll make for Ningpo West Road, then bear to the right. Don't forget, for heaven's sake, that there's a women's tailor shop round the corner. Come on your bike and wait for me there—round the corner. Remember, the tailor is next door to a small bakery. I'll take the bike and you will get in the taxi."
Chung-yao mumbled his question. Where was he to go?
"Any place you like—the farther from your own house the better. Don't, for goodness' sake, lose any time. Pa is probably following me. Fool him any way you can. Me? I'll pedal to your place, of course. Tell Chung-shun to wait for me. I must talk things over with him. It's important. No more questions. Just do as I told you. I’ll tell you everything later."
Ma Chung-yao (Ma or Horse No.1), the brother of Ma Chung-shun (Horse No. 2), shrugged.
"Ever hear of a women's tailor on Ningpo West Road?" he asked his wife, Chiu-ying.
"What time is it now? Fifteen past eleven—okay. Plenty of time for me to play 007. Tell No. 2 to stay home and wait for Miss Yang."
He cried out a surprised "No!" when his wife told him Horse No. 2 had left home early that morning, and hadn't been seen since.
"Didn't he say he had to see Miss Yang at once? Wearing my new suit and shirt and a bright necktie? I suppose he must have gone to Taichung looking for Yu-wen. Well, there's no time to lose now. Our bicycle's not here. Hurry, then, and borrow one for me. No, wait a minute. First tell me, what's the shortcut to Ningpo West Road?"
"Gee, what a guy!" Mrs. Horse No. 1 said to herself. Then to him: "Is he following Yu-wen all the way to Taichung? He should have a retriever! But wait a minute. I'll borrow a bike next door."
When she came back, wheeling the bicycle, No. 1 turned to her and asked:
"Does Chung-shun know Yu-wen's address. He has never been to Taichung."
"I suppose he does. Suppose he didn't. He knows the street. He can knock at every door, just as you did nine years ago. You were brick-red enough when you first met my father. Remember?"
"Shut up, this is no time for kidding. There's a tiger to deal with, not a good old man like your father. You didn't have to run away from home. You were never watched, were you?"
"What a man, what a man!" said Chiu-ying, dreamily looking after her husband as he sped down the dusty road and disappeared.
An hour later and he was back.
"Has Yu-wen arrived?" asked Chung-yao. "S - h - h, not so loud," said his wife. "What? I rode all the way from Ningpo West Road to the railway station. I waited for almost twenty minutes until No. 5 bus arrived. She should have been here long ago."
Chiu-ying whispered her answer. "She came in the front door, went through the kitchen, and out the back."
What has happened?
"S-h-h, not so loud. The old man is here.
This is no time for questions. He's in the living room. He has already searched the house. Go and talk to him. You just must do something."
The one-time commissioner of the Department of Education of Anhui province still looked the part.
"I'm Pang Yu-wen's father. Who are you? Elder brother of that Ma boy. H-m, I think you had better understand that I know your boss, Director Chiu. He was my subordinate in Anhui. He gave me your address."
"It's scorching hot, sir. Would you please be seated? You have come all the way from Taichung. It's unpleasant traveling in such weather."
"Don't try to distract me. I want my daughter. Hand her over. Otherwise I'll charge you with kidnapping. Your director knows everything."
"Your daughter?"
"Don't try to look innocent. I saw her with my own eyes. There is the bicycle she rode."
"That bike belongs to a friend of mine. He's coming to get it. Couldn't be your daughter's. Don't you see, sir, it's a man's bike?"
"Don't give me this man-bike stuff. I saw her enter your house by the front gate. You are responsible for her. I want to know where she is."
The wife of Horse No. 1 came to her husband's rescue.
"Mr. Commissioner, you have already searched the house, even the bathroom and the closets. I even helped you look under the beds. But you didn't find anything. Miss Yang is a big girl. Do you think we could tuck her under a cushion or put her in a cupboard? We have only four rooms."
"Stop it," shouted the old man. "Who cares how many rooms you have. You can't say she didn't enter your house."
"What difference does it make. You've searched ... "
"I'm not the only one who saw her. The pedicab man is a witness, too."
"The pedicab man? Where is he? Outside? Shall we ask him?" she said.
"Send for him? the old man roared. "He left long ago. Why should he stick around here? He left as soon as I paid him."
Horse No.1 interrupted sympathetically.
"Too bad, too bad! Do you remember his license number?"
"Of course not!"
"Please don't be impatient. Shouting is getting us nowhere. You are perspiring, sir. Please sit down and make yourself comfortable." Horse No.1 turned and told his wife: "A clean towel for Mr. Commissioner to wipe his forehead, Chiu-ying. And a cup of tea."
"I saw my daughter enter by that gate. Do you hear me?"
"Don't worry, Mr. Commissioner," said the better half of Horse No.1. "We haven't moved the furniture yet. You can search the house again. This time please look in the bureaus and the desks."
"She couldn't have flown into the clouds like a bird," said the old man.
"Come now, Mr. Commissioner, have tea. Even a bird will return to its nest. You'll find her," said Mrs. Ma.
"What a daughter—a disgrace to the family and a slap in my face. If we were still in Anhui where everyone knows me, I would hide in the well."
"Not a bad idea; wells are cool," she said.
"Don't be sarcastic," said her husband. "Don't pay any attention to her, Mr. Commissioner. From what my brother told me, I gather Miss Yang must be in Taichung. He mentioned a letter from you telling Miss Yang that old Madame was sick. She left for Taichung immediately, I was told."
"Who's sick? It was a trick."
"But why? Why did you write that letter?" asked Horse No.1.
"Because I object to her working in Taipei. I objected from the very beginning. It's all right for a woman to have some education. But who expects her to go out and work for her family. Why should a woman bother about jobs?"
"So you think woman's place is in the kitchen," Chung-yao said coldly.
"Not necessarily. But she could find a job in Taichung and stay with her family. A young girl should not live away from home. What do you think she said to me when she returned home?"
"What could she say? She's a good girl," said Mrs. Ma.
"She argued with me when I tried to talk some sense into her. She said how could I accuse her of going places with boys; she said she has only one boy friend."
"That's right, Mr. Commissioner. She can't be so bad if she has only one boy friend," said Chiu-ying.
"But it's a corrupt world! It's serious when your daughter starts having a boy friend. And other girls influence a young woman when she's away from home. I don't mind the boy friend, but I expected my daughter to make a better choice."
"Oh, he's not good enough for you?" asked the brother.
"A middle school teacher teaching Chinese. What's his future?"
"What, in your opinion, Mr. Commissioner, is a promising job?" inquired the wife of Horse No.1.
"Any job is better than teaching Chinese—even the teaching of English. Who can have any future in teaching Chinese?"
"You should have advised your brother to choose a different career," she told Horse No. 1.
"You mean No.2 should quit teaching? What could he do?"
"I suggest three-wheeler pedaling."
"You want No.2 to be a pedicab man?"
"Selling bean-curd milk is not too bad also," said Mrs. Ma. "No. 2 can get a good wife to help him turn the grinder."
"No," said No. 1 resolutely. "Look through today's ads in the papers. See if there is a vacancy in the provincial government—maybe a post like commissioner of education. When you speak of the future, no job could be more promising than that of a commissioner. Don't you agree with me, Mr. Commissioner?
"The younger generation! They are getting worse and worse, reckless and insolent. They never keep the old ways, these young men. They have forgotten that they are the descendants of Huang Ti. What did I say to the young men when I headed the Department of Education in Anhui? 'Forget whatever else you choose but always remember what our great men said about etiquette, the old etiquette, the rules governing our behavior; these were handed down by our fore bears of a thousand years ago!' "
"Sit down, sit down, Mr. Commissioner. You are getting angry again, and on such a hot day," said Mrs. Ma.
"What could I say? I hadn't started talking when Yu-wen shouted back at me. And what do you think she asked?"
"Must have been a reasonable demand. Yu-wen is always a reasonable and good girl and a lady," she said.
"But she didn't talk like a lady. She said she and your brother-in-law would be married by a notary. Is this what our forefathers taught us?"
"To be married by a notary is legal," said Chung-yao.
"Legal? You don't even know the meaning of the word. How about the etiquette of our way of living? Such a marriage would be an insult to me and to thousands of years of doing things the Chinese way. The young men of today don't care even for their own fathers!"
"Now I see your point," Mrs. Ma said. "It's not the school teaching but the notary public. You'll agree to the marriage, if it is done in the traditional way, won't you?"
"H-m a school teacher! Teaching Chinese! No future at all!"
"Chung-yao, please show the commissioner out. He is just leaving, I think."
"Yes, of course. Who wants a commissioner in the family anyway."
"Now see here, young man. I'll see that some sense penetrates your head. I'll tell your director you have corrupted my daughter. If you don't hand her over within three days I'll charge you with kidnapping."
Father left and daughter slid into the room like a wraith.
"Goodness gracious, you still here, Yu-wen?" asked No. 1's wife.
"I got out the back door. As soon as Pa finished searching, I came back."
"What a daughter! So you heard everything."
"I certainly did. And a great fanfare. But where is he?"
"You mean No.2?"
"Yes, Chung-shun. Where could he be?" "He left this morning for Taichung, apparently, to look for you."
"Off to Taichung to look for me? Why didn't he just wait for mc here?"
"Don't worry, darling, he'll be back by the fastest train as soon as he finds you are not there."
"But it's already four. Too late." "Too late for what?"
"Too late to get married. We are going to the court to be married by a notary."
"Why such a hurry?"
"I have to, before my father marries me to that awful civil engineer Who is coming from America. He'll arrive tomorrow morning. I can't let Pa catch me now. Where is brother?"
"In his study looking for a law book and fuming like your father."
"Mad at a foolish old man? And why a law book? We don't need it. We've already learned by heart every word of the law about how to get married. All we need is a notary public—and each other."
---translated and adapted by Elaine Chou