Then Emily said, “You know each other. There’s something between you.” She looked at Tak-Wing as though at a stranger. “What is going on? How do you know this girl? Are you already having an affair? We’ve only been married a week!”

There was no help for it. There on the street above Goose Neck Bridge with the tram roaring by every twenty minutes, the whole sad story came out: the childhood betrothal, the changes of heart, the parental interference, the weddings, the curses, the whole complicated question of who owed what to whom.

“You cursed us?” Emily said, when it was done. “I mean, I kind of understand. Maybe I would even do the same thing. I don’t know. But you cursed us?”

“I came here to undo the curse,” Ting-Yan said. “But it can’t be undone. I’m sorry.”

Tak-Wing said, “Never mind, Ah Yan. There’s no such thing as curses anyway. So you lost a bit of money to an old charlatan beneath the bridge.”

More laughter rushed up from beneath the bridge. Granny Chan and Granny Liu were having the time of their lives.

They all heard the laughter and they all ignored it. Tak-Wing said, “You know, I never meant you any harm. I just wanted to marry Emily. You are still dear to me.”

“Do I have to forgive you now?” Ting-Yan said.

“That would be nice,” said Tak-Wing. “But obviously, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”

“Well,” said Ting-Yan. “I’ll think about it.”

“You cursed us,” said Emily, who did believe in such things.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Ting-Yan said. “What can I do?”

“There is something you can do,” said Tak-Wing. “As it turns out, we have no place to go. We were staying with a friend of ours at her university dormitory, but the prefect just found out. I don’t suppose the Oolong is docked at Causeway Bay?”

CHAPTER 18CHEUNG’S NEW HOME

July 15, 1937

The light delivery truck that Colville had organized for Cheung came to the Tai Hang house. The driver helped Cheung load it up. “What’s the point of having strong sons,” Cheung said to him, “if they aren’t around to help you when you need them?”

Yim-Fong and Tak-Tam were up at Chek Keng so that Tak-Tam could propose to Ting-Yan while he had a chance. This Cheung could understand and forgive, though he missed them. But where for the love of Tin Hau were Tak-Wing and Emily? Likely living it up with Old Mah in one of his luxurious mansions up in the Mid-Levels. “Young people these days have no sense of duty,” the driver said, helping Cheung heave the settee into the back of the truck. Chairs, coffee table, beds, and frames followed, along with half a dozen rattan baskets full of bedding, kitchen implements, and other sundry odds and ends.