Once Wu Jinliang and Song Tianyao had found their footing aboard the boat, the boatman pushed off and rowed steadily toward the grandest restaurant boat in Deep Bay, the Taibai Seafood Restaurant. Seeing a boat approach, the attendants aboard had already readied a gangplank and secured it between the two vessels. Two capable-looking attendants came down to help the pair aboard the Taibai Seafood Restaurant.
The Taibai Seafood Restaurant had three levels. Quite a few diners were already on the lower two, drinking, chatting and listening to songs at their tables, making them rather noisy. Wu Jinliang had booked the entire third and uppermost level. When Song Tianyao followed him upstairs, the gentle sea breeze seemed to blow away the clamor below, leaving a magnificent view in every direction: stars hung low over a vast expanse, and the moon seemed to surge with a mighty river. Song Tianyao stood at the railing and said, "What a view."
Only one large twelve-person table had been set in the center of the third level. Apart from the attendants standing around it with lowered heads, waiting to serve the guests, there was no one else.
While chatting at the teahouse, Wu Jinliang had mentioned that booking the third level of the Taibai Seafood Restaurant cost five hundred dollars. In 1950s Hong Kong, that was an enormous sum, but faced with this scene, Song Tianyao thought the money well spent. For the view from the railing alone, even more would not have been too much.
After he had admired the night view over the sea for a while, an attendant called out from the stairs below before seven o'clock had even arrived: "An honored guest for the third level!"
An attendant near the third-floor staircase hurried over upon hearing this. Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and a handsome young man in a long overcoat came up. Seeing Song Tianyao and Wu Jinliang rise to their feet, he smiled and greeted Wu Jinliang. "Old Wu!"
"Young Master Shun, please, come in." Wu Jinliang hurried over and led Chu Xiaoxin to the seat of honor. As Chu Xiaoxin took off his overcoat and tossed it to an attendant behind him, he sized up Song Tianyao. Leaving everything else aside, Song Tianyao's appearance alone was enough to satisfy him.
"Serve the meal," Wu Jinliang told an attendant in the distance. "Send someone up to drink with us."
An attendant immediately went downstairs to make the arrangements. Once Chu Xiaoxin was seated, Wu Jinliang poured him a cup of tea before introducing Song Tianyao. "Young Master Shun, this is Song Tianyao, a fellow Chaozhou-Fengshun native of ours. He was a Chinese manager at a major foreign trading company in Macau and only recently came to Hong Kong. I remembered you saying you wanted a secretary, so as soon as A-Yao arrived, I asked you out to meet him. This is Young Master Shun, the owner of Likang Trading Company."
"Hello, Young Master Shun," Song Tianyao greeted Chu Xiaoxin politely.
After sitting down, Chu Xiaoxin realized his cigarettes were still in his overcoat. He was about to turn and ask an attendant to fetch them when Song Tianyao offered him the State Express 555 cigarettes beside him.
Chu Xiaoxin smiled and nodded. He took out a cigarette and asked Song Tianyao, "A-Yao, right? How old are you?"
"Eighteen." Song Tianyao struck a match and held it out to light Chu Xiaoxin's cigarette.
"Eighteen? An eighteen-year-old Chinese manager?" Chu Xiaoxin stared and glanced at Wu Jinliang. He had assumed Song Tianyao was at least in his early twenties and had not expected him to be only eighteen. What foreign trading company would let an eighteen-year-old kid be its Chinese manager? But Wu Jinliang did not seem like the sort to boast, so Chu Xiaoxin took a drag, returned the cigarette pack to Song Tianyao and continued, "Did you go to school?"
Song Tianyao took the pack and lit a cigarette for himself. "I dropped out after three years at Man Chi College in Hong Kong, then worked as a Chinese manager at Malado Trading Company in Macau for six months."
"So you studied foreign languages. No wonder you could become a Chinese manager at eighteen." Chu Xiaoxin nodded in understanding. "Why didn't you go to Queen's College back then? If you had, we might even have been classmates."
Chu Xiaoxin had attended Queen's College, the best secondary school in Hong Kong, but he also knew something about Man Chi College. Like Queen's College, Man Chi College was a government secondary school under the Hong Kong Colonial Government, where classes were taught in English and Latin. Though not as famous as Queen's College, it was still a well-known school.
As for the position of Chinese manager, to be honest, it seemed less credible than his having attended Man Chi College. Many Chinese people had taken to calling ordinary Chinese employees at major foreign trading companies "Chinese manager." Chu Xiaoxin now thought Song Tianyao must have worked as an ordinary employee at a foreign trading company in Macau for six months and returned to Hong Kong looking for a different job.
"My family fell on hard times, so I dropped out partway through," Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaoxin.
As soon as he finished speaking, footsteps sounded on the stairs, and an attendant led three pretty songstresses up.
Chapter 6: Thank You for Giving Me This Opportunity
The seafood boats on Deep Bay in Kowloon Tong had originally been flower boats, brought to Hong Kong from Guangzhou in the final years of the late Qing. Prostitutes waited aboard for pleasure seekers to come and enjoy themselves. Flower boats offered more than sex: there were also gambling dens, opium parlors and restaurants. Eating, drinking, whoring and gambling were all closely intertwined, making them Hong Kong's most famous places to squander money.
In 1935, Hong Kong banned prostitution, and the flower boats became seafood boats, going into business as floating restaurants. Though they could no longer openly sell flesh under the flower-boat banner, these seafood boats kept the custom of having songstresses drink with guests and sing for them.
The three songstresses now coming upstairs had entirely different airs: one had seductive eyes, another a delicate, winsome bearing, and the third a cool, dazzling air. All three were exceptionally beautiful, not the usual gaudy, common sort. Song Tianyao supposed Wu Jinliang might have specially arranged for them.
Chu Xiaoxin looked the three songstresses over, while Song Tianyao watched Chu Xiaoxin. Seeing his gaze linger on the seductive songstress to the left, he spoke up at just the right moment. "Young Master Shun, how about having the lady on the left sit down and help you peel your crab?"
"Good." Chu Xiaoxin glanced at Song Tianyao and nodded.
Rather than directly instructing the songstress, Song Tianyao looked at Wu Jinliang beside him and raised his chin. Wu Jinliang caught the gesture and immediately got up to invite the songstress Chu Xiaoxin had chosen to join them. Once she was seated, Song Tianyao said to Wu Jinliang:
"Brother Leung, pick one to pour your wine too."