Echo reads

Summary: Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang is a gripping tale of espionage, desire, and deception set against the backdrop of 1940s Shanghai.

She turns around and leans out the window, in case they pass by that store.  The car turns around until the next big intersection. It’s another U-shaped turn. Then they’re crossing the street from Yili Biscuit Shop to Ping An Theater—the city’s only clean cinema which allows second-run movies. Its facade, built with gray-red and dark-yellow bricks, exudes the warmth of knitted tweed. The entire building curves inward, forming a crescent moon slicing through the street corner, with a spacious entrance in front. Right across is the Kaiserling Café, followed by the Siberian Fur Store and Madame Greenhouse Fashion Boutique. The two stores stand side by side, with four large display windows showcasing elegant wooden mannequins striking various poses behind the neon lights. A small store is next to them, unnoticeable, no displays, even it says jewelry, you can’t tell from the looks.

 He tells the driver to pull off, and follows her after they got out of the car. She is half head taller than him when wearing the high heels. She shouldn’t wear such a pair of high heel shoes, but he clearly doesn’t mind. She learns that tall men loves short women, and vice versa. Maybe it’s because of the compensation mechanism. She knows he is watching, so she walks more slowly, sways the hip more obviously. Her waist is thin, so her swaying posture is like a graceful eastern dragon glide through the glass door.

 An Indian clerk wearing a suit comes up and says hi. The foyer is small but bright, you can feel the cool freezes. But the foyer is like a snow hole having nothing. They only placed a short glass cabinet, which inside displays some birthstones-in accordance to your birth dates. It’s believed that they’re good for your luck. They are some yellow quartzes, rubies and sapphires, which are made from gemstone powder.

 She takes a pear-like ruby earring from her handbag. Its leaf is made of small diamonds, now it is lack of one.

 “Can be fixed, “the clerk said.

 She asks how much does it cost, and when can be fixed. Then Mr. Yi said, “Ask him if we can get a better ring.” He went to Japan for study before, but he doesn’t want to speak English, always acting like a senior, waiting for someone else to translate.

She pauses a moment and says, “What for?”

 He smiles, “Aren’t we buying a ring for our anniversary? How about a diamond ring? A better one.”

 She pauses again and doesn’t know how to respond. So, she smiles.

 “Is there any other diamond ring?” She says calmly.

 The Indian man raises his head and shouts at upstairs in Indian language, which terrifies them a little. Then he leads them upstairs.

 The partitioned wall at the back of the shop is painted a creamy color. There is a door at one side, and right at the entrance, a dark, narrow staircase led upwards. The office is in an attic, between two floors, having a small terrace, for observing the store. Once they are inside, there are two different mirrors hanging on the left wall. The mirrors have patterns of colorful flowers and birds, and golden words on them: safe journey, congratulations on Mr. Bada new opening store, from Cheng Maoshen- gifts from others. There was also a large horizontal mirror above them, adorned with painted colorful phoenixes and peonies. Follows it, the attic roof slopes steeply, with no place to hang anything on the wooden walls.

 In the front of the back attic wall, along the dark wood barricade, a desk is laying, with a telephone and a bright lamp on it.

 A coffee table is next to the desk. On its surface, some typewriters, covered by old lacquered cloth, are laying. A stunt man stands up from the desk chair and says hi, then he does them a favor to pull out the guest chairs. He has a large, dark face with a lion-like nose.

 “You want to see the diamond rings. Sit down, please.” He slowly waddles towards the conner with a fat belly, and bends down to open an old, green small safe.

 This doesn’t look like a jewelry store at all. Although Mr. Yi is unbothered, Jiazhi feels kind of embarrassed. It’s said that now some stores are fake selling-actually doing businesses of hoarding cash or gold from black-market.” Wu selected this store is for its location, close to Kaiserling Café. When she went upstairs earlier, she had thought that if Mr. Yi goes downstairs, it would be like catching a turtle in a jar—an easy task. He was playing the gentleman role, walking ahead of her on the stairs. As soon as they stepped into the shop, the counter was right beside them. Two clients standing before the counter just blocked the way. But these two men were selecting cheap diamond cufflinks and tie pins, maybe for their girlfriends, they wouldn’t linger too long, unlike women. They need to watch the time, not too soon and not wandering around outside-his driver is in the car, will get suspicious if he catches that. If they plan to come in, then they will do it quickly. Therefore, she figures that they are most likely to pretend to check out the display windows of another leather store, which is about 6 meters away from the car. And it is separated by another storefront.

 Now she sits next to the desk, can’t resist to turn her head around and takes a look at downstairs, she can only see the display windows, the glass hangers are all empty, not even with neon. The pavements outside the window parks a car, only the lower half of it can be seen.

 If those two men are theirs, then buying things together makes them a little obvious. It will not only draw the driver’s attention, but only raises Mr. Yi suspicion when he saw them in the attic. If they linger on the attic for a long time, there will be a moment of stalemate, which will lead to failure. She thinks they won’t come inside after all, probably block Mr. Yi on the door. But then it will be harder for them to arrive on time. They can’t run, because running footsteps will cause the driver’s attention immediately -That one driver, maybe a safeguard undercover.

 Maybe two men are spying two sides. One of them is checking the display windows of Madame Greenhouse Fashion Boutique with Nai Xioujin. When the girls see some fancy clothes but can’t afford, they can stay as long as they can. If the boyfriends become impatiently, they can turn around and look as long as they want.

 All of these vague thoughts came to her head freely, and she knows she has nothing to do it, she doesn’t need to worry about that. Now she doesn’t know what’s going to happen, so sitting here for her is like sitting on top of a powder keg that is ready to explode at any moment. She can feel her legs are shaking a little bit.

 The clerk has already gone downstairs.

 One clerk’s skin is light, and other one is black. They don’t look like father and son. The light skin one has scruffy face covered by stubbles. His thick eyelids are half-opened, like he’s half asleep. He’s also not a tall one, but has a bulk physique, seems like a clerk and safeguard at the same time. The counter is sitting behind, and nothing is displayed in the windows. They must be worried about getting robbed at the day-chains will lock the door at the night. Maybe the store has something valuable? She’s afraid there are just some golds, dollars at most.

 But the owner takes out a ruler-a lengthy black velvet plank.  One side of it is smaller, and the diamond rings are embedded in each stitched eyelet. She leans over the table to look, and Mr. Yi also moves closer.

 The owner sees no reaction from their faces, and they don’t take one ring off to take a close look. Then he puts all these rings back to the safe, “I still have this one.” And then there it is, it is packaged in the deep blue velvet case. A pink diamond, pea size.

 Don’t they say all pink diamonds can’t sell even with price tags? She pauses, feel relived somehow.

 This store saves her face after all, otherwise she just brought him to this old place-you can’t even take advantage of it. Then the old saying will be true-people from Guangdong became a farmer in a big city like shanghai. However, she knows, once the guns shot, all will be shattered. Why care about your face after all? Even though she knows the result, she can’t convince herself to face it, because her soul is protesting. Most importantly, she doesn’t dare to think of it. Now she’s afraid that she’ll show an unnatural expression, which will be recognized by him.

 She takes the ring, up close. He also leans over and looks at it, says, “Ah, this one seems like better.”

 She feels a little breeze flowing behind her head. Two display windows are downstairs, and a glass door is between them. They’re crystal-clear, like curtains unfolds behind her back. And they are about to explode. On the one hand, the store is like half-asleep, you can only hear some small street noises-not many cars on the road during the war, hardly hear the car horn sound. The drowsy air presses down on her with warmth, like covering her face with a quilt. She is half-sleep, living in a dream, knowing something is about to happen, but instinct tells her it’s only a dream.

 She is examining the ring closely, against the counter light. On the low light-lit stage, the bright display windows and glass doors are the big screens. It is playing a black and white action movie. She doesn’t dare to look at the bloody scene, or the spies being tortured, which will be more terrified. She’s afraid of that since childhood, would turn the whole body around on the seat and face downstairs.

 “Six carats. Try it on.” The owner says.

 She is somehow cherishing this cozy nest now. The big mirror laying in the base of wall corner reflects her feet, like she is stepping in a sea of peony. Walking in a bazaar of Arabian Nights, you will find the treasures accidentally.

 She puts the pink diamond ring on her finger, and tilts her head to look thoroughly. The color is less red comparing to her rose red fingernails. The ring is also not a big one, but it shines its own brilliance mysteriously, like a bleeding star. A pity is that this is only a small pawn on the stage, for just one moment. The sadness comes to her.

 “How about this one?” Mr. Yi says.

 “What do you think?”

 “I’m not an expert. Only matters when you like it.”

 “Six carats I don’t know if it’s correct, I can’t tell.”

 The smiling, the talking, all belongs to themselves, nothing else.

She’s from mainland school. Although Guangzhou opened trading ports earlier than others, but unlike Hong Kong’s schools which pay attention to English more. When she has to speak in English, her voice is always low. The Indian owner understands the difficulty of communication, just omits all the bargain and negotiation. Few words for hammering the deal-eleven golden bar. They will be delivered tomorrow, if not enough, then he will compensate later.

It seems like happens in One Thousand and One Nights. Golds are also the currency for business negotiation in Arabian Nights.

 She’s worried about being too fast. The assassin will not expect that. Now she can only rely on her stage experience: the lines take most of the time.

 “Maybe he needs to give us an invoice?” She tells him. She thinks he will send someone to deliver the gold bars for the ring.

 The owner is writing the invoice. She takes off the pink diamond ring and returns to the owner.

 All at once she feels so relived. Now they are sitting next to each other, all laying back a little. In this scene, only they remain.

 She laughs a little, “Now they only accept gold bars, not cash deposit.”

 “It’s better, I never bring cash.”

 She’s been with them for quite a time, knowing only the assistant pays. These privileged ones will not pay by themselves. But no assistant today, of course, for secrecy.

 Power is an aphrodisiac. She doesn’t know it’s right or not. However, she is in the passive side all the time.

Someone says, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. It means men loves eating. If a man meets a woman who can cook, he will bite the bait more easily. Then another says, “The way to a woman’s heart is through her vagina.” It’s believed that it’s from a scholar who was a master at English in the early 1910s. Jiazhi can’t recall his name, she only knows this quote he said. He means to protect China’s polygamy, “Only a tea pot with several tea cups, I never heard of one teapot with only one cup.”

 As for women’s heart, she doesn’t believe a high-class scholar said something so vulgar. She also doesn’t believe that quote. Unless it’s about an aging courtesan who offers herself, or a flirtatious widow. Like herself, she hates liang Runsheng from the start, after that, she only hates him more.

 Maybe that’s different? Liang Runsheng has always been disliked by others. He is lack of confidence, and he always seems feels ashamed of himself as soon as he sees her. He’s kind of afraid of her.

 Then maybe she falls in love with Mr. Yi after all? She doesn’t believe it, but cannot say no directly, because she’s never been in love. She doesn’t know how to count yourself into love someone.

 She’s been busy at defense herself from all pursuers, so she will not fall in love easily-the immune system has become too strong. For a while she thinks she fell in love with Kuang Yuming, but ultimately, she hates him, for his behavior is no different from others.

 Those two times with Yi always terrify her, she had to be so cautious that forgot her own feelings. Back to his home, whispers of secrets were flowing in the air, shadows of danger were ambushing in the dark. She remembers she woke up a few times at midnight. They usually played mahjong until late. When she returned to her room, she only had time for taking a sleeping tablet, which helps her sleep better. Kuang Yuming gave it to her for her request, but still told her not to take it, just in case something would happen in the morning, she needed to keep herself sober. However, she couldn’t sleep without it, and she never had insomnia before.

Disclaimer: This is an original English translation of a Chinese literary work, rendered by the site owner for cultural appreciation and academic interest. All rights to the original text remain with the respective author or copyright holder.