Echo reads

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

lump of light is in the room, in contrast to the daylight outside. Having the owner besides them, she feels even more intimate with Yi, accompanying by the warm light. She never feels like this before, even now she won’t consider herself is falling in love with him, but-

 He’s not looking at her, lowering, having a smile with sorrow. She supposes that he never thought of having an affair like this. The magic of power? That makes sense, his power is bound with himself. For women, it’s compulsory for him to send gifts, but too early maybe interpreted as an insult. She knows this, but she still let him feel great about it. She feels kind of disappointed about herself.

 Buying things with affairs, he is an expert. He only sits beside them, so others will neglect him. Now she looks closely, his smile feels genuine to her, tinged with sadness. Against the counter lamp, he is lowering his gaze. His eyelashes look like the beige wings of a moth, resting on his gaunt face.  Tenderness and sorrow are blending with the light, glowing, in her eyes.

 This man loves me truly, the thought flashes in her mind. She feels her heartbeat stops a moment. White noises suddenly drone louder-she realizes she is losing.

 Too late.

 The owner gives him the receipt. He puts it in his pocket.

 “Run.” she says, quietly but with fierce.

 He is shocked, but he knows immediately. He jumps and dashes towards the door, no one is here. Then he grabs the door frame, along the handrail. The staircase is narrow and dark. She heard his thumping footsteps, unsteady, careless, echoing irregularly on the stairs.

 Too late. She knows it’s too late.

 The owner freezes and has his own suspicion. But he sits still, turning his head to see downstairs. The lacquered tiles resonate the leather shoes stumping noises. He’s already burst into outside, once he pushes the door, he shot out himself like a fired shell. The clerk closely follows behind. She’s just worried about the safeguard physique clerk will drag and question him, even a few seconds delay will change everything. However, maybe because of the car’s status, he doesn’t block him and just stands by the door, only his bulky figure shadow touches him. Lastly, all Jiazhi heard is the sharp screech of the car, as if it has jolted upright—Bang! Does it come from the car door, or the gunshot? – She doesn’t know.

The car speeds up, wildly racing off.

The gunshot would not fire once

 She tells herself to calm down. No more gun noises.

 She signed, and feels so tired, like recovering from a serious illness. She pulls herself up, nodding with a smile, says, “Tomorrow.” And then adds, “He forgot something, a bit of hurry, left early.”

 The owner has already worn the mono-minor scope. He scopes up the right degree to make sure the ring is not replaced, then stands up and says goodbye.

 No need for blaming him for being suspicious. One reason is the deal was hammered too soon

 She goes downstairs quickly, the employee sees her, wants to say something but pauses. At the door, she hears the conversations from upstairs and downstairs.

 There is no tricycle at the entrance. So, she walks towards Seymour Road. The assassins definitely ran off. After seeing him dashed towards the car, they knew the whole assassination failed. She’s still worried, what if some of them are lingering around still? However, even if she ran into them, what’s the matter? If they suspect her, they will not come near to question her. Even they do, they will not execute her without ascertaining the facts.

 She is slightly surprised that it’s not dark outside yet, because she feels she spent a lot time in there. Cars are racing on the road, lots of tricycles drove by, but no seats left for her. Streaming rivers of cars, and the pedestrians, is like forming a glass screen partition, isolating her. They are like the mannequins that displayed in the window, wearing leather coats and silver bat-wing dresses, untouchable.  

 She is still being cautious for coal black cars from behind. She’s afraid one will show up and drag her inside.

 Ping An Theater has an empty front playground. The audience hasn’t come out yet, so no tricycles are waiting outside. Hesitation slows her paces, and when she turns her head, a tricycle is approaching. The driver is tall young man, almost like a prince in her eyes now. He sees her waving hands, so he drives faster, turns around a big corner, speeds up. The pinwheel is spinning

 “Yuyuan Road,” she says after she gets on.

 Thankfully she met with them in Shanghai for only a few times, she didn’t tell them she has a relative living in Yuyuan Road. She could stay in here for a while, waiting for news.

 Before the tricycle reaches Jing An temple, she hears a whistle.

 “The road is going to be blocked.” The driver said

 A middle aged man who wears short sleeves outfit is holding a long rope and walking across the street, the whistle is in his mouth. Another person holds the other end of the rope, standing in the opposite. The rope becomes tight and straight so to block them. Someone else is ringing the bell lazily. The thin steels bell constantly rings in the air. Wide road makes it sounds very far away.

 The driver is not discouraged by that. He keeps driving until the tricycle meets the block line. He failed, so he gives the pinwheel a spin out of frustration, and then turns around to her, smiling awkwardly.

 ※※※

 There are three black capes on the mahjong table now. Mrs. Liao just arrived. She has some white pockmarks on her nose.

 Mrs. Ma smiles, “Mr. Yi is back.”

 “Look at her, Wang Jiazhi is awfully irresponsible, she said it’s her turn to buy us a dinner, but still no show up now!” Mrs. Yi complains, “Waiting for her to invite us -Sill No dinner yet, we’re going to starve.”

 Mrs. Liao smiles, “Mr. Yi, your wife is in a lucky strike now, she said she’ll buy us a meal tomorrow.”

 Mrs. Ma smiles, “Mr. Yi, your wife keeps her words, not like you. Last time you won and said so, right now it is still not fulfilled, aren’t you not embarrassing? Taking advantage of you is not easy.”

 “Mr. Yi should invite us, our invitation to him is in vain.” Another black cape says.

 He only smiles. The maid serves them with tea, he taps off the cigarette ash on the saucer, and then looks at the thick set of brown-yellow wool curtains. Covering the whole wall, but how many assassins can be stopped? He still fears.

 Tomorrow, he’ll tell them to take down the curtains. But his wife will say, “no, they’re expensive, why throw them in a storage room?”

 It’s her fault-this whole thing is because she made friends so causally. Thinking about it, he’s still in shock, this beauty trap had been meticulously set up two years ago in Hong Kong. But the beauty let him go in a sudden change of mind. She truly loves him after all. The first confidant and lover in his life. He doesn’t expect that when he’s already middle aged.

 Otherwise he could keep her around. The spy can’t separate the private affairs from the business, isn’t it what they said? And she is only a student. Now only one Chongqing spy of that group slipped away, which is the only regret of this block. Probably he saw the show in halfway at Ping An theater and came out. After the assassination failed so he sneaked back to the theater, and used the ticket when they were about to block, that’s how did he get away. A young man who is waiting for him after the failure of assassination, saw him took out the cigarette and ticket, collected them all and let him pass. The waiting car has been told no need to wait for him, so he must go back to the theater by himself. All other young men were captured and tortured. They can’t take the sufferings and spilled the scheme out.

 Mr. Yi is standing behind his wife. He stuffs out his cigarette and takes a sip of tea-too hot. He needs to sleep earlier, but he is so intense that sleepiness has been swept away. Today is too tired, he had been waiting news next to the telephone, can’t even have a dinner.

 As soon as he was safe, he made a call to block that area, capture them all and gunshot them before 10 pm at night.

 She must hate him when she was about to die. But a true man acts without hesitation. If he’s not like this, she wouldn’t love him.

 Of course, he is also forced to do so. The Japanese military is the secondary reason. Zhou Fohai himself is also a spy agent. In his opinion, the Ministry of the Interior where Mr. Yi is at is redundant.  He is paying close attention to him. Once he finds out the guest of House Yi was a spy of an assassin, how does he explain? As a head of underground spies, you can’t be so stupid.

 Now he’s not worried about Zhou will nitpick on him. If he said he killed them too soon, he will have his own explanation-they were all students after all, unlike professional spies can be questioned slowly for more information. If you keep it dragging, more people will know, and they will say some patriot students are planning to kill a traitor, more rumors.
 He’s not optimistic about the war. What’s his future? However, you can die without regrets once you have a soul mate. Her shadow will always be at his side, comforting him. Even though she hates him, in the end, the feelings she had for him is so overwhelming that others became irrelevant, only the raw feelings remain.

 They have a relationship like between hunter and prey, like the connection between tiger and chāng, representing the ultimate form of possession. She truly becomes his companion, no matter she is alive or dead.

 “Mr. Yi, your turn! Your turn!” Three black capes argue louder, “You promised that time.”

 Mrs. Yi smiles, “Mrs. Ma, you also said it’s your turn before, no more mention after.”

 Mrs. Ma smiles and teases, “The empress is rescuing the emperor! Mr. Yi, your wife cares about you!”

 “Will Mr. Yi invite us or not?”

 Mrs. Ma looks at Mr. Yi, smiling knowingly, “Mrs. Yi indeed needs to invite us to a bouquet.”

 She knows he knows she is referring him having a new affair, a new wedding bouquet. Today two of them disappeared, him and Mrs. Mai, the latter is still not coming back yet. When he’s back, he’s in a trance, satisfaction is hidden, but his checks are kind of blushing. She thinks this is the first time for both of them.

 Mr. Yi reminds himself that he needs to tell his wife to be careful about words: Mrs. Mai will not be back because of family emergency. She’s in a hurry for Hong Kong. It’s all her fault. He had some rumors after moving in here for not so long. His spies were ended with finding out a Chongqing spy network. He just started to look into it, then another said Japan Military Police also heard about the rumor, that’s why he had to act on it quickly, otherwise somebody would take credit for it. If they discover it has something to do with her wife, which will cause a lot of trouble. His wife needs a warning, if Mrs. Ma knows, she will make fun of him and her.

 “Mr. Yi, your turn! Your turn! Your wife doesn’t count.”

“ Your wife said it’s her turn tomorrow, can’t be counted as yours.”

 “I know Mr. Yi is a busy man, just say which day are you available, any day but tomorrow .”

 “Your turn! Your turn! Invite us to Lai Xi Restaurant.”

 “Lai Xi Restaurant only serves assorted cold dishes.”

 “Ah, what’s good about German dishes. Hunan cuisine, a better taste.”

 “Sichuan gourmet Restaurant then, yesterday Mrs. Ma was not there.”

 “I say choose Nine Blessings. We haven’t been here a long time.”

 “That day, Mrs. Yang invited us to there.”

 “That day Mrs. Liao didn’t come, Mrs. Liao is Hunanese, without her, we didn’t know how to order dishes.”

 “All we eating is Sichuan or Hunan dishes, too spicy.”

 “Tell the restaurant no spicy food.”

 “Don’t dare to eat spicy, how do you win big when don’t dare to take the risk?”

 They all laughs now, but he walks out quietly.

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.