My account of the negotiation should be even shorter than Tarô’s story. That’s because all I did was hide behind one of the columns in the lobby of the Lai Lai Sheraton and catch a few glimpses of Horsefly, Little Five, and Ah Dibo as everyone came into the hotel. Moreover, I’ve already forgotten whether Little Five was accustomed to standing on Horsefly’s left or his right. And then which side did Ah Dibo stand on?
Horsefly and his two men walked in a row as they entered the Lai Lai Sheraton, but they didn’t walk up the steps in slow motion as I had imagined. Actually, they walked quite briskly, as if they were in a rush; Horsefly even almost slipped—the floor was probably too slick. What’s more, they didn’t look like they were about to go on any killing spree. In fact, after carefully observing the area from their waists to their torsos, I saw that not only weren’t they packing any heat but they weren’t even carrying Rambo knives or ice picks!
When they saw Uncle Xu approaching from far away the three of them began to light up with smiles. As Horsefly smiled he extended his right hand in preparation for the coming handshake. While taking the next seven or eight steps, Horsefly bowed slightly forward at the waist and maintained his grinning expression, nodding amiably at the strangers who passed by him! Could he have known them? But not one of them paid any attention to him. Later when I thought back to that day I realized that Horsefly’s expression as he smiled and nodded was actually exactly like that of an election candidate hitting the streets to raise votes. After that Little Five and Ah Dibo followed suit. They were both wearing this atrociously putrid cologne. First Horsefly shook hands with Uncle Xu and then Little Five and Ah Dibo greeted Uncle Xu, or maybe it was Ah Dibo who greeted Uncle Xu and then Little Five. After their eight hands had all come in contact with each other, each person extended one of his hands with an open palm in the direction of the hotel bar. After that I just saw four almost identical silhouettes, four almost identical behinds, and eight almost identical legs moving farther away.
This is everything that I saw when the big negotiation went down. It was just the beginning—actually it wasn’t even enough to qualify as a beginning! As far as the content of the negotiation goes, all I can do is rely on what Uncle Xu’s portable microcassette recorder caught and transcribe it below:
“Come on! Please sit. You also have a seat, have a seat. Everybody take a seat! Relax!”
“After you, please have a seat!”
“No, no, after you, please!”
“It’s been a long time, Xu!”
“It sure has.”
“Did you get the tea leaves?”
“Yes, yes, I got them. Many thanks, Horsefly.”
“Just as long as you got them.”
“I got them.”
“Golden Nine’s wife—that young girl, An, what’s her name? An what?”
“Annie.”
“Oh right, Annie. How is business going for her? Doing okay?
“Not bad.”
“That’s good, as long as she’s doing all right. Tell her to keep at it! Oh, how about yourself, doing okay?”
“I’m getting by.”
“That’s good, good.”
“…”
“About what happened last time—there’s no misunderstanding there?”
“No, not at all.”
“That’s good. That’s good, as long as there’s no misunderstanding. Oh, that’s right, did you get the tea leaves?”
“Yes. Many thanks, Horsefly.”
“Just as long as you got them. From now on I’m going to have to ask you to help out a bit more, okay?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Come by for tea when you have time.”
“I’ll be sure to. Thanks, Horsefly.”
“Okay then! Uh, I guess I’ll be going! Okay, take care.
Good-bye.”
“Good-bye.”
“Bye.”
After listening to the entire recording Uncle Xu closed his eyes. Annie pulled the silver hairpin out of her bun, took a look at it, and then put her hair back up. After about five minutes, or maybe a bit longer, Annie appeared extremely reluctant to open her mouth, but in the end she couldn’t help saying what was on her mind: “So that’s what you call ‘working together’?”
“No, that’s what you call ‘work together or you’re fucked.’”
“So what is it you are going to work with him on?”
“Didn’t you hear him keep talking about the tea leaves?”
In the end we never actually found that bag of Presidential Tea, but Uncle Xu closed his eyes and said, “It doesn’t matter! He’ll send more.”
