Tuck Heng withdrew from the shuttered window. Destiny was coming up the steps. If Tai-kor Wong refused to accept him as his adopted son, he would die of shame. The whole White Crane kongsi knew that Wong-soh had adopted him during their flight down the River Bandong.
The murmur of voices along the passageway rose higher. Other members of the White Crane clan were also waiting to hear what Tai-kor Wong would say. Their headman had not uttered a word concerning the adoption. Feigning work and illness, he had studiously avoided stepping into the White Crane building since Wong-soh’s arrival. All his meetings with the White Crane elders had been held in Baba Wee’s mansion. This had fuelled gossip and many unsavoury comments. “You think he’s not scared of Old Man Wee, ah? Can’t even shit without his father-in-law’s approval.” The laughter was cruel. Poor Wong-soh had to pretend that she was not aware of the talk that portrayed her husband as being not man enough to stand up to his wealthy in-laws. Some women had even hinted with a tinge of glee that their headman was henpecked by his Straits-born wife, which was why he dared not visit Wong-soh. Others pointed out with worldly cynicism that wealth and power could command obedience even from the spirits; in deference to his wealthy in-laws, Tai-kor Wong had to make it clear to everybody in Penang that Baba Wee’s daughter was his number one wife. Poor Wong-soh, Tuck Heng thought. Increasingly of late, she had sounded more combative in her speech as though she was looking for a quarrel. Several of the women and their children had already had a taste of her acid tongue. He felt her pain. Away from Sum Hor and China and without the support of her village elders, Wong-soh was a woman of no consequence. In the new land, her clansmen were powerless immigrants like her, entirely dependent on Straits-born Chinese like Baba Wee.
“Tuck Heng!” Ah Loy bounded up the stairs. “Prepare yourself for the worst. Everyone is saying that Tai-kor will never agree.”
“I only pray that our Tai-kor has a big heart. More for Wong-ma’s sake than mine.”
“But she has acted very rashly. Everybody said so.”
He had no answer to that. What Ah Loy said was true. But what had been done before the gods could not be undone.
“They’re in the hall now. Don’t raise your hopes. You’re going to fall.”
“‘If you fall, grab a handful of mud when you rise,’ my mother used to say. Some good can be wrested from even the worst of circumstances.” He smiled, putting on a bold front. “Worse things have happened to me before. Yet I’ve survived. The gods will protect me.”
It did seem to him that the gods and ancestral spirits had crossed the ocean with him to protect him. Wong-soh, he believed, had been chosen by the spirits of his ancestors to be his adoptive mother. If all had been planned by the deities and fated to happen, then a man would have to learn to accept whatever life lay before him. If it was his fate to be Tai-kor Wong’s son, then so he was; if not, nothing he did would make a difference.
Voices rose from the stairwell; before they knew it, Tai-kor Wong, Chan Ah Fook and Wong-soh had entered their room. Ah Loy slipped out but Tuck Heng remained standing by the window. No one noticed him. Tai-kor Wong was sputtering with rage as he spoke, not to Wong-soh, but to Ah Fook who turned first to one, then to the other as he tried to play the peacemaker.
“Ah Fook! Such things are not for a wife to decide without first consulting her husband!”
“How can he decide when he hasn’t even stepped into the building? Ah Fook, I waited! I waited for his lordship! But he refused to come here!”
“This is not the first time she’s defied me! Which woman dares to sail the oceans and come out here without her husband’s knowledge? Which woman dares to adopt a son without her husband’s permission? She has scratched off my face!”
“Tai-kor, let’s talk over this calmly.”
Ah Fook looked from one to the other.
“How can I be calm? The whole island is laughing at what the bitch has done to me! Gave me a son without my knowledge! She’s just out to ruin my name!”
“Our Wong-soh is not vengeful. Let’s talk this over.”
But Tai-kor Wong was in no mood for talk.
“Get them out of here! Back to Bandong!”
“But there’s a war in Bandong,” Ah Fook reminded him.
“Then go elsewhere! Go back to China!”
“Is he out of his mind, Ah Fook? The boy’s wanted by the Manchu dogs in China! Even if he doesn’t recognise him as his adopted son, he should have a heart! Even dogs have hearts, right or not, Ah Fook?”
“Right, right, I beg you, Wong-soh, sit down.”
But she remained standing while Tai-kor Wong paced round the room like a caged tiger.
“Ah Fook, she knew the rule! I allowed her to stay in Bandong on condition that she was not to step onto this island!”
“There’s a war in Bandong, can you please tell the heartless fiend?”
“Leave and go elsewhere then! Why come here with a son I’ve never asked for? Why make more trouble for me?”
“You! You! You! That’s all you think of!”
Wong-soh blocked Tai-kor Wong’s way, forcing him to look at her haggard face. It appeared to Tuck Heng that something inside her had finally broken.
“You listen to me, Wong Fatt Choy!” she screeched at him. “I was here for months, waiting! But you didn’t care whether I was dead or not! All you think about is your name! And your family here! But don’t you forget, Wong Fatt Choy! You had a family in Sum Hor too! I might be your accursed barren wife, but I was also your parents’ filial daughter-in-law! I didn’t leave our village until I had buried them! What did you do, filial son?”
“Wong-soh! Wong-soh! What’s in the family, keep in the family! Too many ears are listening.”
“Let the walls hear! For years I said nothing because I gave him nothing! But is faithfulness nothing? Is loyalty nothing? Who fed his parents during the drought? Who fed his parents during the flood? Who sold her labour to buy them a coffin and a grave? Even now their spirits are waiting for their filial son to return to build a headstone for their grave!”
“You tell the bitch!” Tai-kor Wong pulled Ah Fook towards him. “She should return to Sum Hor and build my parents’ headstone!”
“He thinks I was born yesterday? Even the stupid pig knows that he’s getting rid of me! Not to build a headstone! But to please an important old man!”
“You hollering bitch! What important old man?”
“Your god! Baba Wee!”
“You watch your words, woman!” Tai-kor Wong strode across the room. His face was an ugly scowl and his fist was raised.
But Wong-soh stood her ground and continued to taunt him. Ah Fook tried to stop her but she pushed him aside.
“Can’t even say the great name aloud without shitting in your pants, ah?”
He slapped her hard across the face and almost went berserk in his rage and shame as he seized her hair and banged her head again and again on the table.
“Wong-ma!” Tuck Heng flew across the room. Before Ah Fook could stop him, he had flung his body on top of Wong-soh’s to shield her from further blows.
“Tai-kor Wong! Baba Wee has sent for Tuck Heng! He says Tuck Heng saved his life!” Big Tree rushed in.