“Exactly. I think the same thing applies to our conversation here. A Suzhou opera singer can be so full of digressions that it’s not easy for the audience to grasp all of the important details. When we record the opera, though, Yu and I can listen to it later and get even more out of the story. In the same way, some of our discussions might be helpful to Chen.”
“Peiqin, ours is indeed a family of cops!” Old Hunter said with a chuckle of approval.
“But not Qinqin,” she said in earnest, speaking of her and Yu’s son. “He shall have a different life.”
“Now, the café has an interesting name: Naika. The first character is the same as the second in ernai. Might it be a hint about the owner of the café? Of course, it can also mean milk coffee or white coffee.”
“Or latte,” Yu cut in this time.
“The café serves a very specific niche market. Ernai can easily get bored: their men have to spend time with their business and families, often leaving them limited time for them. A neighborhood café that close and convenient enables them to walk over in their pajamas. If their men make an unannounced visit, they can hurry back to their apartments in no time. Also, all of the women there are of the same status, so there’s no one looking down on them.
“Not long after it opened, word about the café spread. Since ernai are typically young and pretty, male customers liked going to the café and looking at the sexy young women walking around in pajamas and slippers. To use a Shanghai expression, they let their eyes enjoy the rich ice cream. Then some other women came too, those who were anxious to be noticed by some Big Buck looking for an ernai. Essentially, the café was a place of opportunity, which added to its popularity.
“So I walked in like one of the customers, or, as the proverb puts it, like an old idiot stumbling into youthful blossoms. Anyway, being old gave me a sort of thick-skulled excuse. It wasn’t a large café, but rather one with an intimate atmosphere. There were maybe nine or ten people there, only two of whom were men, including me. I picked a table not far from the counter, where the women flock around.
“And shallow, empty-minded women they are, gossiping and talking all day, since they have nothing better to do. In this materialistic age, they brag about their men’s wealth and success, as if they themselves have nothing worth talking about. What I heard there was mostly empty conversation like that.
“A. got an incredible bonus because her man’s company went public, pocketing billions of yuan at one scoop; B. had a luxury car bought for her; C. purchased an apartment for her parents, and so on…
“But Jin hardly talked about her man, even though he clearly has spent lavishly on her. He bought her not only an apartment in that subdivision, but also the café, including all the equipment.
“Jin might have a real passion for coffee, but she could enjoy it at home by herself. Why would her man let her run such a café? It’s beyond me.”
“How often do you think he can visit her?” Yu commented. “Once a week, or even once a month. What would a young woman do with all that money and time on her hands?”
“That’s a good point. Anyway, not once did she talk about her man in the café,” Old Hunter said. “And none of the customers talked about him either. However, they seemed to know something about who he was, which means he might be a government official.
“At one point, Jin left the café, went over to a BMW parked nearby, and drove away in a hurry. I took a picture of her license plate, so I should be able to find out more from tracing that. It’s like I heard someone say in a reality show: ‘I would rather weep in a BMW than laugh on a bike.’ I have no doubt that her man bought the car for her.
“After that, I got a bit worried. In a tea house, I may sit for hours with a cup of tea, with the waiter constantly adding hot water for free. But in a café, I couldn’t sit for hours with one cup of coffee hardly touched. And it’s so expensive, costing more than fifty yuan for a cup. For these ernai, money is no problem. But I couldn’t have them take me for a poor, suspicious old idiot ogling them with nothing but a cup of coffee. So I had a bottle of French water with gas, called Perrier, for eighty yuan, and a wedge of pie as well. All together, it cost more than two hundred yuan. Chen’s really bankrupting me!
“After sitting there for more than an hour, I didn’t think her man was going to stop by anytime soon. It’s like waiting by a tree for a rabbit to run into it and knock itself out against the trunk. So I decided to push the matter a little.
“When Jin came back and sat behind the counter, I approached her. For a veteran tea drinker like me, it’s not difficult to introduce myself as a tea salesman. I made a point about a lot of high-end cafés serving tea as well as coffee, and I offered to provide her some free samples. After bringing out all my tea expertise for ten minutes or so, she trusted me, and she gave me her phone number and an e-mail address so we could discuss future business opportunities. More importantly, it gave me a pretext to go back and visit her café again.”
“You really are an experienced cop,” Peiqin said.
“That’s what Chen said.”
Old Hunter then pulled out a small cassette tape. “Peiqin is right. No one can remember everything that’s said, and most of their conversations are probably irrelevant, but Chen might be able to pick out what we’re missing.”
“Give me the tape,” Peiqin said. “And the one with your conversation with Tang, too. I’ll duplicate them, and you can come to my restaurant tomorrow morning to pick up the copies. I’ll also make a copy of the tape of our conversation tonight. And, of course, I’ll give you a bowl of our best noodles.”
“That sounds good.”
“If you think you’re going to meet with Chen in the next few days, you can give him the recordings. But if necessary, I can also give them directly to him.”
“But how, Peiqin?”
“He likes noodles. If he calls you, recommend the noodles at Shanghai Number One. That’s what he calls our new restaurant, since he likes the noodles mixed with green onion and oil so much. He’ll know what you mean,” she said, then added, “Of the three of us, I might be the least noticeable. A lot of people come to the restaurant. So if Chen comes in, no one will suspect anything.”
TWELVE
WHEN OLD HUNTER FINALLY left, it was already past ten thirty.
“Go ahead and go to bed, Yu,” Peiqin said. “I’ll join you as soon as I’ve finished cleaning up.”
Yu lay on their bed, smoking, thinking, and listening to her footsteps in the kitchen. It would take her a while to clean up, he supposed. Turning over, he pulled out the cassette player and put in the tape that Old Hunter had recorded in the ernai café. The tape didn’t start from the beginning, but that was fine with him.
A: We really are pathetic, spending hours with a cup of coffee, stirring our lives with a little spoon, serving our men from head to foot. And as a result, we’re called all sorts of bad names, as if we’re the ones responsible for the problems of a corrupt society.
B: Oh be content, woman. What those provincial sisters earn by working hard all day isn’t enough to even buy a cup of coffee here.
C: Not only is it a pathetic life, we don’t know even how long it’ll last. Youth slips away like a bird. It’s just a matter of time before we’ll be dumped in the trash like a worn-out mop.
B: Enjoy it while you can. Why worry so much?
A: There are always younger girls out there, pushing forward, wave upon wave, as in the grand Yellow River. We live in a state of constant apprehension, afraid that we’re going to be replaced at any time.
C: Kang is sending his daughter to private school in the States. The tuition alone is forty thousand dollars. And he’s spending twenty thousand more for a chaperone.