“I’m past caring,” she said.
Ada was secretly hoping that the Bernards’ servants would join the strikers, giving her an opportunity to be promoted to maid or even housekeeper. But Yun called all the servants into his kitchen and in no uncertain terms told them that anyone upsetting Missy would become his personal enemy.
“One of my students works as a cook at the governor’s, and the other at the house of the leader of the Green Gang,” said the old man menacingly. “So I’ll find a way to deal with you.”
Ada had no choice but to wait for Mr. Bernard’s return and dream about one day setting up her own restaurant or store with the seed capital he had promised to give her.
One day Sam rushed into the library and gave Ada a stack of photographs.
“Look what I’ve found! I was taking the trash out from Missy’s study and found these pictures in the wastebasket.”
At first, Ada thought these were old photographs that had been taken two years previously when Mr. Bernard was courting Nina Kupina. But then she noticed one of Daniel in a new hat he had recently bought.
“I wonder where these pictures came from?” Sam asked. “And what should I do with them now?”
“I’ll keep them,” Ada replied in a barely audible voice.
From that day on, she wasn’t able to sleep a wink. If Mr. Bernard was in love with Nina, why on earth was he messing around with her, and why had he registered his airplane in her name?
The only explanation she could come up with was that the Avro had been stolen, and Daniel had decided to dupe her so that she would carry the can if anything were to happen. It was the perfect solution: Ada couldn’t sell or use the airplane—she didn’t even remember where they had left it.
If this was the case, she was in a pretty serious fix. She was so anxious that she began to lose weight, and Yun even started giving her an extra ladleful of soup at lunch.
“Are you pregnant?” he asked. “Or have you just get worms in your guts?”
“My great aunt is very good at curing all sorts of diseases,” Sam said. “She even had a butcher as a client and removed all his warts.”
“Leave me alone,” Ada moaned and escaped into the library.
At night, she would look at the pictures Sam had given her and nearly weep with envy.
Why did the men she liked never fall in love with her? One of the photographs showed Daniel Bernard kissing Nina’s hand, looking at her as if she were a queen. What was so special about her? She was ancient, almost thirty for goodness sake!
Chen the landlord told Ada that he had recently seen Klim on the street. “Mr. Rogov is now living next to the racecourse with his wife and daughter. He seems to be doing all right, and said to say hello to you.”
Does Klim know that Nina has cheated on him again? Ada wondered. Apparently not.
It was then that she came up with a new plan: what if Klim were to fall out with his wife and return to the House of Hope? They would become friends again, and he would be able to help her find a way to protect herself from Daniel Bernard.
Ada stood on the porch of Nina’s house and was about to press the doorbell when she noticed that the front door was already slightly ajar. Her knees were shaking from fear, but she mastered herself and made her way into the hallway.
A slanting beam of sunlight from a semicircular window illuminated the disorder. Parasols, scarves, and gloves lay in a pile on the console table, and rows of children’s leather sandals lay under the shoe rack. Ada was impressed and even envious of their quality next to her poor, rough canvas shoes.
She could distinctly make out angry voices coming from behind the sliding doors to the living room.
“Miss Nina hasn’t paid us on time for months,” a young woman with a Chinese accent was complaining, “but we said nothing because we wanted to help her to get back on her feet. We thought that she wasn’t going to be like the other whites, but then she sent her Russian strikebreakers to the factories, and they’ve ruined everything we’ve achieved since the beginning of the protests.”
“Nina is just trying to help her fellow countrymen find employment,” Klim replied coldly.
“Do you seriously think that justifies what she’s done? The moment you Russians arrived in Shanghai, you began stealing our jobs. You have no right to interfere in our affairs. Tell Miss Nina that as of today she doesn’t have a publishing house any longer. We all quit.”
The doors were opened with a crash, and a Chinese girl, her face wet with tears, ran past Ada out into the street.
Klim entered the hallway and stared at Ada. “What are you doing here?”
She immediately realized she had come at a bad time.
“Oh, hi… Is Miss Nina at home?”
“No. Why?”
Ada took the photographs from her purse and handed them to Klim. He fanned them out and then put them back into the stack.
“Where did you get them?” he asked in a low voice.
“Miss Edna threw them away, and my friend Sam gave them to me.”
“Go home,” Klim said thrusting the photographs back to Ada and disappeared behind the sliding doors.
She stood in the middle of the hallway, confused. Klim had neither invited her into the house nor asked her how she was doing. He didn’t even thank her for the information she had provided. Was he not even a little bit curious?
Annoyed, Ada threw the pictures on the floor and went out into the street, without even closing the door. Let thieves come and steal his daughter’s shoes. What did she care?
Nina came home very late.
She entered the dark bedroom, took off her robe, and got into the bed, naked. Klim didn’t move, but by the way he was breathing Nina could sense immediately that he was not asleep.
“Today we signed a contract to guard a parking lot for the municipal rickshaws,” she said, snuggling up to him. “We should think about setting up a transport company of our own. I’ve already made some calculations: a rickshaw costs a hundred dollars and has a service life of about five years. We could rent it out to a coolie for a dollar a day, and if it breaks, he would be responsible for its repair. So that means that within under a year and a half we will have clawed back our capital outlay and from there on everything we make will be profit.”
Nina ran her fingers over Klim’s chest, but he brushed her hand away. Her heart sank; never before had he been so brusque with her.
“Are you mad at me for being so late?”
“No.”
“What’s the matter then?”
“Stay out of the rickshaw business,” said Klim. “It’s the most base form of exploitation. A rickshaw boy runs in all weather twelve hours a day for twenty cents a job. Almost none of them reach the age of forty before dying from overexertion.”
“Nobody would be forcing them to work for me,” Nina protested. “There are plenty of coolies in Shanghai who are desperate for any kind of job. Otherwise, they and their families would just starve.”
Klim got up without a word. Frightened, Nina sat up in bed.
“Where are you going? Let’s forget about the rickshaw business. I’m not interested in it if you’re not happy about it.”
“I’ve got a sore throat,” Klim said. “I need to take something for it.”
Nina could tell from the sound of his footsteps that he hadn’t gone to the bathroom, where the cabinet with medicines was, but to Kitty’s room. She waited for ten minutes, twenty, and then she picked up her robe from the floor and followed Klim.
A nightlight was on in Kitty’s room, and soft toys were scattered all over the floor. Klim sat at the footboard of the bed, his back slumped, elbows pressed into his knees. He looked as though he had just learned about somebody’s death and still couldn’t believe it.