Chapter 753 – Homecoming (Part 3)

Fu Fu got off the cart at the East Gate Market. The bustle was dazzling. Thanks to duty rotations and training marches, he had visited the market several times during his service, and each visit revealed new changes. In short, buildings kept going up—taller, more numerous, more handsome. Once, a two-story structure with an attic had drawn crowds of gawkers; now five-story buildings were not uncommon. Before, standing on East Gate Street you could still see nearby farmland and barren hills. Now everywhere you looked there were buildings, fenced-off plots with project signs, and structures under construction.

Business had fully recovered—indeed it was livelier than before the war. The merchants and shipowners who had been coerced into coming to Lingao on "compulsory buying" missions from Huangpu Harbor discovered a market of staggering demand, with opportunities for profit around every corner. Best of all, the commercial environment was excellent: many goods were tax-free, many subject to guaranteed purchase, and whether entering port or conducting transactions there were none of the customary exactions and squeeze endemic to the mainland coast. Pay the proper duties and you could trade in peace. This only stoked merchants' eagerness to do business in Lingao. Once commercial traffic revived, land prices naturally rose. Li Mei was already drafting the fourth-phase East Gate Market expansion plan.

Fu Fu made his way to the recently opened Zizhen Studio. Not long after Guo Yi and the others returned, Li Mei had used part of the Guangzhou Station's repatriated workers and technical backbone to open Zizhen Studio and Zicheng Emporium branches in the East Gate Market. A Lingao branch of Ziming Tower was also in preparation.

The Lingao Zizhen Studio was modest in scale, adhering to a mid-to-high-end marketing concept and selling what might be called boutique goods. Fu Fu eyed the elaborately decorated shop—the large glass display windows, the dazzling array of jewelry, ornaments, and cosmetics inside—and steeled himself to enter.

A salesgirl greeted him warmly. A few days earlier, their store manager had been summoned to a meeting chaired personally by Li Mei at the Commerce Division. An important directive had been issued: the upcoming rotational leave for army and navy soldiers would inevitably trigger a spending surge. All retail and service enterprises under Commerce should seize this opportunity for a major marketing push to recover the Circulation Vouchers paid out as wages and combat bonuses. The total was considerable; although much had been deposited in soldiers' savings accounts, Cheng Dong hoped to absorb it as quickly as possible lest it become a latent inflation monster.

The salesgirls knew that every soldier and officer was carrying a thick wad of Circulation Vouchers ready to spend—and that Commerce's task was to steer as much of that spending as possible toward nonessentials: mirrors, compact cases, lipstick—products with low consumption and high margins.

Zizhen Studio's jewelry was marketed as "Australian style," meaning, in effect, modern design. It used very little gold or silver; the main ingredient was glass—clear and colored—supplemented by pearls and various gemstones. The hallmark was refined beauty and immense variety. Yan Maoda had worked in a jewelry factory, absorbing know-how and bringing back a trove of original design files. Guangzhou's skilled craftsmen quickly learned the art of cutting glass—and proved better at it than old-time-space factory workers. Of course, the diamond-tipped blades and grinding wheels required for glass cutting still had to be supplied by the Australians.

Jewelry fashioned from small amounts of precious metal and large amounts of glass had low production costs, so prices could be kept relatively affordable—appealing to the fashion-conscious aspirations of "middling households." The many designs were lightweight and easy to rotate through daily wear; women of all classes loved them. Even worldly Guangzhou residents had succumbed to Zizhen Studio's allure, and a place like Lingao was all the more hopeless.

Zizhen Studio was already packed with soldiers wearing all manner of branch and unit insignia: Army in gray, sailors in blue smocks with white collars, Marines in blue uniforms. They jostled and shoved in front of counters and display cases, examining, comparing, asking questions.

The clerks were struggling to keep up. The incessant ringing of the cash register told everyone that business was booming. Compact mirror-cases sold fastest, followed by jewelry in general. Most soldiers had been dirt-poor before enlisting, but many had a sweetheart back home, and now that they had money in their pockets they intended to show off.

Fu Fu bought a pair of teardrop glass-and-silver earrings each for the two girls, Fu Xi and Fu Yue, and a colorless rhinestone necklace for his beloved Fu Yijin. The necklace, fashioned from the purest lead-crystal glass, cost him a pretty sum, but to win Fu Yijin's heart he spent generously. The salesgirl beamed—her commission on this sale was substantial! With elaborate care she wrapped the items, tucked in a small bottle of jasmine perfume as a gift, and placed everything in a grass-woven shopping bag lettered in dyed grass: Zizhen Studio.

His shopping done, Fu Fu hurried out. More and more drunken soldiers were pouring into the store, and he had a bad feeling.

Leave meant that masses of soldiers had flooded places like East Gate Market. Soldiers came for shopping, eating and drinking with friends, and visiting brothels. Young and flush with cash, they were ripe for trouble. To prevent disturbances or clashes, the General Staff Political Office issued special orders read out to all units: a leave-conduct notice, and a regulation stripping leave and demoting by one rank any soldier or officer who caused a public-order incident—in addition to penalties proportional to the offense.

Li Yayang's Garrison Battalion had canceled all leave and was on full duty. Soldiers wearing garrison armbands patrolled all busy areas, carrying rattan shields and wooden batons.

Sure enough, before Fu Fu had gone far, a commotion erupted in the street. A half-drunk sailor was dragging and beating a disheveled woman, cursing in Fujianese that Fu Fu could not understand. He craned his neck to look. At first he assumed the woman was a prostitute, but she wore no "yellow ticket," and her clothes looked like the uniform worn by local shop assistants—an Australian-style cotton dress.

From the bystanders' chatter he gathered the gist: the sailor's wife had taken advantage of his long cruise to the Pearl River Estuary to carry on with a lover for several months. She thought she had been discreet, but walls have ears. The sailor had come home cheerfully bearing gifts, only to learn from gossipy neighbors that his cap had turned a shade of green. After drowning his sorrows in a few cups, he had marched straight to the East Gate Market shop where his wife worked to demand an accounting.

"Under the Great Ming Code, an adulterous couple caught in the act may be killed on the spot without penalty," intoned an old man who looked like a local gentleman, shaking his head. "Failure to catch them in bed..." He let the words trail off as though lamenting the missed opportunity.

"Elder, forget the Great Ming Code—times have changed. Even if he killed someone, it'd be judged under Australian law."

"Who knows how Australian law would rule? But if he kills her, there'll be something to see." The idlers craned their necks, as if hoping for a murder case to spice up an otherwise uneventful day.

A stout man—a rarity among natives—fanned himself. "I hear among the Australians there are few women and many men. Women's voices carry weight over there. I reckon this soldier's cuckold's horns might end up counting for nothing."

"Perhaps... but if someone dies, we'll see what the court decides. Come to think of it, it's been a while since anyone was sentenced to death. The Australian gallows has a certain flavor all its own."

While they gossiped, a police whistle shrilled. Black-clad police officers carrying wooden batons came running, shouting, "Stop beating her! What are you all staring at—move along!"

Behind the police came Garrison Battalion soldiers with "Garrison" on their armbands. It took four or five big men working together to pry the luckless, alcohol-and-jealousy-fueled sailor loose and hold him aside. The woman lay on the ground, gasping. This was now a public-order case; the garrison soldiers moved to take the sailor away.

"Brothers! The Army's bullying the Navy!" Some drunk somewhere bellowed, and the street erupted. A dozen sailors and Marines surged forward, rolling up sleeves and loosening clothes, ready for a brawl.

"We are the Garrison Battalion. Everyone, follow orders!" the squad sergeant shouted. "Mob fighting is a breach of discipline—"

Before he finished, a fist connected with his face and he went down. The scene dissolved into chaos. Garrison soldiers swarmed to seize the troublemakers, and the navy personnel tangled with them. Though the sailors outnumbered them two to one and had plenty of combat experience, they were no match for garrison troops trained specifically in riot control and equipped with specialized gear. Pepper-spray grenades soon had the navy men in retreat, followed by batons that dispersed them; ringleaders were arrested. The garrison feared a larger riot—there were at least one or two hundred army and navy personnel in the East Gate Market, and an all-out melee would be catastrophic. A horse-drawn wagon arrived, and all detainees were shoved inside and driven off. A rapid-response squad rushed into the street and cordoned off the scene.

Everyone in uniform was questioned and their credentials checked. Fu Fu was ordered to present his leave pass, and the garrison soldiers inspected his belongings. Only after everything checked out was he allowed to go.

"Get moving if there's nothing wrong," the inspecting sergeant said. "It's chaotic around here lately. Get dragged into something and you'll spend three days in the stockade—kiss your leave goodbye."

Having witnessed the commotion, Fu Fu dared not linger. He hurried through a few more purchases and set off on the road back to Meiyang Village.

(End of Chapter)