At first, the Irishman would not agree. Later,realizing that Fang's decision was firm, and having ascertained from local sources that American doc toral titles were indeed fashionable in China, he gradually became convinced that there really were thirty-odd Chinese muddleheads in Europe wanting to buy a degree from him. He also learned that there were a number of
organi zations engaged in the same business, such as the University of the East, Eastern United States of America University, the Intercollegiate University, and the Truth University, where one could buy an M.A. diploma for as lit tle as ten U.S. dollars, while the College of Divine Metaphysics offered a bargain package of three types of Ph.D. diplomas. All these
were formally accredited and registered schools with which he could never hope to com pete. Therefore, keeping his objective of low profits but wide markets in mind, he came to terms with Fang Hung-chien. When he received the thir ty dollars, he printed up forty or fifty diplomas, filled one out, and sent it to Fang. In an accompanying letter he pressed Fang to send the balance and to inform the others to apply to him.
Fang replied that, after making a careful investigation, he had found no such school in the United States and that the diploma amounted to waste paper. But he would be lenient toward a first offender and not press charges in hopes that the
Irishman would repent and reform himself. Nonetheless, he did send the Irishman ten extra U.S. dollars to help tide the Irishman over while changing to another line of work.
The Irishman was so enraged that he cursed without stop, got drunk and red-eyed, and sought to pick a fight with any Chinese he could find. The inci dent may well mark China's sole victory over the foreigners since she began to have foreign relations or signed her first treaty of commerce.
Afterwards, Fang went to a photo studio, donned the German doctoral robe and had a four-inch picture taken. He sent a copy
each to his father and father-in-law. In a letter he reiterated how all his life he had hated the title of doctor and that while this time he could not avoid the convention, it was not worth mentioning his degree to others.
He returned to France where he enjoyed himself a few weeks, then bought a second-class steamship ticket for the return trip home. After boarding the ship at arseilles, he discovered that he was the only Chinese traveling second class and was lonely and bored. The Chinese students in the third class felt that he, being a student, too, was just flaunting his wealth by traveling second class, and they eyed him with some hostility. Learning of an empty berth in the cabin of a Vietnamese, he made arrangements with the purser to give up his original cabin and go sleep in third class, while still taking his meals in the second class.
Among the Chinese on board, the only one he knew from China was Miss Su, who had studied French literature at Lyons. She had written her dissertation on eighteen Chinese poets of the colloquial styleiO and had just received her doctorate. When Fang and she were classmates at college, she had never even noticed the existence of the little nobody Fang Hung-chien.
In those days she valued her affection too highly to bestow it casually. Now, however, she was just like the person who has some fine clothes made and, saving them for good occasions, locks them in a chest. Then one or two years later she suddenly finds their style and design are out of fashion and is filled with disappointment and regret. Before, she had had her heart set on studying abroad and despised those suitors for their lack of prospects, since they were merely college graduates. But now that she was a woman Ph.D., she felt the loneliness of her lofty perch, which was higher than any one dared climb. She knew a little about Fang's family background; and observing that he was a nice person and didn't seem to lack money, she thought she might use the trip to give him an opportunity to get near her. She never guessed that her cabinmate, Miss Pao, would beat her to him. Miss Pao was born and raised in Macao and was said to have Portuguese blood. To say she had "Portugese blood" was the same as for the Japanese to claim they have native culture,20 or for an author who has plagiarized a foreign play to declare in his revised version, "copyright reserved, transla tions forbidden," since the Portuguese blood had Chinese ingredients mixed in it from the start. But to judge from Miss Pao's figure, her Portuguese mother may also have had Arab blood inherited indirectly from Spain.
Miss Pao had a very slender waist, which fit exactly the standard of feminine beau ty the Arab poet praised and described at length in Arahian Nights: "Her waist was slender, her hips were heavy and did weight her down whene' er she would rise." Under her long eyelashes was a pair of sleepy, seemingly drunken, dreamy, big smiling eyes; her full, round upper lip seemed to be angrily pouting at a lover. Her fiance Dr. Li, without any sense of prudence, had given her the money to study obstetrics in London by herself. The Por tuguese have a saying that for a lucky man the firstborn is always a girl (A homen ventureiro a fliha ihe nasce primeiro), because when the girl grows up, she will be handy around the house and look after her younger brothers and sisters; thus before her marriage she saves her parents the expense of hiring a maid. Miss Pao was used to being at her parents' beck and call.
Being clever, she realized that she would have to find her own opportunity and seek her own happiness by herself.She therefore chose to become engaged to a man twelve years older, so she could have the chance to go abroad. The British are accustomed to seeing fair skin, so when they saw her dark, though not black, color with its rich, spicy attractiveness, they thought she was a true Oriental beauty. She believed herself to be very seductive, so she was very quickly and easily seduced. Fortunately, being a medical student, she did not take these affairs seriously or get into any trouble. After two years in England she was now returning to get married and set up a joint practice with her husband. Once aboard the ship, the Chinese students found out she carried a British passport issued by the Hong Kong government, which meant she was not a Chinese citizen, so they did not quite warm up to her. Since she couldn't speak French and didn't care to talk about home with the third-class Canton ese waiters, she felt terribly bored. She saw Fang was a second-class passenger and thought he might make a good companion to while away the time during the trip.
Miss Su, who pictured herself in the words of the familiar saying, "as de lectable as peach and plum and as cold as frost and ice," decided she would allow Fang to humbly gaze at her in admiration and then prostrate himself to beg for her love. Who would have thought that while the temperature hov ered around 100 degrees every day, this sweet, cool ice cream manner of hers was completely ineffective. By merely letting drop one lighthearted remark, Miss Pao had Fang hooked. The day after Fang had moved to the third class, he went up on deck for a stroll and happened to run into Miss Pao, who was leaning against the ship's railing by herself and taking in a breath of air. He greeted her and struck up a conversation. Before he had said more than a sen tence or two, Miss Pao remarked with a smile, "Mr. Fang, you remind me of my fiance. You look so much like him!" She made him feel both embarrassed and pleased. When an attractive woman says you look like her fian&, it is tantamount to saying that if she were not engaged, you would be qualified to win her love. A real cynic might interpret this as meaning: she already has a fiance, so you can enjoy a fiance's privileges without having to fulfill the obligation of marrying her.
Be that as it may, from that point on their friendship grew with the speed of a tropical plant. All the other Chinese men students teased Fang and made him treat everyone to iced coffee and beer. Although Fang was inwardly critical of Miss Pao for her immodest be havior, he was also feeling excited.When he turned his head and saw Miss Six and Mrs.Sun's empty chairs, he was thankful the cigarette incident had passed without their notice.
That evening it became windy, and the ship began pitching slightly. Af ter ten o'clock only four or five couples were on deck, hiding in the shadows from the gleam of lights, murmuring sweet words to each other. Fang and Miss Pao strolled along side by side in silence. A big wave violently shook the ship, she nearly losing her balance. He then hooked his arm around her waist, and staying close to the railing, he kissed her hungrily. Her lips were ready, her body submissive. This stolen kiss, hurried and rough, gradually settled into a full and comfortable one. She deftly pushed aside his arm, and breath ing heavily said, "You're suffocating me. I have a cold and can't breathe. You got away with it cheap. You haven't even begged for my love!"
"I'll make it up by begging for it now, all right?" Like all men without love experience, he considered the word "love" much too noble and solemn to be used casually on women. He only felt he wanted her, not that he loved her, thus this evasiveness in his reply.
"Anyway, you haven't anything nice to say. You can't get away with that same old line." "When you put your mouth against mine and I say something to you, those words pass right into your heart without having to take the long way around, making a turn, and going in through your ear." "I'm not going to be fooled by you! If you have something to say, say it like a gentleman. That's enough for today. If you behave yourself, tomorrow ......"
He wasn't paying any attention and again put his arm around her waist. Suddenly the ship lurched sideways. He had not taken hold of the railing and nearly pulled her down with him. At the same time, in the shadows, the other women let out shrill cries. Miss Pao took advantage of the situation and slipped away, saying, "I feel cold. I think I will go on down. See you tomorrow"-leaving him alone on deck.
Dark clouds had already formed in the sky, disclosing here and there a few stars. The storm sounded like a man greedily gulping his food; the broad open sea of the daytime had now been completely digested in the even vaster night. Against this background the tumult in a man's heart shrinks to noth ingness. Only a well of hope for the morrow, which has not yet descended into the vastness, illuminates itself like the speck of light from a firefly in the dark depths of boundless, roaring waves.
From that day on, Fang often ate his meals in the third class. Miss Su's attitude toward him visibly cooled, so he asked Miss Pao in private why Miss Su had been snubbing him lately. Miss Pao laughed at him for being such a simpleton, adding, "I can guess why, but I won't tell you so you won't get more stuck up."
He said she was imagining things, but after this, whenever he met Miss Six, he felt even more awkward and ill at ease.
The ship passed Ceylon and Singapore and in a few days reached Saigon. This was the first colony since the start of the voyage that the French could boast of as their own. The French on board were like dogs at the sight of their master's home-their chests suddenly filled out, their actions became more arrogant, and the pitch of their voices was raised. In the afternoon the ship docked and anchored for two nights. Miss Six's relatives, who worked at the local Chinese consulate, sent a car to the wharf to pick her up for dinner, and so, with everyone watching enviously, she was the first one to get off the ship. The remaining students decided to eat at a Chinese restaurant. Fang Hung-chien wanted to eat somewhere else with Miss Pao, bixt feeling it would be too embarrassing to say this in front of the others, he just went along with them.
After eating, the Suns left first to take their child back to the ship, while the others stopped at a coffee shop and Miss Pao suggested they go dancing. Though Fang had paid for a couple of dancing lessons in France, he was hard ly a master at it. After one dance with Miss Pao, he retreated to the sidelines and watched her dance with others. After twelve o'clock everyone had had enough and was ready to return to the ship to sleep. When they got out of the rickshaws at the wharf, Fang and Miss Pao lingered behind. She said, "Miss Six won't be coming back tonight."
"My Vietnamese cabinmate has gone ashore too. I heard his berth was taken by a Chinese businessman on his way to Hong Kong from Saigon." "We'll both be sleeping alone tonight," she said almost carelessly.
It was as though lightning had flashed through his mind and produced a sudden blinding glare. All the blood rushed to his face. He was about to speak, when someone up front turned around and shouted, "What are you two talking about so much? Walking slowly because you're afraid we'll eavesdrop, aren't you?" Without another word, the two hurried onto the ship. Everyone said, "Good night," and went his own way. Fang bathed and returned to his cabin, lay down, and then sat up again. Trying to dispel the thought, once it has lodged there, seems as agonizing as it is for a pregnant woman to have an abortion. Maybe Miss Pao had meant nothing by that re mark. If he went to her, he might make a fool of himself.
