Days later Li-Nam bumped into Lan-Yee at school. She was holding three heavy books and trying to balance them as she walked. Li-Nam was running from one of his friends who were chasing him because he played a trick on them. He knocked into Lan-Yee and sent her books flying. "Watch where you're going!" Lan-Yee screamed as she attempted to catch her books.
Li-Nam's friends stop chasing him and ran off now that they saw the trouble he caused. "Sorry, I didn't mean..." he said as he helped her pick up a book and noticed who he was talking to. "Hey you're the girl I met in the Pavilion a few months ago!" he exclaimed.
Lan-Yee rolled her eyes at him. "Don?t dwell on it." She said sarcastically. She recognized him but she was annoyed by her books flying all over the place that she wasn"t so excited to see him.
He could tell she was annoyed he knocked over her books. "Uh I'm sorry about the books. My friends and I were..." he started to say but was cut off by Lan-Yee. "I don't need to know what you were doing. All I know is you bumped into me and I dropped all my books." She said picking up her last book.
"You need help?" He asked sincerely. She didn't hesitate. "Yeah, here." She said handing him two of her books. "You can help me carry this to the library." She said not as upset as earlier. He smiled joyously. "Sure." He said since he was glad she was able to accept his offer.
"So what's your name?" she asked him. "You didn't tell me that day at the Pavilion." she reminded him.
He chuckled. "You ran off before I could introduce myself." He replied. She rolled her eyes at him. "Well are you going to tell me now." She asked with her eyebrows raised, "... or are you going to just stare at me saying I ran off last time." she asked
Li-Nam smiled. Her personality was really different from the girls he knew. Most of them flocked to him and were really sweet but she had this bitter-sweet personality that just captured him. "My name is A-Nam, and yours?" he said. She shook her head playfully at him. "My name is Lan-Yee." She replied.
"Nice name, what does it mean?" he asked her. She shrugged. "I'm not sure but Aunt Suet said it means Hard Easy. I don't know why my parents named me that." she said.
"Oh I see." He said thinking her name must have had some kind of great significance. He helped her place the books back in the library and invited her to lunch with him. But she denied it because she had a prior appointment with Chun-On.
"Ok then we'll have to go out next time!" he said confidently. Lan-Yee nodded and smiled sincerely as she left. Li-Nam waited many time in the same location he bumped into Lan-Yee hoping to bump into her again but wasn't lucky enough to. He even went to the library many times but never saw her either.
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A few months had passed and Ho-Ying was more confident of expressing her love for Li-Nam. She invited him to dinner to give him a letter she wrote expressing her feelings. As the night progressed she became more nervous. Finally she gives him the letter and sits patiently as he reads it.
Li-Nam is shocked by her expression of love for him. He didn't realize she would fall in love with him since he thought of her as a good friend and he thinks he loves Lan-Yee.
"You don't need to say anything. I know how you feel." Ho-Ying says coyly looking away at the table top. Li-Nam is very frank and says, "I don't feel the same. The woman I love is not you." Ho-Ying looks up with shock and surprise. She had always imagined that he would love her once she admitted to loving him.
"How could you not love me? Is there something wrong with me?" she asked. He shook his head. "It's not you it's me, I'm in love with another girl, sorry." He said as he got up to leave. She held onto his hand to stop him. "Who is she?" Ho-Ying asked solemnly .
"I don't know who she is exactly, but all I know is she gives me a special feeling that I can't forget. I'm sorry." He said again and left. He didn?t know what else to say since he didn?t want to lead her on or hurt her because he still thought of her as a good friend.
Ho-Ying was too shocked to think or move. She wanted to know who this woman was. What woman could cause him to be so mesmerized? Who had this seductive power over the man she loved?
After sitting there for almost three hours the waiters asked her to leave because they needed to close. She looked at the time; it was 8 minutes to 10 pm. She walked out of the restaurant and into the dark night streets. She walked very slowly and finally allowed tears to come out of her eyes.
She saw a street vendor who sold wine, and even though she never had any, she decided to try some since she heard it would take her unhappiness away. She paid the street vendor and bought a pint of wine. The bitter flavor of the wine disgusted her but she continued to drink it until her vision became blurred and her imagination was racing through her mind.
Four men who were sitting nearby her noticed how drunk she was. They walked over to her and asked her if she needed any company. She shooed them away but they refused to leave. They carried her into a rickshaw to take her to one of their apartment.
As they were taking her, Chun-On and Lan-Yee were walking home from the movies theater and saw what was going on. They immediately rescued Ho-Ying. They both took Kung-Fu classes so they were trained enough to fight off a couple of bad men.
While they were on their way home, they asked her what happened. She didn?t reply and was only in a state of shock. She didn't move and had no reaction to anything they asked her. Since they carried her hastily into the house, Suet and Quay who were sitting in the living room talking, became very alarmed. "What happened?" Quay asked running to her daughter's side. "Is she okay?"
Suet looked at Ho-Ying's face, picked up Ho-Ying's hands to feel its warmth, touched her head and felt her pulse. "Take her into her room." She ordered sternly. Chun-On nodded and ran up the stairs with his sister. Quay followed. Lan-Yee stood there for a very brief moment looking at Suet. She was upset at Suet because she didn't seem to ask anything about Ho-Ying's condition, instead she just hurried everyone to take Ho-Ying upstairs.
Suet noticed Lan-Yee's expression and asked, "Why are you still standing here? Go help!" she said in a commanding voice as she ran upstairs to Ho-Ying's room. Lan-Yee shook her head and tried to focus. She followed Suet up the stairs. Chun-On was putting his sister on the bed while Quay was covering her with a blanket. Suet came in, pulled Ho-Ying off the bed and dragged her into the bathroom. There she poured cold water over Ho-Ying's head. Everyone was in shock!
"What do you think you're doing?" Lan-Yee Screamed at her mother. "You're so evil heartless witch!" She said pulling Ho-Ying from Suet. Quay ran to Ho-Ying with a towel. Chun-On didn't know what to say. He grew up as a filial son, never yelling or screaming at anyone ranked more superior then him so he assisted his mother with more towels.
Shocked and bewildered at Lan-Yee's comment, Suet stuttered, "I'm... I'm..." she took a deep breath, "I'm helping her get rid of her intoxication. She's been drinking alcohol and she's also been drugged. This will help revive her from it." She said sternly.
"What you did wouldn't have helped rid the alcohol in her. Alcohol will only go away with time and rest!" Lan-Yee screamed. "And how would you know she"s been drugged or not, you're not a doctor or nurse! You're just trying to hurt her!"
Suet was hurt by her daughter's words. She didn't know why her daughter felt she was such a horrible person. She held onto her heart as Lan-Yee screamed out more painful words.
"You didn't even ask how she felt when we came into the house. You just ordered Chun-On to take her to her room, and then you came in and pour water all over her head. She'll get sick, catch a cold or the flu, and possible even ammonia, since she's been out in the cold for so long. You're just an evil conniving witch, trying to harm Ho-Ying!" Lan-Yee continued shouting.
Just then Ho-Ying, who was held standing by her mother and brother, coughed up something from her mouth and vomited into the bath tub she was standing next to. Everyone turned to see if she was okay. Chun-On held his sister up while Quay gave her water to rinse her mouth and wiped it. "How are you feeling?" Quay asked.
Ho-Ying's facial expression cleared up a little. "Better now. How did I get home?" She asked holding her head. "My head hurts, its spinning." She claimed. Quay let out a deep breath noticing her daughter was okay. "Your brother and Lan-Yee brought you home." she replied.
Ho Ying held onto her head. "How come I don't remember anything?" she asked. Lan-Yee took her glare away from Suet at the moment and approached Ho-Ying. "Let's get you into dry clothes." Lan-Yee said as she assisted Quay in supporting Ho-Ying to her bed. Chun-On excused himself since it was no longer his place to be.
At this moment, Suet had already ran to her room. She was in too much pain to stay in Ho-Ying's room. She knew Ho-Ying would be fine now that she vomited up all the drugs. She closed the door of her room and ran to her bedside crying. Her heart felt as if it was stabbed with a sharp blade and twisted many times.
She shook her head. She didn't understand how her daughter could hate her so much and misunderstand her so much. She didn't know why Lan-Yee always said such hurtful things to her. She tried her best to be a loving mother, but it was impossible, since Lan-Yee never allowed her to love her. Lan-Yee always respected Quay as a mother figure, but she never accepted Suet.
Chun-on walked past Suet's room and decided to apologize for Lan-Yee's harsh remarks. But as he got closer to the door he heard Suet talking from behind the door: "Of course I know what's wrong with Ho-Ying, I used to be a nurse. Why would I harm people? I try to help people. I want to hold you and tell you I love you. Why won't you let me into your life? I want to be there when you fall in love. I want you to be happy and enjoy life. I want you to succeed and achieve all your dreams. Why won't you let me share these moments with you?"
After hearing Suet, Chun-On thought she might have gone crazy, because he knew no one else was in her room. She must have been talking to herself. And it seemed as if she was talking about Lan-Yee. He decided not to knock but instead he continued downstairs to prepare some warm tea for Ho-Ying to drink.
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(February 1956)
A few days later, Li-Nam classmates informed him that Ho-Ying has been ill. He wondered if it had anything to do with the night she confessed her love for him, thinking she might have gotten sick that day because of him, so he decided to visit her as a friend. Li-Nam arrives with a bouquet of red roses wrapped in pink tissue paper with white ribbons, the fashionable floral arrangement of the era.
The Kwok's worker, Lu-Khan opens the door and peers at him. "Who are you here to see sir?"
"I'm a friend of Miss Kwok Ho-Ying. I heard she was ill. May I visit her?" he asked in his politest manner.
"I'll announce your presence. Please come in and wait a moment." He said letting Li-Nam into the house as went to notify Ho-Ying know about her visitor.
Li-Nam stood in the den looking around the house. He noticed many antiques in the home and even more were paintings and pictures. Since Quay was the Mistress of the house now, most of the paintings or pictures were portraits of Quay. A range of Quay?s different ages was captured in each photo he saw. He didn't know who Quay was but the beauty in her youth was captured beautifully in her photos.
Then there was a small one on top of the fireplace that quickly drew his attention. It was a picture of Suet and Lan-Yee. The picture showed a moment of joy and happiness of a mother and her child as they prepared to take a photograph. Li-Nam smiled as the pictures brought memories of his own mother, a loving and caring woman.
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Ho-Ying has been broken-hearted and crying on Lan-Yee's shoulders about Li-Nam's other woman. Lan-Yee, Chun-On, Suet, and Quay all knew what happened that night. They felt sympathetic for Ho-Ying but nobody knew what to say to make everything better because they all knew love was uncontrollable.
Luo-Khan entered and informed them that Li-Nam was downstairs. He asked if he should bring him up. Ho-Ying excitedly jumped at the mention of Li-Nam visiting her. "Oh my goodness is he really here!" she cried excitedly getting up to grab her clothes. She didn't want Li-Nam to see her in such a delusional state. But once she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror she became so alarmed. She quickly dabbed makeup on and briskly combed her hair.
"Calm down." Lan-Yee said. "He's here to visit you. You don't need to make yourself all glamorous for him. He's visiting and not vice versa. You?re the important one, not him." Then Lan-Yee looked at Luo-Khan, "Bring him up!" she said then held Ho-Ying's shoulders and said,"I'll be back, I'm going to get you some soup. Okay!" Ho-Ying nodded. Lan-Yee smiled and left.
Luo-Khan came back into the room and escorted Li-Nam to Ho-Ying's room. First thing he notices is Ho-Ying sitting on her bed. She looks tired and her eyes obviously teary from crying. "How are you doing?" he asked her as he handed the rose bouquet to her. "These are for you." he said
"Thanks!"Ho-Ying says as she reaches out for the roses. "I love them, they're beautiful." She says smelling their fragrant smell. She held the flowers tightly because she was so excited he was actually there visiting her. "I'm good, how about you?" she asked.
"Very Good." He replied awkwardly. "Are you ill because of what happened that night?" he asked her cautiously trying not to aggravate her anymore than he has.
She managed a reluctant smile. "No it has nothing to do with that night. I just find life rather complicated to deal with lately so I've become slightly ill." Ho-Ying replied happy to see Li-Nam yet at the same time afraid he would leave if she said something to make him uncomfortable.
"I see." He said tensely. "So when will you be coming back to school?" he asked.
She nodded. "I'll be coming back to school really soon. You don't have to worry yourself about me." She said to reassure him that everything was okay.
Li-Nam smiled and decided to change the subject. "So you want updates about school? I got all your notes and assignments for you." he said patting on a notebook
"Thanks! I really need to catch up it has been three days. I must be in so much trouble." she said excited he did such a thing for her. She beleived he must have loved her to spend all that time collecting it for her.
Li-Nam chuckled, "I can always help you catch up don't worry." he said to reassure her.
She smiled, "I know you'll always be there for me." She said meaning that he would always love her and be by her side.
Li-Nam nodded his head, "Of course!" meaning he would always help a friend in need.
But Ho-Ying assumed Li-Nam had forgotten about the other girl and now loved her. She was so happy and for that moment she felt as if everything was so wonderful.
Right then Lan-Yee came back into the room with a bowl of soup for Ho-Ying to eat. "Black chicken Herb Soup is served." Lan-Yee announced cheerfully.
Li-Nam turned around from his position on the bedside next to Ho-Ying and looked into Lan-Yee's direction. He became so excited he forgot the presence of the ill Ho-Ying. His facial expression soon showed his excitement.
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