The Night Tiger

Batu Gajah. Friday, June 26

In his sleep, Ren pushes past a fog and arrives in a place with grass and bushes, but no tiger. He remembers that he needs to find Nandani. He follows the trail of footprints from his last dream. The narrator also notes, “his cat sense prickles, trembling in a single direction, only to be met by a high blank wall as vast as the sky. Beyond that, lies Yi” (266).

Ren finds a woman at the end of the trail of footprints, but it’s not Nandani. Unbeknownst to him, it’s Pei Ling. Her left ankle is broken, her shoulder is wrenched, and one of her arms is bent irregularly. She asks Ren if he’s a real person and grabs him by his elbow. Her grip creates an icy pain. She can’t seem to remember the full details of her fall but says they’ll both be better when they board the train. Ren then realizes that he is also wounded. 

Falim/Ipoh. Friday, June 20

Ji Lin takes the bus to Falim and spends the evening helping her mother in the shophouse. The next morning, Ji Lin tells her mother that she’s returning to Mrs. Tham’s, but she’s actually going to the dance hall to complete her last shift. She does stop by Mrs. Tham’s, though, and Mrs. Tham informs her that Shin and Robert stopped by looking for her. Ji Lin tells Mrs. Tham that she will be staying in Falim that night.

At the May Flower, Ji Lin receives her play and prepares for her shift. She does not tell Hui that she has quit.

Soon, Robert, Y.K., and Shin show up at the dance hall. Ji Lin tries to run away, but they recognize her. Robert compares her to a prostitute, and Shin swings at him. Ji Lin leaps in front of Robert, and Shin grazes her with his fist instead. The group collapses into a melee, and the Mama is furious. Kiong makes a beeline over to defuse the situation. Ji Lin snatches her purse, containing the finger, from the dressing room and she and Shin flee the scene, hand in hand.

Ipoh/Taiping. Saturday, June 27

Shin and Ji Lin successfully get away from the dance hall. Ji Lin tells Shin that she’s not a prostitute, and Shin says he never thought she was. Ji Lin’s mother has also told him about her mahjongg debts. Ji Lin notices that Shin is sitting very close to her. He tells her Robert should be able to tell she’s a virgin anyhow, and Ji Lin says it’s not his business. He asks her why she didn’t ask him for money, and Ji Lin reminds him that he never answered the letters she sent when he left for school. Shin begins to explain but doesn’t.

Y.K. took Shin to the dance hall, and Robert insisted on following along. Ji Lin wonders if Y.K. meant to out her. Shin also says that Y.K. has been slyly trying to pry information about Ji Lin out of him, has asked him if he has noticed any missing specimens from the pathology storeroom, and has also asked Shin if he knows about a weretiger’s finger. Y.K. said that there was a weretiger’s finger in the hospital’s collection, and many people want to buy it. Ji Lin shows the finger to Shin, and they board a bus, where Ji Lin catches Shin up on the finger and her dreams.

Ji Lin tells Shin that she’s going to Taiping to bury the finger, and Shin resolves to go with her. She picked up the Taiping hint from the list in Pei Ling’s parcel. She tells Shin that he ought to tell Dr. Rawlings about the thumb in Pei Ling’s parcel to cast suspicion on Y.K. as a thief who is taking things from the pathology storeroom. She also tells Shin that Y.K. locked her in the storeroom, and Shin says that he will kill Y.K. Ji Lin tells him not to, but to report him for his thievery. She posits that Y.K. must’ve given the finger to the salesman. Pei Ling’s story may indicate blackmail or a falling out between Pei Ling and Y.K.

Ji Lin knows that the only place in Taiping that Dr. MacFarlane could be interred is the area’s Anglican cemetery. She explains this to Shin, whom she feels is not giving enough resistance to the trip, piquing her suspicions. They start the long ride to Taiping. Ji Lin estimates that they won’t arrive until past 5 o’clock.

On the train, Ji Lin thinks of how Yi binds Ren to the afterlife. She wonders if the finger has the same effect, and she hopes to bury the finger and sever one tie that Ren has to the afterlife. Though, Yi and Ren’s connection may be too strong to keep him alive. Shin also asks Ji Lin who Hui is, and Ji Lin privately wills him not to date her.

They arrive at the Taiping Railway Station. Ji Lin is in a sour mood, realizing that she won’t have access to Robert’s money. Shin tells her he will be able to give her money instead. Ji Lin discloses Robert’s long-ago kiss, which annoys Shin.

On the way to the Anglican cemetery, Shin ducks into a store and emerges with a bag containing a spade and some other items. The two go to a coffee shop to have a meal. Ji Lin notices Shin’s eyes lingering on her body. She’s wearing a canary-yellow dress that she’d kept at the dance hall, and she says the girls in Singapore must dress better; Shin says none of them look like Ji Lin. Ji Lin is aware that they are sitting very close together again. They apologize to each other for not being good siblings. 

Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 27

William is trawling through his social circle for information on Lydia. Leslie tells William that he thinks she’s in Malaya to look for a husband. William says she must not have trouble with that, being as attractive as she is, and Leslie cites a broken engagement that ended in a boating fatality. William senses that there is more to the story. The wife of a plantation manager tells William that Lydia’s former fiancé, a sickly but kind-hearted man named Mr. Grafton, died of heart failure.

William goes to Dr. Rawlings next. He tells William that Lydia recognized his name, “Acton,” and William knows that Lydia has been onto him since they met. He says Lydia was once engaged to a “rough fellow” who tried to assault her, and she came to Malaya to avoid him. William’s confusion grows. Dr. Rawlings asks him if he trusts the staff, and William replies that he doesn’t trust anyone.

Lydia’s possible victimhood changes William’s perception of her. He conjectures that she might have known Ambika and decides the fact that she knew Iris, a European woman, is worse: “Ambika and Nandani are just two local girls he’s been involved with, but the talk around Iris is something that’s hounded him out of England already” (286).

William wonders if Lydia has heard the story that he planted about how he tried to save Iris. He’s ashamed of the tale that he told, but there is now no way to undo it. He even believes his own lie. He remembers the river that Ji Lin described in her dream. She said that her dreams were “like a story that unfolded” (286). But William does not want the true story of Iris to ever be told. 

Taping. Saturday, June 27

Ji Lin and Yi arrive at the Anglican graveyard at All Saints’ Church in Taiping. As they are looking for Dr. MacFarlane’s grave, Shin tells Ji Lin that Robert said he had some information regarding the lists in Pei Ling’s parcel. “Apparently there was a Dr. MacFarlane in the Taiping area. An old Malaya hand who’d been out here for twenty years; before that he was in Burma. He’d a loose connection to the Batu Gajah District Hospital—subbed in occasionally when needed. A bit of an eccentric with no wife or family. And as we saw from the pathology records, he donated one of his fingers about five years ago, after a trip upriver with Acton,” Shin says (288). Shin says that Dr. MacFarlane didn’t live in Taiping, but in one of the nearby villages, which Ji Lin immediately knows is Kamunting, because of the list in Pei Ling’s parcel.

Ji Lin, knowing that there must be more to the doctor’s story, wonders whether he or William is the wayward master that Yi said Ren was following.

Then, they find Dr. MacFarlane’s grave. Seeing that he died on May 10, she calculates that the present day makes 49 days since his death. She learned from her mother that the soul wanders for 49 days after death. The doctor died of malaria, which he had had on a recurring basis. Ji Lin lays flowers on the grave. She also notices that a stick that looks like a broom handle has been inserted into the grave at an angle. She has never seen anything like it before.

They are about to start digging when an elderly Tamil woman arrives at the grave; she’s the caretaker’s mother. She tells them that the doctor lost his mind at the end of his life, which he spent solely in the company of a Chinese houseboy. Ji Lin guesses she means Ren.

The caretaker’s mother removes the stick from the grave. She says that Dr. MacFarlane grew increasingly eccentric, and his patients no longer wished to see him. He confessed to killing local livestock, dogs, and two women who worked at the rubber estate. He was not arrested, as his confessions were seen as symptoms of a mental illness, and those deaths were attributed to a man-eating tiger that was never caught.

Ji Lin asks if the tiger was caught, and the woman replies that it wasn’t, despite the presence of traps and the fact that a pawang had been called in to charm it. Ji Lin thinks of the tiger in William’s garden. She wonders if Chan Yew Cheung could have been pursued by a tiger, leading him to fall into a ditch and break his neck.

Ji Lin asks about the stick, and the woman explains that there was a hole dug near the grave and some locals thought maybe the doctor was trying to get out. They put the stake in to keep him in his grave. The woman points out that something was trying to get in, not out.

Shin then asks the woman to show him the bathroom. Ji Lin moves quickly, using the spade to deepen the hole in the grave made by the stake. When the hole is about as deep as an arm’s length, she extracts the glass bottle containing the thumb from her purse; “It [seems] colder and heavier than before” (292). She places it in the hole. 

Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 27

Ren is in the dream world. This world is growing more intense than the waking world. Pei Ling tells Ren that they must hurry to reach the train, and Ren is disturbed by the way Pei Ling’s broken body moves. Every now and then, Ren catches sight of a tiger. A train is waiting in the station.

Ren can see shadowy forms of people standing around in the station and boarding the train. Pei Ling rushes him, telling him to get on the train, but Ren wants to look for someone. Pei Ling doesn’t want to go alone.

Ren climbs into the carriage and sees Nandani, who tells him not to board the train—Pei Ling and Nandani argue about this, and Ren decides to go to Yi. Then, his cat senses see Ji Lin putting the finger in the grave, and Ren changes his mind, jumping off the train.

Ren awakens in the hospital on Saturday. He overhears others talking about Pei Ling’s death and sees her carried to the morgue, covered by a sheet. Ren understands that both Pei Ling and Nandani are dead and cries. 

Taiping. Saturday, June 27

Shin and the caretaker’s mother return to the grave. Shin takes Ji Lin’s hand to disguise the red clay on it, and they exit the cemetery briskly. A storm breaks out, and the pair break into a run. Knowing that they will not make the 8 o’clock train back to Ipoh, they stop outside of a hotel. Ji Lin, knowing that respectable women are not supposed to enter hotels with men, hesitates. As Shin talks with the woman at the reception desk, she infers that he has been in many hotels before. She pushes away jealous thoughts about the women he was with. Shin checks them in as Mr. and Mrs. Lee and puts his arm around Ji Lin, telling the clerk that they have been together for a long time.

In the hotel room, Ji Lin’s concerned that the room has only one bed. Shin gives her a shirt to wear, since her dress is wet and revealing. He’s gone when she emerges. Ji Lin tries to sleep, and Shin returns without a shirt on. In a whisper, he asks Ji Lin if she’s asleep. He puts his hand on her waist, beneath the shirt, saying: “I’ve been waiting for years. I don’t think I can wait anymore” (303).

Shin kisses Ji Lin, and she likes it but tries to push him away. Shin pulls at her shirt. Ji Lin tells him they should not proceed further, but Shin disagrees. He begins cupping her breasts, she pushes him away again, telling him she’s always been his, but Shin says it’s only been in the past month that she’s looked at him the way she looks at Ming. He says the other girls were only an attempt to forget Ji Lin.

He commences kissing her and preparing for sex. He wants to take her virginity, so Robert won’t want her. He says he is always getting rid of her suitors, and he made a deal with his father that he wouldn’t touch her under his roof if his father never beat Ji Lin. Shin’s plan all along was to end up in the hotel with her. Although Ji Lin is giddy with joy, she tells Shin that they will only be sleeping next to each other that night. Shin says that she will regret it, but she does not relent. 

Batu Gajah. Sunday, June 28

It’s Sunday evening, and a storm is growing. Lydia calls William, asking him to meet her at 7:00 in the European wing, to discuss Iris. William arrives at the hospital at 6:45AM. He sees Lydia conversing with an orderly, denying whatever he’s saying. Suddenly, a tile falls from the sky and smashes into the orderly’s head, cracking it open and spraying brain matter onto William.

When the police sergeant arrives, William tells him it was 23-year-old Y.K. Wong. Privately, William muses that the tile should have hit Lydia, and he thinks his strange fortune is off. Suddenly remembering something important, William turns back to the police officer.

Taiping/Falim. Sunday, June 28

Ji Lin awakens. Shin tries to have sex with her again, but Ji Lin has a strong sensation that she must follow the correct order in her relationship with him. He is bitterly disappointed, but she is steadfast.

They leave the hotel. Ji Lin is going to Falim to check on her mother, and Shin is reporting to Batu Gajah District Hospital for his shift. Shin says he bought the ring for her. When Ji Lin says it’s too big for her, Shin replies, “The way you eat, I thought you’d be fatter by now” (313). Shin also confesses that he tells people in Ipoh that he has a girl in Singapore, and vice versa for people in Singapore, to stop people from trying to set him up with women.

When she arrives at the shophouse, Robert is there. However, he has not informed her parents about the dance hall. When they ask her where she was, she says that she spent the night with Hui. Her mother supports the lie and succeeds in getting Ji Lin’s stepfather to leave Ji Lin and Robert alone.

Robert and Ji Lin go on a walk. He tells her that working in dance halls is dangerous and foolish. He offers to give her money, and Ji Lin realizes that he views himself as her savior. She refuses. He notices that she’s wearing the same dress that she was wearing last night, and he asks if she spent the night with Shin. Ji Lin repeats that she was with Hui.

When Ji Lin returns to the shophouse, she hears raised voices. Both parents are upset, but there’s no evidence of abuse. Ji Lin tells her mother that she won’t be seeing Robert anymore, as they are incompatible. Her mother asks if it’s because Shin dislikes Robert, and Ji Lin says Shin doesn’t like anyone. Not knowing whether it is a misstep, she tells her mother that she wants to tell her something. 

Batu Gajah. Monday, June 29

After the deaths of Y.K. and Pei Ling, a rumor that a vengeful ghost is stalking the hospital arises. Ren will be released today. A white patch shaped like a hand appeared on Ren’s elbow where Pei Ling touched him.

Lydia, still covered in blood stains, enters Ren’s room. Ren senses something odd about her. She asks him if he’ll be seeing his friend Louise (Ji Lin) again, and he nods. Lydia gives him a small glass bottle filled with a brown liquid, asking him to give it to Louise, and he recalls Lydia and Ji Lin discussing menstruation. Lydia tells Ren Ji Lin is to take all of it if she has a stomachache and instructs him not to tell anyone. As Lydia leaves, Ren contemplates the web of filaments that surrounds Lydia. He feels that death may be stalking her. 

Falim. Sunday, June 28

Ji Lin tells her mother about her job at the May Flower. Even though Ji Lin says that Shin will now provide the money to cover the debts, Ji Lin’s mother says that she will tell her husband the truth. She tries to get Ji Lin to pursue Robert, and Ji Lin lies that she is still pining after Ming. She’s not sure if her mother believes her.

Ji Lin goes to sleep and has a dream. In it, she’s in a complicated railway exchange. There are shadowy human-like figures moving about the station. An old foreign man heads for her and points to her basket, mouthing for her to put it back. Ji Lin knows he is referring to the finger in Pei Ling’s parcel. She asks him where to put it, but the man only smiles, thanks her, and says he’s leaving; he boards a train. His pupils are like a cat’s, and all of his fingers are intact.

Ji Lin wakes up. She realizes that the man was Dr. MacFarlane. She checks on her traveling basket with the lists and the thumb from the parcel. She is headed to the hospital to show the lists to Koh Beng and replace the finger in the pathology storeroom.

When she arrives at the hospital, she sees that the police are there. She hears that an orderly died, and, panicked that it is Shin, asks who died. A police officer brings her to Singh, and he tells her that it was Y.K. William tells Singh that he thinks that someone may have dropped the tile from the second story. Many staff have keys to the rooms there. Singh doesn’t give much credence to William’s statement and the two seem hostile.

William engages Ji Lin in conversation after Singh leaves, pointing out Nandani’s death and Y.K.’s. He asks if she’s the angel of death and if she’s seen any dead people after he brings up his dreams.  

William asks how much Ji Lin charges for call-outs, and she asks him if he really saw someone drop the tile from the second floor. He says that it could have happened. He asks her if anything ever happens to her that seems a little too convenient. Ji Lin tenses, remembering Yi’s statements about the fifth virtue controlling things. Ji Lin asks William if he means that fate re-orders itself according to his desires, and William tells her that she is an extraordinary girl. He posits that they’ve known each other in a different life.

Koh Beng enters the conversation and tells William that Matron wants to see him, and he leaves. Koh Beng asks Ji Lin if she told the police about the missing fingers from the storeroom. She says that she hasn’t. She also notices that Koh Beng isn’t his cheery self. Ji Lin tells him that William told the police his theory about a person dropping the tile. She shows him the list from the parcel to him, and he identifies it as proof that Y.K. was selling the fingers. However, Y.K. doesn’t strike Ji Lin as someone who could pull off such an illegal activity.  

Ji Lin decides turn the list in to a doctor, but Koh Beng asks again for the list. Ji Lin tries to leave, but Koh Beng pins her arm behind her back and presses a scalpel into her. He takes her to an outbuilding. She offers the lists, but he does not relent. He asks Ji Lin how she came to suspect him, and she says Pei Ling said she didn’t have male friends to help retrieve the packet, while Koh Beng said he was her friend.

She asks Koh Beng if selling the body parts was worth it. He says it went well until Chan Yew Cheung lost the finger and tried to blackmail him. He shoved Pei Ling, Cheung’s girlfriend, down the stairs to prevent her from releasing evidence against him. Chan Yew Cheung’s death was merely an accident that worked out in his favor, but he did drop the tile on Y.K.’s head. Ji Lin tells him that Shin does not know much, but that he has his suspicions. She surrenders everything that was in Pei Ling’s parcel.

Koh Beng and Ji Lin reach the top of a flight of stairs, and Ji Lin gathers that he is planning on pushing her from the building. 

Batu Gajah. Monday, June 29

Ren awakens knowing that something terrible is befalling Ji Lin somewhere in the hospital. His nurse refuses to find her for him. Despairing, Ren lies in bed and presses his hand against the white mark on his elbow left by Pei Ling, and his senses become stronger. He concentrates fiercely, asking to know where Ji Lin is. Shin arrives, and Ren recognizes him with his senses. He tells him Ji Lin is in trouble on the roof.

Batu Gajah. Monday, June 29

Koh Beng has now placed the scalpel under her jaw, and Ji Lin pretends to faint. Koh Beng bends instinctively, and Ji Lin grabs his knees. He bangs his elbow on the cement and crashes into Ji Lin while somersaulting. He tries to grab hold of her, but she scratches and bites him. And then, Shin tackles him. Shin and Ji Lin roll off the roof, Ji Lin hitting her head on the gutter on the way down.  

Ji Lin enters the dream space. She knows that she is in “the waiting room for the dead.” (335). Yi is kneeling behind the counter looking upset. He asks Ji Lin why she didn’t run away. Ji Lin, knowing that she should have, even though he was threatening to stab her, thinks she was too curious to hear Koh Beng’s plan. She asks Yi if she is dead, and Yi says Shin is hanging onto her on the edge of the roof. Ji Lin begs for Shin not to die. Yi says he can choose her or Shin to live, and Ji Lin tells him not to meddle, like the fifth one. Yi implies that William is not the fifth one, and Ji Lin chooses Shin to live. Yi smiles and tells her not to forget him.

Ji Lin awakens. It’s painfully bright and people around her are conversing. All three fell from the roof. Ji Lin survived uninjured, Koh Beng died with a broken neck, and Shin has a fractured arm. Both Shin and Ji Lin suffered minor cuts from Koh Beng’s scalpel. Shin and Ji Lin are transported into the hospital on gurneys.

Bystanders report that, although Koh Beng had had the advantage over Shin and Ji Lin at the most crucial moment, he had inexplicably fallen past them. Ji Lin wonders if Yi has traded Koh Beng’s life for hers from beyond the veil and if anything has happened to Yi because of this tinkering.

Batu Gajah. Thursday, July 2

Ren is back in William’s kitchen with Ah Long shelling beans. He’s been home for three days. Although he doesn’t know exactly what happened to Ji Lin, he knows she’s alive. There’s a lot of gossip surrounding the incident. William knows the most about the situation, but is staying mostly mum. He has sunken into a gloomy mood.

Lydia comes to the house. When she takes off her sun hat, she reminds Ren of a pontianak: “that vengeful female spirit that comes calling at the doors and windows” (339).

Lydia and William converse in the sitting room. She asks if he really saw someone drop a tile on Y. K. William says that the police are eyeing a suspect. She asks William what he told the police and divulges that she lied, saying they were secretly engaged. William is very upset by this. He demands that Lydia come clean to him about what she knows and all that she’s been doing.

Ren, eavesdropping on the exchange, does not hear what Lydia says next because Ah Long fetches him to give him the tea tray for Lydia and William. Ren remembers that Ah Long said William was suffering from “Bad digestion [and] too much stress” (341). Ren also remembers that William insisted on eating only omelets following the woman’s death on the rubber estate. He decides to put Lydia’s medicine in William’s tea.  

Lydia says that Y.K. Wong wanted to talk to her about Chan Yew Cheung, whom he believed was selling body parts. William dismisses the matter as nonsense, and Lydia adds that Y.K. thought Cheung was blackmailing William. William is shocked by this turn of events but assures himself that there has never been any investigation into his relationship with Ambika. He tries to drink, but the liquid is too hot.

Lydia asserts that she and William are close, and she got rid of all his troubles. She tells him that they both share the ability to change fate. She tells him that he must know that she has that power, as she knows he has been asking around about her previous fiancés. William realizes that the reason for the conflicting stories about Lydia’s engagement is that there has been more than one fiancé. Lydia explains she had three and elaborates she also killed Chan Yew Cheung, Ambika, and Nandani for William. She tells William that even the servants were beginning to gossip about William and Ambika, which is the reason she killed her. Chan Yew Cheung asked her probing questions about William and Ambika, so she killed him too. She poisoned them both with oleander tea, which she has been passing off as medicine. Chan Yew Cheung was vomiting when he fell into a ditch and cracked his neck. She also gave Nandani a vial of the poison on the night of the dinner party when she saw her in the kitchen.

Lydia says she knows William killed Iris. She’d known Iris in school, where it was widely known that she had an ear condition that made her unsteady on her feet. Therefore, the official story that Iris had stood up in the boat and fallen into the water never added up to Lydia. Internally, William confirms this. He had only intended to teach her a lesson, but she went under too quickly. Lydia has letters from Iris implicating William. She also tells him that there’s evidence against William in the deaths of the salesman, Ambika, and Nandani as well.

When William asks what Lydia wants, she tells him that she loves him. William desperately thinks of different ways he could kill Lydia that very instant. William says that he will consider becoming engaged to her. When Lydia proposes a toast, they drink. William’s tea is bitter, and he immediately wants to vomit.

Lydia claims that he kissed her in England at a party. William only remembers kissing Iris in a dark hallway during that party. He realizes that he mistook Lydia for Iris. He doesn’t even remember meeting Lydia, though she has always felt they were fated to be together. She confirms this with her name: “My Chinese name has the same character—Li for Li di ya—as yours. It’s one of the Confucian Virtues” (347). Ren overhears Lydia and gazes at her with widened eyes. 

Batu Gajah. Monday, June 29

Shin’s right arm is broken. The hospital has put Ji Lin and Shin in a private room. Ji Lin has told the police that Koh Beng tried to kill her and that he had been selling fingers out of the hospital. Her revelation makes the police and the hospital look bad. There is already a rumor making the rounds that Koh Beng went mad, and the hospital is treating Ji Lin and Shin very well and very cautiously. Although Shin declares that he will now no longer have a job at the hospital, Ji Lin can’t help but be ecstatic to be alive and next to him. Ji Lin hopes that Yi is not still waiting in the station alone.

Ji Lin lets go of Shin’s hand as yet another nurse comes in to flirtatiously tend to him. When Shin asks her why she won’t let him reveal that he is in love with her, she tells him that they must do things in the proper way. Ji Lin decides to go visit her mother. The hospital staff won’t let Shin go with her, insisting that he needs an x-ray in the morning. They don’t want Ji Lin to leave either because they are trying to keep a scandal from exploding. The medical director visited and is clearly trying to blame the entire affair on Koh Beng’s alleged nervous breakdown. Matron is even nice to her, telling her that she might get into the hospital’s nursing program.

At the shophouse, Ji Lin’s mother and stepfather are surprisingly calm about everything. The hospital has already communicated with them, saying that the entire debacle on account of a mentally disturbed person. The hospital will also be paying Shin’s salary for the remainder of the summer, even though he is on leave.

Most of all, Ji Lin’s mother is grateful that Ji Lin’s face is ok. She also informs Ji Lin that Shin has paid down some of her debt, and she has come clean about it to her husband. Ji Lin worries about this but sees no evidence that her stepfather has beaten her mother. Her stepfather must understand her mother’s frailty following the miscarriage. He’s made her promise never to play mahjongg again. 

Batu Gajah. Thursday, July 2

Ren watches William to see if Lydia’s medicine improves his nausea. But William looks like he is getting sicker. William tells Ren that the house will soon be getting more servants, and that he will be putting Ren in school.

Yi isn’t appearing in Ren’s dreams anymore. His cat sense can no longer sense Yi’s presence or whereabouts. Ren doesn’t forget him: “He thinks of Yi with love and sadness. One day, they will be together again” (352).

Ren asks William if he will marry Lydia. When William asks if the shared name makes him and Lydia a good match, Ren contemplates. He remembers the filaments that he saw protruding from Lydia and tells William that she will make matters difficult for him. The next morning, William does not come down for breakfast, and his bedroom door is locked. Ah Long finds the key to open it and enters, commanding Ren not to follow him. 

Falim/Ipoh. Wednesday, July 1

Shin returns to Ipoh. Ji Lin feels hopeful about the future. She will carry the memory of Yi in her heart forever.

When Shin comes home, he privately suggests that he and Ji Lin register to marry, as his father stipulated: When Ji Lin gets married, she will be of no concern to him anymore. It also does not matter who she marries if he is gainfully employed. Shin tells her his father never legally adopted her, and he has been planning their marriage for years; if she does not fully want to marry him now, she eventually will. He doesn’t care that there will be gossip about them.

Ji Lin and Shin kiss. Ji Lin’s mother, descending the stairs, sees them. She hisses at them to stop and laments that she raised Ji Lin to be better. Ji Lin tells her mother that she loves Shin, and Shin says he wants to marry Ji Lin. Her mother expressly forbids it.

The next morning, Shin tells the family that he will be returning to Singapore the following week, and Ji Lin is coming with him to find a job. His father is suspicious. Shin reveals the scandal at the hospital and says they’ve asked him to leave. Ji Lin adds that Robert, whose father is on the hospital board, can verify this information. She says she’ll be doing nurses training in Singapore. Her mother tells her that she can’t go, but her stepfather asks what Robert thinks of it all, and Ji Lin lies that he supports it. This pacifies her stepfather, who overrules her mother. Ji Lin uses the patriarchal system to her advantage: “And at that moment I was glad, so glad that [my stepfather] was hard and unyielding, only valuing the opinions of men.” (359).

Ji Lin says goodbye to Mrs. Tham and Hui. Her mother has stubbornly begun to view Shin as her daughter’s seducer. During their last conversation before Ji Lin’s departure, Ji Lin’s mother insists that the relationship is not proper, and she fears gossip in their community. She wonders if Shin will be unfaithful or violent and asks if they’ve slept together. Ji Lin is irritated, but she also understands that virginity is a form of social currency. Ji Lin yearns for the simplicity of childhood and the assurances of her mother. She accepts her feelings as a part of growing up.

Ji Lin tells Shin that she does not want to marry right away. She wants them to consider all the possible consequences, including those that could impact Shin’s training and career, before they marry. She also wants to live independently for a time and find a job. Shin gives her a year and a day, then says she’ll be his. Ji Lin feels hope for the happiness and adventures that await at The King Edward Medical College for Shin.

Batu Gajah. Two weeks later

Ren sits on the back kitchen steps after William’s funeral. The cause of death has been ruled heart failure. Lydia caused a scene at the funeral, insisting that she was engaged to William and she’s entitled to William’s money. However, in his recent will, William bequeathed 40 Malayan dollars to Ah Long and funds that Ren can only use for school. Ren, disheartened, has told William’s lawyer that he does not wish to study now, but the lawyer says he may want to someday.

In the kitchen, Ah Long hands Ren a note from Ji Lin, which offers her new address in Singapore so he can write. The next day, Dr. Rawlings arrives at the home and offers Ah Long and Ren jobs at his new job site: The Singapore General Hospital. They agree.