We’ll go into that later!”
He gestured and she got a chair for herself.
Ju-hai knew that he couldn’t have rolled that crêpe with chopsticks, but he picked up pao-ping and contents, biting off a bit at a time without letting it fall apart or spill its filling.
“You could cook duck like this?”
“I’m not too sure.”
She poured ng ha pai.
“You’re all the tonic I need.”
“And Tm not rolling the next pao-ping—not with you watching!”
“Tai-tai, I’ll watch you and learn how!”
Addressing her as tai-tai was a gross social error, or else a declaration, a proposal, or a proposition—but whatever it might be, it was not the appropriate honorific for a temporary housekeeper.
Orchid neither accepted nor declined promotion to Supreme Number One Lady, with connotation of affection and great respect. Meanwhile, it was amazing what she could do with those chopsticks—Twinkle-flick-flip—
The crêpe was rolled, duck, leek, onion, and sauce inside.
“Simple, isn’t it?” She answered her own rhetorical question affirmatively and waited.
“Of course,” Ju-hai said. “Slowly, now, real slowly, roll one for yourself and let me watch.”
One thing was sure: she’d not learned the trick in any cooked-food stall.
The especially fed and especially roasted duck, and Ju-hai’s inviting Orchid to eat with him…
They’d been reading each other’s minds and moods, until neither could separate what had been sensed from what had been spoken. “Old Master—I’ve been puzzled silly—all day—about things—I can’t put it into words—”
“Another surprise in the kitchen? Let’s wait for that and you tell me what’s on your mind.”
“You’ve been so gracious—I’m frightfully presumptuous, asking for explanations—” Orchid got to her feet, and blurted it out: “When I made up your alcove—aiieeyah! I’ll show you!”
Orchid caught his hand, and he followed her. The bed had not been made up. She plucked a long strand of hair, almost black and with the faintest wave, like her own. And then, from the far corner, she picked up a garment of fragile silk. “It’s mine. I’ll show you others like it… I must have been sleepwalking.”
Orchid, who always thought of everything and knew every answer had met more than she could handle. “I must have been wearing this, and that’s what’s so puzzling—this isn’t what I would have worn. It would have been a robe.” She explained with a gesture; a robe would part, flip wide open, with nothing to be flung into a corner.
“Was I—but of course I was—”
“You were, and of course I asked you to eat with me tonight. You mean, you didn’t know?”
Each moved to the other. He added, “This time, you’ll know.”
He stepped back into the study room just long enough to pinch out the taper flame.
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