1 - Setting Sail
An Eavesdropper in Canton
Chapter 26
Published December 20th, 2024From the very start the Executive Committee had treated the two Gao children as a focal point. It was difficult to change the worldview of adults once formed. In contrast, children have more flexible thinking; have a natural disregard for authority; and are easily impressed by novel things. They also have a propensity to take risks in order to prove that they are not inferior to adults–these characteristics could be exploited by the time travellers.
Every time they time-travelled they would always spend a lot of time interacting with the two children, and observe their personalities and abilities. Gao Di, as a boy, was more useful for their purposes compared to Gao Lujie–girls in the Ming Dynasty had a much smaller social circle, and rarely had a chance to go out into public. Also, Gao Di was younger, and had a much more moldable worldview and personality compared to his sister.
Gao Di was also bright and quick on his feet. All the accounting techniques that Xiao Zishan taught him, Gao Di always grasped immediately. Whenever Wen Desi sent Gao Di to run some small errands he would always do so properly. When Gao Di received some modern sweets and snacks he would also bring them to share with his sister, demonstrating that he wasn’t greedy or selfish, and also had a solid sense of responsibility.
When the four entered the study, they saw that the pair of siblings were kneeling on the floor with straight backs. Bei Wei raised his eyebrows, almost as if he was about to get angry. Wen Desi knew that Bei Wei really couldn’t stand such sights, and hurriedly intervened.
“Get up, kneeling here for no reason whatsoever; do you think we are Gods of the City?”[1] Wen Desi was smiling slightly, and raised his hands.
“We beg masters to forgive the crimes of our parents.” The two children said simultaneously. They did not get up, and instead kowtowed again.
“I said it already before, one who does not know is not guilty.”[2] Wen Desi said, “Get up, both of you.”
“Thank you master for your kindness.” The two siblings exchanged a happy look, before hurriedly standing up.
“Gao Lujie, you leave first. I have something to say to Gao Di.”
“This servant understands.” Gao Lujie answered, and briskly left the study. Bei Wei stood up, walked to the window, and only after seeing Gao Lujie actually leave the courtyard did he resume his seat.
Xiao Zishan asked Gao Di: “Are you familiar with Guangzhou?”
“I am. Before, the people of the Gao manor would often send me on errands, and every time they would give me a few coins.”[3]
“Your friends that I asked about before, do you still often play with them?”
“Some of them became errand runners, but the others all stay at home and don’t work, so they frequently invite me out to play.”
“Are any of them trustworthy?”
Gao Di suddenly raised his head: “Do the masters want to take in more servants?[4]”
Xiao Zishan inwardly approved of this boy, he was truly a smart one.
“Not right now,” Xiao Zishan deliberately kept his words vague, “it’s not quite about taking in more servants, but sort of related to it.”
“Then, can Master explain what kind of people you want?”
“I want a few children who are familiar with Guangzhou city, who can report to me about news and market situations they hear on the streets,” Xiao Zishan then talked about what products they wanted to learn about, all according to the content they had discussed in advance.
“That is easy, you can know just by looking at the shui pai in teahouses.”[5]
“Every day you should collate all these things into a booklet, and do everything well according to the methods I taught you.”
“I understand.”
“Every month I will give you an extra two liangs of silver as activity expenses. I will leave choosing helpers up to you, but you should pick wisely. Those who aren’t reliable, or who are loose-lipped, should all be avoided. Apart from this, you must keep a constant ear out for any news about the Gao family.” Xiao Zishan strictly stared into his eyes, “if there is anything about them, don’t write it down. Tell us when we come.”
Every sentence that Xiao Zishan said Gao Di would grunt in assent. Although the boy’s face was tinged with some trepidation, it was overflowing with excitement.
“Does your family have any friends within the Gao residence?”
“Yes, there is Uncle Chang, my dad’s sworn brother. He works odd jobs in the outer residence.” What followed was a stream of random descriptions. Gao Chang turned out to be from the same village as his dad, and had worked for six or seven years in the residence. Gao Chang was strong and knew some martial arts, and should have been able to become a retainer. However, he spoke too straightforwardly, and didn’t have any money to bribe the managers, and eventually the high-ups refused to even see him. In the end, he could only work odd jobs in these few years and wasn’t even matched with a servant girl.[6]
“He’s single?”[7]
“Yes, but Uncle Chang is very open-minded, and doesn’t complain much.”
The travellers exchanged looks; this was a suitable target. People who weren’t happy in their current jobs would be happy to take up a position somewhere else; being straightforward meant they were frank and didn’t have hidden schemes; not complaining meant they had a placid mentality; and finally, there would also be use for someone who was strong and knew martial arts.
Of course, all this was second-hand information from the son of his sworn brother, and parts of it must be exaggerated. However, right now they urgently needed people, so it wasn’t necessary to dig too deep. Also, the only real way of determining if a person was suitable or not was to employ them first and see.
“Should I call Uncle Chang over? He isn’t working today.”
“Yes, go fetch him.”
“I’ll just say that dad invited him to drink, he will come over himself.”
Such a perceptive child, they didn’t even need to command him to keep everything confidential and he knew what to do intuitively. However, with how smart this child was, if they didn’t guide him well in the future it would be a terrible thing. Xiao Zishan’s thoughts sobered up.
Not long after, Gao Chang came. As Gao Di introduced him to the masters, Gao Chang kowtowed in greeting to each. The travellers sized him up: he wasn’t tall, but was quite sturdy and was agile on his feet.
Xiao Zishan only asked some questions about his personal history and his work in the Gao family.
“...I have worked odd jobs in the outer residence for six years.” Gao Chang reported.
“I see that you have a stately appearance, and your skills are not bad. How come you have always only done odd jobs?”
“I am naturally clumsy, and don’t know how to talk, and so have always only done odd jobs.”[8]
“Have you ever been married?”
“No…” Gao Chang’s face turned red. “I am too poor, no woman wants to marry me.”
“You have worked for the Gao family for many years, yet they didn’t ever match you with a servant girl?”
“I am truly too poor, even after being matched with a woman I wouldn’t be able to keep them.”
Xiao Zishan thought that this person would be pretty good to employ. Even though his masters never gave him any favours, he still didn’t criticise them one bit when talking to outsiders.
“How does the Gao family treat you?”
“My masters give me clothes and food, this servant is grateful for their kindness.” He replied in a manner that was neither servile nor overbearing.
Xiao Zishan looked at Bei Wei. The former scout abruptly jumped up, and pushed Gao Chang. Gao Chang was caught off guard, and fell backwards, only recovering after seven or eight steps. Although he was astonished by this sudden move, he only tidied up his clothes and straightened himself.
Bei Wei nodded. This person was quite stable, truly a person with gongfu.
“You know martial arts?” Xiao Zishan asked.
“Just some gongfu from my hometown, used for a bit of self-defence and keeping healthy. I’m sorry for making you hear such an embarrassing thing.”[9]
Xiao Zishan nodded, and didn’t ask any more questions. He called Gao Di to take Gao Chang out for a drink.
The results of this interview were largely to the satisfaction of everyone. However, they would still need to come up with a different way of roping this person into their cause. The time travellers next discussed their plans for expanding their enterprise in Guangzhou city. At present they had an initial intelligence network, but it wouldn’t be used to collect any real intelligence per se. Instead, it was mostly to see whether Gao Di would play a useful role and to test his loyalty to the Gao family.
If Gao Qing stubbornly continued to be an informant for Master Gao, then they would have to rapidly go and find new people.
“I feel that Gao Qing’s is ambivalent towards Master Gao.” Bei Wei said, “Looking at his wife and children, it doesn’t seem like he’s hell-bent on serving Master Gao.”
“I agree with this hypothesis.” Wen Desi nodded, “Gao Qing is just scared of Gao Ju’s power, and in reality he doesn’t have much loyalty to his old master.”
“Actually, what he’s more afraid of is being forced to leave his hometown with us. After all, we are disguised as Australian sea merchants. Also, Gao Qing is not from the Guangdong or Fujian areas where people are used to travelling overseas.”
“We’ve won over his wife and children. From today onwards, he must carefully think about things if he wants to go report to Master Gao.”
“Will he still go?”
“I think so, but at least much less frequently. Gao Qing is timid and lacks resolution. As long as his old master still has influence, he will always have a thought of leaving open a path of retreat. If he doesn’t leave Gao Ju’s circle of influence then we can’t entirely trust him.”
“We need to get our own residence as soon as possible.”
“Yes, currently it’s to make trade convenient, but before our final trip we must get a new residence.”
“Gao Di seems like he’d be pretty useful, but it’s a shame he’s just a child. He can’t do stuff like buying a residence or servants.”
“What about Gao Chang…”
“Someone’s here!” Bei Wei suddenly shouted, and flashed to the window. Along the way he picked up a rock from a bonsai pot and threw it out the window. A muffled knock came from outside, as if he’d hit something.
The three otakus had momentarily lost their spirits, and were paralysed to their chairs not daring to even breathe loudly.
“What happened?” Wen Desi asked, trembling with fear.
“A shadow flitted past a corner of the opposite courtyard.” Bei Wei said angrily, “To snoop around before the sun had even set; they truly have quite some balls.”
“To eavesdrop?”
“Should be.” Bei Wei said, “They were trying to get beneath the window sill.”
“Is it one of Gao Ju’s?”
“Doesn’t seem like it, as Gao Ju already has eyes and ears here. Our business with him is going so smoothly, there is no reason for him to attempt such a thing that he knows would anger us.”
“Then who could it be?”
“I’m afraid it's those greedy people.” Xiao Zishan remembered the words that Gao Ju had said to them when he was giving the residence to them: “After your strange goods hit the market, I have drawn considerable attention to my residence.” This eavesdropping incident should be the people who were ‘paying attention’.
Things kept getting more and more complicated. Thinking of the perturbed mood Gao Ju was in today, their thoughts became a little tense too.
[TN]
Title of chapter in Chinese is same as that of the film Secret Post in Canton (1958), but I elected to use a more informative name
The original, 不知者不罪, is a quotation from chapter 63 of General Yue Fei. ↩︎
Original does not specify what type of coins or their denomination ↩︎
Old way of referring to servants, 家人. In modern lexicon that means family members. ↩︎
Shui Pai (水牌). Baidu entry. Wooden signs hung at the front of stores listing out prices of various goods of interest. ↩︎
Male servants would be matched with female servants, and the children would also be born into servitude. ↩︎
Chinese describe single men as 光棍, literally ‘shiny rod’. The sexual innuendo is strong with this one. ↩︎
The ‘I’ used is the one used when talking to a superior. ↩︎
Set phrase in Chinese ‘叫老爷们见笑了’, literally, ‘sorry for making masters laugh.” ↩︎