‘THE trouble with soaring,’ she murmured, ‘is that you fall to earth.’
‘Sometimes you do,’ he said gently. ‘But not always.’
‘Not always,’ she murmured. ‘Perhaps.’
But it was too soon. Her nerve failed her and in her mind she crossed hastily to the cautious side of the road.
‘What about your grandmother? What was her year?’
Tactfully he accepted her change of subject without demur.
‘She was a dragon too,’ he said. ‘With her courage and sense of adventure she couldn’t have been anything else-a real dragon lady. Everything she told me about this country seemed to bring me alive, until all I could think of was coming here one day.
‘We planned how we’d make the trip together, but she became very ill. I’d qualified as a doctor by then, and I knew she wasn’t going to recover, but she still talked as though it would happen soon.
‘At last we had to face the truth. On her deathbed she said, “I so much wanted to be there with you.” And I promised her that she would be.’
‘And she has been, hasn’t she?’ Olivia asked, marvelling.
‘Every step of the way,’ he confirmed. ‘Wherever I go, I remember what she told me. Her family welcomed me with open arms.’
‘Did you find them easily?’
‘Yes, because she’d stayed in touch. When I landed at Beijing Airport three years ago there were thirty people to welcome me. They recognised me at once from the pictures she’d sent them, and they all cheered.
‘It’s an enormous family. Not all of them live in Beijing, and many of those who lived further out had come in especially to see Meihui’s grandson.’
‘They weren’t put off by your being three-quarters English?’
He laughed. ‘I don’t think they even see that part of me. I’m one of the Lang family. That’s all that counts.’
‘It was clever of your grandmother to name you and your father Lang,’ Olivia mused. ‘In England it’s your first name, but here the family name comes first.’
‘Yes, my uncles are Lang Hai and Lang Jing, my great uncle is Lang Tao, my cousin is Lang Dai, so I fitted in straight away.’
A sudden look of mischief crossed her face. ‘Tell me something-have your stepbrothers given you any nephews and nieces?’
He looked puzzled. ‘Three, but I don’t see…’
‘And I’ll bet they call you Uncle Lang.’
‘Yes, but-’
‘And what do the children of the Lang family call you? It can’t be Uncle Lang, because that would be nonsense to them. So I guess they must call you Uncle Mitch.’
A glazed look came into his eyes and he edged away from her with a nervous air that made her laugh.
‘Are you a witch to have such second sight?’ he demanded. ‘Should I be scared?’
‘Are you?’ she teased.
‘A bit. More than a bit, actually. How did you know that?’
‘Logical deduction, my dear Watson. Second sight doesn’t come into it.’
He could see that she was right, but it still left him with an enchanted feeling, as though she could divine what was hidden from others. A true ‘dragon lady’, he thought with delight, with magic arts to entice and dazzle a man.
‘You’re right about my grandmother,’ he said. ‘In her heart, she never really left China.’
‘How did her relatives feel about her marrying an Englishman and leaving the country?’
‘They were very supportive, because it’s in the family tradition.’
‘You all believe in marrying for love?’
‘Much more than that. Marrying in the face of great difficulties, putting love first despite all obstacles. It goes back over two-thousand years.’
‘Two thou…?’ She laughed in astonishment. ‘Are you nobility or something?’
‘No, just ordinary people. Over the centuries my family has tilled the land, sold farm produce, perhaps made just enough money to start a little shop. We’ve been carpenters, wheelwrights, blacksmiths-but never noble, I promise you.’
The arrival of the waiter made him fall silent while plates were cleared away and the next course was served. It was fried pork-belly stewed in soy and wine, and Olivia’s mouth watered at the prospect.
‘We’re also excellent cooks,’ Lang observed, speaking very significantly.
‘You mean…?’
‘This was cooked by my cousin Lang Chao, and the guy who served it is his brother, Lang Wei. Later Wei’s girlfriend, Suyin, will sing for us.’
‘Your family own this restaurant?’
‘That’s why they virtually hijacked us. I wasn’t planning to bring you here because I knew we’d be stared at-if you glance into the corner you’ll see Wei sneaking a peek and thinking we can’t see him-but they happened to spot me in the street, and after that we were lost.’
‘We seem to be providing the entertainment,’ she said, amused. ‘Wei’s enjoying a good laugh over there.’
‘I’m going to strangle him when I get home,’ Lang growled. ‘This is why I didn’t want them to see you because I knew they’d think-Well…’
‘That you’d brought one of your numerous girlfriends here?’ Olivia said.
She was teasing but the question was important.
‘I occasionally bring a lady here to dine,’ he conceded. ‘Purely in a spirit of flirtation. Anything more serious, I wouldn’t bring her here. Or at least,’ he added, grinding his teeth and glaring at the unrepentant Wei, ‘I’d try not to.’
‘No problem.’ Olivia chuckled. ‘You tell him that he’s completely wrong in what he’s thinking, that we’re just a pair of fellow professionals having a quiet meal for companionship. There’s no more to it than that.’
‘No more to it than that,’ he echoed in a comically robotic voice.
‘Then you can strangle him.’
‘That sounds like a good idea. But what do I tell him when I take you out again?’
‘Tell him to mind his own business?’ she suggested vaguely.
‘I can see you’ve never lived with a family like mine.’
‘Wait a minute, you said when you “get home”? You don’t live in the same house, do you?’
‘Sometimes. I have a room there, but also a little place of my own near the hospital where I go if I’ve done a long stint at work and need to collapse. But if I want warmth, noise and cousins driving me crazy I go to the family home, so they tend to know what I do. But next time we’ll avoid this place and have some privacy.’
‘Look-’
‘It’s all right.’ He held up a hand quickly. ‘I don’t mean to rush you. I know you haven’t decided yet. But, when you do, let me know where you want to go.’
Her eyebrows rose at this quiet assurance but his smile disarmed her, making her complicit.
‘I didn’t finish telling you about our tradition,’ he said.
‘Yes, I’m curious. How did a family that had to work so hard come to put such a high value on romantic love? Surely it made more sense for a man to marry the girl whose father owned a strip of land next to his own?’
‘Of course, and many marriages were made for such practical reasons. But the descendants of Jaio and Renshu always hoped for more.’
‘Who were they?’
‘They lived in the reign of the Emperor Qin, of whom I’m sure you’ve heard.’
She nodded. In reading about China, she’d learned about the time when it had been divided into many states. Qin Shi Huang, king of the state of Qin, had conquered the other states, unifying them into one gigantic country. Since Qin was pronounced ‘chin’ the country had come to be called China. Qin had proclaimed himself emperor, and on his death he’d been buried in a splendid mausoleum accompanied by any of his concubines who hadn’t born him a child.
‘One of those concubines was Jaio,’ Lang told her now. ‘She didn’t want to die, and she was in love with Renshu, a young soldier who also loved her. Somehow he managed to rescue her, and they fled together. Of course, they had to spend the rest of their lives on the run, and they only had about five years before they were caught and killed. But by then they’d had a son, who was rescued and spirited away by Jaio’s brother.