Just passing By

    There used to be a saying, "The poor fear kinsmen, the rich fear thieves." I remember when I was thirteen or fourteen and had just joined an opera troupe, some white-faced actors backstage smoked opium and heroin, and it was really frightful the way they filched things. We were living then in a tenement with a Grey-tiled roof, half of it flat. One night, getting on for three or four in the morning, footsteps suddenly sounded on the roof. My father, being experienced, deliberately coughed several times, I felt even more scared, wondering how the man on the roof would react. Father went on coughing steadily, time, till the man on the roof called softly though our  window, "Beg pardon, I';m just passing by," Father deliberately coughed a few more times and then, quite distinctly, the footsteps on the roof tiptoed away.

    The next day we heard that our landlord, Third Master Lu, had been burgled. His four sons brought some Japanese military police to our compound to make a house-to-house search. Coming in they swore, "You paupers! You've robbed our family!" How they stormed and blustered! All the families living in that quarter were poor, and Third Master Lu owned all the tenements there. The Lus had several business too and were men of property, so all of us, especially us children, were terrified of them.

   They'd come to work off their anger over this robbery on those of us who lived in their tenement compounds, a dozen or so families in each. Most o us were behind with the rent and had been beaten and cursed by the Lus.

   One day I was just going on stage to act a scene from an opera. I's dressed up but had nowhere to put my handkerchief. I noticed Grand Sun, who played walk-on parts. He was a good, honest fellow, so poor he'd not even a decent pair of shoes, and every day he went to several theaters on keep this handkerchief for me? It's one I embroidered myself." I added in a whisper, "I've already lost one. We've people here who filch things." Gran dad Sun fumed, "Hell! What swine! How can  the Poor rob the poor!" Then he took my handkerchief and I went on stage, not having the faintest notion what he meant.

   A couple of days later Gran dad sun came to find me backstage. He called me into a corner. "Take this,k Little Feng," he said, thrusting a paper package into my hand. Quite mystified I asked softly, "What's this, Gran dad?" He shackled, "It's just what you want." "Ho, what is it?" "Open it up and see, I know you'll like it." I unwrapped several layers of paper, and really was overjoyed. It was just what I'd want! A little teapot with golden flowers on it. I'd always envied the chief actors their little teapot, but I couldn't afford one myself Even if we'd had the money, Mun wouldn't have bought me one. Now, even though I had it in my hand, I couldn't believe it was mine. Seeing how delighted I was, Gran dad Sun said, "Little Feng, didn't you say you'd love to have a little pot like their to sip from? Hurry up and fill it with water."