Sandalwood Death: A Novel (Chinese Literature Today Book Series)

the latest news from Japan and the West. Well, yesterday he received an urgent message that the Old Buddha Cixi received Kaiser Wilhelm’s special envoy in the Longevity Hall of the Summer Palace to discuss the construction of the rail line between Qingdao and Jinan.”
    Young Master Wu clapped his hands.
    “Second Master,” he said, “don’t tell me, let me guess.”
    “Go ahead, guess,” Second Master said. “If you’re right, yours truly will pay for everyone’s tea.”
    “Second Master is a forthright man who is unafraid to show his emotions,” Young Master Wu said. “No wonder the people all love him. Here is my guess: Our mass petition worked. They are going to alter the planned route.”
    “Glory be! Great news!” muttered an old man with a white beard. “The Old Buddha is wise, truly wise.”
    But Second Master shook his head and said with a sigh:
    “Sorry, gentlemen, but today you will have to pay for your own tea.”
    “They’re not going to change it?” Young Master Wu said, his hackles rising. “Our mass petition was a waste of time, is that it?”
    “Your mass petition was probably used by some official as toilet paper,” Second Master said resentfully. “Just who do you think you are? The Old Buddha said, ‘We can alter the course of the Yellow River, but not the course of the Jiaozhou-Jinan rail line.’ ”
    Dejection settled over the room, punctuated by long sighs. County Scholar Qu, he with the facial blemish, said:
    “Well, then, did the German Kaiser send his envoy to pay restitution for the destruction of our burial grounds?”
    “Scholar Qu has finally touched upon something,” Second Master said animatedly. “When the special envoy was led into the Old Buddha’s presence, he prostrated himself three times and kowtowed nine before handing up an account book printed on vellum that could last millennia. ‘The Great Kaiser,’ the envoy said, ‘will under no circumstances do anything to bring harm to the people of Northeast Gaomi Township. We will pay a hundred ounces of silver for every acre of land utilized and two hundred for every gravesite disturbed. A steamship with a load of silver ingots has already been dispatched.’”
    The news was met with a moment of stunned silence, then greeted with an uproar.
    “Damned liar! They took an acre and a quarter of my land, and gave me eight ounces.”
    “They destroyed two of my ancestors’ gravesites, and gave me twelve.”
    “Silver? Where is it? I don’t see any silver.”
    “What are you all bawling about?” Second Master demanded unhappily as he banged his fist on the table. “All your complaints don’t make a damned bit of difference! Silver? I’ll tell you where it went. It was skimmed away by those crooked interpreters, traitors, and compradors, that’s where!”
    “He’s right,” Young Master Wu agreed. “You all know Xiaoqiu, who sells oil fritters in Front Village, don’t you? Well, he worked as an attendant for a man who interpreted for a German engineer for three months, and wound up with half a sack of silver dollars that he picked up off the floor during their nightly card games. As long as you’re involved with the railroad—you can be a bloody tortoise or a bastard turtle—you’ll strike it rich. Let me put it differently: ‘When the train whistle blows, gold in thousands flows.’ ”
    “Second Master,” Scholar Qu said tentatively, “does the Old Buddha know any of this?”
    “Why ask me?” He wore a scowl. “I’ll just have to go ask someone else.”
    His comment was met with forced smiles all around, before the men returned to their tea, slurping loudly.
    An awkward silence settled over the room. Second Master cast a furtive look out the door to make sure that no one was outside listening.
    “And that’s not the worst of it,” he said softly. “Interested in hearing more?”
    Every eye turned to Second Master’s mouth, waiting expectantly.
    After looking around the room, he said with a sense of heightened mystery:
    “A good friend of the family, Wang Peiran, works as an assistant to one of the Jiaozhou yamen officials. He tells me that many strange incidents have occurred over the past few days, including men who have woken up in the morning to find that their queues have been cut off!”
    Looks of incomprehension decorated all the faces around him. No one dared utter a word. Ears pricked, they waited for him to continue.
    “The immediate effect has been