OH, THE DRAGON BOATS—boats bearing the heads of dragons!
Every June during the Dragon Boat Festival, these vibrantly colored watercraft took to the harbors, their teams of twenty rowers heaving the oars with all their might at every beat of the drum. Fishing boats paddled alongside, sporting red and yellow streamers. Walkie-talkies crackled with impatient voices, and the waterside thrummed with noise. Cooking smoke drifted up from food stalls, and the air grew hot with the press of bodies. A TV station was recording. Flags were fluttering on the wind. Flags, flags, flags, as far as the eye could see.
The dragon boats shot forward like arrows. The drum beats urged them ever forward, forward, forward as they tore through the water.
Vincent didn’t know when it had all started. Really, when was it? When did the sight of the dragon boats begin to fill him with such anguish?
紛緫緫其離合兮，
斑陸離其上下。
吾令帝閽開關兮，
倚閶闔而望予。
The jewelry store’s patron burst into applause when the poetry recital came to an end. The speaker’s voice was as musical as a koto in the hands of a skilled performer. This jeweler—a man with blond hair, cerulean eyes, and a suit of a peculiar grey bordering on purple—bowed with reserve. He remained as stoic as an actor facing applause following a show.
“I am simply glad to hear you enjoyed it, Ms. Liu,” said the jeweler.
“You rendered it perfectly!” Ms. Liu said. “Thank you for indulging me, Richard. Oh, I just knew I had to hear it in your voice today, and I’m sure I don’t need to explain why. Now, don’t forget about the jade I ordered! Goodbye—I’m needed at Victoria Harbor! My friends are waiting for me by the boats.”
“Do take care in the crowds.”
Once their affable client had left, the little shop fell silent. Vincent Lai, the shop assistant, watched her trot off with a sigh of disappointment. So much for the tray of fresh tea in his hands.
“She didn’t stick around long enough for me to offer any milk tea.”
“Yes, she seems to have called on us during a rather busy moment in her schedule. A pity, but such is the way of life.”
“Do you want to drink it instead?”
“Yes, if you would be so kind.”
The magnificent jeweler picked up a white teacup patterned with red flowers and took a silent sip of the sweet milk tea. This was royal milk tea, not its more basic cousin or the Hong Kong variation with evaporated milk for sweetener. No—royal milk tea was a longtime favorite of the jeweler, one that Vincent himself had never desired to partake of. He could tell at a glance that it would be much too sweet for him. The first few times it appeared at the store, Richard had invited Vincent to join him for a cup, but he got the hint and stopped asking after enough refusals.
Vincent took back the now-empty teacup and brought the tray to a waiting empty space in the kitchenette at the back of the store. Several others just like it sat nearby, awaiting their turn to be put away at the end of the shift. Ms. Liu was the fourth customer of the day, Vincent noted at a glance. The number of trays was the only way he kept track of the store’s traffic. None of the customers ever spoke to him, of course. They were too busy fawning over Richard for his looks or his fine jewelry to ever pay any attention to the set piece in the background.
Hiding a scowl, Vincent returned to the main room. The beautiful man seated there greeted him with a faint, pleasant smile. “Do you have any plans for the day, Vince?”
“Not really.”
“I see. As such, would you be so inclined to join me for an outing?”
“…I have to go home and take care of my father.” Vince’s tone of voice made it clear that was the only thing on his agenda.
“Very well,” said Richard with an agreeable nod.
Vincent ignored the hint of loneliness in Richard’s voice. “What about you?” he asked, like the idea had just occurred to him. “Are you doing something today?”
“Yes, I was just thinking of enjoying a nice walk. It is a festival day, after all.”
“Be careful not to get hit on again.”
“I shall wear sunglasses. Oh, yes—the schedule. For the rest of the week, I only have a few appointments with clients and meetings with Saul. Next week looks to be similar, but things shall pick up a bit the week after that. I plan to spend two days in Japan at that point.”
“Okay.”
Vincent hadn’t asked, but that hadn’t stopped Richard from volunteering all sorts of information. Vincent logged it in his mental notebook before excusing himself to clean up. He needed to write it down for real, but of course he couldn’t do that in front of Richard. It was a good thing his phone had a note app.
Speaking of his phone… He checked it while washing the dishes on autopilot. Among all the pointless small talk from old friends with whom he was rapidly falling out of touch, there was one short message: Come meet me. Same time, same place. The sender used a pseudonym, naturally. It prevented issues if someone happened to look over Vincent’s shoulder and spot the message by accident.
Okay, he texted back.
He finished the cleaning and returned to the main room just as Saul walked in. Saul was Richard’s boss, the owner of Ranasinghe Jewelry, and a mysterious figure who was greeted with reverence by his customers on the rare occasions he showed his face.
The store was too tiny. Richard had nowhere to run, and Saul advanced on him brandishing a bag of souvenirs.
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. It will not kill you to wear the traditional garments once in your life. I am told this changpao is of magnificent quality.”
“Thank you, but I shall pass.”
“Come, stop being obstinate. Think how much business you’d bring in if you wore something more colorful! I’ll wear a changpao if you do. Let us experience the local culture! You’ll look like an actor who escaped from the set of a settlement-era film.”
“Forgive me, but I’ve never harbored any desire to be an actor.”
“How cold. Flirting with outright discourtesy, I might say. Vincent, what about you? Will you humor an old man?”
Now the attention was on him. Vincent made his displeasure known in the look he directed at Saul. Wasn’t he being asked to, as the Japanese called it, cosplay?