Beijing Private Eyes - Part 4 Ancient History

Mei moved one seat over next to Mark and said, “You like her don’t you?”

 “Well, yeah, sure, she’s nice. But I’m just helping her out for a week or so. Nothing else to it.”

“Are you sure?”

Dragon, Jinci Temple, Taiyuan, China (Photo: M. Griffiths)

Beijing Private Eyes - A foreign teacher in Beijing meets an unexpected and attractive visitor in need of assistance. He offers to help and things begin to get complicated.


Read Beijing Private Eyes - Part 1  Arrival  here, Part 2  Lights, camera...  here, Part 3 - Room service here,


(For my six peak oil short story competition entries set in Australia and China see here)

Part 4 – Ancient History

In the morning Evie and Mark spent some time going over Chinese pronunciation for the coming day’s filming. Just before they left the apartment to head for the studio Mark went to a drawer near the door. “Here’s a spare set of keys. The big one is the external door at the bottom of the stairs and the smaller is the apartment door.” Then he gave her a card with handwritten characters on it. “This is the address of the apartment if you need to catch a taxi back here.”

She put them in her hand bag.

After they arrived at the studio that morning they were herded into a convoy of cars and vans and headed for the Forbidden City, the old Chinese imperial palace.

“Before we start shooting we have arranged English speaking guide to show you Forbidden City” said Lily. The guide directed them over toward some of the historic buildings and began to describe some of the features of the palace.

“Yellow tiles were reserved for use on the roofs of royal palaces, mausoleums, imperial gardens and temples. This, it is said, was because yellow is the colour of the Yellow River, once believed to be the cradle of the Chinese civilization.”

The group moved on to the entrance to one of the buildings.

“In front of the gates of traditional buildings-palace halls, old government offices, mansions and other houses of style-one can still see a pair of lions standing guard. Carved out of stone, they are a male and a female, with the male on the left, his right paw resting on a ball, and the lioness on the right, her left paw fondling a cub. The lion was thought to be the monarch of the animal kingdom, and its images represented august power. The ball played by the male lion symbolized the unity of the empire, and the cub below the female thriving offspring.”

“Can you please take a photo?” Evie handed her phone to Mark and posed beside a lion.

The guide then motioned Evie and Mark one of the large water vessels placed near the buildings. “These water vessels in the courtyards of palaces and imperial gardens were placed near the main buildings. In their time they were filled with water against the emergency of a fire. In winter they were covered and wrapped around with quilts and, when necessary, heated from below with charcoal to prevent the water from freezing. In the Qing dynasty they were made of gold-plated brass and adorned with rings and side knobs in the form of animal heads. You can see the scratches on the surface of the vessels. That is where the gold plate was scraped off by with bayonets by the foreign troops of the Eight-Power Allied Forces which invaded China in 1900.” The guide looked at them disapprovingly.

“Makes you proud to be a descendant of the glorious British Empire doesn’t it?” Mark whispered under his breath.

“Mmmm.” Evie mused. She looked again at the water vessel. “That’s a bit of history they don’t teach us at school”.

“Yeah, that’s true. Something the west really does need to do is make our history books less Euro-centric.” They wandered on.  “Mind you, the Chinese government seems a bit obsessed by it all. They happened to be in a down phase when Britain was at its less than friendly imperial peak. The current regime seems to want to reclaim all of the Qing empire’s former glory, and territory, which is interesting given its supposedly anti-imperialist ideology. Not to mention that the Qing were Manchurian, not Han Chinese. Talk about Chinese whispers.”

 

During the filming of a fight scene a foreign tourist stumbled onto the set to everyone’s initial annoyance, and then amusement. Later a light stand blew over in the wind and was damaged. It wouldn’t stand up straight so Mark volunteered to hold it while they were shooting. Eventually the scenes were completed and they headed back to the studio.

“I see you did some real work today” said Evie as they drove home in a taxi.

“Yeah. Hey, maybe I can get my name in the credits. What do they call the guy who holds the lights for a very important scene?” he asked.

Evie smirked, “A. Nobody.”

            Mark’s phone beeped with an incoming message. He tapped the screen. “Looks like there’s ex-pat drinks on tonight. Someone is having a birthday. Wanna go and meet some people? We don’t have to stay all night. It might get a bit raucous later on.” Mark added.

“Sounds grand.”

The phone beeped again. “It’s Mei. She’s going too. She’s asking if I’m going, and bringing you. She’s part of the crowd now. She and Jas’ have been together a while. It’s great you will get to meet her.”

 

Evie Thomasson @Evie_T

Shooting in the Forbidden City today. Impressive.

Learned some Chinese history.

We don’t know the whole story.

 

After dinner and some Chinese dialogue practice they headed for a bar in the city. They went in and found a long table in the back already half occupied by a group of foreigners from a range of English speaking countries and a few others besides, Africa, Latin America and Europe. Mark introduced Evie to the group and congratulated the birthday girl. They sat down on one side of the table. Just then Mei arrived and was greeted by several of the group. She smiled at Mark and moved over and sat down on the other side of Evie.

            Mark did the introductions and went to the bar to buy them each a drink. Mei and Evie were soon deep in conversation, punctuated by laughter. Mark talked with the others and caught up on the news from the various language schools in the city. After a while he leaned back in the chair observing. Evie got up and went to the bathroom and when she came back someone invited her to sit in a different seat.

            Mei moved one seat over next to Mark and said, “You like her don’t you?”

 “Well, yeah, sure, she’s nice. But I’m just helping her out for a week or so. Nothing else to it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. They stuffed up her accommodation and she needed a place to stay. Anyway, she’s out of my league. Look at her. She has the whole room eating out of her hand.” A crowd was standing around her chair listening to her.

“She seems nice. Not a big shot kind of person. Just right for you”

“Yeah. She’s pretty down to earth.” He looked at her. “You’re not matchmaking again are you?”

“Maybe what you need is someone a bit different. She’s pretty, mature, intelligent. These young foreign teachers don’t suit you. They don’t stay around long. And you need to find someone. It’s been long enough.”

He shifted in his seat. “These things take time. And anyway she lives in L.A.”

 

After the third glass Evie was in full flight, entertaining the group with stories, accents, and jokes. Mark found himself getting caught up in the show. He realised she was quite different than her character in the show. Open friendly and funny. She was good actor, able to change herself, her voice, mannerisms, body language at whim.

Every now and again she would turn to him and flash her smile. He smiled in return and felt his cheeks redden. He hoped his attraction wasn’t as obvious to her and everyone else as it seemed to be to Mei. As the evening wore on some of the men became a bit loud and he noticed Evie’s cheeks becoming flushed. Maybe time to go. That fourth glass might be enough.

She must have reached the same conclusion. She caught his eye and tapped her watch. He nodded. They made their farewells and headed for the door.

As they walked down the steps from the bar Evie stumbled on a loose paving stone and grabbed his arm for support. He felt the warmth of her arm against his and caught his breath. He reached the bottom of the steps and shook his head.

“Are you ok?" asked Evie
“Ahh, yeah. Just trying to clear the smoke out of my head.”
“I know. My clothes and hair smell awful.”

“Makes you thankful for the smoke free laws back home eh?

“Yes. This is like the bad old days.”

“I'll do a load of washing tomorrow morning.” said Mark as they slid into a nearby taxi.

Evie turned and said “You know, I had great time tonight. Thanks for inviting me to meet your friends Mark. They’re such a diverse bunch. It’s great to hang out with genuine people. Mei’s nice too. She offered to take me shopping on the weekend so I can get some nice stuff for my Mum and Dad.”

“No worries.” said Mark. “Glad you enjoyed it. Shopping with Mei is a good idea. She knows the city backwards and can bargain with the best of them.”

 

Evie Thomasson @Evie_T

Fun night out in Beijing. Met some new friends. Cheers guys!

Big hello to all my friends and fans back home too. Miss you.

 

 

 

On Saturday after breakfast they biked around the hutongs and looked at some of the old style courtyard houses and then raced back to the apartment.

 

Evie Thomasson @Evie_T

Biked the hutongs of Beijing this morning .

Narrow lanes with cool old style houses.

More photos!

 

Mei arrived in her recent model Chinese built Buick, bought with the proceeds of her job with a multi-national company, to take Evie shopping at the silk market and the arts precinct. While Evie showered and got ready Mark chatted to Mei and gave her his collection of “Private Eyes” DVDs to watch at home.

            After they left Mark had some lunch and tidied up the apartment for a while. Then he went to the gym. After a shower he biked at a leisurely Chinese pace to the supermarket about fifteen minutes away to stock up on English style tea.

            When he got back there were several shopping bags on the lounge floor. He checked his phone. He’d missed a message while he was biking back.

 

Excellent shopping with Mei. She’s cool.

Going out with the ladies from the studio.

Zhang might come to sing later!

Got keys, don’t wait up. Evie

 

He pressed the call button on his phone.

“Hey Evie, looks like the shopping was a success?”

“Yes. Got some stuff for my Mum and Dad, and for myself and some of the girls in L.A. Mei really is great you know. Jason is a lucky guy. Hope he doesn’t let her get away.”

“I’ll remind him. I think he already knows though. Ahh, who’s going out with you tonight?”

“Lily, Angel, Miss Zhao and some other women from work. It’ll be good to spend some time with them outside the studio.”

“Just be careful about Zhang ok. I’m getting a bad vibe about that guy.”

“Don’t worry. Saturday night out with the girls is my usual way to relax at the end of a busy week. If Zhang arrives they will be there, we’ll stick together. I’m sure we can handle ourselves.”

“I’m not doubting you know how to handle yourself in L.A. It’s just that things don’t always work the same here.”

“Look, Mark.” she said, her voice rising a little, “I appreciate your concern but you don’t have to look after everyone and everything all the time you know. Relax. Find something better to do tonight.”

He exhaled slowly. “Ok, ok, have fun.” He shut off the phone and placed it on the table.

 

 

********

 

 

Read Beijing Private Eyes - Part 1  Arrival  here, Part 2  Lights, camera...  here, Part 3 - Room service here,

 

Read Part 5 - Party time, here

(For my six peak oil short story competition entries set in Australia and China see here) 

 

 

 

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