biggest surprise of the evening when Mrs. Bernard Tai (aka the former soap star Kitty Pong), overcome with emotion from Sir Francis’s touching slide show about his medical rescue missions, rushed onstage and shocked the crowd by spontaneously announcing a $20 million gift to his foundation! Mrs. Tai wore a scene-stealing scarlet Guo Pei gown with what looked like a billion dollars’ worth of emeralds and a six-foot-long train made out of peacock feathers. But it sure looks like she won’t need any feathers to soar to new social heights.
• • •
Astrid settled into a club chair at the SilverKris Lounge at Hong Kong International Airport, waiting for her flight to Los Angeles to begin boarding. She got out her iPad to do a final check of e-mails, and an instant message popped up.
CHARLIE WU: Good seeing you last night.
ASTRID LEONG TEO: Likewise.
CW: What are you up to today? Lunch possible?
ALT: Sorry, I’m already at the airport.
CW: Such a short trip!
ALT: Yes, that’s why I didn’t call you beforehand. This was a one-nighter on my way to LA.
CW: Your hubby buying up another Silicon Valley company this week?
ALT: No, hubby’s already back in S’pore. I’m going to California for Nicky’s wedding in Montecito. (Shh! It’s a secret, and no one in my family knows I’m going except my cousin Alistair, who’s traveling with me.)
CW: So Nicky’s finally marrying that girl everyone couldn’t stop talking about a couple of years ago?
ALT: Yes, Rachel. She’s great.
CW: Please give him my congratulations. Michael’s not going to the wedding?
ALT: It would have looked too suspicious if both of us ran off to the U.S. so soon after our last trip. BTW, he was thrilled to meet you last night. Apparently he’s a huge fan of yours and couldn’t believe I was the one making the introductions.
CW: Did he not know we were once engaged?!?
ALT: Of course, but I don’t think it really clicked in his mind until last night. He associates you with his tech crowd, so he couldn’t really conceive of the two of us actually knowing each other. You really boosted my street cred!
CW: He’s a nice chap. And congrats again on his award. He’s really made some smart moves.
ALT: You should have told him that! Why were you being so quiet last night?
CW: Was I?
ALT: You hardly said a thing and looked like you couldn’t wait to run off.
CW: I was trying to avoid Connie Ming, who’s already trying to commit me to underwriting next year’s ball! And I guess I wasn’t expecting to see you there.
ALT: Of course I would be there to support Michael!
CW: Yes, but I thought you didn’t do charity galas, especially in Hong Kong. Wasn’t it the rule in your family never to attend these big to-dos?
ALT: The rule is more relaxed now that I’m a boring housewife. When I was younger, my parents didn’t want pictures of me appearing everywhere for their paranoid security reasons, and they didn’t want me to associate with the fast party crowd—the “International Chinese Trash” as Mum called it.
CW: People like me.
ALT: LOL!
CW: Last night was especially bad. Lots of people your mum wouldn’t approve of.
ALT: It wasn’t so bad.
CW: Really? I saw you were seated at Ada Poon’s table.
ALT: Okay, I confess—THAT was awful.
CW: Hahaha!
ALT: Ada and her tai tai*2 friends totally froze me out for the first hour.
CW: Did you tell them you were from Singapore?
ALT: Michael’s bio was in the programme, and everyone knew I was his wife. I know Hong Kongers have become a bit touchy ever since Singapore’s airport was voted the world’s best.
CW: Well, in my opinion we still have better shopping at our airport. Who needs a free cinema or an orchid garden when you can go from Loewe to Longchamp in less than ten steps? Anyway, the real reason the ladies gave you the cold shoulder was because you didn’t go to St. Paul’s, St. Stephen’s, or Diocesan’s. They didn’t know where to rank you in their hierarchy.
ALT: But there is such a thing as common courtesy. We’re at an event for charity, for chrissake. All the ladies could not stop trying to outdo each other bragging about the huge fines they all had to pay on their illegal basements. It was such a bore. But then after the duchess made her speech, she came right up to my table and said, “Astrid! I thought that was you! What are you doing here? I’m seeing your parents for lunch next week at