The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water - Zen Cho Page 0,1

is it?”

Mr Aw looked anxious. “Sir, please…”

The bandit’s eyebrow twitched. He sighed and turned around.

“It’s not the girl’s fault,” he said. “Uncle started it.” He gestured at the angry customer.

“That sounds highly unlikely!” said Mr Aw.

“Who are you to say?” said the irate customer to the bandit. “You didn’t even see what was happening!”

“I heard you pinch the other waiter’s ass,” said the bandit, bored. “It’s not even that good an ass. Shouldn’t you be more discriminating when you harass people?”

“That’s so rude,” said the waitress indignantly. “Ah Kheng, you don’t listen to him! You have a very nice ass!”

Ah Kheng had vanished, but his voice drifted out from the kitchen: “Please stop talking about my ass.”

“Ah, sorry,” said the bandit. He looked mildly embarrassed. “If I knew you were there, I wouldn’t have commented on your ass.” He turned to the irate customer. “Uncle, give face to this gentleman—what’s your name?”

“Mr Aw,” said Mr Aw.

“Mr Aw is just trying to run his business,” said the bandit to the customer. “It’s hard to make a living these days. We Tang people must try to get along.”

He reached into his robe and drew out a woven purse, which he threw at the coffeehouse owner. Mr Aw caught it with the neatness of a man who would know the jingling of cash at fifty paces. He opened the purse while the waitress peered over his shoulder. Their eyes widened.

“A thank you for maintaining the peace in your coffeehouse,” said the bandit. He nodded at the waitress. “And for being a benevolent employer.”

He turned back to his study of the poster with the air of one washing his hands of the matter.

“Are you going to—you’re just going to take a bribe right in front of me?” said the irate customer.

“Sir could have half?” said Mr Aw.

“I don’t want half,” said the customer. “I want justice!”

“In these times justice is hard to get,” said the waitress sagely. “Better you take the money, sir. Maybe you cannot afford a new tooth, but you can definitely buy new clothes.”

“You…!”

There was a tearing noise from the bandit’s table. They fell quiet, but the bandit was only folding the poster delicately and putting it into his robe. He stood up.

“Ah, sir,” said Mr Aw. “Sorry, but I have to keep that sign, sir. I’ll get in trouble if the mata see I don’t have it.”

“Difficult,” agreed the bandit. “But what can I do? I can’t read it here. That fellow is too noisy. I cannot focus.”

He jerked his head towards the irate customer, who turned purple.

“Who asked you to be a busybody?” said the customer.

“Uncle, you’re being very troublesome,” said the bandit. “Look, you’ve chased away all of Mr Aw’s customers already. Why don’t you leave with me?

“I don’t mean go away together,” he clarified. “I mean leave here at the same time, separately. Let the lady be. Heaven will punish her if she is wrong.”

“That’s right,” said the waitress, but the customer did not agree.

“‘Lady’!” he snorted. “This girl is a useless slut.”

“Actually, I’m a nun,” said the waitress, pointing at her bald head. “So, literally the opposite of a slut!”

“Oh, shut up,” growled the customer. He backhanded her. The waitress fell back, looking more startled than frightened.

The bandit sighed. “That wasn’t very gentlemanly.”

“Nobody asked you, pretty boy!” snapped the customer.

The bandit’s forehead furrowed. “Is that the best insult you can offer? Never mind.”

There weren’t many witnesses left to quarrel about what happened next. But as he peeked out from the kitchen, Ah Kheng saw the bandit take the customer’s feet out from under him and pin him up against the wall. It was done in one fluid movement from start to finish.

“Now,” said the bandit.

But there was more to the customer than his appearance indicated. He spat in the bandit’s face. As the bandit recoiled, the customer’s hand moved to his side. Metal gleamed between their bodies.

“Brother, watch out!” cried Ah Kheng, but he needn’t have worried about the bandit. The bandit slipped the customer’s dagger out of his hand, whistling when he got a closer look at it.

“This is a nice keris!” The bandit wiped his face against his sleeve. “Where did you get it from? Keris have souls, you know. It’s bad luck to steal one if your spirit is not strong.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” screamed the customer. “Little brother, come to me!” He launched himself at the bandit.

The waitress was bouncing on the soles of her feet, looking for a gap