The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore Page 0,109
saw the wound. The blood was not stopping.
“Where is the doctor?” she asked, but Miss Cameron couldn’t know what she was saying, and neither did the other staff member.
“We need to get you to the hospital,” Mei Lien told Huan Sun.
“No,” he said in a faint voice. “They won’t treat Chinese there. That is why I came here.”
“What do you mean they will not treat Chinese there?”
Tien Fu Wu entered the room then, and Mei Lien peppered her with questions.
“The doctor is coming,” Tien Fu Wu assured her. “You should sit down and not get overexcited.”
Mei Lien shook her head. “I can’t sit and do nothing. What do you need help with?”
“Watch for the doctor’s arrival,” Tien Fu Wu said. “As soon as he arrives, bring him in here.”
This, Mei Lien could do. What she couldn’t do was have a man who had just been shot for protecting her look at her with sympathy. She waited for what seemed like a hundred minutes, and when she saw a man approach the door, she called for Tien Fu Wu.
“That’s him,” Tien Fu Wu confirmed. “Let him in.”
Mei Lien opened the door and ushered the doctor in. She locked the door behind him, then led him to the parlor. The doctor set to work immediately, and Mei Lien wished she spoke enough English to ask him questions.
First the doctor examined Huan Sun, speaking to Miss Cameron. Tien Fu Wu translated for Huan Sun. Then the doctor took out a bottle of liquid from his black satchel. After swabbing the wound with the red liquid, he poured something else into a handkerchief and held it to Huan Sun’s nose.
His eyes slipped shut.
“What’s happening?” Mei Lien asked, rising to her feet.
“He is only sleeping,” Tien Fu Wu said. “The doctor said the bullet went through his arm, and it needs to be sewn closed.”
Still, Mei Lien stayed on her feet, and only when the doctor prepared to stitch up the skin did she turn away.
When the doctor finished the repair work, Mei Lien’s first question was, “Will he live?”
Tien Fu Wu smiled. “Yes, he’ll live.”
Mei Lien absorbed this good news, then fled from the parlor, her stomach churning. When she reached her room, she vomited into the washbasin. Then she curled up on her bed, hating that she was weak. She also hated that anyone took punishment because of her, and she hated that her baby would be born in such a cruel world.
Eventually Mei Lien fell asleep from exhaustion, and when she awoke, it was sometime in the middle of the night. Shame washed over her as she thought of how she’d fled the scene of a little blood. Huan Sun had been the one who had been shot, not her. The least she could do was take care of him.
She rose from her bed and crept down the staircase. Outside the parlor, she paused, watching the patches of moonlight coming in from the high windows. Huan Sun was asleep on the couch. Across the room, Tien Fu Wu was sitting in a chair, asleep as well.
Not wanting to disturb either one, Mei Lien watched Huan Sun breathing from where she stood. Assured that he seemed to be doing well, she turned to leave.
“Mei Lien.” His whispered voice stopped her.
Slowly, she faced him.
“Are you all right?”
Her throat burned with emotion. “I am all right. You are the one who was shot.” She moved closer to him, keeping her voice low.
He raised up on an elbow, but then grimaced and lay back down.
“Don’t move,” she cautioned. “I don’t want your stitches to pull out.”
Huan Sun motioned with his good hand for her to come toward him. Carefully and quietly, she crept forward, then knelt next to the couch.
“You are feeling better?” she asked.
“I need to tell you what happened.”
“If you are too tired . . .” Mei Lien glanced over at the sleeping Tien Fu Wu.
“Mei Lien.” He grasped her hand and held on tight. “Zhang Wei will not stop. When I found out he sent the members of his tong to this house a few nights ago to search for you, I knew I had to do something more. I paid him the money of your contract from selling my shop. I told him I was going to marry you, and that I would not allow anyone to make you a slave again.”
She stared at Huan Sun. Was this all true? He had paid off her contract? “Why?”