A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1074 Departure to Macau

They arrived at the pier early that morning. The ferry to Macau was an old-fashioned passenger ship, its hull painted with faded blue and white stripes, and black smoke billowing from its smokestacks leaving long trails over Victoria Harbour. The pier was crowded with people, mostly Chinese families, carrying wooden crates and bundles, with children stuffed into wicker baskets and carried on the shoulders of adults. The period of panic following the Japanese military exercises had just ended, and the number of people fleeing to Macau was 30% higher than usual; ferry tickets had already been inflated to double their original price.

Wu Mingqiang had arranged for someone to book a fourth-class ticket in advance. The cabin was at the stern and was packed with more than twenty people. The air was filled with the smells of sweat, fish, and coal smoke. Some people were wiping the sweat from their foreheads with coarse cloths, some were whispering to comfort children who were seasick, and several businessmen in suits were huddled together, discussing the exchange rate of Hong Kong dollars to Macau patacas in hushed tones.

"Miss, tickets are extremely hard to come by right now. Most people get them through connections, regardless of whether they have money or not. So, I'm sorry to trouble you, but thankfully, the journey won't be too long."

"It's okay, I'm not that delicate," Gui'er said. She was quite glad that she wasn't wearing pretty clothes, but just her usual everyday cheongsam.

Wu Mingqiang found a bench for Gui'er and leaned against the cabin wall, watching the people coming and going warily. He deliberately had a short knife tucked into his waistband, which he had put there before setting off. Based on his years of experience traveling the world, he figured that if some petty scoundrels saw it, they would at least stay away.

The waterways are not safe now, with both pirates and Japanese patrol boats conducting inspections.

As the ship departed, cries and screams erupted from the dock. Those who had missed the ship clung to the railings, chasing after it, only to be stopped by Indian police officers with batons. Gui'er watched the Hong Kong coastline gradually recede into the distance, the sea breeze carrying a salty, fishy smell against her face. In the distance, several cargo ships flying British flags passed by, their numbers on their funnels indistinct.

"Look, Miss! That's a Portuguese patrol boat!" Dingxiang pointed to a small boat flying a green, white, and red tricolor flag not far away and clapped her hands excitedly. The sailors on board, wearing white uniform caps, were slowly sailing by, ignoring the passenger ship—Macau was a Portuguese colony, and under the guise of "neutrality," it had temporarily avoided the war and become a refuge in the eyes of many.

Halfway through the voyage, the ship suddenly rocked, causing a commotion in the cabin. Someone shouted, "Have we encountered the Japanese?" while others hurriedly squeezed towards the lifeboats. Wu Mingqiang immediately stood up, shielding Gui'er behind him, and Acheng clenched his fists. Only when the captain announced over the loudspeaker in broken Chinese, "It's just a swell, don't panic," did the crowd gradually quiet down, though everyone still wore a look of lingering fear.

As evening fell, the boat finally entered Macau's inner harbor. The dock was lined with countless small sampans, and fishermen rowed their oars, hawking their seafood. Portuguese signs hung on the arcades along the shore, and nuns in black robes and vendors in straw hats brushed past each other. Wu Mingqiang hired two rickshaws and drove along Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro towards their house. The road was paved with stone slabs, and the tire tracks were deep enough to trap heels. The houses on both sides were mostly two-story buildings, and the arcade columns were carved with patterns that combined Chinese and Western styles. They looked older than those in Hong Kong, but also had a more relaxed feel to them.

"Is this our house?" Gui'er looked at the three-story brick building in front of her. The sliding doors on the ground floor were freshly painted, and there were several pots of bougainvillea on the balcony on the second floor. Suddenly, her heart felt bright.

Wu Mingqiang took out his key and opened the door. A fresh smell of tung oil wafted out: "We plan to rent out the first floor first and then use it as shops. We've already put up rental notices and arranged for an agent to follow up. We'll live on the second and third floors ourselves. We can see the sea from upstairs."

They went in through a small side door, where a separate staircase led to the second floor.

Upon reaching the second floor, the living room featured waxed Philippine wood floors. Against the wall stood a set of rosewood sofas with simplified Western scrollwork carved on the armrests. Opposite was an American-made floor-standing radio with brass knobs embedded in its wooden casing, which immediately emitted a creaking sound when turned. The kitchen, located next to the stairs, featured a white-tiled stove and a cast-iron faucet, still relatively rare at the time. Beside it sat an enamel refrigerator, a rare item purchased from a Hong Kong trading company—a luxury only the wealthy could afford in Macau during that era. The bathroom had off-white mosaic tiles, and the squat toilet had been converted into a sit-down toilet. A brass towel rack mounted on the wall, and in the corner stood a gilded enamel bathtub, its bottom bearing the emblem of a Portuguese trading company.

There were two more rooms on the second floor, used as servants' quarters, both furnished with bunk beds with casters for easy addition of extra beds. The bathroom was rather small, but it still had a shower, with a brass showerhead and an enamel basin underneath. Hot water pipes led down to the boiler in the kitchen, a relatively advanced design for the time.

The third floor was divided into two rooms. One was the master bedroom, with a floral carpet on the floor and an imported gauze canopy over the four-poster bed. A Western oil painting depicting the Ruins of St. Paul's in Macau hung above the bed. On the dressing table was a glass cabinet, neatly filled with French perfumes and face cream from Kwong Sang Hong in Hong Kong.

The other room served as a study, with a teak desk and a desktop telephone on it. The telephone line ran from the window sill to the switchboard on the street corner. The third-floor bathroom was the smallest, just big enough to fit a toilet and a sink, but the tiles were arranged in a geometric pattern, clearly intended for the owner's use.

Wu Mingqiang said, "This room is prepared for Miss. Miss, is there anything you would like to add?"

Gui'er said, "The renovation is quite nice, Brother Wu. Thank you for your trouble. There's no need to buy anything else. We only stay here occasionally anyway. With boat tickets so hard to buy now, we probably won't want to stay here unless there's a specific reason."

Gui'er knew the renovation was quite elaborate and probably cost a lot of money, so she didn't want to do anything more.

"In my opinion, this house is quite new and uniquely decorated, but compared to our villa, it's practically the size of a tofu block. Look how small the kitchen is, there's no storage room, it's inconvenient to do anything, there's not even a counter for making desserts," Dingxiang said.

Wu Mingqiang was somewhat embarrassed and remained silent.

“This house is mainly for us to take refuge when the Japanese invade Hong Kong, so there’s no need to make it so grand. Besides, we don’t have that much money. I think it’s fine as it is now, and it’s enough for us,” Gui’er quickly said, trying to smooth things over.

"Yes. If you need to store miscellaneous items, there's space at the corner of the stairs on the first floor. We can have someone build a wall cabinet underneath. As for the kitchen, you see there's a table next to the bathroom? You can make desserts there."