Testament 6 - 18
Hong Kong Type #32 Finale
The fully translated text of Hong Kong Type: A Love Letter Late for One Hundred and Fifty Years will be published in dBook (NFT book) soon. Please stayed tuned.
18.
At twelve midnight, I took the luggage that I had packed in advance and left the house. To avoid making noise on the floor and waking up my father, I lifted the heavy suitcase and gradually moved it to the front door. I tried to bring as few items as possible, yet the clothing for cold weather was particularly heavy.
I looked at Fox sleeping in his den. I originally wanted to hold back and not say goodbye to him, but he suddenly stood up and walked towards me in the dark. I squatted down to rub his neck, letting him lick my face. He seemed to understand my thoughts completely, bidding me farewell quietly without making a sound. I whispered in his ear, “Fox, wait for me. I will be back.” He walked me to the door and as I closed it, his snout remained pointing towards me, with his shiny black eyes giving off a twinkling glow. I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and stepped into the elevator.
I sent a message to Ah Loi earlier, saying that I am leaving for the Netherlands tomorrow and I would like to say goodbye to him tonight. He agreed. He had to attend court tomorrow morning. The lawyer said there is a high chance of conviction, and he could be imprisoned immediately, with an estimated sentence of two to three years.
I dragged my luggage across the street, passing by a row of shadow trees. It seemed as if there was a tall figure standing beneath them, looking up. In the blink of an eye, the shadow was gone. Then I passed by the spot where there once lay the broken body of a girl. Outside the building, I pressed Ah Loi’s apartment number on the intercom, and the gate opened automatically.
Reaching the twentieth floor, I realized at a glance that it wasn’t Ah Loi who had come to open the door, but Ah Sau instead. His eyes showed both surprise and annoyance, but he still let me in. He wasn’t wearing a mask at home, so I took mine off as well. Perhaps Ah Sau didn’t want to be rude to the friend of his alternate personality, he invited me to sit on the sofa and asked if I wanted something to drink.
“Why are you looking for Ah Loi so late at night?”
“I have an appointment with him.”
“I’m really sorry! I didn’t want to interrupt you suddenly, but I had no choice. It wasn’t under my control.”
“When will Ah Loi be back?”
Ah Sau burst out laughing, saying, “Do you think he went out? When will he come back? I don’t know when we will exchange again. Sometimes it’s after a nap, sometimes I’ll suddenly feel dizzy, and then it’s as if someone has swapped my soul.”
Seeing me not responding, he continued, “Do you want to wait? Or maybe you can come back the next day?”
“I can’t wait, I have a flight to the Netherlands tomorrow.”
“Going to the Netherlands? What for?”
“Making typeface.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean by making typeface? Are words made like that?”
“Use a copper matrix, pour in the lead alloy, and then cast movable type, which is used for printing.”
“Are you going there for work? Isn’t it too far to go to the Netherlands for work? As foreign labour? And making metal types, it sounds very hard, especially for a delicate girl like you!”
“I know you have a court hearing tomorrow.”
“Ah Loi told you? Yes! Very likely to be sentenced. Once in, I don’t know when I’ll be able to return to this house.”
“I want to take a look at your room.”
After saying this, I stood up and headed straight for his bedroom.
“Hey, hey! What are you looking for? Don’t go in!”
Ah Sau chased after me, trying to stop me, but I was determined, and he had no way to persuade me. I stood next to the single bed, facing him, with the poster of the nude woman on the wall behind me. I began to unbutton my blouse one by one.
Ah Say was shocked and said, “What are you doing? Wait a minute! Ah Loi might come back soon!”
I took off my upper garments and tossed them onto the chair, then I began to remove my skirt.
“What do you want? You’re making me awkward! You’re Ah Loi’s friend, I can’t -”
Ah Sau covered his face with his hands, as if in extreme distress.
I had no experience in such matters at all. Extreme shame made me shudder all over, but I gritted my teeth and endured it. This was my only chance to face myself as the Leech. I urged him saying, “Hurry up, we don’t have time!”
He lowered his hands in confusion. I removed my hands that had been covering my chest and lower body, and said:
“Although the difference is huge, please imagine me as Yua Mikami, just like I imagine you as Ah Loi. Can you do that?”
That night, the leech on my thigh bled. I dreamed of Teacher Bei and his wife. I dreamed of my grandfather and mother. I dreamed of Dai Fuk and Heng-yi. I dreamed of me and Ah Loi.”
I woke up before dawn. Ah Sau or Ah Loi was sleeping soundly next to me. He looked very tired, so I didn’t want to disturb him. I quietly got up, put on my clothes, took my luggage, and left the dilapidated house. I hoped that Ah Loi would at least retain the vestiges of the night we spent together in his dreams.
Under the faint light of dawn, I boarded the bus to the airport. When the bus passed the Tsing Ma Bridge, the morning light filtered through the clouds in the east, with lush green mountains in the distance and the sea shimmering beneath. I took out the type pieces with my name etched onto it from my backpack. It was a memento left by my grandfather. No matter how much darkness lies behind this name, I am still full of gratitude for these three words - Lai Sun Fei.
The bus arrived at the airport departure terminal. I got off with my luggage. At the entrance, there were staff members checking the verification of departing passengers. I took out my passport, opened my phone, and prepared to show my electronic boarding pass.
But I couldn’t find my boarding pass. I clearly downloaded it, but I couldn’t find it. I started to panic. I logged into the airline’s website and entered the flight number, but couldn’t find my reservation information. The airport staff began to get a little impatient. I tried to explain:
“It’s impossible! I’ve already booked the flight and checked in online. I just need to check in my baggage. Let me in, I will go to the airline counter to ask. It’s very simple, once I ask, we’ll know. It must be a computer error, just let me in and everything will be easily resolved. Please, I need to go to the Netherlands, the plane leaves at nine. I have a very important task. I need to cast movable type, lead characters, do you understand? They are Hong Kong Type. Don’t you know about Hong Kong Type? We are all Hong Kong people. You should know about Hong Kong Type. This is very crucial. Please, let me in!”
I tried to force my way through, but several burly men immediately lunged to block me. I screamed at the top of my lungs and struggled violently.
Then I heard someone calling my name.
The men restraining me let go. I slumped to the ground. My dad was on my right, and Miss Yung was on my left. They were both calling my name as if trying to pull me from the abyss.
“Why are you here?” I said weakly.
Miss Yung began to explain, “Your dad saw the note you left, but he couldn’t reach you on your phone. He found the Print Art Studio’s page online and left a message, and then I got in touch with him. So, we rushed to the airport.”
“But I am supposed to go to the Netherlands! Miss Yung, haven’t we agreed? I can do it! I won’t let you down!”
Miss Yung held my hand, nodding continuously, and said: “Sun-fei, let’s go home.”
Tears fell down relentlessly. This was a painful awakening from a dream. The dream was so wonderful, and waking up was so terrifying. I lost the last remnants of my strength, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut. Miss Yung held me, gently stroking my back, and said softly, “There will be a day when you can go, but not now. You can, but not now. Go home!”
I returned to that quiet cocoon again. There was nothing worth making me laugh, but also nothing worth making me cry.
The pandemic went up and down, the world kept changing, yet I, just like someone living in a prison, was completely oblivious of the drastic changes outside.
I sat in front of the window of my room all day, staring at the window of the vacant unit on the building opposite, or that row of shadow trees, underneath which no one looked up.
When I felt cold, I would hug Fox, feeling the warmth of the animal. This comfort was beyond what the human world could offer.
Sometimes, I would think of Ah Loi. Remembering that he, just like me, lived in a certain prison, would give me a sense of togetherness.
Yixisi often came to visit me, bringing along his pet hedgehog. When he talked about the small fortunes in life, he would still make the gesture of winning the grand prize.
After my condition became stable, I went to find Nami but the building only had ten floors. There was simply no eleventh floor, nor was there a Soul Therapy Center. However, I was not surprised at all. In fact, I felt it should be this way.
I know I must have let Professor Xin down, but I didn’t go back to school and I didn’t care whether or not I would be expelled. But I can still read. Words are the only sustenance for my survival.
I started to write, and it is only when I am writing, that I am alive. I exist within my words. Besides this, I have no life.
I have reread Six Records of a Resurrected Life, thinking about Dai Fuk, the man who is not actually my ancestor by blood. His story cannot be confirmed, nor can his words receive any verification. But for me, he is a mythical existence, which is to say, a truly real existence. In him, I feel a kind of useless love. It is precisely because it is useless that it is true love.
Half a year later, accompanied by Miss Yung, I went to see the exhibition I had helped to prepare. (The museum had been temporarily closed due to the pandemic, but this resulted in an extension of the exhibition.) I first looked at the section on Hong Kong Type and local printing history, before moving on to the Hong Kong Print Art Retrospective.
I stood in front of Teacher Bei’s posthumous work, seeing its completed form for the first time with my own eyes. This was “Hell of the Innocents”, engraved and imprinted by Bei Ming-yi, the “Wailing Child”. In the center of the painting was the Leech in agony, modeled after me. Suddenly, I understood - the pain I endured back then, even Teacher Bei’s death, the price everyone paid, were all proportionate. There was a bitter joy in realizing this.
If one day I die, this will be my testament. But until then, I will patiently wait and one day, recast the Hong Kong Type. It’s not for any external achievements or contributions to history, but merely for the fulfillment of the soul and to put a full stop to the mythical stories. For someone as useless as me, this is my life’s mission.
End of novel. Postscript and appendix upcoming.
The fully translated text of Hong Kong Type: A Love Letter Late for One Hundred and Fifty Years will be published in dBook (NFT book) soon. Please stayed tuned.