“Ah, here is the man who made it all possible,” Johnny proclaimed loudly when T.K. came into the shop. All heads turned. A chorus of greetings bubbled across the shop. “Soong Sir, good morning,” people said, making little bows.
T.K.’s long white eyebrows lifted in bemused pleasure.
“Please, everyone, excuse us. It’s not every day that Mr. Soong visits the shop, and when he does, we all know that something important is happening,” Johnny said. “We have some private business to attend to.”
“What is it? Maybe buying the whole of the Kinta Valley from the British?” someone said, and everyone in the room laughed politely.
“T. K. Soong does not need my help to do that,” Johnny said, smiling, as he led T.K. away to the money room.
A new pot of tea was ordered and brought to the room. Oolong was T.K.’s favourite, and Johnny laid out the cups while the tea steeped gently in the pot. Two minutes. Then Johnny poured the water away, filling the pot again with just-boiled water.
“I see you’ve learnt how to make tea — properly,” T.K. said.
“Yes. You taught me that, of course,” Johnny said. Before he sat down he shut the heavy door and bolted it twice.
“I see you are well liked in the shop,” T.K. said. “True to your reputation as a man of the people.”
“I try my best.” Johnny looked at T.K.’s long wispy beard.
“So before you tell me what your problems are, tell me how you find my daughter,” T.K. said. “Is she satisfactory?”
“Of course,” Johnny lied. He did not know whether she was or not, or even in what way she was meant to be “satisfactory.” The truth was, he wasn’t interested.
“Now, tell me what are all these problems you have created for yourself,” said T.K.
“Problems?” said Johnny, hating T.K. even more now. “Like I said, they are not really—”
“Just tell me.”
Johnny looked at him with flashing eyes. “Three small things,” he said as calmly as possible. “The first concerns a new shipment of sackcloth which I was proposing to sell on to Gim’s warehouse in KL. The second is a new venture — rice — which I am thinking of importing from Thailand. And finally, just a small question concerning your tin-mining businesses when you die.”
“Pardon? I am still very much alive.”
“Of course, of course. But I am merely planning for the future.”
“I do not know what you mean,” T.K. said. “Tin mining has been a family business for a very long time.”
“Best to keep it in the family, then.”
“Yes, I suppose. But I have not devoted much thought to it.”
Johnny cleared his throat. “Father,” he said, “did I tell you that Snow and I, well, we are planning to have a baby. It will be a son, of course.”
T.K.’s eyes widened.
“Yes,” Johnny continued. Lies, he found, came easily to him now. “I hope Snow has not mentioned anything. It is the kind of thing best kept between father and son-in-law, I think.”
“I see now, I see,” T.K. said, mouth pulling into a wide smile. “I see why you have been so mysterious about your so-called problems. Problems, indeed! You have no problems, you merely wanted to make an old man happy.”
“So you are agreed the tin mines are to stay in the family?”
“Of course! There is no question of anything else. The rubber business too, and the tea plantation — everything will go to you to hold in trust for my grandson. What else can I do? I have no sons of my own, after all. What a happy man I am! Thank you.”
“So you are certain it will all pass to me?”
“Who better? I may have had my doubts about you, but now I see that you are an able man indeed!”
Johnny smiled and bowed his head. He checked the time on T.K.’s watch.
“One more cup of tea?” Johnny said.
“Why not,” said T.K. as Johnny poured the tea. “What’s more, I propose a toast.”
They lifted their cups, holding them level with their chins.
“To Johnny Lim, and to my grandson,” T.K. said.
They moved the translucent cups slowly, touching them together with the faintest clink.
The first explosion was loud, clean, and sharp. The second, which followed exactly six seconds later, was louder still but blurred by the sound of shattering masonry and splintering wood. The initial blast, which happened just as the two men concluded their toast, spilt tea over T.K.’s shirt. As he dabbed at it with a handkerchief, Johnny leapt to his feet and ran to the door. “Fire! Fire!” people were shouting in the kitchen.
“Don’t move an inch,” Johnny said to T.K. “You’ll be safe here. The walls are solid stone and the door is thick.” T.K. looked at him with puzzled eyes and continued dabbing at his shirt. As Johnny went out he pulled the door to and locked it from the outside.
The money room was midway between the shop and the kitchen. From where he was standing, Johnny could see flames engulfing the kitchen, and a mass of fleeing customers.
“Hurry, hurry! Get out!” he screamed at the workers still in the shop. “Get everyone out before the whole place goes.”
