When We Were Orphans

For several days after the event, Christopher is afraid to meet his friend Akira, fearing Akira’s anger. Yet, after having heard of the disappearance of Christopher’s father, Akira comes to visit, and they start playing detectives, imagining scenarios where they find and save Christopher’s father. A month later, Christopher finds the courage to ask Akira about Ling Tien’s bottle, only to find out Akira’s sister returned it to the servant’s room.

Christopher’s mother urges him to pray for his father’s safe return, telling him the best detectives in the city, including the famous Inspector Kung, are working on finding him.

In the present, Banks recalls how, during one of his investigations, he receives a clipping from a Chinese newspaper with a photo of three Chinese men. The plump man in the photo, dressed in traditional garb, is Wang Ku, a warlord who might have had dealings with Banks's father’s company. Banks believes he saw the same man in his home as a child, a few weeks after his father’s disappearance. He thinks he remembers his mother yelling at him that “[the man] was an agent of the devil” (116).

Banks believes that Uncle Philip behaved strangely during the incident with the Chinese warlord, that he was not on “our side.” During this time, Christopher both idolizes and doubts his mentor, and he feels progressively afraid for his mother.

On a sunny morning soon after, Uncle Philip invites Christopher to go buy a piano accordion. During the ride to the market, Uncle Philip is strangely silent. At one point, they get out of the car and continue on foot through crowds of people. After checking that Christopher knows where he is, Uncle Philip abandons him abruptly, saying, “I didn’t want you hurt. You understand that?” (122).

Christopher makes his way home running, scared, and confused, only to find out that his mother, too, has disappeared.

In 1934, at a dinner party, Banks hears of an orphaned 10-year-old girl who's living in Canada with her ailing grandmother. He decides to help by taking the child in and becoming her guardian. After Jennifer arrives in England, Banks hires a nanny, Miss Givens, to take care of her. The trunk with her belongings is lost in transport, and Banks is surprised at how little this troubles the girl, considering he formed an attachment to his things from Shanghai.

In the present time, Banks is about to leave England and his ward. He feels obliged and responsible to attack his past and the crimes committed in China directly, to go to “The heart of the serpent” (136).

In 1936, at a wedding, Banks encounters Sarah, who has married Sir Cecil Medhurst. She asks him if people were horrified that she has married such an old man and tells him they are soon leaving England for the Far East.

During the reception, a group of men ridicules Banks for an undisclosed reason. Sarah finds him and tells him that she has decided to marry Sir Cecil so she can support and help him in his “one last great push” (143), and reveals they are going to Shanghai to help sort out things.

In the present, Banks prepares to inform Jennifer that he will be leaving England for some time to perform his duty to law and decency. He remembers how he once visited her at her boarding school to return a few items that were recovered from her luggage, and how the girl was sad but composed.

Banks feels uneasy with the local custom of bringing one’s face very close to the interlocutor during conversation in the International Settlement. On his second night in Shanghai, he visits a crowded party on the penthouse floor of the Palace Hotel. His host is Mr. Grayson from the Shanghai Municipality Council, and his “guide” a Mr. MacDonald from the British consulate. He offers Banks a group of men to help him navigate the case, which he refuses, despite the “urgency” of the situation, believing MacDonald to be a senior intelligence officer. Banks inquires about the Yellow Snake killings—communist reprisals after one of their members has turned informer; they have killed 13 people. The communists kill almost at random because they still do not know who the traitor is. Banks wishes to speak to the Yellow Snake, and MacDonald promises to do what he can.

Mr. Grayson informs Banks he is in charge of the welcoming ceremony for his parents, “after their years of captivity” (158), even though Banks has yet to uncover their whereabouts. They hear distant gunfire and a loud bang, and as he approaches the window, Banks realizes it is the fighting between Chinese and Japanese armies, but people assure him the International Settlement is safe from the war just as he assures them he will solve the Shanghai issue. Banks observes the people at the party, and their “denial of responsibility” (162) shocks him.

He encounters Sarah, who tells him that despite Sir Cecil’s inability to end the Shanghai trouble, they have settled well in China.

After visiting the scene of a gruesome crime, Banks relaxes in a small club, whose door attendant tells him he has seen Sarah and Sir Cecil go to the Lucky Chance gambling house. Banks also believes he might have seen his old friend Akira among a group of Japanese businessmen a few weeks ago, but he failed to inquire on time.

He visits Lucky Chance, a seedy gambling house where he finds an inebriated Sir Cecil preoccupied with roulette. Sarah, who accompanies her husband to look after him, tells Banks they “enjoy being low-life” (168). He helps them find their Russian driver and then bring Sir Cecil into their hotel room. The old man calls Sarah a harlot and says he enjoys people seeing him with her because they think she is a prostitute.