The Last Rose of Shanghai

Aiyi’s chauffeur reports that Ernest is alive and wants to see Aiyi at the inn. By threatening to tell Sinmay about Ying’s weapon dealings, Aiyi gets Ying to let her out. Sinmay, Cheng, and Peiyu are discussing the Japanese bombardment of the Nationalist capital. Cheng’s mother stops them to begin a mah-jongg game. The distraction allows Aiyi to leave with her driver. On the way to the inn, she sees that the Japanese checkpoints have proliferated, as Ying told her. Aiyi waits for Ernest in the inn room, thinking of a poem of Sinmay’s about how hard it is to wait. Ernest appears and they embrace, crying. After sex, Ernest calls Aiyi his “beloved,” to which she responds, “‘Chinese people don’t talk about love’” (252). Ernest tells her that he burned the album that might have contained her photos. She is glad and wants to have sex again.

Aiyi can’t move in with Ernest because everyone will consider her his mistress, and she doesn’t want to tarnish her family’s name. Ernest pays for her to stay at the inn for the next three months and sees her every day. At the bakery, the threat of the Japanese is constantly present, and Ernest’s hand begins to seize up again.