What's the matter, Jing Ko? Don't cry, talk to me ...Scene One: At The Fishing Float
He is startled from his sleep. Chi Yat-Po! Where are you?
This is terrible. Even in his sleep, he hears her voice. Has Twinkle become a ghost to haunt him now?
He turns and flips on his sofa, trying to find a spot to sink his weary body into the edges of the cushion. It has been an awful morning. He has been sitting on the edge of his fishing float for hours, until a numbness crept into his knees and exhaustion overtook him, causing him to nearly fall into the water.
It must be nearly ten o’clock now. Father must be surprised he has not turned up for work yet. Another batch of fish is sitting in a box waiting to be transferred to the market. But does he care? Does he really care? For the first time in his life, he feels selfish. Feels he does not care what anybody thinks. He has no mood to get up, no mood to work, no mood to even face all the old familiar faces at home.
If he had thought that sleep would have banished the heaviness in his heart, he was wrong. The pain is still sitting like a knife in the chest. A big, heavy knife with a big, heavy handle. Much like one of those cleavers he uses to cut up fish at the market every day.
He rubs his chest a few times. Feels the cleaver as if it were a tangible object in his fingers. Why the hell doesn’t the pain go away?
Chi Yat-Po! Where are you? Answer me, will you?
He jumps up with a start. Damn, that didn’t sound like a dream …
The door of his fishing shack suddenly swings open.
‘Chi Yat-Po? Where have you been? I’ve been calling and calling – why won’t you pick up?’
He blinks in utter surprise. Tries to stand up and smooth his hair down, tries to put his shoes on, but manages to only knock his knee against the coffee table, ouch.
She stomps into the room, flings down her bag and sits down, pulling him down beside her.
‘Chi Yat-Po,’ she says, ‘I’m utterly miserable.’
‘Eh, what’s happened?’
‘Chi Yat-Po, I ask you again, where have you been?’
‘Why, what’s the matter?’
‘I needed to talk to you. I needed to talk to you so badly.’
Suddenly, he is all alert. ‘Wait a minute,’ he says, ‘let me wash my face and I’ll talk to you.’
He dashes to the kitchen sink and splashes water on his face. Muttering under his breath, he chides himself for forgetting to bring a change of clothes to the fishing float. What must she think of him – dirty and smelly and a mess at this hour of the morning – no wonder it’s hard for her to decide whom she wants to be with …
He returns to the sofa to find her staring blankly at her hands.
‘Hey, don’t look so down. Things can’t be that bad. Talk to me.’
She lifts a wry smile to his face. Tries to grin but fails. She searches his eyes but he does not allow it, quickly dropping his gaze to both his knees.
‘What’s the matter, Jing Ko? I’ve been quite worried about you.’
And then as an immediate afterthought, quickly adds: ‘We’ve all been terribly worried about you, Koon Sing especially – ’
She wrings her hands. ‘Do you know what happened yesterday?’
‘No. What happened yesterday?’
He is a lousy liar, looks at the ground as if his shoes were about open their mouths and wag a tongue at him.
‘Koon Sing found me.’
‘Oh, really? That’s very good. That’s wonderful of him. Wonderful for you.’
‘He found me in the evening.’
‘That’s good, very good.’
‘Stop saying “good, very good.” Aren’t you interested where he found me?’
‘Yes, of course. Where did he find you?’
‘At Disneyland.’
‘Ah, Disneyland. So that’s where you were. Hey, how come you went to Disneyland without inviting me?’
She glared at him, not appreciating the ill-timed humour at all.
‘Chi Yat-Po, do you know how miserable I feel?’
‘What’s the matter? Why are you miserable? Koon Sing has found you – that should be reason enough for you to be glad.’
‘Chi Yat-Po, when Koon Sing found me at Disneyland yesterday, I said to myself: Fate has decided I’m to be with him – ’
‘Ahh, yes, fate! Good old fate…
‘Koon Sing and I spent the whole evening walking up and down Disneyland. When Disneyland closed, we went for a walk in the city. We walked and we walked and we walked. And all the while, Koon Sing talked about how we should talk to you. How to best let you know about us without hurting you, without causing you more grief – ’
She searches his face for a clue but obstinately he thwarts her, keeping his head down, his eyes averted. Bad, bad liar.
‘Jing Ko, listen to me – ’
‘Go ahead. I’m listening.’
‘You’re worrying too much. I’m not made of tofu, not so easily breakable …’
‘Chi Yat-Po, you don’t understand. Do you know what happened after Koon Sing and I parted last night?’
‘No, what happened?’
‘I went home and I tried to go to sleep. But the whole night, I couldn’t sleep! I couldn’t sleep and I was so miserable.’
‘Why were you miserable?’
‘I was miserable because I kept thinking of you. The whole night, I was thinking of you. I thought about how you looked, how your voice sounds, and I imagined what you’d say when we meet, imagine what I’d say, imagine how – oh Chi Yat-Po, a hundred thoughts rushed through my head and I’m so utterly miserable!’
He cannot bear it. The tears in her eyes are threatening to start a downpour in his eyes. He stands up, yanking her to her feet. ‘Jing Ko, stop! I say, stop!’
‘What? What?’
‘Stop! Stop! Enough already! Don’t do this anymore! Don’t do this to yourself! Don’t do this to me!’
All of a sudden, she feels fear. There is a hard note in his voice, hard and cold like steel, one she has never heard before. ‘Chi Yat-Po, I’m afraid. I’m very afraid. I don’t understand what’s going on…please help me – ’
He looks her straight in the face. ‘There is absolutely nothing to understand – ’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re overthinking the matter! You’re working yourself up for nothing by overthinking the matter! This is not how you should decide what you’re going to do, this is not how life is decided, this is ridiculous, this is nonsense – ’
The intensity in his face, the raised voice, the harshness in his eyes, alarms her and she tries to pull away from him. He holds her hands like a vice.
‘Chi Yat-Po, you’re hurting me! You’re hurting me!’
Her yell hits him like a bucket of cold water. Angry, hurt and ashamed all at once, he grips her hands even harder.
‘Jing Ko – ’ he says deliberately slowly, ‘Jing Ko – ’
They are now face to face, chest to chest. He feels her hipbone against his own. Her breath is hot on his cheeks. She has pulled her hands to her face, stilling fighting to pull away from his grip. He feels the hot tears on his knuckles. His heart hardens.
‘Jing Ko, stop this! If you don’t stop crying, I’m going to pick you up and carry you out to the water edge and throw you over to the fishes – ’
She stares at him, amazed. ‘Chi Yat-Po, are you insane? Have you lost your mind? I dare you! I dare you – ’ – it’s her turn to lose her temper. The tears continue to stream down, now quickly becoming tears of anger and frustration.
Without another word, he picks her up. He kicks the door open and stalks to the water’s edge. ‘Jing Ko, I ask you one more time – will you stop crying?’
Her hands now free, she raises one up, slaps him hard across one cheek.
‘That's it. I've had it. Goodbye, Jing Ko,’ he says and throws her into the sea.
2 comments:
Hey, I notice that there have been great discussions going on here. I just finished reading the four scenes. I was thinking that you would only update a little since you told me to be patient but I'm glad I got surprised by your fast updates. Hope you keep it going. Anyway, I really appreciate you taking time to write it.
So is Yat Bo's effort of paving the way for Twinkle and Goon Sing didn't end in Disneyland? Is he not only trying to highlight how good Goon Sing is but trying to act like he is not a good candidate to Twinkle? Is he doing all that to make sure that Twinkle will not hesitate between them again?
I have to agree with tamaya though, that I also think Yat Bo won't be the kind who would throw Twinkle to sea like that. It indeed sounds like what Jeff would do instead. I agree with Gaby that deep inside that meek gentle ever so forgiving fellow Chi Yat Bo, there lies a lion inside. He is courageous, as can be seen at how he rescued Twinkle's dad from the kidnapper, or being brave enough to dive in the bad weather, or to fight off the swindler Twinkle's dad comes across. Chi Yat Bo is not the kind who would tend to be violent. But there are ocassion where he can lose his temper. Nevertheless, even if he throws his temper to this person and that person, I believe the last person he would throw his temper is on Twinkle. Recalling the accounts of him being violent in CS, the first one comes to mind is when he beats his ex-uncle up. Second was when he scolded Kuen Kuen off. In both accounts, the reason why he lost his temper was because of Twinkle, yet Twinkle was the last one who would suffer from his temper. Like Yat Bo said himself, he doesn't know why but he just has no temper when he sees her. I guess that's the power of love. Seeing her face just makes his heart melt. After beating up his ex-uncle, Yat Bo was reprimanded by Twinkle saying that he was too rash and worked-up, and is the first time she saw him so violent. All the things Twinkle said at that time was nothing pleasant to hear (even if it means well for him), but everytime he answered back to her, his tone will mellow down after he turns around and sees her face. Another recollection is how he looks reprimanding when Kuen Kuen reveals that his broken arm has not fully recovered yet, but whenever Twinkle turns him to face her, he will give a smile to her. The only time Chi Yat Bo ever lose temper to Twinkle was when she was almost struck by a van, but that's a different situation because Twinkle was the one who would have been hurt. I believe he wouldn't throw temper at her just because he is the one who is hurt, especially at the time Twinkle is crying. All the time, he has always been willing to take the pain himself and give the best to Twinkle. And even if he is too frustrated, I believe the limit he would go is just to shout out what he is feeling inside.
I hope gaby, you don't feel discouraged by this though. I guess post-modernism comes into play all the time. Writers write but it's the readers who give meaning to the writings. So that's why we get so many different interpretations on the ending, and it's not strange if we will have different idea of Yat Bo's personality or what Yat Bo would do.
I still enjoy reading it very much. Hopefully, Twinkle will realise who is the true love in her heart soon. She seems to still be confused about it. I'm curious and look forward to reading how you would make Twinkle realise the true love in her heart.
Keep updating :)
Welcome, Akazukin!
Yes, I'm trying to find the point where one of them will break -- either Twinkle, Jeff or Yat-Po. I'm not sure which one which break first. I'm just going to push these characters a bit everyday.
Our friend Yat-Po, when it comes to love, is a bit of an idiot. At the moment, he is still being idiotic. Selfless but idiotic nonetheless. Yes, we love him for it but we want to kick his behind at the same time.
There's a difference between violence and passion. I see Yat-Po as a very passionate man but the passion is latent. I see Twinkle as the only person capable of rousing him to great passion. I interpret the scene where he beats up Mang Ping as evidence of this latent passion. I interpret Yat-Po bashing Mang Ping because he was so wound up emotionally. He had just discovered he was in love and the woman he loves is dating someone else. Mang Ping comes along with his silly scams. POW! Yat-Po takes out his frustrations on Mang Ping. The scene where Twinkle yells at him for bashing Mang Ping moved me immensely. I said to myself: 'Woman, what is wrong with you? Can't you see the poor guy in desperately in love with you and is frustrated to hell because you don't know how much he loves you and he's just taking it all out on Mang Ping?'
And no, I'm not discouraged at all, no way! I really appreciate all the in-depth analyses, so glad to find so many kindred souls here! After the supremely discouraging ending by TVB, nothing can hurt me now :)
The one reason everyone in my household loves Yat-Po is because for the first time in our TVB-life, we see a character who outwardly does not have much but inside is a prince of a man. This lowly fishmonger has integrity, personality, sense of humour, humility, courage, kindness and strength of character. I'm actually quite miserable that so many viewers think poorly of Yat-Po because he has a humble job. I admire this humble fishmonger and I was rooting for him because he deserved all the happiness a man deserves -- white or blue collar!
Re: Chi Kam Kwai. Oops. :) In my imagination, Chi Kam Kwai is a very loving man and that's why he has such a wonderful, loving son. I must have subconsciously believed Chi Kam Kwai was a very loving husband to Yat-Po's mother and a real gentleman to her. BTW, does anyone know what happened to Yat-Po's mother?
Re: Jeff’s scene. Patience, still writing this scene. I give you permission to strangle me if Jeff gets all love-dovey :) You must understand though if Jeff tries to get lovey-dovey, I can't stop him. The minute those TVB scriptwriters wrote his character, he's pretty much created. So I can only stick to the character and hope that all goes well for everybody.
Re: Steven blinking his eyes when his character lies. Gee, you're observant. Steven Ma is a wonderful actor. He seems to be at the height of his prowess. I hope he goes far without falling into the usual pitfalls that dog all successful celebrities. Hope he ends well instead of just starting well.
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