Hanging Waters by Keith West

AT the back of the mud-walled house attached to the village school was a sleeping-room built on at a later date, designed to accommodate the overflow of the family which the generosity of the gods had given Pai Kwat, holder of the Hanlin degree and largely unpaid teacher to the horde of other children which the same liberal gods had rained upon the wedded couples of Ha Foo. The back wall of this additional room possessed a cracked and leaky oiled-paper window, and through the corner of this window, a long, thin twig of bamboo might be pushed with the accuracy of long practice, so that it would tickle the face of Pai Mei, sleeping there alongside four others of her family, tickle her face and awaken her without waking the others.

Only Ming So had the ability and practice to manoeuvre the bamboo twig in this manner. Besides, he alone judged it to be worth while to run the risk of a beating from the schoolmaster Pai Kwat for the sake of a midnight meeting with Pai Kwat's daughter.