The Night Tiger

Falim. Sunday, June 7

Ji Lin dreams of sunny riverbanks and a train in a station. There’s a gap-toothed eight-year-old boy waving at her through the train window. Ji Lin then awakens, finding that the headache she went to sleep with has faded.

Ji Lin dresses herself for the salesman’s funeral, then goes to the market. While her mother busies herself, she surreptitiously buys a bunch of white chrysanthemums and then hides them in a newspaper. Anyone seeing her carrying white flowers will instantly guess that she is going to a funeral. She runs into Ming when she makes her way home without her mother. Her heart lurches. Ming greets her warmly and helps her carry her basket. When they arrive at the family home, they find Shin there. Ah Kum has stopped by and is flirting with Shin. Shin glimpses the flowers as Ji Lin breaks off from the group.

Ji Lin sets out to the salesman’s home in Papan with Shin in tow. By now, she’s told him that the severed finger belongs to the deceased salesman, although she keeps her dance hall work a secret. An elderly woman informs them that the newspaper misprinted the date: The funeral was yesterday. The woman asks them if they are looking for Ah Yoke. Although Ji Lin doesn’t know who that is, she nods.

A cold shadow grips Ji Lin inside the home. She tells the elderly woman that she did not know the salesman, named Mr. Chan Yew Chung, well, but that he left something in the shop where she works. The woman then summons Ah Yoke, Mr. Chan’s wife. Ah Yoke flies into a rage, calling Ji Lin a “bitch,” attacking her. The elderly woman pulls Ah Yoke off of Ji Lin, explaining that prostitutes and bar girls have come by to offer their respects, upsetting Ah Yoke.

Ji Lin presents the finger. Ah Yoke wants nothing to do with it, although she says that Mr. Chan was enjoying a stroke of good luck, possibly due to the finger, prior to his death. The old woman then tells Shin and Ji Lin that they should leave. The old woman says Mr. Chan claimed he got it from a nurse at the Batu Gajah hospital.

Shin and Ji Lin make their way back to the bus stop. Ji Lin will likely have a black eye from Ah Yoke’s attack. Ji Lin worries that these visible injuries will damage her ability to work at the dance hall and attract unwanted attention should she return to Falim. She decides to go back to the boarding house instead of the family home.

Shin takes the finger from Ji Lin. He tells her that he will take care of the matter. A woman carrying a white rooster takes Shin’s seat. Ji Lin feels unsettled: “At Chinese funerals, a white rooster was released into the graveyard at the end of the ceremony” (54).

Batu Gajah. Friday, June 5

William writes letters to his fiancée, Iris, on rainy days like this. The narrator alludes to infidelities and other difficulties that plague the relationship. On clear days, William walks to a neighboring rubber estate to surreptitiously pay a Tamil woman, Ambika, for sex. He feels confident that her husband, an alcoholic, knows nothing of these visits. However, one of William’s former appendectomy patients, a Chinese salesman, caught them together weeks ago.

William finds Ambika’s lean-to empty, just as it was a few days ago. He returns home and continues composing his letter to Iris. In it, he tells her about Ren. He also writes about a local legend that inverts British werewolf lore: “For the natives here, the weretiger is not a man, but a beast who, when he chooses, puts on a human skin and comes from the jungle into the village to prey on humans” (56).

That afternoon, William finds a local woman, Lydia Thomson, waiting for him in his office. She’s the daughter of a rubber planter and seems to be interested in him romantically. Some townsfolk have assumed she is his wife. She’s pretty, and at 25 or 26, she is nearing spinsterhood. She tells William that he forgot his notes from a recent panel. They both serve on a committee that looks for ways to combat beriberi, a difficult disease that seems to afflict local Chinese tin laborers more than Malay or Tamil ones. She has been aggressively applying herself to this endeavor, as well as trying to convince locals to eat less white rice and distributing powdered milk to families with babies.

William tells Lydia that, at the hospital, he’s met the injured woman, named Nandani, whom Ren treated. Lydia tells him that Dr. MacFarlane took Ren in because of local rumors that he was cursed. She mentions that three young women with long hair were victims of tiger attacks in the last year; some say it is a ghost tiger. William tells Lydia that there’s no such thing as ghosts and thinks that he should know.

The next morning, Ren asks William about Nandani, and William compliments his skills. Nandani will keep her leg, and William will begin training Ren formally.

William walks out to the front garden and sees a male tiger pugmark in the mud. He instantly regrets keeping no dogs and thinks of his old, unloaded Purdey shotgun. Ah Long tells William there’s been a death at the rubber estate.

At the estate, William introduces himself to Henry Thomson, the manager of and Lydia’s father, as well as to a Sikh police inspector named Captain Jagjit Singh. The body is a headless torso and arms. It’s crawling with maggots, placing the time of death on Thursday or Friday morning. William recognizes the markings as wounds from an animal. He thinks that the spacing of the bite marks is more indicative of a tiger than a jaguar. There are no tracks, and he also guesses that she was killed somewhere else. Then, he spots the familiar butterfly-shaped keloid scar on the torso’s left breast and recognizes her as Ambika. He vomits. 

Ipoh. Sunday, June 5

When Mrs. Tham questions Ji Lin about the bruises and scratches, she tells her that she fell. Mrs. Tham asks Ji Lin if she saw her stepfather, suggesting she knows that Ji Lin’s stepfather is violent. Ji Lin intimates that her stepfather found the discipline of a girl to be beneath him. In the early days, whenever Ji Lin misbehaved—by doing such un-ladylike things as singing too loudly, whistling, or speaking back to him—he would beat her mother instead. She learned quickly to stay in line, at least to her stepfather’s face. Privately, she despises him.

Due to her injured face, Ji Lin asks Hui to tell Mama that she won’t make it in for a shift until Wednesday. Hui is alarmed by Ji Lin’s injuries, and Ji Lin quickly fills her in. Hui tells Ji Lin that last Sunday a Chinese man came to the May Flower asking for Ji Lin by her real name. Ji Lin knows that the man looking for her must be connected to the salesman and the finger. Hui says that there is a man-eater in Batu Gajah. Ji Lin again feels a cold shadow settle upon her.

On Friday, returns to work at the dance hall. If she fall behind on her wages, her mother’s loan sharks would alert her stepfather. It’s Ji Lin’s fifty-third day of going by the name Louise at the dance hall: “In Cantonese, fifty-three was a homophone for ‘cannot live.’ Another day with an unlucky number” (69).

The man who was previously looking for Ji Lin returns. He is Y.K. Wong, and he immediately asks if her name is Ji Ln. She demurs, saying her name is Louise. He says he’s looking for his ancestor’s finger from China, that a friend had borrowed it and left it at the dance hall. Ji Lin feigns surprise. The man is suspicious. He tells her to let him know if she finds or hears anything, and he’ll reward her. Ji Lin notices that his teeth are peculiarly sharp.

A fellow dance hall girl invites Ji Lin to take part in a private event in Batu Gajah for extra pay. Ji Lin and Hui agree. When Ji Lin leaves the dance hall, other girls are still working. Knowing that two have children, she wonders if the women’s’ children stay up late in the night without anyone to look after them; this is what her mother avoided by remarrying. Ji Lin intends to never marry and to pursue training as a teacher, which she assumes her stepfather will eventually prefer to dealing with Ji Lin as a spinster.

She suddenly notices Y.K. is following her. She loses him by going into a shop and exiting through the back. When she arrives home, she learns from Mrs. Tham that Shin had come looking for her.

Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 5

A disheveled William returns to his home. He tells Ah Long and Ren that a tiger has killed someone on the estate.

Ren asks the doctor why he thinks a tiger is responsible for the attack. William tells Ren not to worry too much about it, as man-eating tigers are rare. When Ren asks if there will be a hunt, and the doctor tells him the last hunt garnered the hunter $78. William used to be fascinated with tigers, which is how he and Dr. MacFarlane first became acquainted. Dr. McFarlane and William went looking for the weretigers of Korinchi. He tells Ren that the Malay believe men turn into tigers, a theory that deepened when a tiger was killing buffalo but didn’t go after the town’s bait of stray dogs.

William tells the story of a tiger who chased an old peddler in the jungle of Korinchi. The peddler crawled into a tiger trap and closed the door to escape. By morning, the assembling crowd trampled over the tiger tracks. The townspeople told the peddler that they could not be sure that he would not turn into a deadly tiger. They pushed a spear in through the side of the trap and killed the man, rather than take their chances. William assures Ren that the weretiger tales have too many holes and inconsistencies. Ren, thinking of the twenty-two days that remain for Dr. MacFarlane’s soul, feels some relief.

Ipoh. Friday June 12

Ji Lin dreams of the train station again. This time, she bursts out onto the shore of the river before seeing the station. The train is empty, but she finds the boy from her previous dream (Yi, although Ji Lin does not yet know this) is sitting on a bench. He addresses Ji Lin as “older sister:” “‘I didn’t think I’d see you again so soon’” (80). He’s waiting for someone he loves and asks Ji Lin if there’s anyone she loves. He tells her it’s alright to wait for someone you love. Ji Lin writes that she loves “My mother, Ming, and Shin. Even Hui and my school friends” (80).

Ji Lin feels her fears and anxieties lift when she sits down next to the boy. “If you see my brother, please don’t tell him you’ve met me” the boy tells her (80). She begins to feel very sleepy, and the boy tells her not to fall asleep. He says that, if she does, she’ll fall through to the level below. Ji Lin then wakes up. Mrs. Tham is rousing her. She tells Ji Lin that her brother is waiting for her downstairs. Shin has fed Mrs. Tham a story about a family get-together.

Once they leave, Shin rushes Ji Lin to the train station, where he buys two tickets to Batu Gajah. On the train, Shin tells Ji Lin that he’s volunteered to do overtime sorting papers and specimens for a doctor named Rawlings at the hospital—Ji Lin will be his paid assistant for the task. For a moment, Ji Lin thinks that Shin has found out about her mother’s debts, but he has not. Ji Lin sees the danger in telling Shin about the mahjong debts: “One of these days, either he or my stepfather would kill the other. It had very nearly happened a couple of years ago” (85).

Ji Lin is referring to a time when she had returned home to find the neighbors arrayed in front of the shophouse. One person was talking about calling the police, while Ji Lin’s mother begged them not to. Ji Lin went into the house and found her stepfather, holding a bloody towel to his face. She found Shin weeping and with a broken arm behind the chicken coop. Shin wouldn’t tell her what had happened. He would only say that his father attacked him with a carrying pole. The poles are flat and heavy for balancing on one’s shoulder, a weapon used in gang fights: “If my stepfather had really hit Shin with [a carrying pole], he must have lost his mind” (87). Shin swore he’d kill his father that day. No one in the family ever told her what the fight had been about. After, Shin became very serious about school and didn’t have time for her. 

Batu Gajah. Monday, June 8

Leslie Rawlings, another doctor, tells William that Amika’s head has been found. William is shaken by Ambika’s death, but also keenly aware that he must remain outwardly stoic regarding her, to not attract any suspicion. He thinks of how he and Ambika had the extraordinarily bad luck in being caught by the salesman, one of his own patients.

Leslie agrees the attacker was a tiger. However, Leslie has also found irregularities with the corpse. He feels the tiger began disassembling the body and then stopped suddenly. The tiger returned later, but didn’t eat as much as the corpse as he’d expect. Leslie suggests that the corpse could have been left out longer to attract the predator to return, and William loses his composure and raises his voice: “She was human. We couldn’t leave her out as bait!” (92).

Leslie guesses the tiger may have scavenged the corpse after someone else killed her. Leslie has ruled the death suspicious, which William knows will trigger a full investigation of anyone who knew her. Leslie dismissively states that the woman’s death will inevitably cause the locals to gossip about ghost tigers, William corrects his terminology, saying, “keramat…a sacred beast” (93). 

Ren also asks William if he can go to Kamunting for a few days to see his old friends and pay his respects at Dr. MacFarlane’s grave, “before the mourning period is over in twenty days” (94). William tells Ren that he should wait until after the dinner party he’ll soon be hosting, but he gives his permission and offers to pay for the journey.

Ren has ramped up his search for the finger since the tiger attack and thinks Ah Long might suspect something. Ren feels that the finger is not in the house: “When Yi was alive, he often felt this sixth sense. People said it was magic, but Ren knows it’s because they were a matched pair” (95). Ren and Yi’s perfectly doubled likenesses caused everyone to greet them warmly as a harbinger of good luck, but it changed after Yi’s death: “After all, half of a broken pair is one: the unlucky number of loneliness” (95).

When Dr. MacFarlane explained the mechanics of radios, and how they need both a transmitter and a receiver to function, Ren understood the principle immediately, as he and Yi were always able to track where the other brother was. Ren believes that he has not lost this ability at all: “The signal is simply faint because Yi is so very far away. […] He’s crossed over to another country, the land of the dead” (95). Ren also reflects that the only time he’s felt his sixth sense twinging in William’s house was when he looked at the tiger pelt.

Ren concludes he should look for the finger at The Batu Gajah District Hospital.

Ipoh/Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 13

Ji Lin gleefully enjoys the train. When they arrive at the Batu Gajah station, it’s identical to the station in her dreams, except there’s no river. Two old men on the train tell her the railway did cross the Kinta River.

As Shin and Ji Lin disembark, one old man tells Shin, “Your wife is beautiful. Very modern and stylish” (99). Ji Lin quickly corrects the man, who is the second stranger to erroneously make that assumption. Shin teases Ji Lin about her being an embarrassing relation, and Ji Lin privately compares herself to Ming’s “soft-spoken [and] genteel” fiancée (99).

Shin and Ji Lin arrive at the hospital and go to an outbuilding past the administration office. The room is a mess of Dr. Rawlings’s filing cabinets, boxes, and specimen jars. The pair hope to find the finger’s documentation here. Because of its label, Shin thinks the finger came from the pathology room.

Ji Lin also reflects on her mother’s many miscarriages: “I felt sure that the other three children [named for the rest of the five Confucian Virtues]—Ren, Yi, and Li […] must be waiting impatiently to be born” (101).

Once, when they were both 13, Ji Lin asked Shin if he thought their parents would have more children, and Shin said they were too old. Ji Lin divulged her fears about the unborn children and her mother’s miscarriages, and Shin dismissed her fears, calling them rubbish. Ji Lin compared her fear to his mother’s talisman for bad dreams, but she regretted it.

A European-looking man drops by the pathology storeroom looking for Dr. Rawlings. He asks Ji Lin to tell the doctor he, William Acton, came by. 

Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 15

At lunchtime, William decides to take Ren by the hospital. When Ah Long asks him to pick up some supplies, William allows Ren to come along to help. Harun, William’s Malayan driver, is a friendly, plump man.

As a breeze drifts through the car, a sheet of crumpled newspaper goes sailing out of Ren’s basket. William catches it in his hands: It’s the obituary section from last week, which lists the death of Mr. Chan Yew Cheung, salesman. William is relieved.

When they arrive at the hospital, William takes Ren to see Nandani. By chance, she has come to the hospital today because the wound was painful. Ren is surprised to find she is now neat and pretty. She’s 18 years old and unmarried, the daughter of a clerk at the rubber estate near William’s home. As William and Nandani speak, Ren senses their attraction to each other: “a spark jumps between them. Ren’s cat sense hasn’t been this strong since Yi’s death. What’s the meaning of this?” (106).

Lydia enters and invites herself to the gathering at William’s house, despite his description of the event as “just a group of bachelors talking shop” (106). She’s present as William tells Nandani to stop by his home next week so he can look at her leg. Ren notices that women draw William’s attention consistently. He wonders why William doesn’t like Lydia: They almost look like twins and are well-suited for each other.

William says that he will now head to the pathology department, and Ren feels this is where he’ll find the finger. As they close in on the pathology department, “the twitch of invisible filaments grows so strong that Ren is tense with excitement” (108). However, William suddenly asks Ren to go back and get his fountain pen from the ward sister. Ren is bitterly disappointed.

In a rush to complete the errand, Ren gets lost. He finds the ward sister, who has given it to Matron, “a sharp-faced Australian woman” who curtly tells Ren that he better not lose the expensive pen (108). Ren runs around the corner into William, who appears to be in good spirits. Ren then looks into the room, although the bright sunlight makes it hard to see. He sees a slender shadow in the doorway and feels drawn into the room: “Electricity runs through him. Ren’s thoughts become jumbled, incoherent. His cat whiskers sizzle. He must go back, to the room that William has just exited” (109). Ren just sways. William attributes Ren’s unsteadiness to hunger and decides to take him to a café. Frustrated tears spring to Ren’s eyes. As they drive away, Ren plots his return to the hospital. He strategizes that it’s close to Kinta Club, where William plans to go, so he can return on his own later. 

Batu Gajah District Hospital. Saturday, June 13

William, having never seen Ji Lin before, asks her if she’s a nurse, but his interest in her makes Ji Lin nervous. She tells him her name is Louise.

William says that he’s responsible for some of the specimens. He also specifies that a specimen jar full of opaque liquid should be discarded, adding that some patients take their parts with them for burial. William leans toward Ji Lin, and she steps away, afraid. He says she sounds educated: she has finished her School Certificate. He tells her about the hospital’s nurse training program and gives her his card to give to the medical director in charge of the program.

Although Ji Lin has noticed his lustiness: “a sort of greedy loneliness that [she] recognized from all those long afternoons dancing with strangers” (112), she doubts her instincts. Shin enters and is surprised to find William there. William grows business-like and prepares to leave. Ji Lin says the men size each other up.

Shin warns Ji Lin that there are rumors about William and local girls, and Ji Lin says they’re all like that. Shin tells her that she’s changed. She wants to tell Shin about the prospective nurse training, but Shin doesn’t seem receptive. She thinks resentfully that they aren’t equals, with his scholarship and ability to choose his profession.

Shin and Ji Lin meet Shin’s friend, an orderly named Koh Beng, at the canteen. Koh Beng flirts with Ji Lin and teases her about the pathology storeroom, telling her that there’s a head in there that talks if you hold it up at midnight. He mentions other strange magical things in jest, including a weretiger’s finger. Ji Lin finds the cheeky Koh Beng amusing, and he offers to drive her back to Ipoh. Shin coldly refuses, saying he’ll take her, or she’ll stay with a nurse. Koh Beng says Shin causes drama among the nurses.

Ji Lin reflects on Shin’s first girlfriend, Fong Lan, who was two years older. Although many were surprised that Shin chose Fong Lan, Ji Lin always felt that the girl was magnetic. She had a “mature sincerity” and goodness about her (116).

One day, Ji Lin caught an intimate moment between Fong Lan and Shin in the house. They were on the floor, with Fong Lan leaning against the bed and Shin’s head in her lap. Fong Lan’s shirt was open, and her breasts exposed. Fong Lan was looking at Shin like he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, and Ji Lin agreed that he was. Ji Lin let out a gasp, and although Shin didn’t see her, Fong Lan did.

Later, Fong Lan had told Ji Lin that she knew she saw them. She said, “I really do love him, you know. We haven’t done it yet. I don’t want to tie him down if I got pregnant. But I will if he wants to” (117). Ji Lin had become angry then, thinking that Fong Lan was being foolish. Ji Lin calls chastity a bargaining chip, though she still somewhat admires Fong Lan.

Shin soon broke up with Fong Lan, and Ji Lin found herself indignant about it, thinking he’s not faithful like his name. Shin told her to keep her nose out of things she knew nothing about.

Back in the storeroom, Shin and Ji Lin are trying to find any documentation of the finger. Despite records for at least a dozen amputated fingers, they can’t find a single one.

Shin pauses to remove a spider from Ji Lin’s hair. As Ji Lin looks at Shin’s face, she sees a spark in his eye. Suddenly, she feels like she’s falling in a tunnel on railway tracks under water. She collapses, and Shin catches her, telling her she should be checked for anemia. She recognizes that he has the body of a man: He’s no longer a child. As they begin playfully bickering, Ji Lin swats Shin with a file, sending a cascade of papers flying. Ji Lin sees a file that reads “Finger donated by European patient. Dry preservation in salt” (121). William wrote the file. This coincidence sits uneasily with Ji Lin. The documentation of the finger, however, comforts her, as it was removed for a reason, and the salesman’s belief that it’s lucky is superstitious. She instructs Shin to put the finger behind other specimens, and they check it off as merely another specimen properly stored.

Ji Lin asks Shin if he thinks Dr. Rawlings will pay extra for the fastidious work they are doing, and Shin wonders if she’s having money issues. She says she wants to buy something and changes the subject to his money. He tells her that he is saving it up. Privately, she hopes he hasn’t gotten embroiled in a financial mess.

Batu Gajah, Saturday, June 13

At the café, Harun shares his knowledge of the Europeans with Ren: Some leave after two years while others stay for good, unable to cope with returning to the vastly different England. Many of the foreigners are fleeing some type of scandal, and he mysteriously uses Lydia as an example.

Ren recalls that Ah Long said that Dr. Merton, William’s predecessor in the home, wasn’t a real doctor and usually just dissected bodies and organs for the storeroom. Ah Long believes this leads to “hungry ghosts.” Ren thinks excitedly about the pathology storeroom. He’s sure that’s where the finger is.

Later, Ren watches a group of boys playing sepak takraw with a rattan ball. The boys say a weretiger who turns into an old man killed Ambika; someone witnessed an old man going in the warehouse, but tiger prints led away. Ren suddenly remembers one of Dr. McFarlane’s fits, where he wandered off at dusk in a cold fever. There are only 15 days left to find the finger and bury it in Dr. MacFarlane’s grave.

Harun tells Ren about a tiger village, where weretigers live in a macabre house: “The posts of […] are made of jelatang, the stinging tree nettle, the walls of men’s skin, the rafters of bones, and the roofs are thatched with human hair” (126).

Ren is disturbed by this story, thinking it too similar to the ones told by Dr. MacFarlane of things he’d done in his last days. Ren remembers the time that Dr. MacFarlane claimed to have killed a tapir six miles away. Later, a hunter brought by the ears and tail of a tapir—a tiger’s prey he’d found six miles away.

Harun predicts that William will go to the Club for dinner, and he offers to drive Ren home, as the men are planning on hunting the tiger that very night. William walks up with another stranger, discussing that a magistrate overruled the suspicious claim on Ambika’s death. He tells Ren that he can go home with Harun or stay to see if they catch the tiger. Ren says he forgot something at the hospital, and he’d like to stay.

Back at the Batu Gajah District Hospital, Ren gets to the pathology storeroom. His cat sense is coming through garbled, as there are so many specimens in the room. He has a feeling that he is not alone and instinctively calls out Yi’s name. His finds the finger, and Ren is elated. Dr. MacFarlane had specified that his finger would be the only one preserved in salt. 

Batu Gajah District Hospital. Saturday, June 13

Shin and Ji Lin are conversing in a thicket of trees on the hospital grounds. Ji Lin says the only specimens missing from the storeroom are fingers. There were 14 fingers on the list, and Ji Lin wants to add that 14 is a bad number (because it sounds like “certain death”), but she knows Shin lacks patience with such superstitions. She knows he registers it anyway. He says that he will inform Dr. Rawlings.

Soon, an orderly who Ji Lin immediately recognizes as Y.K. Wong, approaches them. Ji Lin buries her face in Shin’s chest, and Shin tells her that Y.K. is his roommate. She begs Shin to hide her from him, promising to explain later. Y.K. greets Shin, teasingly telling him to introduce him to his girlfriend. As Shin embraces Ji Lin, she feels lightheaded, but blames anxiety. Shin successfully gets rid of Y.K., using “his girlfriend’s” “shyness” as an excuse. Y.K. leaves, but not without telling Shin that he must introduce him to his girlfriend later (131).

Shin demands to know how Ji Lin knows multiple men, including the salesman and Y.K., Ji Lin lies, saying that she met them when she went to a dance hall. Shin tells her that that is a very stupid thing to do, implicitly saying because she’s a girl. Ji Lin feels a flash of resentment toward him and the relative social and professional freedom that he enjoys because he is a man. She also worries that she has recklessly endangered her future and any prospect of training as a nurse.

Shin says Ji Lin should tell him if she decides to marry or she may make a stupid decision. Ji Lin replies, “What makes you think I’m stupid? I said no to the pawnbroker’s cousin!” (132). She immediately regrets divulging this information. At the time, to her astonishment, her stepfather accepted her refusal of the pawnbroker’s cousin. Shin’s expression then reminds Ji Lin of her stepfather; this is Ji Lin’s greatest fear. Shin, seeing Ji Lin’s expression, tells her he would never do anything to her.

Shin informs Ji Lin that the last train has already left—she’ll have to spend the night. Y.K. will be spending the night with his parents. He also feels her forehead and realizes that she has a fever. Shin’s nurse friend is also out for the night, but Shin arranges a room for Ji Lin in the staff hostel for relatives who are visiting. He has to say that Ji Lin is his girlfriend when Koh Beng sees them signing in and informs Shin that Y.K. has told him that Ji Lin is actually Shin’s girlfriend. Ji Lin also expands the lie when the hostel housekeeper presses her about her relationship with Shin. Ji Lin tells her that they are engaged. 

That night, Ji Lin has another dream. She is floating in the same river as each of her previous dreams. She notices a stirring shadow beneath her, which begins to pursue her. In a panic, she swims toward the surface. She bursts onto the riverbank, where Yi greets her. She asks Yi what the thing in the water is, and he says he does not know—although Ji Lin has a feeling that he does. He also tells her that he is unable to go into the water, and she actually should not go in either. Then, he beckons her to follow him.

They are walking toward the railroad station. Once they reach the platform, Yi seems relieved; seeing her in the water frightened him. Ji Lin asks him his name and if he’s one of her mother’s unborn Confucian virtues. Yi, looking surprised, tells Ji Lin that she is very clever, but he’s not her brother. He is one of the Confucian set, but he’s looking for his brother, who may be following the wrong master. Instead, Ji Lin keeps turning up.

Ji Lin observes the train, which is sitting idly on the tracks without any passengers inside. She reflects on the way the train has changed from dream to dream: First it was close to the exit point from the water, then it was almost out of the station, and this time it’s on the platform. She realizes there is no second line for a returning train.

Yi tells Ji Lin not to worry, she didn’t arrive by train, but by the river, so she can return. Ji Lin offers to tell Yi’s brother to stop what he’s doing and beware the fifth of the set. Yi tells her that she must not tell Rin that she has met Yi (although she still does not know his name). He tells her if she learns his name, she can call on him. 

Batu Gajah. Sunday, June 14

Ah Long informs Ren that the tiger hunt has been unsuccessful. Rumors continue to swirl in the absence of a successful tiger hunt—especially the rumor that the hunting party should have brought a pawang, or medicine man, along to call the tiger out.

William drives himself to church. Privately, he feels anxious about the lurid rumors surrounding the tiger. Rumors about Ambika have sprung up as well. Namely, people are saying that the tiger killed her because she was loose.

While William is gone, Ren goes back to his room to examine the finger. Ren stares at it until he becomes dizzy. He also notices that his cat sense has gone silent. Ren closes his eyes and tries to get his cat sense to come back. During the three years since Yi died, Ren has longed for the cat sense to return. It was absent during a most crucial time: the end of Dr. MacFarlane’s life. During that time, the doctor began slipping into trances and spouting off gory details about hunting and killing animals.

The narration shifts to the time during which Dr. MacFarlane was dying. A string of local deaths accompanied the end of his life. The first occurred during the monsoon season. The doctor is feverish and sick, but there’d be no vomit for Ren to clean. Dr. MacFarlane tells Ren that he cleaned up the mess himself. He asks Ren what he thinks of him. Ren replies that he thinks he is a good man. Dr. MacFarlane then shows Ren a picture of two men. The one on the right has a cord tied to his upper right arm. Dr. MacFarlane asks Ren which man is like him. Ren sees that the man on the right has a smooth philtrum, like Dr. MacFarlane. “[The man] said this missing upper lip groove is the sign of a weretiger,” Dr. MacFarlane says (141). He elaborates, saying that the man was a pawang who he met while taking a trip to a small hamlet called Ulu Aring with a friend. Ren asks him if that trip is the same one that cost Dr. MacFarlane his finger, and Dr. MacFarlane confirms it and says the man called him “older brother.”

Ren asks if Dr. MacFarlane ever saw the man turn into a tiger. Dr. MacFarlane never did, but many locals did. They said that, when the man felt like it, he’d turn into a weretiger, hunt, then return home a man. As a man, he’d expel the bones and feathers of his prey. At this, Ren recalls Dr. MacFarlane’s recent vomiting fit.

Dr. MacFarlane says the second identifying mark of a weretiger is a deformed paw. When he lost his finger, the medicine man told him to bury the finger with him in death to become whole again. Then, there’s a silence during which Ren thinks he perceives something sly behind Dr. MacFarlane’s eyes. Dr. MacFarlane asks Ren if he looks like a murderer. Frightened, Ren backs out of the room without answering. The question haunts him for a few days.

Some European ladies soon come to call at Dr. MacFarlane’s house. They bring word that a young woman has recently been taken from a nearby coffee plantation and killed. They quickly dismiss Ren from the room, but he catches more of the women’s words from the hallway: “—stalked from behind. Neck broken—” (142). These words sound chillingly familiar.

Dr. MacFarlane sinks into a dark mood when the women leave. Later, as Ren is tidying the downstairs bathroom where Dr. MacFarlane was vomiting, he finds a single strand of long dark That night, Ren dreams that Dr. MacFarlane is in the bathroom, “his eyes like a wild animal. Thrusting his left hand into his mouth, the one with the missing finger, he pulls out a long, coiling black strand of woman’s hair” (143).

The narration returns to the present day. Ren has a nagging feeling that he has made a mistake. He cannot get his cat sense to return to him. He puts the finger inside a tin and buries it in the corner of the front garden. He places a rock over the spot to mark it and resolves to retrieve and bury it with Dr. MacFarlane during his upcoming trip back to Kamunting.

At the church service, a line of prayer weighs on William, and he decides to send Ren to school. He spots Lydia and reflects on how her features remind him very much of Iris. He thinks of the last time he saw Iris with her mouth open in a scream.  

After the service, he speaks with Leslie, whom he feels he must remain on good terms with because Leslie is a gossip. Leslie asks William if he can arrange for entertainment at the next dinner party, which William will be hosting. Although William is not very excited about that idea, he cheerfully tells Leslie to proceed. Privately, he remembers that Lydia has invited herself to the dinner party. He reflects that she will fit in fine—"far better than Ambika ever could have” (145).

William swears to himself that he will be a better person. He privately vows to put in a good word for Ji Lin. He then thinks about every detail of Ji Lin’s appearance, which he finds attractive. However, Nandani is more his type. To his surprise, he sees her among the crowd of churchgoers. They begin to talk, and he offers to drive her home. Then, Lydia inserts herself into the conversation, and he offers to drive her home as well. This is just as well, William realizes, as he was being foolhardy to make such an obvious advance toward Nandani in a very public place. Lydia’s parents also like this arrangement, as they view it as a romantic overture by the doctor, whom they view as good marriage material. William vaguely remembers there are rumors about Lydia. When he helps Nandani into the backseat and squeezes her hand because she seems intimidated, he feels certain that Nandani has a crush on him.

Batu Gajah District Hospital. Sunday, June 14

Ji Lin awakens in the hostel. She reflects: a headache has proceeded every one of the peculiar dreams she’s been having. Ji Lin hears a fight that some girls are having, and one of them approaches her. She says her name is Pei Ling, and she begs Ji Lin not to say anything about her affair with the salesman, who was married. Ji Lin assures her that she is just a visitor and won’t tell anyone. Privately, she realizes that she has found the nurse who gave Yew Cheung the finger. She thinks the hospital seems to be connected to everything: “I couldn’t help thinking that if you believed the souls of the dead lingered for forty-nine days after death, then this hospital must be full of them” (150).

Ji Lin tells Pei Ling that Shin is her fiancée—although Pei Ling assumes that he must be her boyfriend, and that they had to fib about an engagement to secure her lodgings in the hostel. Pei Ling if Ji Lin will ask Shin to get her parcel from the men’s hostel. Yew Cheung’s friend was keeping it there for him. Ji Lin surmises that this friend must be Y.K. Wong. She agrees to ask Shin to retrieve the parcel for Pei Ling.

However, when Shin joins the two girls at breakfast, Pei Ling appears to be frightened of Shin. Ji Lin is puzzled. Ji Lin follows Pei Ling as she flees from the cafeteria. After learning Shin’s name and asking Ji Lin how long she’s known him, she tells Ji Lin to forget her request.

Ji Lin returns to the cafeteria and finishes breakfast with Shin and Koh Beng. Then, there is a commotion outside. When everyone goes outside to investigate, Shin quickly removes Ji Lin from the scene—but not before she can see Pei Ling loaded onto a stretcher. Shin asks her if she was running when Ji Lin last saw her. Shin implies her injury may not have been an accident. Ji Lin sees a lone figure watching the scene from farther away: Y.K. Wong. Shin asks Ji Lin if she suspects him. Ji Lin doesn’t know what to think. Even Pei Ling’s inquiry about how well she knows Shin eats at her. Morosely, she realizes that her mother, who is the one who needs her help, is the only one she can truly count as family.

Ji Lin asks Shin to look for the parcel for Pei Ling. Then, Koh Beng offers to give her a tour of the hospital. Ji Lin, eager to stay away from Y.K., agrees. During their tour, Koh Beng asks Ji Lin if she’s really Shin’s fiancée. He says that Shin has a girlfriend in Singapore, about whom he speaks very often. He puts his hand on her shoulder and begins to offer his assistance with anything she might need when Shin interrupts them. Shin slips his arm around Ji Lin’s waist and keeps it there even after Koh Beng leaves.

Shin soon pushes Ji Lin into a closet. Wildly, Ji Lin thinks that he may kiss her. When he teases that Ji Lin is expecting a strip tease, Ji Lin shoves him. She has butterflies in her stomach, but she puts this down to Shin’s handsomeness.

The door suddenly opens, and Matron begins interrogating them. Ji Lin’s heart sinks when she realizes that her chances of becoming a nurse trainee will be dashed if Matron remembers who she is later. Shin makes up a lie to cover for the situation, though. He tells Matron that he’s just proposed to Ji Lin. To Ji Lin’s surprise, he produces a velvet ring box from his pocket. Inside is a “simple twist of gold with five tiny garnets set like a flower” (160). He places it on Ji Lin’s finger, although it doesn’t fit. Ji Lin, understanding that the ill-fitting ring on her finger was meant for someone else, for whom it had been lovingly selected, feels “a choking loneliness that [makes her] teeth ache” (161). 

Batu Gajah. Week of June 15

It’s Sunday, and preparations for the dinner party are underway at William’s house. Lydia has come home with William from church, and Ren can see this displeases William. William also mentions Nandani to Ren, saying that he will bring her over to the house one day, and Ren can continue learning from her case. Lydia pretends not to hear any of this. She offers to bring flowers for the dinner party, after William tries to dissuade her from coming once again, saying that it is bound to be a dull affair for women. He then quickly rushes her out to the car to complete the trip to her home.

The Tamil gardener summons Ren and Ah Long out to the garden. He has discovered a tiger pugmark right next to the stone that marks the place where Ren buried Dr. MacFarlane’s finger. The pugmark shows that the tiger is missing a toe on its left paw. Dr. MacFarlane lost the finger from his left hand. Nervously, Ren wonders if his time has run out, despite there still being 11 days remaining of Dr. MacFarlane’s death time. The gardener asks Ah Long if they should leave an offering out for the tiger. Ah Long responds that all the chickens they have are reserved for the dinner party—besides, they don’t want to attract the tiger back. The gardener makes a little bow toward the forest and asks, in Tamil, for it not to return. Ah Long informs William about the tiger print.

Ren has a sudden-onset fever and goes to bed to rest. He dreams of the railroad station. The train is motionless, and Yi stands on a sandbar in the middle of the nearby river. Through a combination of gesticulating and a kind of telepathy, the two communicate. There is no sound in the dream. Ren tells Yi not to worry about the tiger, and that he has permission to go to the Kamunting after party, but Yi is clearly worried and tells him to “Ask the girl” (168). Ren, thinking of the only woman he knows—Auntie Kwan—does not understand.

The water continues to rise, and Ren notices that it is oddly thick, sticky, and cold. He tells Yi that he is going to swim over to him, but he hesitates when he sees something in the water. Yi is wildly gesticulating, crying and begging Ren to stop. Still, Ren proceeds, plunging his head under.

Ipoh. Monday, June 15

Ji Lin has kept Shin’s ring in a handkerchief to ward off any suspicion.

Tuesday, Ji Lin goes to see Hui to escape dinner with Mrs. Tham and her nephew, who intends to marry soon. Hui is doing her makeup in preparation for a call-out, which always entails groping from the men. Hui inquires about Shin, intuiting that Ji Lin may have feelings for him. She reminds Ji Lin about the dinner party in Batu Gajah next Saturday. Ji Lin asks Hui to tell the Mama that she won’t be working at the dance hall this week and to tell her that her mother is ill. She feels that she needs to lay low.

Ji Lin goes walking down Belfield Street. There, she runs into an old acquaintance, Robert Chiu. He’s Ming’s wealthy friend who once kissed Ji Lin before she rejected him. He’s very nice to her, he is studying law in Britain, and he has returned for the holidays. When they discuss the prospect of Ji Lin entering nursing training, he says that his family sometimes disperses scholarships through their foundation and offers to give her a personal recommendation. He drives Ji Lin to Mrs. Tham’s house in his fancy, beautiful car.

When they arrive, Mrs. Tham greets them. Robert introduces himself as an old friend of Ji Lin’s brother. Mrs. Tham then informs Ji Lin that her mother is ill—she’s had a miscarriage. Ji Lin’s heart sinks, as her mother nears 42, which sounds like “you die” in her language. She’s dismayed that the fake excuse for her absence has now come true. Robert volunteers to take Ji Lin home that very instant. On the way there, he says that maybe he can arrange to get her mother treatment at the Batu Gajah District Hospital because his father is on the board of the hospital. 

Batu Gajah. Friday night, June 19

Ren feels so dreadfully cold within the water that he thinks his heart will give out; “the water feels thick, like runny gelatin or clotted blood” (179). Yi has begun running around, terrified.

As Ren continues paddling, he becomes numb. He sees dead and rotting creatures and begins to panic. A dead Chinese man (Yew Cheung) floats by, then a young Tamil woman’s head (Ambika). 

Yi throws logs into the water, and one of them hits Ren. Ren wakes up in his room, having fallen face down on the floor. Ah Long has come to check on Ren, who was shouting. Ren tells him that he was talking to his deceased twin brother in his dream. Ah Long asks Ren if he dreams of Yi often and asks if Yi has ever asked Ren to go to him. Ah Long says that he had an uncle, a cook in Malacca, who could see ghosts and worked for a family that had many peculiar spiritual beliefs. That uncle gave Ah Long a bit of advice that he now offers to Ren: “Don’t talk to the dead […] Because the dead don’t belong in this world. […] You can’t be obeying them from beyond the grave” (181).

Ren thinks of Dr. MacFarlane and asks if honoring their wishes will satisfy them, but Ah Long says that’s not their business. Ren feels that Ah Long does not understand; “There’s just a little more to be done, and then it will all be over” (182). 

Falim. Tuesday, June 16

Ji Lin arrives at her home and finds Shin and her stepfather. In the dark, Shin looks like his father. Ji Lin instinctually recoils from him. She thinks that Shin notices because he turns away. He tells her, clinically, that her mother suffered an early-term miscarriage. Then, she rushes into her mother’s room.

Ji Lin discusses what happened with her mother. Her mother didn’t think she could still get pregnant at 42, and Ji Lin says she wants her stepfather to stay away from her mother. Her mother replies, “Don’t say that. It’s his right. I’m the one who’s failed, not giving him more children” (184). Ji Lin remembers that she once wanted to poison her stepfather.

Later, Shin and Ji Lin go out to eat. Ji Lin tells Shin to intercede on her mother’s behalf so that she won’t get pregnant again. Shin says that he already communicated this to his father. Shin also says that he told his father that there are other options beyond celibacy or visiting prostitutes, like using condoms. Ji Lin is sure the “old bastard” won’t use them. Normally, it’s Shin’s province to call the man names, but Ji Lin doesn’t care as she openly breaks an unspoken rule.

Ji Lin has never been sure of how Shin feels toward his father. Just as she understands that her mother is foolish, she suspects that Shin will always harbor love for his father.

Then, something dawns on Ji Lin: Shin must have cut a deal with his father after their awful fight two years ago, and she tells him as much. However, Shin refuses to reveal the details of that night. Ji Lin decides to make a deal with her stepfather, too, but Shin makes her promise never to do so. She doesn’t reply, and privately thinks that she has found a way to get her stepfather to do what she wants.

On the way home, Ji Lin mentions the ring. Shin tells her to keep it. He asks about Robert, and Ji Lin tells him that they ran into each other. Shin says he retrieved Pei Ling’s parcel and looked at it. He tells her she was foolish, despite her name, for sending him on this errand. Incensed, Ji Lin replies that Shin’s name means faithfulness, but he has had many girlfriends. Privately, though, she knows that his name also means virtue and integrity. She thinks about Yi’s words: “There’s something a bit wrong with each of us” (187).

Ji Lin remembers when Shin saved her from a bully, and apologizes. She thinks bitterly that he will be returning to Singapore to a fiancée. Shin does not accept her apology. She tells him not to be angry, explaining that she was feeling jealous: “I’ve been hateful and envious about you going to medical school. And for being a boy. And getting to choose what you want” (188). Shin asks if that’s all, and Ji Lin feels as if she has failed a test. They arrive home in silence.

Shin tells Ji Lin to wait on the first floor while he goes upstairs. Ji Lin has a bad feeling. She has the sensation that she is being watched and wildly wonders if Y.K. Wong is somehow there. She picks up a cleaver and turns to face the open doorway behind her. Shin looks animalistic in the lamplight, scaring Ji Lin.

Shin asks her if she thought he was his father, and if he’s ever laid a hand on her. She tells him her stepfather doesn’t bother with her and says Shin should’ve written her back if he was worried. Shin implies she’s done well enough, referring to Robert and his father’s money. Ji Lin says Shin ran away and left her behind, that he made a deal so he didn’t have to work for his father. Her eyes fill with tears.

Shin denies her accusations, then falls silent. Shin places Pei Ling’s parcel, placed in a small paper package, on the table. He then leaves the house, saying that he will be riding the bike he borrowed from Ming back to the hospital.

Ji Lin follows Shin outside. She apologizes and puts her arms around him, with her face in his back. Shin warns her not to feed more gossip fodder about their family to their busybody neighbor Auntie Wong. She asks Shin to let her come with him because she’s worried about him traversing the darkened roadways. He says she’s too heavy, and she calls him an idiot and jabs him. He pulls her closer to him, and she is certain that he is going to kiss her. However, he says she should take care of her mother. Ji Lin returns to her senses. 

Falim. Tuesday, June 16

Ji Lin immediately opens Pei Ling’s parcel. The young nurse still has not regained consciousness. The parcel contains love letters addressed to Mr. Chan Yew Cheung, the salesman. They document Pei Ling’s sexual relationship with Chan Yew Cheung and would lead to her dismissal at the hospital if Matron were to find them. The parcel also contains a specimen from the pathology storeroom: a thumb suspended in liquid. There is also a sheet of paper with the names of 13 locals, Chan Yew Cheung’s name has been marked off. Three more names—J. MacFarlane, W. Acton, and L. Rawlings—are in a separate list. J. MacFarlane’s name says “Taiping/Kamunting” beside it, and there are numbers that indicate payments. Ji Ling copies the lists down then puts everything back in the parcel and hides it in Shin’s room.

Ji Lin hasn’t heard from Shin since he biked away three days ago, and she’s worried. She checks on her mother and guiltily muses that, if her mother should die, nothing would be shackling her to this house any longer. Ji Lin notices that her stepfather is uncharacteristically caring with her mother.

Auntie Wong visits and tells Ji Lin that her mother must go to the hospital immediately if she has a fever. Ah Kum also comes to visit and asks if Shin has a girlfriend. Ji Lin replies that she thinks he does, in Singapore. Ah Kum asserts that maybe she can change his mind.

Robert has also come by twice, bearing the gifts of dried herbs and chicken soup. He also speaks with Ji Lin’s stepfather. When Ji Lin cannot get a chicken soup stain out of his car seat, she sees it as a sign of ill portent. Ji Lin’s mother is pleased by Robert’s presence, calling him “such a nice young man” (195).

On Friday afternoon, Robert comes to visit again. Ji Lin shows him the copy of the lists that she has made and asks him if he might know anything about them. Robert, whose father is on the board of the Batu Gajah District Hospital, confirms that Lytton Rawlings is the pathologist there, and William Acton is a general surgeon. He doesn’t know who J. MacFarlane is, although he’s heard a story about a woman’s death in Kamunting involving the man. Ah Kum walks into the room and, “finding [Ji Lin and Robert] gazing at each other over the kitchen table, she [backtracks] with a congratulatory smirk” (198).

Ji Lin is relieved when Robert cannot stay for dinner: Shin has an open hostility toward Robert. After he leaves, Ji Lin tells her stepfather that Robert has offered to put in a good word for her in the nurse’s training school at Batu Gajah District Hospital. He tells her she can do whatever she wants when she’s married, as she won’t be his responsibility. 

Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 20

It’s the morning of the party. William is home. Ever since the tiger pugmark was found in the garden, he has spent his evenings confined to his study composing letters, though he never actually mails the letters. Ren tries to picture Iris but can only think of Lydia.

In the morning, Nandani’s 13-year-old cousin drops off a letter for William that has childish handwriting. When he gives the letter to Ren to give to William, he tells him that her father found out, but Ren doesn’t understand. William does not open the letter in front of Ren.

At 7 o’clock, guests start arriving, including Lydia and Mrs. Banks, Dr. Banks’s wife. Leslie informs William that he has ordered dance hall girls for the night because he didn’t know that women would be in attendance, and William is irritated. Ren wonders which guest is Dr. Rawlings, the doctor in charge of the pathology storeroom.

During dinner, Nandani tries to get into the house through the kitchen. She stops when Ren comes in. He asks her if her leg is not doing well, but she says it’s fine. She tells him that she must speak to his master, as her father is sending her away. Ren doesn’t understand and slips away to inform William, who blanches.

William has Ren bring Nandani to the veranda. Ren has a bad feeling as he watches them talk: “[It’s as] though it isn’t really Nandani, but some other chill and bony creature following him from the dark” (205).

William returns to the table at the beginning of dessert, berating himself for his stupidity; Nandani is infatuated with him after a few physical interactions. He hopes that his gentle dismissal of her will be enough to keep the plantation manager (Lydia’s father) from catching wind of anything. He resolves to limit his sexual affairs to sex workers, though he can’t help himself.

In the kitchen, Ah Long says that it is best that Nandani leaves right away, but Ren plans on preparing a plate of food for her.

Dr. Rawlings engages William in conversation after dinner. He repeats his insistence on the irregularity of Ambika’s corpse, suspecting she was poisoned, which is why the cat didn’t eat her. William’s anxiety peaks. He already knows what social disgrace is like and feels that he is on the precipice of it in this small community. To redirect the conversation, he asks Dr. Rawlings if he’s ever witnessed any authentic cases of witchcraft. Dr. Rawlings says that he’s only witnessed people with fortuitously good luck. William thinks of his own luck in avoiding repercussions.

William shares more about his own background. He was born in Tiensin, where his father was the Vice Consul. The narrator intimates that there are specific reasons that William did not also enter the service.

William tells his guests that he was given a Chinese name as well. Although he can’t pronounce it correctly, he writes the three characters of his Chinese name down on a piece of paper, and it becomes a conversation piece. Lydia says that she also has a Chinese name. William asks Ren how to pronounce the name, but Ren doesn’t know. He can only speak Cantonese and doesn’t have fluency with all its characters.

The guests crowd into the kitchen, hoping that Ah Long can pronounce the characters. As they push in, William is horrified to see Nandani there, eating from a plate. William surmises that Ren must have given it to her.

Ah Long is indignant about the invasion of his kitchen, but he looks at the paper and pronounces the name: Wei Li An. Then, William tries to rush the guests out, but Lydia presses the issue further, asking what it means. Ah Long whispers his answer, in Chinese, to Ren. Ren translates: “word is Li. It means doing things in the proper order, like a ritual. And this one, An, means peace. If you put them together with Wei, it means ‘for the sake of order and peace’” (208).

The guests, especially Rawlings, are impressed by Ren, and Rawlings asks William where Ren came from. William replies that he’ll tell him over a drink, and they exit. Most of the guests make their way out of the kitchen, but Lydia remains. She’s been staring at Nandani, and William worriedly goes to fetch her, but she’s already leaving when he gets back to the kitchen.

William eavesdrops on Ren and Dr. Rawlings. Dr. Rawlings asks if Li is one of the five Confucian Virtues. Ren confirms that it is, as is his name. When he tells Dr. Rawlings that he is Ren, Dr. Rawlings says, “Ren is benevolence, isn’t it? Yi is righteousness, Li is ritual or order. Zhi is wisdom and Xin is faithfulness […] Without Li what is there to distinguish men from beasts?” (209).

The dance hall girls arrive. William asks Ren to open the door, but Ren, having just learned that Dr. Rawlings is in charge of the pathology storeroom, appears transfixed. 

Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 20

Five girls from the May Flower (Ji Lin, Hui, Rose, Pearl, and Anna) are headed to William’s house with the Mama. Kiong, one of the Mama’s drivers, takes them there. Ji Lin notices that the car is not as handsome as Robert’s beautiful cream-colored car. If she marries Robert, she’ll be able to ride in it whenever she wishes. However, she thinks that the only way she could bear to kiss Robert would be to imagine that he is Shin. Her thoughts of Shin now only cause her grief.

Shin hadn’t returned to Falim until Saturday. At dinner, he would not look at Ji Lin. Her stepfather also broached the topic of Ji Lin’s possible future marriage at the table, but he was looking at Shin, who continued to act stoic and withdrawn.

Later, in her bedroom, Ji Lin’s mother told her that she’d be happy if Ji Lin married Robert. Ji Lin curtly reminded her that Robert hadn’t even proposed. Shin interrupted, asking for the day’s receipts for his father.

Shin asks Ji Lin if his father really promised her he’d leave her to her own devices if she married and she confirmed it. They also discussed the pathology storeroom. Shin changed his mind about notifying Dr. Rawlings about the missing specimens, because he realized that the finger Ji Lin replaced has gone missing. He didn’t want to appear incompetent. Ji Lin cautioned him that, if the missing specimens are discovered, Shin will have been the last person known to have been working in the storeroom.

Back in the present day, Ji Lin and the other girls arrive at William’s house, and Ji Lin is dismayed when she recognizes William’s voice. She admits to herself that it was foolish of her not to think a private party in Batu Gajah might be attended by people from the District Hospital. If she’s recognized, she’ll never land a position as a nurse trainee. She hopes that William will not recognize her through her makeup.

While she is dancing with one man, she catches a glimpse of Ren and immediately recognizes him as the boy from her dreams. Her dance partner notices her alarm, but William soon cuts in. He asks how she is, calling her “Louise.”

Batu Gajah. Saturday, June 20

Ren’s cat sense is now in overdrive, and he thinks, “Someone like me” (219). He investigates the dance hall girls from afar. When he sees Ji Lin, the buzzing in his head causes him to become faint. When she spots him, he sees the recognition in her eyes.

Nandani’s cousin appears at the back door, asking for her. It’s been 20 minutes and she has not returned home. Ah Long says that Nandani is probably waiting outside. Ren sees that Ji Lin has begun dancing with William, and they seem to be talking about him. Ren feels bad for a Nandani, waiting in the night.

Nandani’s cousin still has not found her. He says that her disappearance must be William’s fault. Ah Long calls Ah Seng, the part-time waiter, and tells him to go outside and look for Nandani.

Ren goes back to the front room and notices that William is taking interest in another girl, Hui. A guest asks for a drink, and Ren is stuck behind the bar. When he runs out of ice, he goes into the kitchen. Ren is tasked with searching the house for Nandani.

Ren’s cat sense is gone now. He does not check William’s study because he does not want to gaze upon the tiger pelt inside of it. Then, Ji Lin appears in the corridor. He tells her his name; “Ren […] meaning ‘benevolence’?” she says (223). Ren confirms it. Ji Lin asks Ren if he knows her; he doesn’t, but he feels they belong together. Ji Lin, noticing that Ren is older than Yi, asks Ren how old he is and if he has a brother. Ren stumbles, but he says “yes” and tells her his name was Yi. Ji explains her name, and Ren says calls her “Older Sister” just as Yi had. Ren recognizes the connection: “They’re part of a set, she and him; he’s known it all along. A wave of giddy exultation washes over him, and she laughs, her eyes sparkling” (224).

Ji Lin asks about Yi, but Rin doesn’t know how to explain Yi’s death. He asks her if she knows Yi, and Ji Lin says that she isn’t sure. She tells him that she has a brother named Shin, for xin, making four out of the five Confucian Values, and Ren points out that William makes five. Ji Lin looks disturbed.  

Ah Long walks up, asking if Ren has located Nandani. He tells Ren not to go outside, as Ah Seng and Nandani’s cousin have seen a tiger in the corner of the garden (where Dr. McFarlane’s finger is). William has gone for his shotgun to scare it away. Ren thinks maybe if he gives the tiger the finger, it will release Nandani, and he rushes outside. Ren regrets not following Dr. MacFarlane’s directions, and he mournfully feels that everything is his fault.

Ren begins digging in the correct spot in the garden, but he hears tiger snarling that ends abruptly. He distantly hears a girl crying no.

Ren retrieves the finger, and there’s a flash and a roar. Ren falls down, feeling nothing, but his hand looks like raw meant. He feels a pain in his side. Ji Lin appears, and he gives her the jar containing the finger. 

Ipoh. Saturday, June 20

Kiong was the one who gathered up everyone from the May Flower and got them away from the scene safely.

Ji Lin recounts what happened. She’s at herself for not stopping Ren when he ran out into the night. Instead, she followed him. She was the one who had turned around and recognized that a man with a gun was behind them. She screamed out “Stop!” and “No!” before William shot Ren. Then, she ran to Ren, whose left arm and side were soaked in blood. She wondered whether he still had a hand. Ren had pressed the specimen jar containing Dr. MacFarlane’s finger into Ji Lin’s palm, asking her to put it in his master’s grave.

Now inside of the car and covered in blood, Ji Lin wants to run into the shophouse when they drive by it. She wants to run into her mother’s room. But she knows she can’t. Nor can she return to Mrs. Tham’s in a bloody dress. Mercifully, Hui invites her to sleep over.

Ji Lin slips into another dream. It begins with her standing on a sunny shore, with her feet submerged in warm, clear water, though she steps out quickly. She is all alone, and there is no train in the station either. She calls out Yi’s name, and he appears. He is not as cheerful as he normally is. She tells Yi that she’s met her brother. Yi already knows that. He also knows that Ren has been shot: “That’s why the train’s gone” (232).

Ji Lin, having overheard that Ren had no living family, realizes that Yi is dead. Yi confirms this. Yi implies that Ji Lin is the only one who doesn’t come by train, and those who do, are also dead, but Yi doesn’t know if Ren will die. The absence of the train means someone is arriving soon, though.

Ji Lin compares herself and Shin to Yi and Ren, saying they were born on the same day. Yi says that he doesn’t know Shin, and Ji Lin thinks of the paper amulet that Shin’s mother gave him. The lore around such amulets repeats in her head: “A charm against nightmares to call the mo, that black and white beast of a dream-eater, to gobble them up. Though if you called the mo too often, it would also devour your hopes and desires” (233).

Yi counts the four of them as four of the Confucian Virtues. He asks if Ji Lin has found the fifth one. She says yes, thinking of William. Yi says that things will not go as they should.

Yi suggests Ji Lin do what she thinks is right concerning the finger. Ji Lin asks why Yi isn’t more concerned about Ren, and Yi admits that he’s been waiting in limbo at the station for Ren to join him. Yi isn’t the only one to get off the train, and Ji Lin remembers that she saw vague shapes of people walking along the shore in one dream. Yi says that all the people who disembark from the train eventually leave, though, because they cannot summon anyone to join or speak with them. Yi could because of the sixth sense between himself and Ren: “I didn’t go on. Not as long as I could still sense Ren on the other side” (234).

Yi was worried Ren would forget him, and so tried to lure him over to the other side. Yi thought they’d both be would be happier if they were together. He also tells her about how he prevented Ren from being devoured by the shadow in the river. Ji Lin, knowing exactly what he is talking about, shudders. Yi made his brother go back.

Ji Lin sadly tells Yi that he got his wish—his brother is mortally wounded. When she asks him what he will do, he bursts into tears. He suggests that the Confucian virtues are cursed and wonders why they weren’t born in the same family. Ji Lin agrees, knowing that each of them were supposed to function in harmony with each other. Yi agrees: “It’s all a problem with the order—the way things are being bent and rearranged […] And the fifth one is the worst” (235). Ji Lin can feel the dream world slipping from her. She screams at Yi to leave Ren alone. 

Batu Gajah. Sunday, June 21

Ren awakens in the hospital. His left arm feels numb. He’s astonished to see that William is now emitting threads: “Gossamer threads that spew out, like the unraveling of a silkworm” (236). His cat senses are heightened.  

William apologizes for accidentally shooting Ren. He tells Ren that he will be mostly OK. The nurse tries to pull William away. Ren asks about Nandani, and William tells her that she has not yet been found. Ren recedes back into a partial slumber. He perceives a bright and intense landscape, with the muscular tiger in front of him. Ren isn’t afraid, but relieved, and the tiger turns from him.

Ren can make out the familiar outline of the train station. He asks the tiger where Nandani is, then notices slender footprints with a limping gait. Ren asks if Nandani is there and takes a step, but the tiger snarls. Ren does not know if that is a warning, and he also feels a sharp pain in his side. He forces himself to follow the trail of footprints. They lead toward the station. 

Ipoh. Sunday, June 21

Ji Lin wakes up face down on Hui’s bedroom floor. She’s flung herself out of the bed during her dream, and Hui heard her crying Yi’s name. When Hui leaves to run an errand, Ji Lin examines the finger. She recognizes it; said it belonged to Dr. MacFarlane.

Ji Lin goes to the May Flower, hoping to get information about Ren’s condition from Kiong. Kiong isn’t there, but the Mama tells her that if Ren had died, they would have heard. Ji Lin then resigns from the dance hall, and the Mama is not surprised. She asks Ji Lin to do a shift on the following Saturday before she goes, though. Ji Lin agrees. As she leaves, Ji Lin feels that she will miss “all the laughter and comradeship, the sore feet, and the slapping away of wandering hands” but also feels that she has made a good decision (241).

Batu Gajah. Monday, June 22

William feels a sense of doom. Ren is his victim. He reflects that his missteps are always due to an excess of unchecked emotions. He also wonders how Ji Lin had known that he was shooting at Ren, and not the tiger. He remembers how terrified she looked that night, and the narrator intimates that a dark part of him found her terror “alluring.”  

William has shot Ren’s left-hand ring finger off. William is also aggrieved because, despite the care that Ren has been receiving, the boy is inexplicably dying. William theorizes that shock is the cause. He was also embarrassed when Rawlings could clearly see that Ren was only 10 or 11, and not 13. William knows that he will not suffer much social disgrace if Ren dies, since he is an orphan, but he still feels that it is his responsibility to advocate for Ren.

Ah Long arrives at Ren’s bedside and produces Ren’s finger, suspended in Johnnie Walker in a glass jar. Internally, William thinks that it is barbarically superstitious. He stops Ah Long from leaving the finger on Ren’s bedside table, lest it frighten the boy should he wake.

Captain Jagjit Singh, the constable who investigated Ambika’s death, is also in the office, waiting to question William. For an instant, William thinks that Singh may actually be onto him. Singh informs William that Nandani has died. He questions for an official statement. William answers in a mostly honest manner. He tells Singh that he last saw Nandani at his dinner party. He is aware that her father was sending her away because William had “been friendly” with her (245). William admits only that he flirted with her and they went on a few walks together. Singh tells him Nandani’s body was found near his house. She was not attacked by a tiger.

Singh says that Nandani was very sick before her death, and they’re considering accidental death or a suicide. She had complained of stomach pains. He tells William that Rawlings performed an autopsy on her body, and William he has an alibi for Saturday night, since he was attending to Ren.

Singh discusses another patient of William’s: The salesman Chan Yew Cheung, who died of a heart failure or broken neck while in the road in a freak accident.

When Singh leaves, William is lost in his thoughts. He feels guilty because he had wished Nandani would disappear that night. Dimly, he feels that there is some unseen force aligning events according to his wishes, no matter how foolish they may be.

Ipoh/Batu Gajah. Friday, June 26

Ji Lin spends the week scanning the papers for news of Ren. By Friday, she’s so stressed that Mrs. Tham gives her the day off. Ji Lin wishes she could speak to Shin about the finger. But seeing Ren, and seeing whether her plea to Yi was successful, is at the top of her mind. She goes to Batu Gajah to try to see him.

When she arrives at the Batu Gajah train station, she immediately spots William and Dr. Rawlings. She ducks behind a pillar to eavesdrop. Dr. Rawlings tells William that the poisoning was either murder or suicide. Ji Lin notes that William sounds defensive when he acknowledges that the woman who died was his patient, who was friendly with Ren. Dr. Rawlings says he’ll send samples to a nearby lab and won’t bother with a more prestigious one, indicating the girl isn’t important enough: “if it’s just a local girl committing suicide or taking some fool remedy” (249-250).

Ji Lin waits for a few minutes to move from her spot. However, when she steps into the street, she accidentally steps in front of William’s car. He offers her a ride. Once inside the car, she asks if Ren is alright. He tells her that he is still in the hospital and asks her if she’s working there today. She tells him that she was only there to help her brother, who works in the hospital. William is pleased that Shin is her brother.

William also asks Ji Lin if she saw Nandani on the night of the party. She surmises she’s the dead woman and asks William if she was there to see him. William abruptly looks out the window. She mentions Ren looking for Nandani in the house, and William seems guilty.

William asks Ji Lin what kinds of dreams she has, and Ji Lin feels that the time has arrived for her to ascertain whether William is really the fifth of the set. She senses that, the further the five wander from one another, the more the balance in each of their lives is disrupted. She remembers that Yi said the fifth is the most wayward one.

Ji Lin tells him she dreams about a river, a train, and a boy. William also dreams about a river, but there’s a woman standing in it who’s angry with him, and that’s why he says he writes letters. There’s an unsettling glint in William’s eye. He says it seems fateful that they find themselves together so often.

When they arrive at the hospital, Ji Lin struggles with the door. She’s afraid that William is going to sexually assault her when he leans over her to help her with the door. But she tells herself it’s only her imagination when she senses “a sudden predatory feeling as [she stares] at his hands. Clever, surgeon’s hands…[that] would have a vicelike grip” (253).

Once inside the hospital, William and Ji Lin run into Lydia. Lydia refuses to acknowledge Ji Lin. She tells William that she must talk to him. However, he says he has his shift soon, giving Ji Lin a conspiratorial look that confuses her.

Batu Gajah. Friday, June 26

Ren floats in an ambiguous temporality. He grieves the loss of his finger and wonders if William will replace him with someone else because of it. He feels that he is forgetting something about Dr. MacFarlane, and he only has 2 days left. William lies to him and says that Nandani is fine, but Ren insists that Nandani is still wandering. Ren senses that someplace is calling to him: “He has the feeling that he’s in the middle of a journey; everything else is an interruption” (256).

When he awakens later, Ren sees Ji Lin in the hallway, and his cat sense flares. However, William and Lydia make their way into his room before Ji Lin. Lydia gives him a very elementary alphabet book, and William corrects her, saying that Ren can read quite well.

Ji Lin comes into Ren’s room, and he grows very happy. She tells him that she’s happy to see that he’s alright. She asks him if his injuries hurt, and then when Ren feels weak, Ji Lin leaves to alert a nurse. Ren feels pulled away, despite his desire to sit and talk with Ji Lin. He also dimly perceives Lydia and William conversing. Lydia says she knows about Iris.

In the hallway, Lydia asks Ji Lin how she knows William. Ji Lin says that he merely gave her a ride to the hospital. Ji Lin warms up to Lydia when she describes her pro-woman initiatives: helping local girls find jobs and educating women on “feminine needs.” Lydia also gives Ji Lin a warning: “Those who get involved with [William] tend to be unlucky. Especially young women” (259).

Given her knowledge of Iris, William now regards Lydia as an adversary, though he doesn’t know what she wants. He wishes she would disappear.