Tea Inquiry Pavilion

In Hong Kong in the 1960s and 70s, gold was everywhere, and so were the gangs. Auntie Qing of the Ask for Tea Teahouse in Causeway Bay is the most unusual presence in the underworld. The front room serves milk tea and wonton noodles, with all sorts of people filling the round tables. In the back is a fortune-telling room, where she reads people’s fortunes and misfortunes from behind a Bagua curtain. Gang bosses come to demand protection money? Three copper coins predict they’ll suffer a bloody disaster in three days, and they leave empty-handed without a fuss. Street con artists come to cause trouble? She exposes their scams in front of everyone and sends them slinking out of Causeway Bay. A police superintendent hits a dead end in an investigation? One casual hint from her leads straight to a gang of thieves. Auntie Qing is bold and decisive, but she has one weakness: she is waiting for someone, her army doctor husband, missing for ten years. The neighbors all say Auntie Qing’s predictions are uncannily accurate. So why doesn’t she tell her own fortune in love? Auntie Qing smiles without answering, her fingertips brushing the jade bangle.