An Ugly Case (cont’d)
The Chinaman persistently kept visiting the hotel to see Omichi, but each time Kimoto and Harada turned him out. However, Zixuan finally became impatient and decided to officially process marriage with Omichi by having the owner of a fruit store in North Creek be a witness and hiring a white minister. One day, Joseph came to the hotel with the minister and the witness, forcefully pulled out lookout Harada and demanded Omichi sign the marriage registration form.
However, before this happened Kimoto and Harada had persuaded Omichi using every available word. “Chinamen have a different human sensibility than ours. Marrying the man will only produce a source of hardship for your life. You might feel like wanting to marry him on the impulse of the moment but, listen to us, you should change your mind this time. We will do everything to help you with your future course.” Their advice was so enthusiastic that she decided to make a fresh start and did not sign the form willingly. She shook her head and did not accept his request and Zixuan could not do anything about it. He lost face and backed down for a moment. However, the Chinese are persistent by nature. He was extremely disappointed by his failure to obtain Omichi’s signature after making all other arrangements with the minister and the witness, but continued to watch for the hotel in which Omichi was staying. Everyone was concerned that he was dangerous and tried to convince Omichi in different ways but she insisted that she did not want to go back to Chiba’s cave and would never prostitute herself again. Being helpless, they decided to send her to the Salvation Army and ask them for protection.
Omichi insisted that she did not want to prostitute and wanted to go back to Vancouver first, but devil Chiba could not make a decision. The series of negotiations became a sensation in the devil society and it struck Matsumoto’s ear. Matsumoto decided that it would be a great loss to return a prostitute to Vancouver and it would be imperative to acquire her at any cost. He immediately sent his wife Oshige to Calgary as an ambassador plenipotentiary.
To summarize, Oshige met Chiba and said something like, “Matsumoto was initially entrusted with Omichi Kawada by Hayashi in Nelson, so if you are going to let her go please send her to me instead of returning her to Vancouver.” But Oshige’s negotiation failed. There is a great reason for it.