My father was a libertine, with a particular taste for women with slender waists.
To curry favor with him, the officials beneath him scoured the land for willowy courtesans from Yangzhou.
In the end, they presented my mother to him.
Her waist was as slim as a willow, narrow enough to circle with one hand.
My father was infatuated with her.
The very day she entered his estate, he rewarded her with a bowl of medicine meant to make her barren.