chapter 1
chapter 1
Master returned from a journey with a woman in tow.
She looked to be in her forties. Dressed in a gray homespun jacket, she carried a shoulder pole with a basket hanging from either end.
“Take your pick, Master. Ginseng fruits.”
She smiled, revealing two sparse rows of tobacco-yellow teeth, then bent down and drew several red cloth bundles from her baskets, laying them out in a neat row.
When she peeled back the cloth, I saw a kind of fruit I had never encountered before. Each one had a mouth and nose, brows and eyes. Each looked just like a baby.
Their fragrance was uncanny, sweet and milky. Their skins were soft and smooth, like white mutton-fat jade.
I could not help leaning closer for a better look.
Master beckoned to me with a broad smile. “Nan Tao, come see. Ginseng fruits.”
The fruits came in every height and shape, fat and thin, each so lifelike it seemed ready to breathe.
Master pinched my arm and gave me a suggestive smile. “Now we needn’t worry about her barren belly!”
By “her,” he meant Madam. She had been frail from birth and unable to bear children. She had consulted physicians, swallowed medicines, and tried every folk remedy imaginable.
Now she was to try a ginseng fruit.
The woman stood fidgeting, tugging at her sparse gray hair while her eyes darted about. “Master, these fruits mustn’t see daylight. You’d best choose quickly.”
Only then did Master bend down to inspect them. “Is there anything I should know?”
“Ginseng fruits come male and female,” the woman said. “Female fruits are delicate and juicy, fit for admiring or savoring. Male fruits are plump and hearty. They prolong life.”
Master’s eyes lit up. “Prolong life?”
“Of course! A household with a male fruit will preserve its bloodline and incense. You’ll live out your old age in comfort, with no troubles left to fear.” She paused, her beady eyes rolling. “But naturally, male and female fruits don’t cost the same.”
A female fruit, she said, cost two hundred gold pieces. A male fruit cost eight hundred.
Master scoffed. “What female fruit could possibly be worth two hundred gold?”
“Oh, my good master, at two hundred I’m practically giving it away!” She snatched up a female fruit. “Feel how smooth it is. Look how fair and tender. Even if you don’t enjoy it yourself, it would make a very presentable gift.”
Master said nothing. He stroked his chin as if considering the matter.
Fearing she had lost the sale, the woman hurried on. “Besides, a female fruit can grow into a fruit tree, and that tree will bear more fruit. Spring after autumn, generation after generation—an inexhaustible bounty!”
According to her, a ginseng-fruit tree yielded a crop every ten months and could live for at least forty years. Even when the tree finally died, someone would buy its withered trunk. It had other uses, she said.
I shook my head as I listened. “People say cherries are sweet but their trees are hard to tend. If ginseng fruits are this fragrant and delicious, surely their trees must be even harder to keep?”
The woman curled her lip. “That only shows what you know. Nothing under heaven is easier to keep alive than a ginseng-fruit tree!”
She claimed the tree needed no careful tending. A little water every few days was enough to keep its roots alive.
It did not matter if its leaves yellowed and withered, or if its branches grew thin and weak. In the hottest days of summer, insects could swarm over its trunk; in the depths of winter, wind and snow could split its bark. None of that mattered.
As long as the roots remained alive, it would go on bearing ginseng fruit.
Master finally looked pleased. He ran his fingers over the tender skin of a female fruit and lifted it to his nose.
Its milky fragrance was irresistible.
In the end, Master paid one thousand gold pieces for one male and one female fruit.
The woman grinned so widely that her eyes disappeared. Her sun-blackened face resembled dry bark, pitted and deeply furrowed. “That’s the way, Master. One male and one female—a perfect pair!”
Master stroked his beard. Something resembling a mouth emerged from the hair. “Where do these ginseng fruits come from? Why is every one so glossy and well fed?”
The woman hoisted her shoulder pole, lowered her voice, and leaned toward him mysteriously. “Rest easy, Master. I harvest all my fruits after dark. I cross several mountains and carry them here through the night. They’ve never been sick and never been dosed with medicine! I run an honest trade. I’ve sold ginseng fruits for years—I’d never ruin my own good name.”
Master weighed the two plump white fruits in his palms, then gave me a satisfied look.
The woman stopped him before he could leave. “One moment, Master. There is something else I must tell you.”
He frowned impatiently. “What?”
“Ginseng fruits are nourished by the vital breath of heaven and earth, born from the essence of yin and yang. You must therefore heed the Five Elements and proceed with care.”
“What do the Five Elements have to do with it?”
“When ginseng fruit meets metal, it is born. When it meets wood, it hides. When it meets water, it surges. When it meets fire, it swells. When it meets earth, it returns.”
“Speak plainly.”
At the sight of metal—gold—a ginseng fruit will fall. However young or unripe, any fruit can be harvested if there is enough gold. Thus, when it meets metal, it is born.
A ginseng fruit follows its roots and flees. However large it has grown, once it finds its root, it vanishes without a trace. Thus, when it meets wood, it hides.
A ginseng fruit forms beside water. It comes from a surging tide and will return to one, so beware the tide—especially a tide of people. Thus, when it meets water, it surges.
A ginseng fruit expands in fire. The fiercer the blaze, the larger the fruit will swell, until it can no longer be concealed and disaster follows. Thus, when it meets fire, it swells.
A ginseng fruit returns when placed in earth. A female fruit buried and raised to maturity becomes a towering tree bearing fruit without end. If it dies in the ground, however, that is the end of it. It will never make another sound.
“Those are the mysteries of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—birth, concealment, surging, swelling, and return. Master, you must remember them.”
After the woman left, Master put both fruits in my hands.
“Nan Tao, take these to Madam. Tell her to eat one at once!”
I looked down. The two tiny fruits had tiny brows and tightly shut eyes, tiny arms and legs curled close to their bodies…
When I came to my senses, my palm was sticky. Sweet scarlet juice seeped from their stems.
A shudder passed through me. I covered them with the red cloth and carried them inside.
Madam sat cross-legged on her couch. The moment she saw me, she thrust out both hands, her bloodless fingers clawing at empty air. “Quickly! Give them to me! My ginseng fruits!”
I lowered my eyes and presented them.
Madam took the male fruit and cradled it in both arms.
“Madam, Master says that once you eat the ginseng fruit, you will have a child of your own,” I said meekly.
Slap!
Her palm struck my face, leaving it burning. I stared up in shock and found Madam glaring at me with naked malice.
“Listen well, Nan Tao. Not everyone deserves a ginseng fruit! If you dare ask Master for one, I’ll beat you to death!”
I dropped to my knees and knocked my forehead against the floor. “I would never dare, Madam. This servant does not want a ginseng fruit!”
Only then was she satisfied. She unwrapped the red cloth from the male fruit and repeatedly stroked the stem between its legs, smiling in rapture.
Then she opened her mouth wide and stared…
And bit off half the male fruit’s head.
Crunch. Crunch. As she chewed and swallowed, scarlet juice welled between her teeth and ran over her chin and fingers.
My stomach heaved. I nearly vomited and hurriedly bowed my head.