Chapter 2
Early the next morning, Wang Debao emerged from Yujiao’s room, turned back at the door, and bowed deeply. “Miss Yujiao, I will come see you again in a few days.”
No one answered.
He rubbed his bald head, strutted downstairs, and sang a little tune.
At the landing he saw me. He tried to avoid me, then sidled over anyway.
Head bowed, he cupped his hands. “Qiu Niang, forgive me. I will repay your thirty-five taels as soon as I have money to spare.”
Then he fled.
Biyun scoffed behind me. “Men are all the same—shallow creatures who cannot resist a tease. Think of it as a dog bite, Qiu Niang.”
She patted my shoulder. “I have arranged it with Young Master Lu. He will wait in your room during the first half of tonight. I have already sent fruit and sweets.”
Biyun was second only to Yujiao among the house’s most sought-after women.
If two patrons asked for her in one night, she put half her business in my room.
The man never complained. He waited quietly.
Biyun was not like the rest of us.
She came from a good family and knew literature. Her patrons were gentle and courteous men who did not torment women.
All I had to do was brew tea and shell pine nuts, and I earned a generous extra tip.
Amid music and dancing shadows, another ten days passed.
Wang Debao returned in brand-new clothes with a red-paper parcel in his arms.
“Miss Yujiao, I am here!” he roared toward the upper floor.
Madam Chun shushed him. “Damn you, there is an honored guest upstairs. Did you bring enough silver?”
He thrust the parcel forward grandly. “A hundred taels. The extra twenty are for her rouge.”
Madam Chun took the money but made no arrangements.
Wang Debao grew anxious. “Why have you not called her down?”
She opened one palm. “Miss Yujiao’s price has risen. One hundred and fifty.”
They faced each other in a stalemate.
Suddenly, a commotion erupted at the door, and Laiwang, the doorkeeper, yelped.
A short young girl with her hair only recently pinned up burst into the hall and clung to Wang Debao. “Father, you promised to make us lined clothes when you collected the payment. The autumn frost will be here soon!”
Ancient Landowner Sun seized the chance to reach lecherously for her.
Biyun slipped between them and caught his paw. “Your eyes deceive you, Master Sun. This is a respectable family’s child.”
She signaled to me.
I pulled father and daughter aside. “Brother Wang, take your money and go home with your child. Do you not know what kind of place this is?”
His neck stiffened, his eyes bloodshot. “No. I must see her once more. My very bones have itched these past days. I would rather die here than leave without seeing her.”
His expression frightened the girl into releasing him.
Landowner Sun crept closer again, silver in hand.
There was nothing for it but to take the child to my room. I dampened a cloth and wiped her hands and face.
She nestled against me and began to cry. “Auntie Qiu, I knew it was you. The clothes and shoes smelled of your room.
“My brother and I swept the house clean. He even caught insects for a gardener in exchange for pots of chrysanthemums. We lined them up all bright and pretty, waiting for you to come home.
“Since Mother died, no one has made us such good clothes. We quarreled with Father, but all he can do is buy ill-fitting old things from shops. Even without measurements, yours fit better.
“My brother keeps the shoes tied at his waist because he cannot bear to wear them. He said he would put them on when you entered our home and he bowed to call you Mother, so you would be happy. Auntie Qiu, how did everything become like this?”
I stroked her head. There was no answer I could give, only a sigh.
After hiring a sedan chair to take Xiaoyun home, I returned to the hall and heard everyone laughing over the latest joke.
A poor cloth merchant had possessed large ambitions and little sense. Cloth worth sixty or seventy taels piecemeal had been sold at a loss for fifty.
The next morning, I waited outside Yujiao’s room.
When Wang Debao came out, I caught his arm. “Brother Wang, you told me of your wife. To save capital for you, she spun every night through the ninth month of pregnancy. When the family had only gruel, she ladled the thickest part into your bowl. Exhaustion killed her. This place devours gold. Your little capital will vanish in a blink, and your children are still young. Listen to me. Do not return.”
Yujiao shot from the room and struck me across the head.
“You shameless old hag! Any crack you see, you try to pry open and steal my man.
“Madam Chun, listen to her telling my darling Wang not to come. She eats your rice while smashing your bowl!”
The madam stormed up with a whip. “Qiu Niang, you have been here long enough to know better. Do not force me to beat you.”
Wang Debao ignored me. He sold his shop at a loss, took loans, and poured every coin into the Crimson Bower.
Days later, chased by creditors, he leaped from the high arched bridge. The river swept him away at once.
Xiaoyun came to the brothel door in mourning clothes.
The madam had people shove her away and offered fruit to coax her. Neither force nor kindness moved her.
With passersby watching, they could not resort to anything darker.
So she ordered me to persuade the girl.
Xiaoyun gripped my sleeve, her eyes brilliant. “I understand. That harlot Yujiao killed him. She will grow old and ugly one day too.
“Auntie Qiu, I will sell myself here. Tell me what price I can fetch. I trust no one else, and I will not let them cheat me.”
Her words carved at my heart.
I had sold myself because there was no other way. Xiaoyun wanted to do it out of hatred.
Why had my sister done it?
I crouched before her. “Child, life is not meant to be squandered in spite. Believe me: no woman in this trade meets a good end. It has been so for a thousand years. You need not take revenge. In the end, we are all rolled in torn mats and thrown into unmarked graves.”
She shuddered. “Will that happen to you too?”
I nodded.
She touched my cheek and sniffed. “You are a good person. It will not happen to you. Wait for me. I will sit the weaving-house examination, save enough money, and bring you home.”
I smiled. “Very well. I will wait.”