Chapter 4
Laiwang had greeted patrons at the front door since he was eleven or twelve and was no meek, honest boy.
If a woman bullied him or used him as a mounting block, he nursed the grievance for half a year and bit back when she least expected it.
Yet he willingly carried letters for Xiaoyun.
Both of us could read, and every letter passed through his hands.
He delivered them to my room, refused money, and grinned as he snatched a few pieces of fruit from the table. That was payment enough.
Xiaoyun wrote that her teacher was good and she studied hard.
She had learned the basics of cutting cloth and embroidery.
The weaving house fed its apprentices well: three full meals a day and meat at month’s end.
A trained seamstress could earn five taels a month, she had heard, and if ladies admired her embroidery, they might casually tip another three or five.
“Auntie Qiu, I always keep a smile on my face. When I deliver things to great households, I listen to how the older girls speak to people. The ladies say my smile is sweet and give me fruit. One day they will like me too. Others need five years to qualify. Perhaps I can do it in three.
“Do not worry about my brother. He is well enough with another family. You are too thin, Auntie Qiu. Eat more and take care of yourself.”
I put one of the candied fruits she had sent into my mouth, smiling through tears.
Heaven above, what had I done to deserve so many true hearts?
Yujiao pretended to be ill for two days.
To avenge her, Madam Chun loudly cursed me again.
Then a wealthy patron visited Biyun, and Yujiao recovered at once and spirited him away.
He gave her a huge, glittering pearl, supposedly tribute from the Western seas. Everyone marveled at it.
Yujiao grew prouder and tried still harder to surpass Biyun.
Biyun had earned five thousand taels the previous month. Yujiao declared she would earn ten thousand.
When the man who gave her the pearl stayed away for several days, she sent a stream of letters and keepsakes to his residence.
Rumor said he had a fierce wife.
Brilliant peonies bloomed in his rear garden, in soil that hid countless beaten servant girls and concubines.
Yujiao dismissed the danger. “If a man truly cherishes me, even the fiercest tigress is made of paper.”
Madam Chun ordered me to embroider a new skirt in Yujiao’s room.
She reclined on a couch while a young maid beat her legs.
The girl let out two small farts and begged, “Sister, I will never chew raw radish again.”
Yujiao fanned the air and laughed. “Greedy little ghost. You certainly know what tastes good.”
For a moment I was back in our village.
Every year my sister begged Father to grow green radishes, then checked the garden ten times a day.
When they were ready, she washed off the mud and carried the first one to Father for a bite.
She even slept hugging her favorite radish for fear mice would steal it.
Father had long since gone to the underworld.
Mother was still home alone.
“Sister,” I said, “I cannot leave, but remember that Mother is still at home. And beware the man who gave you the pearl.”
She stared, then sneered. “That old corpse does not care whether I go home.
“She only loves you. What a pity she will never see her useless darling again.”
Shock and anger seized me. How could a daughter speak of her mother that way?
Yujiao sat up with a strange smile. “You have always wondered why no family letters came, haven’t you? Did you think Mother was ashamed that you became a whore? She was a young lady herself before the family fell.
“For five years I took her money and ran to the old teacher at the village school to have letters written. I tore up every one.
“She would not let me eat a single grain of rice, only husks and weeds, while she pinched every coin to redeem you.
“She forced me to sew beside her day and night until my eyes nearly fell out. With the money you sent home, she saved more than twenty taels.
“So what? I stole it all and ran.
“She must have fallen ill from rage. Who knows whether she is alive? If you want Mother, the road to the underworld may be shorter.”
I sat stunned. Five years of hurt, fear, love, and worry tangled into a weight upon my chest.
“She is your mother too,” I whispered.
“Then why did she always say I was inferior to you? In what way am I less?
“We are both whores. I became famous the moment I arrived. You balked and nearly starved. Now you trail after others for scraps like a lapdog.
“Everyone says I wronged my sister, yet I gained nothing from it. You sell your body and still erect an archway to your virtue.
“If she hated me so much, why would she not let a rich family take me as a child bride? She could not bear to see me live better than you. She wanted to tear out my bones and trade them for you.”
My thoughts churned.
I had been sixteen when I left and she ten.
Mother had always disliked her noise and unladylike ways, but Father protected her twice as fiercely.
After he died and I was gone, Mother and daughter had somehow become enemies.
Yujiao shoved me out, crying, “Nothing to say now, do you?”
Behind the door, she smashed things and stamped until the floor shook.
Biyun heard and pulled me into her room.
“Why meddle with her? Anger her and she will torment you again.”
The table was covered in clothes and jewelry.
Biyun held a dangling hairpin against my temple. “It suits you. My eye is excellent.”
“Are you opening a shop?” I asked.
She tapped me with the pin. “Fool. This is your dowry.
“Remember Young Master Lu? He is Master Lu now; his father has died.
“He likes you. Everything is settled with Madam Chun, and the money is paid. When his year of mourning ends, he will take you home.”
She clasped my hand. “You need not fear the madam or receive patrons anymore.
“Master Lu will provide for you. You are only lodging here and keeping me company.
“Once you enter his household, we will not be able to meet.”
“There must be a mistake. He loves you. Why would he want me?”
He had once been Biyun’s betrothed and visited whenever he could.
Once, drinking in my room, he had cursed Heaven with red eyes. He had thought Biyun would be his wife; now he could only wait until the middle of the night to see her.
I remembered what she had said beside my bed.
This was all her doing.
“What are you thinking?” I demanded. “Do you believe I can take what belongs to you and live without shame?
“No. I will not go. I hate men, and I will not abandon you.”
Her face hardened. “You thankless, perverse fool. You care only for your own whims. A useless creature like you will be beaten to death. I have business to do; I cannot grow eight hundred hearts to guard you every day.”
I wept from frustration. “You know that is not what I mean. Young Master Lu loves you. His parents no longer command him. Why not leave with him?”
Head bowed over the clothes, she said only, “I dislike his wife. When my family fell, her father rushed to steal the match. Go fight her for me.”
“Your lies are terrible. Besides, how can a useless creature fight anyone?”
I shook her. “What do you intend to do?”
At last she looked up, tears bright on her lashes. “I mean to become the next Madam Chun.
“They whisper that my father stole treasury silver, that our family deserved execution and I deserved the brothel.
“But he was innocent. A little tofu made him happy; he lived with almost nothing. Those officials conspired to lend out treasury funds. When inspectors came before they could replace the money, they made the one honest man their scapegoat. Had he joined them, he would have lived.
“Under a bright and righteous Heaven, why was our family destroyed while they kept their offices and wealth? I cannot accept it. This world gives a woman no other capital. I have only this body. If I attach myself to powerful men here, perhaps I can avenge my family before I die.
“Do not laugh at me, Qiu Niang. Without this dream to deceive me, I could not survive. I can never enter his house as a concubine.”