chapter 7

The year I showed Yan Ci my special skill, I was fifteen and he was seventeen.

Eunuch Su was the pig, and I was the butcher. With swift and clean strokes, I chopped the pig into twenty-four pieces.

After I finished, I stood before the twenty-four pieces of white meat and chanted Buddhist prayers with reverence.

Yan Ci was impressed by my professional pig-slaughtering technique and spared my life. He said that since I could not speak and was illiterate, I was perfectly suited to keep secrets.

The first secret I kept was the reason why Eunuch Su was killed by Yan Ci.

Yan Ci’s monthly silver as a Medicine Boy was barely enough to support himself and his birth mother, so he resorted to petty theft in the palace.

Eunuch Su went to pay respects to Momo, but unfortunately stumbled upon Yan Ci stealing slop to eat.

Seeing an opportunity for profit, Eunuch Su, emboldened by greed, realized Yan Ci had lost his power and tried to extort him.

Yan Ci could bear it no longer. He cracked open Eunuch Su’s skull and ordered me to dismember the body and bury the pieces in different places.

We found Momo’s letter on him. I said I couldn’t read it, and Yan Ci said it was fine-he would read it to me.

“Qi, Momo is very bad. Everyone remembers to hate Momo, but you must remember to think of Momo.”

After reading the letter, Yan Ci tossed Eunuch Su’s head into the Spring Water Pond. The head sank beneath the emerald waves with a plop, stirring the waters of spring.

“Does it sound nice?” Yan Ci carefully folded the letter for me. “If it sounds nice, it’s a good head.”