Chapter 5

What could a fourteen-year-old girl do to get a large sum of money quickly?

I knew the answer.

At dawn, I slipped out without telling Pa. I scooped up two handfuls of snow and pressed them to my cheeks until my face turned deathly pale, then bit my lips until they flushed deep pink. With my head held high, I marched into Wine Alley.

Wine Alley lay in the Western Market and sold nothing but liquor.

The depths of winter were the best season for distilled spirits. To collect more liquor taxes, the court encouraged taverns to employ pretty girls as wine hostesses. They were called courtesans, but they did not have to sell their bodies. All they had to do was stand outside and smile at customers.

There were more than a dozen taverns in the alley. Not one would take me. They burst out laughing at the sight of me.

“Run back where you came from, little beggar. You haven’t even grown up yet, and you’re trying to lure men?”

I told them not to look down on me. I could work hard!

Every proprietor saw through my bluster.

Only the proprietress of Drunken Blossom Lodge, who happened to be idly doing her makeup, was willing to hear me out.

She was a beautiful woman. After looking me up and down with a smile, she offered me a chance.

“The street is full of drunks. Bring even one through my door, and I’ll hire you.”

I nodded eagerly.

But the drunks outside at dawn had already been drinking all night. They could barely walk and were rushing to work. Why would any of them let me lure them back into a tavern?

No matter how brightly I smiled or how sweetly I spoke—even when I tugged my collar lower—I could not stop a single man. I was nearly in tears.

Then inspiration struck.

I seized a friendly-looking fellow and said, “Big Brother, come inside with me. Just walk in and back out, and my mistress will give you thirty coppers. How about it?”

The bewildered man actually let me drag him in by the sleeve.

The proprietress laughed so hard she pounded the table.

“What a sly little thing! Very well, I’ll make an exception and take you.”

She paid the man thirty coppers, wiped my face clean with a handkerchief, and studied me with some satisfaction.

“I use my husband’s surname. Call me Madam Liu.”

Madam Liu took a small banknote from her cashbox and pushed over a box of red ink paste.

With Liangting’s illness on my mind, I snatched the note and tried to stuff it into my robe.

She pinned it beneath one hand, her alluring eyes narrowing.

“Remember, once you accept these twenty taels, you belong to my household. Don’t think of running. If you do, I’ll report you to the authorities.”

I raced home with the note tucked against my chest, not daring to meet Pa’s eyes. I hoisted Liangting onto my back and sprinted for the clinic.

How could Pa, walking on his hands, ever catch me?

As he struggled to the mouth of the alley, I kowtowed to the physician and said, “Please treat my little brother properly.”

Then I turned and ran.

Pa and the beggar chief on our street were sworn brothers. As long as the clinic was paid, no one would dare cheat Liangting.

I returned to Drunken Blossom Lodge.

Madam Liu fed me, then ordered servants to scrub me clean with three basins of bathwater. I put on one of her old dresses and a pair of silver earrings, then stood outside the tavern and sang.

“The wine is rich, the food smells fine; a pretty girl stands at the door. Her eyes beguile, her figure charms—take her inside and kiss her more.”

I cried as I sang.

Madam Liu’s smiling eyes hardened. She lashed my palm with a willow switch.

“Why are you crying? What rotten luck! Ruin my business, and I’ll strip you and sell you to the brothels next door!”

After that, I did not even dare cry.

Being a wine hostess was miserable. There was little business during the day, but at night we stood from the first lanterns until midnight. Each tavern kept five or six girls. The pretty, clever ones could rest inside with hot tea. If a guest asked them to pour wine, they earned a little extra.

As the newcomer, I did the coldest, most tiring work. Whenever someone passed, I had to sing and wave my sleeves. Their heavy perfume made me want to vomit.

Still, food and lodging were included. Once I endured the first few days, it became a little easier.

I only missed Pa terribly.

And my young master.

Had his hand been saved?

After a dozen dazed days, I became a smiling doll.

One night, a group of wealthy men asked me to pour their wine. I had never drunk before. After two swallows, I clapped a hand over my mouth and ran toward the door to be sick.

That was when I saw my young master.

He had been brought on a mule cart, wrapped in my ragged quilt, and was staring straight at me.

I had never seen such despair in Liangting.

The light in his eyes was about to shatter.

Pa followed beside the cart while people all along Wine Alley laughed at them. Afraid they would freeze, I hurried them into the back room.

Liangting’s face was white with pain, but he gripped my hand and refused to let go.

“Tofu, come home with me. I won’t treat my hand anymore.”

I forced a smile. “I’m not going back. I can earn more silver here.”

His jaw tightened. “Foolish beggar, don’t you know a wine hostess is still a prostitute?”

I shook my head and hurried to explain. Wine hostesses did not sell their bodies. At worst, they poured drinks while customers groped their breasts and thighs. We even got spending money every month.

“If I work here, none of us will starve or freeze. We can save enough to heal your hand too.”

Pa hated brothels more than anything. He grabbed the door bar and launched himself at me, so furious he nearly coughed blood.

“If men grope your breasts and thighs, what are you if not a whore?”

“Is this what I taught you? Not one word before you disappeared! I’ve searched the whole capital for days, and here you are selling yourself!”

“Uncle, don’t hit Tofu!” Liangting shouted. Then, more calmly, he said, “Go rest outside, Uncle. Let me speak to her.”

But he did not speak calmly at all.

The moment Pa left, Liangting lifted a bamboo chopstick holder and smashed it down at his own left wrist.

Thankfully, the waiter carrying wine was quick. He cried out and knocked the holder aside, so it struck Liangting’s palm instead.

I froze in horror, then threw myself around his arm, sobbing.

Liangting trembled with pain, but his voice was gentle.

“Tofu, don’t move. It doesn’t hurt.”

“But if you stay here, I would rather cripple this hand myself.”

“Pah! What dreadful words!” Madam Liu glared at me. “When you sold yourself, we agreed that taking my money made you mine. I haven’t earned back my investment, and now you want to leave? There is no such bargain.”

Liangting stood and bowed to her.

“Aunt Liu, you should recognize me. I am the former young proprietor of Tianxiang House. You once supplied my family with wine.”

Shock crossed her face. She stared for a long time, uncertain how to address him.

“So it is Young Master Cheng.”

“You know that even a starving camel is larger than a horse,” Liangting said. “I have fallen, but I will not remain fallen forever.”

“Tofu’s bond price was twenty taels. I used five. I will return the remaining fifteen now, and within three months I will repay the rest with interest. I can also show you how to make your tavern more prosperous.”

His clothes were rags, but his words carried weight.

That snowy night, I took off the beautiful dress and put my patched coat back on.

My tears never stopped, but neither did my smile.

Liangting leaned on my arm and Pa’s shoulder as we made our way home one step at a time.

“Tofu,” he said, “there are countless ways to earn a living. Slavery and prostitution are the worst of them. Once you enter that door, you never truly come out. Even if your body leaves, the person you were remains inside.”

“We will earn clean money.”