chapter 2

The House of Crimson Delight was like every other brothel: money made a man king.

Aunt Mei stood at the entrance surrounded by fluttering beauties, smiling and calling to the customers.

“Gentlemen, come see our new girl~”

A stranger came in.

Aunt Mei accepted his purse, her smile widening, and led him toward us.

He was twice as broad as I was and nowhere near handsome. One eye was larger than the other, his nostrils pointed upward, and coarse hair covered the lower half of his face.

As he approached, his wolfish gaze swept over me.

I quickly bowed my head, hardly daring to breathe.

“Sir, a spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold. Please, go in.”

Aunt Mei sent him into the room in a sugary voice and gave me one last pointed look.

I answered with my most dependable expression. Leave it to me!

The door closed. My heart drummed. Zhi Niang, please endure it.

The women always said this was something one survived by enduring.

At last, sounds came from the room: the man’s rough panting, the bedstead squealing and rocking, and beneath it all Zhi Niang’s broken whimpers, small as an injured animal.

Aunt Mei sashayed past on inspection and smiled in satisfaction.

Zhi Niang really was capable.

The man emerged fastening his trousers, carrying a rank smell and sighing with contentment.

He glanced at me and grinned obscenely. “That one was nice and wet.

“Here. A tip.”

Several copper coins struck the floor.

“Thank you, sir.”

I crouched and picked them up one at a time. Before I finished, another pair of shoes appeared before me.

I followed a pair of bowed legs upward. It was the butcher who supplied our meat.

At the sight of my face, he frowned in disgust and pushed straight through the door.

“Wait! You can’t—”

I tried to stop him, but Aunt Mei seized my arm, pinching hard enough to hurt. “What do you think you are, blocking a customer? Get out of the way!”

Her face hardened. “You’re not needed here. Go wash clothes in the back courtyard!”

I did not move, so she kicked me viciously.

The bed began creaking again. Worried about Zhi Niang, I stiffened my neck and asked, “But hasn’t she already received one patron?”

Aunt Mei slapped me. “She disobeyed, so she must be punished.”

The tea had been drugged with an aphrodisiac.

Once it took hold, the effects were fierce. Without an antidote, it took a whole night of men to exhaust it.

Aunt Mei kept the drug especially for disobedient girls.

Zhi Niang received five patrons that night. Every one of them praised her.

When I went to see her, she sat at the table with frightening red and purple marks scattered across her exposed neck.

A competent maid had a special role at such moments: comfort her mistress with great care, preferably while giving her a soothing massage.

“Get out!”

Before I came close, she spun and glared. Her almond eyes seemed ready to ignite.

Her voice was hoarse. The single shout made me freeze.

“I…”

“Who drugged me?”

I stammered, “Aunt Mei.”

Her voice softened. “I’m not crying. Why are you?”

I wiped at my face. Somehow, tears had poured everywhere.

Zhi Niang began to cry too. Her lips pressed tight as tears rolled down her cheeks, falling onto her white skirt and spreading through the cloth.

“It wasn’t you?”

I heard the suspicion in her voice and shook my head frantically. “No. I didn’t know there was anything in the tea.”

Zhi Niang suddenly broke into loud sobs, tears spilling like pearls from a broken strand.

“That damned old hag… This was rape!”

She collapsed over the table, shoulders shaking.

“Help… All I ever did was enjoy trashy novels…”

I said softly, “Zhi Niang, if you obey Aunt Mei, she’ll treat you well.”

Zhi Niang jerked up as though I had said something absurd. “Obey her and become a prostitute?”

I nodded.

What was wrong with that? This was a brothel. If she did not become a courtesan, she could only become a maid.

Zhi Niang was pretty, so naturally she belonged among the women men paid for pleasure.

She sniffled. “Forget it. You’re a fool. Why am I even explaining this to you?”

I fell silent.

Zhi Niang could be awfully mean.

“Little Yue’er, sleeping with men isn’t a big deal in itself. I’m a modern woman. I was sexually liberated ages ago.

“But…”

Her face crumpled beautifully beneath the tears. “Little Yue’er, why are all these men so ugly?”

I understood the words, though not the complaint.

“Huh? Are there men in the world who aren’t ugly?”

Zhi Niang tilted back her head. A bubble of snot appeared beneath her nose as she wailed at the top of her lungs.

“Aah! Aah! Aah! I won’t sleep with ugly men!”

Picking at my palm, I reminded her again, “Zhi Niang, if you disobey, Aunt Mei will punish you.”

She slapped the table. “I’m not afraid. To hell with her!”

Her eyes were red, jeweled with tears. Inside those beautiful eyes lived defiance, fury, and indignation—but not fear or surrender. She was heroic as any man.

Aunt Mei had survived decades as a madam in the pleasure quarter. She could not have lasted without skill.

Her methods for breaking people were exquisite. A hidden chamber in her room held all manner of strange medicines.

Zhi Niang suffered terribly. She tried to escape, but the House of Crimson Delight was a sealed cage. No one escaped.

I pleaded for her. “Aunt Mei, if Zhi Niang refuses to receive guests, let her be a maid.”

Aunt Mei backhanded me. “I don’t need another maid. I simply can’t stand those stiff bones of hers.”

She took her anger out on me and starved me for two days. When I finally delivered food to Zhi Niang, she pointed at me and laughed until snot and tears flew into the bowl.

At last, Zhi Niang yielded.

Clinging to Aunt Mei’s leg, she begged, “Aunt Mei, can I serve handsome men? The ugly ones… I truly can’t.”

I knew how much Zhi Niang valued a man’s face. Once, leaning against a bedpost with tears in her eyes, she had gritted her teeth and told me, “If this is a trashy novel, a man must have written it! No woman would invent this many ugly men. Waaah…”

Aunt Mei was a master of following a slap with a sweet date. She crouched and stroked Zhi Niang’s flawless cheek.

“Good, good, good! I’ve kept the House of Crimson Delight all these years. Ask anyone—who doesn’t think of me as her own mother? You girls are the flesh of my heart. Of course I can grant this tiny request.

“As long as you know what’s good for you, earn plenty of silver for me, and earn tips for yourself, your good days are still ahead.”

That evening, Zhi Niang received a bowl of fish soup cooked white as milk. Aunt Mei brought out only two bowls: one for the leading courtesan, one for Zhi Niang.

I helped arrange Zhi Niang’s hair, then went downstairs with her to welcome customers.

A band of soldiers entered. Among them was a young man visiting for the first time, his ears red, his gaze darting everywhere with embarrassment.

The officer leading them dragged him forward. “Find my good nephew a charming girl. Let him taste the delights of this tender land.”

He leaned close to Aunt Mei and lowered his voice.

“It’s his very first time.”

Aunt Mei’s delicate hand brushed the officer’s chest. “Don’t worry, sir. I guarantee the young gentleman will be satisfied.”

The youth was handsome and straight-backed, striking among the dark, rugged soldiers.

Aunt Mei’s eyes moved among the waiting women.

“I’ll do it!”

Zhi Niang stepped forward, glanced at the young man, and smiled like a peach blossom in full bloom.

“Aunt Mei, let me serve this young gentleman.”

Aunt Mei had just begun to nod when the leading officer grabbed Zhi Niang. “I want this one!”

His fleshy face held a pair of narrow eyes. Malice shone beneath their lids, dark and terrifying.

“I won’t—”

Zhi Niang tried to resist, but Aunt Mei pinched her hard on the backside and turned to the officer with a smile.

“Sir, upstairs, please.”

I thought I saw Zhi Niang tremble. At the order, a servant hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her upstairs.

I rushed after them and waited outside.

Much later, the satisfied officer departed, and I went in to wash and comb her.

Zhi Niang soaked in the tub, the steam turning her pale skin pink.

She sighed. “Little Yue’er, trashy novels are all lies.

“Women in a patriarchal age have no human rights at all.”

I did not understand a word. Scratching my head, I silently combed her hair.

Zhi Niang sighed again and patted my head with a dripping hand, soaking my hair in bathwater.