Peach Blossom Pavilion (18 page)

"Because many people had bid for your first night and Big Master Fung won by paying the highest price. So if he comes back and finds out that you're not a virgin anymore, he'll really smash the cave this time. Yesterday was nothing, he just kicked over a table and smashed the mirror and a few plates. Anyway, everyone will be in big, big trouble, Mama, you, and especially De. Since he drank the first soup of your virginity paid for by Big Master Fung, not only is it an insult to the man, but he has also lost the chance to rejuvenate himself-"

"But there are so many other virgins here-"

"But you're the prettiest one, and he's already paid a lot."

I started to cry.

Pearl pulled me into her arms and we nestled against each other for long moments.

Finally she released me. "Xiang Xiang, don't worry too much. Since we sisters all have a scheming heart, we can always figure a way out-"

"But how?"

"When Big Master Fung comes again, Mama will give you a small vial of chicken blood to smear on the white cloth. She always prepares the girls for that to cheat the customers. Sometimes we even smear lipstick on our lute strings to charm those chou nanren.

"But I can't tell Mama this, De said he'll skin me alive!"

"All right, then I'll prepare that for you."

"But I'll get caught by Big Master Fung!"

"You'll get him drunk first."

"But what if he doesn't drink?"

"Ha! Don't you worry about that! If a customer doesn't drink, he doesn't whore either. They all come for the five poisons-whoring, gambling, drinking, idling, and opium."

"Then what about if he asks me to drink with him and then I get drunk instead?"

"When a customer asks you to drink with him, get him drunk by refilling his glass, but you spit out the drink onto one of the potted plants."

"Then what if he just won't get drunk?"

"Then feed him with opium. I'll give you some when Big Master Fung comes back. I've stored some away over the years for emergency use.

"What about if he won't smoke opium?"

"Xiang Xiang, you're a little worrier, aren't you? But it's a good sign, proves you're cautious. I like that." She patted my arm. "I told you not to worry. Remember how I taught you how to seduce a man with your eyes?"

I nodded.

"I bet before Fung's lips touch any liquor, he'll already be drunk from your gaze. Especially if you let your clothes slip down to reveal your shoulder. You understand?"

I nodded again. Moments passed before I blurted out, "What about if he doesn't come back?"

"Ha! You mean after he's paid for everything?"

"But I kicked him in the face."

"Xiang Xiang, you really don't know about men, do you? He won't lose interest in you until he's fucked you. Now you're still an exotic dish on top of a tall table over which the little boy in him drools. Believe me," Pearl spat, "he won't pull his pants up until he's tasted the delicious sauce from your golden plate!" She plunged on, "That's why the Whoring Classic says, `Wives are less appealing than concubines, concubines less than prostitutes, prostitutes less than someone else's wives. And the greatest appeal of all is the woman you fail to seduce.' "

Now Pearl looked at me with concern. "But of course Fung might also come back just to smash the cave."

All the channels in my body jolted awake. "Then what am I going to do?"

"But it hasn't happened yet. And when it does, I'll find a way out. I always do."

The time when Pearl had appeased the police chief and saved Spring Moon flashed across my mind. Suddenly overwhelmed by a deep emotion, I flung myself into her arms. "Sister Pearl, thank you so much. I don't know what I would do without you."

She rocked me gently, like a mother cooing over a sick child.

When she finally released me, I said, "Sister Pearl, can you play the qin for me, please?"

She immediately took the instrument from underneath her bed. Then she lit the incense and began to tune it. "This time I'll play you `Three Variations on the Plum Blossom.' "

After Pearl had played a few notes, she stopped. "Xiang Xiang, the plum blossom is the only flower that survives the severest winter unscathed, always standing erect and looking proud. It represents uprightness and the unconquerable spirit." She then told me the story of the famous swordsman Nie Zheng, whose father was murdered by an evil warlord. Nie hid in the mountains and cultivated himself by playing the qin until he could return for justice.

Pearl sat straight and meditated, her fingers resting on the edge of the sound board, ready to dissolve my pains and worries. Then she began to play.

Mesmerized by the purity of the qin's tones and the choreography of Pearl's fingers, I could almost see Baba, hair turned white and body emaciated, marching fearlessly up a mountainside in a snowstorm. He seemed to look at me and say, "Xiang Xiang, you can let people take away your life, but never your spirit." Then, as his back was receding into the distance, I heard his proud voice recite, "If there's no bitter chill to the bones, how can there be extra fragrance from the plum blossom?"

There was a chill on my life now but I would never let my spirit be taken away. I must work very hard to accumulate a lot of money so that one day I could leave Peach Blossom Pavilion and find Mother. But Baba was dead; there was no place to look for him. However, I could be like Nie and cultivate secretly-alas, not on a mountain but in a whorehouse-until I could avenge Baba's death. I'd find that thousand-knives-slashed warlord who'd destroyed our family and put a bullet in his head! But how to find this bastard?

Now all I could do was watch intently as Pearl's fingers plucked and flicked, pulled and glided zealously, like plum blossoms wrestling with the snowstorm, until tears filled my eyes. The music ended with a few soft harmonics like the fading away of thunder in a distant land.

I wiped my tears and sighed. "Sister Pearl, can you also teach me to play this one?"

"Only if you promise me one thing. Xiang Xiang," she said, looking deep in thought, "remember I told you that Spring Moon reminded me of someone?"

I nodded. "Who is it?"

"My elder sister."

"Where is she now?"

Pearl's eyes moistened, but this time the moistness didn't make her look flirtatious, but sad. "Gone."

"What happened?"

"Ruby hanged herself in the temple of the haunted garden here."

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Sister Pearl. But why?"

"I can't tell you now. Xiang Xiang, after what you've gone through, you need a good rest. Why don't you go back to your room?"

I shook my head. "Sister Pearl, what difference does it make?"

We remained silent, staring into each other's eyes.

Finally she spoke, "All right. But promise me to keep this a secret until the day you die. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

She lowered her voice to a whisper. "My father was a revolutionary trying to overthrow the Ch'ing government-"

"Oh heaven! "

Pearl cast me a sharp glance to shut me up. "After the movement failed, he disguised himself and fled into the countryside, but the emperor's soldiers soon found him and executed him. Not only that, since he'd been extremely influential, the government also tried to eliminate all his relatives. My mother changed our names and sent me and my elder sister here where no one would look for us. Then she ... killed herself."

Tears rolled down Pearl's cheeks, while I remained silent, too stunned to say anything. She wiped her face with the back of her hand. "That's why although Peach Blossom Pavilion is a whorehouse and Mama and De are nothing but monsters, I can't forget that I owe my life to coming here.

"My sister died eight years later-"

"What happened?"

"Ruby met an opera singer and fell madly in love with him. But he had no money, so she gave him her big diamond ring-a gift from her most favored guest.

"One evening the guest saw her eating with the opera singer in a restaurant. The diamond ring was sparkling on his finger. Next day, when Ruby was leaving Peach Blossom to answer a call for a party, a stranger dashed up and splashed acid on her face-"

I instinctively covered my cheeks.

"Ruby never looked at her face again. She walked right back to the temple in the haunted garden and hanged herself."

I reached to touch Pearl's hand. "Sister Pearl, I am so sorry."

She sighed. "Like you, I was totally left alone in this world. So I swore I'd never let any dog-fucked stinking males break my heart and ruin my life." Suddenly Pearl tilted her head and laughed. "The strange thing is, the more aloof I act, the more they cling to me like babies to nipples. So I'm going to stay here for a few more years to exercise my charm." She paused, then spoke again in a near whisper, "I've never told anyone this but you. Actually the real reason that I stay is because of Ruby."

"But ... she's dead."

"Yes. But her spirit is still alive."

I felt my hair standing on end. "You mean her ghost?"

Pearl didn't really answer my question. "There's a yellow butterfly-" Again she stopped, her mind seemed to be wandering in some distant land. "She's the reincarnation of Ruby."

"You mean her ghost dwells in a butterfly? Why do you think that?"

"Because Ruby liked butterflies and yellow was her favorite color. What's more, whenever I go to the haunted garden to pay respect to her, there's always a yellow butterfly hovering around me. I want to be with her as long as it lives."

"But butterflies don't live long."

"I believe she's already been reincarnated many times."

"Oh," I exclaimed, not knowing whether to believe this reincarnation business or not. But I was touched by Pearl's loyalty to her sister. If only I had a real sister like her!

Just then Pearl spoke, "Xiang Xiang-"

"Yes?"

Now she stared at me with her eyes full of tenderness. "Would you like to be my little sister?"

I was too overwhelmed to respond. Seconds passed before I said, "Sister Pearl, you mean ... but aren't we sisters already?"

"Of course I don't mean that." She chided me affectionately. "You know what sworn blood sisters means?"

I nodded. She went on, "I want us to be like that. You want that, too?"

I felt too touched to say anything. That's exactly what I wanted-a beautiful, knowledgeable, and problem-solving big sister! This time my head nodded like a mallet hitting a drum in an opera battle scene.

"Good, then go back to your room now. I need to prepare for the ritual. Come to my room tomorrow after three-thirty in the morning.

The next day I sneaked into Pearl's room as planned. To my surprise, instead of being all dressed up for the "ritual," she wore no makeup; her jacket and pants, though silk, were plain white with no embroidery.

"Sister Pearl," I sat down on the sofa next to her, "I thought you told me we'd have a ritual-"

She nodded, arranging paraphernalia inside a basket.

My heart beat fast with excitement and fear. "Are we going to run away?"

"No, just to the garden."

"You mean the haunted garden where you ..."

She picked up the basket and took my hand. "Let's go."

I was disappointed to see that this time the garden had no moons reflecting on puddles. It made me think of a girl, eyes shut, refusing to let people peek inside her soul. Silently I followed Pearl all the way inside the temple, my heartbeats synchronizing with her shredded golden-lotus steps.

Inside the dilapidated hall, the lantern in Pearl's hand cast its beams on a spider's web, a broken window, a dust-covered chest resembling a wounded animal. I could not keep myself from looking up at the ceiling. Thick beams radiated out from the center. I wondered from which one Ruby's willowy body had dangled, and how many other sisters had twitched in midair, gasping futilely for one more breath on earth.

With all the lifeless bodies hanging in my mind, I was too frightened even to take deep breaths, let alone ask Pearl any questions.

Now I found myself in front of an altar, with Pearl by my side, lovely but ghostly under the lantern's ivory light. Her expression was sad, but her movements were precise. She wiped the dust from the altar with a rag, then lifted the faded altar cloth and reached underneath to take out a Guan Yin statue. Next from her basket she withdrew a small incense burner and put it beside the wooden Goddess. After that she took out a vase with fresh flowers, a plate with an assortment of fruit and another one with snacks, and a small tea set.

After she'd finished arranging these on the altar in front of Guan Yin, she turned to me and said, very softly, as if fearing she might disturb someone-although I was sure no people were around-or even ghosts. I was not sure about their presence, but I couldn't prove their absence either!

"Xiang Xiang, now we're going to light incense, pray to Guan Yin, then pledge our sisterhood in front of her as our witness. Don't ask any questions, just follow what I do."

Pearl lit three incense sticks, then handed the last one to me. The strong aroma purified the stale hot air while tearing at my nostrils. Through the veils of smoke, Pearl's face looked unreal, like a beauty floating under water. Now she laid three tea cups in a straight line and poured tea.