Secret of a Thousand Beauties (4 page)

“Don’t take too long. You understand that Aunty Peony didn’t take you in just for you to enjoy a hot bath, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, Sister Purple.”

Her voice softened a little. “Go ahead, here are your towel and clothes. I know you must be very tired, so after the bath you can sleep in my room. I’ll wake you up when it’s time to eat.”

After she left, I took off my clothes and got in the wooden tub. As I splashed the hot water over my bare skin, I sighed. Tears, as hot as the water, glided down my cheeks. What had I done? What would happen to me living with this group of woman embroiderers, all complete strangers? I scrubbed hard at the dirt that accumulated during my escape, hoping I’d also scrub off any remaining bad luck from the accursed wedding to an equally accursed ghost reincarnated as a cock!

When finished, I dried myself and put on the cotton top and pants. Purple was already waiting outside the bathroom. Without a word, she led me to her room and I collapsed onto her small cot. As soon as I entered my dream village, my ghost husband appeared. With a blurred face, dangling arms, and no feet, he stared hard at me, looking mournful.

“Wife, why have you abandoned me in the
yin
world, it’s freezing here.”

I answered defiantly, “You’re not my husband but a ghost wandering in the
yin
world in search of victims. I’m not your wife, but a living person. So leave me alone, or . . . you’d better watch out!”

I didn’t know where I got the courage to talk to a ghost like this—what if he was a bloodthirsty, vengeful one? Then I’d try my best to be an equally vengeful human!

But he didn’t budge. “Dear wife, have some mercy, life here is very lonely and miserable. So please . . .”

Wah,
a ghost intimidated by a human, a woman. I almost burst out laughing but suppressed myself.

“Please, my ass! Just get lost, won’t you?”

Miraculously, he did, scurrying away on his nonexistent feet.

I woke up weary and chilled. Now awake, I thought that if my “husband” decided to visit me again, I’d better be nice to him, just in case. After all, everybody knows it is not smart to offend a ghost. I also decided I had better get along with everyone in my new home. If there was any mishap, I might find myself joining my “husband” in the
yin
world. Depressed by this prospect, I fell back into a deep, troubled sleep.

I didn’t know how long I’d slept, but in my still groggy state, I heard someone push open the door. It was a smiling Purple.

“It’s already six-thirty in the evening. Poor girl, you slept the whole day; you must be exhausted. Leilei and I have prepared some good dishes. Now come and have dinner.”

She took my hand and led me to the living room and the long wooden table now covered with steaming plates of food. Everyone was staring at me as if I’d just returned from the world of the dead. After we sat down, I took the chance to get a good look at the house. Embroideries depicting landscapes, animals, birds, and lucky sayings hung on the four walls. Some were elaborate, others simple, but all looked refined and skillfully executed. One small table was filled with embroidering supplies—piles of fabric, paper on which faint drawings were traced, scissors, round wooden frames, bamboo baskets overflowing with spools of thread in a rainbow of colors, and other objects unfamiliar to me.

Against one wall was a wooden shelf with cubby holes crammed with more thread. On the opposite wall was an altar bearing a white Guan Yin statue, before which were placed offerings of tea, fruit, and flowers. The house seemed to be quite spacious, with several small rooms adjoining where we sat. A narrow staircase led up to another floor, which I guessed must be Aunty Peony’s private quarters.

After I scrutinized the house, I examined my sisters as unobtrusively as possible. While Purple was thin and frail, Leilei was curvaceous with sharp, sparkling eyes. Though she was pretty, I was put off by her harsh look and sarcastic expression. In its own way, each of the women’s faces, even Little Doll’s, seemed to conceal a bitter story. I sighed inside.

Strangely, the oldest of the group, Aunt Peony, seemed to me the most beautiful. Her elongated eyes, slender figure, and, most of all, her regal manner and authoritative voice pulled my eyes toward her like metal to a magnet. Her aristocratic bearing led me to wonder how she came to be in this lonely, dilapidated house.

Aunty Peony directed each girl to tell me how she came to be here. Purple’s husband had died six months after they’d been married at the age of eighteen. Her in-laws kicked her out of the house—accusing her of being the all-destroying star who’d brought the family bad luck, killing their first son, and depriving them of his grandchildren.

When she was fourteen, Leilei’s parents lost all their money and sent her to learn embroidery from Aunty; she never heard from them again. Little Doll never even knew her parents; she had escaped from her oppressive orphanage and was found by Aunty foraging for scraps near a village temple. Although Aunty let her do some simple embroidery, her main jobs were cleaning and cooking. I spoke briefly about my life with my mean aunt and my escape from the ghost wedding. I kept waiting for Aunty to tell her story, but after a long silence she merely said that there was nothing interesting to say about herself.

Anyway, there were enough other tragic stories gathered in this house to fill the evening. I wondered what evil
qi
and ill fate brought all these unlucky women to this house, including me. It was as if it were a contest as to whose story was the most tear-jerking.

Purple’s gentle voice interrupted my thoughts, explaining that Aunty Peony was the head of this small community of unmarried woman embroiderers. The work was done for a very famous store in Peking, which not only sold it to the locals, but also exported it to foreign countries like America, England, and France.

Purple complained that they were all underpaid for their hard work and skill, especially Aunty, who was the best even by international standards. The Peking company—Heavenly Phoenix—kept most of the money, even though the work sold for very high prices. However, all stayed because they had a better life here in this house than they’d led before. Here there was no controlling husband, jealous and abusive mother-in-law, or sexually harassing father-in-law. Here they could proudly live independent lives.

I was thinking that they were not so independent as they worked hard for not much money, but before I opened my mouth, Aunty said, “Let’s eat. Tonight Purple and Leilei cooked two extra dishes to welcome our new guest, Spring Swallow.” She gestured toward the table. “We have shrimp stir-fried with turquoise tea leaves and sweet-scented osmanthus chicken.”

“Thank you all for your kindness and hospitality,” I said, eyeing all the dishes as I sucked back my saliva.

Aunty went on. “We also opened a new canister of the best Dragon Well tea.”

After that, everyone picked up their tea cup, took a sip, and uttered, “Welcome to our humble residence, Spring Swallow!”

Little Doll pulled my sleeve. “Sister Spring Swallow, can you embroider with us?”

“I’d love to.”

I looked over at Aunty Peony, but she pretended she didn’t hear anything. Purple put a few shrimp on top of my rice and watched as I chewed noisily. Aunty Peony cast me a disapproving look, took a small bite of her scented chicken, and chewed gently with her mouth shut. Swallowing quietly, she picked up her tea cup, holding out three fingers to imitate the shape of an orchid.

After taking a delicate sip, she spoke through her heart-shaped pink lips. “Spring Swallow, if you share our roof and our dining table, you have to do something to help bring in money, either housework or embroidery.”

I felt so delighted to hear this that I blurted out, “I’d love to embroider!”

“Did you ever learn?”

I nodded. “Yes, in elementary school.”

I’d say yes to anything to have a roof over my head, let alone to learn embroidery. Both my chopsticks and bowl were suspended in midair as I added, “My mother knew how to embroider, too, but how well I have no idea. She died when I was very small.”

“Good. So you think you can learn fast?”

Good that my mother had died young? I was disappointed that this beautiful, older woman was not interested in my family or my life, only how quickly I could bring in money.

But I answered eagerly, “Don’t worry, Aunty. I’m a fast learner. So, will you teach me?”

She remained silent as Purple put another pork morsel into my bowl under the jealous eyes of Leilei.

We busied ourselves picking up the food, putting it into our mouths, and sipping the fragrant Dragon Well tea.

Minutes later, Aunty put down her chopsticks and, her eyes suddenly fierce, said, “But don’t think that I’ll teach you just like that. You have to
baishi,
you know?”

I nodded. Of course I’d heard of
baishi,
“kowtowing to the master”—the ceremony cementing the relationship between teacher and a student. However, if the student does something to offend the teacher, she’ll be kicked out. I’d also heard that for the rest of her life, whatever the student earns, she has to give some to her teacher.

Aunty cast me a suspicious look. “Since you’re a runaway bride, do you think you’ll have anything for your
baishi
ceremony?”

Part of the ceremony was the exchange of gifts between the new student and her teacher to commemorate the relationship.

“Sorry, Aunty Peony, I . . . don’t think so.”

Purple immediately came to my rescue. “Aunty, what about her wedding gown?”

“You think so? A wedding gown from a ghost husband’s family? But I’ll accept it if it’s your only possession.”

Of course I’d taken the precious
Soo
embroidery from the wedding gifts, but I was not going to let them know about this. Because it might be my lifesaver in the future. If my luck turned bad again, hopefully I could sell it for some cash. Anyway, I was more than happy to get rid of my wedding gown, which reminded me of nothing but misery. I hoped from now on that I wouldn’t have anything to do with my old life, my mean aunt, my dead-in-the-womb husband, and my pathetic, greedy Popo, the one whose dead son was my ghost “husband.”

“All right. Purple, you better help prepare for the
baishi
ceremony. Since you went through it yourself a few years ago, you don’t need me to tell you what to do, right?”

“Don’t worry, Aunty Peony; I’ll have everything ready soon.”

I wondered why Aunty Peony was in such a hurry, since I was still a stranger in this household.

Staring at her beautiful but haughty face, I felt too intimidated to ask.

3

T
hree days later, Purple lent me her embroidered pink top and pants with matching shoes for the
baishi
ceremony. I still couldn’t believe my good luck that just a few days after my escape, I was wearing new clothes and having a new life!

Purple, Leilei, Little Doll, and I all gathered in the living room in front of the small altar. Fruit, flowers, tea, and an incense burner had been placed in front of the white Guan Yin statue. Next to the Goddess of Compassion was a small portrait of an elderly woman.

Soon Aunty Peony descended from her room and went to sit on a high-back chair with her back to the altar. To my surprise, she was elaborately made up and wearing a red silk gown lavishly embroidered with birds and flowers. Her hair was pulled back and tied up in a tight bun, highlighting her beautiful, mysterious face.

When everything was in its proper place, Purple told me to kneel in front of Aunty Peony. Leilei poured a cup of tea and Little Doll lit the three incense sticks in the bronze burner. Soon the room was filled with the fragrance of sandalwood, pleasing my nostrils and soothing my heightened nerves.

Aunty Peony spoke, her tone as serious as if she were conducting a funeral service. “I don’t often take on students. But since Heaven decided to bring you to me just when I desperately need another pair of embroidering hands, I’ll take you in. If you prove to be a good embroiderer, you’ll embroider to bring in money. Do you accept?”

I nodded emphatically. I liked the idea of being an embroiderer, but anyway had no alternative. As she desperately needed help, I even more desperately needed to be housed and fed.

She cast a pitiful look at all of us. “I accepted you all as my students because I took pity on your dire situations—no money, no family, no husband. So besides being a teacher, I’m also your adoptive mother, you all understand?”

We all emitted a loud, “Yes, Teacher Peony!”

She turned back to me. “Now let me see your hands again.”

Nervously I placed my hands on Aunty Peony’s smooth-skinned, long-fingered ones. She flipped, squeezed, kneaded, and bent my hands as if they were two slabs of pork for New Year’s dinner. Her hands kept harassing mine for several moments until a relaxed expression bloomed on her face.

“Good. Your bones are perfect for doing the different stitches and complicated patterns.”

As I was about to thank her for this compliment, she spoke again. “Wait, Spring Swallow, don’t be happy too early.” She looked at me with her penetrating eyes. “Do your hands sweat?”

“No, Aunty Peony.”

“Good. But don’t lie to me. If I find out later that they do, you’ll have no place here. Sweaty hands, no matter how pretty and skillful, cannot embroider. The threads will stick to them so they can’t move smoothly. And the work will be stained and ruined.”

Some silence passed before she threw me another harsh question. “You’re not color-blind, are you? Can you tell the difference between colors?”

Before I had a chance to answer, she signaled Leilei to hand her a small basket filled with threads.

“Tell me quickly all the different colors.”

I did. There were many subtle shadings of one color, but since I could tell the difference between the major colors, I passed Aunty’s test.

“Good. But besides colors, you also have to learn the different threads like silk, cotton, fleece, gold, silver. Now, watch me.”

She randomly pulled out one thread, then used her thumbs and index fingers to split it into four, eight, sixteen, then thirty-two miniscule filaments. My eyes protruded and my jaw dropped. It was like magic; how could she do that?

“See how my hands can produce rainbows thin as hairs?”

I nodded eagerly. “Indeed. It’s beautiful, Aunty Peony.”

Some silence passed, and she asked, “Can you do housework?”

It was a strange question because doing housework doesn’t require much brains or even good eyesight. But I understood that the question was actually a statement telling me that I was not going to live here and consume their food for free.

So I nodded again. “No problem, Aunty Peony. Before I was wedded to my ghost husband, I waited on my aunt and my other relatives including my Popo.”

“All right, but if you don’t prove yourself worthy to be my student, you’ll still have to leave.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Then where would I go?”

“I can send you back.”

“Oh, no, please, Aunty Peony, please don’t!”

“Then you better work hard. Normally a student has to wait on me at least six months before I’ll decide if I accept her. But since I just got a big order and we have to hurry, I’ll shorten your trial period to one month.”

She paused to clear her throat. “You’re lucky. Before I was accepted by my teacher, I had to live with her and do all her errands for a whole year. But no one who is lazy and sloppy stays in this house, you understand?”

“Of course I do, Aunty Peony.”

“All right, now let’s start,” she said, looking at Purple.

Purple immediately poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to me. “Spring Swallow, offer this tea respectfully with two hands to Aunty Peony and declare that you’re willing to be her student and obey her.”

Gingerly I lifted the cup to my head and handed it to her with both hands. “Aunty Peony, I, Spring Swallow, respectfully offer you this tea. Please accept me as your student.”

She cast me a stern glance, then took a sip and nodded acknowledgment.

Next Purple handed me my wedding gown so I could offer it to Aunty as a token of my sincerity. Aunty accepted it, then passed it to Leilei.

“When a teacher accepts a disciple, no matter how poor the student is, her family has to offer the teacher at least five bags of rice. Spring Swallow, you’re lucky that I exempt you from this.”

Before I could say thank you, she was again speaking. “Now, I’m afraid we will have to feed you with many more than five bags of rice, ha!”

Upon hearing this joke, we all giggled, dissipating the tension that had been as tight as the bun on her head.

She went on. “If you had rich parents, they would hold a banquet with all the prominent local families, who would witness the ceremony. The teacher would be given sixty dollars as a deposit.”

This time no one responded, because none of us could imagine this much wealth. Now Aunty Peony took out from her top a red lucky money envelope and handed it to me.

I took it with both hands, and she said, “All right, now you are officially my student. So from now on you have to do exactly what I say and never talk back or ask silly questions. You understand?”

Purple whispered to me, “Just say ‘yes’ or ‘I understand’ to everything Aunty asks.”

So, like a parrot, I uttered, “Yes, I understand.”

Aunty went on. “If you try to run away, say anything disrespectful about me, or work for another embroiderer, you’ll not only be kicked out, your name will be forever disgraced and no other embroiderer will take you on.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Do you understand that you cannot leak any secrets of our embroidery techniques?”

“Yes, I understand.” I was getting tired of uttering this over and over.

“Do you understand that all the money made in this household belongs to me, and only I decide how much to give you?”

“Yes, I understand.”

I was not happy to hear this, but her next demand jolted me awake. “Do you know that you can never be with a man or marry?”

This time I didn’t say “yes” but asked instead, “Hmm . . . Aunty Peony, what do you mean?”

She pointed to all the other girls’ hair. “See that we don’t let our hair down like a loose woman, but either pull it up into a bun or braid it into pigtails?”

I nodded.

“This is a vow that we’ll live a celibate life and never marry. You understand?”

“But, why . . .”

I’d run away from my village to escape a marriage to a dead man, but that didn’t mean someday I didn’t want to marry a good man and have children. Isn’t this all women’s heavenly duty? Now I wondered if my situation here was much better than my old one. Not to be a ghost’s wife, but to be no man’s wife. To work as an embroidery slave for the rest of my life. Suddenly, having found a roof over my head and the chance to learn embroidery didn’t seem so wonderful.

Aunty went on. “Because a virgin’s mind and body are pure so she is not distracted by improper thoughts. Besides,” Aunty’s eyes suddenly turned dreamy, “embroidery is our love. Even when the Sky is empty and the Earth old, this love never dies.”

Before I had a chance to respond, she seemed to come back to reality, asking sharply, “I don’t have time to waste; yes or no?”

“Yes, I understand, Aunty Peony.”

“Good.”

“Last question—can you read and write?”

“Yes, Aunty Peony.” I’d already told her about this earlier. But I guessed she still didn’t trust me. But why should she?

“Good.”

Purple said to me in a low voice, “Now prostrate three times to Aunty Peony and the portrait of her teacher, now your grand-teacher.”

Not only did I kowtow, I deliberately knocked my head hard on the floor to prove my sincerity. Whatever my doubts, I needed to be housed and fed.

When finished, I looked up at the portrait of the woman who was supposedly my grand-teacher and felt a shudder. Who was this dignified-looking, but long-dead woman with her hair pulled up as tight as a drawn bowstring? She stared down at me, as if mocking my naïveté and preparing to scold me for anything I deserved to be scolded for.

Purple handed me another cup of tea, and Aunty said, “Now offer this to my deceased teacher, your grand-teacher. After that, the ceremony will be over.”

“Yes, I understand.”

When the girls giggled, I realized I’d repeated this even when I wasn’t required to. Even Aunty smiled, for the first time.

 

The next morning, I was awakened by a cock’s crowing. Hearing the bird brought chills to my spine as I remembered my substitute groom and my escape, which still seemed to me like a dream—or a nightmare. Everything had happened so fast it seemed unreal. Were the villagers already trying to track me down to drag me back to a life of celibacy and drudgery as a half ghost? Could I really be starting a new life as an aspiring embroiderer? Or would this new life turn into another nightmare? All I could do was wait and see.

After a simple, yet hearty breakfast of rice soup, pickled radish, and salted fish, Purple, Leilei, and Little Doll all left for the nearby village to shop and have fun. But I was to stay with Aunty Peony.

I was hoping she’d tell me something about herself, the other girls, and their business with Heavenly Phoenix in Peking. But instead, with a firm voice and serious expression, she said, “Today is your first lesson; that’s why I sent the girls away—so we would not be disturbed.”

She asked me to sit by the same large wooden table, where the plates had been cleared and replaced with embroidery paraphernalia. Then she went upstairs to her room and returned holding an elongated, embroidered yellow box. The way she held it made me think the object inside must be of great value.

She set the box on the table, then sat down beside me. “Let’s get started.”

Even though she’d told me during the
baishi
ceremony that I shouldn’t talk back or ask silly questions, I couldn’t help but ask, “Aunty Peony, why are we in such a hurry?”

She cast me an annoyed look as if I was a nuisance like burnt rice sticking on the bottom of a cooking pot.

“All right, Spring Swallow, the company Heavenly Phoenix in Peking has commissioned us to do a very large piece of embroidery. If you learn fast and practice hard, you may be able to help out by embroidering easy things like leaves, branches, birds’ feet, animals’ whiskers.”

She paused to inhale, then spoke as if she were going to divulge Heaven’s greatest secret to the most insignificant person on Earth. “The commission is to embroider the famous painting
Along the River during the Qingming Festival
. I have already brushed this famous painting onto separate pieces of silk. We’ve started but have only a little more than a year left to meet the deadline. I’m embroidering the important parts while Purple and Leilei help with the smaller parts. Though a very complex painting, if you prove yourself to be worthy of my teaching, I’ll let you be part of this project.”

Not completely understanding what she was talking about, I asked, “What’s
Along the River during the Qingming Festival
?”

She shook her head and the silver butterfly she used to hold her bun seemed about to take flight.

“Ignorant girl. Didn’t your family educate you?”

“My aunt who raised me never bothered to teach me anything. She even refused to pay for my schooling when—”

“All right, enough. I have no time to hear about a girl’s education, or lack of education.”

She thought for a while. “Then how come you can read and write?”

“Later I attended a free school at a Western church. Besides reading and writing, the teacher there also taught me many other things.” I smiled confidently. “Including English, you know those complicated letters, like a chicken’s intestines.”

“How come the teacher knew English?” Aunty’s elongated eyes were now glittering with curiosity.

“Because Father Edwin is an American missionary, a foreign ghost.” I smiled. “But he liked to think of himself as our father. So we all called him Father Edwin.”

“Is that so? Before you came, even though I had only three girls here, I felt exhausted all the time having to teach and supervise them. So this Father Edwin is either really nice or very demanding.”

“Father Edwin is very nice,” I said emphatically, thinking of my missionary teacher and feeling nostalgic.