The Red Candle
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Lindo JongI once sacrificed my life to keep my parents promise. This means nothing to you, because to you promises mean nothing. A daughter promise to e to dinner, but if she has a headache, if she has a traffic jam, if she wants to watch a favorite movie on TV, she no longer has a promis.99ｌｉb.e.
I watched this same movie when you did not e. The Ameri soldier promises to e bad marry the girl. She is g with a genuine feeling and he says, "Promise! Promise! Honey-sweetheart, my promise is as good as gold." Then he pushes her onto the bed. But he doesnt e back. His gold is like yours, it is only fourteen carats.
To ese people, fourteen carats isnt real gold. Feel my bracelets. They must be twenty-four carats, pure inside and out.
Its too late to ge you, but Im telling you this because I worry about your baby. I worry that someday she will say, "Thank you, Grandmother, for the gold bracelet. Ill never fet you." But later, she will fet her promise. She will fet she had a grandmother.
In this same war movie, the Ameri soldier goes home and he falls to his knees asking anirl to marry him. And the girls eyes run bad forth, so shy, as if she had never sidered this before. And suddenly!—her eyes look straight down and she knows now she loves him, so much she wants to cry. "Yes," she says at last, and they marry forever.
This was not my case. Instead, the village matchmaker came to my family when I was just two years old. No, nobody told me this, I remember it all. It was summertime, very hot and dusty outside, and I could hear cicadas g in the yard. We were under some trees in our orchard. The servants and my brothers were pig pears high above me. And I was sitting in my mothers hot sticky arms. I was waving my hand this way and that, because in front of me floated a small bird with horns and colorful paper-thin wings. And then the paper bird flew away and in front of me were two ladies. I remember them because one lady made watery "shrrhh, shrrhh" sounds. When I was older, I came this as a Peking at, which sounds quite strao Taiyuan peoples ears.
The two ladies were looking at my face without talking. The lady with the watery voice had a painted face that was melting. The other lady had the dry face of an old tree trunk. She looked first at me, then at the painted lady.
Of course, now I know the tree-trunk lady was the old village matchmaker, and the other was Huang Taitai, the mother of the boy I would be forced to marry. No, its not true what some ese say about girl babies being worthless. It depends on what kind of girl baby you are. In my case, people could see my value. I looked and smelled like a precious buncake, sweet with a good color.
The matchmaker bragged about me: "Ah horse for ah sheep. This is the best marriage bination." She patted my arm and I pushed her hand away. Huang Taitai whispered in her shrrhh-shrrhh voice that perhaps I had an unusually bad pichi, a bad temper. But the matchmaker laughed and said, "Not so, not so. She is a strong horse. She will grow up to be a hard worker who serves you well in your old age."
And this is when Huang Taitai looked down at me with a cloudy face as though she could pee my thoughts and see my future iions. I will never fet her look. Her eyes opened wide, she searched my face carefully and then she smiled. I could see a large gold tooth staring at me like the blinding sun and then the rest of her teeth opened wide as if she were going to swallow me down in one piece.
This is how I became betrothed to Huang Taitais son, who I later discovered was just a baby, one year youhan I. His name was Tyan-yu—tyan for "sky," because he was so important, and yu, meaning "leftovers," because when he was born his father was very sid his family thought he might die. Tyan-yu would be the leftover of his fathers spirit. But his father lived and his grandmother was scared the ghosts would turn their attention to this baby boy and take him instead. So they watched him c<s>９９ｌｉｂ.</s>arefully, made all his decisions, and he became very spoiled.
But even if I had known I was getting such a bad husband, I had no choiow or later. That was how backward families in the try were. We were always the last to give up stupid old-fashioned s. In other cities already, a man could choose his own wife, with his parents permission of course. But we were cut off from this type of hought. You never heard if ideas were better in another city, only if they were worse. We were told stories of sons who were so influenced by bad wives that they threw their old, g parents out into the street. So, Taiyuahers tio choose their daughters-in-law, ones who would raise proper sons, care for the old people, and faithfully sweep the family burial grounds long after the old ladies had goo their graves.
Because I romised to the Huangs son for marriage, my own family begaing me as if I beloo somebody else. My mother would say to me when the rice bowl went up to my faany times, "Look how much Huang Taitais daughter eat."
My mother did not treat me this way because she didnt love me. She would say this biting back her tongue, so she wouldnt wish for something that was no longer hers.
I was actually a very obedient child, but sometimes I had a sour look on my faly because I was hot or tired or very ill. This is when my mother would say, "Su ugly face. The Huangs wont want you and our whole family will be disgraced." And I would cry more to make my face uglier.
"Its no use," my mother would say. "We have made a tract. It ot be broken." And I would cry even harder.
I didnt see my future husband until I was eight or he world that I knew was our family pound in the village outside of Taiyuan. My family lived in a modest two-story house with a smaller house in the same pound, which was really just two side-by-side rooms for our cook, an everyday servant, and their families. Our house sat on a little hill. We called this hill Three Steps to Heaven, but it was really just turies of hardened layers of mud washed up by the Fen River. On the east wall of our pound was the river, which my father said liked to swallow little children. He said it had once swallowed the whole town of Taiyuan. The river ran brown in the summer. In the wihe river was blue-green in the narrow fast-moving spots. In the wider places, it was frozen still, white with cold.
Oh, I remember the new year when my family went to the river and caught many fish—giant slippery creatures plucked while they were still sleeping in their frozen riverbeds—so fresh that even after they were gutted they would dan their tails when thrown into the hot pan.
That was also the year I first saw my husband as a little boy. When the firecrackers went off, he cried loud—wah!—with a big open mouth even though he was not a baby.
Later I would see him at red-egg ceremonies when one-month-old boy babies were given their real names. He would sit on his grandmothers old knees, almost crag them with his weight. And he would refuse to eat everything offered to him, always turning his nose away as though someone were him a stinky pickle and not a sweet cake.
So I didnt have instant love for my future husband the way you see on television today. I thought of this boy more like a troublesome cousin. I learo be polite to the Huangs and especially to Huang Taitai. My mother would push me toward Huang Taitai and say, "What do you say to your mother?" And I would be fused, not knowing which mother she meant. So I would turn to my real mother and say, "Excuse me, Ma," and then I would turn to Huang Taitai and present her with a little goodie to eat, saying, "For you, Mother." I remember it was once a lump of syaumei, a little dumpling I loved to eat. My mother told Huang Taitai I had made this dumpling especially for her, even though I had only poked its steamy sides with my finger when the cook poured it onto the serving plate.
My life ged pletely when I was twelve, the summer the heavy rains came. The Fen River which ran through the middle of my familys land flooded the plains. It destroyed all the wheat my family had plahat year and made the land useless for years to e. Even our house on top of the little hill became unlivable. When we came down from the sed story, we saw the floors and furniture were covered with sticky mud. The courtyards were littered with uprooted trees, broken bits of walls, and dead chis. We were so poor in all this mess.
You couldnt go to an insuranpany back then and say, Somebody did this damage, pay me a million dollars. In those days, you were unlucky if you had exhausted your own possibilities. My father said we had no choice but to move the family to Wushi, to the south near Shanghai, where my mothers brother owned a small flour mill. My father explaihat the whole family, except for me, would leave immediately. I was twelve years old, old enough to separate from my family and live with the Huangs.
The roads were so muddy and filled with giant potholes that no truck was willing to e to the house. All the heavy furniture and bedding had to be left behind, and these were promised to the Huangs as my dowry. In this way, my family was quite practical. The dowry was enough, more than enough, said my father. But he could not stop my mother from giving me her g, a necklace made out of a tablet of red jade. Whe it around my neck, she acted very stern, so I knew she was very sad. "Obey your family. Do not disgrace us," she said. "Act happy when you arrive. Really, youre very lucky."
The Huangs house also sat o the river. While our house had been flooded, their house was untouched. This is because their house sat higher up in the valley. And this was the first time I realized the Huangs had a much better position than my family. They looked down on us, which made me uand why Huang Taitai and Tyan-yu had such long noses.
When I passed uhe Huangs stone-and-wood gateway arch, I saw a large courtyard with three or four rows of small, low buildings. Some were for st supplies, others for servants and their families. Behind these modest buildings stood the main house.
I walked closer and stared at the house that would be my home for the rest of my life. The house had been in the family for many geions. It was not really so old or remarkable, but I could see it had grown up along with the family. There were four stories, one for each geion: great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and children. The house had a fused look. It had been hastily built and then rooms and floors and wings and decorations had been added on in every which manner, refleg too many opinions. The first level was built of river rocks held together by straw-filled mud. The sed and third levels were made of smooth bricks with an exposed walkway to give it the look of a palace tower. And the top level had gray slab walls topped with a red tile roof. To make the house seem important, there were twe round pillars holding up a verarao the front door. These pillars were painted red, as were the wooden window borders. Someone, probably Huang Taitai, had added imperial dragon heads at the ers of the roof.
Ihe house held a different kind of pretehe only ni arlor on the first floor, which the Huangs used to receive guests. This room taiables and chairs carved out of red lacquer, fine pillows embroidered with the Huang family name in the a style, and many precious things that gave the look of wealth and old prestige. The rest of the house lain and unfortable and noisy with the plaints of twenty relatives. I think with each geion the house had grown smaller inside, more crowded. Ea had been cut in half to make two.
No big celebration was held when I arrived. Huang Taitai didnt have red banners greeting me in the fan on the first floor. Tyan-yu was not there to greet me. Instead, Huang Taitai hurried me upstairs to the sed floor and into the kit, which lace where family children didnt usually go. This lace for cooks and servants. So I knew my standing.
That first day, I stood in my best padded dress at the low wooden table and began to chop vegetables. I could not keep my hands steady. I missed my family and my stomach felt bad, knowing I had finally arrived where my life said I belonged. But I was also determio honor my parents words, so Huang Taitai could never accuse my mother of losing face. She would not win that from our family.
As I was thinking this I saw an old servant woman stooping over the same low table gutting a fish, looking at me from the er of her eye. I was g and I was afraid she would tell Huang Taitai. So I gave a big smile and shouted, "What a lucky girl I am. Im going to have the best life." And in this quick-thinking way I must have waved my koo close to her nose because she cried angrily, "Shemma bende ren!"—What kind of fool are you? And I knew right away this was a warning, because when I shouted that declaration of happiness, I almost tricked myself into thinking it might e true.
I saw Tyan-yu at the evening meal. I was still a few ialler than he, but he acted like a big warlord. I knew what kind of husband he would be, because he made special efforts to make me cry. He plaihe soup was not hot enough and then spilled the bowl as if it were an act. He waited until I had sat down to eat and then would demand another bowl of rice. He asked why I had su unpleasant face when looking at him.
Over the few years, Huang Taitai instructed the other servants to teach me how to se ers on pillowcases and to embroider my future familys name. How a wife keep her husbands household in order if she has never dirtied her own hands, Huang Taitai used to say as she introduced me to a ask. I dont think Huang Taitai ever soiled her hands, but she was very good at calling out orders and criticism.
"Teach her to wash rice properly so that the water runs clear. Her husband ot eat muddy rice," shed say to a cook servant.
Aime, she told a servant to show me ho..o a chamber pot: "Make her put her own o the barrel to make sure its ." That was how I learo be an obedient wife. I learo cook so well that I could smell if the meat stuffing was too salty before I even tasted it. I could sew such small stitches it looked as if the embroidery had been painted on. And even Huang Taitai plained in a pretend mahat she could scarcely throw a dirty blouse on the floor before it was ed and on her bace again, causio wear the same clothes every day.
After a while I didnt think it was a terrible life, no, not really. After a while, I hurt so much I didnt feel any difference. What was happier than seeing everybody gobble down the shiny mushrooms and bamboo shoots I had helped to prepare that day? What was more satisfying than having Huang Taitai nod and pat my head when I had finished bing her hair one hurokes? How much happier could I be after seeing Tyan-yu eat a whole bowl of noodles without onplaining about its taste or my looks? Its like those ladies you see on Ameri TV these days, the ones who are so happy they have washed out a stain so the clothes look better than new.
you see how the Huangs almost washed their thinking into my skin? I came to think of Tyan-yu as a god, someone whose opinions were worth much more than my own life. I came to think of Huang Taitai as my real mother, someone I wao please, someone I should follow and obey without question.
When I turned sixteen on the lunar new year, Huang Taitai told me she was ready to wele a grandson by spring. Even if I had not wao marry, where would I go live instead? Even though I was strong as a horse, how could I run away? The Japanese were in every er of a.
"The Japanese showed up as uninvited guests," said Tyan-yus grandmother, "and thats why nobody else came." Huang Taitai had made elaborate plans, but our wedding was very small.
She had asked the entire village and friends and family from other cities as well. In those days, you didnt do RSVP. It was not polite not to e. Huang Taitai didnt think the war would ge peoples good manners. So the cook and her helpers prepared hundreds of dishes. My familys old furniture had been shined up into an impressive dolaced in the front parlor. Huang Taitai had taken care to remove all the water and mud marks. She had even issioned someoo write feliessages on red banners, as if my parents themselves had draped these decorations to gratulate me on my good luck. And she had arrao rent a red palanquin to carry me from her neighbors house to the wedding ceremony.
A lot of bad luck fell on our wedding day, even though the matchmaker had chosen a lucky day, the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, when the moon is perfectly round and bigger than any other time of the year. But the week before the moon arrived, the Japanese came. They invaded Shansi province, as well as the provinces b us. People were nervous. And the m of the fifteenth, on the day of the wedding celebration, it began to rain, a very bad sign. Whehunder and lightning began, people fused it with Japanese bombs and would not leave their houses.
I heard later that poor Huang Taitai waited many hours for more people to e, and finally, when she could n any muests out of her hands, she decided to start the ceremony. What could she do? She could not ge the war.
I was at the neighbors house. When they called me to e down and ride the red palanquin, I was sitting at a small dressing table by an open window. I began to cry and thought bitterly about my parents promise. I wondered why my destiny had been decided, why I should have an unhappy life so someone else could have a happy one. From my seat by the window I could see the Fen River with its muddy brown waters. I thought about throwing my body into this river that had destroyed my familys happiness. A person has very strahoughts when it seems that life is about to end.
It started to rain again, just a light rain. The people from downstairs called up to me once again to hurry. And my thoughts became more urgent, more strange.
I asked myself, What is true about a person? Would I ge in the same way the river ges color but still be the same person? And then I saw the curtains blowing wildly, and outside rain was falling harder, causing everyoo scurry and shout. I smiled. And then I realized it was the first time I could see the power of the wind. I couldhe wind itself, but I could see it carried the water that filled the rivers and shaped the tryside. It caused men to yelp and dance.
I wiped my eyes and looked in the mirror. I was surprised at what I saw. I had on a beautiful red dress, but what I saw was even more valuable. I was strong. I ure. I had gehoughts ihat no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind.
I threw my head bad smiled proudly to myself. And then I draped the large embroidered red scarf over my fad covered these thoughts up. But underh the scarf I still knew who I was. I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents wishes, but I would never fet myself.
When I arrived at the wedding, I had the red scarf over my fad couldnt see anything in front of me. But when I bent my head forward, I could see out the sides. Very few people had e. I saw the Huangs, the same old plainiives now embarrassed by this poor showing, the eainers with their violins and flutes. And there were a few village people who had been brave enough to e out for a free meal. I even saw servants and their children, who must have been added to make the party look bigger.
Someoook my hands and guided me doath. I was like a blind person walking to my fate. But I was no longer scared. I could see what was inside me.
A high official ducted the ceremony aalked too long about philosophers and models of virtue. Then I heard the matchmaker speak about our birthdates and harmony aility. I tipped my veiled head forward and I could see her hands unfolding a red silk scarf and holding up a red dle for everyoo see.
The dle had two ends fhting. Oh had carved gold characters with Tyan-yus he other with mihe matchmaker lighted both ends and announced, "The marriage has begun." Tyan yahe scarf off my fad smiled at his friends and family, never even looking at me. He reminded me of a young peacock I once saw that acted as if he had just claimed the entire courtyard by fanning his still-short tail.
I saw the matchmaker place the lighted red dle in a gold holder and then hand it to a nervous-looking servant. This servant was supposed to watch the dle during the ba and all night to make sure her e out. In the m the matchmaker was supposed to show the result, a little piece of black ash, and then declare, "This dle burned tinuously at both ends without going out. This is a marriage that ever be broken."
I still remember. That dle was a marriage bond that was worth more than a Catholiise not to divorce. It meant I couldnt divord I couldnt ever remarry, even if Tyan-yu died. That red dle was supposed to seal me forever with my husband and his family, no excuses afterward.
And sure enough, the matchmaker made her declaration the m and showed she had done her job. But I know what really happened, because I stayed up all night g about my marriage.
After the ba, our small wedding party pushed us and half carried us up to the third floor to our small bedroom. People were shouting jokes and pulling boys from underh the bed. The matchmaker helped small children pull red eggs that had been hiddeween the blas. The boys who were about Tyan-yus age made us sit on the bed side by side and everybody made us kiss so our faces would turn red with passion. Firecrackers exploded on the walkway outside our open window and someone said this was a good excuse for me to jump into my husbands arms.
After everyo, we sat there side by side without words for many minutes, still listening to the laughing outside. When it grew quiet, Tyan-yu said, "This is my bed. You sleep on the sofa." He threillow and a thin blao me. I was so glad! I waited until he fell asleep and then I got up quietly a outside, dowairs and into the dark courtyard.
Outside it smelled as if it would soon rain again. I was g, walking in my bare feet and feeling the wet heat still ihe bricks. Across the courtyard I could see the matchmakers servant through a yellow-lit open window. She was sitting at a table, looking very sleepy as the red dle burned in its special gold holder. I sat down by a tree to watch my fate being decided for me.
I must have fallen asleep because I remember being startled awake by the sound of loud crag thuhats when I saw the matchmakers servant running from the room, scared as a chi about to lose its head. Oh, she was asleep too, I thought, and now she thinks its the Japanese. I laughed. The whole sky became light and then more thunder came, and she ran out of the courtyard and down the road, going so fast and hard I could see pebbles kig up behind her. Where does she think shes running to, I wondered, still laughing. And then I saw the red dle flickering just a little with the breeze.
I was not thinking when my legs lifted me up and my feet ran me across the courtyard to the yellow-lit room. But I was hoping—I raying to Buddha, the goddess of mercy, and the full moon—to make that dle go out. It fluttered a little and the flame bent down low, but still both ends burrong. My throat filled with so much hope that it finally burst and blew out my husbands end of the dle.
I immediately shivered with fear. I thought a knife would appear and cut me down dead. Or the sky would open up and blow me away. B<u>..</u>ut nothing happened, and when my senses came back, I walked bay room with fast guilty steps.
The m the matchmaker made her proud declaration in front of Tyan-yu, his parents, and myself. "My job is done," she announced, p the remaining black ash onto the red cloth. I saw her servants shame-faced, mournful look.
I learo love Tyan-yu, but it is not how you think. From the beginning, I would always bee sick thinking he would someday climb on top of me and do his business. Every time I went into our bedroom, my hair would already be standing up. But during the first months, he ouched me. He slept in his bed, I slept on my sofa.
In front of his parents, I was an obedient wife, just as they taught me. I instructed the cook to kill a fresh young chi every m and cook it until pure juice came out. I would strain this juice myself into a bowl, never adding any water. I gave this to him for breakfast, murmuring good wishes about his health. And every night I would cook a special tonic soup called tounau, which was not only very delicious but has eight ingredients that guarantee long life for mothers. This pleased my mother-in-law very much.
But it was not enough to keep her happy. One m, Huang Taitai and I were sitting in the same room, w on our embroidery. I was dreaming about my childhood, about a pet frog I once kept named Big Wind. Huang Taitai seemed restless, as if she had an it the bottom of her shoe. I heard her huffing and then all of a suddeood up from her chair, walked over to me, and slapped my face.
"Bad wife!" she cried. "If you refuse to sleep with my son, I refuse to feed you or clothe you." So thats how I knew what my husband had said to avoid his mothers anger. I was also boiling with anger, but I said nothing, remembering my promise to my parents to be an obedient wife.
That night I sat on Tyan-yus bed and waited for him to touch me. But he didnt. I was relieved. The night, I lay straight down on the bed o him. And still he didnt touch me. So the night, I took off my gown.
Thats when I could see what was underh Tyan-yu. He was scared and turned his face. He had no desire for me, but it was his fear that made me think he had no desire for any woman. He was like a little boy who had never grown up. After a while I was no longer afraid. I even began to think differently toward Tyan-yu. It was not like the way a wife loves a husband, but more like the way a sister protects a younger brother. I put my gown ba and lay dowo him and rubbed his back. I knew I no longer had to be afraid. I was sleeping with Tyanyu. He would ouch me and I had a fortable bed to sleep on.
After more months had passed and my stomad breasts remained small and flat, Huang Taitai flew into another kind e. "My son says hes planted enough seeds for thousands of grandchildren. Where are they? It must be you are doing something wrong." And after that she fined me to the bed so that her grandchildrens seeds would not spill out so easily.
Oh, you think it is so much fun to lie in bed all day, never getting up. But I tell you it was worse than a prison. I think Huang Taitai became a little crazy.
She told the servants to take all sharp things out of the room, thinking scissors and knives were cutting off her geion. She forbade me from sewing. She said I must trate and think of nothing but having babies. And four times a day, a very nice servant girl would e into my room, apologizing the whole time while making me drink a terrible-tasting medie.
I ehis girl, the way she could walk out the door. Sometimes as I watched her from my window, I would imagine I was that girl, standing in the courtyard, bargaining with the traveling shoe mender, gossiping with other servant girls, scolding a handsome delivery man in her high teasing voice.
One day, after two months had gone by without as, Huang Taitai called the old matchmaker to the house. The matchmaker examined me closely, looked up my birthdate and the hour of my birth, and then asked Huang Taitai about my nature. Finally, the matchmaker gave her clusions: "Its clear what has happened. A woman have sons only if she is defit in one of the elements. Your daughter-in-law was born with enough wood, fire, water, ah, and she was defit ial, which was a good sign. But when she was married, you loaded her down with gold bracelets and decorations and now she has all the elements, includial. Shes too balao have babies."
This turned out to be joyous news for Huang Taitai, for she liked nothier than to reclaim all her gold and jewelry to help me bee fertile. And it was good news for me too. Because after the gold was removed from my body, I felt lighter, more free. They say this is what happens if you lack metal. You begin to think as an indepe person. That day I started to think about how I would escape this marriage without breaking my promise to my family.
It was really quite simple. I made the Huangs think it was their idea to get rid of me, that they would be the oo say the marriage tract was not valid.
I thought about my plan for many days. I observed everyone arouhe thoughts they showed in their faces, and then I was ready. I chose an auspicious day, the third day of the third month. Thats the day of the Festival of Pure Brightness. On this day, your thoughts must be clear as you prepare to think about your aors. Thats the day when everyone goes to the family graves. They bring hoes to clear the weeds and brooms to sweep the stones and they offer dumplings and es as spiritual food. Oh, its not a somber day, more like a piic, but it has special meaning to someone looking frandsons.
On the m of that day, I woke up Tyan-yu and the entire house with my wailing. It took Huang Taitai a long time to e into my room. "Whats wrong with her now," she cried from her room. "Go make her be quiet." But finally, after my wailing didnt stop, she rushed into my room, scoldi the top of her voice.
I was clutg my mouth with one hand and my eyes with another. My body was writhing as if I were seized by a terrible pain. I was quite ving, because Huang Taitai drew bad grew small like a scared animal.
"Whats wrong, little daughter? Tell me quickly," she cried.
"Oh, its too terrible to think, too terrible to say," I said between gasps and more wailing.
After enough wailing, I said what was so unthinkable. "I had a dream," I reported. "Our aors came to me and said they wao see our wedding. So Tyan-yu and I held the same ceremony for our aors. We saw the matchmaker light the dle and give it to the servant to watch. Our aors were so pleased, so pleased…."
Huang Taitai looked impatient as I began to cry softly again. "But then the servahe room with our dle and a big wind came and blew the dle out. And our aors became very angry. They shouted that the marriage was doomed! They said that Tyan-yus end of the dle had blown out! Our aors said Tyan-yu would die if he stayed in this marriage!"
Tyan-yus face turned white. But Huang Taitai only frowned. "What a stupid girl to have such bad dreams!" And then she scolded everybody to go back to bed.
"Mother," I called to her in a hoarse whisper. "Please dont leave me! I am afraid! Our aors said if the matter is not settled, they would begin the cycle of destru."
"What is this nonsense!" cried Huang Taitai, turning back toward me. Tyan-yu followed her, wearing his mothers same frowning face. And I khey were almost caught, two ducks leaning into the pot.
"They knew you would not believe me," I said in a remorseful tone, "because they know I do not want to leave the forts of my marriage. So our aors said they would plant the signs, to show our marriage is now rotting."
"What nonsense from your stupid head," said Huang Taitai, sighing. But she could not resist. "What signs?"
"In my dream, I saw a man with a long beard and a mole on his cheek."
"Tyan-yus grandfather?" asked Huang Taitai. I nodded, remembering the painting I had observed on the wall.
"He said there are three signs. First, he has drawn a black spot on Tyan-yus back, and this spot will grow a away Tyan-yus flesh just as it ate away our aors face before he died."
Huang Taitai quickly turo Tyan-yu and pulled his shirt up. "Ai-ya!" she cried, because there it was, the same black mole, the size of a fiip, just as I had always seen it these past five months of sleeping as sister and brother.
"And then our aor touched my mouth," and I patted my cheek as if it already hurt. "He said my teeth would start to fall out one by one, until I could no longer protest leaving this marriage."
Huang Taitai pried open my mouth and gasped upon seeing the open spot in the bay mouth where a rotted tooth fell out four years ago.
"And finally, I saw him plant a seed in a servant girls womb. He said this girl only pretends to e from a bad family. But she is really from imperial blood, and…"
I lay my head down on the pillow as if too tired to go on. Huang Taitai pushed my shoulder, "What does he say?"
"He said the servant girl is Tyan-yus true spiritual wife. And the seed he has planted will grow into Tyan-yus child."
By mid-m they had dragged the matchmakers servant over to our house aracted her terrible fession.
And after much searg they found the servant girl I liked so much, the one I had watched from my window every day. I had seen her eyes grow bigger aeasing voice bee smaller whehe handsome delivery man arrived. And later, I had watched her stomach grow rounder and her face bee longer with fear and worry.
So you imagine hoy she was when they forced her to tell the truth about her imperial ary. I heard later she was so struck with this miraarrying Tyan-yu she became a very religious person who ordered servants to sweep the araves not just once a year, but once a day.
Theres no more to the story. They didnt blame me so much. Huang Taitai got her grandson. I got my clothes, a rail ticket to Peking, and enough moo go to America. The Huangs asked only that I ell anybody of any importance about the story of my doomed marriage.
Its a true story, how I kept my promise, how I sacrificed my life. See the gold metal I ow wear. I gave birth to your brothers and then your father gave me these two bracelets. Then I had you. And every few years, when I have a little extra money, I buy another bracelet. I know what Im worth. Theyre always twenty-four carats, all genuine.
But Ill never fet. On the day of the Festiv..al of Pure Brightness, I take off all my bracelets. I remember the day when I finally knew a gehought and could follow where it went. That was the day I was a young girl with my fader a red marriage scarf. I promised not tet myself.
How is to be that girl again, to take off my scarf, to see what is underh ahe lightness e bato my body!
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