by Mingmei Yip
In the mirror, Mama carefully studied me for long moments. "You're lucky that your brows curve like crescent moons. Otherwise, I'd have to shave them, then pencil them in with ink."
Ink? I wanted to ask but decided to keep my mouth shut.
Mama started to perform the kai Tian, "open the face," for me. First she tied a red thread to her thumbs and middle fingers, then put it between her teeth. Then she started to "saw" my face with the string, scraping off dirt and downy hair.
Fang Rong's face was so close to mine that I could count the hairs inside her wide nostrils, study the gold teeth inside her mouth, and inspect the coarse surface of her big mole. I tried to hold my breath so as not to be poisoned by hers.
"Xiang Xiang, opening your face will open you to endless good luck. You know that?"
I nodded.
"Keep your head still!"
So I froze until she finished scraping my face with the moist red thread. Next she applied powder on my face and neck-layers and layers until I couldn't help but ask, "Mama, that's enough; why do you have to put on so much powder?"
"Because one shade of white can cover up one hundred ughnesses, and all men like it this way, that's why." In the mirror, she cast me a chiding glance. "You think I'd waste money on powder if men didn't like it?" Then she chuckled, shooting spittle onto my cheek. "Fortunately, it was not me who paid for your makeup."
"Then who did?"
"Big Master Fung, of course, who else? You little stupid!" She pointed to the dressing table. "See this bracelet and earrings? They're all gifts from Big Master Fung. He wants you to be the prettiest little whore in Peach Blossom." Now she cast me a threatening look. "Big Master Fung has already spent several hundred large silver coins hosting expensive banquets and gambling parties here, so you better not let him down."
When Mama and Little Red had finished making up my face and fixing my hair, they helped me to dress in a red silk jacket with green pants, both embroidered with floral ribbons. Then Mama picked up the fresh orchids and pinned them in my hair.
I preened in front of the mirror. Was that girl looking curiously at the outside world from inside the glass really me? Or ... was she just a delicate dish to be devoured?
Mama looked at my reflection and grinned till her mouth almost stretched outside her face. Even her mole looked happy. "See what a beautiful princess you've become, Xiang Xiang. I bet no one will believe that you're but a whore, ha, ha, ha! " Then she raised her hands and stretched her pudgy fingers. "Look, my old, arthritic hands can still work magic! " After that, she pulled me up and gave my shoulder a hard push. "Now to the welcoming-guests hall!"
This was the first time I was properly invited into this place and for a moment I was stunned. I'd never seen a room so grand and richly decorated. The deeply polished furniture glowed like bronze mirrors. On top of a low brown chest stood a tall cloisonne vase filled with rose orchids. Their pink petals seemed to nod at me, while their branches twisted elegantly, like the cursive calligraphy demonstrated by Mr. Wu. Against one wall was a huge canopy bed, its pillars gleaming like gold bars. The red pillows were embroidered with Mandarin ducks cavorting in water. On the crimson bed sheet, the tails of a dragon and phoenix entwined intimately. Behind the bed was a long folding screen carved with scenes from the famous novel Story of the West Chamber-including one with the scholar playing a qin! Next to the bed was a gilded mirror and on the walls hung paintings, some of young beauties, others of faraway mountains. Fragrant plumes of incense wafted from a bronze burner.
In the middle of the room was an eight immortals table; on its round top precious objects had been arranged: a celadon bowl shaped like an opening lotus; a teapot and cups painted with golden peonies; black-lacquered trays spilling with candies and dried fruit. Beside the table on the floor were two many-layered boxes decorated with flowers and red ribbons.
Oh, how I wished that Baba were still alive and Mother in Shanghai so we could have all lived together happily in this beautiful room! But alas! My eyes landed on a heap of wrinkles-marring the beauty and shattering my dream. On a high table next to Old Wrinkles were a pair of red dragon and phoenix candles. Melted wax dripped like tears of blood while high, bright flames seemed to throw the heaps of wrinkles over the room like reptiles.
I instinctively drew back but Mama shoved me forward. "Big Master Fung, here's your pretty Xiang Xiang."
Fung's crease-buried eyes widened, searching over me like a pair of torches looking for gold. Suddenly he slapped his thigh and shouted, "Good, very good!"
Mama chuckled flirtatiously. "Good? Are you kidding, Big Master Fung? Xiang Xiang is the best!"
Fung caressed his stubble. "The best? That I still have to find out, so now-"
"Yes, yes, of course, Big Master Fung, I'll leave you two alone. Enjoy your dragon and phoenix night; I guarantee you'll have your money's worth."
"It'd better be true." He paused to look around. "So where's the cloth?"
I piped up. "What cloth?"
Both the lump of flesh and the heap of wrinkles burst into laughter.
To my surprise, Mama yanked a white handkerchief from underneath the sleeve of my jacket. I had no idea when she'd hidden it there. She smiled mischievously, swinging the cloth. "Big Master Fung, this is Xiang Xiang's zhuang yuan seal."
Now I remembered that Pearl had told me about the cloth. Zhuang yuan was the Number One Scholar in the Imperial Examination, and the seal proving this title was red. So zhuang yuan seal referred to the imperial approval of the distinguished, Number One Scholar. Or in my case, my distinguished virginity.
I blinked back tears. Yes, I'd soon receive a prestigious seal! But not because I came out number one in the imperial examination, but because I would be the number one virgin fucked by an old man.
Now Old Wrinkles cast me a licentious glance. "Xiang Xiang, your blood stains on the white cloth will prove that I'm the first man to chop open your melon. Otherwise you think I'd pay a for tune for a thirteen-year-old? Ha!" He pointed to the table and the two lacquer boxes. "All the clothes, money, jewelry, food, wine are for you."
The corners of Mama's lips lifted to her ears while her eyes threw me a sharp glance. "Xiang Xiang, bow to Big Master Fung and thank him, quick! "
I made a deep bow and uttered a "thank you." Just then all of Pearl's teaching flashed across my mind. So I willed the corners of my lips to lift, while trying to aim a dazed glance to catch Fung's. But my eyes made a wrong move and landed instead on the wrinkles of his forehead.
Fung massaged his stubble. "Come, my little beauty," he said, reaching out his other hand to touch my face.
Mama winked to Fung, then me. "Look at my baby Xiang Xiang, she's so beautiful that anyone would agree she's worth more than twelve hundred virgins put together, right, Big Master Fung?"
Fung burst into laughter. It surprised me that, though old and dried-up, he had a deep, resonant voice. Was it really the effect of all the virgins?
Mama chuckled, then threw a meaningful glance toward the candles on the altar. It was then that I understood the presence of the dragon and phoenix candles-a symbol of conjugal union! I felt queasiness simmering in my stomach. As well as Fung's hand practicing the lingering tones on my thigh. It was then I also realized Mama had already gone, leaving me in the room with this heap of moving wrinkles.
Now all the wrinkles shifted toward me like tidal waves. "Little Sweetie, now what are you going to do to please me?"
I shifted away from his stink of opium. "What do you want?"
"What about a massage first?" He grabbed my hand and rubbed it against his.
Imagining that he'd soon take off his clothes and reveal more black spots and crumbling flesh, and even his jade stalk (probably looking nothing like jade but more like a rotten banana), I felt another wave of queasiness sloshing in my stomach. Oh Guan Yin, please help me get out of this room as quickly as possible!
As I was silently praying to the Goddess of Mercy hanging around my neck, a though
t triggered. "Big Master Fung." I put up my best smile. "What about if I entertain you first, then massage you later?"
Fung's many wrinkles seemed to be lifted. "Entertainment? What kind?"
"What about singing?"
"If you have a good voice." He picked up his gold-encrusted water pipe and started to inhale, making gurgling sounds. "All right, go ahead."
I took a deep breath, then sang an excerpt from a Peking opera aria. "Banners are swaying outside the city gate. I lead the lion-like soldiers, swearing to protect my country!" I'd picked this one instead of something more ... more romantic. Because, even in this beautiful room, I had no inkling of romantic feeling.
When I finished, Fung clapped enthusiastically.
I thought: Oh heaven, now what? Quick, think of something else!
Guan Yin must have again heard my prayer, for suddenly a new idea hit me. I squeezed another dimpled smile. "Big Master Fung, I have something else to entertain you.,,
"Something more? Hmmm ... you little witch, you have a lot of tricks, eh? What is it?"
"Kung fu."
He reached to pinch my cheek. "Ha, kung fu? You flimsy little thing; you know kung fu?"
"Just the postures, I can't fight at all."
He scanned me from head to toe and then back up from toe to head. "Where did you learn it from? Not here, I don't think?"
"No, Big Master Fung, but from my father. He was a martial arts actor."
I cast Fung a heroic glance-something which Pearl had not taught me-then performed a heaven-reaching-kick-stretching my leg as straight as a pole and as high as my head.
"Huh, not bad." His eyes squeezed through the wrinkles to look at me incredulously.
Next I cleared off the eight immortals table, jumped on it, and did eight somersaults.
"Hao!" Fung yelled and clapped. "You're really good, Xiang Xiang."
I jumped back down from the table and held up my hands in a respectful gesture. "Big Master Fung, you overpraise me. This skill is nothing in comparison to my father's; he could do one hundred and eight somersaults on the eight immortals table. No one can break this record, not since-" I stopped myself just in time not to reveal more about Baba.
Fung threw me a curious glance. "Who's your father?"
"The most famous-" I quickly changed Baba's stage name from Rumbling Thunder to "One Rumble of Thunder."
Fung laughed. "Ha! Of course, even though I'm not an opera fan, I've heard of your father. Only that I never thought that one day I'd collect qi from his precious little daughter's precious gate. Ha, what an unexpected bonus!"
Suddenly I remembered there was indeed an actor by the name of One Rumble of Thunder. But he'd been dead for some time. Relief washed over me.
Fung kept laughing so hard that I thought he might choke himself to death.
But he didn't. Unfortunately.
Instead, his eyes glowed like the pair of conjugal candles, and his lips sucked at the pipe like a baby's searching for a swollen nipple as he regarded me with a licentious glance.
I continued to strike out fists in all directions, then do a whirlwind of leg kicks and twists.
Now Lecherous-Old-and-Dying seemed to forget for a moment what he'd already paid for. He was busy in clapping and hollering, "Hao! Hao!"
Encouraged, I performed more feats. First I imitated the ferocious, head-chopping General Guan. Next I became the mischievous Monkey King, blinking and scratching incessantly. Then I turned into Na Zha, the little immortal. I ran around the room in quick, energetic steps (not those shredded golden lotus steps taught by Pearl), somersaulted, and swirled with only one leg. Finally I leaped up into the air then plopped down on the floor with my legs stretched in the shape of the Chinese character "one."
"Hao! Hao!" Big Master Fung shouted with his bell-like voice. "All right, enough kung fu, now it's time for massage."
Oh Merciful Guan Yin, please, don't make me touch those wrinkles, they look as if they'd crumple like soft mud under my fingers!
I put up a deeply dimpled smile, trying to delay my contact with rotting flesh as long as I possibly could. "Big Master Fung, there's still another stunt that I haven't performed for you."
"Still more? But Xiang Xiang," he frowned, feigning upset, "my muscles are aching all over! "
"Big Master Fung, just one more, you really have to see this. Please," I grinned widely to show off my nice teeth, "this is my consummate skill."
"All right then, go ahead."
I swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and jumped high, while swinging out one leg. Then, as I felt proud in hearing the air swish around me, also, to my alarm, I heard a sharp cry from Big Master Fung!
I landed on the floor with a heavy thump and looked. Alas, Big Master Fung was clutching his face, screaming like a cow being slaughtered. When he removed his hand, I saw his agonized face covered with a big red welt. As if this were not bad enough, a small trickle of blood was oozing from the corner of his mouth!
Now I was in big, big trouble. Either Big Master Fung or Mama was going to kill me, right away. But no, it would not be that easy, Mama would first throw me into the dark room to feed the rats, then, with Fung watching, she'd strip me naked, hang me upside down, and whip me till my flesh blossomed and my bones snapped apart. Before they killed me, they'd discuss which would be the best way-hanging me in the temple of the haunted garden, drowning me in the Huangpu River, chopping me into pieces, pouring gasoline over my body then throwing me a lighted match ... Or in order not to waste time, Big Master Fung would simply put a bullet through my head! Or in order not to waste the bullet, he'd just order his guard to strangle me with bare hands!
But of course he didn't do any of these. For he was now lying semiconscious on the floor, gasping.
As I was thinking desperately of what to do, the door sprung open with a loud clang and in burst Fang Rong and Wu Qiang.
"Merciful Guan Yin! " they blurted out simultaneously. Then, in one synchronized motion, they swung their heads to face me.
"What did you do to Big Master Fung?!" Mama demanded in a murderous tone.
"I ... I ... didn't mean to hurt him. It was an accident ...
De plopped down to check on the crumpled flesh. "Don't worry; he's still breathing evenly."
Mama yelled at De, "Get him some wine and medicinal oil, quick!"
De poured wine from the table and started to feed Big Master Fung with one hand, while his other hand vigorously rubbed Fung's temple.
Mama stepped close to me and asked in a heated whisper. "Did you try to kill him?"
"No, I ... I tried to . . . to please him."
It surprised me that suddenly Mama's face glowed. "You mean he liked to be tortured?" She grinned mischievously. "Did he ask you to play the whipper and he the whipped," she winked, "you know, that kind of thing?"
I didn't know what she really meant, but I assumed, judging from her cheerful expression, I'd be spared from being whipped myself if I nodded. So I swung my head like a hammer on an anvil.
She pinched my face. "Ah, you little slut. Did Pearl teach you this?"
I shook my head.
She looked at me appreciatively. "So you've learned all these by yourself without being taught, eh?"
I kept smiling and nodding like a lunatic.
Suddenly De yelled, "Look!"
We turned and saw Big Master Fung opening his eyes.
De helped him to sit up.
Mama turned to stoop down beside him. A big grin broke on her face. "Ah, Big Master Fung, you had a good time; didn't you?"
To all of our surprise, Big Master Fung lunged at her with full force. "You ... you ... you should discipline your girls before you let them out to serve customers!"
Mama exclaimed, with the grin still stretching taut on her face. "But Xiang Xiang told me you like it that way! "
"Like it that way, what are you talking about? You ugly old bitch!"
Mama cast me a murderous look.
Big Master Fung struggled
to get up. After he steadied himself, he slapped Fang Rong's face, then Wu Qiang's, then did the same to mine. Before we had time to think what to do, he spat, then kicked over the table. Next he shattered the bowls, plates, vases. All the food, snacks, and wine splashed on the floor in myriad directions like scurrying mice. He picked up the phoenix candle and hurled it toward the mirror. The glass cracked and collapsed into a hundred shards glinting on the floor.
De whispered loudly to Mama, "Oh heaven. He's smashing the cave.
I felt a spider weaving an icy web along my spine.
Now Big Master Fung walked over to the burner. Seeing that he was about to kick it over and set the room on fire, Mama and De plopped down and frantically kowtowed. Seeing that I was still standing like a statue, Mama yanked me down and began to bounce my head on the floor as if she were pounding rice in the imperial kitchen.
"Oh merciful and generous Big Master Fung," Mama pleaded with a voice spilling fear, "please don't do this to us. We'll teach Xiang Xiang a good lesson. Please extinguish your angry fire!"
Without losing a bit, De added, "She's just a child and doesn't know better. All she did was to try to please you."
