Secret of a Thousand Beauties, page 14
Purple began her prayer. “Old Heaven, please have mercy on our sister Leilei and grant her a smooth journey to the yin world. We also pray that you’ll let her have food in her stomach and money in her pocket, so she won’t be harassed by hungry ghosts. She had a hard life in this world, so please grant her a better next one. Also, please help us find out if she just fell into the river or was murdered. Leilei, our dear sister, may your soul be appeased and you’ll soon reincarnate in your next life as a rich man’s daughter, or wife.”
After Purple finished, we held up the tea and the two plates as a gesture to offer them to both Heaven and Leilei. Then Purple recited the Heart Sutra: “The Goddess of Observing Ease entered the realm of wisdom and saw that all the five skandhas are emptiness, transcending all sufferings. . . .”
Back at the house, Purple and I were so drained that we went straight inside our rooms and collapsed on our beds.
15
Inside the Mountain Cave
The sun was just coming up when I awakened the next morning. I found Purple sitting at the table, staring through the window at the distant mountain.
“Sister Purple”—I sat down by her—“why are you up so early?”
“Hai,” she sighed. “You think I can sleep after all this? Anyway, I prepared some tea and noodles for you. Eat quickly and we’ll go out.”
“Go out where?”
She chided. “We’ll burn more incense and make another round of offerings to Leilei. That’s the least we can do for her. Don’t forget, she just died, so her spirit is still hanging around her body. After that, we’ll try again to find Aunty and Little Doll.”
“Where are we going to look for them?”
“We didn’t find them in Soochow. Let’s try the mountain.”
At the spot we had chosen, we bowed again at Leilei’s shrine and recited the Heart Sutra once more. Then we continued to ascend. Purple was still weak and I am naturally a fast climber, so I had to slow down several times to wait for my sister to catch her breath.
On our way, we kept shouting, “Aunty Peony and Little Doll, where are you!?”
But the only response was our shouts echoing back from the rocks.
As we stopped about halfway up, Purple asked, breathing heavily as she pressed a hand over her heaving chest, “Spring Swallow, how did you learn to climb so fast?”
“Back in my old village I mixed with the street kids. Dangerous places were our playgrounds—mountains, cliffs, ponds, cemeteries.. . . Sister Purple, you look tired. You want to go back?”
But I was actually trying to find an excuse. I feared that when we reached the top, she’d learn all my secrets—my “diary,” Shen Feng, and, worst of all, my copies of the embroidery patterns inside the cave.
She shook her head. “No, I will keep going to the top. We must find them.”
I couldn’t possibly argue with this. So we rested, drank our tea, and ate a light lunch of buns and preserved eggs, then resumed our climbing. Finally, we reached the top. Purple sat down on a rock, looked all around, then got up and gingerly approached the edge of the cliff to look down. After that I was alarmed to see her walk in the direction of my secret cave.
“Sister Purple, I don’t think there’s anything over there.”
Purple pointed, and said eagerly, “Spring Swallow, looks like there’s a cave hidden by bushes and vegetation, let’s go take a look.”
“But I don’t think there’ll be anything inside. . . .”
“You never know.”
“What if there’re spiders, or snakes, or a tiger?”
She cast me an annoyed look. “We can’t be that fearful if we want to find Aunty and Little Doll. Let’s go.”
I was trying to think what to tell her when she saw my notes and embroidery patterns on the cave wall.
However, when we stepped inside, I screamed, “Oh, Heaven!”
“What’s wrong, you see Aunty and Little Doll?”
I was shocked, not because of what I saw but because of what I didn’t. I stepped toward the wall to have a better look.
“Spring Swallow, why do you look so shocked, there’s nothing here.”
Yes, exactly. All my writings, embroidery notes, and patterns were gone, scraped clean from the walls!
Purple studied the cave for a while before she signaled that we should leave. As she was stepping outside, she stumbled on a rock and I grabbed her arm to keep her from falling.
Then she saw something. “Look, Spring Swallow, here’s a piece of cloth!”
She picked it up and we examined it closely. It was embroidered.
Then we called out simultaneously, “From Aunty’s robe!”
The cloth had a brown streak on it—it looked like dried blood.
Purple’s voice trembled. “Aunty was here—she must be hurt. I wonder if Little Doll . . .”
We looked at each other, afraid to say what we thought—that Aunty had come here with Little Doll and took her over the cliff with her.
Purple spoke, still breathing heavily. “Since they aren’t here, why don’t we go down the other side of the mountain and see if we can find them there?”
Or their bodies, I silently added. But at the base of the cliff was an expanse of water, so if they’d jumped I didn’t think we’d find them—or their bodies.
We hurried down but saw no sign of either Aunty or Little Doll.
Purple smiled faintly. “Spring Swallow, if we don’t see them, that means there’s still hope.” Then she looked at me curiously. “You realize that there’s no one else on this mountain?”
I knew why but was not going to tell her.
She blurted out, “It’s haunted, that’s why! I didn’t say anything before because I didn’t want to scare you. People have been coming here to kill themselves since the first girl and her lover jumped to their death.”
“Then why did Aunty build her house nearby?”
“Because no one would think to come here to look for her, that’s why. Except for having to look for Aunty and Little Doll, I’d never have come up here to inhale all the bad qi. Promise me you’ll never come here by yourself, all right?”
I nodded, having no intention to keep the promise.
Purple complained of feeling chilly, so we quickly walked down the mountain and back home.
That evening I lay awake, unable to blink an eye. Endless questions whirred in my mind: Aunty and Little Doll’s whereabouts and their possible suicide; Leilei’s stealing of the masterpiece and her sudden death; the destroyed embroidery notes and patterns that I had spent months memorizing....
I was distraught that my drawings of Aunty’s patterns were gone. So I’d thought of stealing them from her secret chamber when Purple was asleep. But I quickly abandoned the idea. Probably she had taken her treasures with her. And even if I was able to find them, I did not want to carry them to a hiding place and attract more bad qi. Or even get caught by the police.
The next morning, Purple told me she was not feeling well and needed to stay in bed. I asked her if she wanted me to go out and buy her some medicine.
“No, I just need more rest. Anyway, I still have the medicine from the hospital. Spring Swallow, don’t worry about me. Why don’t you go out and get some fresh air? I’m sure I will feel better tomorrow; then we can continue to look for Aunty and Little Doll.”
“Where else can we look for them?”
“We didn’t find her where the piece of her robe was, so I am still hoping that she and Little Doll are alive. But I don’t know where. Maybe after I have some rest I’ll think of something. Or you will.”
After I left Purple in her room to sleep, I gathered up my ink and brush and headed back to the mountain. I wanted to examine the cave more carefully to see if there were any traces of my writings and patterns left. Without Purple to slow me down, I quickly reached the top. I was eager to see if there was a new message from Shen Feng on the nearby rocks—I had avoided the rock yesterday because I did not want Purple to notice the messages.
Miss Spring Swallow,
I came up but didn’t see any message from you. In the cave were some drawings that I think you did, but a few days later, the drawings were gone!
When I went out of the cave I found a woman and a young girl staggering around. I asked who they were and what happened, but they seemed completely confused. I took them both to the hospital in Soochow.
If you read this, please let me know you are safe.
Your mountain friend,
Shen Feng
I ran down the mountain and dashed home.
“Purple,” I shouted, shaking her shoulder, “wake up, I think I know where Aunty and Little Doll are!”
She rubbed her eyes, then, realizing what I’d just said, jumped up.
“Did you see them?”
“No, but they were taken to the hospital in Soochow. Hurry, let’s go!”
Two hours later, after another bumpy cart ride, we arrived at the same dingy hospital, waiting in line at the same reception counter. We described Aunty and Little Doll, and were directed to a room on the second floor. We dashed up the stairs and entered a large ward crammed with iron beds. Some patients were lying still, others wandering around or talking with visitors. On the floor next to the beds were used food bowls, chicken bones, piles of clothes, and chamber pots. The noise and smell were overwhelming. We looked around and finally spotted Aunty Peony and Little Doll.
When Purple and I hurried to their bedsides, we saw that both were sleeping and Aunty’s head and hands bandaged. However, Little Doll, except for a few small scrapes on her arms and legs, looked quite all right.
I whispered heatedly to Purple, “You think Aunty is seriously injured?”
I called out “Aunty Peony,” as Purple gently touched her shoulder. Our teacher opened her eyes, saw us, and tried to sit up. I reached around her to help her sit upright, then put a blanket behind her back and head.
“Aunty Peony, how are you and Little Doll?” Purple and I asked.
“How did you find out we’re here?” she asked, her voice as weak as cheap tea.
Reluctantly, I told Aunty about Shen Feng and my secret cave.
She didn’t say anything but glared at me.
Purple gave me a dirty look, and said into my ear, “You little fox, how come you never told me about this?”
My teacher continued to glare at me, so I asked again, “Aunty, are you and Little Doll all right?”
“Can’t you see we’re still alive?”
Silence passed before Purple asked, “What happened?”
Without looking at us, she said, “What do you care?”
I said, “We came all the way here to find you.”
“Then why didn’t you come sooner?”
“Aunty, we didn’t know you were here. We’ve been searching for you for days.”
In a dull tone she said, “I tried to kill myself. . . .”
We both exclaimed, “But why? !”
“Why? Because Leilei’s gone, Along the River is gone, my reputation ruined, and there will be no more business from Heavenly Phoenix. So pretty soon we’ll be homeless and starve to death!”
Now she cast me a sharp, angry look, but didn’t say anything. I was pretty sure this was about my copies of her patterns on the cave walls.
Just then a middle-aged woman from a nearby bed yelled at us. “Shhh . . . lower your voices, you gossipy women! This is a hospital, not a teahouse!”
Aunty looked furious. It took a few seconds before she shot back, her voice suddenly turned high. “I don’t care if it’s a hospital or a teahouse. I came from the palace, so I don’t listen to people like you. You miserable, pathetic lowlife!”
The woman laughed like she’d just been transferred to a mental hospital. “Hahahaha! From the palace! Maybe you peeked at it from outside as a child! Or looked at a picture of it!”
Aunty looked too angry to respond.
The woman shook her head, sighing and talking to herself. “Hai, crazy woman, maybe she should be in a loony bin instead!”
It seemed just when Aunty was about to fight back, she suddenly shut her mouth. She must have realized she’d carelessly leaked something to us—her imperial background. Purple and I exchanged understanding glances.
Purple immediately changed the subject. “Aunty Peony, how are you feeling now? And what happened to your head and hands?”
Aunty didn’t respond to her but stared at me with eyes like daggers. “What happened, Spring Swallow, is that you who stole my patterns and wrote them in the cave? !”
“Aunty, that’s not stealing. . . .”
“If it’s not stealing, what is it?”
“I didn’t steal, just memorized them—”
“That’s still stealing! What if they were seen by other embroiderers?”
I didn’t think anyone would ever find them, or even know what they were, if they did. But I was not going to pour oil onto her fiery anger.
She sneered. “But I have to praise both your excellent memory and your accurate rendering of my patterns.”
Now it was Purple who looked at me with upset and disbelief. “Spring Swallow, you memorized those patterns and wrote them on the mountain walls?”
I nodded.
Aunty said, “That’s why I had to scrape them off, and that’s how the falling rocks hit me in the head and hands.”
I gingerly asked my teacher, “Aunty Peony, I hope that your hands . . .”
She raised her hands and examined them, then spoke sarcastically. “Yes, my hands are ruined! You happy now?”
“Of course not, Aunty, but I’m sure they’ll recover.”
“How do you know, are you a doctor now or a clairvoyant?”
Neither Purple nor I dared to say anything.
Finally, Purple asked, “What happened?”
Aunty said without looking at us, her eyes blank and her expression sad, “When I went up the mountain with Little Doll I planned to end both our lives. Little Doll had no idea what was on my mind, but I knew she could not survive without me. Thinking that I took her out to have fun, she climbed happily in front of me, even humming a tune.
“When we reached the top, she stopped, pointing and shouting, ‘Look, Aunty Peony, a cave!’ My eyes followed the direction of her finger but saw only rocks and bushes. Before I could stop her, she’d already dashed inside. I heard her exclaiming, ‘Aunty, come look at all the drawings!’ So I hurried inside. Of course I was puzzled to see embroidery patterns inside a mountain cave. Then when I realized they were my patterns, I was furious!
“So I picked up a big rock and worked like crazy scraping off everything. Suddenly an avalanche of rocks fell on me. Then a big boulder tumbled down onto my right hand.... Then I woke up in the hospital here, with Little Doll.”
Purple said, “Aunty Peony, we’re so sorry for what you’ve gone through. Do you know how you got here?”
“Now I think I remember that a young man helped us, but that’s all.”
Purple and I cast a glance at our little sister. “How’s Little Doll doing?”
“The doctor says she’ll be all right. She has some bruises and shallow wounds, but she is still in a state of shock. So they are giving her sedatives, that’s why she’s asleep.”
Purple pulled me aside. “Aunty’s pretty depressed. We need to be sure she does not plan to try to kill herself again.”
I agreed but had no idea of what to do. After all, Aunty was blaming me for the whole thing.
Purple walked back to the bed, and said, “Aunty, we think that Heaven has decided that you should live. So you must follow Heaven’s will.”
Aunty’s eyes suddenly brightened and she looked happier. But then her happy mood deflated like a punctured balloon. “I don’t think I can embroider, at least not for a very long time. . . .”
We both tried to comfort her by saying that she’d recover sooner than she thought.
“But Along the River is lost. Leilei’s gone. It’s hopeless.” She turned her head away from us, tears welling up in her eyes.
We had no heart to tell her that Leilei was, in fact, dead.
After some silence, Purple said, “We can work faster. We’ll just spend all our time embroidering so we can finish in five months.”
Then, to my surprise, my teacher turned to me. “Spring Swallow, do you think you can finish this in five months?”
“We’ll try our best,” Purple said.
“But Spring Swallow will be the lead embroiderer.”
Face turning pale, Purple protested. “But why? !”
“You know why—because Spring Swallow is already better than you.”
Before Purple had a chance to react to this, my mountain friend suddenly appeared by Aunty’s bedside.
Aunty cast him a sharp glance, then looked at me. “Who’s this young man?”
“Aunty Peony, he’s Shen Feng, the one who rescued you and Little Doll and brought you here.”
With curious eyes, she studied Shen Feng from head to toe and made a few repeated rounds. “Is that so?”
Shen Feng nodded. “Yes, Aunty.”
Aunty turned to me. “So you know him?”
“Yes, he’s the man I told you about.”
“So you broke your vow of celibacy!”
I hastily told Aunty that he and I had just met, nothing else. Shen Feng cast me an amused look.
“Young man”—Aunty regarded him sternly—“my girls are not allowed to make friends with men. Only if necessary for business. There’s no pleasure in my house, only dedicated work! So, Mr. Shen, I advise that you stop seeing my girl. You think I don’t know why you go to that haunted mountain where nobody goes?”
Now Shen Feng looked shocked. “But, Aunty—”
“There’s no ‘but.’ Please leave now, young man, I need to talk to my girls in private. Thank you for bringing me and my little friend here; I am grateful to you for that. But you needn’t come see us again. We are fine without a man, young or old.”
