Peach Blossom Pavilion. Mingmei Yip

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СКАЧАТЬ Moon took my hand. ‘Don’t be silly. Now let’s go and take a look.’

      ‘You’re not afraid of ghosts anymore?’

      ‘Shhh, be quiet. I’m sure it’s not a ghost. Come, follow me.’

      We walked around for a moment, then she pointed to a gap in the temple wall. Spring Moon stooped to walk in and I followed her. We felt our way along, trying very carefully not to bump into anything. After a while, it seemed we were getting closer to the source of the sound. Finally Spring Moon stopped by a doorway from which heavy sighs poured.

      Feeling fear deep in my stomach, I squeezed her hand and whispered, ‘Spring Moon, let’s go back.’

      I was both surprised and embarrassed that now she was the calm one. Again, when I was about to urge her to leave, she shot me a ‘shut up’ glance. Then she went up to one of the windows, licked her finger, poked a small hole through the rice paper covering the lattice, and peeked.

      I whispered, ‘Spring Moon, what is it?’

      But she completely ignored me.

      It couldn’t possibly be a ghost that caused such great delight. So I also licked my finger, poked a hole in the rice paper, and looked.

      To my surprise, a man and a woman, completely naked, lay together on the floor. The man was moving on top of the woman – sometimes like a fish caught on a hook, sometimes a bird flying against the wind – exactly as described in The Art of Love by Master Mysterious Hole. Now the woman seemed to be struggling under the man’s pressure and thrusts. Although in the dark I couldn’t clearly see her face, from her slaughtering-the-pig cry, I was sure she was in great pain. I had to press my hand tightly against my mouth to stop from exclaiming. Strangely enough, though frightened, I felt my heart beating faster, my ears and cheeks burning, and heat crawling up from between my legs. I nudged Spring Moon, but she kept waving a dismissive hand.

      The wrestling and moaning went on and on until suddenly the man let out a sharp cry. After that, he went limp on the woman’s body.

      Oh, my heaven, he must have given up his soul!

      I nudged Spring Moon, then placed my hand against my throat and made a slaughtering gesture. Again, she waved her hand impatiently. Now the man, as if awakening from a slumber, rolled over to lie beside the woman. The two were now facing each other, with the woman’s back toward us. The man started to fondle her breasts very gently. The woman let out small moans but made no move to stop him.

      Just then an insect – a butterfly I supposed – probably flew in from the window (the other one facing the courtyard), and began to hover above the couple. The woman instantly sat up and tried to catch the dancing creature. It was then that I saw her face.

      I covered my mouth and tried very hard not to call out.

      Pearl!

      I turned to look at Spring Moon and found that she was doing the same with her mouth. Moments passed before she shoved me out of the corridor. When we’d finally groped our way out of the temple and found ourselves in the garden, we broke into a run.

      When we were safely back in Spring Moon’s room, she pointed to my trousers and said excitedly, ‘Xiang Xiang, look, your trousers are wet.’

      I turned, snatched up my trousers, and examined them. ‘It’s the dew.’

      ‘Yes,’ she chuckled, ‘but the dew from your golden gate.’

       9

       The Art of Pleasing

      One week later, five days before my ‘big day,’ Pearl invited me to go to her room for some last-minute advice on stirring the clouds and rain.

      Once I sat down, she threw me a sharp glance. ‘Xiang Xiang, you better be ready for your Big Master Fung when he comes to chop your melon. Don’t screw up your first time, otherwise you’ll be in big, big trouble. Not only will Mama and De punish you, so will Big Master Fung, since he’s paid a lot.’

      Pearl went on to tell me that if some customers were dissatisfied with the sister’s service, they’d ‘smash the cave’ – wrecking the prostitution house – and the poor sister had to pay for all the losses.

      Some silence, then I remembered the haunted garden and blushed deeply.

      ‘What is it, Xiang Xiang?’

      I felt as if a firefly were caught in my throat.

      ‘Is there something you want to ask me?’

      Finally I was able to manage, in a whisper, ‘Sister Pearl, was … the man in the garden … Jiang Mou?’

      She cocked an eye at me. ‘Xiang Xiang, be careful what you say! No one can find out.’

      I nodded. ‘Did you let me and Spring Moon see you on purpose?’

      She smiled, looking very mysterious under the yellowish light of her bejewelled lamp.

      ‘So do you love Jiang Mou?’ I took her silence as yes. ‘Then why don’t you marry him and leave Peach Blossom?’

      ‘Because he’s poor and he’s already married.’ Pearl sighed, her fingers caressing her luminous jade bracelet. ‘Don’t think about love, Xiang Xiang. Love never lasts; think about pleasure.’

      ‘But that doesn’t last either.’

      ‘But unlike love, it won’t bring pain afterwards.’ She looked at the clock. ‘We’d better start our lesson now.’

      Pearl led me to sit beside her in front of the vanity table. ‘Xiang Xiang,’ she said, carefully studying our reflections in the mirror, ‘now you know about the clouds and rain.’

      I nodded.

      She went on, ‘The most important thing is to tease. Because if you let those chou nanren get there too quickly, they’ll be disappointed. Remember, their wives all have the same cinnabar crevices as we do. But we have the art of coquetry to excite. You tease not only in how you look, but also in the ways you move, even when you’re sleeping.’

      ‘But Sister Pearl, sleeping has no movement!’

      ‘But we feign sleep to seduce. Have you not heard of the phrase “crabapple sleeping in spring”? It means a beautiful woman sleeping seductively. And it’s spring that makes all the difference—’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Because spring is the season for lust, for the stirring of love!’

      With a dreamy expression, Pearl slightly parted her lips, then the delicate tip of her tongue reached to touch her upper lip – like a rosebud emerging from a deep hole. ‘We sisters are like good cooks who mix the five flavours harmoniously into a delicious soup.’

      ‘I like soup.’

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