A Flower’s Shade Read Free

over with Ai'ai's father.
    It was in the garden that Naixiang had caught sight of her. Just then it was the season for apple blossoms, and Ai'ai, who had grown up in the village, was stunned by the sight of the garden brimming with gorgeous blooms. It was like an ocean of flowers, and the earth was covered in a layer of crimson petals. With a child's mischievousness, Ai'ai had broken off twigs from the apple tree, one after another, carefully fashioning a crown of flowers out of them. As she was preparing to set the crown upon her head, she caught sight of a fashionably dressed man, attended by a number of women behind him, standing at no great distance, looking at her with exhilaration. One of the women standing behind him had screeched at her in fury, "Filthy little girl, who asked you to come in here, making trouble?"
    Ai'ai stood motionlessly and helpless, stunned and frightened, frozen foolishly on the spot, her heart pattering erratically. She knew she was in the wrong, because her mother had always impressed upon her that she was allowed to touch nothing in the Estate. Naixiang, in his fashionable suit, neared her, took the crown of blossoms from her hands, and solemnly placed it upon her head. Ai'ai stood there, petrified, and let it be done to her. Naixiang took a step back, looked her up and down, removed the crown of blossoms, re-positioned it and crowned her with it once again. Then he smiled in satisfaction.
    "These flowers suit you perfectly." he told her, gravely.
    The women standing behind him fumed. Ai'ai didn't herself know why, but in any event she found herself blushing. She turned and fled. Naixiang's smile had left a deep impression on Ai'ai, who was feeling her first awakening. That evening, Ai'ai's parents were summoned by Naixiang. No sooner had they entered the room than they saw two high stacks of silver coins on the bed. Ai'ai's mother Mrs. Wu understood instantly what was afoot, and didn't even wait for Naixiang, sitting in the rosewood chair, to finish what he had to say before she began to stammer that her daughter was still too young.
    Naixiang laughed and said, "Too young? Not at all!"
    The high piles of silver coins were dazzling. Ai'ai's father had come to the Estate on an errand, namely to get some cash from his wife to fix the leaks in their old house, and had brought his daughter along. But those silver coins were enough to build a few new houses. "Young master, it can't be done, really it can't." Ai'ai's father was rambling incoherently, but whether this was on account of his fondness for the money or for his daughter was unclear, "Naturally, it honors her greatly that you've taken a fancy to this daughter of ours, and we're very honored also, but she really is still too young, I'm afraid it's all a good deal more than she deserves."
    "How old is your daughter?"
    "Thirteen."
    "I've deflowered younger girls than that." Naixiang said, a little put off. "You really are a fool. Since I've taken to her, would I let any harm come to her?"
    That night, after Ai'ai went to bed, her parents stayed up half the night debating, heaving sighs, arguing. At last they reasoned that she would have to be married sooner or later, and with that resigned themselves to her fate. So they turned off the lights and went to sleep, though after a moment, Ai'ai's father crept over and climbed onto Mrs. Wu, making the bed creak and whine. Mrs. Wu said "You're no better than a beast, to have this in mind at a time like this." Ai'ai's father answered, "Young Master Zhen has so many concubines, and now he's taking another one, a young one. But I have only one woman, and I've travelled a long way. I don't want it to have been for nothing."
    The following day, Ai'ai's father was gone, the silver coins wrapped up in his bundle. Under her mother's supervision, Ai'ai boiled a great pot of water, washed herself with it, and, dressed in new clothes, was shown into Naixiang's chambers. Naixiang, beside himself with pleasure,