Chapter 2

In 1937, the 26th year of the Republic of China, Yueming followed her father from Kunming back to her birthplace, Yunxiang.

It was a small border town with only dry and rainy seasons. Her father said the winter there was warmer than the spring in Kunming. Yueming left in a hurry, not having time to say goodbye to all her friends. She thought it was just one of her many journeys, but when she arrived in Mengning, her father told her that they would be staying in Yunxiang for the long term.

The carriage of the Yunxiang chieftain's family had been waiting for them in Mengning City for several days. Seeing the second housekeeper, wearing a turban, and the slave lying prostrate beneath the carriage, waiting for her to board, the thirteen-year-old girl felt terrified and lost. Where exactly was she going? The slave, kneeling on the ground, wore clothes that were relatively neat and clean, but they were riddled with patches. His shoeless feet were covered in mud and calluses, and his heels were even cracked. Didn't Yunxiang's people wear shoes? She suddenly remembered that besides her white sneakers, she only had a pair of leather shoes. What if both pairs wore out? Would she have to go barefoot like them?

Yueming thought: There certainly wouldn't be the 'Three Principles of the People' taught in school, nor would there be electric lights or cars, not to mention popsicles to cool down and milk to drink every day.

The shock of the man before her, the loneliness of leaving her friends, and the fatigue of the long journey brought her dissatisfaction to a climax. When she heard that they still had three days to go to Yunxiang, she exploded, throwing the small leather suitcase on the ground in anger. The dust it kicked up made the kneeling slave cough.

Yueming attended a modern school, where teachers constantly talked about ethnicity, civil rights, and livelihoods. The Lan family never mistreat their servants. Seeing Ma Nu choking on dust, coughing up tears but still daring to get up, she felt she had done something wrong. But she was already fuming, unable to bring herself to apologize. The combination of grievance and shame forced her to hold back tears.

When the second housekeeper Feng saw Mr. Lan's daughter crying, he shouted at the slave in Dai language, and the slave's head, which was already not high enough, lowered even lower.

Lan Yingde stopped Feng Er from yelling and scolding. Feng Er always mentioned his father and mother and used foul language when scolding servants. Even if his daughter couldn't understand, he didn't want her to hear these dirty words.

His daughter was sometimes stubborn, but she was always obedient, sensible, and easy to coax. He held his daughter in his arms, stroked her head, and whispered, "Daddy knows you're tired. Just hold on a little longer. I promise everything will be fine when Yun-sang arrives."

Yueming, who was still angry but not happy, felt less sad when she saw the stairs. She threw herself into Lan Yingde's arms and sobbed, "I don't want to step on him to get on the car."

Lan Yingde glanced at the manu who was still kneeling on the ground and called him to get up in Dai language. The manu looked up at the second housekeeper Feng and did not dare to get up.

Feng Er pretended not to see anything, standing aside with his hands in his sleeves, looking at the father and daughter with a smile. Lan Yingde had no choice but to say to Feng Er: "This child has never seen this before, let him get up!"

The second housekeeper Feng put his hands together, bowed to Yueming and said with a smile, "Young lady, you are really kind-hearted." After saying that, he waved his hand to let the horse slave stand up.

The horse slave stood up and stood aside respectfully with his waist bent. Only after Lan Yingde carried Yueming onto the carriage did he dare to go to the back of the carriage to brush the dust off his trouser legs.

Another servant picked up the box on the ground, brushed off the dust on it with his sleeve, and handed it respectfully to Yueming in the carriage.

After taking it, Yueming opened the box with a burning face to check whether the perfume and vanishing cream inside were damaged, under Lan Yingde's mocking eyes.

After crying, she wanted to eat something sweet. Looking at the tin candy box in the box, she wanted to eat the fruit candies inside. But she thought that she didn’t know if she could buy it in the future, and each candy she ate would be one less. She swallowed her saliva and closed the box reluctantly.

Lan Yingde rode the horse prepared for him by the chieftain's mansion and walked side by side in front of the carriage with the second housekeeper.

He asked the second housekeeper, "I asked you to find a maid to keep my daughter company. I wonder if you have found one yet?"

How could the Second Steward Feng not do his best to fulfill Lan Caishen's instructions? He quickly said, "I found it, I found it. I went to Boguang Village (1) myself and picked out a smart maid for the young lady. I also asked my boy who works for the Second Young Master to teach her Chinese."

Hearing him mention the second young master of the chieftain's family, Lan Yingde asked curiously, "The second young master is back from Siam?" Every time he came to Yunxiang, the second young master was either still studying in the UK or going to Siam to visit his sister, and he had never had the chance to see him.

"I just came back from Siam. The Water Splashing Festival is coming soon. The leaders of all clans and circles will come to pay homage to our Anyazhao Tusi (2). The second young master will be the chieftain of the Zhaofang clan in the future. It will be a shame if he is not here on such an important day."

Lan Yingde was just making small talk. As for why the Second Young Master had returned, he didn't really care. He was just worried that since the Second Young Master had just returned, it meant that Feng Er's son had also returned with him. He probably had only been teaching the girl to speak Chinese for a few days, so he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to communicate with his daughter anymore. He might have to go to the Han village to find a maid for his daughter.

He casually agreed with a few words and turned back to look at the carriage. Through the bamboo curtain, he could vaguely see that his daughter had fallen asleep on the triangular pillow in the carriage.

His daughter's obedience made him feel relieved but also a little sad. He didn't know whether it would be a blessing or a curse for her to marry someone with such an easy-going personality. Perhaps it was right to bring her back to Yunxiang. It was common for the Dai people to marry a son-in-law, unlike the Han people who were discriminated against. When she grew up, he would find her a son-in-law and watch whoever dared to bully her under his nose.

At noon on the third day, the carriage slowly pulled into the cobblestone streets of Yunxiang City. Because of the festival, the streets were filled with businesspeople. Looking at the bustling streets, Lan Yingde lifted the carriage curtain and asked his daughter, "Yueming, do you want to ride with Daddy?"

As soon as they left Mengning City, the weather was scorching hot. Yueming felt stuffy in the carriage and got out to ask Lan Yingde to take her horseback riding. But before she had even had a quarter of an hour, she felt dizzy from the sun and returned to the carriage in dismay.

She leaned listlessly against the car wall as she heard her father invite her to go horseback riding. She was reluctant to go out in the bright sunshine, but the bustling sounds made her yearn for it. After pondering this conflicting question for a minute, her love of the hustle and bustle overcame the scorching sun, and she nodded to Lan Yingde.

Lan Yingde asked the horseman to stop the carriage, and Yueming got out of the carriage and held out her hand to Lan Yingde on horseback. Lan Yingde bent down, grabbed her armpits, and pulled her onto the horse.

Yueming sat before Lan Yingde, her small hands clutching the saddle as she curiously surveyed the street. The houses on either side of the street ranged from bamboo to brick and wood, but all had a balcony with railings on the second floor. Some houses operated businesses on the ground floor, while others used it to keep livestock. Seeing the cows leisurely grazing on the ground floor, Yueming wrinkled her nose in disdain. "Wouldn't it be smelly living with pigs and cows?"

The streets were bustling with people. She had originally thought that this was just a small border town, no matter how lively it was, it would be limited. But the dazzling array of goods on the street dazzled her. Cigarettes printed with Burmese and English, rice crackers, foreign cloth, meat and poultry, all kinds of fruit filled the streets, and there were even vendors selling all kinds of white hot pot.

Yunxiang City wasn't just a place of Dai and Han people, as she'd previously assumed. The men weren't noticeable, but some of the women on the street dressed distinctly differently from the Dai. Some wore dozens of waist bands. Some wore their hair loose, wearing only a wide silver headband. Their skin was a gleaming tan. She was most curious about the women, their headscarves dangling with colorful threads. They stood in groups of three or five, carrying bamboo baskets on their shoulders. All of them puffed on small pipes, even a three or four-year-old girl sported a pipe pouch tucked into her waist.

Lan Yingde asked Feng Er, "Did the leaders of the eighteen tribes come to pay homage to the Tusi during this year's Water Splashing Festival? There are so many Awa people on the streets."

Without waiting for the second housekeeper to answer, Yueming turned his head and asked curiously, "What is A Wa?"

Lan Yingde raised his whip and pointed at the women wearing large silver headbands and said, "Those dark-skinned ones are the Wa people."

Knowing that pointing fingers at others was not a good idea, Yueming didn't have her father's courage. However, she couldn't resist her curiosity and quietly raised her finger to point at the group of women smoking pipes: "Who are those people?"

Lan Yingde followed her furtive finger and said, "Oh, those are the Lahu." Then he pointed at the woman wearing a belt and waist hoop and said, "Those are the Benglong tribe (3)."

When Feng Er saw the father and daughter finished talking, he was about to answer Lan Yingde's previous question, but just as he opened his mouth, the young widow selling jelly on the street beat him to the punch.

The young widow followed the horse, tilted her head and raised her eyes as she handed a bamboo tube of ice jelly and cold shrimp to Lan Yingde and said, "Master (4), buy a bowl of rice and cold shrimp for the young lady! I made it with homemade brown sugar syrup and added fried peanuts. I guarantee the young lady will like it." Her not very fluent Chinese with her soft and sticky accent tickled people's hearts. The second housekeeper beside her felt half of his body numb when he heard it.

Lan Yingde lowered his head and asked Yueming, "Do you want to eat?"

Yueming glanced at the woman following beside the horse. She was wearing a short-sleeved rose-red tight-fitting top and an emerald green tube skirt. The color combination was extremely gaudy but also made her look very charming. When she reached out to hand something, the belt that tied her skirt and a part of her waist were exposed. Her white waist looked so thin that it could be held in one hand under the dazzling sunlight. All the men on the street couldn't help but look at her plump waist.

Yueming had no idea what rice-cold shrimp were, but she certainly wanted to eat them. However, she didn't like the way the woman dressed, or the tone of her voice. From her clothes to her behavior, Yueming felt she resembled the prostitutes the nanny in Kunming often scolded. After a fierce mental struggle, she shook her head and said, "I don't want to eat."

Seeing that his daughter didn't want to eat, Lan Yingde didn't talk to the young widow, waving her away. Seeing that the deal wasn't done, the young widow didn't bother to pursue Lan Yingde. She flirted with him, picked up the bamboo tube, lifted the hem of her skirt, and went back to her stall, twisting her waist. The second housekeeper couldn't help but turn his head to look at her swaying waist, secretly swallowing his saliva, completely forgetting Lan Yingde's previous question.

The man sitting at her stall eating cold rice noodles started to make noises: "Yuman! If Mr. Lang doesn't eat, I will! Sit on my lap and feed me, and I'll take over your stall today."

"Yuman, I don't need you to sit on my lap, just feed me."

"Yan Bang, I'm afraid you don't want to live anymore. If your wife knew about this, you would have to carry your baby on your back to plant rice again."

Sitting on a rattan chair with her legs crossed, Yuman adjusted the hairpin dangling from her bun and rolled her eyes at the group of men: "Aren't you afraid that I'll break all three of your legs if I sit on you?"

A group of men roared with laughter, their words becoming increasingly obscene. Although Yueming couldn't understand what they were saying, she knew from the expressions of those men that it was definitely not good.