The Opium Lord's Daughter Read online

  Su-Mei stepped out of her sedan chair with the help of an attendant, and Father Afonso appeared at her side. “Lady Su-Mei, it is my honor to introduce you to Mother Amanda of the convent of St. Anthony’s. Mother Amanda, this is Lady Lee Su-Mei.”

  “Welcome to our convent, young lady,” said Mother Amanda. “We look forward to hosting you for the next fifteen days and teaching you the way of our Lord.” Su-Mei nodded, unsure how to respond. Shao Lin’s face lit up when he heard this, convinced more than ever that it was the right decision to bring his daughter there. He thought “our Lord” referred to him.

  The orphanage and convent were across the street from the church in a tall, graceful stone building with high arches above the windows. Mother Amanda and some other European women, also dressed in big black robes, led the way. Su-Mei said a respectful farewell to her father, although her mind was whirling with excitement, and Shao Lin left with Father Afonso to meet with a representative of Jardine and Matheson to discuss business.

  Su-Mei’s new room was less than a quarter of the size of her bedchamber at home. This must be part of the punishment, she thought. The room was bare, and the furniture was plain and crudely made. The only artwork in evidence was a small wood carving of a starved man dressed in rags and hanging from a cross beam. These foreign devils have strange taste in art, she thought. On the way to her room, she had noticed that similar carvings were everywhere and assumed that this must be the trend here in Macau. When an artist gained the favor of a lord, many of his pieces would be purchased to decorate a home, so whoever had done all these dismal carvings must have made quite an impression on the lord of the household.

  She waited a few minutes, seated on a very hard chair, for the convent’s servants to come and unpack her chests. When no one came, she realized that she was expected to manage this task herself. She began to remove some of her clothing and toilet articles but soon abandoned it out of boredom.

  Mother Amanda entered the room without knocking or announcing herself. Another strange habit of the foreign devils, Su-Mei thought. She brought with her a young woman dressed in a similar robe but with a much smaller head covering. This woman looked very different from those she had seen on her way to the convent. Her eyes were narrow, her skin was not as white as all the other foreign devil women, and she had wavy black hair.

  “Say hello to Sister Maria,” said Mother Amanda in her strangely accented Chinese. “She will be your guide and tutor in the ways of our Lord.”

  “Hello, Sister Su-Mei,” said Sister Maria. “Welcome to our convent and our way of life under our Lord God.” She smiled. The woman spoke excellent Chinese without a trace of an accent, but Su-Mei had no idea what these words meant. She nodded in response. “I will do my best to make your experience here as happy and inspirational as mine has been.”

  Mother Amanda spoke to Sister Maria in a foreign tongue, and then she departed, leaving the two young women alone together.

  Sister Maria made sure that Mother Amanda was out of earshot before speaking. “They call me Sister Maria, but you can call me Pai Chu when we’re alone,” she said.

  “Can you teach me how to speak the language of the foreign devils?” Su-Mei burst out, almost interrupting Pai Chu.

  “I can teach you some things, but you’re only here for fifteen days, and it’ll take much longer to learn the language, which is called English, properly.”

  “If you can teach me, I will find a way for us to stay together longer,” said Su-Mei. She had already decided on her sedan chair ride to the convent that she wanted to learn everything there was to know about these foreign devils. They were clearly a strong group of people with completely different rules and habits, and, most important, they treated their women as something like equals. By eavesdropping on her brother and his new friends, she had already learned that the foreign devils loved tea, silk, and other Chinese things and were willing to trade opium to get them.

  “All right,” said Pai Chu, “but we must keep it a secret as I’m not sure if your Honorable Father or Mother Amanda would approve of you learning English.”

  “Even better!” Su-Mei could hardly contain herself. “I want to learn everything about these people and learn how to speak with them.”

  Pai Chu examined the young woman in front of her. “How old are you, Sister Su-Mei?”

  “I’m seventeen, almost eighteen—how old are you?”

  “Eighteen,” replied Pai Chu.

  They both covered their mouths and giggled, already feeling like friends.

  “Pai Chu?” said Su-Mei, “how did you come to be here in this house full of foreign women? Aren’t you Chinese like me?”

  “It’s a long story.” Pai Chu sighed. “Let’s put away your clothing while I tell it to you.”

  Su-Mei agreed, and the story her new friend told her made the time pass more quickly.

  Sister Maria was named Pai Chu (White Pearl) by Mother Amanda when she was left at the convent as a newborn. She was born to a Chinese farm girl in Macau who was raped by a drunken British sailor. The sailor escaped punishment and returned to England on the next ship, never knowing he’d left a daughter behind. Her mother couldn’t bear to look at a baby with the features of the foreign devil who’d attacked her. She wanted to kill the baby, but her father wrapped up the strange-looking child and left it at the front door of the convent with a message carefully penned by the village letter writer about the child’s provenance. He had heard that the foreign women living there took in foundlings.

  Pai Chu was never adopted and grew up in the convent speaking English and Portuguese. At the age of five, she befriended some older Chinese orphans and learned their language as well. Languages came easily to her. The nuns explained that she had been abandoned by her mother, and it didn’t take long for her to realize that she was not the same as other Chinese children. She saw herself as a Chinese girl, and she resented the nasty insults other children hurled at her about being a “mixed seed.” She learned to fight as a result. The fact that she was physically larger than most Chinese girls made her a formidable foe, and Pai Chu was punished many times for hurting boys bigger than she was who had dared to bully and insult her. Pai Chu was a force to be reckoned with.

  When she reached the age of ten, the Jesuit teachings of the nuns took root, and Pai Chu became a devout Catholic. But she never lost her tough streak, and her fighting spirit made her a practical person who thought for herself. The only love she’d felt during childhood had come from God, so Pai Chu devoted herself to him and Jesus Christ. Their unconditional love gave her the strength to fight her inner demons.

  When Pai Chu reached her teens, Mother Amanda gave her the letter that had been tied to her wrist as an infant, and so she learned the origin of her mixed-race features. As a result, Pai Chu harbored a deep resentment and disgust for British men, especially sailors. It was a British sailor’s fault she had never known a mother’s love. On the fifteenth anniversary of the day she was left in front of the convent, she announced to Mother Amanda that she was eager to devote her life to Christ and become a novice. Mother Amanda was hesitant at first but realized that Pai Chu was a rare young woman with strong principles, not unlike herself at that age when she’d decided to travel all the way to Macau to spread the word of God to heathens.

  “She called me a gift from God to make the church stronger,” Pai Chu said as she closed Su-Mei’s trunk and shoved it against the wall. “There!” She clapped her hands together. “All done!”

  Su-Mei, usually full of commentary on just about everything, had nothing to say. Tears threatened to escape her eyes as she thought of Pai Chu growing up with no parents or friends, surrounded by foreign devils. But then again, she realized, no one ever tried to tie her up and bind her feet or tell her she was a big, ugly disappointment either. “What does it mean to be a novice?” she asked.

  “That means that I am preparing to dedicate my life to God,” said Pai Chu. “After a few years of study and meditation, if Mot
her Amanda says I’m ready, I’ll take holy orders and become a nun like the others. Instead of marrying a man, I will make my vows to the church.” She glanced up at the wood carving of the skinny man on the wall.

  Su-Mei giggled. “You will marry a temple?” She thought for a moment. “Actually, that doesn’t sound so bad.”

  Chapter Four

  Meanwhile, back in Canton, Da Ping was thoroughly enjoying his popularity. Boys and young men from prominent families visited him daily. All these social calls were arranged by his father so his son could learn by example how to act like the son of a powerful man, and the fathers of these boys were only too happy to do a favor for Honorable Lee Shao Lin. When he stopped to think about it, Da Ping was petrified by the knowledge that he was expected to run the family business one day and be a powerful, ruthless man like his father. So he didn’t think about it. I’ll figure it out when the time comes, and then I’ll be as clever as Honorable Father—maybe even as important as Honorable Grandfather, he tried to convince himself, without success.

  As much as Da Ping enjoyed spending time with his peers, he also suspected that these new friends were only deferential to him because of the potential favors they were expecting to receive in the future—and because they were obedient sons who feared their own fathers’ displeasure. This troop of monkeys wouldn’t lend me a pot to piss in if I were not my father’s son. But the troop of monkeys were offering him something he desperately craved: admiration and respect, neither of which he had earned on his own merits because he had never been allowed to do anything. His family saw only his future self—the man who would take his place in the family business. His father took no interest in the boy who was not quite a man yet, a youth who lacked any sense of purpose or self-confidence.

  His friends’ laughter and praises, insincere as they were, gave him a feeling of importance that he began to crave like a drug. He knew that if Su-Mei were still an important part of his life, she would show him how phony these friends were and make him laugh at his own puffed-up image of himself as a soon-to-be-powerful man. And she would easily replace the false elation he felt around the boys who laughed at his jokes with genuine love and concern for him. But she wasn’t a part of his life now, and he missed her terribly. Thanks to Honorable Father, he’d rarely seen his sister in the past few months, and now she had been taken away to some boarding school in Macau as punishment for refusing to marry.

  Chu Sing, the son of Lord Chu Ting, another wealthy guan who had purchased his title and owned ten opium parlors, was part of Da Ping’s entourage. His charisma and good looks made him very popular among the boys. At seventeen years old, Chu Sing had already visited brothels and smoked opium, and he boasted about these activities to Da Ping constantly. Surrounded by older boys who pretended he was worldly and mature, Da Ping often forgot he was only thirteen, and he became very curious about these experiences, which he felt he deserved to taste as someone on the verge of being a powerful businessman.

  “When can we go to the Flower Lantern House?” he finally asked Chu Sing. The Flower Lantern was a floating brothel, famous for its young and beautiful ladies of the evening who were well trained in the art of pleasing a man in every possible way.

  “You’re way too young to even think about that!” Chu Sing laughed loudly, not even pretending to be respectful.

  “Is that what you think? Well, if you want to keep your opium parlors supplied with the best quality stuff when you inherit them, you’d better hope I grow up really soon.” Da Ping felt a surge of pride and power as he uttered those words. This was the first time he’d flexed his power among his friends, and it made him feel good, especially when he saw Chu Sing’s face turn pale. The joking atmosphere evaporated, and the room felt cold. Everyone knew that Lee Shao Lin only dealt in the finest opium that came into Canton and that Chu Sing would need Da Ping’s support when it came time to take over his father’s business.

  “Hey, just kidding, big future lord—of course I can take you.” Chu Sing chuckled and slapped Da Ping on the back, promising himself that he would get revenge on this young punk for such humiliation and loss of face. “You want to go tonight? In fact, let’s all go! My treat.” The atmosphere restored, everyone laughed in relief and began making bawdy jokes.

  Da Ping felt a moment of panic about being with a woman so soon, especially a prostitute, but he had gotten himself into this situation. He heard himself saying, “Absolutely, but do you think there’s a lady at Flower Lantern who can handle my gigantic Jade Stalk?” The entire group fell to the ground laughing, each one privately hoping it was all a joke. They had no interest in going to a brothel. No one except Chu Sing had had any kind of sexual experience, nor had they believed they would get a chance at it for several years. Many still had the bodies and smooth faces of boys, and the thought of being alone with a strange woman terrified them.

  Six privileged youths approached the waterfront, led by Chu Sing. He stopped in front of a large floating building with two levels. Panels were painted in soothing blues and deep, seductive reds, with gold accents around the windows and leading up to graceful arches above the roof. Narrow red pillars supported balconies around the second level and the roof. Next to the main barge was a chain of smaller barges, one next to the other with the width of a barge between them for privacy, all docked around the shallowest part of the harbor. Above the door of each small barge, Da Ping could see a lantern shaped like a flower.

  “My friends, welcome to the Flower Lantern House—the finest brothel in Canton!” announced Chu Sing.

  The Flower Lantern House, like so many things in Canton, owed its existence to corruption. Houses of prostitution were illegal, but if the proprietor of a legal dance hall paid a large fee to the right person for a license to dock private barges at a specific area on the waterfront, it was understood that the authorities would not question the business that was being transacted on those barges. Naturally, senior magistrates and guans received very special service when they stopped in to perform safety checks on the barges that never went anywhere.

  The owner of the Flower Lantern House was Hau Si Si, known to her girls as Hau Ma Ma, or Mother Hau. Hau Si Si and her twin sister, Hau Wah Sum, were renowned for their expertise in satisfying men. Wah Sum lived in Peking and owned the Jade Flower House, an establishment that only the wealthiest men could afford. She personally trained each of her ladies in ways of worshipping the Jade Stalk that were rumored to bring any man to a peak of ecstasy he had never imagined. Sum Ma Ma’s secret methods were said to be unparalleled in China, if not the world, and any man who could afford to visit the Jade Flower House in Peking would never be satisfied with anything less.

  Hau Ma Ma greeted the boys warmly when they stepped inside. She was surprised to see Chu Sing bring such young boys to her establishment, but she played along.

  “How may we serve you and your esteemed friends tonight, Master Chu?” she asked.

  “This is Master Lee, Lord Guan Lee Shao Lin’s Number One Son,” said Chu Sing, “and I want him to enjoy the blossoming of his Jade Stalk tonight, so can you give him your best?”

  Hau Ma Ma was thrilled to have in her care a young man with such a gilded future. She knew that most men became loyal customers after their first experience with her well-trained ladies, and this was a man who could grant powerful favors one day.

  “Thank you for the honor, young Master Lee!” She spoke with such warmth and bowed so gracefully that Da Ping immediately felt at ease, as though he belonged there among the other great men. “May I provide a companion for each of your friends as well?”

  Almost as one, Da Ping’s friends begged off. Hearts pounding in their chests and feeling awfully young, they couldn’t wait to escape from such a frightening place. Many of them really had no idea what went on between a man and a woman, but they were fairly sure they didn’t want to attempt it just yet.

  “Fine, run home to your mamas, you bunch of babies,” he muttered. Da Ping would have given anything
to join them, but he had strayed too far into this game with Chu Sing, and he needed to prove that he was a man who could handle a woman, even if he was only thirteen years old. He stared in wonder at his surroundings. Ornate, gilded columns stretched up to meet carved dragons and paintings of idyllic ocean scenes. In the noisy and brightly lit dining room, men sat at polished wood tables in the company of the most beautiful ladies he had ever seen, each one dressed in silk and brocade gowns with the necklines loosened just enough to give a glimpse of the treasures they had to offer. Their shining hair was held up with glittering ornaments from which flashing jewels dangled seductively as they tilted their heads. The ladies smiled and laughed, placing dainty morsels of food on the men’s plates or even directly into their mouths with elegant chopsticks. Corners of the hall were hidden by painted screens, behind which, Da Ping imagined, were even more beautiful ladies offering even more sumptuous food and drink to the most important customers. At the center of the far wall, women in traditional dancing costumes swayed gracefully to music on a raised stage. To one side of the stage, a broad staircase led to an interior balcony and several more private rooms behind closed doors. Da Ping was so enthralled that Hau Ma Ma had to ask him twice if he would accept a cup of tea and a warm towel to refresh himself.

  “Yes,” he gulped, feeling awkward and shy. He didn’t know where to put the towel when he had finished and quickly dropped it onto a tray as a waiter passed with empty dishes.

  Hau Ma Ma summoned Little Spring, an acquisition from Kwei Lin, home of some of the most beautiful women in China. She had been meticulously trained in the art of pleasing men. Little Spring was not so little—and definitely taller than Da Ping, who was so nervous he couldn’t speak. Her clothing was rich with brocade and cut to emphasize her figure, and it was designed so that it could be easily loosened to expose her breasts. Her hair had been plucked in front and parted severely in the center to show off a high forehead. Her round face was artfully powdered, but her eyes, beneath brows that had been plucked and redrawn into narrow half-moons, were warm and kind.