the
laotong
agreement. Of course it is never too late to make a change, if that is what your husband truly desires. It will only mean more awkwardness for me.”
What could my mother do except say, “Madame Wang, I misspoke. Please come inside. Would you care for some tea?”
I heard Mama’s shame and fear that day. She could not jeopardize any aspect of the relationship, even if it placed an added burden on our family.
Are you wondering how I felt, hearing that Snow Flower’s family didn’t feel I was her equal? It didn’t disturb me, because I knew I didn’t deserve Snow Flower’s affections. I worked hard every day to make her love me as I loved her. I felt sorry—no, embarrassed—for my mother. She had lost a lot of face with Madame Wang. But the truth is, I didn’t care about Baba’s concerns, Mama’s discomfort, Madame Wang’s stubbornness, or the peculiar physical design of Snow Flower and my relationship, because even if I could have visited Tongkou without my future husband seeing me, I felt I didn’t need to go there to know about my
laotong
’s life. She had already told me more about her village, her family, and her beautiful home than I could ever have learned just by seeing them. But the matter didn’t end there.
Madame Wang and Madame Gao always fought over territory. As the go-between for people in Puwei, Madame Gao had negotiated a good marriage for Elder Sister and had found a suitable girl from another village for Elder Brother. She had expected to do the same for Beautiful Moon and me. But Madame Wang—with her ideas about my fate—had changed not only my course and that of Beautiful Moon but Madame Gao’s as well. Those moneys would no longer go into her purse. As they say, a miserly woman always nurses revenge.
Madame Gao traveled to Tongkou to suggest her services to Snow Flower’s family. It didn’t take long before word of this reached Madame Wang. While the disagreement had nothing to do with us, the confrontation took place in our house when Madame Wang came to pick up Snow Flower and found Madame Gao eating pumpkin seeds and discussing the logistics of Elder Sister’s Delivering the Date ceremony in the main room with Baba. Nothing was said in front of him. Neither woman was
that
unrefined. Madame Gao could have avoided the quarrel altogether if she’d simply left when her business was done. Instead, she walked upstairs, plopped down on a chair, and began bragging about her matchmaking expertise. She was like a finger poking at a boil. Finally, Madame Wang couldn’t take any more.
“Only a she-dog in heat would be demented enough to come to my village and try to steal one of my little nieces,” Madame Wang snapped.
“Tongkou is not
your
village, Old Auntie,” Madame Gao answered smoothly. “If it is your village to master, why do you come sniffing around Puwei? By your reckoning, Lily and Beautiful Moon should be mine. But do I cry
waa-waa
like a baby over this?”
“I’ll make fine matches for those girls. I will for Snow Flower too. You couldn’t do better.”
“Don’t be so sure. You did not do so well for her elder sister. I’m better suited, given Snow Flower’s circumstances.”
Did I mention that Snow Flower was in the room hearing these words, being talked about as if she and her sister were bags of inferior rice being haggled over by unscrupulous merchants? She had been standing by Madame Wang, waiting to go home. In her hands she held a piece of cloth she had embroidered. She twisted it in her fingers, stretching the threads. She didn’t look up, but I could see that her face and ears had turned bright red. At this point, the argument could have escalated. Instead, Madame Wang reached out a veined hand and placed it gently on the small of Snow Flower’s back. Until that time I hadn’t known that Madame Wang was capable of either pity or backing down.
“I do not speak to gutter women,” she rasped. “Come, Snow Flower. We have a long
laotong
agreement. Of course it is never too late to make a change, if that is what your husband truly desires. It will only mean more awkwardness for me.”
What could my mother do except say, “Madame Wang, I misspoke. Please come inside. Would you care for some tea?”
I heard Mama’s shame and fear that day. She could not jeopardize any aspect of the relationship, even if it placed an added burden on our family.
Are you wondering how I felt, hearing that Snow Flower’s family didn’t feel I was her equal? It didn’t disturb me, because I knew I didn’t deserve Snow Flower’s affections. I worked hard every day to make her love me as I loved her. I felt sorry—no, embarrassed—for my mother. She had lost a lot of face with Madame Wang. But the truth is, I didn’t care about Baba’s concerns, Mama’s discomfort, Madame Wang’s stubbornness, or the peculiar physical design of Snow Flower and my relationship, because even if I could have visited Tongkou without my future husband seeing me, I felt I didn’t need to go there to know about my
laotong
’s life. She had already told me more about her village, her family, and her beautiful home than I could ever have learned just by seeing them. But the matter didn’t end there.
Madame Wang and Madame Gao always fought over territory. As the go-between for people in Puwei, Madame Gao had negotiated a good marriage for Elder Sister and had found a suitable girl from another village for Elder Brother. She had expected to do the same for Beautiful Moon and me. But Madame Wang—with her ideas about my fate—had changed not only my course and that of Beautiful Moon but Madame Gao’s as well. Those moneys would no longer go into her purse. As they say, a miserly woman always nurses revenge.
Madame Gao traveled to Tongkou to suggest her services to Snow Flower’s family. It didn’t take long before word of this reached Madame Wang. While the disagreement had nothing to do with us, the confrontation took place in our house when Madame Wang came to pick up Snow Flower and found Madame Gao eating pumpkin seeds and discussing the logistics of Elder Sister’s Delivering the Date ceremony in the main room with Baba. Nothing was said in front of him. Neither woman was
that
unrefined. Madame Gao could have avoided the quarrel altogether if she’d simply left when her business was done. Instead, she walked upstairs, plopped down on a chair, and began bragging about her matchmaking expertise. She was like a finger poking at a boil. Finally, Madame Wang couldn’t take any more.
“Only a she-dog in heat would be demented enough to come to my village and try to steal one of my little nieces,” Madame Wang snapped.
“Tongkou is not
your
village, Old Auntie,” Madame Gao answered smoothly. “If it is your village to master, why do you come sniffing around Puwei? By your reckoning, Lily and Beautiful Moon should be mine. But do I cry
waa-waa
like a baby over this?”
“I’ll make fine matches for those girls. I will for Snow Flower too. You couldn’t do better.”
“Don’t be so sure. You did not do so well for her elder sister. I’m better suited, given Snow Flower’s circumstances.”
Did I mention that Snow Flower was in the room hearing these words, being talked about as if she and her sister were bags of inferior rice being haggled over by unscrupulous merchants? She had been standing by Madame Wang, waiting to go home. In her hands she held a piece of cloth she had embroidered. She twisted it in her fingers, stretching the threads. She didn’t look up, but I could see that her face and ears had turned bright red. At this point, the argument could have escalated. Instead, Madame Wang reached out a veined hand and placed it gently on the small of Snow Flower’s back. Until that time I hadn’t known that Madame Wang was capable of either pity or backing down.
“I do not speak to gutter women,” she rasped. “Come, Snow Flower. We have a long
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