Explore Chapter 3 of 'Moment in Peking' with the original Chinese text, English translation, detailed Chinese vocabulary explanations, and audio of the Chinese original. Listen and improve your reading skills.
Later, what Mulan's parents learned about her ordeal was this: At that time, only she was left in the cart. She was very frightened but did not cry. She had to find a way to get off the cart, and she did. The horse-drawn cart had just reached the bridge, hesitating about which road to take, and then stopped. There was no one nearby. She only saw a few soldiers far away and knew her cart had come from that direction. So she ran in that direction, all the way to the crossroads. By then, everyone had left. Dizzy and scared, she sat on the ground and cried. A group of soldiers came over, and a fat, good-natured fellow stopped and asked her what was wrong.
Mulan said, "I don't know either. We came from Beijing. Uncles and elder brothers, please be kind and help me find my father and mother. They have money and will reward you."
At that moment, a woman accompanied by a few soldiers came over. She had a red sash tied around her waist. Mulan knew at once that she was a Red Lantern, because she had seen them in Beijing. That woman had a purplish-brown skin, a large face, and unbound feet. The group seemed to be made up of male Boxers with the woman as their leader.
Mulan did not remember that they were heading for Hejian Prefecture, so she answered, "We were going to Dezhou."
The woman turned to the fat soldier and ordered him to carry the child on his back. The soldier was really good-natured, and Mulan was no longer afraid, except that she disliked his dirty, rough hands, which seemed to grip her too tightly and hurt her. Besides, the man smelled of garlic. Soon, they saw a stray horse. The woman ordered several soldiers to catch it. The fat man was then ordered to ride the horse with Mulan. This amazed Mulan because she had never ridden a horse before. The fat man asked her many questions. At first Mulan was cautious, but soon she lost all fear. The fat man told her his name was Lao Ba, and she said her name was Mulan and her family name was Yao. Lao Ba laughed and said, "Since you are Mulan, you must have served in the army for twelve years." Then he asked if she liked being a soldier.
After walking for an hour, Mulan still could not see a town and asked the fat man why, because she knew they should arrive at a town soon. Lao Ba said, "You must be thinking of Hejian Prefecture." Mulan then remembered the name of the city and said it was indeed Hejian Prefecture. But Lao Ba told her that they could not go there because the soldiers in the city would attack them.
Mulan was truly frightened now. The sun was about to set, just the time when a child wants to rest and feel safe. But Mulan's parents were far away, and she was traveling with strangers. She began to cry. After a while, she fell asleep. Later, she woke up frightened, cried again, and fell asleep again.
The woman gave her a bowl of congee with pickled turnips, but Mulan was not hungry. The woman told her to lie down on the ground beside her. Exhausted, Mulan fell into a deep sleep.
The woman replied, "Didn't you say you were going to Dezhou? I am taking you to Dezhou now. If you cry again, I will beat you."
Mulan heard that they were Boxers who had fought east of Beijing. Rumors said the foreign devils were approaching Beijing, so they retreated to the countryside. In the following days, they heard that the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu had fled, Beijing was in chaos with looting everywhere, and the white foreign soldiers were coming south.
Lao Ba replied, "Because the foreigners have magic, stronger than ours. Even the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, had never seen red-haired, blue-eyed demons before. The foreigners' magic is different from ours. They have a magic device that, when placed over the eyes, allows them to see a thousand miles."
Now Beijing was occupied by foreigners, the emperor had fled, and the Boxers only wanted to go home. Most of the villagers, even if not well-disposed toward the Boxers, were not hostile either, because they were locals who spoke the same dialect. Some threw away their Boxer headbands. They complained that the court had first organized them, then suppressed them, and finally sent them to fight the foreigners. Many regretted joining the Boxers and wished they had stayed home and farmed. The group that Mulan followed grew smaller day by day as they gradually dispersed and returned to their hometowns.
It was now apparent that Lao Ba and the woman Boxer were lovers, but they were about to part. The man wanted to go back to his own home, not to Dezhou. Mulan was afraid to be alone with the woman and wished the man would not leave.
Funny Lao Ba pronounced 'Yes, Yes' as 're-si, re-si' in the northern dialect. Every time he sang 're-si, re-si', he strained himself and burst out laughing.
Mulan now felt she too had become a bit like a Boxer. She also felt she hated the foreigners. They should not have come to China to preach their foreign gods. Chinese Christian converts relied on foreign power to bully Chinese people, as she had heard her father say. She had heard her father say that when Christian converts sued Chinese people in court, the county magistrate always ruled in favor of the Christians; otherwise, his official position would be in danger.
The policy adopted by Western missionaries was to use foreign power to protect Chinese converts and themselves. This made the converts seem like a separate group, close to the foreigners and alienated from the Chinese. In the past, there had been many missionary cases where Western missionaries were killed and county magistrates dismissed. Because two German missionaries were killed, not only did the governor of Shandong lose his post, but Qingdao was also ceded to Germany. That was why the governor hated foreigners so much, and he became one of the powerful figures who influenced Empress Dowager Cixi to favor the Boxers. So missionaries became thorns in the flesh for county magistrates. In cases involving missionaries and converts, the magistrates feared them more than thunderbolts. Once an incident occurred, no matter how the magistrate handled it, he would lose his post.
Moreover, Mulan had heard her father say that the foreigners did everything the opposite way. They wrote from left to right, not from top to bottom, and horizontally like crabs. When calling names, they said the given name first and then the surname. The strangest thing was that when writing an address, they wrote the house number first, then the street, city, and province, as if deliberately reversing everything. So to know where a letter was going, you had to read from the bottom up. Also, their women had big feet, a foot long, spoke loudly, had curly hair, blue eyes, and walked arm in arm with men.
They had been on the road for several days, with no sign of Dezhou. They bypassed large towns because there were soldiers in them. One day, they ran into government troops and lost four or five people. Mulan was very scared. They now had about twenty people left.
Another time, they stayed for several days, and the female leader quarreled with Lao Ba. The man wanted the woman to go to his hometown, but the woman wanted him to go to Dezhou, and he refused. Mulan could hear them cursing. Now the Boxer titles of 'Elder Brothers' and 'Holy Mother' were no longer used. They had become ordinary people, going home to make a living. Mulan wanted to go to Dezhou but was afraid of the woman and did not know what to do. Lao Ba had grown quite fond of Mulan and wanted to take her, but the woman would not let go, and the man could not make her yield. The quarrel became fierce, and the man started cursing her with all kinds of foul language, calling her 'a thieving woman,' 'a stinking whore,' 'a big-footed hag,' 'a swindler,' and 'a kidnaper.'
He said to Mulan, "I can't take you. I have no choice. Be careful of this stinking woman!" With that, he left.
Mulan stared wide-eyed at the woman without daring to make a sound. Mulan had heard her father and Jin'er talk about human traffickers, and she was terrified. She made up her mind to escape as soon as they reached Dezhou, but for now, she remained silent.
Fortunately, it was less than a day's journey. By dusk, they reached Dezhou. When Dezhou was in sight, Mulan tried to slip away. The woman caught her and hit her on the head and face, threatening to brand her with a red-hot iron if she tried to run again. From then on, the woman never let go of Mulan. They entered the city, crossed a few streets, went out another city gate, and arrived at a desolate village in the wilderness. They entered a house surrounded by trees, near a stream about ten feet wide. Inside the house was a tall man, about forty years old. Mulan was too exhausted to think about what might happen. They locked Mulan in a small room. While the woman talked with the man in the hall outside, she fell asleep.
Waking up the next morning, Mulan found herself in a small room with only one window, too high to reach. The woman came in with a red-hot fire tong and said, "Do you want to taste this? If you try to run, I'll burn your eyes out."
For the next two days, the woman's voice was not heard, but the man's voice could be heard from time to time.
The woman, smiling all over her face, said, "Miss!" It was the first time in many days that Mulan had been called 'miss'. "You are so lucky. I have found your family. Today you will go to them. Didn't I say I would take you to them? Haven't I been good to you?"
The woman pulled Mulan into the hall. There was an altar in the room with candles and a wooden shrine housing a faded, red-faced, beardless statue of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong.
The woman insisted on combing Mulan's hair, braiding it, tying it with a pink ribbon behind her neck, and pouring some 'tea oil' on her hair, which had a strong smell. She also wanted to apply a thick layer of rouge and powder on Mulan's face, but Mulan refused, saying she had never worn makeup, which annoyed the woman.
A man brought in several bowls of congee with red dates and brown sugar and gave one to Mulan. These people were superstitious and had certain rituals when parting with their kidnapped hostages. When returning a child, they had to dress her up beautifully and make everything appear auspicious.
The woman looked at Mulan, then at the bowl of sweet congee, and took it to Anxiang herself. Mulan heard her say, "You are lucky!"
They also had to perform a ceremony. A man lit three incense sticks, made three bows to the shrine, then walked from the hall to the backyard, holding the incense, and made three bows to heaven and earth.
They went to the small stream and got into a boat. Mulan heard Anxiang crying in the house and felt very sad.
They rowed downstream to the Grain Transport Canal and approached a large boat flying a red flag. Mulan could read and recognized that the boat belonged to an official family from Beijing. A large character on it read 'Zeng'.
A woman was sitting anxiously on the bow of the boat, staring intently at Mulan's boat. Several little boys stood beside the woman, staring wide-eyed, both curious and frightened. Mulan looked at the woman and did not know how to greet her. She was greatly disappointed that she was not being taken to her parents. Was this woman a friend of her parents? She had never seen this woman before.
Shy and frightened, Mulan trembled as she boarded the large boat. The woman reached out her hand. She seemed kind, cultured, and motherly. Mulan could not help but feel a sense of respect and affection for her.
Mrs. Zeng pulled her into her arms and said, "Good child, you must have suffered a lot." Mulan burst into tears. She knew she was in the arms of a kind-hearted woman, just like her own mother.
Then a strange thing happened. A stern-looking middle-aged gentleman stepped forward. He had a high forehead, wore glasses, and had a slight beard. He was dressed in a short jacket and trousers, with a gray-blue satin vest over them, and held a water pipe in one hand. He wore white cloth socks because on the Grain Transport Canal boats, although women wore shoes, men took them off to avoid dirtying the clean, lacquered floors of the cabin.
The gentleman walked toward Mulan, looked her over, and felt relieved, smiling slightly. Mrs. Zeng said, "This is Master Zeng. He doesn't know if you recognize him. He is puzzled."
Mulan felt very embarrassed, not knowing whether to say yes or no. So, following the usual custom, she said in a trembling voice, "Greetings, Master Zeng. May you have ten thousand blessings."
Master Zeng slowly took a small handkerchief-wrapped bundle from his sleeve, opening it with a strange smile. The unfolded handkerchief lay flat in his palm, holding two small pieces of moldy-looking bone, each about ten inches wide and eight to ten inches long, looking like ordinary, insignificant old animal bones that anyone could find on the ground in an old garden or among the ruins of an ancient mansion.
Mulan's eyes sparkled and she said, "Aren't those oracle bones?" Master Zeng exclaimed loudly, "Right! Right! She is Mulan! She is the only girl in the world who recognizes these oracle bones!" His excited shout not only startled Mulan but also surprised his wife and sons.
Mulan was confused and felt awkward. But suddenly, she remembered that he was the man she had met with her father one day at the Longfu Temple fair, when they were looking for some oracle bones.
She blurted out, "You are Master Zeng! You have been to our house!" Master Zeng said to his wife, "You know, I have been searching for treasures all these years. But today I have found a real treasure for you. It is her!"
Mrs. Zeng did not remember ever seeing her husband so excited, so relaxed, so natural, and without any airs.
Indeed, in the 26th year of Guangxu, Mulan was the only little girl in the world who had ever heard of these oracle bones from eighteen hundred years before Christ. Because they bore ancient oracle bone inscriptions from China's remote past, they are now well known for their importance, but at that time they had just been discovered at Xiaotunxi in Anyang, Henan-the ancient Yin ruins-and only a few collectors were interested in them. Mulan's father was one of the few. One day, Mulan had accompanied her father and met Mr. Zeng, and the two gentlemen began to talk. Mulan's father was very fond of his child and told Mr. Zeng that although the artifacts were so ancient, Mulan was especially fond of them. Later, after they met again at the Longfu Temple fair, Mr. Yao invited Mr. Zeng to his study to see his collection. That time, Mr. Yao specially called Mulan to the study to sit with them for a while. Now, by chance, he had rescued Mulan. Wasn't this a righteous act for a friend? Moreover, Mulan was her father's favorite child, and he himself was particularly fond of this intelligent and lively girl. Today's event was truly gratifying.
The woman who had kidnapped Mulan and the man stood there witnessing this unexpected scene. Mr. Zeng went to the rear cabin, weighed out some silver, and handed one hundred taels to the man.
The boys scattered around, watching Mulan with infinite curiosity, puzzled and admiring, but not daring to speak to her. The mother turned around, took Mulan's hand, and introduced her little boys to Mulan one by one. She said, "This is Pingya, the eldest. This is Jingya, the second. That is Sunya, the third. Mulan, how old are you?"
Pingya was courteous and polite. Jingya was quiet and did nothing unusual. Sunya was a chubby boy, grinning broadly with bright eyes. Mulan was very shy. Later, she would find out that this outspoken, mischievous, and naughty fat boy would be quite a handful.
Now that the first troubling and embarrassing thing was over, Mulan knew she was among friends. She took a deep breath and asked, "Where are my father and mother now?"
Mrs. Zeng was about thirty years old, with delicate features and a small, exquisite figure, in contrast to her husband's imposing stature. He was ten years older than she. Although her native place was Shandong, her family had lived in Beijing for several generations. Like a daughter from a family of scholars and officials, she was literate and could write essays. She was the second wife of Zeng Wenpu. The first wife had died after giving birth to Pingya, and she had raised Pingya as her own son. For a well-bred daughter of a wealthy family who knew how to be a good wife and mother, such a task was not difficult. Mrs. Zeng was modest, serene, composed, and dignified. Born into a good family, she had the natural grace, dignity, and virtue of Chinese women. She acted according to proper norms, managed household affairs methodically, was generous and kind to servants, and was shrewd in running the household, knowing when to be firm and, most importantly, when to yield and forgive. In managing a household and a husband, tolerance and supervision were equally important. Because she was delicate and elegant, she was sensitive and, being physically frail, susceptible to various ailments. But at this age, her skin was still very fine, and she remained youthful and beautiful.
Now her heart was only with Mulan. She said, "Mulan, go wash your face first, and I will find you some clothes to change into."
A maidservant brought a basin of water and a towel. After Mulan washed, Mrs. Zeng had a bowl of noodles with spare ribs prepared. Mulan politely said she was not hungry, but in fact she was terribly hungry. Mrs. Zeng insisted she eat, saying it was still early and lunch was a long way off. This was the first clean and delicious meal Mulan had had in days. The bowl of noodles was the most delicious she had ever tasted.
But Mulan was a sensitive girl. Although she was indeed hungry and the soup was delicious, she ate slowly for fear of appearing greedy and being laughed at. Of course, Mrs. Zeng was sitting at the table, and the children stood at a distance.
Mrs. Zeng said to her husband, "The child is asking you. Tell her properly." She then said to Mulan, "Good child, we have been constantly searching for you for the past four or five days."
The Zeng family was also on their way home to Tai'an County at the foot of Mount Tai in Shandong. They had left Beijing five weeks ago and had been delayed in Tianjin for half a month. When they reached a village on the Grain Transport Canal below Cangzhou, Mr. Zeng went ashore and saw a handwritten notice on yellow paper on the wall of a teahouse. The name and address of the notice writer caught his attention. Feng Jiuye had been walking along the Grain Transport Canal toward Dezhou, stopping from time to time to look for clues about Mulan, posting notices like the following at ferry crossings and village teahouses:
To whom it may concern: The girl Yao Mulan, age ten, dressed in white shirt and red pants, with delicate features, jet-black hair in a braid, natural feet, a small face, fair skin, three feet tall, with a Beijing accent. She was lost on the road between Xinzhong Post Station and Hejian Prefecture. Any benevolent gentleman who informs of the whereabouts of this girl will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver. Anyone who brings her back will be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver. Heaven is our witness. This promise will not be broken.
After reading the notice, Zeng Wenpu exclaimed, "This is my old friend Yao Huicai looking for his little daughter!" The Beijing address was correct, and he had heard that Yao had medicine shops and tea businesses in Hangzhou. The girl's distinctive name was unlikely to be duplicated. He returned to the boat and told his wife, adding that the young lady was very clever. Mrs. Zeng said it was fortunate that they had managed to survive those days safely near Tianjin with their whole family.
Since Zeng Wenpu was originally from Shandong and Dezhou was in Shandong, he thought of a simple way to find Mulan. Moreover, as an official in the capital, he could, if necessary, exert some influence over local officials. He knew that the Green Gang had a tight organization on the Grain Transport Canal, controlling all kidnapping, trafficking, and theft. If someone lost a watch, he could, if he knew the right channel, recover it within minutes. The bandits in Shandong were as well organized as the banks in Shanxi. In earlier days, banks could send carts of silver safely through deep mountains and forests infested with bandits, relying on a sealed and signed safe-conduct pass issued by the Green Gang's organization in Beijing. The bandits along the way strictly obeyed the seal on the pass. The bandits' rule was to collect toll on a shipment only once, making them more reliable than the government at that time. Their word was their bond.
So if Mulan had indeed been kidnapped by bandits, she would surely be sent to the Grain Transport Canal and most likely taken south, where young girls commanded high prices in the market. Dezhou was the main center of activity for that gang.
As soon as they arrived in Dezhou, Zeng Wenpu went directly to the Changfa Inn, hoping to find his friend Yao Si'an. The innkeeper said the Yao family had left six or seven days ago, but had left twenty taels of silver and a draft from a local bank to be cashed upon the child's recovery. They had also left a family photo at the bank.
After that, Zeng Wenpu went to a tavern, secretly showed his official card to the tavern keeper, and explained what he wanted done. Soon, the keeper brought a member of the gang to see him. Using a combination of authority and bribery, Zeng Wenpu had the man take him to the home of a gang sub-chief, to whom he gave the name, address, and physical description of the lost girl.
The man said he had seen the reward notice but did not know where the child was or if she was in their own hands. He promised to investigate and report back. Master Zeng promised him a generous reward.
The rest was straightforward. He rewarded the sub-chief who brought the news with five taels of silver and promised to pay one hundred taels when the child was handed over. The man hesitated, thinking that he had received five taels without any effort, which was indeed good fortune. But the prospect of another hundred taels would be a blessing from heaven, though it was only the amount stated on the reward notice.
Mulan listened quietly, as if hearing a fairy tale in which she was the suffering heroine. Where Mrs. Zeng got it wrong, Mr. Zeng interjected to correct her. At this moment, a tall young woman with a well-proportioned figure came onto the boat from the shore, carrying a six-year-old child. The young woman had very small feet, neatly bound, and stood upright. She wore a purple jacket with a wide green border, no skirt, only green trousers with horizontal wide stripes formed by black 'A' characters. Below the trousers, red bow shoes about three inches long with beautifully embroidered flowers were visible, and white leg bands tied above the shoes.
Because most women's feet, whether in size or angle, were not pleasing to the eye, a pair of well-bound, delicate, and pretty small feet were charming. The beauty of small feet, besides the harmony of lines, lay mainly in 'correctness,' which made the two small feet the perfect foundation of a woman's body. The feet of the young woman who had just boarded could be said to be nearly perfect-small, regular, neat, round, soft, tapering delicately toward the toes, unlike the flat, broad feet of ordinary women. When Mulan first caught sight of those feet through the door near the stern, her heart leaped with joy and surprise, because she had always loved that kind of small feet. Her mother had originally wanted to bind her feet, but her father, influenced by Liang Qichao's 'Essay on Natural Feet' and enthusiastic about the new ideas then popular in Beijing and elsewhere, resolutely opposed binding Mulan's feet. This was one of the effects of contact with Western culture on actual Chinese life. Mulan obeyed her father, but inwardly she still regretted not having bound feet.
This young woman, Guijie, was a beautiful and moving example. Of course, her beauty was not just in her feet; her entire figure enhanced it, like a good statue set on a perfect pedestal. Her pair of regular small feet added charm to her body, while her body remained steady and natural, so that at any time, the lines of her figure were perfect. When a woman walked in bow shoes, her entire weight fell mainly on the two elevated heels, producing an effect similar to Western high heels. When a woman wore high heels, her gait changed, her buttocks protruded backward, and it was impossible not to stand straight; the slouching, lazy, slovenly appearance that came with flat shoes was impossible. Guijie was indeed tall enough, with a beautiful head and neck. The upper part of her body had a streamlined silhouette, full and abundant, while from the waist down, the round and evenly balanced trousers gradually tapered down to the slightly upturned tips of the phoenix-head shoes-it looked like a harmoniously proportioned vase, pleasing to the eye day after day, perfect beyond words, and its beauty was hard to explain. A pair of unbound large feet would have completely destroyed the harmony of the lines.
Such was the beautiful impression Mulan had at her first glimpse of Guijie. With feminine instinct, she could not help but catch her breath. Later, when Guijie began to speak or smile, she noticed that Guijie's mouth was slightly too large, a small flaw. Her voice was naturally loud and clear.
Guijie was the concubine of Zeng Wenpu. Before being promoted from maidservant to concubine, she was called Guijie. Now the children called her Auntie. Some children still called her Guijie, and she did not mind. The household servants naturally called her Auntie, or Aunt Qian, because her family name was Qian. She had come with Mrs. Zeng as her dowry maid. Since Mrs. Zeng had given birth to two sons and was often ill, and Guijie was docile and obedient, it was natural for her to be promoted from maid to concubine. Their relationship had not changed at all, because in the wife's eyes, Guijie was always her maidservant. When Guijie was twenty-one, Zeng Wenpu fell ill. His wife happened to be suffering from blood deficiency and stomach pain, so Guijie had to attend to the master, serving him in bed, bathing him, and changing his clothes. The twenty-one-year-old Guijie found it very embarrassing to be so close to a man, as this was something she should only do for her future husband. The boundary between men and women had to be strictly observed. Mrs. Zeng came up with a solution: after her husband recovered, she would take Guijie in as a concubine. This made it convenient for Guijie to serve him during his illness, and of course, the husband was willing. After Zeng Wenpu recovered, they prepared a feast, invited relatives, lit red candles on the altar in the hall, and openly took Guijie as a concubine. Mrs. Zeng was very pleased.
Now Guijie was Mrs. Zeng's companion, main assistant, and her husband's concubine. Think how many different roles a woman can play!
The wife is like a flower; the vase can enhance the flower's nobility and beauty, or it can utterly destroy it. Because of her comfortable and secure life and her excellent upbringing, which made her fully aware of her status, Mrs. Zeng had a sense of noble dignity. She could read and write; Guijie could not. The difference between wife and concubine was also determined by status and character. The wife could wear a skirt; the concubine could only wear trousers. Guijie was intelligent and tactful, never daring to overstep her position, covet Mrs. Zeng's status, or lose an iota of the respect due to the wife. Originally a maidservant, she was now content and never thought of changing her status.
Everything in the Zeng household was proper because everything was open and aboveboard. The trouble with taking a concubine lay not in the people involved but in society's perception; not in the husband's opinion of the matter, but in the wife's and the concubine's own thoughts, and most importantly, in society's view of the three of them.
Guijie had also given birth to two daughters: Ailian, now six, and a younger one, only six months old. As both a mother and a wife, she was busy with household chores and children. But there was a difference between her and the wife: at meal times, she had to stand and serve the wife and the family while they ate, while her children sat and ate. This was not unusual, because in the official families of old, not only concubines but even daughters-in-law from official families had to observe the rule of serving their parents-in-law at meals to show filial piety. However, this rule was not strictly enforced for Guijie. Sometimes, after others had finished, she would sit down to eat. Other times, when there were other servants to serve, the wife would tell her to sit down. Then she would pull up a stool, sit sideways behind her daughter Ailian, and busy herself with the children's meals. This showed, first, that she knew the rules; second, that she attended to the children; and third, that she was not greedy for food. At such times, the wife would always say, "Eat your own meal. You still have things to do after eating." Then Guijie would eat a little, then attend to the children's soup, making sure they had enough before she felt at ease. When the family had almost finished, she would start eating the leftovers on the plates. Perhaps she had been accustomed to such rules since her early days as a maidservant. But women know to restrain themselves at meals, partly to maintain a noble demeanor and partly to keep their figures slim. Besides, mothers rarely need to rush to eat while their children are eating. A Chinese proverb says, "What enters the child's belly fills the mother's heart."
Mulan watched Guijie as she walked through the narrow corridor, only about two feet wide, that ran from the bow to the center of the cabin. The boat was constructed so that there was only one or two partitioned rooms, about ten feet deep and four or five feet wide, separated from the central cabin, with doors opening onto the narrow corridor on one side. As Guijie walked, she called out loudly, "Has Miss Yao arrived?"
Mulan noticed that as Guijie passed through the corridor, she had to bow her head slightly. When she entered the main cabin, her face was full of concern and curiosity.
"So this is Miss Yao? The child is really beautiful. No wonder the master went crazy looking for you. He didn't sleep for three whole nights."
She came closer, put her two plump white hands on Mulan's shoulders, and said, "Now that you are here, stay with us. If you need anything, be sure to tell me."
Guijie said, "Mulan, you have a little sister. She is called Ailian." Then she turned to look for Ailian, who was peeking in from the door. Ailian was very shy and refused to come in. Her mother had to pull her in and bring her to Mulan's side. She said to Ailian, "This is Sister Mulan." The six-year-old smiled slightly and hid her face in her mother's bosom.
Guijie said, "I went to a few shops," as she opened the bundle. "The fabrics were not good, and it was hard to find the right size. This one is the best." It was a cloth dress of a country girl, eggshell blue, two sizes too large. Mulan looked funny in it.
Mrs. Zeng said, "Why not try one of Sunya's old clothes? Sunya and Mulan are probably about the same height. Boys and girls of this age are about the same size." So Guijie went and found one of Sunya's old clothes, made of fine silk, washed many times, now heavy and soft, faded from lake white to light yellow. After some persuasion, Mulan tried it on, feeling very embarrassed with the boys watching. The length was fine, but it was too big for her small frame. The collar was about an inch too loose, making her look very funny. The boys laughed, and Mulan was utterly mortified.
In the afternoon, Zeng Wenpu took Mulan to the bank and told them the girl had been found. The bank wanted to return the money, but he said there was no hurry and to wait until they contacted the child's parents. He wrote a letter at the bank and had Mulan add a few words in her own handwriting. The letter told her parents that Mulan was now staying with the Zeng family in Tai'an and that they could come to fetch her. Everything was fine. Because the inn had special couriers traveling back and forth, the letter was sent to the bank's Hangzhou branch and then forwarded to the Yao family's tea company in Hangzhou.
The next day, the Zeng family set sail and continued their journey home. Mulan played with the group of boys and Ailian. Guijie and Mrs. Zeng were attentive and kind to her, so she naturally became much happier. Despite being very busy with her many tasks and caring for her infant, Guijie bought a piece of Shandong pongee in the hot July heat. Two days later, after cutting and sewing, she made Mulan a new dress.