Flying Lessons & Other Stories(7)

“You are late, Lingsi!” Teacher said, but without anger. He knew Mrs. Li was always the reason for my tardiness.

“Lingsi is late!” FuDing sneered. I tried to consider FuDing with kindness, for it was his inability to read little more than his name that had granted me so many years of lessons. But it was difficult. His body had, over the years, grown into a man’s, but he was still the same lazy, spoiled brat he had been as a boy. If anything, the years had made him even more horrible, for now he had a vicious streak that delighted in cruelty. I couldn’t help shivering when I saw that he was pulling the legs off crickets again.

“Today’s poem,” Teacher said, ignoring FuDing, “is ‘The Difficult Path’ by Li Po.”

I knelt at the table and began to read.

“I will ride the winds and

Surmount endless waves.

Setting sail on the vast ocean,

I will one day reach

The distant shores.”



“The ocean,” I murmured. I had been outside the walled estate of the House of Li only a handful of times. However, one time Shuwan, the head cook, and I had been sent to town to buy pepper, and I had caught a glimpse of the sea. But only a glimpse, for when I tried to see more, I was yanked away. Shuwan had a terror of pirates and was convinced that just looking at the sea could make them appear.

“Li Po writes of endless hardships,” Teacher said, “but you also feel his valiant spirit. I hope this is something you remember, Lingsi.”

I looked up at him, the question in my eyes, since I dared not ask with my voice.

“Today is our last lesson,” Teacher said. “Mrs. Li has informed me that FuDing will soon be of marrying age and his time must now be spent in…other ways.”

We both glanced at FuDing, who was creating a pile of dead insects, and then quickly looked away. My eyes filled with tears. I had known that these lessons would not continue forever, but now that they were ending, I felt I could not bear it.

“You have learned much, Lingsi,” Teacher said to me kindly. “You are a very smart and clever pupil. If you had been a boy, I have no doubt you would have won honors at the Imperial Examination.”

I tried to smile but could only bow my head. I felt Teacher’s hand gently rest upon it.

“Mencius, the Second Sage, said that there are three joys in this world,” he said. “Health, a clear conscience, and teaching those who are worthy. Teaching you has been a joy, Lingsi.”

My tears continued to drop long after our last lesson, long after Teacher had left the House of Li and I had swept up FuDing’s collection of insects. They even continued as I scrubbed the pots in the kitchen, much to the annoyance of the other servants.

“Stop your crying,” Bisi snapped, carrying over dirty bowls for me to wash. “We’ve got enough to do without listening to your sniffling.”

“Look at me,” Shuwan said. “I have to prepare lunch boxes for the entire household, and am I wailing? And Haobo and Mugang and all the men have to prepare the sedan chairs and get ready to carry fat FuDing for hours tomorrow, and they aren’t crying, either. So your sniveling is not welcome!”

I gulped and rubbed my face with my sleeve. “Why are we getting lunch boxes and sedan chairs ready?” I asked. “Where is the family going?”

“Where are we all going, you mean,” Bisi said. “They’re taking all of us this time—even you.”

“Me?” I asked, surprised. I had assumed that Mrs. Li and the family were going on an extravagant picnic or visiting Aunt Xue or some other rich cousins’ mansion. “Where? Why?”

“It’s the first of the month, stupid!” Bisi said. “You may have gotten all those fancy lessons and learned to read, but you’re still not very smart. They are taking us to the temple service, of course.”

“But the Temple of Longevity is not hours—” I began.

“We’re not going to the Temple of Longevity,” Bisi said with exasperation, but I could see that her frustration was more about the inconvenience than it was for me. “We’re off to the Infinite Stream Temple this time.”

“That huge gold temple by the ocean?” I said. “Why?”

“For FuDing, of course,” Shuwan said. “Mrs. Li hopes she can get the abbot to be a matchmaker for him. Infinite Stream Temple! That’s why it has so much money—it gets an infinite stream of bribes.”

“She’ll need an elephant’s weight of gold to get a matchmaker for FuDing,” Bisi grunted. “No matchmaker is going to arrange a marriage with a well-born girl to that rice bucket. You’d think Mrs. Li would know that.”

“She does. Mrs. Li is no fool! Why do you think—” Shuwan stopped, and both servants looked at me oddly.

“What?” I asked. As the silence grew longer, I put down the teapot I was washing and glared at them. “What?” I demanded. “Tell me!”

“By the time FuDing was seven, everyone knew he was a brute as well as an idiot,” Shuwan said. “And Mrs. Li knew that he might have a hard time finding a bride….”

“Why do you think Mrs. Li was so desperate for you, the granddaughter of a scholar?” Bisi said. “She could’ve gotten any peasant’s kid for cheaper and without any silly promises. She wanted a girl of good blood, just in case.”