by Mingmei Yip
At this point, the tape ended, leaving me agitated and sweating. So the story was true after all. Not only did the earth truly swallow up a man, but also the ghosts of Isabelle and Penelope were there, still fighting over a dog from beyond their watery graves.
While I strained my mind, trying to make sense of the whole thing, a voice in my head interrupted me, saying, “Let go of the other world and focus on your present one. The only way to counteract evil is to do good.”
I began to gather up the packing material when I noticed there was a letter. I unfolded it and read.
Dear Eileen,
You will see that Ed and I didn’t lie—the earth truly did swallow an old man and a dog. We felt a ghostly presence, and the dog certainly could sense it as well. I’m sure you’re the only person who’ll believe in our story. Maybe you will even be able to tell who that ghostly presence was.
I could feel the presence with my sixth sense, but I think because you’re a woman, yours is stronger than mine. I do know that there really are ghosts—and the dog knew it too. I hope this tape won’t scare you, but help you solve some of the puzzling happenings here on the island.
Ed and I will go back to the U.S. this afternoon, so this is good-bye.
Perhaps our paths will cross again. In the meantime, best of luck in all your adventures.
Kyle
The tape had scared me—how could it not? But I was also relieved because now I could include this strange event in my book, and I had video evidence of it as well.
I had to conclude that the people whose paths I’d crossed on the islands—Alfredo, Sabrina, Maria, Cecily and her friends, Luis, Father Fernando, Juan, Uncle Wang, even the long-deceased Penelope and Isabelle, and the brothers Ed and Kyle—had been my teachers, however unwittingly. I wouldn’t have chosen the lessons, but felt better off for them. And I was richer too. Laolao had always told me that everything that happens to us is for a reason and I was beginning to think she was right.
Even though I was now financially secure, I had learned the price of greed and resolved to be satisfied with what I had. Alfredo was hardly a model, yet in the end he had redeemed himself by trying to make amends—including supporting the young man he’d rejected as his son.
Luis seemed to be the only one without greed. He was perhaps the most decent man I had ever met; yet even so, I wasn’t sure that I would be content to spend my life with him. With or without me, I hoped that his beginner’s heart would never be defiled as he journeyed through this world filled with smoke and dust, wind and frost.
Luis reminded me of a fictional character, the protagonist Jia Baoyu in the great Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber. Living amidst endless temptation and evil, Baoyu forever retains his innocence and undying love for Lin Daiyu.
Like Baoyu waiting for Daiyu, I decided to go to Luis’s house and wait for his return.
While waiting, I could finally start to write my book. I’d had more than enough adventures to fill a book, whether nonfiction or fiction.
Now that the evil witches were out of the way, I decided to revisit the Witches’ Market. I considered even setting up my own booth as a professional, but an honest one. There were many things I could do: use my third eye to discover secrets, enhance luck for the unfortunate, prepare traditional Chinese herbs, not only familiar ones like ginseng, but authentic ones like swallow soup, live frog wine with animal blood, and water mixed with burnt talisman ashes. Or, like Laolao, maybe I’d even beat the petty people. But I decided that practicing witchcraft could wait while I worked on my book. So I sat in my hotel room, scribbling furiously.
The days and weeks passed until I thought it was about time for Luis’s return. So I packed and checked out of my hotel. The bellman managed to squeeze all my luggage into a taxi and after the long ride I arrived at Luis’s house. There was no sign that he had come back yet. Once my luggage was safely inside, the first thing I did was start a fire and heat water for a bath. Soothed by this, I went to Luis’s bedroom and took a long nap. Waking up and feeling refreshed, I went to sit in the courtyard with my pen and a notebook.
I forgot about the passing time, until I noticed the sunlight was fading and I looked up at the setting sun. The huge disk rested on the horizon, dyed a stunning orange-red. Watching it slowly submerge into Past Life Lake, I thought back on all that had happened since I’d come to the little village.
There were sculpting lessons with Grandpa and my talks with Luis about love and books, our simple good times, and Luis’s plain but tasty cooking. Happy and sad moments, all evoked by this stunning twilight, far from home in a remote village next to a haunted lake.
The setting sun marked the end of this phase of my life; but when it rose the next morning, I was sure it would show me new adventures, maybe with Luis and maybe not.
Lines of Lu You’s poem came into my mind:
Nothing stains me with the world’s dust
Wherever I go, cares do not follow me.
When it rains, I just wait for the rainbow....
I knew this was the real gift of the opening of my third eye, not to look back on the dead but to see the world of the living with a new perspective.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE WITCH’S MARKET
Mingmei Yip
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The questions and discussion topics that
follow are intended to enhance your
group’s reading of this book.
Discussion Questions
1. Surveys show many people still believe in witches. Are you one of them? If so, why?
2. What is the difference between a shaman and a witch?
3. Do you believe that some people possess supernatural powers such as the ghost-seeing yin eye?
4. Should Eileen continue to be a professor of witchcraft, or should she follow her laolao’s footsteps and be a shamaness?
5. Do you think Eileen would be happier with the poor furniture maker Luis or with her rich ex-boyfriend Ivan?
6. Each character in the novel teaches us a different life lesson. What do you think these lessons are?
7. Alfredo’s maid, Maria, is loyal to him until his death. What do you think of what she does after?
8. Laolao and Uncle Wang both seem to have supernatural powers. Do you think these powers are real? What do you think about how each uses them?
9. The protagonist, Eileen Chen, learns much of importance from her dreams. Do you learn from your own dreams?
10. Divination (fortune-telling) plays an important role in the novel. What do you think of using divination to make important life decisions?
Mingmei Yip was born in China and received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne. She has written for major Hong Kong newspapers and has appeared on many national and international television and radio programs. She immigrated to the United States in 1992, where she now lives in New York City with her husband. Her novels have been published in ten different languages, and she is also an accomplished musician, painter and calligrapher. Visit her at www.mingmeiyip.com.
SECRET OF A THOUSAND BEAUTIES
Set against the vibrant and intrigue-laden backdrop of 1930s China, Mingmei Yip’s enthralling novel explores one woman’s defiant pursuit of independence.
Spring Swallow was promised in marriage while still in her mother’s belly. When the groom dies before a wedding can take place, seventeen-year-old Spring Swallow is ordered to become a ghost bride to appease his spirit. Under her in-laws’ protection, she will be little more than a servant, unable to know real love or bear children. Refusing to accept her fate as a “bad-luck woman,” Spring Swallow flees on her wedding day.
In the city of Soochow, Spring Swallow joins a community of renowned embroiderers. The women work for Aunty Peony, whose exquisite stitching once earned her the Emperor’s love. But when Aunty Peony agrees to replicate a famous painting—a lucrative assignment that will take a year to complete—betrayal and jealousy emerge within the group. Sp
ring Swallow becomes entangled in each woman’s story of heartbreak, even while she embarks on a dangerous affair with a young revolutionary. On a journey that leads from the remote hillsides around Soochow to cosmopolitan Peking, Spring Swallow draws on the secret techniques learned from Aunty Peony and her own indomitable strength, determined to forge a life that is truly her own.
THE NINE FOLD HEAVEN
In this mesmerizing new novel, Mingmei Yip draws readers deeper into the exotic world of 1930s Shanghai first explored in Skeleton Women, and into the lives of the unforgettable Camilla, Shadow, and Rainbow Chang.
When Shadow, a gifted, ambitious magician, competed with the beautiful Camilla for the affections of organized crime leader Master Lung, she almost lost everything. Hiding out in Hong Kong, performing in a run-down circus, Shadow has no idea that Camilla, too, is on the run with her lover Jinying—Lung’s son.
Yet while Camilla and Shadow were once enemies, now their only hope of freedom lies in joining forces to eliminate the ruthless Big Brother Wang. Despite the danger, Shadow, Camilla, and Jinying return to Shanghai. Camilla also has her own secret agenda—she has heard a rumor that her son is alive. And in a city teeming with spies and rivals—including the vengeful Rainbow Chang—each battles for a future in a country on the verge of monumental change.
SKELETON WOMEN
Once upon a time in China, the most beautiful and gifted women were known as “skeleton women”—the ultimate femme fatales who could bring a man to his knees, or to his doom. . . .
When Camilla, a young orphan girl in Shanghai, is adopted and brought to live in luxury, it seems like a stroke of luck. But as Camilla grows to womanhood, she realizes that her “rescue” was part of gang leader Big Brother Wang’s scheme. Camilla is trained in singing, dancing, knife-throwing, and contortion—all to attract the attention of Wang’s enemy, the ruthless Master Lung.
Forced to become Master Lung’s mistress, Camilla meets two other intriguing women. Shadow is a magician and rival for Master Lung’s affections, while Rainbow Chang dresses like a man and wields power through her incendiary gossip column. Both pose risks to Camilla’s safety and status. But an even greater danger comes in the form of Master Lung’s eldest son, Jinying, who despises his father’s violent lifestyle—but loves Camilla. Only by plotting to eliminate Lung can she make her escape, but at what cost?
Mingmei Yip, author of Peach Blossom Pavilion and Song of the Silk Road, has created a captivating story filled with intrigue and opulence, peopled with extraordinary characters impossible to forget.
PEACH BLOSSOM PAVILION
In a sunny California apartment, a young woman and her fiancé arrive to record her great-grandmother’s story. The story that unfolds of Precious Orchid’s life in China, where she rises from a childhood of shame to become one of the most successful courtesans in the land, is unlike any they’ve heard before....
When Precious Orchid’s father is falsely accused of a crime and found guilty, he is executed, leaving his family a legacy of dishonor. Her mother’s only option is to enter a Buddhist nunnery, so she gives her daughter over to the care of her sister in Shanghai.
At first, life at Peach Blossom Pavilion feels like a dream. Surrounded by exotic flowers, murmuring fountains, colorful fishponds, and bamboo groves, Precious Orchid sees herself thriving. She is schooled in music, literature, painting, calligraphy, and to her innocent surprise, the art of pleasuring men. For the beautiful Pavilion hides its darker purpose as an elite house of prostitution. And even as she commands the devotion of China’s most powerful men, Precious Orchid never gives up on her dream to escape the Pavilion, be reunited with her mother, avenge her father’s death, and find true love. And as the richest, most celebrated Ming Ji or “prestigious courtesan” in all of China, she just might have her way even if it comes with a devastating price....
Sweeping in scope and stunning in its evocation of China, Peach Blossom Pavilion is a remarkable novel with an unforgettable heroine at the heart of its powerful story. . . .
PETALS FROM THE SKY
From the acclaimed author of Peach Blossom Pavilion comes a lush and lyrical novel of East and West—and of one young woman’s search for her heart’s true calling. . . .
When twenty-year-old Meng Ning declares that she wants to be a Buddhist nun, her mother is aghast. In her eyes, a nun’s life means only deprivation—“no freedom, no love, no meat.” But to Meng Ning, it means the chance to control her own destiny, and to live in an oasis of music, art, and poetry far from her parents’ unhappy union.
With an enigmatic nun known as Yi Kong, “Depending on Emptiness,” as her mentor, Meng Ning spends the next ten years studying abroad, disdaining men, and preparing to enter the nunnery. Then, a fire breaks out at her Buddhist retreat, and Meng Ning is carried to safety by Michael Fuller, a young American doctor. The unprecedented physical contact stirs her curiosity. And as their tentative friendship grows intimate, Meng Ning realizes she must choose between the sensual and the spiritual life.
From the austere beauty of China’s Buddhist temples to the whirlwind of Manhattan’s social elite, and the brilliant bustle of Paris and Hong Kong, here is a novel of joy and heartbreak—and of the surprising paths that lead us where we most need to be.
SONG OF THE SILK ROAD
In this richly imaginative novel, Mingmei Yip—author of Peach Blossom Pavilion and Petals from the Sky—follows one woman’s daunting journey along China’s fabled Silk Road.
As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Lin was captivated by photographs of the desert—its long, lonely vistas and shifting sand dunes. Now living in New York, Lily is struggling to finish her graduate degree when she receives an astonishing offer. An aunt she never knew existed will pay Lily a huge sum to travel across China’s desolate Taklamakan Desert—and carry out a series of tasks along the way.
Intrigued, Lily accepts. Her assignments range from the dangerous to the bizarre. Lily must seduce a monk. She must scrape a piece of clay from the famous Terracotta Warriors, and climb the Mountains of Heaven to gather a rare herb. At Xian, her first stop, Lily meets Alex, a young American with whom she forms a powerful connection. And soon, she faces revelations that will redefine her past, her destiny, and the shocking truth behind her aunt’s motivations.. . .
Powerful and eloquent, Song of the Silk Road is a captivating story of self-discovery, resonant with the mysteries of its haunting, exotic landscape.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2015 by Mingmei Yip
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-6177-3323-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-61773-323-9
ISBN-10: 1-61773-323-7