The Mystery of the Song Dynasty Painting Read Online Free Page A

into his Imperial Palace as one of his little wives or concubines. This Lao Lao refused to allow. But if Niang had married the Crown Prince she could have become the mother of a future emperor!
    ‘The years rolled by and suddenly Lao Lao realized that Niang was twenty-five. Most girls are married by the time they are fifteen and although Niang was still beautiful, people had stopped asking to marry her. Then one day, Lao Lao heard rumours that Baba’s wife (my birth mother) had suddenly passed away. Besides having no wife, Baba had the added advantage of not having even a single concubine. This was highly un-usual for a man in his position but would obviously make life easier for the new woman in Baba’s life, whoever she may be. Although Baba was not a Royal Prince, he came from a good family and was a Han Linscholar. The very next day, Lao Lao summoned the best match-maker in the capital city to arrange the match.
    ‘According to my Nai Ma, they had a lavish wedding with more than five hundred guests. From the beginning of the marriage, Niang had very little energy and spent most of her time in bed. At first, everyone thought she was pregnant. Months and years went by, but no baby appeared. Gradually, it was accepted that Niang suffers from some sort of mysterious illness that nobody talks about.
    ‘Niang and I were both born in the Year of the Goat, two cycles or twenty-four years apart, but she seldom acknowledges my presence when we are in the same room. I’m simply not important to her. Unlike her, I’m not beautiful. Unlike Gege, I’m not a boy. Whenever we are alone, she often says and does cruel things to me. At best, she treats me like part of the furniture. It’s been like this for nearly as long as I can remember.’
    DR ALLEN : ‘So who looked after you if your Niang was always ill?’
    CC / MEI LAN : ‘I was looked after by Nai Ma, who shares my room and has been with me for as long as I can remember. Baba once told me that Nai Ma had been hired by my own Mama, before she died. Nai Ma is a peasant woman from the countryside. She has large feet, buck teeth and a pock-marked face, but she works hard. Niang says she is ugly, but Nai Ma and I love each another. Perhaps it’s because I’m not beautiful either – I have a foot that’s all twisted and I can’t move very gracefully.
    ‘Although Nai Ma can hardly read, she was the one who persuaded Baba to include me when Baba hired Teacher Lai to be Gege’s private tutor. It was because of Nai Ma that I learnt to read and write from an early age.
    ‘When I was five years old, Teacher Lai gave Gege and me a separate notebook each, together with a little brush. He told us to make drawings of our daily life and write a verse or story to describe them. Since Gege prefers to draw, while I like to write, his book is full of images whereas mine is full of words.’
    DR ALLEN : ‘So you like to write… but you also like looking at paintings, don’t you, Mei Lan? Tell me about the painting of Along the River at Qing Ming . Why is that painting so special?’
    CC / MEI LAN (becoming agitated): ‘No, no! Don’t ask me about the painting. It’s our secret. Only Ah Zhao knows about the painting… and Gege… Gege, please don’t say anything. You promised not to tell anyone! They’ll stop us. I need to go… I need to run, but I can’t… The market is so crowded I can’t get away. Where’s David? I need to get back to Grandma Wu.’
    DR ALLEN : ‘Calm down, CC. We won’t remember anything you don’t want to. Just relax and let your mind go blank again. I want you to stop remembering for a while…’
    The voices on the recorder stopped, but the machine kept whirring while Richard Allen sat lost in thought. Finally, he fed some paper into the typewriter on his desk and began to type.
    Case History of CC by Dr Richard Allen, MD
CC (Chinese name: Ye Xian) is a twelve-year-old Chinese girl who suffered severe head injury after a fall from a height of