Memoirs of a Courtesan

Together we walked into the newly built wing. A crimson signboard with four big gold characters, huakai fugui, ‘Flowers bloom and fortune looms,’ hung above the portal. Fortune really meant making money. Many Chinese believe that donating to temples will bring them good fortune, so perhaps the temple wanted to be sure they would not forget that. Monks, of course, have no desire for riches, but donations to their temple in the form of checks, jewellery, gold bars, antiques and land are always welcome.

Inside, the hall decor resembled a Western casino, with red and gold as the main colours, for double luck. Male staff in black tuxedos and female staff in pink and green cheongsams flanked the entrance, nodding and exclaiming, ‘Welcome, our honourable guests!’

We nodded and smiled back. Inside, scrolls of calligraphy adorned the walls, proclaiming auspicious sentiments: ‘Invite money; welcome treasures;’ ‘Gold bars fill the house;’ and ‘Money flows in like rushing water.’

As I was wondering what these phrases were doing in a temple, my eyes spotted men throwing dice and playing mahjong in the distance. In one corner, a uniformed man was shaking a cylindrical tube and exclaiming, ‘Big! Big! Big!’ followed by another man’s louder, ‘Small! Small! Small!’ After that, the first man threw the contents of the tube onto the table as the customer yelled, ‘Big!’

The uniformed man smiled cunningly at the anxious customer. ‘Sorry, sir, but it’s small.’

After that, the pile of money immediately shifted from in front of the client to in front of the uniformed man.

I realised that this was none other than a casino! But inside a temple?

Then my eyes landed on red lanterns hanging low from the ceiling above the gaming tables. Could cameras be hidden inside to catch cheaters?

‘Master Lung, so this is a …’

‘Yes, my new gambling den.’

‘But in a temple?’

He laughed, his belly trembling. ‘Ha-ha-ha! For the gods’ protection and blessings, what else?’

Thinking about that, I realised that a temple was, in fact, a perfect place to operate a gambling den. If a gambler won, part of his winnings would be donated to the temple as a token of gratitude. If he lost, he’d also donate as a bribe to the money gods so that next time they would direct the propitious winds to blow in his direction.

What other kind of business could be win-win like this? I smiled, toying with this ‘win-win’ idea. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could also put myself into a win-win situation – successfully completing my mission and escaping from both the Flying Dragons and the Red Demons?

As soon as we finished touring this sacred casino, we were all ushered back outside to the courtyard, ready for the auspicious opening ceremony.

8 (#ulink_bd6932a2-2e98-59a0-a63e-09315972aae4)

The Lion Dancers (#ulink_bd6932a2-2e98-59a0-a63e-09315972aae4)

It was three minutes to two o’clock. Our mandatory early arrival had been to make sure the ceremony would start exactly at the time calculated by the fortune-tellers, not a minute early or a minute late. Otherwise the auspicious moment would be missed, possibly ruining Lung’s gambling business even before it started.

According to these fortune-telling savants, the first moment of an event determines everything. Unfortunately mothers couldn’t choose the time of their babies’ birth; otherwise they’d all grow up to be kings and queens, dragons and phoenixes. Perhaps my parents hadn’t believed in fate calculation, and that was why I’d ended up having this horrible life. But I hoped someday to undo my inauspicious beginning. After all, as the ancient Yijing tells us, ‘Everything changes.’

Lung, Zhu, Chief Li, me and a few other honourable guests were led to stand at the front of the newly opened temple wing. Two girls placed red ribbons with a wreath at each end into our hands. Photographers and reporters streamed in, snapping pictures and taking notes. I spotted Rainbow Chang furiously scribbling in her notebook. Scattered around were Gao and his team of bodyguards, all dressed in black, eyes continuously scanning the crowd.