The secret of the flying woman or the Confession of Tea Elder. Анна Валерьяновна Аверьянова

glass of the skylight which featured a lotus flower on still water, light filtered into the bathroom. A candle in a flat candlestick, was positioned in a little polygonal mirror niche, was filling the room with a special, joyful lighting enhanced in the reflection of several mirrors positioned at certain angles to each other.

      The lengthy travel and their nervous tension whetted their feelings. Chen slowly raised his eyes and looked at Fan. His eyes were caught by Fan’s breezing. Her fluttering eyelashes were gently repeating the ups and downs of her chest. Rosemary helped increase blood circulation in her heart.

      Soon their breaths merged into soft waves. Fan’s lips parted and her eyes dropped. Then Chen inhaled her breath and gently touched her hand. A slight blush suffused the pale cheeks of his wife. Her eyelids started trembling, but Chen was not hurrying to grant her his satisfying touch. Watching the tender waves of passion going over her delicate body made him smile with delight.

      Suddenly Fan gripped her husband’s hand, digging with her sharp nails into it, and went still. Some moments later her lips parted again and a gentle smile shone on her face. Her body became soft and yielding. Chen drew her near and she embraced him with her legs, slightly slanting back and holding onto the gilded bars with her hands. Slowly and tenderly the jade baton touched upon its flower. The entry gate trembled, as if under an electric current, and welcomingly parted. The labia, like the palms of two hands, enfolded the gentle soft jade baton, pulling it deeper and deeper inside. Having swallowed the whole of it, they firmly enveloped it at its root, sending soft waves from the base to the top of the heavenly palace. The jade baton started growing bigger and stronger, tenderly screwing deeper and visiting every corner of his home. “Hello, my dear little hollow, how nice to see you, my lovely little hill. I am back home at last, my precious lips. I am back today, won’t you let me in? Ah, you are not willing today. That’s not nice, I am leaving…”

      “Don’t leave!”

      “No, now you have to wait. A little bit. However, yes, you softened my heart, I forgive you. I am coming back in …”

      Incense and candles were noiselessly replaced by the servants. The water was as warm as new milk, but the time of Yin was coming, and the water was acquiring its dark force. Still embracing, they slowly moved to the cushions. The bath was emptied, capped with mosaic tiles and covered with a carpet. Servants, like bodiless ghosts, anointed the bodies of their master and mistress with rose oil and disappeared into the shadows. It was the beginning of a night of love…

      The morning broke with loud warbling of birds. That morning’s cacophony could not be called bird singing – so many different birds were trying to outsing the other. Chen lay on the pillows and watched Fan smiling in her sleep. He signalled for tea to be brought. The nuns always recommended a small cup of tea at dawn. Fan opened her eyes.

      In a little while they were sitting on cushions in their soft silk dressing gowns, a tiny tea table with two little cups made of paper-thin porcelain between them.

      “In fifteen days Bao and Shi will have to unite in matrimony,” said Chen.

      Fan turned pale, and her weakened body began to sink onto the pillows. The servants knew what to do, as faints were not unusual with their mistress. However, this time it was much worse. It was decided to send for the sisters from the cloister, urgently.

      “According to the astrologists’ forecast, their marriage will be long and happy. She is to bear a son, who will be conceived during their first matrimonial night. If this does not happen, you know what will be done to Bao and all the rest of us.”

      “But she hasn’t turned fifteen yet, and the red dragon hasn’t visited her. She is not able to conceive.”

      The cloister was located high up in the mountains, which, however, were not far away from Chen Li Hong’s home.

      ....

      Having left Shi under the solicitous care of his Monk Tutor, I did not worry for him. At that moment I was much more concerned about his future bride, whom I was eager to meet. Having assessed the situation, I realized that it was most favourable. Entering the cloister I introduced myself as a ‘nun, who knows all herbs’, and willingly volunteered to leave for the first ‘call’, which, I was sure, would allow me to enter the home of Li Hong without arousing anybody’s suspicion.

      Sister Fu (Talisman) was Master of the Art of the Emptiness of Love, Master of Internal Alchemy, of Herbal Healing and Surgery. She was the private counsellor of Missus Fan and taught the elder girls ‘The Art of Delights’. She was happy to have a new counterpart. She had a warm smile. Sisters from the cloister treated her with reverent awe. There were rumours that she could take away youth and energy from young lads and lasses through casting a glance at them. She welcomed me and treated me well, happy to have a travelling companion and an aide, which meant she could take more books, herbs and other things she needed for that visit.

      The news that beautiful Bao, the favourite daughter of Missus Fan, had been chosen to become the wife of the son of the Illustrious Lord, instantly spread over the cloister, as many sisters had been involved in her life. The number of items and messages was gathering like a snowball, but we had to hurry, and sister Fu and I left the cloister.

      The cobblestone road that we were following was, in fact, a giant, gently sloping staircase rounded at the top with mossy curbs, built in the dense forest that was covering the slope of the mountain.

      Oaks, planes, acacias, larches and pine-trees with long silky needles lined this road. Around a bend we suddenly saw a little waterfall with crystal-clear water, the beginning of a little stream, where the willows were bathing their slender twigs.

      Suddenly a little rock fell right in front of me. I raised my head and saw white goats walking in the water upstream. The one closest to me turned its head and stared at me in curiosity. When approaching Chen Li Hong’s mansion, we made a stop near a partially destroyed octagonal swimming pool. In the centre was a statue of a dragon carved from stone, which had kind eyes and an open mouth.

      Sister Fu took out a little pebble from her basket and gracefully threw it into the mouth of the dragon.

      “He accepted the gift. Everything will be fine,” said she smiling, addressing either me, or someone far away.

      At the entrance there were people waiting for us. Servants rushed towards us to offer us sedan chairs. I had not been used to such kind of travel, but I had no choice. It was pleasant to observe the two strong handsome men running along the cobblestone path carrying the chair so skilfully that I didn’t feel any lurches at all! The sedan chair which sister Fu was riding in was decorated with a little gold bell, giving out melodic chimes and glittering in the rays of the midday sun.

      The servants brought us straight into the library of the Master, where Missus Fan was still lying. Sister Fu introduced me, “This is the One Who Knows All Herbs.”

      Then she took out of her basket everything she needed and started examining Missus Fan. Having taken Fan by her frail wrist, she sank deep in thought, and was looking at me without seeing me, which made me feel quite ill at ease.

      “What can you say, One Who Knows All Herbs?” she asked me, as if it were I who was taking the pulse. I replied, “Lavender, rose, mint, anise, geranium, and neroli.”

      “Well done! Make the drink!”

      While I was making the drink, she took out two metal bowls with rounded thick edges covered with wood. One was a bit smaller, and the other one slightly larger. She helped the Mistress to lie down on her back and signalled to bring her candles. She laid bare Fan’s left arm and chest down to the navel. Holding the small cup in one hand, she took the candle, and swiftly, so that that the candle even did not go out, covered the candle with the bowl and put the bowl, its hollow down-side, on the left arm of the Mistress, somewhere (about one palm’s width) above the wrist. The second bowl, the larger one, was put in the same way in the centre of the woman’s chest, between her breasts, to the point, which obviously was the centre for the heart joint. She took a miniature hourglass out of her basket and sank further into meditation.

      Yes, one did not need to take Missus Fan’s pulse to state that the woman had a weak heart. Her refined paleness