Dawn
Guan Dong, 1427 AD
Episode 3
The huge iron-bracketed wooden east gate of the brick and mortar walled town was partly opened by the nightguards early the next morning, in anticipation of the expected large number of revelers from the nearby villages, but only wide enough for the palanquin litters that bore the few expected dignitaries to pass through. The people that camped outside the wall were already scurrying inside, perhaps to escape the morning chill and the resultant enveloping fog that smothered everything and making visibility of less than two arms lenght at the most. The wandering circus from the lowland town arrived early, resplendent in their colorful costumes and glittering contraptions, heralded by jugglers, lithe acrobats, midget clowns and bamboo stilt walkers. There were martial artist too, sword performers and fire breathers amongst the horde that streamed gaily into the main street, each one flaunting off their talent to the early risers who were beginning to gather on the skirt of the cobblestone paved main road. There was an atmosphere of rapturous anticipation in the magistrate's courtyard as countless longtables bedecked with adornments on sheets of white linen were laid out in a square fashion, with the central area purposely made bare to host the performers and dancers that were expected to enliven the affair. Temporarily commissioned for the festivity, the communal kitchen was already alive with frenzied fermentation, with chefs jostling for space to finish their specialty creations and bakers in their flour besmeared aprons balancing loaves of freshly baked breads over their white capped heads. Servants and indentured housekeepers were busily propping up the household with festive decorations, red and gold paper ribbons intertwining and enlacing all of the posts and ceiling of the main foyer area up to where the anteroom opens up to the main door, as lantern balloons were being tied and lined up against the inner wall of the courtyard by the nimble manservants. Even the ancient cherryblossom tree that stood at the entrance of the mistress garden was not spared, and bedecked with countless adornments and hanged ornaments, its branches sagged helplessly in submission. Pek Chen's mother Shui Dem, from the Chan clan came to the main house, leaving him in the care of her younger sister, to help in the preparation of the festivity to the consternation of the magistrates wife whose apprehension was dismissed outright by her adamant reply. Both knew that she was the only househelp that the magistrate had trusted with her daughter and, inspite of being the designated wet nurse of the young heiress, she was also a direct descendant from a line of esteemed stewards that the family had retained over a long period of time. It was not a coincidence that Shui Dem's father was the magistrates squire and confidant when he was young and growing up, the latter's regretful loss unsetlling when he died during the recent plague that swept the land.
Rang Be had already been bathed when Shui Dem came to the nursery and, along with the magistrates mistress, began to suit her up with the elaborate raiment specifically made by the best dressmaker in town for the occassion. Embellished in gold sequins with silk underlining, the red flowing gown accentuated the baby's milky white complexion that seems to glow with the effervesence of royalty and grandeur that can only be percieved in the crannies of the Imperial Palace by those lucky enough to have lived that long to tell the story. A bracelet made of red and black shell beads which was painstakingly crafted by the best jeweler in the far-off provincial capital of Amoy adorned her tiny wrist, a popular talismanic charm to ward off evil and bring good fortune to those who wear it. Binded loosely by strips of fine silk, bright red satin shoes with ornamental flakes of gold covered her tiny feet. In her tiny neck dangled a gold pendant in honor to the gods she was named after. Indeed, Rang Be was an impressively spectacular child to behold.
Down in the servant quarter Pek Chen abruptly stopped wailing when he was fed with millet porridge but his tears never did.
