TRUTH
As everybody know in the last chapter Lily get married, the tradition said that the women have to come back to her natal family after four days of her wedding . Lily rather to return to her natal home has planned to go to Snow Flower's for her Sitting and Singing month. Lily was very anxious because she is going to see Snow Flower again. She dressed in one of her good everyday outfits, with the idea of make a favorable impression on Snow Flower's family, whom she had heard so much about over these many years. At this time Lily's social status was better and now she had a servant girl, who led her through Tongkou's alleyways to Snow Flower's house. Lily and the servant girl, whose name is Yonggang, stopped before a house that looked exactly how snow Flower had described it, two stories, peaceful and elegant. Yonggang simply opened the main door to the house and stepped inside, like was a village's customs. When Lily came into the house was immediately assailed by a strange odor, the home at one time was luxurious, but now is empty, large room but with far less furniture, a table but no chairs, the room was dirty with food scraps on the floor; was autumn and cold but no fire in the room. Snow Flower and her mother were dressed as a lowly peasant in ragged and dirty padded clothes.
Lily was totally shocked and now she remembered a few days ago when her mother had told her that as a woman she couldn't avoid ugliness and had to be brave. Now was when Lily realized that her mother was talked about Snow Flower's reality.
Lily climbed the stairs; as she was near the Snow Flower she could saw Snow Flower cheeks were streaked with tears. Lily said " Nothing has changed, we are old same."
Then Snow Flower tells Lily the truth that they were once prosperous, and the house was glorious, but her Grandfather fell from favor when the Emperor died. Snow Flower's father was raised in a house with too many women and thus, was cowardly and susceptible to vice. Snow Flower's father had to take care of Grandfather's concubines and marry out his nine sisters; these marriages were arranged and each bride-price was more extravagant than the last. Snow Flower says her father, after spending lavishly, took to the pipe; a famine had wiped out their crops and her father was not prepared, he smoked his pipe and forgot about the family.
Snow Flower told Lily that she, her elder sister, her young brother and her mother were saved by her mother’s sister, Auntie Wang, the girls’ matchmaker. Madame Wang arranged the latoong relationship between the two girls with the hope that Snow Flower learned the house work and the same time Lily learned how to embroider and the secret language. The matchmaker arranged a married for Snow Flower with a butcher that was the worst marriage possible. Snow Flower's husband would have some money, but what they did was unclean and disgusting.
Lily thought that maybe she should have been angry at Snow Flower for lying to her, but that's not what how she felt. Now Lily realized that everybody in her house knower the truth, but the only one she could blame was her mother, because now Lily knower that her mother doesn't said the truth was a way to keep her on course to the good marriage that would benefit her entire natal family.
Now that Lily knows the truth, she helped Snow Flower and her mother to clean the house for Snow Flower Sitting and Singing month. Lily gave Madame Wang some money to contract three girls for singing and doing the weeding book. At the end of the month the flower sitting chair arrived to bring Snow Flower to her husband family and then Lily came back to her natal home.
Vocabulary words
assail: if a thought or feeling assails you, it worries or upsets you; to attack violently with blows or words .
I followed right behind and was immediately assailed by a strange odor.
betrothal: a mutual promise or contract for a future marriage.
What had she said about Snow Flower’s betrothal.
cajoling: to attack violently with blows or words
In particular I recalled how Madame Wang had stayed at Snow Flower’s side, offering comfort, quietly cajoling.
eerie: strange and frightening.
But beyond this one familiar sound, the house itself was eerily.
hitch : to become joined in marriage ; to fasten something to something else.
Once she met you, she decided to hitch my fate to yours.
nodded: to make a quick downward motion of the head whether deliberately (as in expressing assent or salutation) or involuntarily (as from drowsiness)
When she didn’t budge, I nodded at her to move along.
overlay: to lay or spread over or across
I followed right behind and was immediately assailed by a strange odor, which combine night soil and rotting meat with an overlay of something sickeningly sweet.
peasant: a poor farmer who owns or rents a small amount of land, either in past times or in poor countries.
She was dressed as a lowly peasant in ragged and dirty padded clothes.
plucked: pull or pick off or out
I had believed I had been plucked for a special future, which made me too self centered to see what was directly in front of me.
sickeningly: sickness or disgust <a sickening odor> <a sickening display>
sighed: take a deep audible breath (as in weariness or relief)
She sighed in resignation, bowed quickly, backed herself to the threshold, turned, and left.
turmoil: a state or condition of extreme confusion, agitation, or commotion
Under all my turmoil simmered the feeling that Snow Flower had betrayed me.
utterly: carried to the utmost point or highest degree : absolute, total <utter darkness> <utter strangers>
Shocked, that’s how I felt, utterly shocked.
Summary by Nilda Perdomo
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