3

ETERNA TRIES OUT THE MAGIC FOR CREATING CASH AND RICE;

MASTER HU GETS ANGRY AND BURNS THE WISH-FULFILLMENT MANUAL.

POEM:

An amazing one is the Dark Goddess,1

Though I fear we’ve lost her authentic art.

The master, in a moment’s fit of rage,

Heedlessly destroys a constant heart.

Eterna noticed that the booklet was titled “Magic of the Dark Goddess of the Nine Heavens.” Opening it at page 1, she read as follows:

How to Create Cash: (An illustration depicted a piece of string passed through a copper coin.) You should tie a knot in the string and place it on the floor, then cover it with a washbasin. With a cup full of water in your hand, recite the charm seven times, then take a mouthful of the water and spit it on the floor, at the same time shouting, “Presto!” When you lift up the washbasin, the objects underneath will have turned into a string of cash.

She found a piece of string and took from her belt the copper coin left over from her purchase earlier that day. She threaded the coin on the string, tying a knot in it and placing both items on the floor. She then fetched a washbasin and placed it on top of them. From the water pitcher she dipped out a cupful of water. Taking the cup in her hand, she recited the charm seven times, then took a mouthful of the water and spat it on the floor while shouting, “Presto!” She put down the cup and lifted up the washbasin to see—and found beneath it a pile of cash coiled up like a green snake! In her astonishment, she didn’t know what to do with the money. If I give it to my parents, she thought, they’re bound to ask me where I got it. Then she had an idea. Opening the back door, she tossed it out onto the snow-covered ground inside their fence, where it could be explained away as an anonymous act of charity. Finally, she locked the back door and returned to the bedroom, where she hid the manual.

“Do you still have a stomachache, dear?” asked her mother.

“No, it’s better now,” said Eterna, as she climbed back into bed.

At dawn the family rose and heated the water for washing. When Eterna’s mother opened the back door to throw out the slops, she was astonished to find a string of cash lying on the snowy ground. Snatching it up, she showed it to her husband. “I wonder who could have thrown this money into our yard,” she said.

“My dear, it’s better to be poor but honest than rich and dishonest,” said the master. “Our daughter is growing up, and I’m afraid some disreputable young fellow may be trying to stir up her feelings and using this money to trifle with her.”

“Oh, how little you know!” retorted his wife. “The Eastern Capital is full of rich men who do good deeds to help the poor. One of them must have seen the heavy snowfall and realized there would be many people in the almshouse with nothing to eat. Then he must have come during the night and thrown this into our yard as an act of charity. Our daughter has never been out of the house! Don’t be absurd!”

“I daresay you’re right. When I went out yesterday, I asked people for a mere two or three hundred cash, and I still didn’t get anything. Now that we have this string, let’s spend five hundred on rice, three hundred on firewood, and two hundred on salt, soy sauce, vegetables, and side dishes. Let’s not worry about the snow!”

That evening they went to bed, but around the second watch Eterna began thinking to herself, when I made that string of cash yesterday, it went off well. Let me see if I can set things up again tonight. Ever so slowly she eased herself out of bed and put on her clothes. “What are you doing?” her mother asked.

“I have another stomachache, and I need to go to the privy.”

“Oh, dear! You missed a good many meals before, but these last two days we’ve had both rice and firewood, and you must have overdone it and eaten too much. Tomorrow I’ll get your father to go and buy you some medicine.”

Eterna got down from the bed and went to the kitchen, where she set out the items as she had done the day before. She followed the magic formula in threading a piece of string through a coin, covering them both with a washbasin, reciting the charm, spitting out a mouthful of water, and then raising the basin to find a string of cash underneath, exactly as before. She opened the back door, placed the string on the snow-covered ground, then shut the door and went back to bed.

At dawn her mother arose and heated the water for washing. Then when she opened the back door to throw out the slops, she found another string of cash. Thrilled, she brought it back inside. “That’s odd!” exclaimed Master Hu. “There’s something very strange about where this money comes from.”

“Nonsense! I’m not in the least afraid. It was all because the local god couldn’t bear to see us in such misery and came to our aid, and now he’s come and left us another string of cash.” The master had no choice but to take the money and go out and buy firewood, rice, and vegetables and store them in the house.

A few days later the snow melted and the skies cleared. Mistress Zhang said to the master, “Now that we have a few days’ supply of food in the house, why don’t you take this chance to go out for a walk? If you meet someone you know, try and get a few hundred cash out of him.” The master had no choice but to go. Meanwhile his wife, free of the concerns that had been plaguing her, went off to visit a neighbor and enjoy a chat over a cup of tea.

Eterna saw her mother leaving and realized that she was alone in the house. She shut the front door, took out the manual, and turned to page 2, which was headed “How to Make Rice.” Thank heaven, she said to herself. Once I can make rice, we’ll never have to worry about running short of food again. She found an empty bucket and placed it on the floor, dropped a dozen grains of rice inside, covered the bucket with one of her garments, recited the charm, spat out a mouthful of water, and shouted, “Presto!” at which point the rice started surging out from the bucket. In her alarm, she failed to recite the release formula, and the rice quickly rose higher and higher. The hoops on the bucket had long since corroded, and with a sudden crack they now burst and allowed the rice to spill all over the floor. Eterna let out a cry of dismay.

Next door her mother heard the cry and rushed over with the neighbors to see what was the matter. The arrival of outsiders broke the spell, and the surge stopped, leaving the floor covered in rice.

Her mother and the neighbors were aghast. “How did all this rice get here?” they asked.

Eterna resorted to the desperation move known as Total Fabrication. “Let me tell you what happened, Mother,” she said. “A great big man came along carrying a sack of rice over his shoulder. He pushed open the back door, poured out the rice, and then left. I got such a scare that I let out a cry.”

“What sort of man was he, and why would he do such a thing?” asked her mother.

“Oh, Mrs. Hu, you simply don’t understand these things!” said her neighbor, Goodwife Zhang. “It’s that same wealthy merchant as before. He saw that it’s been snowing for days and he knew that there are thousands of people in the almshouses with nothing to eat, and he did this noble deed. Throwing money and rice into people’s houses without letting the people know—those are ‘good deeds done in secret.’ He’s afraid that, if he did it openly, people would come along and pester him. It’s all perfectly obvious.” The neighbors then left, and mother and daughter set about cleaning up the kitchen floor.

They had still not finished when Master Hu happened to return. At the sight of the two women sweeping the rice off the floor, he flared up: “I’ve never seen anything like the way you two carry on! You no sooner get a couple of meals of rice inside you than you start wasting the stuff!”

“I’d never waste any rice!” retorted his wife. “Take a look around you. All our jars, pots, vases, and buckets are full of it. And there’s a lot more over here that we don’t have containers for.”

The master looked. “Where did it come from, then?” he asked in astonishment.

“After you left,” said his wife, “I was drinking tea next door when I heard Eterna cry out. I rushed back home and found the whole floor covered in rice.”

“How extraordinary! Where did it come from?”

“According to Eterna, a great big man brought in a sack of rice through the back door, poured it inside the house, and then left.”

Master Hu was no fool. He opened the back door and looked outside. No tracks were visible in the snow inside or outside the hedge. Shutting the back door, he came in and found himself a rod. “Eterna!” he barked.

Eterna didn’t dare come forward, but the master dragged her over. “How can you beat that child for no reason?” said his wife.

“Hold your tongue!” said the master. “This is a serious matter. The other day two strings of cash mysteriously arrived here, and today rice appears out of nowhere. Get this little hussy to tell me the truth, and I’ll let her off. But if she says one word that’s not true, I’ll beat her to death! I’m asking her how those two strings of cash came to be on the ground outside and how that rice got into the house.”

At first Eterna held out, but eventually the beating became too much for her to bear, and she had to tell the truth. “Let me tell you both what happened. That day when it started snowing, Daddy went out, and Mama told me to go and buy some steamed cakes. On the way back I met an old woman who said she was hungry and begged me for a cake. I couldn’t bear to see her in such a state and gave her a little one. She said, ‘I don’t want to eat your cake, I was just testing you.’ She gave the cake back to me, saying, ‘It’s rare to come upon such a kindhearted girl and dutiful daughter.’ Then she gave me a purple silk bag with a manual inside and said to me, ‘If you need money or rice, just read the charms in this book and you’ll be able to make it yourself.’ I know it was wrong of me, but when I came back, I started looking at the manual just for fun. Then when I recited the charm from the manual, it really did create some money.”

At these words, Master Hu began moaning to high heaven. “The authorities have recently put up notices calling for the arrest of demons, and now you’ve gone and implicated me in it! I’m going to kill you, you little hussy, in order to clear myself of any crime.” He raised the rod and began hitting her.

“Help!” cried Eterna. The old woman who lived next door heard Eterna being beaten and rushed over to intercede, but found the door locked. She called out, “Master, spare that child! You don’t normally get into such a state! Why are you hitting her? Ma’am, why don’t you stop him?”

“But the little hussy …” The master didn’t dare say more, but he did let slip the remark, “What’s in that manual is sheer bunkum!”

When the old woman heard the word “manual,” she called out, “Your daughter’s very young and doesn’t understand anything at all. It must be some good-for-nothing local youths who are trying to provoke her. If the manual isn’t worth reading, just burn it. Why beat the child?”

“You’re right,” said the master. To Eterna he said, “Bring me that manual!” She took it out from her breast pocket and handed it to him.

“Do you remember what it says?” he asked her as he took it.

“No, Daddy, I don’t,” she said. “If I had it in front of me, I could read it to you.”

The master told his wife to light a lamp and burn the manual. To Eterna he said, “Out of regard for our neighbor, I shall forgive you this time, but if you do anything like this in the future, I shall beat you to death!”

“Oh, Daddy, I wouldn’t dare,” said Eterna.

The neighbor went back to her house. “Once again we’ve been blessed,” the master told his wife. “We’re the only ones who know about this. If someone outside the family had gotten to know of it, we’d be in terrible danger!”

From this point on their rice jars were full of rice, and there was plenty of money beside their bed. However, as the ancients said, if you sit idly at home, you’ll soon use up all you possess. Day followed day, and before half a month had passed the rice jars were empty and there was no more money beside the bed. Once more they found themselves skipping the odd meal. There was nowhere they could go to ask for help, and they were in constant despair. Once more there was nothing left to eat.

Her mother recalled how Eterna had created both cash and rice, and she complained bitterly to her husband: “You beat her, and you burned her manual! You’re the one who deserves to starve to death, but you’re dragging my daughter and me down with you. How could you do such a thing? “You’re ‘starving to death beside the rice jar’ while forcing your wife and daughter to suffer from hunger!”

“At this stage there’s nothing I can do. Why do you keep blaming me?”

“Just when we had some food to eat, you had to go and stir up all this trouble. Since you took it upon yourself to beat her, you ought to be making yourself useful by getting us some money and rice. Yet here we are, barely alive, and that manual has been burned to ashes!”

“I wasn’t thinking when I did that. I definitely shouldn’t have burned it. I realize that now.”

“It’s too late now to keep your mouth shut. Ever since you gave her that beating, she never comes out to join us but stays in her room.”

“Well, there’s nothing else for it. I’ll pocket my pride and go in and plead with her. I expect she still remembers and can come to our aid by making some more cash and rice. Let me go and ask her.”

He went into the bedroom and said to his daughter with a smile, “My dear, your daddy would like to ask you something. Do you remember how to make cash and rice from that manual?”

“No, Daddy, I don’t.”

“Useless creature! Out of my way!” shouted his wife to Master Hu as she stepped forward. “My dear,” she said to her daughter, “do try to remember, for my sake. You’d be saving your mother’s life.”

“And I won’t beat you this time, either,” added her father.

“Because Daddy beat me that last time I’ve forgotten all of it, but I do have a faint memory of something … I don’t know if it would be any use. Daddy, sit yourself on the table, and I’ll show you.”

The master did as she said and sat on the table. The girl recited something, shouted, “Presto!” and the table rose up into the air, scaring her mother speechless. “Help!” cried the master, as his head bumped against the rafters. He couldn’t get down, no matter how hard he tried. If it were not for the ceiling, he would have soared up into the sky.

How terrified he was! “What sort of magic is this?” he cried to his daughter. “Let me down!”

“Daddy, I’ve forgotten how to make cash and rice,” said Eterna. “This is the only magic I remember, and it won’t save us from going hungry or help us out in a crisis.”

“Let me down!”

Eterna recited some words and shouted, “Presto!” and the table sank down to earth.

“That was terribly dangerous,” said the master. “I nearly fell.”

“Daddy, get me two pieces of string and I’ll make a couple of strings of cash for us.”

The master came back with three pieces of string and said to Eterna, “You go ahead, my dear. One guest shouldn’t trouble two hosts. If you can do three or four hundred more strings of cash, you’ll make me a very happy man. If it should ever come to the ear of the authorities, we’ll deal with it then.” His wife and daughter could not contain their amusement.

Eterna tied a coin to each piece of string, and one piece of string became ten, ten became a hundred, and a hundred became a thousand. From that day forward, there was always rice in the rice jar, and the master had money to spend on wine and food as well as gradually to buy clothes.

One day, as he was returning from buying a few items, Eterna said to him, “Daddy, there’s something I’d like to show you.” She felt in her sleeve and produced an ingot of silver.

The master held it in his hand. It weighed twenty-four or twenty-five ounces. “Where did this come from?” he asked.

“This morning I saw an old man selling paper money who was passing by our door, and he had some papier-mâché imitation gold and silver ingots on his cart,” she said. “I snatched one of them away from him, and it turned into the real thing.”

“In that case, it’s hardly worthwhile making a hundred strings of cash. If you can make gold and silver ingots, we’ll be rich again!” He went off to the paper money shop and came back with three strings of gold and silver imitation ingots. “If you make just one or two ingots, that won’t be much use,” he said to Eterna. “You might just as well make twenty or thirty. Then we’ll be able to enjoy ourselves for the rest of our lives.”

Eterna placed the gold and silver imitation ingots on the floor, then took off her skirt and covered them up. She recited the words, spat out a mouthful of water, and shouted, “Presto!” When she lifted up the skirt, she found two piles on the floor, one of gold, the other of silver. The master, needless to say, was ecstatic. His joy was due entirely to his daughter’s prowess in making so much money.

He talked their situation over with his wife and daughter. “Now that we have all this gold and silver, we’re rich, and we surely won’t want to go on living in the almshouse. I’d like to buy a house in a prosperous part of town and open up a shop selling colored silks. What do you think?”

“All winter we’ve been scraping about for food and trying to get help from others,” said his wife. “If we suddenly open up a colored-silk shop, I’m afraid people will get suspicious.”

“That’s no problem. I’ll just tell the fellow merchants I know that I’ve recently acquired an official as my patron and borrowed some capital from him. I’ll ask a broker to buy half the property for us, then get the rest on credit. They won’t suspect a thing.”

“You’re right.”

That day the master dressed up neatly and went out to try and meet a few of his acquaintances. “I’ve recently received patronage from an official and borrowed some capital from him, and I’d like to open a small shop. Would any of you gentlemen be interested in helping out? I’ll raise only half the money on credit, putting up the other half myself. I hope you’ll agree to help.”

“That’s no problem at all,” they said. “Just leave it to us.”

Having secured their agreement, the master went to the business district and rented a house and bought furniture for it. He chose an auspicious day for the opening and sold his goods for eight hundred cash when they were worth a full string. Everyone loves a bargain, and when people saw that he was selling his goods cheaply and that they were superior to those of his competitors, they flocked to his shop. The entire stock sold out, and the master could hardly contain his delight. Gradually the family’s wealth increased, and they engaged an assistant for the shop and two menservants and two serving women for the house. Within two years the master and his family were living in style, and he became once more the Master Hu of old.

But when the other shopkeepers saw the customers coming to his shop, they grew suspicious. How very strange, they said, “He fetches all his stock from inside his house.” The assistants also became suspicious: “Why aren’t his goods displayed on the shelves? Why do they always go in to fetch them?” The master realized that people were suspicious because the goods came from inside. We haven’t bought a thing, he thought, all the goods have been made by my daughter. What am I going to do, now that people are so full of suspicion and envy? The evening of the following day he tidied up the shop and went into the inner quarters and gave orders for supper to be served. The serving women brought it in, and as the master and his family were drinking their wine, he said to the women, “You may take a break. We have family business to discuss.” The women left the room.

“My dear,” the master said to Eterna, “we owe our entire fortune to you. We have countless quantities of gold, silver, and silk. We have menservants for the outer part of the house, serving women for the inner quarters, and an assistant for the shop. But when people come to buy, they get suspicious of the fact that we sell stock but never buy any. From now on you mustn’t go into the shop and listen to customers’ requests. After all, what are a hundred strings of cash worth when, if the slightest hint of this ever got out and people realized what was going on, we’d be in terrible danger and lose our entire fortune? From now on you mustn’t make any more goods.”

“Daddy, I shall stay inside. I won’t go out and listen to orders in the shop.”

“Splendid,” said the master as he ordered the food brought in again. Following supper Eterna returned to her room.

After the master gave Eterna these instructions, if a customer requested something that the shop had in stock, they would sell it to him; if not, they would send him elsewhere for it. Previously his daughter had created the things they did not have in stock, but now she no longer came into the shop to listen to requests. Master Hu was vastly relieved, but after a month or more this thought suddenly occurred to him: these days I’ve been so preoccupied with the business that I haven’t paid any attention to my daughter at home. If she can suppress the ideas she cherishes, fine, but if she does something wild and the serving women get to hear of it, we’ll be in terrible danger!

This thought of checking on his daughter led to certain consequences: the court mobilized an army and sent it forth, while Eterna threw half the world into chaos and plunged several cities into tumult.

Peasants bore regimental insignia on their backs;

A fisherman flew a commander’s flag on his boat

What strange thing was it that she did? Turn to the next chapter to find out.