Memoirs of a Courtesan. Mingmei Yip

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.