Chapter 20: The Portuguese Hostage

While Anisia follows me around like a sheep for most of the time, I make sure that she spends some time with the other women. Despite some initial reluctance and language difficulty, Huiquin makes an effort to befriend Anisia. This at least means that I don’t need to worry about Anisia each time Qíngfù Niáng summons me for sex. Whereas Mìngfù Jing reserves her sexual activity for night time, Qíngfù Niáng has started arranging our meetings for during the day. It means I can continue my relationship with Zihan, and be available to help Anisia at the times of day when she is most likely to need it. If I was a free woman I would probably feel guilty about having a sexual relationship with Zihan and Qíngfù Niáng at the same time. However, I convince myself that as a slave, I must gain pleasure whenever I can. It’s a weak excuse, but my mounting sexual needs demand that I override any selfimposed moral code. Besides, I’ve seen a couple of women embracing with Zihan, so I don’t think Zihan is monogamous with me.

I keep my pussy shaved bare as Qíngfù Niáng requires. While I’m not the only woman in the harem to trim my pubic hair, I’m the only adult with a completely nude pussy. To avoid admitting that Qíngfù Niáng ordered me to do so, I pretend it is a European custom. However, AhLin and Anisia refuse to confirm my tale, so my story soon falls flat. In reality, everyone in the south wing knows that I service Qíngfù Niáng’s sexual desires, so my subterfuge is probably unnecessary. Genji has probably told Pangfua, who will no doubt be looking to use the information to her advantage. The absence of any interference from Mìngfù Jing suggests that she knows, and doesn’t care, about Qíngfù Niáng’s sexual preferences.

Anisia and I exchange stories of how we come to be here. I already know that she is a captive from the recent war. Her husband is a Portuguese general who was supplying military advice to a local warlord embroiled in the insurrection against the Ming emperor. Anisia was billeted in a town was well behind the battle lines. Unfortunately the town was only protected by second grade militia, most of whom had deserted their posts to search for plunder. A small scouting patrol from the emperor’s army overran the handful of militia on duty, and seized the town. Anisia was an unexpected prize.

I broach the subject of how a young 22yearold woman comes to be the wife of a general old enough to be her father.

“Eduardo is a career soldier who has risen from a junior officer to one of the few Portuguese generals in this half of the world. He was married to my mother for six years before she died when I was eighteen. At the time we were living in Macao. He and my mother had a marriage of convenience, and I don’t think either of them was attracted to the other. It was only later that I realised that despite my young age, Eduardo really had eyes for me rather than my mother. When she died I was left with neither money nor family other than Eduardo. I was trapped into marrying him. We had scarcely consummated our marriage when he was sent north with his troops to support a Portuguese trade mission meeting resistance from several provincial governors. I’m not sure how it was achieved, but over the following two years, those governors were replaced by men sympathetic to Portuguese interests, even to the point of inciting a rebellion against the emperor. When it became apparent that Eduardo and his troops would be there for much longer than originally intended, Eduardo summoned me from Macao to join him. I arrived only four weeks before I was captured.”