The Opium Lord's Daughter

Chapter One

Canton, 1826

Screams of excruciating pain rang out through Lord Lee Shao Lin’s home, the largest private estate in Canton. Shao Lin’s daughter, Su-Mei, at four years old, had shocked her parents by refusing to have her feet bound, as all noble little girls did at that age. He couldn’t believe she would dare disobey him—it was unheard of! If she didn’t start her foot binding now, to attain the “gold” standard of feet no longer than three inches when she was fully grown, her feet would grow to normal size, and she would be the laughingstock of the noble class. So, he had had her tied up and the binding forced upon her. She bellowed in protest.

In a room nearby, Su-Mei’s mother and Shao Lin’s Number One Wife, Mei Li, was in labor with her second child and also crying out in pain. She had secretly taken the herbalist’s potion to induce labor so she would give birth before Number One Concubine Yu Bing. Both were racing to earn the honor of delivering Shao Lin’s Number One Son. Both women prayed earnestly for a son, but the goddess Kuan Yin would answer the prayers of only one.

Lee Su-Mei screamed as loud as she could, out of frustration as much as from pain. The sound bounced off the silk hangings on the walls and seemed to drop to the floor. No one heard, no one came to her rescue. Her ankles had been tied with long ribbons to the legs of a low stool, and her wrists were crossed behind her back and tied together, then tied to the back legs of the stool. Master Fu had tantalized her with the silk ribbons, so long and pretty! He had said they would give her the most beautiful tiny feet, just like her Honorable Mother, and all the pain would be worth it when she was a proper lady with a wealthy husband from a noble family. He had bent over her toes and wrapped them tightly to the soles of her feet in an attempt to break them, and the bones throbbed. She couldn’t move, couldn’t tear off the ribbons that were causing such agony.

Lord Lee Shao Lin felt that he’d already suffered enough inconvenience for one morning. Number One Wife had started her labor about the same time the foot herbalist had come for Su-Mei’s binding, and the house was in disarray, every servant rushing here and there to boil water and heat blankets or fetch the midwife and the astrologer. There had been nothing but tea and cold noodles for his breakfast, and now the best foot herbalist in the city was failing to control a small child.

“Tie her up!” he had ordered. “If she will not obey, she must be made to obey.” The firstborn daughter of Lord Lee Shao Lin, one of the wealthiest men in Canton, would marry into the family of a high-ranking guan, and to do that, she would have to have small feet. How his daughter’s feet reached that size was none of his concern.

Lee Shao Lin couldn’t have explained why Chinese men were so attracted to women with feet so small that young girls were forced to have their toes broken and feet reshaped into dainty little hooves. The feet, trussed in silk bandages, were of no use; they made it impossible for women to walk without pain even in adulthood. When little girls’ toes rotted away from lack of circulation, the stench was overpowering, and the servants had to use the most expensive perfumes to disguise it. There were ratings for bound feet: The smallest, at three inches in length, were “gold”; four-inch feet were “silver”; and anything over four inches was dismissed as “iron.” Women with gold feet could command a husband from the wealthiest and most respectable families, but to win such a prize, a girl had to suffer excruciating pain from the beginning of the binding process until adulthood. Countless women who had achieved the gold standard subsequently lost their lives in fires or other disasters because they couldn’t run away to safety on their tiny, useless feet.

Foot binding dated back to the tenth century, when the emperor’s most-favored concubine was a dancer with tiny feet. She had bound them to reshape them into little hooves. Other concubines who sought the emperor’s attention began binding their feet, and the practice spread among noblewomen. Habit and erotic fancy among the idle rich had kept the practice alive, and Lee Shao Lin would keep it going in his house. The tantrums of a child could not be allowed to hinder her bright future.

Master Fu, with the help of a household servant, had managed to tie Su-Mei, kicking and screaming, to the stool. Then he had packed his ribbons and strong-smelling ointments and left. He would return the next day to tighten the binding.

Alone now, Su-Mei struggled, trying with all her strength to break or stretch the ribbons. As she wriggled on the stool, warm liquid flooded her pants and tunic. Her cheeks burned with shame. She was a big girl, nearly five years old, and she hadn’t wet herself in years! She hated Master Fu, and she hated her father. Ragged sobs tore at her chest, and huge tears dripped down her face. Furious, she tried to wipe them on her shoulders, but she couldn’t reach.

“My lady?”

Su-Mei’s head snapped up. “Bao?”

A round face appeared in the doorframe. It was the maid of First Concubine, who Su-Mei knew as Second Mother. The maid’s name wasn’t really Bao, but everyone called her that because she was so short and fat, like a dumpling.

“Bao! Where is everyone? Can you let me go? Please, please! I won’t tell anyone.”

“Hush, my little lady—stop your crying.” Bao wiped the girl’s face with her sleeve and bent to untie her arms and legs. “Don’t you know? Everyone is busy with your Honorable Mother. She is about to give you a baby brother or sister!”

Su-Mei sniffed. She didn’t think she wanted a baby brother or sister. “Where’s Nanny?”

“Nanny is helping her grandmother with the birth preparations.” The last knot came loose. “There! That’s better, isn’t it?”

Su-Mei tore frantically at the bindings on her feet. When she’d ripped them free, her toes went from white to deep red, and pain streaked up her legs. It would take minutes for the agony to abate; nevertheless, she was flooded with relief. “Oh, thank you, Bao!” She pointed at her dressing table. “Master Fu left me some sweets—that is all I can offer you for helping me.”

The packet of sesame candy wrapped in rice paper disappeared into Bao’s pocket. “My lady, please remember—not a word to your Honorable Father about this. If you tell anyone I was here, I’ll be whipped, and I won’t ever help you again.”

“I promise, Bao. I’ll say I did it all myself.”

“And everyone will believe you, my lady.” Bao gave Su-Mei a crooked smile. “I’ve never met such a defiant child in my whole life, refusing to follow her Honorable Father’s rules and traditions.”

Su-Mei kicked at the stool and the scattered ribbons. “I hate rules and traditions!”

“Not all rules and traditions are bad, my lady. You may find them helpful one day.” She glanced up the hallway before leaving. “And now I must fetch your Second Mother some almond cakes and tea. With all the fuss, no one brought her any breakfast this morning.”

“Did you do it?” Yu Bing set down the novel she had been pretending to read.

“Yes, my lady,” panted Bao, hurrying into the room with a tray. “It was just as you said—the poor little girl was screaming in pain. I thought at first it was Lady Mei Li in her labor, it was so loud.”

Yu Bing winced, recalling her own first bind. “And you must keep doing it. Help her to take her bindings off every time, and soon it will be too late, and she’ll never have gold feet.” A wicked smile lit up her face. “And Sister Mei Li will feel the shame of having an unmarriageable daughter with big, ugly feet.”

Bao nodded. “And a rebellious one too! Remember how Lord Shao Lin used to dote on her? She was so bright and talkative, but now she dares to revolt instead of obeying her parents’ every command, and at such a young age!”

Yu Bing laughed. “Don’t worry too much about little Su-Mei. She is still the daughter of a very wealthy lord, and granddaughter of the highest-ranking guan in Peking. She’ll do fine.”

Lee Shao Lin’s father, the Honorable Lee Man Ho, was a senior Imperial Court magistrate at the ministerial level. After passing the provincial exam at age eighteen, he was ranked number one among the candidates who sat for the imperial palace exam. He began his government service as a level five guan, even though most candidates started down at level nine. After twenty-five years of providing sound advice and wise ministration to the emperor, he was promoted to level one guan at the age of forty-three, the youngest ever to reach this status. It was quite common for high-level guans to leverage their power for tremendous personal wealth by granting favors, and Lee Man Ho was not immune to the temptation. He wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and increase the already impressive family fortune, but Shao Lin was not the studying kind.

Shao Lin was a clever man—just not a studious one—and he learned quickly how to benefit from his father’s connections and wealth, which opened doors for him that were not accessible to very many citizens in Canton. Customs officers were the most corrupt of government officials, and they let opium from British smugglers through. Those who wanted to be promoted invited young Lee Shao Lin to partake in lavish entertainments in the hopes that he would put in a...