The Month the Almonds Bloom
suggestion of blue in its texture, blue as the sky on a night in summer when the moon is sleeping. Her lips were sweet and soft, flower-like in texture, a pungent lovely red. Her eyes were green, glorious jade-green eyes that caressed with their glance. Her cheeks were white with just a suggestion of pink like the loveliest porcelain of Kingtehchen. Her garments were always of green or yellow, sometimes a blend of both. She was a wistful, charming dreamer and most of her dreams were about the Jade Master, Woo Fung.
Her father, Mu Kao, was a collector of precious stones and objects of art. Hour after hour he mulled over his wondrous collections of emeralds and jade, amber and lapis lazuli.
Among his splendid jades were several specimens of that rarest jade of all, ivory-white, of a mutton-fat appearance, besides several that resembled rare emeralds to such a degree only an expert could differentiate between them. Mu Kao thought much of his gems but little of his graceful daughter who was by far the most perfect jewel in his household.
Women had no place in his life. Men were foolish who wasted thought over them. Long Mei, his wife, was dead. He had merely married her to watch over his house, to take charge of the cooking and other domestic trifles. Such a marriage of convenience had given him plenty of time to meditate. He was an authority on Jade and it is therefore not remarkable that his path should have crossed that of the great Woo
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