Kill the fourth child, or you may see the last of your riches

On the left cheek, closest to the mouth, it says “kill the fourth child” and this is where my modern family began.

Our family had retained all the traditions of nobility, except one. The Princess had unbound feet among other nobles. My mother recalls seeing all the nobles with tiny bound feet, and tiny shuffle steps as that was revered “ladylike” and beautiful somehow.

But Princess was not typical of the other nobles. Yes her feet were unbound, as her mother before her, and before her, and all my mother knew was that she came from a very rich family who married a politician for safety against the Chinese revolution.

The politician, had once been a guardsman for the emperors family, but now that family was gone he vowed to protect Princess from the future threats of assasination, and so they married and she changed her name and birthdate on passports to hide her real identity from anyone that might denounce her or make people aware who she was.

But, now that Princess was safe, effectively governing the area of peasants and villagers that formed an island around her mansion, she became respected by the people there, as she helped the needy.

Among the traditional ways, her fourth pregnancy was surrounded in superstition, because the fourth child is known to be unlucky. Only women gather in the presence of Princess to deliver, and all through her pregnancy she referred to her bump as “Ugly”. A temporary name given to the child, to distract evil spirits from stealing its soul from the belly of the mistress.

Fortune telling began on the day of her labor, and these fortune tellers, were revered by my mothers side of the family. Possibly as the last of the Miao witchcraft memories. But, the fortune teller told Princess, with a grave face, to kill the fourth child, as she may be the one who will see the LAST of your good fortunes.

And when Ugly was born, Princess in her grieving fear, asked them to take the child away and dispose of her. But, father, the former guardsman, when told this was what the fortune teller had determined was necessary, and what Madam Princess had requested, could not allow it.

He saw the helpless child and with good intention, the only thing he could do to save her life was to place her in the estate orphanage. From there he would watch the child called Ugly grow, and he named her “Beautiful Lithe” as if to honour the way a noble woman walks among commoners, with her bound feet.

But shortly after Ugly was 2 years old, he could not bear the treatment of her rocking back and forth in the orphanage, among other babies that were nursing, so he stole her out and away, and gave her to a lonely peasant lady on the plantation they owned, to bring the child up as her own.

Ugly, had the best time of her wild life, climbing palm trees and throwing things at passers by. She was unruly and wild, but she was loved by peasant mama. When Ugly turned 7, she came home to find peasant mama dead, and she had to be whisked away, yet again… but this time father told Princess what he had done, and begged for her to become part of the family again.

With much fighting and disgust, Princess conceded on the condition that Ugly, would remain outside of noble quarters and live with the servants, outside in the servant huts. The Princesses children came to know they had another child in which to split their inheritance, and they were not happy.

Ugly was wild and unruly, they called her “black date” because her skin had darkened from the exposure in peasant plantations. And they tormented and bullied her, and Ugly was subjected to beatings for being, well, Ugly. Father did as much as he could to keep Ugly safe, he would get her education, and help her integrate quicker into the household. But Ugly cried, “please I want my peasant mama back, this can’t be my family they are horrible and unkind”

But Auntie number 3, a wife of Princess siblings told her. “I’m sorry Beautiful child, but I was there when you were born as Ugly, and this is indeed your horrible noble family”. So Ugly relented and gave up trying to run away after many attempts with nowhere to go, she was instead, welcomed and groomed by the servants, and returned to her old playful ways after a while, sneaking off the palatial grounds to play with the “ditch people” as they were called.

Ugly was not entirely alone, she had a sibling who was also rejected by the other 5 siblings and relentlessly dismissed, his name was Ju San, and he was deemed a schizophrenic. Whatever mental condition he had, was normalized by the noble family, as the one who could get away with anything, he was merely troublesome getting arrested by the police so regularly. But Princess always paid off the police, for Ju San to return home. Ugly, and Ju San played beyond the evening, catching giant 3ft lizards to barbecue and enjoy with the ditch people. Ju San had made a knife, that he was proud to experience hunting with and feed these desperately poor people. Lizard meat, is not uncommon among the paupers, but a large lizard, can feed a whole family and more.

Ugly was schooled by intervention of her father, and forbidden amongst other things to behave so embarrassingly as a member of the family. Ditch people. He shook his head. They carry disease, they eat anything, they are a scourge and beggars. Being of political interest, no one knew of his connection to a noble, and when feathers started getting ruffled in the area as communism started to encroach into their territories, he worked hard to normalize the family as part of economic need in that area.

He was of service to Sumatra officials, and hid his allegiance to Communist Chinese by using his noble wife for bribes and keeping officials looking away. Ju San, and his schizophrenic escapades was a problem that put them on the radar too much.

So Ugly went to school with a new name Su-San Suhito, so that she could deny even being Chinese, as tensions over the years grew, that the Chinese were making all the money in the area. And owning too much land. Which, was undeniably true, although their plight was of lack of good governance.

In the courtyard of the Chinese mansion, guests from the Dutch House of Orange, the Sultans and Tzars had made regular trips to do business and familiarize with this last noble post outside of communist reach. Ugly, as a member of the servants watched on as the noble family engaged their guests regularly with all manner of dancing and opera and banquets. But she was never part of it, only to observe because she had been told that she was unlucky for the family.

Tensions rose, many Rich Chinese were executed, their heads chopped off in public and brazenly displayed on a crawl and heckle to each and every Chinese abode they could find. The threat of communism was now very high. Sooner or later the family would be in serious trouble.

One day at Ugly’s school, there came an official to threaten the children. As a group the children were told, to denounce family members who dared to plot with the communists, and he would take them away and chop their heads off. At once a child willing to be rewarded pointed at their classroom teacher in which Ugly sat at the front row, and screamed this teacher was a communist spy!

The Children raised into a lord of the flies scenario, and bore down on the teacher ripping her hair and smashing her with blackboard and chairs. They beat her as the commander watched, and questioned the children that were not participating, insinuating they must have communist parents. Upon seeing this, Ugly immediately dove into the crowd that was attacking their teacher, to not be mistaken as even remotely connected to the Chinese.

The teacher was led out and placed in a storage room with low ceilings that had flooded from monsoon rains, where she later died. And as her obituary ran in the local press, Ugly’s father questioned herself about it, whereupon she admitted she had to, or they would come after the family. She did it, to protect the family. At which point father knew danger was coming and his plotting and spying was coming to a head.

As the violent protests emulsified, there came a seige to the Princess Mansion. A 9ft deep ditch was dug infront of the courtyard grounds, and the well was poisoned, while the family inside feared for their lives that the hordes were coming to kill them.

But Ugly was right there with the servants, in the outside quarters, and she had been given instruction to veil up as a Muslim using her name Su San Suhito, and leave the building as a peasant, where she would be picked up and escorted to a safe place.

So indeed her father had managed to save his 4th daughter, and a deal he made with the communists, Ugly was placed in communist school in China, where she would have the best time of her life. And sadly, not see her fun loving and kind schizo brother for a long time again.

Ugly has no information on how the seige ended, but it was merely by a thread she had escaped, because even though the now riled up angry villagers had barricaded the house, somehow, fathers political gravity calmed the situation down, for now.

And that was my mothers 1st escape.