Playmobil Detectives: Taipei Love Story-23

After countless days on the tempestuous sea, Ahuey finally arrived at the Land of the Rising Sun. Immediately after they alighted the ship, the General took Ahuey home and introduced her to his family, which consisted of his wife, Yukiko, and a concubine, Akiko, who were both Japanese. Jealous of Ahuey's beauty, they eyed the poor girl with disdain and malice, but dared not show malevolence in front of their husband, so they asked for Ahuey's name with a fake smile on their faces, which were covered with heavy layers of makeup.

Ahuey, who could not speak Japanese, did not understand a single word. Only until the General wrote out the Japanese Kanji representing the word for 'name', which resembled the Chinese characters of the same meaning did Ahuey write down her name in response.

"Ahuey," said the girl, as she pointed at the character indicating her name. Yukiko and Akiko snickered at her low level of proficiency in Japanese, after which they secretly nicknamed her 'the dumb girl'.

"Hana," said the General as he pronounced the Chinese character as Japanese Kanji. "From now on, your name will be Hanako." The General repeated her name and pointed at Ahuey so she could understand.

Ahuey (thenceforth Hanako)'s wedding day never came. As she was but a mere concubine, instead of the General's legal wife, thus she could not have a formal wedding. All she received as a form of a wedding gift was a portrait of her drawn by an artist, which was hung in her tiny bedroom. 

Being a foreign concubine, Hanako's status in the household was well below that of Yukiko and Akiko, and was barely higher than that of a maid. Thus, during the General's absence, Yukiko and Akiko always took the opportunity to bully her by ordering her to perform many household chores which were meant to be done by the servants. Nevertheless, as Hanako had lost her mother as a baby, she was the 'treasure' of her father and never had to do any household chores in her childhood. Thus, she was always shouted at by Yukiko and Akiko, who called her clumsy, lazy and all sorts of horrible names.

Even during the General's presence, due to the language barrier, they seldom conversed and Hanako felt that their distance gradually increased with time, despite that she never felt the General's love for her in the very first place.

Her only friend in the General's large household was a Chinese maid named Asa, who was only a few years Hanako's senior, but her appearance seemed much older. Asa's parents used to be Hokkienese merchants in Japan, but were killed by bandits and left her as an orphan at a very early age. Thus, Asa started working in the General's house as a maid at the age of 8 years old. Asa, who was fluent in both Hokkien and Japanese, taught Hanako to speak Japanese in their free time and told her many things about the General's household, including the fact that Yukiko, who was the eldest daughter of a wealthy merchant, was sterile and Akiko, who was Yukiko's sister, married the General as a concubine in order to produce offsprings for him. Nevertheless, in the end, she only managed to give birth to three daughters, but no sons. As only male offsprings can become heirs, none of Akiko's daughters could inherit his fortune. 

~To be Continued~