The Fox and the Red Bride
The path to the tea plantation was a long one, and the entire time, Hong’s head was thrumming with ways to escape. She could not get far with her bound feet and heavy gown, especially with the thick snow blanketing the forest floor beyond the path. And even if she were able to flee into the thicket, it was known that monsters and wild beasts lurked in the shadows, including fox demons who ate human livers as a fine delicacy.
Her Mother’s Cat
The sky was always the same pale gray. Well, the sky is supposed to be the same azure blue, but in her world, the sky is the same hue as the clouds that hid the sun from her. In her world, there was no difference between night and day. Only songs dictated her time. Songs her little canary would sing to wake her up and to put her to sleep.
Murder at the Boutique Across the Street
I have always found the owner of the little fashion boutique to be, well, very and extremely unapproachable. Not in a bad way. I meant that in every possible positive connotation and with the greatest admiration. She seemed to belong to another world— one I could never enter nor could ever quite understand.
Recipe for Red Braised Pork Belly (红烧肉)
Ma rarely made red braised pork belly, but when she did, the entire bowl would be clean by the end of dinner, only piles of ruby-red skin left. No one in my family liked the skin on pork belly. I always asked her why she didn’t just cut it off before making it, but she would just shake her head in indignation. The flavor wouldn’t be the same, she would scoff.