"The thing I topple is not the tomb, but despair itself."

Here, I pay my respects to the black-backed traitor.

Lower Three Gates

The Lower Three Gates is the branch with fewer stories, because they are all businesspeople and rarely go into tombs themselves. Since their relationships are close and their business dealings are frequent, both the Middle Three Gates and the Lower Three Gates often intermarry. For example, the Xie family and my grandmother's family are related.

Foster Xiangu Miss Taylor (with an illustration of Foster Xiangu)

As the only woman among the Old Nine Gates, Foster Xiangu of Baisha Well, also known as Old Mrs. Foster, can truly be called a woman who is the equal of any man. Old Mrs. Foster had a son who joined the Communist revolution, and during the Cultural Revolution, her family's background was exposed, leading to the disappearance of the Huo family. Legend has it that they went into hiding, protected by powerful figures behind the scenes.

When it comes to Foster Xiangu, my grandfather always had to check if my grandmother was nearby, because he and Foster Xiangu had a bit of a history together. It was a sensitive topic at home and had to be avoided in front of my grandmother, or else she would grab my grandfather by the ear and scold him: "Old rascal, after all these decades, you’re still thinking about that vixen."

Indeed, Foster Xiangu and my grandfather did have a somewhat ambiguous past.

Since this topic couldn't be discussed in detail, I never found out whether this relationship happened before or after my grandfather married my grandmother. If it was after, that would be a big problem. I couldn't ask my grandmother either—she would hit me on the head with her knitting needles and chase me away.

Of course, maybe it was something else entirely. Maybe my grandfather and Foster Xiangu just had some business dealings, and because Foster Xiangu was so beautiful, my grandmother got jealous.

According to my grandfather, Foster Xiangu really did have that kind of charm. You could tell from her nickname—back then, "仙姑" meant "fairy maiden," which shows that her beauty was widely recognized. My grandfather said she truly deserved the word "仙" ("fairy") because she had an aura that made people unable to look at her directly or have any improper thoughts. This kind of aura was innate, impossible to cultivate. Men who looked at her simply couldn't have any evil intentions.

I asked my grandfather if he meant that Foster Xiangu was super flat-chested, even flatter than a washboard.

He said of course not—Foster Xiangu was 1.7 meters tall, liked to wear qipao, had very fair skin, and short hair. Her aura came from her eyes, which had a transcendent look, so clear it was almost frightening, as if they had never been tainted by the mundane world. Looking into her eyes, you’d be willing to do anything she asked.

I thought to myself, this sounds a bit like the Silent Bottle—could Foster Xiangu actually be a transgendered Silent Bottle? The image in my mind was of the Silent Bottle wearing a qipao.

But Foster Xiangu's purity didn't last her whole life. Around her thirties, she fell in love with a military officer who later became a trusted aide under Mao. It's said that at a political bureau dance after the founding of the country, her appearance stunned everyone, even catching the eyes of several Soviet officials. But perhaps because of this, her husband got into a lot of trouble and was brought down during the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, he was later rehabilitated, but by then, Foster Xiangu had become Old Mrs. Foster. The last time my grandfather saw her was on TV—her elegance and aura were still there, but she was no longer a young girl, which always made people sigh at the ruthlessness of time.

A woman like that always reminded me a bit of Ruan Lingyu. I just couldn't imagine how she ended up in the Old Nine Gates, and as the seventh, no less. Could she really go underground? My grandfather said that Foster Xiangu rarely went underground herself, and their family had a very unique way of doing it—similar to the old salt mine method, where they would dig a huge hole, then hang upside down, using hooks to cling to the top of the tomb. This method required people who were both very flexible and very strong, so the head of the Huo family was always a woman, and female workers held high status.

But with more women came more drama, so the Huo family was also the most internally conflicted, with fierce family struggles. There was more than one daughter in the Huo family, and Foster Xiangu's path to becoming the head was very complicated.

After Mrs. Foster passed away, several daughters, as well as a few of Mrs. Foster's sisters and cousins, all set their sights on the position of family head. We don't know the details, but it meant a reshuffling of power in the Huo family, so everyone was watching closely. (It's simple: if the current business leader is Miss Foster's confidant, and Miss Foster doesn't become the head, that confidant could immediately fall out of favor. All your previous connections would be useless, and the new leader would have their own circle of interests—whether you'd still get any benefits is hard to say.)

To gain power, people inside would inevitably form alliances with outside forces, and Foster Xiangu's ally, as it happened, was my grandfather. So my grandfather knew quite a bit about the inside story of how she rose to power.