Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen

One afternoon, Mameha told me that Pumpkin had just won an apprenticeship. The award Mameha was referring to was given to the geisha apprentice who made the most money in the previous month.It may seem strange that such a big prize exists, but there are good reasons for it.Encouraging apprentices to make as much money as possible helps shape them into the most appreciated geisha in Gion—that is, geisha who not only make a lot of money themselves, but benefit everyone in Gion as well. But Mameha said that this apprentice award would cost Pumpkin and Hatsumomo. In Gion, Mameha says, a popular geisha can always make sure her sister earns more money than anyone else—so long as she's willing to risk her reputation. capital" related.Whenever a geisha attended a banquet, the hostess of the tea house would light an hour-long stick of incense—called a hana.How much a geisha can earn depends on how many sticks of incense she burns when she leaves.But some top geisha earn more.Take Hatsumomo as an example, she charges a stick of incense every fifteen minutes.As for Mameha...well, there's no one like her in Gion: she's getting paid every five minutes.Of course, no geisha receives all of their earnings.The tea house that provides her with a platform to make money will take part of the money, the geisha union will take a small part, her dresser and others will also take a cut, and she even has to pay a fee to the art gallery, because the art gallery provides her Manage accounts, keep track of schedules for her.She probably only gets a little more than half of the total proceeds.

Here's what a geisha like Hatsumomo does to make her sister appear more successful than she really is. First of all, in Gion, a popular geisha is welcomed to almost any banquet, so she will attend many banquets, but only stay for about five minutes at a time.But it's a different story for an apprentice geisha, who has to spend at least an hour at a banquet.Hatsumomo, however, did not follow such an approach.She took the pumpkins around to drive around. Until the age of sixteen, an apprentice was paid one and a half wages per hour.If the pumpkin stayed at a banquet for only five minutes, the host of the banquet would also be paid by the hour.However, Pumpkin's hasty departure will not please everyone.Hatsumomo took her younger sister to the banquet and left after showing her face. If a similar situation happened only one or two nights, the men probably wouldn't mind too much.But if it kept going like this, they would definitely start wondering why Hatsumomo couldn't stay a little longer when she was so busy, and why her sister couldn't follow the custom of staying a little longer after her sister left.Pumpkin's hustle might make her more money—maybe three or four per hour, but she'd certainly lose her reputation for it, and so would Hatsumomo.

"Hatsumomo's behavior just shows us that she's desperate," Mameha concluded. "She's going to stop at nothing to whitewash the pumpkin. You know why, don't you?" "I'm not sure, Mameha-san." "She wants to make Pumpkin stand out, so Mrs. Nitta will adopt her. If Pumpkin is adopted as the daughter of the Art Museum, her future will be guaranteed, and Hatsumomo will also have a place in the future, because she is Pumpkin's daughter after all. Sister, Mrs. Nitta will definitely not kick her out. Can you understand what I said? If Pumpkin is adopted, you will never be able to get rid of Hatsumomo... unless you are kicked out by them."

My heart surged like a sea wave behind a dark cloud. "I want to tell you something." Mameha said, "In the next two weeks, you will go to a banquet with me, and Hatsumomo will never find that place." But she didn't tell me the specifics . When I returned to the Art Museum that afternoon, I hid upstairs to check the almanac.In the next two weeks, there are several good days.On the Sunday of the second week, it is written in the almanac: "The balance of good and bad luck can open the door of destiny." This sentence sounds strange. At noon on Sunday, I received a note in Mameha's handwriting, asking me to be at her apartment by one o'clock and not to let anyone know my whereabouts.

After my round with Mameha, we took a rickshaw at Gion Temple and traveled north for about half an hour before arriving in an area of ​​Kyoto that I had never been to.On the way, Mameha told me that we were going to a sumo show as guests of Ken Iwamura, the founder of the Osaka Iwamura Electric Company.Yan Junhe, Iwamura's right-hand man and the president of the company, will also be present. "I should tell you," Mameha said to me, "Nobu's appearance is... a bit strange. When you see him, behave yourself and make a good impression on him." Mameha led me to the front row of the auditorium, and we took off our shoes and stepped on the wooden edge in tabi socks towards the seats.The host who invited us was sitting in this row, and I saw a man wave to Mameha.I knew right away that he was Nobu.No wonder Mameha had to prepare me for his appearance, because even from a distance, I could see the skin on his face like a melting candle.He had been badly burned, and his whole face looked so miserable that I could hardly imagine the pain he was going through.Meeting Korin already made me feel weird, but now that I'm seeing Nobu, I'm starting to worry that I'm going to be somehow stupid in front of him.I didn't look at Nobu as I followed Mameha towards the seat, my attention was all drawn to the elegant man next to him.The man was dressed in a pinstriped kimono, and from the moment my eyes fell on him, I experienced a magical sense of calm.

Now we were almost at the box where he was sitting--and I found he did look regal, far more regal than I had imagined.Mameha knelt down and bowed when she got to the box.Then he turned his head, and I was able to see his broad face and high cheekbones...and the smooth eyelids that were tightly folded at the corners.Suddenly, everything around me seemed to be quiet, he was like a gust of wind, and I was just a cloud being blown away by him. Of course, I knew him all too well—in some ways, I saw him more than I saw myself in the mirror.He is the president.