Once upon a time... (page 37)
In the Wood Beyond the World, near the Well at the World’s End, was a great big rhododendron park enveloped in fog and mist. Wilhelmina Wang gasped to see the brightly colored flowers her mother loved so. She bent down to place her nose into first one then another, and breathed in the scent of her childhood.
The noble peony, mudan 牡丹, was the flower embroidered on the flap of her knapsack, which held strings of imperial star-thaler. It was the flower of wealth and nobility, of the capital Chang’an, the start and the end of the Silk Road, the flower of her father. The rhododendron, dujuan 杜鵑, was the flower of the south, of water villages and delicate architecture, of poetry and gardens, of banana leaves and soft rain, the flower of her mother, Tang Lili.
In the center of the rhododendron garden stood a playful, Rococo manor, the Pheasant Mansion. Male pheasants with splendid colourful feathers and wattles strutted about the grounds, and female pheasants, for whom the display was put on, observed the proceedings as they went about their avian business.
The four walls of the manor house were exuberant pink. And its copper roof was verdigris green. Stone stairs ran up both sides, and in the back, in the woods, was the Well at the World’s End.
Next to the Pheasant Mansion’s golden door hung a large Bunzlau ceramic bell. The winning design of small blue polka dots against the white background was so charming and inviting, and the sound was sure to be so pleasing, that Digory Kirke went right up to it, and rang.
The Pheasant Mansion’s golden doors opened, and—