Mrs Spring Fragrance

O’Yam’s father, Kien Lung, has never been overly sold on Fou Wang’s betrothal to his daughter. When Fou Wang’s grief consumes him, Kien Lung takes the opportunity to try and make a new match for his daughter—this time to the much older Moy Ding Fong. O’Yam shudders at the thought of marrying “old Moy Ding Fong,” (117), but she knows that her father will not let her wait out the three years Fou Wang has vowed to dedicate to his mother’s memory.

Fou Wang’s sister, Fin Fan, comes to visit O’Yam. She tells O’Yam that she will marry her betrothed, Hom Hing, even without her brother’s consent. O’Yam thinks that Fin Fan must love Hom Hing more than Fou Wang loves O’Yam, but Fin Fan says it is just her brother’s conscience that keeps him from marrying O’Yam: “If he does not love you [...] why, when we heard that you were unwell, did he sleeplessly pace his room night after night until the news came that you were restored to health?” (118).

When Fin Fan sees Liuchi, and another woman named Mai Gwi Far, on her way home, she tells the women about her plan to marry without her brother’s consent. Mai Gwi Far asks, “Why should you […] when there is a way by which to obtain it?” (118). When Fin Fan asks how, Mai Gwi Far answers: “Did Ah So Nan leave no garments behind her—such garments as would well fit her three souls—and is it not always easy to delude the serious and the wise?” (119).

O’Yam goes to the joss house, or Chinese temple, to find solitude, but finds Fou Wang there. O’Yam feels that “[h]e is communing with his mother’s spirit” (119) and tries to leave undetected. As she goes to leave, Fou Wang spots her, and for one fleeting moment O’Yam can see the love that he has for her. She cries out, “Fou Wang! [...] must I become the wife of Moy Ding Fong?” (119). Soon after, a bird flutters in from the window, and Fou Wang takes it as “[a] warning from the dead” (119).

It is evening, and Fou Wang is at his mother’s grave, preparing “for the ceremony of ministering to her three souls” (120). He senses movement behind the wall of fir trees and explains it away as his mother’s restless spirit. When he hears what he believes is his mother’s voice, he falls onto his knees. Three figures dressed in Ah So Nan’s robes appear. His “mother’s spirit” tells Fou Wang that she knows that O’Yam is in his heart. Full of guilt, Fou Wang asks, “Have I not been a dutiful son? Have I not sacrificed all for thee, O Mother! Why, then, dost thou reproach me?” (120). “The spirit” reassures Fou Wang that she does not reproach him, and she gives him permission to marry O’Yam. She also instructs him to give his blessing for his sister’s marriage to Hom Hing: “Thy departed mother requires not the sacrifice of a broken heart. The fallen leaf grieves not because the green leaf still clings to the bough” (121).

The three figures disappear as Fou Wang calls out to his mother. He then quickly goes through the ceremony and hurries to O’Yam’s home: “No more shall my longing for thee take the fragrance from the flowers and the light from the sun and moon” (121).