Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society by Adeline Yen Mah Read Free Book Online

lightly and to balance your weight against the weight of others,’ Grandma Wu said to me. ‘Now I will take out some of the water. The boys have been learning to balance not just when the barrel is full, but even when it’s empty and wobbly.’
    I felt as if I were in a world of make-believe, surrounded by-kung-fu heroes from the fabled Shaolin Monastery and wandering warriors who had descended from Mount Liang.
    ‘We all need to move noiselessly in times of danger and to leave no footprints,’ Grandma Wu continued. ‘The boys also know how to leave misleading footprints. Let me show you.’
    Grandma Wu whistled again and the boys leapt down from the top of the barrel. Their skin glistened with sweat, but they were not even breathing hard. I marvelled at their superb physical condition and wondered if I would ever be so fit.
    Grandma Wu moved to a sandpit, which she covered with large, thin sheets of paper. One by one, the boys stepped on the surface and walked so lightly that there was not a single tear. Then she removed the paper and the boys practised walking sideways on the sand.
    ‘Walking sideways leaves tracks that confuse theenemy,’ Grandma Wu explained to me. ‘It’s impossible to work out the direction of the footprints.’
    The morning continued with the boys doing a series of exercises and drills: kicking, footwork, punches, knife-hand thrusts and speed drills. Sam and Marat then rehearsed separate routines and special techniques with David, in preparation for his big match the next day. I watched them rolling their bodies into balls, walking on their hands and knees like cats and tensing their stomach muscles while their abdomens were pounded. I began to copy them and Grandma Wu showed me a few simple movements to increase my flexibility.
    The hours passed quickly and soon it was time for lunch. Marat washed and cooked the rice, Sam whipped the eggs, David chopped the vegetables and I boiled chicken bones in water to make soup. There was a lot of laughing and joking as we all pitched in. The boys teased me about my clumsy hands and I became more and more determined to catch up. When I found a recipe book on the kitchen bookshelf I tried to memorize the recipes for chicken soup as well as fried rice with eggs and vegetables.
    While Grandma Wu was picking herbs and vegetables in the garden, I asked the boys if they had ever used their kung fu on a secret mission.
    ‘Our finest hour was that night when the three of us fought the two Russian thugs who were trying to kidnap Ivanov,’ Sam said, looking at Marat.
    ‘Who’s Ivanov?’
    ‘Ivanov is my big brother,’ Marat said. ‘He is seventeen years older than me.’ He hesitated and looked down at the floor. ‘I should tell you the whole story. Otherwise you won’t understand - it’s complicated.’
    ‘Russian thugs!’ I said. ‘Are you Russian?’
    ‘Our mother was Russian and our father Japanese. They both died of tuberculosis when I was three years old. We used to live in Harbin, a city up north in Manchuria…
    ‘Ivanov’s best friend in Harbin was a talented French Jewish pianist called Simon Kaske, whose father owned a lot of hotels and was very rich. Times were bad. When the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931, some of the Russian refugees living there began to work for the Kempeitei, the Japanese Secret Police. The Russians would kidnap wealthy people for ransom and divide their loot with the Kempeitei. One of their victims was Simon Kaske. Simon’s father refused to pay the ransom, and Simon was killed.
    ‘My brother never, got over it. He was determined to find the killers. He discovered that they were members of the Russian Fascist Party. Butwhen he reported them to the French Consulate in Harbin, he didn’t know that the murderers were being protected by the Japanese.
    ‘The Kempeitei hounded him day and night. We fled to Shanghai when I was six and Ivanov enrolled me for kung fu classes. We became friends with Master Wu and