Sandra's paternal grandfather Ying was a textile merchant in Toisan. It is a small town that served as the trading post for a cluster of villages in the southern corner of China.
Toisan was dirt roads with potholes, with narrow two storied buildings jutting out along each side. The shop fronts were open, with the vendors seated to one side, often sipping a cup of tea with a customer or associate.
Inside Ying's shop on the commerce street of Toisan hung yardage cut to ten yards or so, draped over wooden rods so that there were no walls visible . The floor to ceiling of colours, weaves and textures were the dark sombre matte cottons for everyday shirts and trousers to work in the fields, mud-coated black fabrics for humid summer days, shimmering floral encrusted brocades for the wedding dresses and plush matte velvets. Every household in the surrounding five villages bought from him. He had a good eye for fabric and knew what to buy to please the women. There were no other fabric merchants in any of the surrounding districts. Customers looking for fabric were his customers and his alone.
From this trade, he became a very wealthy man and bought land. He built a grand new house with a ceiling of exposed dark beams and a floor covered in beautiful expensive tiles. They would wait for his oldest son to come home before they would move in. His wife was sweet-natured, quiet but strong. She had fulfilled the duty of the wife by bearing a son as the first born. This son was slender, and graceful and like his father, possessed a talent for relishing beauty.
The wealthy Ying was also a trusted man. People gave him their money to keep for them. In that time and place, there were no banks. He had a safe and he kept their money locked up there. His shop was of several levels and he had employees who would sell the fabrics and some who would make bespoke clothing.
Ying told his wife that there was a woman who sometimes worked for him and that because she was a skillful seamstress, he wanted to invite her to work for him on a regular basis. The message was that he was seeking his wife's permission to take this woman as his concubine. To express her disapproval, his wife gently reminded him of his age by speaking of their adult son who would soon be married. That was the end of the discussion.
Sometime after that, he went away for business, as was his custom. No one knew where he went or who he was going to meet. The next day, his body was found wrapped in a straw mat outside a hotel. He had been robbed and murdered, probably poisoned. It was said that he was found dead in his hotel room but that the hoteliers did not want a corpse found in their hotel, so they dumped him outside.
His death created complications. There was no money in the safe. Had he taken it out with him when he went away? His wife had to sell jewelry, furniture and other belongings to raise funds to repay people who had given him their money to safeguard.
