Why the monkey's bum is red?

Once upon a time, there lived in a remote village a girl whose family was so poor that her peasant father had to sell her to a rich shopkeeper in a nearby town. Her name was Kimki (金枝) or Gold Twig. She was sold at the tender age of 10. But she had to work as a house servant. When she was 15, she was given the job in the kitchen to cook meals.

The lady of the house was mean. Her daughter was meaner. They never gave Gold Twig a minute of rest during the daytime, and often called her up to dress her down at night. She was beaten up, when she made some trivial housekeeping mistakes. But she never complained. In fact, she was very thankful. Without a few taels of silver her shopkeeper master paid to buy her, her sick father couldn't have been treated and would have died. Moreover, she had regular meals every day, a rarity for her peasant family.

Gold Twig's regular meals consisted of leftovers, which she couldn't reheat. Underfed, she grew thin, looking unlike a 15-year-old girl. There was a scar of burn on her face. She knew nobody else would use her as a domestic. So she worked very hard to repay the favors her master had done her family.

One day after the Mid-Year Festival (中元節), which is commonly known as the Ghost Festival, Gold Twig was told to work in her master's large vegetable garden a mile or so away from his store. It's going to be a full day's work, and the master gave her as lunch two pieces of angu-gue (紅龜粿) or red tortoise cake, one made of glutinous rice with sweetened red bean paste as fillings, the topside of which is partially dyed red and has an image of the reptile embossed. When she was about to eat the cake at a lunch break, an old, scabby beggar showed up before her. “My dear little girl,” the beggar said, “I haven't eaten anything for a long time. I'm starving to death. Would you please give me something to eat?” She gave him her red tortoise cake.

The old beggar thanked Gold Twig profusely. He ate the cake and was gone. She continued to work in the vegetable garden till dark, and returned home with an empty stomach. Of course, she did not complain. She thought she was much more fortunate than the scabby beggar.

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