Lily and Snow Flower write letters to one another on a fan with Nü Shu, a secret phonetic form of 'women's writing which Lily's aunt taught them.'[3][4] In addition to the language itself, the young women learn Nü Shu songs and stories.They also frequently meet at the Temple of the Gupo, a fictional temple where the women go to pray for the birth of healthy sons, which in their culture, is the "measure of a woman's worth."