Chapter 1

In the sixteenth year of the Longqing reign, drought ravaged Yanzhou.

To stay alive, my father sold me at five years old to Master Qian’s household in Taoyuan Town for eight hundred copper coins, to serve as a maid.

Master Qian was an old lecher. Not one of the maids in his house escaped his predations.

When I turned sixteen, he set his sights on me. More than once, he cornered me alone in the little kitchen, trying to root at me with his foul-smelling mouth.

I had a fierce temper and would not submit, so I ran to the mistress of the house and wept out my grievance.

Who would have thought that instead of pitying me, she ordered me beaten without mercy?

“Well, well! After feeding and clothing you all these years, I raised a filthy little whore right under my nose! Beat her! Beat her to death!”

I was beaten black and blue, then thrown into the woodshed, where I nearly breathed my last.

Feeling guilty, the mistress summoned Matchmaker Wang from town. “That little vixen Pan Xi’er can’t stay here any longer. Find her a family—pockmarked, lame, blind, bald, I don’t care. I won’t take bride-price; I’ll even send one tael as a dowry!”

Matchmaker Wang clapped her hands and laughed.

“What a coincidence! There’s the Zhao family in Taoshui Village: a widowed mother with three bachelor sons. The widow is half blind; the eldest is a dirt farmer, the second a bookworm, and the third a layabout. Their eldest once married a lovely young wife, but she ran away on the wedding night. They say it was because her two brothers-in-law listened outside the bridal chamber at midnight. Tsk, tsk—half-grown boys, blood running hot—”

Blinded by jealousy, the mistress’s teeth chattered with delight. “What a splendid family indeed!”

And so, half a month later, I was hauled by force in a donkey cart to Taoshui Village and made the daughter-in-law of the Zhao family at the eastern end of the village.

That day, my blind mother-in-law, Wang Lanhua, sat on a great stone block in the courtyard, snot and tears streaming down her face as she cursed until her spittle flew.

“That damned Matchmaker Wang has swindled our Zhao family blind! What maid let go by Master Qian’s household could possibly be clean? My poor son—married one day and already made a cuckold!”

Clutching my little bundle, I limped around the house before me, all broken bricks and crumbling tiles.

“Your words are awfully unpleasant, old madam. Didn’t your family marry me for that tael of dowry?”

“What tael of dowry?”

“The Qian family asked for no bride-price and was sending one tael with me. Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

“What are you talking about? Matchmaker Wang collected a tael of silver in bride-price from us for the Qian family. There wasn’t a scrap of dowry!”

My mother-in-law sprang off the stone block in a fury. “Damn that woman! Matchmaker Wang had the conscience to cheat both sides!”

Between us, the family had lost two taels of silver. My mother-in-law was so angry she could not eat that night. She lay on the kang bed groaning that her heart hurt.

Even if she had been able to eat, though, there did not seem to be much food in the house.

I turned the whole kitchen upside down and could only scrape together half a sack of millet, half a sack of mixed flour, and one sack of beans.

Over my mother-in-law’s curses, as I drank porridge thin enough to show a person’s reflection, I learned that Matchmaker Wang had told the truth only by thirds.

My mother-in-law actually had four sons. The eldest, Zhao Decai, had drowned years ago when the Qingfeng River flooded. I had married the second, Zhao Deqian.

Zhao Deqian had gone to town several days earlier to repair a bridge and could not return for his wedding.

The third, Zhao Dewan, studied at Guzhu Academy in town and boarded there.

And the fourth, Zhao Deguan, was only thirteen, yet already a good-for-nothing little rover. Heaven alone knew what he did all day.

“Ah, forget it. Now that you’ve married into the Zhao family, live honestly from now on and stop dwelling on those filthy things from before!”

Worn out from cursing, my mother-in-law yawned and rolled over. Before long, thunderous snores filled the room.

It was June in the countryside. The moon was bright, the stars sparse, and the mugwort burned to drive off mosquitoes gave off a pungent smoke. I stared at the filthy, patched-to-rags bedding on the kang and could not help frowning with a quiet sigh.

Good heavens. Which one of us was filthy, exactly?

When word spread that the Zhao family had a new daughter-in-law, the people of Taoshui Village all came to stare.

“Tsk, the second son’s wife is a real beauty,” said a sharp-tongued neighbor woman to my mother-in-law with a smile. “Even prettier than Old Chen’s Daling was as a girl.”

My mother-in-law curled her lip. “Daling was fine. This one of ours—hmph. You can tell at a glance she isn’t the sort to live a proper life.”

“Oh? Aren’t your old eyes nearly blind? How can you tell?”

“I can smell it! What decent wife powders her face when her man isn’t home? What else would she be but a fox spirit?”

The neighbor woman burst into hearty laughter and pointed teasingly at my mother-in-law’s nose. “As if you could powder yours! Even if you slapped eight jin of powder on that old face, it still wouldn’t look better than a ball of donkey dung or a toad’s hide!”

New to the household as I was, I knew my mother-in-law had doubts because I had once been a maid in the Qian house. I neither got angry nor argued. I simply filled a bowl of porridge and handed it to her. “Mother, rest easy. I’m a decent woman.”

Her expression turned awkward. She took the bowl and drank. “Who knows? We’ll see.”

The Zhao family was truly poor. To keep one scholar in school, they were nearly at the point of smashing pots and selling the iron.

But I heard that Zhao Dewan was promising. He had already passed the county examination and was to sit the provincial examination the following year.

At noon on my second day in the Zhao household, the youngest brother, Zhao Deguan, came back merrily carrying two great bundles of willow branches.

The half-grown boy wore ragged clothes, his toes poking out of his shoes, his face streaked black and white with sweat. One look told you he was not the quiet sort.

My mother-in-law could see only blurred shapes. The moment she saw him come in, she hurried to feel several pale mountain apricots out of the cupboard by the kang.

“Little youngest, where have you been running wild these past few days? Didn’t starve to death, did you? This is your second sister-in-law. Call her!”

Zhao Deguan took the apricots with a grin and immediately wolfed them down.

When he had finished, he wiped his mouth and flashed me two rows of small white teeth. “Second Sister-in-law!”

I answered and fetched him a basin of water to wash his face. He splashed himself carelessly, then ran beneath the shade tree in the courtyard to fuss with the willow branches, grinning all the while.

My mother-in-law liked to nap at noon. After helping her settle down, I took up a broom and rags and, though my body had not yet recovered, cleaned that house poor enough to let wind through every crack until it shone.

The Zhao house had three main rooms: bedrooms to the left and right and the kitchen in the middle. There was also a slightly newer side room in the yard. I guessed it had belonged to Zhao Deqian and the wife who had supposedly fled from him.

Fled—

All at once, I remembered the rumor I had heard in Master Qian’s household: that the two Zhao brothers-in-law had listened outside their new sister-in-law’s wall at night.

I had not yet met Zhao Dewan and could not say. But Zhao Deguan, sweating in the yard as he wove baskets from willow, still had a child’s look about his brow and eyes. However I looked at him, he did not seem like a rogue.

His hands were deft. Within an hour he had woven two baskets, neither large nor small, and their fresh green color was quite pretty.

An idea stirred in me. Carrying a bowl of water beneath the tree, I asked, “Deguan, can you weave a fish trap?”

He gulped down the whole bowl, looking pleased with himself. “Sure can!”

“Then will you weave one for your second sister-in-law? I want to catch some fish by the river.”

This time he answered even more crisply. “No!”

I was surprised. “Why not?”

“Mother won’t allow it!”

“Why won’t Mother allow it?”

“Because Eldest Brother drowned. Mother says there are water ghosts in the river, and they grab anyone who gets close.”

My eyes shifted as a plan came to me. “It’s all right. Your second sister-in-law isn’t afraid. We’ll do it secretly: you weave one, I go catch fish. Once I’ve caught them, I’ll say they jumped onto the bank themselves. Mother hardly leaves the house, and even when she does, she never goes to the river. Besides, your sister-in-law’s fish tastes wonderful. Aren’t you hungry for it?”

“How could I not be?”

“Then hurry up and weave it!”

At the thought of fish, Deguan’s face lit up. Soon he handed me a fish trap. “Second Sister-in-law, you really aren’t scared of water ghosts?”

“Not one bit. I’m their ancestor’s ancestor!”

I have a hot temper. When I decide on something, I do it. While my mother-in-law still snored away, I carried the trap down to the little river.

The water was clear and fish leaped in shoals. Before long, I had caught more than ten small wild fish and loaches.

That evening, I set a plate of clear-braised river catch on the table. My mother-in-law had a sharp nose; she smelled the fish at once.

She flared up. “Who went down to the river to catch fish? What fool was driven there by ghosts?”

That shout nearly scared Deguan, who had been happily crunching fish bones, into wetting his trousers. “Mother, it wasn’t me.”

Seeing trouble, I hurriedly said:

“Mother, no one went into the river. I don’t know what happened today, but the fish and shrimp all came scrambling up onto the bank, as if there really were water ghosts in the river. While you slept this afternoon, I went to dig wild greens at the foot of the hill and saw plenty of people picking up fish by the bank, so I picked up some too.”

Deguan silently stuck out his tongue at me when he saw how smoothly I lied, without even blushing. But when my mother-in-law heard the fish had been picked up, her face softened.

“You really picked them up? Then why only this much?”

Me: “…All right, Mother. I’ll pick up more tomorrow.”

My mother-in-law nodded. A little worry showed in her cloudy eyes. “If there’s fish, eat more of it. This may not be a good sign. The old people in the village say that one year, fish in the river threw themselves onto shore just like this. A few days later, there was a great earthquake. Ah.”

My mother-in-law Wang Lanhua understood the principle of being a stuffed ghost even if she had to die for it. That night she ate two heaping bowls of bean rice and licked the plate that had held the braised river catch clean.

Deguan ate until he was full too. “Second Sister-in-law, your cooking is so good. Tomorrow I’ll go pick up fish with you.”

Why would I object? For several days in a row, we “picked up” many more little river creatures and gave the Zhao family a proper feast.

On the seventh day, Deguan got bored and refused to go no matter what. So I had to carry the fish trap to the river alone.

As bad luck would have it, I was walking home with half a basket of fish and shrimp when I passed a field of crops.

In broad daylight, a sharp-faced man suddenly sprang out of the field.

His eyes were bloodshot. Without a word, he grabbed me and tried like a madman to drag me into the crops.

The moment he pulled me, I remembered Master Qian’s foul mouth. Fury burst through me. I put every ounce of strength I had into a vicious kick between his legs.

The man bared his teeth in pain, then swung around and slapped me hard across the face.

“Ah!”

Damn it, he was strong. The blow split the corner of my mouth and sent stars bursting before my eyes. I cried out from the pain—and that cry saved me.

A tall man, filthy all over and carrying an iron shovel, descended like a heavenly god. He lifted me aside as easily as a chick, then swung his arm wide and drove a fist into the rogue’s eye socket.

I did not dare watch the beating that followed, because it was truly terrible.

Terrible for that rogue, that was!

When it was over, my rescuer planted a foot on the man who had tried to violate me and turned to ask in a low voice, “What do you intend to do about this?”

I gritted my teeth. “Hand him over to the authorities.”

At the words “the authorities,” the rogue finally grew afraid. His face, mottled like a dye shop, was pressed tight to the dirt as he mumbled a plea. “Don’t—don’t make this big. Your reputation, your reputation will be ruined too. I’ll—I’ll pay silver!”

Had I not heard that, it would have been one thing. Once I did, I grew even angrier.

I kicked him hard. “You’re the one who did evil, and you’re the one who should be ashamed. I walk straight and stand upright—what have I to fear? You don’t look like this is the first time you’ve dragged a decent woman into a field. Once we reach the authorities, you’ll get what’s coming to you!”

At my words, the dark-faced man beside me showed a trace of approval.

So he dragged the rogue, who could no longer move, all the way to the village to find the village headman.

The headman was playing chess beneath the great locust tree at the village entrance with a fat old man. When he heard my accusation, he crouched and turned the rogue’s head toward him. “Isn’t this Monkey Third from Xiahe Village? You dare come to our Taoshui Village to do evil? Tired of living?”

The fat old man was already irritated. “A scoundrel like this should be sent to the authorities for eighty strokes of the heavy bamboo and beaten to death! Hurry up—it’s your move.”

Before he had finished speaking, several sturdy men among the onlookers stepped out. In no time at all, they efficiently dragged away Monkey Third, who had wet himself in fright.

The heat was fierce. Watching the group disappear, the headman wiped his sweat and said kindly to the tall man beside me, “Deqian, finished repairing the bridge? Your wife got a fright today. Take your wife home.”

The dark-skinned man froze. “Whose wife?”

The headman froze too. He pointed at Zhao Deqian, then at me, Pan Xi’er. “What, are you stupid? Your wife!”