Chapter 6

So Mother was capable of violence too.

I had miscalculated.

They trussed me up and threw me into the woodshed.

I went a whole day and night without food.

Outside, my sister smacked her lips over a bowl of rice. She sneered that I had brought it on myself. That would teach me to boss her around.

Mother took Old Sun to see Widow Liu. Knowing that I was friendly with her, they decided she must have tricked me out of the money.

Widow Liu had a fierce temper. That very day, she brought a stool to our gate and began a tirade that went on for three days, declaring she would have nothing more to do with our family.

Coward that she was, Mother didn’t dare answer a word.

She even sent Old Sun out with a cup of tea, asking Widow Liu to remember that we were neighbors and preserve a little dignity.

Widow Liu sneered. What respectable person lived off her own daughter? Master Jiang had been a scholar. Was it right to send his beloved eldest daughter, already betrothed, to become a concubine?

She drew out the words and raised her voice. Clearly, she meant me to hear the warning.

So that explained why, after a day or two, they had started giving me a meal.

This was what they had in mind.

Mother’s face went red. “Master Su means to take her as an honorable, high-ranking concubine. Besides, Ah Miao’s… arrangement doesn’t really count as a betrothal.”

She added that my childhood sweetheart’s promise had only been a childhood joke. He had spent all these years in the north without a word. Was she supposed to let a careless remark ruin my whole life?

Widow Liu cursed even more viciously. If Mother had money now from selling her daughter, what right did she have to accuse anyone else of stealing it? Accusations required proof. If she kept spouting nonsense, Widow Liu would hang herself from our gate that very night.

Listening from the woodshed, I understood every word of the lively exchange outside.

When it finally ended, Mother came in and asked me,

“Will you marry nicely, or will you… obey and marry?”

“The family has no other way,” she said. “We’ve gone the whole year without proper white rice, making do with mixed coarse grain and ordinary rice. Winter is coming, and we can’t even afford a new padded coat. Almost everything worth pawning is gone. But we must live with dignity. Ah Miao, I can see that Master Su truly likes you. He’s asked about you several times and promises to treat you well. I’m doing this for your sake.”

Even now, she was thinking of appearances.

“Father’s mourning period isn’t over,” I said.

“What matters in filial duty is sincerity. Once you agree, the rest can be arranged.”

Arranged how? By secretly becoming his unacknowledged mistress for more than two years first, of course.

I raised my red, swollen hands to wipe the blood from my bruised mouth. “Why don’t you untie me first? Then I might believe you mean me well.”