Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My father caught some eels and brought them home.

I clamped my mouth shut and refused to eat.

I had seen the river drifters before.

When they were finally dragged ashore, their bellies were full of things like that.

My three older brothers ate with relish. Their clothes were in tatters, and the three ribs on each of them stood out clearly, just like the dead wild dogs outside.

After they finished, they said they were still hungry.

But the pot had already been scraped clean. There was nothing left.

Outside, even the trees had turned yellow. The bark had been stripped from the elm trees.

I staggered over to Aunt Li’s house. Aunt Li had six children. Five were still there, but Little Six, who had given me porridge before, was gone today.

Their whole family’s eyes were red as they sat around the table, eating a jar of porridge.

I watched from outside for a while, then was just about to turn and slowly head home.

But Aunt Li, who had always been mean and stingy, suddenly called out to me. “Ah Yu, come here.”

She scooped me a spoonful of porridge.

Everyone at the table looked at me.

I was a little scared.

Aunt Li said, “Don’t be afraid. Eat. This… Little Six told me to save you a mouthful.”

I asked, “Where’s Brother Liuzi? Why isn’t he here?”

Aunt Li said nothing. The look on her face suddenly made me too afraid to ask any more.

The spoon was brought to my mouth. Such a fragrant spoonful.

I opened my mouth wide and caught it, holding that one mouthful in my cheeks, then ran home.

It smelled so good, that mouthful of porridge.

I had never eaten anything so delicious. It was like sun-gold clouds wrapped around flower nectar, like fish soup stewed until it had almost lost its shape.

As if, should I walk even a little too slowly, it would jump like a rabbit from my mouth and tongue straight down into my belly.

I reached the doorway.

The door was left ajar, and the house was a mess.

My mother was leaning against the wall. She had been beaten again, and the cuts on her face had split open again.

I ran to her.

She was so, so thin, so thin her eyes had sunk deep into her face.

My mother had not eaten anything in a very long time. When Father and my brothers finished eating, she would not eat what was left. She gave it to me instead.

I took her hand and patted it clean.

When Mother woke, I lowered my head and spat the mouthful of porridge into her palm.

“Mother, eat. Eat, please. This is the porridge Little Six saved for me-” I swallowed hard and licked my lips. “It’s really tasty.”

My mother stared at the porridge, then suddenly began to cry.

That night, after my father came home,

my mother sent me and my three brothers outside, saying she had something to tell him.

We pressed ourselves against the door and listened.

My mother spoke of her background.

She said she was the daughter of a wealthy family in a neighboring prefecture near Xiajiangkou. She wanted my father or one of my brothers to go back with her, and said they would certainly be able to exchange for a great deal of grain.

My father did not believe her. But my mother straightened her back, her bearing proper and dignified. She truly was not like the people around us.

She told him the secrets of the richest Yu Family, the people involved, and the generational characters in their genealogy.

My father believed her. He was both shocked and overjoyed, but he did not dare go himself. He was afraid that once he reached the Yu Family, they would be furious that he had taken advantage of her misfortune and beat him to death. Even more than that, he feared my mother would go and never return.

He insisted on keeping me by his side.

My mother said she would definitely return within a month, and told my father over and over that he must not sell me to the human market.

She left with my eldest brother.

A month passed, and my mother still had not come back.

The sun outside grew even harsher. The riverbed had cracked into pieces.

Two more of Aunt Li’s younger sons disappeared as well. Then, at last, one day, Aunt Li disappeared too.

Every day, the smell of meat hung outside.

Everyone said meat smelled good, but all I could smell everywhere was rot.

Then, on the very night my father was sharpening his knife at home, my mother actually came back.

She had withered until she barely looked human, as if a single breath could blow her over.

She came back alone. The moment she reached home, Father slammed the door shut.

He did not bother asking about my eldest brother. His eyes fixed on my mother’s back.

My mother took off her outer robe. Her whole body was covered in blood.

There was a hole in her belly too, stabbed clean through from the back.

Her feet were wooden blocks, braced against her bloody stumps as she had walked all the way back like that.

I had never seen such a strange tripod cauldron before.

It was clearly made of bronze, yet it was extremely light.

“Take it. With this, you won’t go hungry. Don’t sell Ah Yu.”

My father thought my mother was making a fool of him. Furious, he grabbed me by the neck.

Just then, my mother suddenly smiled in a strange way.

She reached inside and grabbed. The inside was packed full and bulging. With one tug, out came a snow-white leg.

With another tug, out came another.

She stopped pulling. Instead, she tore off a strip of cloth from her clothes and tossed the rag inside.

An identical piece of cloth came out.

“If it were a chicken, a chicken would come out too. But this tripod cauldron… only members of my family can use it.”

My father was so happy he nearly went mad.

My second brother threw in a piece of steamed bun he had hidden away.

Nothing happened.

My second brother told me to take it and throw it in again.

Sure enough, a whole pile poured out.

They cheered and laughed, then ate and ate with all their might.

I hurriedly grabbed some too and tried to feed it to Mother.

But she could no longer eat.

“This is called the Ghost Cauldron,” my mother said at the end. “Once you use it, you will be cursed for life.”

My father grinned so widely his mouth would not close. “What ghost? This is a Fortune Cauldron! Only people blessed with fortune can use it. I knew it. My wife is blessed, and my daughter is blessed too.”

They circled the tripod cauldron again and again, muttering about taking the Zhang family’s heirloom and the Li family’s silver hairpin to try next.

None of them noticed that before my mother breathed her last, she said one final thing to me.