Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I couldn’t escape.

No one noticed that on all those identical fishtails, the fish was missing from the exact same spot.

Just as no one noticed the identical nail marks on those pieces of silver.

And no one noticed the faint bloodstains on the expensive jewelry I conjured.

All living beings were busy. The gods covered their ears.

The Yu Family’s business grew worse and worse, their storefronts closing one after another.

My father’s shops opened one after another.

There were more and more jars underground, and more and more guards and hired thugs outside.

We moved again, into an even larger estate.

Third Brother disliked studying and couldn’t read accounts, so his sole duty was to watch me. He locked me inside the new estate, deep in the rear courtyard, in a hidden compartment.

A space just large enough for one person to lie down and sit up.

My father alone kept the tripod cauldron.

That way, no one could hoard the wealth for themselves.

Third Brother was obsessed with the younger of the Twin Courtesans at Red Sleeve House, Hua Niang. Though Father would not allow him to marry her, he often secretly brought Hua Niang back to the estate.

Separated from them by a single wall, I gradually came to understand what they were doing.

I only found it disgusting. Every time, Hua Niang would beg him to let her stay, even if only as a concubine. He always agreed offhandedly, saying he would marry her once he had saved enough money, then made her do those disgusting things for him.

Day after day, he put it off.

Hua Niang grew angry and whined at him, asking if he had another woman.

Third Brother said, “How could I? In this house, there are only those dozens of guards outside on ordinary days. There isn’t even an old maidservant here.”

Women of Kunzhou did not marry away, nor did they go out to work, and they were rarely sold.

The only ones who could show their faces in public were those inside Red Sleeve House.

“How could there be none? My lord is rich and handsome. Is there truly no woman in this estate? I don’t believe it.”

Hua Niang huffed and stamped her foot, her jet-black eyes darting everywhere. “If I find her, I will definitely drive that vixen away! Believe me or not… I will drive her away. Say you’ll let me, my lord. Say yes?”

Third Brother groaned as he grabbed her and kept her from moving. “I believe you, I believe you! Fine, fine! Whatever you want!”

I felt my chance had come.

The passage had been reinforced with extra layers, but they were all made of mud brick.

Occasionally, I heard rats.

They needed a bit of bait.

Father and Third Brother never gave me meat, nor did they ever let me eat my fill.

They said they were afraid I would “make trouble once I was full” and “think too much if I ate too much.”

Once, when I had the chance to get my hands on the Fortune Cauldron, I bit a chunk of flesh from my arm and threw it in.

The fresh blood and meat that poured out attracted rats.

They squeaked and chittered in the corner. At last, the hole in the earthen wall grew larger and larger. After some time, a small opening broke through the compartment.

But by then, Third Brother had grown tired of Hua Niang.

He no longer brought her over.

In spring, my father finally got his wish. After registering with the Yu Family, he used thirty shops to obtain one of the Yu Family’s beautiful daughters. I heard that the Yu Family’s business had declined and their days had grown difficult, and that the young lady had taken the initiative to seduce him.

My father was immensely pleased with himself, strutting about with his nose in the air.

A banquet was laid out in the estate.

My father had never been so extravagant before. He drank a great deal of wine.

He even invited the best singers and dancers from Red Sleeve House.

Hua Niang also came to add to the festivities. Third Brother drank a great deal as well.

Behind the screen, they carried on obscenely.

Third Brother grew more smug by the moment. “Didn’t you say back then that you couldn’t tolerate any other woman? Then why did you just have your own sister come up and play with me too? And then you came running after me yourself. Speaking of which, you Kunzhou women… all taste the same. Even the one in my house-”

Realizing he had misspoken, he shut his mouth.

Hua Niang extended a red-painted fingernail and tapped it against his chest, lifting her head with a smile. “So my lord truly is hiding another lady? Why not bring her out?”

Third Brother brushed her off. After who knew how long, his snores began to rise.

I pierced through the thin layer over the hole and tossed a copper coin out through the crack in the wall.

Clink.

Then a piece of silver.

Then a piece of gold.

Step by step, Hua Niang walked over the gold and silver toward me.