Chapter 1

When the Yang family found me, I was in a ruined temple, fighting a stray dog over a rat’s carcass.

A cat had caught the rat. Then the dog had killed the cat.

If I could just kill the dog, I would have three kinds of meat to eat.

That was an even finer feast than the scraps I could fight for behind the restaurants at New Year.

I swallowed and glared fiercely at the scrawny dog.

Just then, someone called from behind me. “Miss Lai? Are you Miss Lainiang?”

Who ever called filthy, bedraggled beggars like us “Miss”? The voice was so gentle that I faltered, and the skinny dog lunged at me.

Resigned, I waited for its teeth to sink into my arm, for that piercing pain.

But a long leg shot out and kicked the dog away. The man seized my arm anxiously. “Did it bite you? Are you hurt anywhere? Come, I’ll take you to a doctor.”

Those handsome eyes were intent on checking me for injuries, as though he could not smell my sour clothes or see my greasy, lice-ridden hair.

No one treated a beggar without disgust unless there was something to gain.

I knocked his hand away and eyed him warily. “Who are you? What do you want?”

His eyes reddened at once. “I—I’m your elder brother. Your own brother. I’ve come to take you home.”

I gave a scornful laugh. “Can’t you kidnappers fool children anymore? You’ve started on beggars?”

Seeing that I did not believe him, he took a document from inside his robe and said earnestly, “This is my travel permit. My name is Yang Wentong. I live in the capital, and I’m the heir to the Marquis of Jing’an. You may not believe me, but surely you can trust an official document.”

A marquis’s household in the capital. It sounded like a place where I could eat my fill. Still, I only shook my head. “I can’t read.”

If you never let yourself dream, waking would not hurt.

Yang Wentong really did begin to cry then. “We’ve failed you. You’ve suffered so much, all alone out here. Come to the street with me. Choose any shop you like and ask the shopkeeper to read it for you.”

My eyes lit up. Whether I would have enough to eat in the future, I could not say, but today, I certainly would.

I stopped arguing and led him straight into Drunken Spring Restaurant.

It was the biggest restaurant in Huai City. Even its slops were finer than anyone else’s; beggars like us were never allowed near them.

A waiter barked at me to get out. But the moment the proprietor saw the paper in Yang Wentong’s hand, he bent so low with fear that he could scarcely have bowed any farther.

Then I knew this man was even more important than I had thought. Not even Huai City’s magistrate could command such deference at Drunken Spring.

In a spacious private room, I gripped a plump chicken in my left hand and a pork hock in my right, wishing I could cram a lifetime’s worth of meat into my belly.

Yang Wentong only watched me, his eyes filled with a deep, deep sorrow.

When I had eaten my fill, he spoke as though coaxing a child. I was his sister, born of the same mother, the marquis’s only daughter.

Misfortune had befallen the household. When I was born, a treacherous servant had stolen me away.

For seventeen years, he and our parents had been looking for me. This year, when they finally received definite news, he had dropped everything and traveled all that way to find me.

I listened without a word. My throat seemed clogged with meat. Only after a long while did I ask quietly, “Seventeen years. How can you be sure it’s me? What if it isn’t?”

He clasped my grease-covered hand. “I knew the moment I saw you. It has to be you. Come to the capital with me. Even if we’re wrong, our household will help you find a livelihood.”

Looking into those eager eyes, I slowly nodded.

It turned out that when a dream was set right in front of you, no one could resist reaching for it.