Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The day the news came that my father had died, Mother was washing clothes by the river.

It was the dead of winter, and shards of ice floated in the river. The water was cold enough to bite to the bone.

Grandmother wouldn’t let her use hot water. She said firewood was precious, not something a barren wretch who couldn’t give birth to a son had any right to waste.

I worked hard gathering extra firewood up in the mountains, but everything I brought back was used to keep Second Uncle’s brazier burning. If Mother and I used so much as one extra twig, Grandmother would beat us half to death and curse us for three days and nights.

I wanted to help, but Mother shooed me aside.

“It’s cold by the river. Nannan, go play over there. The sun reaches that spot. It’ll be a little warmer.”

Mother and I were dressed thinly. In the middle of winter, the only time we could feel a little warmth was when the sun came out at noon.

By the time the laundry was done and we returned home, Grandmother and the clan elders had already been waiting impatiently.

They were impatient, but none of them had gone to the river to look for us.

Grandmother had wanted to wait until my mother finished washing the day’s clothes.

“What took you so long to wash a few clothes? Who knows where you went fooling around. Shameless little slut. With Yong’an gone, who knows how wild your heart has become.”

As always, she berated her, then threw a bundle at her.

“The officials sent word. Yong’an was killed by the bad luck you brought him. Ever since he married you, my son never had a single good day. Now that Yong’an is gone, you’d better marry out at once. Don’t stay in our Zhao family and bring disaster on us.”

The bundle was very small. It held two of my mother’s ragged old garments.

Grandmother was in such a hurry that she didn’t seem the least bit saddened by my father’s death.

Anyone who didn’t know better would think it was the village’s old dog that had died.

Mother didn’t say anything. She only gripped my hand tightly.

“Mother, can I take Nannan with me?”

Mother didn’t show much grief either. All she worried about was me.

My grandmother glared, her brows bristling. “That depends on whether the hunter is willing to pay. A girl this old could fetch ten taels of silver if we sold her to a human trafficker.”

Mother’s grip on my hand tightened even more.

We both knew that as soon as Mother left, Grandmother would sell me. She wouldn’t keep me for even one more day.

Mother carried her bundle on her back and held tightly to my hand as Grandmother and the clan elders drove us to Hunter Zhang’s house.

He was at home sharpening a knife, the harsh scrape ringing again and again. One of his legs was broken and couldn’t bend, so he could only prop it off to the side, making his posture look terribly strange.

A scar ran across his face from below the corner of his left eye all the way to above the right corner of his mouth, as if it split his face in two. It made him look even more fierce.

I hid a little behind Mother.

Being here did not seem all that different from being at Grandmother’s house.

Hunter Zhang looked us over.

“You forced this woman on me for twenty taels of silver. That was already outrageous. Don’t even think about asking for anything else.”

He did not seem willing to marry my mother at all, let alone take me, a useless burden, along with her.

My grandmother raised her voice. “Back then, my Yong’an could be said to have saved you. Now that he’s gone, handing this worthless woman over to you is something you ought to be grateful for.

“This little slut has already set her heart on you. She wants to bring this dead girl along to be your daughter. You’re the lucky one, gaining a wife and daughter all at once. I’m not asking for much. Just another ten taels of silver.”

Many families only earned two or three taels of silver in an entire year. Ten taels could buy a mu of good farmland. It was a great deal of money.

I was not worth that much silver at all.

Hunter Zhang glanced at her again but said nothing.

The villagers all said he was a man of few words, but when he opened his eyes and looked at someone, he could scare them half to death.

Grandmother shoved Mother, nearly knocking her frail body to the ground.

Mother pulled me forward two steps, then dropped straight to her knees. “Zhang… Brother Zhang, my Nannan doesn’t eat much, and she can work. Please, could you give her a way to live?”

Only then did Hunter Zhang look over. He frowned at me, his gaze unreadable.

Mother tugged at me, and I fell to my knees with a thud as well.

“Call him,” she said.

I looked at Hunter Zhang, then at the vicious scar on his face. My lips trembled. “Father!”

Hunter Zhang froze. The scar on his face looked even more terrifying.

My grandmother kicked me hard in the back. “Your father only just died, and you’re already so eager to call another man father? You little slut. You’re just like that whore of a mother of yours, your heart turned toward outsiders long ago.”

She kicked me again and again. I lay on the ground without moving, not daring to fight back, not even daring to cry out.

It had always been like this for as long as I could remember. As long as I let her beat me until she was satisfied, she would eventually stop.

Mother crawled over, wanting to save me, but a clan elder kicked her aside.

It had always been this way in the Zhao family. Mother couldn’t save me, and she couldn’t save herself either.

“Enough!”

Hunter Zhang stood, went inside, and tossed out ten taels of silver.

“From now on, this girl is a child of my household.”