Chapter 1
The servants found my mother’s body the following morning.
She lay at the bottom of the swimming pool, visible through the clear water.
It took a great deal of effort to bring her up. A huge stone had been tied to her body.
They laid her beside the pool.
Her plain white dress was crumpled and stained with blood.
Burns, lash marks, and the wounds left by ropes covered her body.
The water had soaked her wounds until the torn flesh gaped and blurred together. The sight was horrifying.
I saw her from a distance, turned, and flung myself into the arms of my wet nurse, Chen Qiuhua.
She patted my back. “Don’t be frightened, miss. That’s your mother.”
“She’s not my mother!” I sobbed in distress.
“I don’t want such a frightening mother! You’re my mother!”
Chen Qiuhua smiled gently. “All right, all right. Be a good girl. No more crying.”
She carried me away, saying as she walked:
“What a tragedy. To tie a stone that heavy to herself—she must have been determined to die.”
Over Chen Qiuhua’s shoulder, I stared at my mother lying motionless on the ground.
How could someone so delicate and beautiful turn into a mass of rotting flesh in the blink of an eye?
Only last night, she had given me a sweet kiss.
The hazy lamplight had outlined her graceful figure as she bent over me. For the first time ever, she pressed a goodnight kiss to my cheek.
It was the first time I had seen a light in her beautiful, lifeless eyes.
And the first time my mother had kissed me.
She switched off the lamp and left. I was too happy to sleep.
In the middle of the night, I dimly heard a woman sobbing outside my door, trying to hold it in.
She sounded like Mother.
I climbed out of bed barefoot and followed the sound along the dark corridor toward Grandfather’s bedroom.
To my surprise, Father stood at the door. He had only returned from overseas that day.
“Fu Rong…” Mother’s trembling voice came through the crack.
“Help me…”
In the darkness, Father’s back was rigid. I thought he was about to lose control of his anger.
But he merely raised his hand, slowly, and quietly locked the door.
…
I was six that year.
The same age Mother had been when my grandfather, Fu Zhenguo, brought her home from the orphanage.
That year, I did not understand what Grandfather and Father had done to her.
But I knew she was dead.
The only person in the world who loved me was gone.
Suddenly, the Fu estate was full of construction crews.
Chen Qiuhua said that the pool where Mother had died was to become a flower bed. Grandfather had ordered it.
She also said every pond and hollow on the estate would be filled in. Across its roughly sixteen acres of grounds, not a single pool deeper than an ankle would remain.
I was only six. When I heard that Grandpa was putting in a flower bed, I could not help looking pleased.
Chen Qiuhua tapped my nose and asked with a smile:
“Your mother’s gone, just like that. She was the young mistress of the Fu family, yet she isn’t even getting a funeral.”
“No coffin, no grave. Soon nobody will remember her.”
“Aren’t you sad at all?”
With an innocent face, I asked:
“Why should I be?”
“You raised me, Auntie Chen. I don’t consider that madwoman my mother.”
Mother was mad.
I had heard the servants say it more than once. Chen Qiuhua among them.
Mother was six when the tycoon Fu Zhenguo picked her out at first sight and brought her home to be raised as a bride for his son.
At sixteen, she married his third son, Fu Rong. Two years later, he left to study in France.
After that, Mother began to lose her mind.
By day, she tended flowers, read, and brewed tea. Her beauty seemed too ethereal for this world; another glance at her could leave you breathless.
At nightfall, she became a different person.
She wept, raged, and smashed things for no reason.
Once, I tried to approach her. She pointed a knife at me and screamed:
“You filthy thing! Stay away! Get out!”
Nobody could subdue the young mistress in one of her fits—except the head of the Fu family, Fu Zhenguo.
When Grandfather came home late from an engagement, he would carry the distraught woman into his bedroom.
The door would close, and stay closed all night…
I did not know how Grandfather “comforted” her. All I knew was that by morning, she was unnaturally docile again.
It happened over and over. Day after day.
Then, not long ago, a letter arrived announcing Father’s return. Her madness suddenly vanished. She came alive again.
She waited a whole month before he finally appeared, dressed in a Western suit.
Her savior had come home. Her fate had not changed.
After dinner that night, Grandfather still led her into his bedroom—in front of Father, me, and all the servants.
That night, helpless, she asked Father to save her.
His indifference extinguished her hope of living.
And so her short life came to its abrupt end.
Fu Zhenguo was renovating the grounds for one reason: to bury her remains right where they were.
They meant to cover up her death.
How could I let them?
While everyone was busy, I secretly told Li Xiao to slip out and report it to the police.
Li Xiao was a servant’s son, my own age. He came and went freely; nobody would notice him.
I waited at home, sick with anxiety.
Toward dusk, the police really came. Even the chief was there.
They brought Li Xiao before Father, his hands bound behind his back.
Father shook the chief’s hand courteously. “The boy needs discipline. He made a false report. I’m sorry for the trouble, Chief Sun.”
Li Xiao struggled and shouted defiantly:
“It wasn’t false! Our young mistress is dead! I saw her myself!”
“You little bastard!”
Fu Rong kicked him, then took a thick wad of banknotes from the inside pocket of his suit.
Chief Sun accepted it, his eyes disappearing into his grin.
“No trouble at all, Mr. Fu. Anything else you need dealt with, just say the word.”
A young officer suddenly spoke up. “Sir, I noticed some suspicious traces near the pool. May I investigate?”
“Have you lost your mind?” Chief Sun rapped him hard on the head. “Do you know whose estate this is? You can’t go searching it at will!”
Hidden behind a beaded curtain, I watched the whole exchange between wealth and official power. And I remembered the young officer’s face.
As they were about to get into their car, I ran outside and smilingly offered Chief Sun some sweets.
“Uncle, you look so impressive! Father brought these chocolates from France. Have some.”
Fu Rong patted my head approvingly. Chief Sun happily took the chocolate.
The young officer stared at me for a few seconds, then pulled me aside and asked gravely:
“You’re the Fu family’s granddaughter, aren’t you? Did something happen to your mother?”
His eyes were so bright they frightened me.
I grinned up at him. “Have a sweet, Uncle.”