Chapter 2

The young master had scarcely walked anywhere on his own feet before. That day, however, he staggered down Vermilion Bird Avenue and out of the city. At the mass grave, he fell among the corpses and dragged himself up again and again, following the crows until he found the proprietor and his family.

He called for his father, then his mother, and kowtowed before each of their bodies.

At last, he unwound the ribbon from his hair and tied it to a tree.

I threw myself at him and tore the noose apart.

He tumbled to the ground, shoved me away, and tried to tie it again.

But how could he match my strength? I dragged him away while he struck me again and again. The tears he had choked down all the way there finally shattered his voice.

“Why did you save me? Why?”

“Who are you? Do I even know you? What business is it of yours whether I live or die?”

I heaved him onto my back and walked toward the city one gritted step at a time.

Who was I?

I was the beggar girl who had asked for food at his family’s back door and eaten their rice for thirteen years.

For nine years, I had listened to him recite his lessons—from “At birth, people are naturally good” to the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, a book whose words I could not understand at all.

I had watched him grow, begin his schooling, study, and leave each morning for the academy.

I knew his birthday. I knew he loved company, preferred sweets, could not bear spicy food, and stood outside the restaurant every Laba Festival to give away eight-treasure porridge.

But he had never once looked at me.

Who was I?

I wiped my tears with one filthy hand.

I was the misfortune bearer from his first-birthday choosing ceremony.

The Cheng family’s ancestral home was in Fengquan, a place rich in local customs. One held that a sickly infant must be given a grand first-birthday ceremony. A misfortune bearer would kneel before the little master and let the child gently kick them three times.

The first kick drove away poverty.

The second drove away illness.

The third kept disaster away for a lifetime and brought nothing but fortune.

That day, Proprietor Cheng had stood outside his doors and shouted, “I need a misfortune bearer! Let my son kick you three times, and I’ll pay ten taels of silver!”

Most of the beggar children had never heard the term and only stared. Pa, however, knew all manner of things. He hurriedly shoved me forward.

“Tofu, quickly! Kowtow to the young master!”

I dropped to my knees on the stone steps before Tianxiang House and found myself facing the young master’s soft, pale feet.

I did not remember how much those two kicks hurt. I had been too little then, not old enough to understand anything.

After two kicks, the young master burst into tears. Proprietor Cheng had no choice but to say that was enough and ask the nursemaid to carry him inside.

But if I could return to that day, I would make him kick me hard one more time and complete all three blessings.

Then perhaps disaster would have stayed far from him, and he would not have suffered the agony of losing his entire family.

I hitched him higher on my back and said through my tears, “You don’t have to know me, Young Master. It’s enough that I know you.”