Chapter 1

The serial rapist who had terrorized Jiangnan had become the personal guard of Princess Pingyao, from the Marquis of Anguo’s household.

I saw him with my own eyes.

He had taken off his mask, revealing handsome features, and changed into a guard’s uniform. Now he followed the princess with impeccable decorum, every movement deferential.

Nothing like the insolent, leering man he had been that night.

“After a night with me, would your sister still want that sickly scholar?”

“Who knows how many women would give anything to climb into my bed? Your sister should count herself lucky I took her.”

“Little beauty, why are you chasing me so relentlessly? Do you want a turn too?”

We had heard that Princess Pingyao, visiting from the capital, was kindhearted and approachable, a woman who listened to reason.

Still ill, Father took me to kneel before her and beg for justice for my sister.

“Please don’t worry, sir. I will make sure this is put right.”

The princess helped Father to his feet herself, then stroked my head, her face full of sympathy and distress.

The townspeople around us praised her sense of justice. I, too, was filled with hope. Perhaps she would live up to her reputation.

But her idea of putting things right was to marry my sister to the man who had raped her.

“Ah Qing has promised me he’ll change. Since your daughter’s engagement has fallen through anyway, why not let the two of them marry?”

She clasped her hands, all innocent delight. “How could this be anything but a match made in heaven?”

The rapist, whose name was Xu Qing, made no attempt to hide his disgust. He gave Father and me a contemptuous look.

“Don’t let this family deceive you, Your Highness. I left twenty taels of silver as compensation, and they accepted it.”

“This was settled long ago. Now that they see me working for you, they’ve come crawling back. It makes me sick.”

Fury overcame me. “Liar! We never took your twenty taels!”

“My sister was about to be married! You cost her that marriage, made my father ill and my mother cry herself blind. Now you’ve turned yourself into the princess’s guard, and you say we’re trying to drag you into something?”

“I spit on you! A vile, shameless lecher like you isn’t fit to carry my sister’s shoes!”

Xu Qing’s face darkened at once. “You little bitch. Say that again—”

“Ah Qing!”

At the princess’s sharp rebuke, the malice vanished from his face. He flushed, looking almost hurt and embarrassed.

“Your Highness, don’t listen to her nonsense. That happened ages ago. What do her parents’ illnesses have to do with me?”

The princess gave him a reproachful glance, then turned to me with displeasure. “What an ill-bred girl you are. I am trying to find your sister a good husband, and you stand here spewing abuse.”

Seething, I ignored Father’s attempts to stop me. “He’s a shameless rapist with no decency at all! Who knows how many innocent women he’s harmed, how many families he’s ruined? You were born to privilege, Your Highness, and the people’s taxes support you. Shouldn’t you seek justice for those women? Why do you disregard the law to protect a man who deserves to be cut to pieces?”

Xu Qing looked ready to kill me. The princess flushed with mortification and anger. “How dare you!”

Father was shaking all over, tugging desperately at me from behind. I ignored him and glared at Xu Qing.

Perhaps she felt she had lost face. The princess rose and came over to reason with me. “I know your sister has suffered. It is only natural that you resent it.”

“But Ah Qing isn’t bad at heart.”

She glanced at Xu Qing with helpless regret. “He only made a mistake because he briefly lost his way.”

His expression brightened instantly. Tears even glimmered in his eyes; he seemed deeply moved.

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Yet worse was still to come.

Anger crept into the princess’s face. “No one is perfect. Who has never made a mistake? He has admitted he was wrong. You should stop hounding him!”

“Your Highness—”

I tried to argue, but Father suddenly clapped a hand over my mouth and pressed me hard against his chest. “Please forgive her, Your Highness. My daughter has lost her senses. She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”

“You are right, Your Highness. No one is perfect. Who has never made a mistake? I have been foolish.”

Her face cleared at once. With a generous wave of her hand, she said, “Never mind. She is only anxious to protect her sister.”

“If you object so strongly to my arrangement, I won’t force you.”

She lifted her chin and added, in the tone of someone bestowing alms, “I grant you fifty taels of gold. Go somewhere else and make a good life for yourselves.”

Father took me out of the princess’s temporary residence, thanking her over and over. As we left, Xu Qing’s expression had become calm again. He gave me a fleeting glance, then turned away with a broad smile to flatter her.

Before I could work out what that look meant, Father pulled me so hard I stumbled.

He hurried me home and sent me to pack the moment we arrived.

Hearing us, Mother felt her way out of the bedroom along the wall. “Husband, what’s happened? Won’t the princess give Lan justice?”

Father did not try to hide his misery. His brows drew together, and he let out a heavy sigh. “There’s no place for us in Yangzhou anymore. We’re going back to our hometown.”

Mother’s eyes could shed no more tears. A broken moan escaped her. “My poor Lan…”

Resentment and hatred swelled in me. Father seemed to see straight through me. He gripped my shoulders and looked hard into my eyes. “Keeping the family alive comes first. As long as we’re alive, we may yet have our revenge.”

I jolted. Suddenly I remembered Xu Qing’s look as we left, and the unmistakable devotion and delight in his eyes whenever he looked at the princess.

He was the sort to avenge the smallest slight. After I had abused him in front of her, he must already hate me.

He was her personal guard now, and she clearly liked him. My family were ordinary people. Making us disappear would be all too easy.

Dread closed around me. Swallowing my hatred, I hurried to pack our things.

There was no time for more talk. By the time Father brought back the hired carriage, I had packed everything and helped Mother and my sister inside.

One blow after another had fallen on my sister since the assault. She had been bedridden for days, barely aware of her surroundings. Mother and I huddled beside her, not daring even to cry.

Still sick, Father forced himself to drive without stopping. Only when we passed through Yangzhou’s gates did some of the weight lift from my chest.

We dared not stay at a posting station. After dark, Father found a secluded spot where we could rest.

Mother settled down to sleep with my sister. I slipped out of the carriage. “Father, teach me to drive tomorrow. You’re not well yet. I’m afraid you won’t hold out if you keep pushing yourself like this.”

His face had been drawn with exhaustion and worry, but his brow smoothed the moment he saw me. “All right. My Yang is growing up. Such a thoughtful girl.”

My eyes filled at once. “Father, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so reckless in front of the princess.”

The moment she proposed marrying my sister to Xu Qing, I should have realized Princess Pingyao was nothing like her reputation. She would never give us justice.

Instead, I had let anger carry me away and spoken the truth without considering the consequences. I had offended the princess and made Xu Qing hate our family.

“It isn’t your fault.”

Father seemed to have aged more than ten years in a single day. He sighed. “That’s the world we live in. We’re ordinary people. How can we stand against a marquis’s household?”

My heart ached, and I burned with indignation. Father looked up and smiled kindly. “Go to sleep. I’ll teach you tomorrow. Once we’re home, we’ll live as we did before.”

Holding on to that hope, I went back into the carriage and lay down.

But when I lifted the curtain the next morning, it was not Father’s broad, kindly smile that greeted me. His face was utterly bloodless.

He was still leaning against the tree just as he had the night before. Only now a gash two fingers wide cut across his throat. The flesh gaped, exposing pale bone.

Xu Qing dropped lightly from the tree, smiling with insolent amusement. “Run. Why have you stopped?”