Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Afterward, fearing delay would bring trouble, Granny Wang sold me off as quickly as she could.

I was resold to a Yang household in the capital. By coincidence, its mistress was the sister of the high official I had encountered that day.

She originally bought me as a concubine for her elder brother.

But her brother, thirty-eight and still without wife or child, refused. With no other use for me, Lady Xia kept me as a maid.

Lady Xia had only one daughter, nicknamed Pearl, whom she treasured like the apple of her eye. Pearl had no siblings. Seeing that I was her age, she asked her mother for me.

Lady Xia could deny her nothing, so my master changed once again.

Pearl was almost fifteen. We shared a birthday, and she had long been planning her celebration.

“First I will visit Uncle’s house and eat a vegetarian meal with Grandmother. Once I make her happy, she and Uncle will give me heaps of rare treasures. Last year I received an entire box of rubies this big!”

She tipped up her chin and happily showed me their size with her hands.

I gave her a perfunctory smile and bent to comb her hair.

Without warning, she grew angry and slapped my hand away, complaining that I had hurt her.

I covered the reddening back of my hand and stood silently. Her temper was as changeable as Lady Xia’s. Only her youth made her rages less terrifying.

What could enrage a spoiled girl of fifteen?

I could not have guessed for anyone else, but I understood Pearl.

She was in love-with the son of Minister Wei. She called him an “immortal young lord” and said that whenever he appeared at a polo match or flower-viewing banquet, everyone else seemed to fade until only he remained radiant.

Yet the immortal young lord never saw Pearl. No matter how often they met, the next time he encountered her he would smile apologetically and ask, “And this young lady is…?”

Pearl was furious.

She came home smashing things and beating servants. She had surprising strength and struck people like the crazed men of Sha County. She had learned Lady Xia’s foul tongue too, with an endless store of slurs for women.

She relied on me more than any other maid, and she beat me more than any other.

Once, she even stroked my face in a trance and said she wished she could trade skins with me.

I knew she would be unable to tolerate me one day. Lately I had racked my brains for a way to obtain my indenture and leave the household.

Before the opportunity came, bad news arrived.

Pearl had gone mad with longing for Young Lord Wei. At last she devised a plan.

“Yes, exactly. Meet him under my name. He is certain to fall for you!”

A dark flame burned in Pearl’s eyes as her nails dug into my arm.

“Once he loves you, he will want you. And if he wants you, he will have to marry me first!”

I shook my head, trying to bring her to her senses. “Young Mistress, that is deception. It won’t win his heart.”

Pearl scoffed. “What use is his heart? Does Father truly love Mother? No. He is only afraid of Uncle-so afraid he doesn’t even dare father a bastard.”

Still smiling, she stared at me.

“Your devotion to me is false too. You fear Mother and me, because one word from us can decide your whole life.”

“Fear is all I need.”

She threatened to sell me to a brothel if I refused.

I listened in a cold daze.

So girls were not all like Ah Chou and me.

Mother had told me girls did not hurt people.

That, too, had been a lie.