Chapter 2

The missing lotus mat sent the adults into a panic.

My eldest uncle and Dad both turned grave.

My aunt was too frightened to utter a word.

Mom looked at me in the corner.

“Chen Youlan, have you seen Grandma’s prayer mat?”

I shook my head.

The commotion woke my brother, who was still asleep.

He propped himself up.

“What prayer mat?”

“The one in Grandma’s shrine room.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

Mom coaxed him gently.

“That mat is very important. Without it, all of us will die. If you’ve seen it, you have to tell your auntie, understand?”

Only then did my brother raise his hand.

“Oh, I know. Yesterday I saw Big Sister cut it up with scissors and throw it in the pond.”

The moment Dad heard him,

he leaped into the pond with a splash.

My eldest uncle jumped in after him.

They searched all morning and found nothing.

Dad slapped me several times, then made me kneel in the ancestral hall.

“Tell me. Where did you throw it?”

“I didn’t throw it anywhere.”

“Think carefully. Did you throw it into the pond?”

My brother watched from the side, enjoying the show.

“It was the pond. I saw her throw it in with my own eyes.”

Mom slapped me too.

The blow was so hard that the taste of blood filled my mouth and my face swelled at once.

“Tell me. Was it the pond?”

I felt horribly wronged.

“It was him. My brother threw it into the pond.”

“It doesn’t matter who threw it. What matters is whether it’s in the pond.”

Mom put heavy emphasis on those last few words.

At last, I lowered my head.

“It’s in the pond.”

It was strange, when you thought about it.

Mom had given birth to me, yet she did not love me.

To be precise,

no one in my family loved me.

Mom and Dad both preferred my younger brother.

Even though he was not their biological son.

He was my eldest uncle’s son.

We had been born on the same day. He had even arrived a few minutes before me.

But to make it easier to care for him, my parents had simply forced me into the role of his older sister.

After I answered,

my eldest uncle and Dad plunged into the pond again.

The pond behind the old family home was not large.

It was so shallow that you could see the bottom at a glance.

Yet two grown men searched it for ages

and still could not find a thing.

A few minutes later,

the four adults surrounded me.

Dad looked as if he wanted to tear me apart.

He seized my hair and hauled my entire body off the floor.

“You little bitch. Tell me where you hid your grandmother’s prayer mat!”

I was terrified.

“I didn’t hide it. I saw him cut it up and throw it into the pond.”

Dad dug his nails into the flesh at the corner of my mouth.

“Still lying? I’ll rip that mouth of yours apart.”

“I’m not lying.”

After that, I lost count of how many times they hit me.

Night slowly fell.

Only then did I hear my aunt cry out,

“Found it! We found it!”