Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The year I turn seven, it rains for more than two straight months, from the beginning of spring until Qingming.
The river bursts its banks, flooding countless fields and homes.
For the safety of the entire county, the magistrate decides that we will make sacrifices to the River God every year at the Dragon Boat Festival and the Winter Solstice.
“His Honor is only thinking of the people of Lin County. As long as we offer our sacrifices faithfully each year, the River God will surely bless our county with favorable weather and abundant harvests,” the bailiff posting the notice tells the crowd gathered around him.
The old storyteller studies the proclamation for a long time before sighing.
“I thought we would only be offering the River God chickens, ducks, fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables. I never imagined the offering would be a person.”
“What a terrible sin. A terrible sin.”
“But the chosen girl’s family will receive five taels of silver and two sacks of rice. That is enough to feed a family for years.”
“True. Being chosen to serve the River God is a blessing too.”
“You can say that, but it is still a human life.”
The villagers debate the proclamation all afternoon.
That evening, I go home and tell my parents. Father says nothing.
Staring into the dim oil lamp, Mother merely says, “What a pity.”
In the blink of an eye, the Dragon Boat Festival arrives, and the magistrate holds the first ceremony honoring the River God.
The adults say that, in the interest of fairness, the magistrate has chosen his own daughter for the first sacrifice.
When word spreads, everyone crowds onto the riverbank to watch.
By the time I duck between the adults and squeeze my way to the front, the magistrate’s daughter has already been bound tightly.
Stones hang from her wrists and ankles, and she sits sideways on a little raft made of bamboo.
The raft carries more than just the magistrate’s daughter. There is also a whole pig’s head, two chickens, and two ducks, along with more fruit and vegetables than I ever get to eat.
“His Honor truly is a good official. He is even willing to sacrifice his own daughter for us.”
“Exactly. If even the magistrate is willing to do this, what could ordinary people like us possibly object to?”
“I heard he even donated the five taels of silver and two sacks of rice owed to him to the temple.”
Everyone on the bank praises the magistrate as a good official, but my eyes remain fixed on the raft drifting farther and farther away.
It is held together by a single strand of grass rope. It will not be long before the raft falls apart.
I have been able to breathe freely underwater since I was little. My brother pushed me into the river several times, but I was never harmed.
My parents say I am too blessed to drown, so they send me to catch fish and shrimp every day.
But the fish and shrimp are my friends. I do not want to hurt them.
I once tried to tell my parents my secret, but my elder sister stopped me.
“Yuniang, promise me. You must never tell anyone this secret!”
There was something strange in her eyes.
I did not understand. “Not even Father and Mother?”
They were the people closest to me in the whole world.
“Not even them. If you tell them, people will take you away.”
“They will cut open your belly to see whether you are a monster.”
My sister frightened me so badly that I clamped my mouth shut and did not dare move for a long time.
When I was six, she married. Not long afterward, she became pregnant.
I waited eagerly to become an aunt, only for my parents to tell me that the baby had been too large for her to deliver and she had died.
I secretly went to see her on the day of her funeral. Her face and arms were covered in wounds.
“Your sister was useless. She managed to lose her life just giving birth.”
“And now we have to return half the bride-price!”
Whenever my parents spoke of her, their faces were full of disappointment.
From that day on, I was the only person who knew I could breathe underwater.