Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It was freezing cold, yet my father was drenched in sweat. “What sin did I commit to deserve this… Ah Yu, do you even realize you killed someone?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t mean to kill him. I was just angry that he pushed Ah Yun down, so I wanted to scare him a little. Who knew he was so weak? Father…”

I asked him, “Was his mother that weak too?”

My father seemed stumped by the question. He paced back and forth in the room. “No, no. We can’t stay here!”

As if he had finally forced himself to make a decision, he spoke in a rush. “Quick, quick, quick. Pack our things. We’re leaving!”

I didn’t move. “Where are we going?”

He had been frantic a moment ago, but at that, he froze.

The nearby villages were all suffering from famine. The closest town might still have some grain left, but even if we went there, none of it would end up in our mouths.

No matter where we went, we’d still be going hungry from one meal to the next. Where could we go?

My father fell silent for a long while. In the end, he glared at me and lowered his voice. “Then remember this. No one came to our house today. Do you hear me?”

I nodded obediently.

Outside, the sky had begun to lighten, hazy with mist. For once, it wasn’t snowing.

Someone knocked on the courtyard gate.

My father nearly tripped over a chair. “Who is it?”

“Old Xia!” It was Uncle Lin’s voice from next door. “It’s me. Hurry up. The Zhou Family is here giving alms. Their porridge shed is almost set up already! Why aren’t you heading to town to line up?”

My father wiped the cold sweat from his brow. “All right, all right. I’m coming!”

I poked my head out the window to look. Uncle Lin called to me, “Ah Yu, you’re up early.”

I smiled sweetly. “Good morning, Uncle Lin.”

“Stay home and watch your sister like a good girl. I’ll be back soon.” Before leaving, my father turned back to warn me, his gaze sweeping meaningfully toward the rear courtyard. “Don’t wander around.”

I grabbed his sleeve. “Father, let me go with you. If they see there are three of us, maybe they’ll give us a little more.”

He frowned and said nothing.

I added, “Everyone in the village is going right now. If we don’t go soon, there won’t be anything left to get!”

In the end, he compromised. “Fine. Then carry your sister and stay close to me. No running off!”

Zhuyang Town was not large, but the famine had not reached it.

That was because there was a famous Buddhist temple in town, Yunzhou Temple, where incense offerings burned year-round and worshippers came without end. It even attracted noble families from the capital to pay their respects.

Among them was the Zhou Family Uncle Lin had mentioned-Madam Zhou of the General’s Mansion.

She had been widowed for many years and had supported the vast General’s Mansion on her own. She had once had a son and a daughter.

Unfortunately, the Zhou Family’s youngest daughter had been unlucky. Frail since childhood, she had barely lived to the age of nine before a chill took her life.

She had died on the way to Yunzhou Temple to worship Buddha.

After that, Madam Zhou offered everlasting lamps at Yunzhou Temple for both her daughter and her husband, and every year on her daughter’s death anniversary, she would come here.

Each year, she stayed for half a month, and for that entire half month, she gave out porridge.

All the beggar children and displaced refugees nearby knew this. So every year at this time, once the Zhou Family’s porridge shed was put up, the line would stretch far down the road each day.

For several days in a row, my father brought me here to receive porridge. At first, he was still uneasy whenever he left the house. But after three peaceful days passed, he relaxed. When we went out again, he no longer hesitated.

I held Ah Yun and huddled among the beggar children, watching the Zhou Family’s people bustle about from afar.

The wind lifted a corner of the cloth curtain on the shed, and I recognized the embroidered pattern on it.

In my last life, at the brothel, I had seen it many times.

The Zhou Family’s only remaining son was named Zhou You. In my previous life, he always wore a sachet at his waist, one his mother had embroidered for him by hand. It bore the same pattern.

Back then, he had been one of my patrons.

And now, Zhou You, only fifteen or sixteen years old, was standing dutifully beside his mother, helping her distribute porridge and grain.

My gaze skimmed over his face and settled on Madam Zhou.

In the memories I had of her from my past life, her legs had been somewhat impaired.

“One year… when I was sixteen, I think, I went to Yunzhou Temple to pay respects to my sister. An earthquake hit that town, and one of the collapsing sheds crushed her leg.”

Zhou You’s voice from my previous life echoed in my mind. “I told her long ago to move the memorial tablets back. There are so many temples in the capital. Couldn’t she place them in any one of those? But she refused. She insisted Yunzhou Temple was efficacious and traveled all that way every year. In the end, she injured her leg because of it. She just wouldn’t listen.”

At the time, I had been a woman scraping by in the pleasure quarters, selling smiles for a living. I had heard plenty of idle gossip from these sons of noble families. When he spoke casually, I listened quietly, then offered a few soft words of comfort at just the right moment.

Now, every word he had said came back to me, clearer than it had ever been in my previous life.

The line waiting for porridge surged with people. Everyone was excited and anxious, shoving forward.

My father didn’t dare force his way through the crowd, so even after a long while, we had barely moved a few steps.

In the end, I stuffed Ah Yun into his arms and slipped into a gap between the people.

As I squeezed forward, I kept lifting my head to look.

Zhou You was maintaining order in front of another line, some distance away.

The wind had already stopped.

But the curtain at the corner of the shed began to sway slightly.

Then even the porridge pot before me started to shake.

“The ground… the ground is moving!”

Someone shouted.

In an instant, the crowd dissolved into chaos.

I looked back just in time to see my father running away with Ah Yun in his arms.

He ran so quickly. In just a few strides, he had burst out of the crowd without looking back.

I smiled soundlessly.

“Mother!”

I heard Zhou You’s voice. He was trying to force his way through the chaotic crowd before him to get back to this side.

Madam Zhou was only a step away from me.

The moment the porridge shed collapsed, I threw myself toward her.