Chapter 2

The broker who bought us was a middle-aged woman everyone called Fifth Madam. Her face was cold, and so was her heart.

One girl in our room said she was hungry. Fifth Madam answered with her whip.

“What are you whining about? Do you think this is the imperial throne room? Behave yourselves!”

Backward barbs lined the lash. One stroke tore the girl’s skin open and left her streaming blood. Its metallic smell spread through the room. Everyone fell silent and stayed that way until deep into the night.

At last the wooden door opened, and a servant boy brought food.

The room divided neatly in two. The older girls on the left received bowls of watery rice gruel. The younger children on the right got steamed buns and flatbread.

One girl looked over the rim of her gruel with naked envy. She seemed about to ask why, but remembered the whip and shut her mouth.

I squeezed the bun in my hand, certain something was wrong.

Human brokers did business for profit. Once Fifth Madam had paid for us, every bite we ate came from her purse. I did not believe she had suddenly grown kind.

When no one was watching, I slipped a sliver of silver into the servant boy’s palm. A faint cloud pattern still showed on its surface. It had once been part of a longevity lock Father had commissioned for my first birthday.

Back then, before opium, his peddling business had kept us comfortable, and he had sincerely wished me a long life. Later he sold everything of value, but Mother hid the lock well. She cut it apart with shears, piece by piece, until only this corner remained.

The boy’s expression softened as he closed his fingers around it.

Near midnight, after everyone had fallen asleep, someone came for me. I settled Yaer and followed him out.

Sure enough, Fifth Madam was waiting in the courtyard.

The moment she saw me, she sneered. “You have nerve, girl. I’ve traded people for years, but I’ve never seen a child sold by her own father come running to put more silver in her broker’s pocket.”

“Tell me. What do you want?”

I answered with a question. “Are you planning to sell Yaer and me to the human-meat market?”

Fifth Madam glanced sideways at me, surprised. “A little thing like you knows about that place?”

“Of course. At the market east of the city, two-legged sheep are priced by weight and age. Grown men and the elderly are cheap, no more than twenty copper cash a catty. Women and children fetch up to fifty.”

I lifted my eyes. When she said nothing, I continued.

“Yaer and I are young, so the price per catty is high, but our bodies are small. Even if you make the trip, you will earn no more than a tael. And you will carry the deaths of two living children on your conscience. It hardly seems worthwhile.”

Fifth Madam laughed. “I’m a human broker. You think I fear a little blood on my hands?”

“Of course not.” I lowered my gaze and poured her tea, letting temptation soften my voice. “But if you keep us, I promise we can earn you ten times what you paid.”

“Wouldn’t you like to see if I’m right?”