Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was a hunter’s daughter. When I was ten, my mother gave birth to a son, and my parents sold me to a brothel keeper.

“Go with Madam Xiu,” they told me. “You’ll have meat every day!”

The madam stroked my smiling face and said I was as lovely as carved jade. She promised to train me well.

The moment my parents left, her smile vanished. She became another person, beating and kicking me until I agreed to learn singing and dancing.

I refused. She ordered the prostitutes to join in, and together they beat me until my skin split open.

On the brothel’s busiest night, I barred every door and window and set the place on fire. More than twenty people died.

I was born with a sweet, smiling face, and I learned to make good use of it. By day, I knelt at the roadside and begged every passing lord and lady to take me in.

The county magistrate’s wife pitied a child like me and brought me home. Once the dirt was washed from my face, she discovered that I resembled her daughter who had died young. Overjoyed, she adopted me and gave me fine clothes and rich food.

Just when I thought I had finally found a good life, I had my first monthly bleeding. Madam ordered me to bathe, then locked me in the magistrate’s room.

He stripped naked and told me I was going to bear his children.

One quick thrust of my knife mangled the two ounces of flesh between his legs.

His screaming was dreadful. It annoyed me so much that while he clutched himself and howled, I cut his throat and ran.

I learned something then: no one was kind without wanting something in return. No one would truly love you except yourself.

Then I met Miss Jiang.

Jiang Wanning was famous for her charity. On the second and seventh days of every ten-day period, she handed out steamed buns outside the temple. Those buns kept me alive.

During the plum rains, I fell too ill to walk and missed her almsgiving twice in a row. I lay beneath an eave waiting to die when an umbrella suddenly tilted over me and shielded me from the drizzle.

“I haven’t seen you for days. So you’ve been sick.”

Jiang Wanning had noticed my absence. Realizing something must have happened, she searched the entire city for me. Her eyes were red when she finally found me.

She took me back to the Jiang residence, had me treated, and let me stay.

My own parents had sold me. I did not believe anyone could be naturally good.

By then, ruthlessness had become second nature.

I was not afraid to remain with the Jiang family. If she ever sold me or offered me to some man, I would simply kill her.

But almost ten years passed, and she remained as unmarked as a sheet of white paper. No matter how many monsters wore human faces in this world, she greeted them all with the same innocent heart.

Master and Madam Jiang had protected their cherished daughter too well. She knew nothing of human malice and had remained foolish year after year.

So foolish that when a strange scholar arrived with a supposed love token, she assumed he had mistaken her for someone else.

“Scholar Zhang, you must have the wrong person. Think how heartbroken the lady you truly love would be if she heard of this.”

She even offered to help him find the woman.

I was with Miss every day. I knew better than anyone whether she had secretly taken a lover.

His so-called token was nothing more than a handkerchief that could be bought at any roadside stall. Someone had embroidered the character Jiang on it, but it had never belonged to her.

Scholar Zhang clearly meant to force Master Jiang’s hand and marry himself into a wealthy family.

Yet Miss accused me of thinking too poorly of people. She tapped my forehead.

“People are good by nature. Perhaps the lady truly resembles me, and Scholar Zhang made an honest mistake. He may not mean us any harm.”

I smiled and put on the vacant expression of a fool being taught a lesson.

The scholar tipped his head up. Lust and smug triumph glimmered in his eyes as his gaze crawled over her.

Master and Madam Jiang went livid. They cursed him and had him thrown out.

The next day, he made his desperate gamble. He stood outside the gate shouting about their supposed affair until everyone in the neighborhood heard.

Gossip erupted, and Miss sank into misery.

If the rumors drove her to death, no one would treat me well anymore. I would be forced back into hardship.

I had no choice but to remove the problem for her.

I had been ruthless since childhood. Dealing with Scholar Zhang was easy.

He was dead, but Master and Madam Jiang remained anxious. They feared the rumor would reach the Zhongyong Marquis Estate and require an unpleasant explanation.

One day, Miss and I returned from distributing alms. A servant hurried over to announce that someone had come from the marquis estate.