Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I had meant to use those five hundred gold beads to buy a house, then rent a few shops with whatever was left. That way, when I married, I would have a generous dowry, and Xiao Mei and I would live much easier lives from then on.

Who could have known that in the blink of an eye, Xiao Mei would be gone, and so would the gold beads?

It was easy to imagine that if I lingered here any longer, not only would I fail to find Xiao Mei, I might not even be able to protect myself.

But to leave just like this-I truly could not resign myself to it.

Xiao Luzi and I hid in the carriage. Only after night had fully fallen did we sneak out and use the last few coins we had on us to buy bean cakes to eat.

Two streets away from the Governor’s Mansion, many common folk sat by the roadside, chatting after a day of labor. I covered my face with a cloth and quietly went forward to ask, “Good elders, have any of you seen the Governor’s Mansion carry in a new concubine these past few days?”

One of them lifted his eyelids. “Not sure about anyone carried in, but I’ve often seen them carried out…”

At that, my heart lurched, but I forced a smile onto my face. “Carried out? What do you mean by that?”

“The Heavenly Lord has no eyes!” the old man whispered to me. “The governor has a taste for pretty women, but that shrew of a wife of his is vicious! Young lady, don’t covet wealth and status. Be careful you don’t end up paying for it with your life!”

As he was speaking, the old men chatting nearby suddenly fell silent, their eyes all darting in the same direction.

I followed their gazes toward the Governor’s Mansion and saw several personal attendants coming out through a side gate. They were carrying a bamboo stretcher, its poles creaking as they walked. The cloth covering it was long and wide, nearly hanging to the ground, and beneath it I could just make out the shape of a person.

I wrapped the cloth around my head and face and trailed them from a distance. I watched as they carried the stretcher to the riverbank, lifted the cloth, shoved whatever was inside into the water, and then quickly left.

Once they were gone from sight, I hurriedly jumped into the water and groped my way toward the deeper part of the riverbed. “Xiao Mei!”

“Xiao Mei, I’ve come to find you!”

The sky stretched high and distant above me, a bleak gray. At some point, a fine drizzle had begun to fall, soaking my hair, my face, and the front of my clothes.

I bent over, feeling around in the waist-deep river. Several times I was tripped by slick waterweeds, and after swallowing a bellyful of filthy water, I finally touched the hem of the corpse’s clothing. I grabbed it at once and dragged it toward the bank.

But once the body was ashore, I did not dare look at the dead woman’s face. I could only kneel on the ground, weeping as I prayed.

“Heavenly Lord! I don’t want gold beads anymore. I don’t want a grand house. I don’t want to marry into a noble family!”

“I only beg you-give me back my Xiao Mei!”

The cold rain fell without a sound. The bitter wind blew mournfully.

Between heaven and earth, there were only dark clouds stretching into the distance and the vast haze of dusk. The river, carrying mud and sand in its current, flowed eastward amid the cries of apes, on and on toward some unknown end.