Chapter 5

Of course Granny would not admit she was taking me to the Zhangs.

That would have been far too disgraceful.

Seeing Wang protect me like his own child, she faltered. Then she said, “Where have you been? Why have you only come back now? I thought you didn’t want the child anymore.”

Wang said nothing. His grip on my hand tightened a little. I could smell dust on him.

He looked as though he had just returned from a journey.

“Well, do you still want her?”

Wang turned, taking me with him, and walked steadily out of the lane.

That was his answer.

He brought me home.

We had barely entered when Auntie Zhao rushed in from next door.

Seeing me safe and sound, she patted her chest and let out a relieved breath.

“When I took you over yesterday, I thought that even if your mother had gone, you were still Li family blood. Surely your grandparents would look after you. I never imagined…”

“Thank goodness I overheard that old witch talking to a servant from Master Zhang’s house today. Otherwise, who knows what might have happened!”

Auntie Zhao was outspoken. The words poured out of her.

Zhao Si poked his head around the door. “Xiangzhi, if your granny really wants to sell you, why not sell you to us? My mother has been wanting a daughter…”

Before he could finish, Auntie Zhao shot him a furious look. “You little rascal! Go home and do your lessons!”

Wang glanced at her and took a sheet of paper from his bundle.

It was covered in writing and looked like a contract.

Zhao Si darted over, held it toward the sun, and skimmed it. Then he grinned.

“Li Xiangzhi, your dad’s sending you to school!”

“You little rascal, what nonsense are you talking?”

“I’m not making it up, Mother. Look, it even has the school’s seal!”

Auntie Zhao leaned in. Sure enough, there was a red seal.

Startled, she asked Wang, “Are you really sending Xiangzhi to school?”

He nodded and signed, “The tuition is paid. She’s going.”

Only then did I understand. He had spent those missing days making arrangements for my schooling.

Qingyun Lane had once produced a clerk of the lower ninth rank. It was a very minor post, but her family made barrels for a living. For them, it was as fine a future as they could have hoped for.

So girls going to school was hardly unheard of in these parts.

But ordinary people struggled just to fill their stomachs. Few families would stake their hopes on a daughter.

There were not many girls in our lane who went to school.

Among all the girls who did not, I had never stood out.

I had never imagined that Wang’s quiet disappearance would turn out to be for something so momentous.

Auntie Zhao sighed and counted on her fingers. “Two taels a year in tuition. Even with my fabric shop, that’s a strain. You only earn twenty copper coins for a wooden table. How can you afford it?”

Wang brushed the dust from the hem of his clothes and signed, “As long as I have hands, I can earn a living.”

Auntie Zhao said no more.

The paper said I was to enroll in three days. She took me to her shop to make a carrier for my books.

I looked at that document, my heart pounding.

“Auntie Zhao, why does Wang suddenly want to send me to school?”

The scissors cut crisply through the cloth. Her voice was low and heavy.

“It was something I let slip the other day. I said Chen Qinghe had become an official in the capital. Now that your mother has gone with him, once she’s settled, she might come back to make trouble for you. That’s what gave him the idea.”

Auntie Zhao put down her sewing and turned me to face her. Slowly and clearly, she said, “He wants you to study hard and make something of yourself. Then, even if those parents of yours come looking for revenge, you’ll be able to stand up to them.”

“Everything he’s planned is for you, Xiangzhi. He deserves to be called your dad.”

I pressed my lips together and lowered my head.