Chapter 4

Ah Hua survived, but she was crippled for life.

The madam found a slave broker she knew and sent her away.

“As long as she stays, she’ll be a thorn in Madam Liu’s heart.”

After that, everyone in the house was afraid of me. They looked at me as though they’d seen a ghost.

Before bed, my sister-in-law came back with a scratch on her face.

I asked what had happened. She lowered her head and wouldn’t say.

As I was falling asleep, I heard her muffled sobs. “Xiaoqiao, I’ve wronged you.”

I said nothing.

I didn’t know what to say.

She cried harder. “They said you should be sent away. They said you’d kill without blinking.”

I rolled over and looked at her, sitting by the bed, crying so hard she could barely breathe. “And then?”

“Madam said she’d only let you go if someone paid to redeem you.”

“Then she told everyone to behave. Don’t get ideas like Ah Hua’s, and don’t offend important people. Then they wouldn’t end up like her.”

I looked at the bright moon outside the window. It seemed so close.

But I couldn’t touch it.

I couldn’t leave this house.

The only way out was what the madam had said: save enough money to buy my freedom.

But there were rules in this trade. Even if I saved enough, I couldn’t redeem myself.

Someone had to be willing to take me.

Day after day, I watched customers of every kind, waiting for that person to appear.

Then, when I was nineteen, Lü Buyu came.

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sat in the garden with a group of scholars, reciting poetry and composing verse. He wore a blue-green robe and carried himself with quiet composure.

I couldn’t understand his poetry, but I could see the admiration on the others’ faces.

He must have been talented.

My sister-in-law stood beside me. She glanced at him. “He won’t do.”

“Xiaoqiao, if he passes the higher examinations, he’ll pretend he never knew you. No official would take a brothel girl as a concubine.”

I looked back at her. I knew she was trying to put an end to hopes I shouldn’t have.

“And how did I become a brothel girl?” I asked lightly.

Her hands went still. She said nothing.

That was the thing between us we could never reconcile.

She resented her fate, marrying into our family only to lose her husband and child. She had tried to sell me to get some money for herself, as though that might make up for something.

I hated her for selling me.

Yet because her dead husband was my brother, I couldn’t stop looking after her.

We had spent five years together at Yifang House in that uneasy way.

Five years was a long time. Long enough that I could hardly remember working in the fields.

I looked down at my hands, now fair and soft, then at the pretty face in the mirror. Suddenly, I felt I was looking at a stranger.

I looked at the moon outside and at those spirited young scholars, and suddenly remembered our two fen of land.

I wondered whether it was still there.

I remembered my brother saying he would buy another two fen.

Thinking of land steadied me. Apart from natural disasters, land was the most honest thing there was.

Water it, tend it, care for it, and it would repay your sweat and effort.

It made no distinction based on your looks, your standing, or your rank.

I lifted my skirts and went downstairs.

I wanted to go home. I missed our two fen of land.

“Miss Qiao is here,” someone said softly.

People often gathered in the garden, but I never went down.

The madam wanted me to maintain an air of reserve. The leading girl couldn’t be too eager. It lowered her price.

The scholars crowded around me. “What brings you out tonight, Miss Qiao? Have a drink with us.”

Smiling, I took a cup of wine and looked around. My gaze settled on Lü Buyu.

He stared at me for a long time before remembering himself. “My name is Lü Buyu.”

I nodded and curved my lips into a smile, gentle and enticing. I was certain it would stir him.

I had practiced that smile in the mirror countless times.

He lowered his head, but his ears had gone red.

That night, he came to my room.

Sitting at the table, he stammered, “I fell for you the moment I saw you.”

We did not make love that night.

I danced, and he recited poetry. Moonlight spilled into the room, soft and cool.

It was the most peaceful, comfortable night I had spent since entering Yifang House.