Chapter 2
I must have frightened her.
Stammering, she told us everything that had happened with the third man.
She had arranged to visit a mountain temple with Gu Nianzhang to pray to Guanyin.
What she had never expected was that Song Qingyuan would be there that day as well.
Both men in the same temple! However much there was to see, she dared not go inside.
She had slipped out through the back gate, intending to take a small path down the mountain.
That one decision had brought her face-to-face with a man whose whole body burned with heat. He seized her wrist, covered her mouth, and carried her forcibly into a room.
Afterward, he asked her name.
Terrified, she gave him our middle sister’s.
He chuckled. “I’ll come to your house to ask for your hand another day.”
Then he fell asleep.
She dressed and stumbled home.
She did not know who he was or what he did. She could barely believe he would actually be able to find her.
Yet he had not only found our house, but sent a marriage proposal as well.
How could she dare marry someone so vile?
“I was so scared. I didn’t want it. He forced me.”
“You can tell he’s a bad man just by looking at him. He looks so fierce. Who knows what bandit den he crawled out of?”
“Father, Mother, save me. I won’t marry him.”
“Let Second Sister go. Once she’s wearing the bridal veil, no one will recognize her.”
“I’ll marry Gu Nianzhang, Eldest Sister can marry Song Qingyuan, and Second Sister can marry that man. It’s settled.”
“Father, Mother, please say yes.”
She pleaded and pestered them without reason.
It had always worked before.
Today, however, our parents finally showed a little humanity.
“Nonsense! That man has already hurt you. How can you send your second sister to be hurt as well?”
“We’ll refuse the proposal. Never mention this again.”
“What we need now is a way to hide the fact that you’ve lost your virginity!”
“How could Gu Nianzhang possibly want you? This is absurd!”
They were frantic. Father beat his chest and stamped his feet; Mother pressed a hand over her heart.
Our youngest sister shrieked.
“We can’t refuse! What if he starts talking? Gu will get suspicious.”
“I have a plan. I’ll marry Gu first. On the wedding night, Second Sister can slip in and sleep with him.”
“Then she can marry the third man. He knows I’m no virgin.”
“He wasn’t in his right mind that afternoon. He may not have seen my face clearly. It was already dark when he asked my name.”
“He won’t be able to tell us apart. We can fool him, as long as Second Sister helps me.”
“Second Sister, please. Please save me.”
She had always seemed thoughtless, carefree, incapable of scheming.
Yet in the space of an instant, she had devised all this.
She had freed herself of every consequence and arranged our lives down to the last detail.
I had underestimated her.
And our parents hesitated.
Their uncertain eyes turned to my other sister. Their lips opened and closed. They said nothing, but their meaning was clear.
She could no longer hide.
She stared at her parents and her own sister, unable to believe such vicious words could come from their mouths.
She trembled, shaking with rage, yet could not utter a word.
Worse still, before her mouth could form any protest, the tears began to fall.
An icy chill spread through me. I rose slowly, pushed past our parents, hauled our youngest sister up from her tearful pleading on the floor, and slapped her hard across the face.
“What beast has crawled inside you?”
“Your own survival is all you care about. Whether we live or die means nothing to you.”
“What are your second sister and I to you?”
“Why should you force the men you don’t want onto us?”
“Who do you think you are, deciding every part of our lives?”