Return to the Nest - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was thirteen when I was brought back to the Marquis’s residence. At that age, I had already gone out to sea fishing with my father for seven years.

The sea is rough, and the slightest lapse in attention can cost you your life.

My father’s life was swallowed up by it, his body never recovered.

But people like us never really insisted on a proper burial.

Father always said, if you lived off fish your whole life, ending up in a fish’s belly was just the way of heaven. This life’s debts were settled, and when you were reborn, you wouldn’t have to repay them.

Like all South Sea folk, Father liked to speak lightly of heavy things.

The day he died, everyone gathered on the beach and lit a fire, burning our boat.

That way, the spirit wouldn’t be trapped in the water, nor would it return to trouble the living.

As for me-I was thirteen, an orphan.

By custom, the clan would help me build a new boat.

It was the day the new boat was finished that the people from the Marquis’s residence arrived.

The moment they saw me, some gasped, while others dropped to their knees and began to weep.

Yun Bian said with certainty, “They’ve come to find you. Xiao Jiang, you’ve struck it rich.”

Yun Bian was an oddity in the South Sea.

He was afraid of the water, never dared go out to sea, and instead frequented the market to the east, doing a bit of trade in white flour and pork. He knew quite a lot about the outside world.

This sort of thing he knew about; in the storybooks it was called Magpie Returning to the Nest-two birds lay their eggs in the wrong nest, and once the chicks are grown, they swap them back.

I just stood there, stunned. Yun Bian tapped my forehead. “It means the man who fished in the sea wasn’t your real father. The Marquis Meng’en in the capital-he’s your real father!”

I said, “Ridiculous.”

Yun Bian shook his head and went back to carving the coconut shell he planned to sell at the noon market.

“Thing is with this Magpie Returning to the Nest,” he said, “there’s always a cuckoo left in the nest. That’s how the plays always go. Xiao Jiang, you need to be careful.”

I honestly had no idea how to be careful. I asked the people from the Marquis’s residence, “If I go with you and find I can’t get used to it, can I come back?”

The matron in red said, “Everything will be just perfect. How could you fail to get used to it?”

The matron in blue tugged at her sleeve, then said, “You were raised here, and this place has done the Marquis’s residence a kindness. If you wish to return, no one will stop you.”

The sun glaring off the white sand was so bright, the matrons squinted uncomfortably. I asked, “Is all this true? Is my mother… truly waiting for me at the Marquis’s residence?”

My only memory of Mother was a sensation of warmth.

She would pick me up, spin me around, and hum a song, her face a blur. I swayed and swayed, so much so that the first time I went on a boat I wasn’t dizzy at all-I sank into the remembered ripples of water, the boat my cradle.

Could I really have a mother again?

The matrons assured me it was true. The one in blue said, “Young Miss, everything is waiting for you at the Marquis’s residence.”

Thirteen was a curious age. Heaven took everything away from me and gave me something entirely new in return. I made up my mind and left the new boat with Yun Bian. When it was time to leave, everyone came to see me off.

“Xiao Jiang, when will you come back?”

“Xiao Jiang, the farther north you go, the colder it gets. Don’t catch cold!”

“Xiao Jiang, when you arrive, make sure to send word!”

The cart wheels rolled across the sand, and gradually I could no longer hear my people, nor could I see the sea.

In all my life, this was the first time I journeyed so far from the sight of the sea. It was as if I truly were a fledgling magpie, returning north with the migrating birds, back to the nest.