The Fish Seller and the Prodigal Lord - Chapter 1

I dragged my father into court.

He accused me of trying to kill him. I accused him of selling his daughter.

The magistrate brought his sounding block down hard. “Yu Yu! Trying to kill your father is a crime against your own blood. To bring charges against him is unfilial. You’ve managed two of the Ten Abominations, and you still dare come to court yourself?”

I gave my father a cold look. He was all skin and bone, with sunken eyes. “Your Honor says I’ve killed my father. Is Old Yu missing so much as a scrap of flesh?”

“Old Yu,” the magistrate asked, “have you been injured?”

Father pointed at the back of my waist. “The knife’s still there! That unfilial girl was holding it against my throat just now!”

I pulled the knife from my belt and held out the gleaming blade for the magistrate to see. “Your Honor, I sell fish in the south market. Ever since my father took to gambling and drove my mother to her grave, I’ve been on my own. I make my living selling and gutting fish. I know I shouldn’t have brought a knife into court, but this old beast drove me to it.”

The clerk beside him couldn’t stifle a laugh. Father started shouting. “Who are you calling an old beast?”

The magistrate asked another question. “Old Yu, your daughter says you’re addicted to gambling and sold her to pay your debts. Is that true?”

“I’m wronged, Your Honor! This unfilial girl does nothing but vex me. All I did was find her a husband. Once she’s married off, I’ll have some peace and quiet and one less thing to worry about.”

“Third Master Yuan is as old as you! Is that what you call finding me a husband?”

“Do you know how many people would give anything to get in with the Yuans? So what if he’s a little older? Older men know how to cherish a woman. If Third Master Yuan hadn’t taken a fancy to you, do you think a shrew like you could ever marry into that family?”

“I’ve got hands and feet. Who needs them?”

“Yu Yu, your mother sold fish, and now you sell fish. Marry a fish seller and it’ll be fish selling for generation after generation!”

“Don’t you talk about my mother! Old Yu, she supported this whole family selling fish. She never owed you a thing. You gambled away everything we had, and she sold fish to pay it back. What right have you to sneer at her? What’s wrong with selling fish? We don’t steal, we don’t rob, and we don’t gamble. But you? Too lazy to work and too stubborn to die! You’re a stinking bug. No, worse than a bug. You’re a bloodsucking leech! My mother was a good woman, and you ruined her whole life. What right have you to speak of her?”

Thinking of Mother hurt so much that tears streamed down my face. Once you start crying, you lose your force. Father only grew bolder.

“Your mother? Lucky for her she’s dead, or I’d have sold her too!”

“Old Yu! I’ll kill you!”

I lunged at him and seized his collar. Just as the fish knife in my hand was about to stab down, a bailiff swung his heavy staff at me. I raised my arm to block it, but it was Father who howled in pain.

The bailiff kicked the fallen knife out of reach. “Behave yourselves in court.”

“Your Honor, you saw that! That unfilial girl drew a knife to murder me!”

The magistrate frowned at me. “Yu Yu, what were you holding just now?”

I blinked and glanced in the direction the knife had flown. “I… I wasn’t holding anything.”

Down came the sounding block.

“Old Yu, have you made enough trouble yet?”