The Fish Seller and the Prodigal Lord - Chapter 2

The magistrate scolded us for quarreling and making trouble over nothing, then drove us out.

An even larger crowd had gathered outside the court. Most were neighbors who’d watched me grow up. Plenty called my father heartless, and more still pitied me.

Father was so dizzy with all the abuse that he blamed every bit of his humiliation on me. He jabbed a finger at my nose. “I’ve accepted Third Master Yuan’s betrothal money, and I’m not giving it back. Yu Yu, you’ll marry him whether you like it or not!”

I eyed him coldly. “Then tell the Yuans to get ready. Once I’m through their door, they’ll be arranging a funeral. Mine or Third Master Yuan’s.”

“Ungrateful wretch! Do you know who Third Master Yuan is? You dare cross him?”

Oh, I knew who he was. The local tyrant. Well into his fifties, with six concubines.

I’d already pushed out of the crowd. Ahead of me, layers of distant hills lay behind the dim mist veiling the setting sun. The sky was so vast, and a person so small. Despair at my own fate left me cold inside.

I wiped my tears away and turned back. “Does anyone need a woman in his house? I’ll work like an ox or a horse for him.”

Not only did no one answer, several men who met my eyes took a small step back.

My birth might have been lowly, but I was pretty. Before this business with Third Master Yuan, plenty of young men had tried to flirt with me. One was even a licensed scholar.

Father laughed behind me. “Lost your wits, have you? Who’d make an enemy of Third Master Yuan for you?”

I thought I was rather laughable myself.

Then laughter came from behind the crowd, languid and faintly mocking.

The wall of people parted. I stared as a man approached carrying a birdcage. His face was as lovely as a hibiscus, his eyes bright as stars. A single stalk of bamboo, neither too much nor too little, was embroidered in gold on his black robe. The slight smile on his lips made him look arrogant and frivolous.

Birdcage in his left hand, Buddhist prayer beads in his right, he drawled, “My household has no shortage of oxen and horses. As it happens, it could use a woman.”

“Isn’t that Second Master Rong?”

“It certainly is.”

People were already laughing in anticipation of a show. Few dared oppose Third Master Yuan, but the Rongs were far more powerful than the Yuans. That absurd question of mine had reached exactly the right person.

What amused them was that, in escaping an old rogue, I’d landed myself a young one.

Even three-year-olds in Jincheng knew the reputation of Rong the Second, that wastrel.

I’d heard how overbearing Rong Ruo was, how unreasonable and outrageous, how he wasted his days in brothels and gambling houses without a thought for his future. Yet this same Rong the Second was as beautiful as moonlight. For a moment, I could only stare.

He stopped in front of me and examined me closely, a teasing warmth like spring sunshine in his long, upturned eyes.

Father’s bluster vanished. He hunched like a shrimp and put on a shameless smile. “Second Master Rong, this… this is my daughter, Yu Yu. She’s already promised to the Yuans. A daughter can’t be sold twice. No, I mean, married twice. You see… you see…”

“Old Yu, how much did you sell her for? I’ll double it.”

Father’s eyes lit up. He held out an open hand.

Rong Ruo turned to the servant behind him. “Take him to the bank for a note worth a hundred taels.”

Then he looked at me again, his thin lips slowly curving.

“You’re mine.”