Chapter 3
"My mother named me A Yu."
Wen Yu was trapped in a nightmare.
Her lips were parched and her throat felt as if filled with lead from the fever. The whip marks on her back burned fiercely, the pain spreading to every nerve in her body, forcing sweat to bead at her temples.
In the dream, a blizzard blotted out the sky. The gates of Luodu City were breached by rebel forces, the chaotic sound of hooves mingled with the cries of women and children as flames devoured the houses along the streets.
"By the general’s order! A hundred gold coins to anyone who captures Hanyang Princess, daughter of Changlian Wang!"
The shouts were savage and piercing. Illuminated by the firelight were faces twisted with greed, like beasts cloaked in human skin.
And she stood right in the middle of Shenwu Avenue, engulfed in flames.
Run!
Run, now!
Her fingers clenched until they turned white, but her entire body seemed nailed to the spot, unable to take a single step. She could only watch helplessly as countless indistinct hands reached out to grab her.
She wanted to scream, but no sound escaped her throat. Finally breaking free from the paralysis, she fled without looking back into the pitch-black, endless night behind her.
Barefoot, she had only run a few steps in the icy snow when she was struck hard by a whip and thrown to the ground.
The pain was sharp and bone-deep, so real it felt unlike a dream.
Wen Yu lay half-collapsed on the ground in agony. Turning her head, she saw the human trafficker striding toward her through the snowstorm, a glossy whip in hand, sneering, "Run? Go on, run!"
As he raised the whip to strike again, the fear that had accumulated in Wen Yu’s heart finally transformed into a surge of defiance. With a guttural roar, she lunged at the trafficker like a cornered beast—
Clang!—A sharp sound of something shattering came from outside the room.
Wen Yu’s eyes snapped open from the nightmare. Her hair and back were drenched in sweat, as if she had just been pulled out of water. Gasping for breath, she stared up at the patched bed canopy above her.
Outside, a man’s deep voice spoke: "I’ll clean it up. You’re not well—go back to your room and rest. Why trouble yourself with this?"
"That girl has been feverish for a day and a night, unconscious and not waking. I was afraid she might not make it. I thought if I brought a bowl of hot broth from the kitchen and forced some down her throat, she might pull through," replied a kindly woman’s voice.
Wen Yu slowed her breathing, her awareness gradually returning as her mind cleared.
She weakly surveyed the simple but tidy room, and her anxious heart settled back into place.
Yes, she was still alive.
The human trafficker had handed her over to the old woman. For now, she was safe.
The conversation outside continued.
"If she dies, she dies. At least we’ll save on medicine. That scoundrel Chen Lai Zi—I was kind enough to let him off, giving him two days to gather the silver, and he had the nerve to deceive you! He used a mortgage note, pretending it was a deed of sale, and pawned off someone he’d beaten half to death, claiming he was giving you a maid. When I find him, I’ll break both his legs!"
"I’m sorry to have caused you trouble, son, but that girl truly is pitiful. A life is a life, after all. Let’s try to get some broth into her and see if she makes it through the night."
"Fine. You go rest. I’ll take care of the broth. That Chen Lai Zi lies through his teeth—he said she had hives, but who knows what she really has? You’d better stay out of that room from now on."
The woman seemed to agree, coughing as she returned to her room.Wen Yu could tell from the rogue's unfriendly tone and the steady footsteps approaching the door, so she quickly closed her eyes again, feigning sleep.
The thick wind-blocking curtain at the doorway was lifted, allowing the daylight from outside to pour in.
Not daring to push the act so far as to let him force-feed her the ginger soup, Wen Yu fluttered her eyelashes and half-opened her eyes, pretending to have just woken up.
"Awake?"
Xiao Li hung the door curtain on a hook nearby and, holding an earthenware bowl, strode into the room with his long legs.
His tall frame made the already cramped room feel even more confined, and the air seemed to carry the chill of wind and snow from his presence.
His dark eyes, when they fixed on someone, resembled a hawk eyeing its prey, making it hard for anyone to meet his gaze.
Seeing him enter, Wen Yu dared not remain lying down. She tried to prop herself up, but the movement tugged at the whip wounds on her back, instantly draining the color from her face with pain. Still, she gritted her teeth and managed to sit halfway up, letting out a few low coughs through her chapped lips.
She hastily raised a hand to cover her mouth. Though disheveled, she retained the ingrained poise etched into her bones.
Xiao Li showed no intention of approaching. At her state, he cast a glance her way, his expression unreadable in the dim backlight.
He set the earthenware bowl of ginger soup on a square table near the bed, then stepped back and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "Since you're awake, drink the ginger soup. I have questions for you."
Now dependent on others and having overheard his earlier words outside, Wen Yu feared he might vent his pent-up anger on her. Seeing his relatively mild demeanor now, she obediently picked up the bowl and took small sips of the ginger soup.
Having been unconscious for a day and a night without a single grain of rice, and punished with two missed meals by the traffickers for her earlier escape attempt, she had been too weak to feel hunger before. But as the soup warmed her throat, she realized her stomach was already twisted in agonizing hunger.
She gulped down a few mouthfuls hastily, but perhaps her stomach, long empty, was irritated by the pungent ginger. A wave of nausea surged, and she leaned over the bedside and vomited.
Xiao Li's expression darkened genuinely this time. He glared disapprovingly at the figure retching over the bed, nearly bringing up bile. "Are you really determined to die in my room?"
Wen Yu's mouth was filled with the spicy taste of ginger and the bitterness of stomach acid, tears welling in the corners of her eyes from the strain. At the word "die," her fingers turned white as she gripped the edge of the bed, insisting, "I won't die."
With that, she picked up the bowl and drained the ginger soup in one go. Setting the bowl down, she bent over the bedside, coughing uncontrollably.
Xiao Li frowned slightly. This was the second time he had witnessed that fierce determination in this woman.
He had seen many who clung to life fearfully, but it was the first time he encountered someone who repeatedly summoned such ferocity purely for survival.
His dark eyes silently watched the frail woman who seemed as if a gust of wind could knock her over, waiting for her coughing to subside before saying, "That's best. It'd be bad luck to have someone die in my house during the New Year."
Wen Yu kept her head half-lowered, her shoulders tense, and remained silent.
Xiao Li continued staring at her, "Chen Lai Zi used you to pay off his debt to me. Did you know that?"
Uncertain of his intent, Wen Yu nodded silently.
Xiao Li said, "That scoundrel still owes the gambling house thirty taels of silver and has fled to another region. I don't keep idle people in my house. Since he claimed he was giving you to my mother as a maid, until he redeems you, you are a servant of the Xiao family."Wen Yu tightened her grip on the quilt and said, "I come from a respectable family, not from a servant class. I was captured and brought here while fleeing from disaster..."
Xiao Li lifted his eyelids slightly: "How you ended up in Chen Lai Zi's hands has nothing to do with me. All I know is that he owed me money, deceived my mother, and used you as compensation."
His appearance was striking, and when he stared directly at someone while speaking, he shed his usual frivolous demeanor, his gaze becoming sharp and intimidating.
Yet Wen Yu detected another meaning in his words. Pretending to be frightened, she lowered her head and asked hoarsely, "I will never forget the kindness of the old madam's pity and shelter, but if I repay the silver Chen Lai Zi owes you, could you let me go?"
Thirty taels of silver was no small sum—an ordinary family might not save that much even after eight or ten years.
Xiao Li thought she was daydreaming and sneered, "Fine. If you can repay those thirty taels for Chen Lai Zi, I'll let you go immediately."
Wen Yu chose to ignore the sarcasm in his tone and thanked him sincerely.
After days of bewildered escape, she finally saw a glimmer of hope.
If only her attendants could find her, not just thirty taels, but even three hundred taels as a reward would be effortless.
Hearing her gratitude, Xiao Li's expression turned peculiarly strange, assuming she must have been beaten senseless by the traffickers. He turned to leave but paused at the doorway, glancing back to ask, "Do you have a name?"
When Wen Yu remained silent, he frowned impatiently and explained, "By custom, bought maids are given new names by their masters. But you were only pawned to me by Chen Lai Zi. If you have a name, you may keep your original one."
A raspy voice came from behind: "My mother named me A Yu."
Xiao Li looked up and asked, "Which 'Yu'?"
Wen Yu replied, "The 'yu' in 'fish caught in a net, fighting desperately'."
Xiao Li gave her another odd look before nodding in acknowledgment and lifting the curtain to leave.
Once the curtain fell completely, the tiny room immediately turned dim.
Listening to the howling wind and snow outside the window, Wen Yu suppressed a cough rising in her throat. Her still gaze finally cracked with pain in the darkness.
A Yu was the childhood name her mother had given her.
"A Yu, A Yu, my little fish. When you grow up, you'll be a beauty so stunning it could make fish sink and geese fall."
That year, her mother held her, smiling cheerfully as she said this to her father, the prince.
Wen Yu closed her eyes, letting the warm tears flow freely in the dark.
The world knew only her title, Han Yang; few even knew her real name, let alone this childhood name known only to her parents and elder siblings.
She wasn't afraid that revealing this name would bring disaster.
On the contrary, uttering it made her feel she was still alive.
Wen Yu, weakened by illness and injury, had been awake for only a short while. After drinking a bowl of plain porridge, she fell into a deep sleep again.
It wasn't until the next day when she woke that she regained some energy.
Outside, it seemed to still be snowing. Cold wind whistled through the cracks of the old elm door and window, wailing like ghosts and wolves.
She struggled to rise, supporting herself on the bedpost, and slipped into the pair of felt cloth shoes with crushed heels by the bed.
Such shoes wouldn't even be worn by servants back in the prince's mansion.
But as Wen Yu stepped into them barefoot, they felt warmer than her own worn-out cloth shoes.The paper window had a large hole patched with oilcloth, and without opening the door or window, the room remained pitch dark.
She leaned against the wall as she walked to the door, pushed it open, and lifted the curtain, immediately feeling the cold wind rush down her neck. She couldn't help but lean against the doorframe, coughing with her head bowed.
Xiao Huiniang had cracked the main door open a slit, doing embroidery by the light near the fire pit. Hearing the noise, she turned her head and, upon seeing her, set down the embroidery hoop and dragged over a low stool nearby. "Why are you up?" she said. "Come quickly and warm yourself by the fire. Your cold hasn't gotten better yet—you mustn't be exposed to the wind."
It seemed the Rogue wasn't home?
Wen Yu tightened her collar and walked over. "Thank you, Madam. I've been lying down for so long that I feel terribly groggy. I got up to clear my head."
When she had been delivered by the trafficker a few days ago, she had caught a cold and developed a high fever. She fainted before even stepping inside the door and had been lying in the room ever since. Only now did she have a chance to take a rough look at the outside.
The small main room held a square dining table. A fire pit was set up in the corner by the door, and a recliner with a thin mattress, whose usual occupant was unknown, was also placed beside the fire pit.
The main room connected to two doors: one led to the tiny room where Wen Yu slept, and behind the other, Wen Yu guessed, was likely the woman's bedroom.
So where did the Rogue usually stay?
Or were there other rooms outside the courtyard?
Wen Yu felt uneasy inside. Her gaze swept toward the crack in the door and she saw a water vat placed in the small courtyard covered with a thin layer of snow. In the corner, a small vegetable patch seemed to have been cultivated, and she could faintly glimpse the oily green beneath the accumulated snow.
"Don't call me Madam; it sounds awkward. Just call me Auntie," Xiao Huiniang said as she picked up the embroidery hoop again. But the thread was too short, and she squinted, trying to thread it by the light several times without success.
Wen Yu said, "Let me do it."
After handing it over, Xiao Huiniang sighed with emotion. "When you get old, your eyes don't work well anymore."
Wen Yu noticed there were many embroidered handkerchiefs in her sewing basket and couldn't help asking, "Why are you embroidering so many handkerchiefs?"
Xiao Huiniang's expression darkened slightly. "Huan'er is at the age when he should be getting married, but all the family's money has been spent on my medical treatments and medicine. I do embroidery to earn a little silver, saving what I can for him."
Huan?
Was that the Rogue's name?
Wen Yu threaded the needle, pulled the thread long, and twisted a knot. Knowing very little about this family's affairs, she asked, "What about the master? Doesn't he manage the household?"
Xiao Huiniang shook her head and sighed as if about to say something, but suddenly there was a creak at the door. Wen Yu looked up and saw the Rogue push the door open, his eyes tinged with the chill of wind and snow. He seemed to carry the cold of frost and snow with him as he said, "Mother, I'm back."
Author's note:
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