Chapter 4

Father had been reborn too.

I was stunned, but I still said nothing.

He tapped his cane impatiently. “Speak!”

My lips moved. I swallowed the words rising in my throat.

I couldn’t waste a single one on him.

When no answer came, he rose with a cold laugh.

“Then stay locked up. If you won’t speak, I’ll find a way to make you.”

He left, leaning on his cane. The door was locked from outside.

The lamp flame flickered. I sat against the pillar, the ropes cutting into my wrists until they went numb.

The next evening, my sister climbed over the wall.

She still hadn’t changed out of her scarlet wedding gown. Mud stained the hem, tears streaked her face, and she clutched a parcel wrapped in oiled paper.

“Ayuan! I brought you red-date cake. Eat something.”

I shook my head.

She broke off a piece and tried to put it in my mouth, crying.

“How will you last if you won’t eat? How long is Father going to keep you here?”

“The servants said he went to the government offices today. He’s looking for some Daoist priest… Is it true, what they’re saying? Whatever you say… it comes true?”

I hesitated, then nodded.

She drew a sharp breath and gripped my hand.

“Then don’t speak again. Don’t help any of them. I’ll protect you.”

I looked at her red eyes and smiled.

I could still speak twice. If things went well, that would be enough for a lifetime.

But my sister didn’t get much time to protect me.

Early on the third morning, someone battered open the ancestral hall doors. Shen Qinghe stormed in with two serving women, her face rigid with anger.

“Shen Yuan. Father wants you in the main hall.”

She turned and left. The women untied me.

I flexed my wrists and followed her out.

People knelt everywhere, filling the courtyard outside the hall.

Father stood on the steps with his cane. Beside him was an old Daoist in a gray robe, white-haired but fresh-faced, holding a bronze mirror.

A white sheet covered my stepmother’s body in the mourning chamber to one side of the front hall. Incense choked the air.

Qinghe dropped to her knees. “Father! Tie her up!”

I didn’t wait to be bound. I walked to the center of the courtyard and stood still.

The gray-robed priest approached and held the mirror toward me. He frowned and backed away two steps.

“My lord, there is indeed a… strange force pulling at this girl. I examined her with the Sin-Revealing Mirror. Something is tangled around her speech. It doesn’t look like sorcery. More as though something has attached itself to her.”

Father’s expression changed. “What kind of thing?”

The priest stroked his beard. “Heaven’s secrets must not be spoken lightly. But if you wish to undo it, my lord, the mirror must be fed blood for seven times seven days. Once the tainted force disperses, she will be able to speak as often as she likes.”

Father was quiet for a moment. “How much blood?”

“Three qian each day, for forty-nine days. No more, no less. On the forty-ninth day, three drops of blood drawn from her heart must complete the rite.”

My sister sprang to her feet. “No! Forty-nine days of bleeding? Ayuan is only ten! She won’t survive!”

Qinghe sneered. “Eldest Sister, if you can’t bear for her to die, is Mother’s death to count for nothing?”

At last, Father spoke. “Enough, Qinghe. Take Shen Yuan away. Begin drawing blood tomorrow.”

The two serving women came to grab me. My sister flung herself over me.

“Just try to touch her!”

Qinghe shrieked, “Have you lost your mind? You’re protecting a demon who can curse people to death?”

My sister held on to me.

“Ayuan is my sister! She’s been mute all her life! All she did this time was tell Mother to eat that bowl of tangyuan!”

“Why won’t you investigate whether there was something wrong with them?”

Qinghe’s face flushed scarlet. “What nonsense! It was her curse!”

My sister shouted back, “A curse? Will you swear in front of Father that there was no poison in that bowl?”