# Chapter 1: Today I'll Teach You a Lesson!
Page 1 of 3
"Smack!"
"Can't even keep an eye on one girl! Look at that face — all ruined! If we try to sell her now, won't that drag my name through the mud?!"
Madam Hua's voice was so loud it rattled the woodshed door in its frame.
Huanya curled herself into a ball, hiding deep within a pile of straw.
Across her face, running from the corner of her left eye down to her cheek, was a long gash still seeping blood.
After her parents died, she had lived with her aunt's family. Then, two days ago, her aunt accused her of shamelessly seducing her cousin — who had just passed the county examination that year — and sold her to a broker's house for two taels of silver.
The broker who ran the place, Madam Hua, had not once let the gleam fade from her eyes after laying them on Huanya's face.
At the time, Huanya had not understood what it meant. She only knew that Madam Hua treated her very well, feeding her the finest meat and vegetables for two days straight.
Huanya had thought she had stumbled upon a great benefactress, and was still wondering how she might repay the woman's kindness, when the terrible news reached her.
Madam Hua intended to sell her to a pleasure house in the city. The patrons there had a particular taste for pure, pretty young girls, and the price would be excellent.
Only then did Huanya understand. The light that had shone in Madam Hua's eyes whenever she looked at her — it was the light of profit.
And so, seizing a moment when her keepers were not watching, she smashed a clay bowl and dragged a shard across her own face.
A pleasure house would never want a girl with a ruined face. So surely — surely they would not send her there now?
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Page 2 of 3
Huanya turned the thought over in her mind and drew herself in tighter, but accidentally brushed against the wound on her face.
The pain cut straight to the bone. She gasped in shallow, silent breaths, lips barely parted, murmuring to herself: "It's all right. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. It's all right..."
Outside the door, Madam Hua went on cursing. After a long while she paused to catch her breath, then declared: "Drag her out to the street tomorrow and sell her! Five taels of silver — if you can't get that much, don't bother coming back! Useless idiots!"
The moment Madam Hua's footsteps faded, the woodshed door was kicked open.
Bang!
Huanya instantly pulled herself into a tight ball and did not dare make another sound.
But the one who entered found her all the same.
"Ah!"
Huanya cried out as a hand seized her by the hair and wrenched her forward.
Thud!
Her head struck the ground. Her skull rang like a struck bell, golden sparks bursting across her vision until she could not make out a single face.
She tried to rise, and was rewarded with a kick square in the stomach.
The wound on her face scraped against the muddy earth, and the pain sharpened into something unbearable.
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Page 3 of 3
Tears streamed down Huanya's face from the pain, yet she did not dare make a sound.
"Damn it all! You little wretch — I'll teach you a proper lesson today!" The man's face twisted with fury as he reached for his belt.
The other man grabbed his arm at once. "You want to die, fine, but don't drag me down with you! Have you forgotten Madam Hua's rules?"
"What rules?! If you hadn't been the one bringing her food, would I have been dragged into this mess? Can't even watch over a single bowl — you're the fool here!"
The man's rage had nowhere to go. "I had it all arranged with the madam at Wangchun House — fifteen taels of silver, and I'd pocket five of them myself. Now I've got nothing, not even a copper!"
The other man did not lower his arm, his own face going cold. "How was I supposed to know she'd do something like that? And besides — if you'd actually tried to pocket those five taels, Madam Hua would have chopped you up and fed you to the dogs. You know that."
Huanya lay listening to their exchange, her body trembling without cease.
Terrified that they might truly kill her, she bit down on the pain and began crawling toward the wall. She did not want to die.
Her movement did not escape their notice.
The man, too afraid of Madam Hua to truly defile her, still had a belly full of rage with nowhere to spend it. From the corner of his eye he caught Huanya still trying to crawl away, and at last he could not hold himself back. He crossed the distance in two strides, seized her by the hair, hauled her upright, and struck her twice across the face with his open palm.
"Still trying to crawl, you miserable creature?! I'll beat you to death!"