Chapter 1

Only after I died did I remember that I had once belonged to a happy family.

My parents were open-minded. They loved my sister and me dearly and had never valued boys above girls.

After I was sold into a remote mountain village, a prolonged fever left my mind impaired.

The family who bought me kept me locked in a cellar for more than ten years. After I gave birth to a boy, they offered me to the village as a living sacrifice—and burned me alive.

My spirit returned home.

Only then did I learn that, not long after my disappearance, my parents had both been laid in the cold earth.

My sister had never stopped looking for me.

But after so many years without news, her eyes had gone empty, her face numb. She often sat holding our family photograph, silently wiping away tears.

“Dad, Mom… I can’t do this anymore. If only she hadn’t gone missing. If only I hadn’t let go of her hand…”

As she spoke, she emptied a whole bottle of pills into her mouth.

“Don’t!”

I tried to save her, but my ghostly body passed straight through hers.

Grief and rage drove me to despair.

How could I save my family?

A white light flashed before my eyes. Then I lost consciousness.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in a truck that reeked of cigarette smoke.

I stared at the man in the leather jacket before me.

Him.

That damned trafficker.

He took a stack of red banknotes from his pocket and flicked an old-fashioned lighter to light the other man’s cigarette.

“Count it, Bi. Three hundred. Didn’t you say you had two? Why’s there only this girl?”

Through the curling smoke, I saw my uncle’s honest, unassuming face.

Dad’s cousin looked annoyed.

“The older one went inside. There were people in there. I couldn’t do it. This one was easier to fool.”

Cold swept through me. Tears nearly spilled from my eyes.

Three hundred yuan.

That was all it had taken for him to destroy my entire family.

My sister had almost shared my fate.

But why had he done it?

Dad had always treated him well. Even in business, he made sure to bring him along. He treated him like a brother.

When my uncle was a child, he had nearly drowned. Dad had pulled him back from death.

And the person he’d saved had turned out to be a venomous snake.

The trafficker asked the very question in my mind.

“What made you sell your niece, Bi? Aren’t you afraid your cousin will find out?”

“If neither of us says anything, who’s going to know?”

My uncle spat out of the truck.

“He used to scratch a living out of the dirt, just like me. Now he’s made some money, but he won’t even lend me ten thousand yuan!”

“And he treasures those two girls. What good are daughters? They can’t carry on the family name. My boy’s a proper son! Yet he won’t buy us a house. Let’s see who arranges his funeral when the time comes!”

The trafficker laughed and gave him a thumbs-up.

“Now that’s the spirit!”

“Once I sell these two, he’ll have no choice but to raise my son.”

My uncle sounded pleased with himself. Then he added, “Make sure you sell this one far away. Don’t give her a chance to come back.”

Because of those words, in my previous life, I had been sold to distant mountains in another province. I had never seen the clear blue sky again.

This time, I would make them all pay.

The drug in my system hadn’t worn off. Along the way, I quietly memorized our route and looked for a chance to escape.

There was a fair-skinned little boy in the truck too, pretty as a doll. He was still unconscious. Another kidnapped child, probably.

The truck stopped beside the highway near a town.

A woman in a headscarf approached cautiously.

“Daqiang? Have you got a boy this time?”

The trafficker, Daqiang, looked around warily and held up a finger.

“One. A thousand yuan.”

The woman breathed out in relief. Excitement brightened her cheeks, reddened by the mountain weather.

“All right.”

After paying, she turned to show the bamboo basket on her back.

“Put him in here.”

I knew my chance had come.

Struggling to sit up, I grabbed her sleeve.

“Mommy… Take me too! I don’t want to leave my little brother!”

I had to throw away my shyness and pride. It was the only way I would ever get back to my family.

“What would I want a girl for…”

She turned away, but I saw a flicker of sympathy in her eyes.

The boy in the basket woke up. Instead of exposing my lie, he began crying for his sister too.

Daqiang seized the chance.

“She can keep him company. Girls are cheap, and they can work. Your husband helped me before, Du Juan. Tell you what—five hundred, and you can take her too!”

At last, she agreed.

I was put in the basket with him.

She covered us with a cloth. Perhaps because she thought we were both still drugged, she wasn’t very careful. When she went to relieve herself, she set the basket on the ground nearby.

“Stay here. Don’t go wandering. There are lots of traffickers around.”

Once her footsteps faded, I immediately roused the boy.

“Do you want to go home?” I whispered.

He nodded without speaking.

“Then follow me. Be good the whole way. No crying or shouting. I’ll get us both home. But make one sound and I’m leaving you behind.”

I deliberately sounded fierce.

We climbed out of the basket and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

We couldn’t go to the police yet.

I didn’t trust anyone in this town. They might be working with the traffickers.

I couldn’t risk it.

At the bus station, I used my last yuan to buy two tickets.

You didn’t need identification to travel back then. Still, the ticket seller looked puzzled to see two children on their own.

Holding the boy’s hand tightly, I gave her a sweet smile.

“We’re going to the county town to find our dad. He’s waiting at the bus station.”

Once we reached the county town, we had no money left for train tickets.

But we had to get to the city.

I smeared dirt on my face and begged as we walked.

Sometimes the boy’s stomach growled with hunger. His eyes were full of longing, but he never asked for food.

I was hungry too. All I could do was endure it.

“We’re nearly home.”

When we couldn’t bear it anymore, we searched rubbish bins for scraps.

Once I had enough money for tickets, I waited for the right moment and slipped onto the train behind a couple, pretending we were their children.

We had barely stepped into the carriage, before the doors had even closed, when a group rushed into the station.

Du Juan pointed at us and screamed.

“My children! There they are!”

She ran over to drag us off.

Several hands pushed us toward the door.

“What are you running around for? Go home with your mother!”

Panic seized me.

Were we really not going to escape?

I remembered Mom clutching my clothes in her madness. Dad’s hair, completely white.

Gritting my teeth, I bit hard into the hand gripping my collar and clung to the iron rail.

“She’s lying! My mother doesn’t look like her! Help! They’re kidnapping us!”

Du Juan cried out in pain and slapped me hard across the face.

One of her accomplices came up and kicked me in the stomach.

I flew to the other end of the carriage, curling up in agony.

The passengers watched coldly. No one seemed inclined to interfere.

Dazed, I saw someone start to rise, only to be pulled down by a companion.

“It’s a family matter. Why get involved? Nothing good will come of it.”

My head swam. Someone suddenly yanked me up by the hair.

The accomplice spoke in a thick local accent.

“What do we do with this one, Du Juan?”

A little body rushed over and clung to me.

Xiaobao sobbed, his words barely clear.

“Don’t… Don’t take my sister…”

Du Juan immediately picked him up, delighted.

“My Yaozu! Come on, Mommy’s taking you home.”

The taste of blood in my throat jolted me back to my senses. I raised my head and shouted with all my strength.

“Do you even know our names? My mother loves me. She would never hurt me like this! You’re lying!”

People turned to look.

Several passengers, sensing something wrong, stood and blocked the carriage door.

“Could they really be traffickers?”

Du Juan’s eyes darted away. Conflict flickered across her face. She stepped back and raised her voice.

“She’s my husband’s daughter from his first marriage. She’s always been a bit slow. Always running off.”

Stepmothers mistreating children weren’t unusual then. Most people’s suspicions immediately faded.

As long as it wasn’t trafficking, it was someone else’s family business. They didn’t want to interfere.

Then a clear, lovely voice rang out, bright as a bird’s song.

“If that’s true, why haven’t you noticed the child in your arms is having an asthma attack? Why do you keep covering his mouth?”

A young woman in a white blouse stood beside the conductor. Her hair was in two braids.

Her voice was firm.

“I have good reason to believe you’re not their mother at all.”

When Xiaobao was taken from Du Juan, his face was abnormally red. His chest heaved, his mouth slightly open. He was clearly struggling to breathe.

Du Juan and her accomplices tried to make trouble, but the conductor called for help and had them forced off the train.

We were saved.

The whistle sounded. As the train pulled away, my heart finally settled.

I crawled painfully to the young woman and tugged at her trouser leg.

“Please… Save him.”

“Don’t worry.”

She nodded, opened the medical kit she carried, and began giving Xiaobao first aid.

The conductor carried me to an empty row of seats and gently wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth with a tissue.

“Does it hurt? Your face is all swollen.”

“No.”

It was the mark I had earned by biting a bad person. Proof that I had fought for my own fate.

“Do you know where you live?”

“Yes.”

My answer was quiet.

How could I not?

It was the home I had longed for day and night.

Even when my mind had been clouded in my previous life, after death I had still remembered to go home.

Only then, I had been too late. There had been no way to see the family I missed so much.

Thank goodness this time, at last, I was on my way home.

I turned to the passing scenery outside the window. Without my noticing, tears had begun rolling down my face.

Mom. Dad.

Please be well. Wait for me to come home.

The young woman with braids was surnamed Xia. She was a medical student, on her way home to visit her family when she happened across the commotion.

When I asked why she had believed me, she only smiled. Two small dimples appeared in her cheeks, as though a gentle light had settled over her.

“Who knows? I just thought—what if?”

“If it was a misunderstanding, I could apologize properly. No great harm done.”

“But if it was true, I wouldn’t just be saving you two. I might be saving a family on the brink of falling apart. I study medicine to save people. Isn’t this another way to do that?”

“Thank you…”

I held her as though embracing my future self.

From then on, a first ray of light finally entered my dark life.

When the train reached the station, Xia stepped onto the platform too.

She looked surprised.

“What a coincidence. You’re coming to City S as well?”

“No, my home isn’t here,” I replied obediently. “I don’t know where Xiaobao lives.”

“Where are you going now? I can take you part of the way.”

I hesitated and stopped.