Chapter 2

I was repairing a bicycle at home when Mother brought a stool out and sat beside me.

“Heng.”

“Yes?”

“Your father wants you to stay away from the river these next two days.”

My hands stopped.

“Why?”

“That Song boy from Liuwan. His father told yours he’ll be washing clothes there tomorrow afternoon. You’re not to go and run into him. People might gossip.”

I nearly laughed.

Father had said the same thing in my first life.

I’d insisted our water jar was empty and gone anyway, arriving just as Song Yao fell.

That had been fate.

The fate of my first life.

“All right, Mother. I won’t go tomorrow.”

She rubbed the corner of her apron, hesitating.

“Actually, that Song boy… your Uncle Zhao says he’s handsome.”

“I’m in no hurry.”

“You’re twenty-two. How can you not be?”

“I should at least find someone who has room for me in his heart.”

Even I paused at my own words.

So did Mother.

Then she smiled.

“Good. A girl should know her own mind.”

She patted my hand and went inside.

I returned to the bicycle.

My hands turned the bolt. My thoughts were elsewhere.

Song Yao would fall into the river tomorrow.

I wouldn’t save him.

Would he die?

No.

I remembered clearly: in my first life, someone else had been there.

Liu Jin, from the eastern end of the village.

She was two years older than me, had grown up beside the river, and was an excellent swimmer.

I’d jumped a few seconds before her, so all the credit had come to me.

She’d watched from the bank as I pulled him out, then left without a word.

Only later did I learn she’d liked him too.

If I wasn’t there, she would jump.

He would still be saved.

The rescuer simply wouldn’t be me.

I tightened the final bolt with my wrench.

The bicycle was repaired.

Starting tomorrow, my life needed repairing too.

July seventeenth.

Afternoon.

The sun was fierce enough to melt a person.

I crouched in the courtyard splitting firewood. The cracking wood drowned out the sounds beyond the walls.

A little after two, a shout came from the village entrance.

“Someone’s fallen in!”

It reached me across several lanes.

My axe sank into the chopping block and stuck. I pulled it free.

Another shout.

“Come quickly! The Song boy’s fallen into the river!”

My heart pounded.

Not with worry.

With something strange.

At this moment in my first life, I’d been sprinting toward the bank. I hadn’t even rolled up my trousers. I’d lost a shoe.

Now I crouched in my own courtyard, gripping an axe.

Still.

Grandfather hurried out.

“Someone’s in the water! Heng, go and see!”

“No.”

“You girl—”

“I’m a poor swimmer. I’d only get in the way.”

A lie. I swam very well.

But he didn’t know. He’d never seen me swim.

Too anxious to argue, he hurried off himself.

I kept splitting wood.

One blow.

Then another.

Every one came down hard.

The splitting wood sounded like breaking bones.

About twenty minutes later, the village quieted.

Grandfather returned shortly afterward, panting.

“They got him out! Liu Jin jumped in. What a fright. They nearly both went under.”

“Mm.”

“He swallowed a lot of water. He’s at her house now.”

“Mm.”

Grandfather glanced at me and said no more.

Over dinner, Father mentioned casually, “Liu Jin saved that handsome Song boy from Liuwan, I hear.”

I took a mouthful of rice.

“Nothing to do with me.”

He choked on his reply.

Mother coughed.

“Did anyone ask you? Eat.”

He fell silent.

After dinner, I went to my room and lay on the bamboo mat, looking at the cobwebs on the rafters.

At this hour in my first life, I’d been the village hero.

“Xu Heng’s brave! Straight in, and she hauled him out!”

“Such a strong current. Lucky she was there.”

“The Songs will have to thank her. Might turn into a marriage.”

Everything had followed naturally.

His family was grateful. My father agreed. Bigmouth Zhao arranged it. Song Yao nodded.

And we were tied together.

For life.

A lifelong prison.

Now that prison belonged to Liu Jin.

I turned over.

I couldn’t name the feeling.

Not joy. Not sadness.

Relief.

As though a burden I’d carried for fifty years had finally come off my shoulders. My bones creaked, but I could release one long, easy breath.

Two days later, the news was everywhere.