Buying the Twins

The man's hand tightened around the straw marker. He glanced back at the corner, where his wife was leaning against an earthen wall with a boy of four or five in her arms. Her eyes were as vacant as a dried-up well, and even blinking seemed to take an effort.

The little boy's face was so thin it had tapered to a point. He no longer had the strength to cry and could only gasp in shallow breaths.

That one glance swept away the last trace of hesitation in the man's eyes. He gritted his teeth and was just about to nod to the madam when a clear, crisp voice suddenly sounded behind him:

"Wait."

Shen Jingchuan parted the crowd and walked in. He had been watching from the edge for some time, his chest tight and stifled.

His mother had died when he was young, and his father had only just left him as well. Alone in the world, he could least bear to see flesh and blood torn apart, with children pushed into a pit of fire.

Compassion outweighed his thought that less trouble was better than more, and in the end, he stepped forward.

"I'll buy these two girls." He glanced at the madam, his tone calm. "Come with me to the Zhenyuan Escort Agency to collect the money."

The madam's brows had shot up when someone cut in on her business, and she was about to flare up. But when she heard "Zhenyuan Escort Agency," she forcibly swallowed the words on her lips.

It was one of the most prominent establishments in the city, and its escorts were all strong and sturdy. Chief Escort Lin was on such close terms with the county yamen's registrar that they called each other brothers. Let alone a brothel madam like her, even the town's ruffians and hoodlums wouldn't dare make trouble outside the agency.

She took another look at Shen Jingchuan's brocade clothes and his composed bearing. Assuming he was someone with a say at the agency, she awkwardly fell silent at once and swayed her hips as she walked away in a huff.

But the man, far from breathing a sigh of relief, shrank back instead, shaking his head like a pellet drum:

"No, no, I'm not going to the escort agency. We exchange the money and the girls right here. If I go there, who knows what might happen!"

He was an unarmed disaster refugee. If he followed Shen Jingchuan to an unfamiliar place, he might lose his life, never mind the grain and silver.

Shen Jingchuan didn't press him. He only looked at the man and asked:

"Are these two children yours? Can you make the decision?"

"I'm their own uncle!"

The man stuck out his neck and reached into his clothes, pulling out a crumpled household registration document.

"Their parents both starved to death on the road. Our household hasn't divided, so how could I not have the right to decide? The documents are right here!"

Shen Jingchuan glanced down at the document. It appeared to be a legitimate household registration certificate, with the sisters' names written clearly on it: Su Qingshu and Su Qinghua.

He did some quick calculations. Even counting every last bit, he had only a little over twenty taels of silver in small pieces. If he gave it to the man, he feared the man wouldn't be able to exchange it for much grain and might even be robbed.

There were whole bags of polished rice and refined salt in his ring space, but pulling them out of thin air would be too conspicuous.

Besides, even if he did give the man grain, the man had his family in tow and was terribly weak. He would probably be robbed before he made it out of the street.

He pondered for a moment, edged half a step closer, and lowered his voice. "I'll give you fifty jin of polished white rice and ten jin of fine refined salt in exchange for the two girls.

"If you're willing, bring your wife and child and come with me. We'll make the exchange by the escort agency's outer wall, without going through the courtyard gate.

"I'll count out the grain for you on the spot. What do you say? I can also have the household bring the grain here, but are you sure you can carry it away from here?"

The man jerked his head up, his eyes going wide.

Fifty jin of polished white rice? In this famine year, even moldy brown rice mixed with sand cost fifty or sixty wen a jin. Proper polished rice couldn't be bought even at a hundred wen, and fifty jin would cost more than five taels of silver! It could easily be exchanged for over a hundred jin of coarse grain.

And there were ten jin of refined salt too. He had seen that kind of snow-white, fine salt only at a large general store in the prefectural city. A single jin cost several hundred wen, so ten jin would be another few taels.

Together, the two were worth at least ten taels of silver—more than three times the madam's three taels!

Besides, from what the man was saying, he was buying the nieces to work as servant girls at the escort agency. Though they would be slaves and maids, it was still a hundred times better than falling into the fiery pit of a brothel. He would be doing right by his dead elder brother and sister-in-law, too.

He barely hesitated before nodding emphatically. "All right! I'll go with you!"

With that, he hurriedly turned and staggered over to the corner to help his wife up.

Shen Jingchuan looked at the woman, who was half dead, and the child in her arms, whose breath was as faint as a thread.

His heart softened. Turning sideways and using his backpack as cover, he took two bags of bread from the space, tore off the outer wrappers, and stuffed them back into the backpack. Then he strode over and handed the bread to them.

"Have something to take the edge off first."

The woman's eyes had been vacant, but when the sweet scent of wheat reached her nose, they lit up for an instant. She practically snatched the bread and stuffed it into her mouth, wolfing it down. After a few bites, she was choking so badly she kept craning her neck.

The child in her arms also seemed to catch the scent, and his little mouth moved. Shen Jingchuan broke off a small piece and held it to his lips, and he slowly began nibbling at it.

The twin sisters standing nearby watched their aunt and cousin eat with relish. They unconsciously licked their cracked lips, but didn't dare make a sound.

Shen Jingchuan noticed. He took two small packets of soda crackers from his backpack, opened them as before, and stuffed the wrappers back inside. Then he pressed the crackers into the sisters' hands.

The two girls stared for a moment, then hurriedly took them and began eating in small bites. One of them lost her grip, and half a cracker fell into the dust. She quickly bent to pick it up and popped it straight into her mouth without even blowing off the dirt.

Shen Jingchuan felt a pang of bitterness as he watched. He didn't dare bring out mineral water—anything too unusual would only invite trouble.

Fortunately, the man untied the old waterskin at his waist and first gave his wife a couple of sips, then passed it to his two nieces. They washed down the dry food with the cool water, and at last a little life returned to their faces.

The refugees watching around them all had red eyes. They stared at the food in the family's hands and kept swallowing their saliva, while several men who looked like local thugs were itching to act.

But when they looked up and saw Shen Jingchuan's fine clothes and upright bearing, and heard that he was from the Zhenyuan Escort Agency, they ultimately didn't dare approach. They could only watch longingly.

The man supported his wife and carried his son, then looked back and called for his two nieces to follow.

He actually felt reassured now. Someone who could produce such fine food, the like of which he had never seen before, was certainly a young master from a wealthy household and would never cheat him out of this bit of grain.

And so, under the complicated gazes of the refugees, the group slowly made its way toward the Zhenyuan Escort Agency.