In the flickering candlelight, the girl looked no more than fifteen or sixteen. Her features were fairly delicate, and her frame was thin and frail.
A dirty rag gagged her mouth, and her hands and feet were bound. She made muffled whimpers as she stared at the three dark-skinned fishermen before her, her eyes filled with both fear and disbelief.
The scrawny fisherman surnamed Yu glanced at her and said quietly, "Ying Niang, don't blame us. We've been driven into a dead end ourselves. If we don't do this, we won't have enough fish to hand over at the end of the month. When Boss Wang loses his temper, it won't just be us who die. Our families won't survive either-"
Thump! Thump!
The other two shook open the large bundles on their backs. Two terrified girls tumbled out, one on either side. Both were young, their hands and feet likewise bound with hemp rope and their mouths gagged.
The shorter, sturdier fisherman turned away, avoiding Ying Niang's gaze. His voice was hoarse. "An offering to the Water God requires three voiceless, resentment-free maidens. If they weren't so hard to find, I wouldn't have touched you, for the sake of my old friendship with Master Chai."
"But we really have no other choice. Ying Niang, don't blame your Uncle Niu."
The last fisherman, an old man, had something bulging beneath his clothes. He reached inside and pulled out a black cat.
The black cat rested in his hands without meowing, merely licking its disheveled fur.
"We need to hurry, before someone finds us. Especially that boy Li Ming. If he finds out we kidnapped Ying Niang-"
The old fisherman stared into the darkness, smelling the rotten stench of the muddy pond before them. A cold breeze blew past, and he