The first time they met was in a bandit's bedroom, specifically in the bandit's wardrobe, hiding from the bandit leader's notice. He had been a spy for the government and she had been seeking evidence to submit to the authorities in order to obtain her freedom from the bandits' fortress. He had taken the evidence she had found, after snatching it from her while the bandit leader had been partying with his many women in the bedroom, preventing the two of them from leaving. The sounds of debauchery and revelry had made both of their faces flush red with embarrassment and their mingled breaths in the wardrobe to take on an ambiguous air. It was only in the early hours of the morning when silence had fallen and the people in the bedroom outside the wardrobe door were obviously sleeping did the two creep out.
Outside the bedroom, they had parted ways, each quickly returning to their respective areas of the fortress. Days later, when he had led the government soldiers into the bandit fortress, he had purposely covered for her after she warned him of an ambush, pointing a way out for her to escape so that she would not need to share in the bandits' fate. They had thought they would never meet again.
A year later, they met for the second time. Drunkards in the tavern where she had been working disguised as a male waiter had been brawling. The furniture was being broken, she had been hit a few times and her clothes were disheveled. Upon seeing she was a woman and not a man, a few of the drunken brawlers had been dragging her outside, planning to have their way with her. He had been passing by, having stopped at a nearby inn to rest for the night on his journey to a distant city. Upon hearing her screams and seeing her in distress, he had stepped in to save her, rescuing her just before the town watch arrived to stop the brawl. She had thanked him with a shaky bow and run off into the night, not seeming to have recognised him.
The next morning, he saw the ruins of the tavern building and the angry tavern keeper kicking her out when she had attempted to ask for her wages.He was in a rush to leave and so did not see where she went.
Only a few months passed when they met again. This time in the wilderness. He had encountered an accident where his horse had been lamed by a stone in its shoe and his party had been attacked by an unusually large pack of wolves, forcing them to scatter. He had been limping, leading his limping horse to find somewhere safe to camp for the night. She had just so happened to be camping by a little laughing brook when he happened upon her. Upon meeting and staring at each other in surprised silence for some time, she had silently gotten up to help him lead the horse to the water. She had patted a large stone for him to sit on and had examined his injury without a hint of shame for looking at the bare leg of a stranger.
Then she had gone into the forest, picked some herbs and treated both him and the horse. She had built up the fire, cooked a meal for all of them and helped him make a comfortable bed for the night. During the night, they had been surrounded by a wolf pack. This group was not as numerous as the numbers that had attacked his travelling party the other day, but he couldn't be sure whether they were wolves of the same pack or whether the big pack had split up into smaller groups in order to hunt.
The horse had raced off into the night in a panic, meanwhile the two of them had fought off the wolves until a strange cry from the horse and the wolves calling to one another called the pack away. Likely the horse's death had given them some reprieve.
The wolves didn't bother them again, but the two travelled as quickly as they could away from the area. When they found his companions gathered in Bunang City, finally exchanging names.
"Fu Lifei," she had said, "first lineal daughter of the Fu family in Jinju City."
"The one who was meant to marry the second son of the Shi family in Gouqi City?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"What happened to your bridal procession?"
"They died. You remember those bandits? Thankfully my maids and I had anticipated such danger and I was also wearing a maid outfit, or who knows what might have happened? I might have, like my maids who were defiled, chosen to also end my life. I haven't thanked you for allowing me to escape that night and the night at the tavern. Thank you."
"You're welcome," he had said. After a moment's silence, he said, "Your Fu family and the Shi family have announced your death. They said that you were too delicate and couldn't withstand the journey, falling ill on the way and dying after reaching the doorstep. Your name was still entered into the Shi family records and a grave raised."
"I thought as much," Fu Lifei sighed. "I really can't go back and don't have an identity anymore."
"You're heading in the wrong direction if you were planning to go home," he said.
"I wasn't planning to go home," Fu Lifei said in a soft voice. "My mother has passed away and a concubine who dislikes me was promoted as my father's main wife. I was going to the wilderness frontier to find my brother who is in the army."
"Your brother? Fu Gaosheng?"
"Yes, yes. Do you know him?"
"No, but I heard he was injured and discharged from the army with a pension. He has returned home a few months ago. Although the wound has healed, he will have a big scar for the rest of his life and he will be a little more prone to sickness, but it shouldn't affect daily life. I heard he recently got married and he is studying for the imperial exams now to become a scholar."
Fu Lifei's whole demeanour slumped and the light went out of her eyes.
"That - that's good," she said in a weak voice.
"My name is Song Kairan," he told her with some pity in his eyes. "Fifth son from the Song family in Wufan City."
"The Song family that is currently working in the Department of Justice in the capital city? That famous family known for their fairness and strictness?"
"Uh, yes," Song Kairan admitted straightforwardly. "Unfortunately, I'm on duty and in a hurry to complete a task with my colleagues," he pointed to the rest of his party who were waiting to the side of the road. "I can't stay to help you sort everything you need out right now, but stay here in this inn. It's an inn often used by the people of my family, so you will be safe here. I'll give them money for your accommodation and care, and leave instructions for them to take care of you until I come again. When I finish my task and am on my way back, I'll pick you up and help you sort out your identity documents. Don't refuse. It's not safe for a woman to be by herself, without travel or identity documents. Stay here first."
Fu Lifei wanted to refuse, but he was right. She also really didn't want to keep living the difficult life out in the forest or on her own.
She waited Bunang City for three months, whereupon a stirring of the city after the infiltration of foreign spies prompted the city magistrate to have everybody's identities in the city checked. Upon discovering she had no identity documents, Fu Lifei was apprehended, interrogated harshly and when her identity couldn't be confirmed since her family insisted she was dead, she was sold to slavers. Eventually, Fu Lifei was taken out of the country to be sold as a slave in the neighbouring country.
Fu Lifei used dirt and dust to uglify herself so that she wouldn't be sold into a brothel. She also put on a creepy persona that stared at people wildly from under her mat of hair, constantly mumbling things under her breath that sounded vaguely like cursing. In fact, sometimes she felt she had gone as mad as her persona. Even so, skinny and starved, her good body shape couldn't be hidden. She was frequently pinched and prodded. Seen as a higher value good, she was fed just slightly more than other slaves after it was discovered that she had been educated in literacy, music, dance and so on. She was dressed in skimpy clothes that exposed everything except for the essentials. Adorned by the slavers in cheap decorative chains about her waist, neck, wrists and ankles. The accessories indicated that with the slightest tug, she would be completely laid bare before the men who laughed raucously at the possibility.
Although her face had been washed and makeup roughly put on her, she had purposely smeared the makeup to make herself look uglier, but without the slavers noticing how she was blatantly causing her perceived price to be brought down.
On an undercover mission in that foreign border city, Song Kairan had recognised her on display on the slaver's platform, chained to a post in a humiliating posture while he was passing by and stopped his men. He groaned with irritation.
Could this girl just never stay out of trouble? What was she even doing here? Why was she in this situation? Hadn't he told her to wait in Bunang City and wait for him? What was she doing here?
Seeing the bruises and whipmarks all over her body and her discomfort, he rubbed his face, feeling angry.
"Give me all the money we have," he ordered his companions. "That woman is one of our own. I don't know how she got here."
"Woman? What? Her?" his companions had asked in confused alarm. "A-Song, you're interested in that woman?"
Song Kairan had shown no interest in women to the point they all thought he was abnormal or too self-disciplined. Now that he suddenly showed some interest, their eyes all suddenly shone with the light of wanting to hear some gossip.
The startegist of their group looked at Fu Lifei more closely.
"She looks familiar. Isn't she the woman who travelled with you to Bunang City after we got separated by the wolves?"
"That's her," Song Kairan agreed. "Every time I meet her, she's somehow gotten herself in trouble. I told her to wait in Bunang City. I don't know how she got here and into this situation."
"Does that mean she's the same woman who helped us collect evidence in the mountain bandit fortress and later saved us from an ambush?" the strategist, Lu Puyong, rubbed his nose, rummaging in his pocket. "You also met her that time in that city where there was a brawl in the tavern so fierce it caused the entire building to fall apart. It must be fate if you keep meeting her. This time, after buying her, just directly make her your woman. Whether by marriage or as a serving woman, keep her by your side and don't let her run around outside anymore. Look at her like this. What dignity has she left after her whole body has been seen by so many men? She might as well commit suicide. What decent man would want her?"
"Don't look at her," Song Kairan growled.
"We might not look but this entire city has already seen her. Good thing she's been smart enough to uglify herself so much with the makeup," Lu Puyong commented.
"She's not naturally ugly? I thought she was just naturally ugly, that was why the make up didn't look any good on her," said the accountant of the group, Ge Tuli.
Song Kairan whacked him on the back of his head.
"What? I was just saying," Ge Tuli raised his hands and passed the money bag over to Song Kairan.
Song Kairan took the money bag and walked over to the slaver in charge of the stage.
"I want that ugly girl. Forty silvers."
"You want the ugly girl? Hey, boss! Somebody has finally shown interest in that creepy freak," the slaver turned around to shout at the tent behind the stage.
"Who?" a fat big bellied man strode out without a shirt on, showing off his hairy body and the rolls of fat, making him look like a fat mountain ape.
"This foreign merchant," the slaver in charge of the stage said. "I say, boss, hurry up and sell the freak off. The way she stares at us always makes me feel creeped out."
"One hundred silvers," snorted the fat slavery boss, slapping his subordinate to silence him. "That woman has been educated. She can read, keep accounts, play music, dance, play chess, warm your bed and have children. Look at her body shape."
"She might have been educated, but she's barren and not right in the head. I know her. She's from my hometown. I don't know how she got here, but since I've seen her, I need to do right by her. So what if she's been educated? If she's not right in the head and slightly mad, there's no way she can be put to work properly. If she's barren, what's the point in her warming a bed? Just give her back to me and let me bring her home to her mother. Forty silvers," Song Kairan said solemnly.
Hearing what he said, Fu Lifei felt offended. Was he cursing her indirectly? She directed her slightly demented gaze at him and raised the volume of her incoherent mutterings, pulling at her chains, trying to bring her raised leg back down. It had been held up there for two days now and it hurt so much. She might never be able to walk properly again after all this.
"Take the girl down and dress her in normal clothes," Song Kairan insisted. "Get rid of all those rubbish chains. Feifei was such a good girl at home. How did she become like this? Feifei, it's your brother A-Song. Do you still recognise me?"
Fu Lifei rolled her eyes at the man and muttered even louder, making the cringing slave shudder. She rattled her chains, making a keening noise. It seemed she certainly did recognise Song Kairan.
"Since you know her and she's barren, and obviously mad, fine. I'll lower the price. Eighty," said the fat slaver.
"She's not even as much use as a normal slave and they only cost about thirty in silver," snorted Song Kairan.
"Bro, are you sure about this? The woman's obviously a lunatic now. She's crazy. You sure you still want to buy her?" Ge Tuli elbowed Song Kairan. "Even if we take her home, she'll only be sold again or possibly even killed by her family. We don't have so much money to waste on her, even if she is pitiful. Just offer twenty. If the slaver won't take it then forget it. I don't want this kind of trouble on the journey home later."
Fu Lifei hissed at Ge Tuli, seeming to want to break free to fight with him. This agitation made all her old festering wounds where she had been tightly bound to dig in, making them bleed pus and blood. Seeing the dripping blood and pus dripping down her limbs and how she didn't seem to care about the pain, Song Kairan felt his chest ache. What had she gone through to become like this and act like this? Was she putting on a masterful act or had she really gone mad? If she had really gone mad, his heart ached at the grievances she must have gone though.
"Twenty?" the fat slavery spluttered for a moment. "Young man, you can't bargain like this. Can't we be friends? How can you do business like this?"
"Feifei, calm down. Calm down," Song Kairan held out a placating hand and climbed up onto the stage to approach the crazed woman who was wrenching at the chains and making animal noises, screeching and howling, causing all eyes to look in her direction because of the disturbance. "It's alright. Brother A-Song is here now. I'll take you home. You still remember your brother, right? Calm down, Feifei. You're going to be alright."
Fu Lifei snapped at the hand, making Song Kairan jerk back for a moment. She was mad with this lying son of a liar. He had said she'd be safe in that inn, but what had happened? She'd been arrested. Arrested, tortured and then sold as a slave. It was a miracle she hadn't been forcefully used by now either.
She'd vent her anger with this tantrum. Pretend to be tamed and recognise the liar so that she could at least get away from the slavers and into proper clothes. Maybe have a hot bath. Get to a warm and comfortable bed. The horrid stink of the slave cells clung to all her pores and she was surprised that Song Kairan would even be willing to touch her. How brave and kind of him to recognise her and want to buy her. If she was him, she might have pretended not to see anything and keep walking.
Song Kairan spoke soothing words to her and his warm hand gently cupped her swollen cheek. The makeup made it look less swollen than it was, but now that he touched it, Song Kairan could feel the swelling. Fu Lifei had obviously been beaten up earlier today and slapped hard in the face.
Fu Lifei closed her eyes and let out a small sigh, allowing her face to rest into that warm hand. It had been quite a few months since any human had shown her any kindness. She didn't even know how she would express her relief and gratitude to Song Kairan later. Her eyes swung wildly and then stared at Song Kairan for a long moment, filling up with tears.
"Big brother," she rasped, deciding to play along with his story, acting out the injured child while sobbing. "You're late. No one wants Feifei anymore. They threw her away. Feifei has nobody. Nobody likes Feifei. They keep hurting Feifei. Feifei wants to go home. Big brother, take Feifei home. Go home."
"I know. I know. I'm sorry. So sorry. I'm late. It's all big brother's fault. Be good, alright, Feifei? Be good," Song Kairan coaxed.
"Wow. She can talk proper words?" muttered the cringing slaver who was in charge of the stage.
Snap. Fu Lifei reverted back to her crazy persona again,tugging at the chains and mumbling to herself again.
"She couldn't talk properly before?" Song Kairan took a step back, looking furious.
"Look at that crazy slave on the stage. Who knows what those slavers have done to the rest of their goods to make a woman with such a good body snap like that. Let's go look somewhere else," people murmured to each other as they passed by.
"Alright. Take her down and bring her to the back to clean her up. Put her in some clothes," the fat slavery looked furious. "Fine. Thirty silvers."
"Forget it," Song Kairan said with some disgust. "Just set her free and giver her to me like this. Who knows what you might do to her at the back where I can't see. If she dies on the way home, I'll be coming to find you and accuse you of purposely selling faulty goods for high prices."
"Twenty. Twenty then. Fine sir, please. I'll accept this price. Just take the woman off my hands and take her out of here already. She's ruining my business," the fat man snapped, waving a hand at his workers. "Come with me to complete the paperwork."
The money was given and paperwork completed, overseen by Lu Puyong, while Song Kairan helped to keep Fu Lifei calm until she had been unchained from her pole. Song Kairan took off his cloak and wrapped it around Fu Lifei's skinny and unsteady form, ignoring the fact that she was getting blood and pus smeared on it. After wrapping her right he picked her up in his arms.
"Sorry for the offence," he murmured into Fu Lifei's ear.
Fu Lifei allowed herself to be picked up and buried her face in Song Kairan's chest. He could feel her shaking as she cried and a damp patch on his chest growing.
"It's done," said Lu Puyong, waving a few documents at Song Kairan a few moments later.
"Good. Let's go back to the inn first. We'll need to get the innkeeper's wife to help us clean her up, see to her injuries and clean up another room for her," Song Kairan said. "We'll need to buy a set of clothes for her too."
"You sure you want to keep her?" Ge Tuli reiterated. "We don't have the time or the money to look after a crazy girl."
"Shut up," Song Kairan snapped, patting the strangely light bundle in his arms reassuringly. She was so light. "If you'd been in her position, shown off to the world, treated like that, you might have gone mad too. Leave her alone."
"We should get a doctor to look at her after she's settled down," Lu Puyong suggested. "She might need some help."
As they strode back toward the inn, Song Kairan began to feel that the girl in his arms was unusually hot, and yet she kept shivering.
"Yes. Please invite a doctor over later," he said to Lu Puyong. "I think she has a fever. I could see she had many festering sores earlier. They might leave scars."
"I still think it's a waste of money," Ge Tuli muttered at the side and was elbowed by others in the group. "What? It's true. We need to stay focussed on our task here. There's still so much work to do and we have to be on the road again in a few days. She's going to delay us."
"Nobody asked you," Lu Puyong snapped at Ge Tuli. "A-Song is the leader. We follow his orders. You just keep your nasty mouth shut. Don't think we don't know you've embezzled some of the money. We just looked the other way to save you face. Since you want to go on about the money, you'd better cough all the money back up and straighten up the books, otherwise when the higher ups look at the account book when we get back home, you can look out for your head. We certainly won't testify for you."
He Tuli went silent after that.
As for Fu Lifei, she didn't know when, but she fell asleep in Song Kairan's arms and didn't even wake up later when the innkeeper's wife wiped her body clean or when the doctor came to tend to her wounds.
Song Kairan sent one of his trusted manservants back to investigate and find out what had happened to Fu Lifei after he had left Bunang City.
The doctor told them that she had been poisoned by the festering infections and may have some chronic illnesses from malnutrition, mistreatment and the cold. It would be a long journey to recovery and she might be weaker than the average person during this time. He even told them that there were signs of interrogative torture on her. The type routinely used by the law enforcement officials in their own country.
Song Kairan pressed his lips together, feeling strangely uncomfortable. The two of them were clearly strangers and had owed each other nothing. Well, she owed him her life a few times over but he hadn't been planning on calling her up on those favours. He had just done a good deed to help her out. That was all.
He had enjoyed her company when they had travelled together in the forest to find his team. She hadn't been overly talkative, but then neither had he. They had spent most of their time in comfortable silence, seeing what needed to be done and communicating as little as possible. Their actions had been enough to show the other what they were thinking most of the time. It had been so peaceful. At the time, he had thought that if he had a wife like her, he might not be so resistant to his family's urging to get married as soon as possible. They only hadn't forced him because he was the youngest in the family and were willing to indulge him a little longer.
Somehow, in that time, he seemed to have come to think of her as his woman. And after learning of his background, this thought had been reinforced by the thought that he should take responsibility for her after having spent so much time alone with her. Who would have thought that the safe place he had left her in was not safe at all?
He wondered whether his parents would resist having her marry into the family. As a fifth son, he would receive very little inheritance from his parents. He would mostly have to work hard to carve out a place in society for himself and his own family. His little room at home should be enough for the two of them if they got married.
The costs for her care and recovery would be high, but he would take that money out of his own personal funds. Not out of the public funds meant for the team to complete their task. He would take it as the money needed to raise his own little wife until she was healthy enough to get married and have children. The children they would have would be so cute and obedient. He could imagine his son as a miniature version of himself and his daughter as a little obedient version of her. It would be wonderful.
Fu Lifei woke groggily to find herself being carried, wrapped in a thick warm blanket into a roughly padded carriage. The past few days, she had been drifting in and out of consciousness, her life mostly revolving about eating, sleeping, using the chamber pot and getting the dressings on her wounds changed. Oh. And bitter medicine. She felt her insides had become all shrivelled up and dried by the bitterness of the medicine.
In the distance, she heard raucous voices singing about going home and how the winds of the hometown were calling.
Home? Their task had been completed? So fast? That was good. But where was home for them? The capital?
She didn't have a home anymore. Where was she going to go? She only had documents that called her a slave by the name of Little Blue. That was probably because when she had first been sold to the slavers, she had been unconscious after having been beaten black and blue by the interrogators.
In fact, after all she had been through, Fu Lifei was amazed that she was still alive. Few people had such eventful lives as her. As for her fateful encounters with Song Kairan, she didn't really believe in Providence but since it had happened so many times now, she was inclined to believe that the Heavens truly were looking out for her now. As for whether the liar would really keep his word this time and take responsibility for her by taking care of her identity and status, she didn't really much care anymore. The main thing was that she had managed to survive. She didn't care to think of her family anymore or what she had once had. All that was a distant dream from so long ago that she barely remembered it. It was hard enough to keep track of the here and now.
Song Kairan had bought a maid to help take care of her at some stage. She didn't know where the maid had come from, but when she had turned up, the maid had found all sorts of ways to make her life more comfortable.
For example keeping a little hand warmer burning in the carriage to help keep her warm. Heating water for her to drink and breaking up or cutting up large pieces of food into smaller pieces and softening them in soup. Sealing the window curtain so that the cold wind didn't blow on her all the time. Combing her hair and helping her to take a bath and wash clothes. Helping to straighten out wrinkles in her clothes before she went to sleep so that the clothes wouldn't bunch up. Helping her to turn over at night so that she wouldn't get sore. So many little things.
Cuicui was truly a treasure. An indispensable treasure.
When Fu Lifei was sick and tired of travelling in the carriage, Cuicui would sing songs, recite poetry, tell stories or play word games with her to help Fu Lifei to take her mind off the monotonous travel. When Fu Lifei wanted to walk, Cuicui would support her patiently and allow her to lean on the thin girl's skinny but sturdy body to get some exercise. Cuicui's cooking was also far better than any of the men's.
Eventually, Fu Lifei's frail body couldn't take the months of constant travel anymore and she fell gravely ill. Thankfully, by this time, they weren't too far away from Song Kairan's ancestral hometown. As a result, they sped up and then left Fu Lifei with Cuicui in Wufan City in his family's ancestral home for his relatives to help nurse her back to health while he rushed to the capital in order to report the completion of his team's task.
It was two months later when Song Kairan was able to go back to his hometown to pick up his wife-to-be. His parents hadn't been happy when he had told them about her, but were willing to meet her at least. His relatives had sent them a good report, saying the girl was good in every way, except that she was sometimes a bit eccentric and a bit frail in health. An old aunt had also examined her and announced that despite all the odds, the girl was truly still a virgin, allowing the burden in many hearts to be put down with relief.
Fu Gaosheng, Fu Lifei's brother, upon hearing she was still alive despite the Fu family's insistence that she was already dead, had made a secret journey to come and see whether it was truly his sister that the rumours spoke of. It was a short, joyful reunion full of tears between brother and sister.
Fu Gaosheng would no longer be able to officially call her his little sister anymore. Especially now that a new identity paper had been issued for Fu Lifei. Settled in the Song family's Wufan City and registered under the name of a very distant relative of Song Kairan, Fu Lifei would from now on be called Song Lifei. After a moving farewell, Fu Lifei, no, Song Lifei now, watched her brother leave and fell sick again.
The Song family in the capital city were not particularly welcoming to her but neither were they very cold. Upon meeting her and feeling that if Song Kairan liked her, they would just accept her, the Song family slowly began to prepare for the wedding while Song Lifei was sent back to the home town in order to await the auspicious time.
But then Song Kairan was ordered out on a mission again. This time, he needed to bring a woman to pretend to be his wife to help with the mission and might not return for a few years. Since that was the case, the family sped up the wedding process and had only a small wedding celebration, allowing the couple to get married in order to directly get in the carriage to travel to the village where they would be based in for Song Kairan's mission.
And it was in this little village of Speckled Pebbles that the real story begins to unfold as the couple got to know each other better.