While fussing over the children, Hong Shu managed to ask them about the night’s incident and then told them the latest news. According to her, the beggars hadn’t left, they’d settled in Zhang Min’s house, which only added to the woman’s troubles. She had to keep a constant eye on her belongings. Although she never had anything valuable, even a simple pot was worth money. Fortunately, the three beggars didn’t stay long at a time, but they kept coming back, as if waiting for the little mistresses to return home.

  “What will you do?” she asked, looking at the girls with sympathy.

  “Nothing,” Xue shook her head. “Father will come back and everything will be as before. We’ll wait.”

  “Yes, he’ll be back soon,” Mingzhu echoed her sister. “Maybe even tomorrow.”

  “Where will you live? What will you eat?” she fretted, though she knew she wasn’t able to help much.

  “Don’t worry, Aunt Hong Shu. We know how to catch fish and we still have money,” Xue said, unclenching her fist to show the woman a few coins.

  “Oh, that’s good. By the way, those vagrants aren’t around right now. Go home and take whatever you can carry. Don’t leave them anything.”

  “Thank you.”

  After thanking Hong Shu for her care, the girls crossed the backyard to their house and peered inside through the window. The room was in disarray, trash scattered everywhere, and muddy footprints marked the floor, but the beggars were nowhere to be seen. Wasting no time, the sisters ran in and gathered all the surviving things, the iron kettle, the reed mats they used as bedding, and a clay pot. Once outside, they cast one last, heavy-hearted glance at their home and went back to the river.

  They decided not to touch the floor hiding place, they were afraid to cross the whole city with a jingling pile of money. At the spot where the stash lay, a layer of dust mixed with debris remained; evidently the beggars hadn’t found it, even though they’d turned everything upside down. On the way out of town the girls stopped at the market and bought rice and a little salt. From that day on they lived by the river, where they felt much better than under the greedy, envious eyes of the townsfolk.

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  Fields of wheat stretched around them, and although the harvest was over, peasants still sometimes passed by in carts loaded with sacks of grain or bundles of straw. The riverbank felt like a village rather than the wilds, so they weren’t afraid to live beyond the city walls. Just beyond the fields the forest began, and at night cries of beasts or birds came from it, which often woke the girls and made them grab their weapons. Sometimes small rodents tried to steal from them or biting midges bothered them, but they still refused to return to the city. People seemed far scarier than wild animals.

  Although they had enough to eat, the sisters, out of habit, stockpiled supplies. The autumn forest, like a real treasure trove, offered plenty of tasty things, and leaving them untouched felt like a crime. With good weather, the girls dried mushrooms and berries, and sometimes medicinal herbs. In a few days they gathered a large sack of nuts. They met other people or children from the poor district in the woods, but the sisters kept their distance.

  “I hope nothing bad happens,” Mingzhu worried.

  “Don’t worry. No one will find us here. The forest is big.”

  “And we run fast!”

  “Mm-hm,” Xue agreed.

  When the storage sacks for dried mushrooms and berries were full, the girls stopped picking up everything they saw and switched their focus to training. Their mornings began with warm-ups, then a run into town to scout and, at the same time, sell herbs to old Du Jie or fish at the market. Without lingering, they ran back to the river to stretch and practice techniques from the scroll. In the evenings they meditated, feeling the warmth in their bellies spread through the body, restoring tired muscles and calming the mind.

  “Hee-hee-hee, it tickles stronger,” Mingzhu laughed, “soon we’ll be… the first… tempting of the body. Hee-hee-hee. Funny word.”

  “Yes. We’re close,” Xue nodded, then tapped her forehead, “It’s strange. It’s as if I always knew how to practice the martial art properly, but actually I didn’t.”

  “Hooray! We’ll become stronger!”

  “Yes!”

  “And we’ll find Father!” Mingzhu threw her hands up.

  “Hm… um… of course,” her sister smiled.

  Although the girls avoided their house and the port street where all sorts of riffraff gathered, the persistent beggars tracked them down at the market and tried to catch them — this time there were five of them. The chase didn’t last long. Quick as cats, the girls slipped away and were lost in the crowd, but since then they were afraid to go to the market. They no longer carried fish for sale, only occasionally visiting the old doctor. Unfortunately, the season for fresh herbs ended and their income dropped quickly.

  One day, returning to their new riverfront home, they found a skinny ragamuffin there who looked about two years older than them. Like many street children, he wore rags and was covered in grime from head to toe, so his features were hard to make out. Mingzhu immediately pulled out her dagger, while Xue picked up a bamboo stick from the ground.

  “Hey! Get out!” she shouted, glancing around for accomplices, “If you don’t leave, you’ll regret it.”

  “Enough! Leave us alone!” the younger one snapped.

  I understand your impatience. However, our journey has only just begun.