Chapter 2: Buying a Man to Bear a Son

The officer recalled the astonishing strength she had just displayed, pressing the pig down like it was nothing. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. “You’re saying… you want a man to breed pigs?”

“I want to have a son,” Lu Qiniang replied casually and boldly.

Before anyone could press her further, she spilled her story like tipping over a bamboo tube of beans—holding nothing back.

“I’m a widow. I don’t have a son. I thought about adopting one, but there’s no one to pass me a child, and I can’t afford to buy one either.”

“Every time I think about dying with no one to smash my funerary pot,^[1]In traditional Chinese funerals, it is customary for a male descendant to smash a clay pot during the ceremony to signify breaking ties with the deceased and sending their spirit off properly. This … Continue reading my heart turns ice cold.”

“Five taels of silver can’t buy me a son, but they can buy the General Who Routed the Invaders —tell me that’s not a bargain!” Lu Qiniang’s eyes crinkled into slits as she laughed.

Ordinarily, a strong laborer would cost several dozen, even over a hundred, taels of silver.

“They say a dragon begets a dragon, a phoenix begets a phoenix, and the son of a rat knows how to dig holes,” Lu Qiniang said with a hearty voice. “If I have a son with the General, won’t he be another General in the future?”

Everyone: “……”

This brazen woman—she really dared to say anything!

The officer looked at her, then glanced at Xiao Yan, whose refined features remained striking despite his injuries. A hint of sympathy appeared in his eyes.

Pity the cold-glinting spear, the soul-breaking, life-reaping weapon, and the hero who had achieved unparalleled merit on the battlefield. In the end, he had come to this.

But since someone this reckless was willing to throw money at this huge burden, they were more than happy to be rid of him. Guarding this cage in the dead of winter wasn’t exactly enjoyable—so the transaction went through naturally.

Lu Qiniang didn’t care at all. She even beamed foolishly at Xiao Yan, muttering to herself, “He really is handsome! Hope he’s useful… If he can’t give me a son and my five taels of silver go to waste, can I get a refund?”

The officer shoved the deed of sale into her hand. “Goods exchanged for silver—no returns or exchanges!”

With that, he pulled the key from his waist and unlocked the iron cage door. Then he removed the shackles from Xiao Yan’s wrists and ankles.

Xiao Yan didn’t move an inch.

The officer didn’t dare touch him and turned back to snap at Lu Qiniang, “Well, what are you waiting for? Come take him away!”

“You come down already,” Lu Qiniang said to Xiao Yan. “I paid five taels of silver for you! Don’t tell me I bought myself an ancestor.”

“He can’t move,” the officer said.

“What do you mean?” Lu Qiniang grew anxious. “Don’t go selling me a cripple—then I don’t want him.”

“His limbs are crippled, but it won’t stop you from having a son. Just be careful not to crush him to death.”

The crowd burst into laughter.

“They always say cheap goods aren’t good. Now I truly understand,” Lu Qiniang muttered as she stepped forward, bent down, and reached into the cage to pick Xiao Yan up directly.

“He’s as light as a leaf. I doubt he’ll be able to give me a son—looks more like I’ll have to raise him like a child.”

Frustrated, Lu Qiniang tossed him into the basket, then shamelessly returned to bargain with the officer.

“Give me a little silver back, at least.”

“This is an official matter—who do you think you are to bargain?” the officer said irritably. But after a moment’s thought, he reached into his sleeve and pulled out a few coins. Then he called out to the other officers, “Brothers, chip in a bit. Once we’re done here, we can wrap up and report back.”

That made sense.

In the end, the officers pooled together over fifty copper coins and handed them to Lu Qiniang.

Lu Qiniang hadn’t expected to actually get some money back. She bowed repeatedly to the group and said, “When I give birth to a son next year, I’ll bring each of you red eggs in thanks!”

Another burst of laughter rippled through the crowd.

Lu Qiniang tucked the money away carefully, then found a large stone by the roadside and used it to balance the other side of the bamboo basket. Only then did she lift the pole and leave.

Lu Qiniang lived in Tonghua Ward, a slum well-known in the capital—crowded and noisy.

On the way home, many people turned their heads at the sight of her carrying a man.

Lu Qiniang acted as if she hadn’t noticed.

But once she entered Tonghua Ward, a number of familiar faces immediately came forward to ask questions.

Lu Qiniang didn’t bother hiding it. She shouted loudly, “I bought myself a husband! In a few days, I’ll hold a wedding banquet—everyone must come and show support!”

Xiao Yan sat in the basket, his expression numb as he inhaled the stench of pig manure lingering inside.

The snow was falling heavier now, drifting down flake by flake. The basket, like the ground, slowly turned white, covering the filth beneath.

“Qiniang bought a husband! Qiniang bought a husband!” some children yelled.

Lu Qiniang, already worrying about how to explain things when she got home, cursed when she heard the cries: “You little brats, I’ll skin you alive when I catch you!”

She wished the road home could be longer—just a bit longer—so she could have more time to think.

But every road, no matter how long, has an end. When she saw three familiar figures standing at the doorway, waiting with eager eyes, Lu Qiniang couldn’t help but grip her shoulder pole tighter and force a smile.

“Daya, Erya, Sanya—Mother’s home.”

Inside the bamboo basket, Xiao Yan suddenly opened his eyes.

Wasn’t she supposed to be a widow with no children?

Then he saw three girls, all dressed in identical coarse blue linen clothing, standing neatly outside the dilapidated shack—from tallest to shortest—staring at him in stunned silence.

Among them, the eldest looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old, the middle one around ten, and the youngest no more than five or six.

“Mother, you didn’t sell the pig? Wait—how did pig-selling turn into people-selling?” Erya, always the quickest and sharpest-tongued, was the first to speak.

Lu Qiniang swallowed hard, clearly struggling to find the right words.

The mischievous children nearby, always eager for a spectacle, shouted loudly, “Your mother bought you all a father!”

The three girls stared in utter disbelief.

Lu Qiniang scratched her head awkwardly, her expression a bit unnatural, and pointed at the man in the basket.

“Call him Father.”

Xiao Yan: “……”