The white jade bell hairpin given to me for my coming-of-age ceremony was carved from my mother's bones by my grandmother.
At the banquet, the hairpin rang out with a terrible shriek and split open to reveal half a military tally.
"Your mother traded her life to buy you ten years of borrowed time." My grandmother's smile was laced with poison. "It expires tomorrow. Your creditor will come to claim your life."
But I touched the tally inside the hairpin and smiled.
She didn't know that I had been waiting ten whole years for this debt to come due.
So who, exactly, was the one who borrowed a life?
Quite interesting.