My third birthday had barely passed when my mother and brother were taken to Luoyang as hostages. More than a thousand imperial guards marched away, leaving only me and the old steward at the marquis’s estate. The end of the Han was about to descend into chaos. I was still so young I couldn’t even lift a sword. For now, I’d keep my head down and wait for them to finish fighting before I went out to pick up the scraps.
