Rust Turns Green

Shen Qing was chosen by the elders of the Shen clan when she was little and raised as a "spirit offering" in a side room in the rear courtyard of the ancestral shrine. She wore plain clothes and ate vegetarian meals, spending her days "praying for blessings" for the clan's prosperity. In reality, she was a bargaining chip the elders used to make offerings to the wealthy gentry of a neighboring village, and they were waiting for her to come of age so they could marry her off for an alliance. Shen Qing had no name of her own, only the reminder: "The Shen family has raised you for sixteen years. You owe the Shen family." The story opens on the eve of her sixteenth birthday. The elders have struck a deal with the Liu family, the biggest ironware merchants in Hexian County: Shen Qing will marry the Liu family's only son in exchange for an exclusive supply of pig iron for three years. By chance, Shen Qing overhears that she is not a spirit offering being "protected," but an exchange item with a price set on her. Her only choice is to escape. Her first act of defiance is to steal a small bronze sacrificial knife from a corner of the ancestral shrine and hide it in her sleeve, preparing to flee into the back hills on the night before the wedding ceremony. But the Liu family comes to fetch her three days early. She has no time to run and is shoved into a palanquin covered in red cloth